October 15, 2024 • 37 mins
In this episode, Nicky and Ness, authors of the new book "Healthy Hustle," are joined by business coach Janine Garner to discuss the importance of rethinking the traditional hustle culture and embracing a healthier approach to business and life. They argue that the relentless pursuit of success at all costs is leading to burnout, exhaustion, and ultimately, unsustainable business practices.
Episode Highlights
- Hustle Culture Harms: Burnout, exhaustion, and decreased productivity.
- Healthy Hustle: Sustainable success, work-life balance, and well-being.
- Three Pillars: Smart growth, peak performance, time freedom.
- Smart Growth: Intentional planning, focus on sales and profit, clear direction.
- Escape Juggle Street: Proactive leadership, empowered teams, peak performance.
- Break Free from Busy Trap: Challenge beliefs, set boundaries, mindful approach.
- Redefining Success: Beyond financial goals, fulfilling life.
- Ripple Effect: Positive impact on individuals and the business landscape.
Learn more about Nicky and Ness https://businesstogether.com.au
Buy a copy of Healthy Hustle: The New Blueprint to Thrive in Business & Life www.healthyhustle.com.au
Follow us on socials
Instagram - @b2businesstogether
Facebook - @B2BusinessTogether
Connect on LinkedIn
Nicky LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/connectwithnicky/
Ness LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessamedling/
Give us a call
Nicky Miklos-Woodley 0403 191 404
Vanessa (Ness) Medling 0400 226 875
Or send us an email hello@businesstogether.com.au
Music by Jules Miklos-Woodley
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the Smart Business Growth Podcast with
Nikki and.
Ness.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
We would like to acknowledge the traditional
custodians of country, theTurrbal and Bunurong people of
Brisbane and Melbournerespectively, where Nikki and I
both work and live, both workand live.
(00:31):
Today we welcome back a veryspecial guest who's already been
on our podcast before.
Janine Garner is thebestselling author, global
authority on networking,collaboration and leadership,
and happens to be our businesscoach.
We've worked with Janine forthe last couple of years and
very inspired by her anytime weget to be around her presence.
She is a best-selling author.
She's got three books it's whoyou Know, from Me to we and Be
(00:52):
Brilliant and they're allavailable to help business
owners and leaders along the way.
Janine actually is obsessedabout the power of connection
and she helps people to buildbrilliant relationships and
unlock incredible and innovativeconnections, unleash our
potential and ultimately helpbusinesses make money, drive
performance and fuel momentum.
(01:13):
It was actually Janine's promptand idea and belief in us that
sparked Nikki and I writing thebook Healthy Hustle.
So today for a very specialepisode of our podcast, janine
is on turning the tables on usand she's interviewing us and
asking the tough questions.
So sit back and enjoy thisconversation with Janine where
(01:33):
she asks us questions around whowe wrote the book for what
compelled us to write it, and weshare a lot of the models that
we talk about in the book thatyou can actually take away right
now and implement in your world.
Let's get straight into it.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Nikki and Ness, congratulations on your new book
, healthy Hustle Super excited.
Healthy Hustle the newblueprint to thrive in business
and life.
I am very excited to talk toyou about this book and share
your genius with so many people.
(02:07):
This book is so needed rightnow.
But before we get into thedepths of the book, I'm curious
why this book?
Why is this book, healthyHustle, so important for now?
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Such a good question, janine, and the reality is that
right now, hustling hard iscosting lives and that's not
even a dramatic statement.
At best, when we're hustlinghard, when we're doing the
unhealthy hustle, at best itwill minimize the efficiency of
our business, it will impact thelong-term sustainability, but
(02:43):
at worst people are dying fromexhaustion, from burnout.
We have interviewed ChristineBoucher, who is a health and
wellness coach, who spent 20years as a nurse looking after
intensive care patients aroundissues with heart disease,
stroke, diabetes, and she couldsee the trajectory that these
people were on and how they gotto where they are.
(03:05):
High stress environments areone of the most common reasons
that people go and see.
We know that more than nine in10 workers are chronically
stressed.
These are some of the stats andresearch that we did for the
book.
But you don't need to do thatresearch to know.
You just look at the news.
You hear the stories aroundexhaustion, burnout, physical
(03:28):
harm.
You know Arianna Huffington.
She's a classic example of awoman who collapsed from
exhaustion, broke her cheekboneon the way down, woke up in a
little pool of blood and waslike, oh my gosh, what's the
cause of this?
It was exhaustion, stress.
They're the high profilescenarios that we know and I
think we all have, maybe not tothe extreme of that, but
(03:50):
examples of this in our everydaylife.
I mean, we've talked to, I'veliterally done a coaching
session with a leader on how tohave time to go to the toilet,
and it sounds ridiculous.
It's crazy, but that's thereality of the state that we're
in right now.
So why now we have to createchange.
Why this book?
(04:11):
Ness and I, you know, we've beendoing this gig for decades,
actually over 50 years together,and I really don't like saying
that a lot, but it's true, youknow, we've observed we've done
tens of thousands of coachinghours, training sessions We've
observed patterns of behaviorthat achieve success without
burnout or withoutentrepreneurial addiction, and
(04:32):
the patterns and the behaviorsthat keep us stuck in the busy
trap, stuck in the whirlwind.
And so we really kind of cametogether and went how do we
distill this knowledge and thisinformation, not just from our
collective smarts but also, youknow, christine, and leaning on
other experts to go actually,what is the blueprint?
Because reality is it is ourduty of care to create change
(04:55):
and as business leaders thethree of us here, people that
are listening, people that arewatching, it's serious and it is
absolutely a call to arms tofind a better way.
It's got to happen.
And if not us, who right?
It's serious and it isabsolutely a call to arms to
find a better way it's got tohappen.
And, if not, ask who right.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
It's time, love that, and I have to fess up and say I
was so honored to have beenasked to write the foreword of
the book and everything that youare saying there resonates.
It's why I was a hell.
Yeah, I'll absolutely writethis forward because I'm with
(05:28):
you.
There are too many businessowners right now that are stuck
in that busy trap, that arespinning hard, and the very
reason that they went out tocreate what they're creating is
almost like a far forgottendream because they're so busy
peddling hard in their ownbusinesses.
So I'm curious for you who doyou think should read this book?
(05:50):
Who needs to read this book?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
It's really pointed towards business owners and
leaders with establishedbusinesses and teams.
So they're looking for a betterway to continue to grow the
business and they're really sickof the hustle culture.
So the hustle culture keeps youtethered to your business and
they're really wanting to getout of that you know sort of
(06:13):
hustle and grind kind ofmentality and find a better way.
But I think there's a fear thatif I do something differently,
the success I've had up untilnow is going to go.
So they are action takers,they're driven for success and
they want to continue to succeed.
But it's getting to a pointwhere it's feeling really,
really hard and that leaves them, you know, sort of feeling like
(06:35):
they're stuck in business,they're not spending time with
those who matter the most,they're getting towards that
burnout and they're beginning towonder whether it's all worth
it.
And what we don't want is tohave people who have worked so
damn hard to get to where theyare getting to a point of it's
either my health or the businessand I need to walk away.
Because we go into business allof us go into business because
(06:59):
there's something that webelieve that we can add value to
, that we can solve a problem.
For that we can help others.
And it's not about losing sightof that, but it's about getting
to a point where we can say,okay, we can keep growing, but
not without the exhaustion.
And when I say that, I thinkabout one of our beautiful
clients, jodie, who was at apoint of near burnout and she
(07:24):
really was contemplating walkingaway because it was just too
hard.
And what she was able to do overa period of time is to realize
there is a different way ofworking.
And we're now two years down thetrack and the business is still
growing from strength tostrength.
She's taken a leader on boardin the business.
There's a way forward withoutfeeling like she has to let down
(07:46):
the 25 staff that they have,her mum, who started the
business, feeling like a failurefor giving it all away, and
instead she's in a position nowwhere she can take holidays, she
can actually find that balancebetween work and life that works
for her and not get to thatoverwhelm and exhaustion phase.
(08:08):
So I think of people like Jodieand I realize that they're the
kind of people that are going toget the best out of this book.
But also, second to that, we'vehad leaders in corporate, in
big corporate read the book andwe know that it actually helps
them as well.
So I think the secondaryaudience would be leaders in a
business that's not theirs, butprimarily the examples and what
(08:30):
we go through are written forthe business owner.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Yeah, and I think what you're talking to there,
this hustle culture, is almostsize of business entrepreneur
versus corporate agnostic.
You know, nikki, you spokeabout this about all of the
stats, all of the trends comingthrough, whether you are a
one-person business or a leaderof a huge conglomerate.
(08:57):
This hustle whether it behustle for sales, hustle for
time, hustle at meetings, hustlewith people this hustle and the
exhaustion that's coming withthat, is currently detrimental
to business owners, leaders, butthen it filters down through
team because they're seeing thatas the only way to work.
(09:17):
What I love about this book isyou maintain it.
It's in the title.
You talk about healthy hustleversus the hustle that we're
seeing there, which is having somany negative connotations and
impacts on individuals, teams,leaders and businesses.
So one of the key things that Iam interested to understand is
(09:39):
why you've kept hustle in thetitle of the book because of its
negative connotations.
You do talk a lot through thebook about moving from hustle to
happy versus that hard hustlethat's going on.
So I'm really curious to hearfrom your perspective the
rationale of hustle still beingthere in that title.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
So here's the thing we don't necessarily want to
take some of the hustle away.
The problem is we've taken thehustle too far, so the hustle
has become the unhealthyhardcore push, push, push till
we drop.
What we want to do is we wantto look at what elements of
hustle actually work for us,because we want to create this
(10:22):
definition of success that sayswe can be tenacious, we can be
driven, we can be determined, wecan get up and go, we can have
momentum, but not at all costs.
What if we could do that andprioritize life just as much?
So we think that the hustle isa really important component and
there's lots of conversationsand narrative about the hustle
(10:44):
is bad and move away from it.
I mean, we opened thisconversation with the negatives
of hustle, yet if we look at howwe can make the hustle healthy,
we can start to unlearn,relearn different beliefs that
maybe hold us back.
You know, the reality is thatthe people that we're talking to
the business owners, leaders iswe're successful for a reason.
There's certain things in therewe want to keep and we want to
(11:07):
build on, but there's certainthings, like beliefs, we want to
let go of the way that we'remanaging our energy, the way,
the time of day we're working,all those sorts of things, the
type of business that we'rebuilding.
We have the opportunity toredefine what that looks like.
We need to add the healthy andwe need to keep the hustle,
because the hustle createsmomentum Pressure, makes
diamonds.
So it's not about one or theother.
(11:28):
Why does it have to be?
At cost of what if we couldhave both?
But we do it in a really smartway, and so this is why
everything we do is through thefilter of healthy hustle, even
when we talk about sales.
What's a smart way to generatemore inquiries or sales or
conversions?
What's a smart way to generatemore inquiries or sales or
conversions?
What's a clever way to do this?
So I think that's a reallyimportant point when we're
(11:50):
looking at healthy hustle.
And the other thing I just kindof want to mention here around
this is that typically you knowwhen you're ready to move from
the hustle to happy, there's abit of a crossroads.
We call it the growth set point, the crossroad of your pain and
growth set point.
So you've had success inbusiness, time in business,
results in business, likelyrevenue, profit team has grown,
(12:14):
established products andservices.
But then the business ownerstarts to feel like a bit stuck.
And what's next?
Do I really have to continue mysuccess in this way?
And there's three choices here,and this is what we talk about
in the book and reallyeverything is centered around.
What choice will you make?
Because you can keep going asyou are and the business will
(12:35):
plateau.
You're not trying newstrategies, you're just going,
you know, and you're notchallenging that status quo.
Or we find a lot of businessowners and leaders will bury
their head in the sand, so theygo into avoidance, and that's
when you'll actually start to gobackwards.
Think of the dream, think ofthe reason that you came into
business lifestyle time withfamily.
(12:55):
You know you don't want tosacrifice that.
Or you could choose the thirdoption, which is what we're
encouraging, which is thishustle to happy and healthy
hustle, where you actually startto look at things in a
different way and redefine whatsuccess looks like.
So we've got to keep the hustle.
We just need to make it ahealthy, resourceful hustle.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
I love that.
I love the piece around you andI.
We're all so aligned here.
It's that momentum.
You're okay.
It's okay to strive formomentum, for more, for success,
but not at all costs.
And this is what you talk aboutin Healthy Hustle, and thank
you for sharing the rationalethere.
I think it makes absolute senseof moving from hard hustle
(13:36):
that's essentially doing damageto healthy hustle, which is, as
I talk about, life and businessby design.
I'm curious, before we get intothe depths of what you write
about, so we can share with theaudience a little bit more,
you've got three main conceptsthat you talk to in the book.
Can you just share those withyour audience please?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Sure.
So the three concepts that wetalk about is moving away from
where business feels reallychaotic we call it business
chaos over across to smartgrowth.
So it's getting out of theclutter and then looking at how
you're going to move thebusiness forward in a smart way.
We also look at this concept ofjuggle street, the being
(14:17):
everything to everyone kind ofsituation, and wanting our
leaders and their teams to moveto peak performance.
So peak performance across theway that they work, the way that
they do business.
And then the third area that welook at is getting out of the
busy trap.
You know that mouse wheel whereyou just feel like, no matter
what you do, you can't get ontop of it all and you're
constantly spinning your wheelsand actually allowing the
(14:40):
business owner and the team tohave time freedom.
Time freedom to be able toprioritize life, but also time
freedom to see what's next,what's the next big idea or the
next thing that you want toachieve.
So they're the three big topicswe talk about.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
So when you talk about healthy hustle in your
book, you talk about threecritical ideas about how people
can move from hustlingnegatively to actually hustling
healthily.
I'd love you to share those ifpossible.
If one of you can just talk tothose three critical ideas of
what you've seen around movingfrom and moving to and therefore
(15:20):
you know what you're talkingabout in this book, sure.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Look, I think there's the three areas that we talk
about, and I'll start with smartgrowth.
That's the first one.
This is about being intentionalin the way that you plan, in
your sales and in your profit.
So we want people to startchallenging the norms around
what business success actuallylooks like for them.
So for you, is it about successat all costs?
(15:46):
You know, is it about a dollarfigure?
Because we've seen businessesand we've heard the stories of
businesses with millions ofdollars of turnover and no
profit or very minimal profit.
So why are you busting your assto make all this money to not
actually have a profit in there?
So we want to challenge that,and part of the model that we
have includes an importance onlooking at in our planning,
(16:10):
making sure we prioritize lifejust as much as we prioritize
those business goals.
So there's a whole lot aroundthat in relation to having that
optimal energy level andcreating an environment for
long-term success in business.
So that's the first area aroundsmart growth.
The next one we talk about ispeak performance, and what we're
(16:31):
wanting to really focus on herefor leaders and business owners
is to creating a reallyempowered, autonomous team who
sort of want to be, you know,working towards high performance
in the team.
So we get really clear on whatthat definition is for the team
and for the leader, and we wantthem to set up consistent
(16:52):
rhythms and structures andsystems in order to allow some
transparency to happen, so thatthe team can actually do the do
without the owner needing tofeel like they've got to be
involved in everything.
We term in the book this jugglestreet feeling, the feeling of
being everything to everyone,and if you're not involved in
all these parts of the business,then something's going to fall
(17:14):
over.
So peak performance is reallyabout setting the team up to
succeed, so that you can thenfocus on succeeding at what you
do best.
And then the third area that wecover is this idea of time
freedom for everybody in thebusiness.
So we want people to look attheir leveraging, whatever their
natural drivers are, what theirstrengths are.
(17:34):
So for the leaders and the team, so that we're getting a return
on effort and really reducingthe number of hours that people
have to work in order to get aresult.
And in fact, what we know wetalk about in the book is that
anything over 50 hours of workis pretty much ineffective,
right, if you're doing 70 hoursa week, thinking you're the hero
of your business.
The reality is you're not beingproductive and, of course, that
(17:57):
doesn't tie in with highperformance.
So we want to come back togetting really crystal clear on
what are the priorities.
How can we create anenvironment that's not rushed
and how can we get really solidboundaries and unspoken ground
rules that are healthy withinthe business, that everybody in
the business follows, especiallyyou as a business leader?
(18:19):
Because sometimes we set othersup and tell them not to work
long hours and make sure theytake their four weeks of annual
leave, but we forget us in theprocess.
So really it's I guess the keything in looking at those three
models working together is abouthelping the business owner stop
being the bottleneck in thebusiness.
So instead of feeling likeyou've got no time, you don't
(18:41):
know where to start, you'refeeling like everything's
chaotic.
We're here to say there's adifferent way of working.
Where to start?
You're feeling likeeverything's chaotic.
We're here to say there's adifferent way of working and
what we want is for them to beable to come back to that to
have a look at.
You know, don't just go withwhat's comfortable, even though
working long hours can feeluncomfortable.
It's really a comfort zone andwe want to challenge that.
We want to stretch out of thatand show a better way.
(19:02):
Have you heard?
Our book Healthy Hustle the newblueprint to thrive in business
and life is available right nowto purchase.
In Healthy Hustle, we take youthrough real world, practical
and achievable steps to move youaway from unhealthy hustle to a
place of happiness and living,whilst continuing to achieve
(19:22):
incredible business results.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Order your copy now at healthyhustlecomau All right,
let's deep dive into each ofthese.
So first one you talk aboutmoving from business chaos to
smart growth.
Can you tell me more about whatthat means, and it'd be great
to hear some evidence of successwhen people have moved to that
(19:46):
smart growth place.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
So smart business growth and moving from that
place of chaos to smart growthis really about leveraging three
key areas.
You've got to have a clarity ofdirection that you're heading.
So business planning.
But gone are the days of the500-page PowerPoint
presentations.
You spend months creating it.
500-page PowerPointpresentations, you spend months
(20:10):
creating it.
Just a simple plan on a page,or we call it the True North
Framework to help guide peoplethrough a simple process to have
a plan.
When you have a plan and youhave a focus on sales and,
equally, profit.
So plan sales and profit.
That's actually how you knowyou've got smart business growth
in place.
Now we have a client, james.
He features in the bookincredible results.
So we've worked with him forthe last five years.
(20:32):
He has had 98% year-on-yeargrowth on average for the last
five years.
Now he's an establishedbusiness owner and there was an
increase in profit as well.
He's installed smart businessgrowth strategies.
He has a plan, he focuses onsales and profit and obviously
there's key elements around that.
But what we were reallycelebrating earlier this year
(20:53):
when he shared this with us yes,the revenue results are great.
Yes, the profit increaseamazing.
We love that.
We're in business, we love thenumbers, but the thing that we
were most excited about andcelebrating was the fact that he
doesn't have his phone at thedinner table anymore, that he
can have breakfast with his wifebefore going into work, he's
got time to do school pickup.
(21:15):
He's working towards four dayweek now.
Uh, four day weeks.
So you know, that's whatmatters, because when he came to
us, he was like Nikki I justI'm constantly connected.
I'm waiting for the next thingthat's going to need me.
I can't.
It's taking me away from myfamily, and we actually
interviewed him on a podcastepisode as well, really
uncovering what his beliefs werethat defined his definition of
(21:38):
success when it came to smartgrowth, sales, profit, et cetera
.
So that, to me, is such aclassic example of somebody who
is absolutely living andbreathing smart growth
strategies.
He also has implemented some ofthe peak performance components
and time freedom, but at itscore, that's where we have to
start.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
So smart growth, or from business chaos to smart
growth.
What I love about what youshare again reiterates that this
isn't about hustling hard.
It's about hustling smartly orhealthy hustle that you talk
about.
And who doesn't want morechoice in how they're managing
their day?
I'm sure there's peoplelistening going.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I want more holiday.
I want more time off.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Thanks for sharing that I want to jump to the
second one, because I think yourconcept here equally.
I'm hearing so much in themarketplace right now this
feeling of I'm constantlyjuggling lots of different
things.
You call it juggle street and Igo.
Absolutely yes, people seem tohave so many balls in the air
(22:43):
that the challenge is they can'tfocus on the right things that
are going to shift the dial.
Or, as you talk about peakperformance, I'd love to hear
from you you know some examplesof what people can do to move
from Juggle Street to peakperformance and why it's
important that they do that Forsure.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
So when we talk about Juggle Street, I think of one
of our clients, mark, and hestated it beautifully in that he
was very reactive rather thanresponsive to challenges.
So it was like and I'm sure ourlisteners who are in Juggle
Street can resonate with thisit's like putting out spot fires
everywhere.
So he was just like here's aproblem to solve, I'm going to
(23:22):
solve that problem and then onto the next, which meant that in
this reactive kind of responseto leading, he wasn't looking at
that bigger picture andthinking around well, what is it
about the culture that we'resetting up here?
How can I set up the systems tosupport my team?
Because in his mind and he wasa leader in a business someone
else looked after that.
(23:42):
So once those pieces cametogether around creating an
environment for the team wherethey understood their role and
their purpose, and he got peoplesort of on board around what
the culture of the team is.
So what are the attitudes thatwe turned up to work with every
day?
What are the standards, whatare the expectations?
And then him focusing on howcan I set my people up to
(24:04):
succeed, rather than have themreinvent the wheel every single
time.
So, looking at those two thingscombined were really helpful
for him to be able to approachproblem solving in a different
manner.
And then that third piece aroundpeople and skills coming
together, understanding whatmakes my team tick.
How am I going to get the bestperformance out of Nikki
(24:25):
compared to Ness, compared toJanine?
It's that whole thing aroundjust having that superpower to
realize how to fast track,influencing those people.
And I think that what happenedfor him was he started to
realize that not only was theperformance improving amongst
the team, but for him it was aless stressful way of leading
because he wasn't getting to theday before a day off or a
(24:47):
public holiday, thinking youknow, if everything's going to
hit the fan, it's going to be onme and my team aren't going to
know what to do.
So I really see that the jugglestreet is driven by this
reactionary way of leading andto be able to get to peak
performance you've got to dosomething different.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
I love that to be able to get to peak performance,
you've got to do somethingdifferent.
I love that.
What I'm hearing there, too, ismoving from a place of just
transactionally going throughyour day, as you said,
responding to fires that need tobe put out or emails that have
landed in your inbox or somebodyelse's drama that they're
bringing into work, versusversus taking ownership around
(25:25):
the transformational nature thatyou can initiate or drive or
own through peak performance.
So I can totally understand whythat's such a critical part of
healthy hustle.
I want to move now to the thirdpiece of your IP that you share
in this book, which I have nodoubt many of our listeners are
(25:47):
going to resonate with.
It's this piece about movingfrom the busy trap into a place
of time freedom.
Can you tell me more about that?
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Yeah.
So I've just done this littleexperiment over the last two and
a half years where I Googled,google searched how can I manage
my time more effectively, andI've looked at how many results
there are.
So stick with me, because overthe last two and a half years,
the amount of search resultsthat come back for how can I
manage more time effectivelyhave increased by 6 billion.
(26:20):
What that tells us is thatpeople are searching for a
better way to manage their time.
Six billion went from 514million to 6.37 in two and a
half years.
But the reality is we actuallydon't need another time
management tool.
We've done the courses, we'veread the books, we've got all
(26:41):
the tools at our fingertips.
If we don't first work onthings like our belief around
time, then it doesn't matterwhat time management tool you
have.
It will never do its job, whichis, I think, why we're seeing
the increase in people needingand wanting this information.
I even think one of my favoriteresources to share is the Big
(27:02):
Rocks video with Stephen Covey.
It's in the late 80s bigshoulder pads, the big hair.
But the reason I bring that upnow as well is that was back
then and we're still looking fora better way to manage our time
.
So if we can just pop the pausebutton on what we're doing for
a second and actually startreflecting on things like what
(27:22):
are my beliefs around time andhow is this serving me?
A classic example is bend the Bword.
People right now Bend the wordbusy.
So again I think about a clientwho we talk about in the book,
who was a new leader and reallywanted to succeed Another James,
this is we seem to attractworking with James.
So James H.
(27:45):
He really wanted to succeed,but he got caught in this cycle
of busy and he thought that byasking for help that's showing a
weakness.
His beliefs around how he'smanaging his time and asking for
help weren't serving him.
So when we were able to have aconversation around, okay, what
if you actually just remove thatword from your vocabulary?
(28:05):
This was a mission that I wenton in corporate years ago,
because what's the most commonanswer that you get when you ask
people how are you?
They say busy, and so thenwe're keeping ourselves stuck in
that perpetual cycle of busytrap.
So that is my challenge Thingslike beliefs and the subtleties
of language.
What are you telling yourself?
Just to build on that a littlebit.
(28:27):
I also want to kind of look atthis from the perspective of we
can either live our life livingin busy or being in busy, or we
use the terminology in the book.
We can move to a place ofliving.
It doesn't mean you don't havea lot going on, it doesn't mean
that you know you are.
We're all just as busy as thenext person, but we have the
same amount of time in the day.
So it just means that we cancome to a place of mindfulness.
(28:51):
We can come to a place ofappreciating moments, even when
it feels really chaotic.
So beliefs are really important.
We don't need another timemanagement tool.
The boundaries that we set forourselves as well really help
move from busy trap to timefreedom and understanding out
what is right for my unique me,what's my internal driver.
(29:11):
So things like am I a morningperson?
Am I a night person?
What type of clients do I wantto work with?
What type of work?
How can I empower my team tostep up so I can step back and
we can all be living in ourgenius zone.
Oh, high five to that.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
I remember those.
I giggled when you talked aboutthe time management because I
can't remember.
I remember I must have beenbefore my time.
I remember in my very first jobas a graduate trainee doing a
time management course, and Iactually got into trouble
because the person that wasdelivering that training
actually said to me you're onthe tube, janine Whilst, you're
on the tube, you could do X, yand Z.
(29:48):
And I went no, I don't see whyI should fill that time.
I'm quite happy reading mywhatever the bestselling book
was.
And I remember being hauledinto the HR office at the time
and being told that's actuallynot what you should be doing at
this age in your career, andI've heard it subsequently not
that same thing.
But the other one that gets meis when people congratulate
(30:10):
themselves for zero inbox andthen at the same time they're
exhausted or they've worked lateand I go who said you had to
have a zero inbox?
Where did that rule come from?
So your point about the beliefsystems that have been passed
down to us, that we've inherited, the rules that we have decided
(30:32):
are non-negotiable, and yet whyis it that sometimes, when you
give yourself a challenge, youseem to be able to find the time
.
So I love the concept of busytruck to time freedom and
equally, as someone that's beenrunning their own business now
for I think, about 14, 15 yearsand 20 years in corporate, I
reckon that is the one thingthat I have to continuously work
(30:54):
off.
I've got good at removing busyfrom my vernacular, but that
being disciplined about theother stuff and understanding
that that is as important asanswering an email.
So so much good stuff in here.
Having read this book.
I was lucky enough to read thebook in its various iterations
before you got to the finalmanuscript.
(31:17):
There are so many tools, there'sso much research gone into this
, and that's what I love aboutyour book, healthy Hustle, that
it's not just what you've seenfrom your years of work, both in
corporate and the clients thatyou've worked with subsequently,
who you've helped shift intothis place of healthy hustle.
(31:39):
It's not just that You'vebacked up with so much evidence
that it's actually hard to arguewith what you're actually
saying here, and I think that ifpeople can pick up this book
and even take 1% of it, it'sgoing to help them move from
that place of hard hustle andthe risk of that to themselves
(32:02):
and their business to beinghappy and a healthy hustle of
actually finding the joy intheir business again and
reconnecting with the veryreason why they're doing this
for themselves, for theirfamilies, for their teams and
their communities.
So congratulations on such anincredible book.
As we sort of wrap this up,what is your wish for the
(32:22):
readers that pick up this bookand have the chance to absorb
the awesomeness in it?
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Well, our wish for the individual reader who's
picked up the book becausethey're resonating with this
message is simply that they gettheir life back, that their
business can be the dream thatthey had and have the success
that they want, and they canstill spend time with those that
they love doing the things thatlights them up, that they enjoy
.
And they can still spend timewith those that they love doing
the things that lights them up,that they enjoy and make them
(32:49):
feel healthy and make them feelhappy.
And I really think it's aboutcoming back and saying there's
one part of the book that Nikkiquoted, this beautiful poem I
think it was in relation to whatare you going to do with your
one precious life?
But that's how important it isand that's our wish for somebody
who's reading the book.
(33:09):
But bigger than that, our wishfor the collective is that we
really start to change thebusiness landscape for the
better.
So we want a more sustainableway to help people thrive in
business and life and we want tocreate that ripple effect right
across, so not only touchingthe reader but their teams and
then, of course, the familiesand the children to come and all
(33:31):
of that.
That's sort of like that it goesout much further than just the
person reading the book, becausethey're applying what they know
and really having theopportunity to challenge and
break those cycles, especiallyaround hustle, so that they can
be healthier human beings andhappier human beings, and I
think that that is our wish forthe whole collective of people
who pick up the book.
(33:53):
But also, within that, itdoesn't mean anything.
If you don't do something right, we can read books, so they're
not going to have an impactunless we do it.
So we ask anyone who picks itup, our ask of you, is to just
do one thing, pick one thing andmake a change on that, and then
, of course, buy the book andthen that way, once that one
(34:13):
thing is nailed, you've got thenext thing to move on to.
So this is a long-term plan.
It's not a quick fix.
It's not going to all happen inthe next week.
It's around.
As Nikki said earlier, it'sabout challenging belief systems
and implementing new ways ofworking.
So that's really what we'rehoping to achieve through
putting this book out to theworld.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
One of the things I picked up in your book that you
said I think you said it a fewtimes through the book and I'm
quoting here is you said workingsmarter is no longer a luxury.
Can why don't you comment onthat?
Because I think there's so much, so much in that statement
working smarter is no longer aluxury.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Yeah, because it is no longer a luxury, and I think
what we have to bring to thetable here is that healthy
hustle isn't just I'm going todo a little bit more yoga, I'm
going to drink more water, likethat is important.
They're the basic, foundationalelements, but the reality is
that this is, you know,something we need to take
seriously and it's no longer aluxury, because we need to
(35:15):
create change.
Change is needed and again I goback to what I mentioned before
around.
It's actually our duty of careto do something about it.
Now we're fortunate enough tohave the capacity to do
something to break the cyclesthat have gone before.
We're not working in theindustrial revolution, people.
We are in 2024.
(35:36):
Yes, we're dealing withconstant change and challenges,
but we have it within us to beable to create change.
So it is no longer a luxury usto be able to create change.
So it is no longer a luxury,it's a must.
It's essential for survival,for your business, for your
health, for your team's healthand again that ripple effect
that we talk about.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
So I've got to ask how can people best contact you?
So the book is available.
The book is available.
You can get it, I'm assuming,via your website.
But how else can people get incontact with you?
How can we support you?
Speaker 2 (36:13):
So, first of all, healthyhustlecomau is where you
go to get the book, but also youcan visit us at
businesstogethercomau and youcan get to the book from there.
But that's if you want tofriendly stalk us and find out a
little bit more about us.
Plus, nikki and I are both onLinkedIn.
That's our social platform ofchoice and you can just look us
up there and connect with us onthere.
(36:35):
We'd love to start theconversation around how healthy
hustle can help you and we'llput all that, all those links,
in the show notes.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
I think any business owner, any entrepreneur, any
executive, any business leader,any CEO needs to grab a copy of
this book, because who doesn'twant smart growth, who doesn't
want peak performance and whodoesn't want time freedom?
Congratulations on such anincredible book and for the gift
(37:03):
that you have given the planetto drive that change from
hardcore hustle to healthyhustle and actually happily
building the businesses of ourdreams.
You're amazing.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Thank you, thanks, janine.
Thank you, janine.
Thanks for listening to today'sep.
If you loved what you heard,connect with us over on LinkedIn
and let's continue theconversation over there.
Did you hear?
You can now buy our bookHealthy Hustle the new blueprint
to thrive in business and lifeat healthyhustlecomau.
(37:37):
Want us to speak to your teamor run a workshop on healthy
hustle in your workplace?
Send us an email, or go oldschool and give us a call to
discuss.
Until next time, happylistening and here's to thriving
in business and life.
Welcome to the Smart Business Growth Podcast with
Nikki and.
Ness.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
We would like to acknowledge the traditional
custodians of country, theTurrbal and Bunurong people of
Brisbane and Melbournerespectively, where Nikki and I
both work and live, both workand live.
(00:31):
Today we welcome back a veryspecial guest who's already been
on our podcast before.
Janine Garner is thebestselling author, global
authority on networking,collaboration and leadership,
and happens to be our businesscoach.
We've worked with Janine forthe last couple of years and
very inspired by her anytime weget to be around her presence.
She is a best-selling author.
She's got three books it's whoyou Know, from Me to we and Be
(00:52):
Brilliant and they're allavailable to help business
owners and leaders along the way.
Janine actually is obsessedabout the power of connection
and she helps people to buildbrilliant relationships and
unlock incredible and innovativeconnections, unleash our
potential and ultimately helpbusinesses make money, drive
performance and fuel momentum.
(01:13):
It was actually Janine's promptand idea and belief in us that
sparked Nikki and I writing thebook Healthy Hustle.
So today for a very specialepisode of our podcast, janine
is on turning the tables on usand she's interviewing us and
asking the tough questions.
So sit back and enjoy thisconversation with Janine where
(01:33):
she asks us questions around whowe wrote the book for what
compelled us to write it, and weshare a lot of the models that
we talk about in the book thatyou can actually take away right
now and implement in your world.
Let's get straight into it.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Nikki and Ness, congratulations on your new book
, healthy Hustle Super excited.
Healthy Hustle the newblueprint to thrive in business
and life.
I am very excited to talk toyou about this book and share
your genius with so many people.
(02:07):
This book is so needed rightnow.
But before we get into thedepths of the book, I'm curious
why this book?
Why is this book, healthyHustle, so important for now?
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Such a good question, janine, and the reality is that
right now, hustling hard iscosting lives and that's not
even a dramatic statement.
At best, when we're hustlinghard, when we're doing the
unhealthy hustle, at best itwill minimize the efficiency of
our business, it will impact thelong-term sustainability, but
(02:43):
at worst people are dying fromexhaustion, from burnout.
We have interviewed ChristineBoucher, who is a health and
wellness coach, who spent 20years as a nurse looking after
intensive care patients aroundissues with heart disease,
stroke, diabetes, and she couldsee the trajectory that these
people were on and how they gotto where they are.
(03:05):
High stress environments areone of the most common reasons
that people go and see.
We know that more than nine in10 workers are chronically
stressed.
These are some of the stats andresearch that we did for the
book.
But you don't need to do thatresearch to know.
You just look at the news.
You hear the stories aroundexhaustion, burnout, physical
(03:28):
harm.
You know Arianna Huffington.
She's a classic example of awoman who collapsed from
exhaustion, broke her cheekboneon the way down, woke up in a
little pool of blood and waslike, oh my gosh, what's the
cause of this?
It was exhaustion, stress.
They're the high profilescenarios that we know and I
think we all have, maybe not tothe extreme of that, but
(03:50):
examples of this in our everydaylife.
I mean, we've talked to, I'veliterally done a coaching
session with a leader on how tohave time to go to the toilet,
and it sounds ridiculous.
It's crazy, but that's thereality of the state that we're
in right now.
So why now we have to createchange.
Why this book?
(04:11):
Ness and I, you know, we've beendoing this gig for decades,
actually over 50 years together,and I really don't like saying
that a lot, but it's true, youknow, we've observed we've done
tens of thousands of coachinghours, training sessions We've
observed patterns of behaviorthat achieve success without
burnout or withoutentrepreneurial addiction, and
(04:32):
the patterns and the behaviorsthat keep us stuck in the busy
trap, stuck in the whirlwind.
And so we really kind of cametogether and went how do we
distill this knowledge and thisinformation, not just from our
collective smarts but also, youknow, christine, and leaning on
other experts to go actually,what is the blueprint?
Because reality is it is ourduty of care to create change
(04:55):
and as business leaders thethree of us here, people that
are listening, people that arewatching, it's serious and it is
absolutely a call to arms tofind a better way.
It's got to happen.
And if not us, who right?
It's serious and it isabsolutely a call to arms to
find a better way it's got tohappen.
And, if not, ask who right.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
It's time, love that, and I have to fess up and say I
was so honored to have beenasked to write the foreword of
the book and everything that youare saying there resonates.
It's why I was a hell.
Yeah, I'll absolutely writethis forward because I'm with
(05:28):
you.
There are too many businessowners right now that are stuck
in that busy trap, that arespinning hard, and the very
reason that they went out tocreate what they're creating is
almost like a far forgottendream because they're so busy
peddling hard in their ownbusinesses.
So I'm curious for you who doyou think should read this book?
(05:50):
Who needs to read this book?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
It's really pointed towards business owners and
leaders with establishedbusinesses and teams.
So they're looking for a betterway to continue to grow the
business and they're really sickof the hustle culture.
So the hustle culture keeps youtethered to your business and
they're really wanting to getout of that you know sort of
(06:13):
hustle and grind kind ofmentality and find a better way.
But I think there's a fear thatif I do something differently,
the success I've had up untilnow is going to go.
So they are action takers,they're driven for success and
they want to continue to succeed.
But it's getting to a pointwhere it's feeling really,
really hard and that leaves them, you know, sort of feeling like
(06:35):
they're stuck in business,they're not spending time with
those who matter the most,they're getting towards that
burnout and they're beginning towonder whether it's all worth
it.
And what we don't want is tohave people who have worked so
damn hard to get to where theyare getting to a point of it's
either my health or the businessand I need to walk away.
Because we go into business allof us go into business because
(06:59):
there's something that webelieve that we can add value to
, that we can solve a problem.
For that we can help others.
And it's not about losing sightof that, but it's about getting
to a point where we can say,okay, we can keep growing, but
not without the exhaustion.
And when I say that, I thinkabout one of our beautiful
clients, jodie, who was at apoint of near burnout and she
(07:24):
really was contemplating walkingaway because it was just too
hard.
And what she was able to do overa period of time is to realize
there is a different way ofworking.
And we're now two years down thetrack and the business is still
growing from strength tostrength.
She's taken a leader on boardin the business.
There's a way forward withoutfeeling like she has to let down
(07:46):
the 25 staff that they have,her mum, who started the
business, feeling like a failurefor giving it all away, and
instead she's in a position nowwhere she can take holidays, she
can actually find that balancebetween work and life that works
for her and not get to thatoverwhelm and exhaustion phase.
(08:08):
So I think of people like Jodieand I realize that they're the
kind of people that are going toget the best out of this book.
But also, second to that, we'vehad leaders in corporate, in
big corporate read the book andwe know that it actually helps
them as well.
So I think the secondaryaudience would be leaders in a
business that's not theirs, butprimarily the examples and what
(08:30):
we go through are written forthe business owner.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
Yeah, and I think what you're talking to there,
this hustle culture, is almostsize of business entrepreneur
versus corporate agnostic.
You know, nikki, you spokeabout this about all of the
stats, all of the trends comingthrough, whether you are a
one-person business or a leaderof a huge conglomerate.
(08:57):
This hustle whether it behustle for sales, hustle for
time, hustle at meetings, hustlewith people this hustle and the
exhaustion that's coming withthat, is currently detrimental
to business owners, leaders, butthen it filters down through
team because they're seeing thatas the only way to work.
(09:17):
What I love about this book isyou maintain it.
It's in the title.
You talk about healthy hustleversus the hustle that we're
seeing there, which is having somany negative connotations and
impacts on individuals, teams,leaders and businesses.
So one of the key things that Iam interested to understand is
(09:39):
why you've kept hustle in thetitle of the book because of its
negative connotations.
You do talk a lot through thebook about moving from hustle to
happy versus that hard hustlethat's going on.
So I'm really curious to hearfrom your perspective the
rationale of hustle still beingthere in that title.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
So here's the thing we don't necessarily want to
take some of the hustle away.
The problem is we've taken thehustle too far, so the hustle
has become the unhealthyhardcore push, push, push till
we drop.
What we want to do is we wantto look at what elements of
hustle actually work for us,because we want to create this
(10:22):
definition of success that sayswe can be tenacious, we can be
driven, we can be determined, wecan get up and go, we can have
momentum, but not at all costs.
What if we could do that andprioritize life just as much?
So we think that the hustle isa really important component and
there's lots of conversationsand narrative about the hustle
(10:44):
is bad and move away from it.
I mean, we opened thisconversation with the negatives
of hustle, yet if we look at howwe can make the hustle healthy,
we can start to unlearn,relearn different beliefs that
maybe hold us back.
You know, the reality is thatthe people that we're talking to
the business owners, leaders iswe're successful for a reason.
There's certain things in therewe want to keep and we want to
(11:07):
build on, but there's certainthings, like beliefs, we want to
let go of the way that we'remanaging our energy, the way,
the time of day we're working,all those sorts of things, the
type of business that we'rebuilding.
We have the opportunity toredefine what that looks like.
We need to add the healthy andwe need to keep the hustle,
because the hustle createsmomentum Pressure, makes
diamonds.
So it's not about one or theother.
(11:28):
Why does it have to be?
At cost of what if we couldhave both?
But we do it in a really smartway, and so this is why
everything we do is through thefilter of healthy hustle, even
when we talk about sales.
What's a smart way to generatemore inquiries or sales or
conversions?
What's a smart way to generatemore inquiries or sales or
conversions?
What's a clever way to do this?
So I think that's a reallyimportant point when we're
(11:50):
looking at healthy hustle.
And the other thing I just kindof want to mention here around
this is that typically you knowwhen you're ready to move from
the hustle to happy, there's abit of a crossroads.
We call it the growth set point, the crossroad of your pain and
growth set point.
So you've had success inbusiness, time in business,
results in business, likelyrevenue, profit team has grown,
(12:14):
established products andservices.
But then the business ownerstarts to feel like a bit stuck.
And what's next?
Do I really have to continue mysuccess in this way?
And there's three choices here,and this is what we talk about
in the book and reallyeverything is centered around.
What choice will you make?
Because you can keep going asyou are and the business will
(12:35):
plateau.
You're not trying newstrategies, you're just going,
you know, and you're notchallenging that status quo.
Or we find a lot of businessowners and leaders will bury
their head in the sand, so theygo into avoidance, and that's
when you'll actually start to gobackwards.
Think of the dream, think ofthe reason that you came into
business lifestyle time withfamily.
(12:55):
You know you don't want tosacrifice that.
Or you could choose the thirdoption, which is what we're
encouraging, which is thishustle to happy and healthy
hustle, where you actually startto look at things in a
different way and redefine whatsuccess looks like.
So we've got to keep the hustle.
We just need to make it ahealthy, resourceful hustle.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
I love that.
I love the piece around you andI.
We're all so aligned here.
It's that momentum.
You're okay.
It's okay to strive formomentum, for more, for success,
but not at all costs.
And this is what you talk aboutin Healthy Hustle, and thank
you for sharing the rationalethere.
I think it makes absolute senseof moving from hard hustle
(13:36):
that's essentially doing damageto healthy hustle, which is, as
I talk about, life and businessby design.
I'm curious, before we get intothe depths of what you write
about, so we can share with theaudience a little bit more,
you've got three main conceptsthat you talk to in the book.
Can you just share those withyour audience please?
Speaker 2 (13:57):
Sure.
So the three concepts that wetalk about is moving away from
where business feels reallychaotic we call it business
chaos over across to smartgrowth.
So it's getting out of theclutter and then looking at how
you're going to move thebusiness forward in a smart way.
We also look at this concept ofjuggle street, the being
(14:17):
everything to everyone kind ofsituation, and wanting our
leaders and their teams to moveto peak performance.
So peak performance across theway that they work, the way that
they do business.
And then the third area that welook at is getting out of the
busy trap.
You know that mouse wheel whereyou just feel like, no matter
what you do, you can't get ontop of it all and you're
constantly spinning your wheelsand actually allowing the
(14:40):
business owner and the team tohave time freedom.
Time freedom to be able toprioritize life, but also time
freedom to see what's next,what's the next big idea or the
next thing that you want toachieve.
So they're the three big topicswe talk about.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
So when you talk about healthy hustle in your
book, you talk about threecritical ideas about how people
can move from hustlingnegatively to actually hustling
healthily.
I'd love you to share those ifpossible.
If one of you can just talk tothose three critical ideas of
what you've seen around movingfrom and moving to and therefore
(15:20):
you know what you're talkingabout in this book, sure.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Look, I think there's the three areas that we talk
about, and I'll start with smartgrowth.
That's the first one.
This is about being intentionalin the way that you plan, in
your sales and in your profit.
So we want people to startchallenging the norms around
what business success actuallylooks like for them.
So for you, is it about successat all costs?
(15:46):
You know, is it about a dollarfigure?
Because we've seen businessesand we've heard the stories of
businesses with millions ofdollars of turnover and no
profit or very minimal profit.
So why are you busting your assto make all this money to not
actually have a profit in there?
So we want to challenge that,and part of the model that we
have includes an importance onlooking at in our planning,
(16:10):
making sure we prioritize lifejust as much as we prioritize
those business goals.
So there's a whole lot aroundthat in relation to having that
optimal energy level andcreating an environment for
long-term success in business.
So that's the first area aroundsmart growth.
The next one we talk about ispeak performance, and what we're
(16:31):
wanting to really focus on herefor leaders and business owners
is to creating a reallyempowered, autonomous team who
sort of want to be, you know,working towards high performance
in the team.
So we get really clear on whatthat definition is for the team
and for the leader, and we wantthem to set up consistent
(16:52):
rhythms and structures andsystems in order to allow some
transparency to happen, so thatthe team can actually do the do
without the owner needing tofeel like they've got to be
involved in everything.
We term in the book this jugglestreet feeling, the feeling of
being everything to everyone,and if you're not involved in
all these parts of the business,then something's going to fall
(17:14):
over.
So peak performance is reallyabout setting the team up to
succeed, so that you can thenfocus on succeeding at what you
do best.
And then the third area that wecover is this idea of time
freedom for everybody in thebusiness.
So we want people to look attheir leveraging, whatever their
natural drivers are, what theirstrengths are.
(17:34):
So for the leaders and the team, so that we're getting a return
on effort and really reducingthe number of hours that people
have to work in order to get aresult.
And in fact, what we know wetalk about in the book is that
anything over 50 hours of workis pretty much ineffective,
right, if you're doing 70 hoursa week, thinking you're the hero
of your business.
The reality is you're not beingproductive and, of course, that
(17:57):
doesn't tie in with highperformance.
So we want to come back togetting really crystal clear on
what are the priorities.
How can we create anenvironment that's not rushed
and how can we get really solidboundaries and unspoken ground
rules that are healthy withinthe business, that everybody in
the business follows, especiallyyou as a business leader?
(18:19):
Because sometimes we set othersup and tell them not to work
long hours and make sure theytake their four weeks of annual
leave, but we forget us in theprocess.
So really it's I guess the keything in looking at those three
models working together is abouthelping the business owner stop
being the bottleneck in thebusiness.
So instead of feeling likeyou've got no time, you don't
(18:41):
know where to start, you'refeeling like everything's
chaotic.
We're here to say there's adifferent way of working.
Where to start?
You're feeling likeeverything's chaotic.
We're here to say there's adifferent way of working and
what we want is for them to beable to come back to that to
have a look at.
You know, don't just go withwhat's comfortable, even though
working long hours can feeluncomfortable.
It's really a comfort zone andwe want to challenge that.
We want to stretch out of thatand show a better way.
(19:02):
Have you heard?
Our book Healthy Hustle the newblueprint to thrive in business
and life is available right nowto purchase.
In Healthy Hustle, we take youthrough real world, practical
and achievable steps to move youaway from unhealthy hustle to a
place of happiness and living,whilst continuing to achieve
(19:22):
incredible business results.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
Order your copy now at healthyhustlecomau All right,
let's deep dive into each ofthese.
So first one you talk aboutmoving from business chaos to
smart growth.
Can you tell me more about whatthat means, and it'd be great
to hear some evidence of successwhen people have moved to that
(19:46):
smart growth place.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
So smart business growth and moving from that
place of chaos to smart growthis really about leveraging three
key areas.
You've got to have a clarity ofdirection that you're heading.
So business planning.
But gone are the days of the500-page PowerPoint
presentations.
You spend months creating it.
500-page PowerPointpresentations, you spend months
(20:10):
creating it.
Just a simple plan on a page,or we call it the True North
Framework to help guide peoplethrough a simple process to have
a plan.
When you have a plan and youhave a focus on sales and,
equally, profit.
So plan sales and profit.
That's actually how you knowyou've got smart business growth
in place.
Now we have a client, james.
He features in the bookincredible results.
So we've worked with him forthe last five years.
(20:32):
He has had 98% year-on-yeargrowth on average for the last
five years.
Now he's an establishedbusiness owner and there was an
increase in profit as well.
He's installed smart businessgrowth strategies.
He has a plan, he focuses onsales and profit and obviously
there's key elements around that.
But what we were reallycelebrating earlier this year
(20:53):
when he shared this with us yes,the revenue results are great.
Yes, the profit increaseamazing.
We love that.
We're in business, we love thenumbers, but the thing that we
were most excited about andcelebrating was the fact that he
doesn't have his phone at thedinner table anymore, that he
can have breakfast with his wifebefore going into work, he's
got time to do school pickup.
(21:15):
He's working towards four dayweek now.
Uh, four day weeks.
So you know, that's whatmatters, because when he came to
us, he was like Nikki I justI'm constantly connected.
I'm waiting for the next thingthat's going to need me.
I can't.
It's taking me away from myfamily, and we actually
interviewed him on a podcastepisode as well, really
uncovering what his beliefs werethat defined his definition of
(21:38):
success when it came to smartgrowth, sales, profit, et cetera
.
So that, to me, is such aclassic example of somebody who
is absolutely living andbreathing smart growth
strategies.
He also has implemented some ofthe peak performance components
and time freedom, but at itscore, that's where we have to
start.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
So smart growth, or from business chaos to smart
growth.
What I love about what youshare again reiterates that this
isn't about hustling hard.
It's about hustling smartly orhealthy hustle that you talk
about.
And who doesn't want morechoice in how they're managing
their day?
I'm sure there's peoplelistening going.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
I want more holiday.
I want more time off.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Thanks for sharing that I want to jump to the
second one, because I think yourconcept here equally.
I'm hearing so much in themarketplace right now this
feeling of I'm constantlyjuggling lots of different
things.
You call it juggle street and Igo.
Absolutely yes, people seem tohave so many balls in the air
(22:43):
that the challenge is they can'tfocus on the right things that
are going to shift the dial.
Or, as you talk about peakperformance, I'd love to hear
from you you know some examplesof what people can do to move
from Juggle Street to peakperformance and why it's
important that they do that Forsure.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
So when we talk about Juggle Street, I think of one
of our clients, mark, and hestated it beautifully in that he
was very reactive rather thanresponsive to challenges.
So it was like and I'm sure ourlisteners who are in Juggle
Street can resonate with thisit's like putting out spot fires
everywhere.
So he was just like here's aproblem to solve, I'm going to
(23:22):
solve that problem and then onto the next, which meant that in
this reactive kind of responseto leading, he wasn't looking at
that bigger picture andthinking around well, what is it
about the culture that we'resetting up here?
How can I set up the systems tosupport my team?
Because in his mind and he wasa leader in a business someone
else looked after that.
(23:42):
So once those pieces cametogether around creating an
environment for the team wherethey understood their role and
their purpose, and he got peoplesort of on board around what
the culture of the team is.
So what are the attitudes thatwe turned up to work with every
day?
What are the standards, whatare the expectations?
And then him focusing on howcan I set my people up to
(24:04):
succeed, rather than have themreinvent the wheel every single
time.
So, looking at those two thingscombined were really helpful
for him to be able to approachproblem solving in a different
manner.
And then that third piece aroundpeople and skills coming
together, understanding whatmakes my team tick.
How am I going to get the bestperformance out of Nikki
(24:25):
compared to Ness, compared toJanine?
It's that whole thing aroundjust having that superpower to
realize how to fast track,influencing those people.
And I think that what happenedfor him was he started to
realize that not only was theperformance improving amongst
the team, but for him it was aless stressful way of leading
because he wasn't getting to theday before a day off or a
(24:47):
public holiday, thinking youknow, if everything's going to
hit the fan, it's going to be onme and my team aren't going to
know what to do.
So I really see that the jugglestreet is driven by this
reactionary way of leading andto be able to get to peak
performance you've got to dosomething different.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
I love that to be able to get to peak performance,
you've got to do somethingdifferent.
I love that.
What I'm hearing there, too, ismoving from a place of just
transactionally going throughyour day, as you said,
responding to fires that need tobe put out or emails that have
landed in your inbox or somebodyelse's drama that they're
bringing into work, versusversus taking ownership around
(25:25):
the transformational nature thatyou can initiate or drive or
own through peak performance.
So I can totally understand whythat's such a critical part of
healthy hustle.
I want to move now to the thirdpiece of your IP that you share
in this book, which I have nodoubt many of our listeners are
(25:47):
going to resonate with.
It's this piece about movingfrom the busy trap into a place
of time freedom.
Can you tell me more about that?
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Yeah.
So I've just done this littleexperiment over the last two and
a half years where I Googled,google searched how can I manage
my time more effectively, andI've looked at how many results
there are.
So stick with me, because overthe last two and a half years,
the amount of search resultsthat come back for how can I
manage more time effectivelyhave increased by 6 billion.
(26:20):
What that tells us is thatpeople are searching for a
better way to manage their time.
Six billion went from 514million to 6.37 in two and a
half years.
But the reality is we actuallydon't need another time
management tool.
We've done the courses, we'veread the books, we've got all
(26:41):
the tools at our fingertips.
If we don't first work onthings like our belief around
time, then it doesn't matterwhat time management tool you
have.
It will never do its job, whichis, I think, why we're seeing
the increase in people needingand wanting this information.
I even think one of my favoriteresources to share is the Big
(27:02):
Rocks video with Stephen Covey.
It's in the late 80s bigshoulder pads, the big hair.
But the reason I bring that upnow as well is that was back
then and we're still looking fora better way to manage our time
.
So if we can just pop the pausebutton on what we're doing for
a second and actually startreflecting on things like what
(27:22):
are my beliefs around time andhow is this serving me?
A classic example is bend the Bword.
People right now Bend the wordbusy.
So again I think about a clientwho we talk about in the book,
who was a new leader and reallywanted to succeed Another James,
this is we seem to attractworking with James.
So James H.
(27:45):
He really wanted to succeed,but he got caught in this cycle
of busy and he thought that byasking for help that's showing a
weakness.
His beliefs around how he'smanaging his time and asking for
help weren't serving him.
So when we were able to have aconversation around, okay, what
if you actually just remove thatword from your vocabulary?
(28:05):
This was a mission that I wenton in corporate years ago,
because what's the most commonanswer that you get when you ask
people how are you?
They say busy, and so thenwe're keeping ourselves stuck in
that perpetual cycle of busytrap.
So that is my challenge Thingslike beliefs and the subtleties
of language.
What are you telling yourself?
Just to build on that a littlebit.
(28:27):
I also want to kind of look atthis from the perspective of we
can either live our life livingin busy or being in busy, or we
use the terminology in the book.
We can move to a place ofliving.
It doesn't mean you don't havea lot going on, it doesn't mean
that you know you are.
We're all just as busy as thenext person, but we have the
same amount of time in the day.
So it just means that we cancome to a place of mindfulness.
(28:51):
We can come to a place ofappreciating moments, even when
it feels really chaotic.
So beliefs are really important.
We don't need another timemanagement tool.
The boundaries that we set forourselves as well really help
move from busy trap to timefreedom and understanding out
what is right for my unique me,what's my internal driver.
(29:11):
So things like am I a morningperson?
Am I a night person?
What type of clients do I wantto work with?
What type of work?
How can I empower my team tostep up so I can step back and
we can all be living in ourgenius zone.
Oh, high five to that.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
I remember those.
I giggled when you talked aboutthe time management because I
can't remember.
I remember I must have beenbefore my time.
I remember in my very first jobas a graduate trainee doing a
time management course, and Iactually got into trouble
because the person that wasdelivering that training
actually said to me you're onthe tube, janine Whilst, you're
on the tube, you could do X, yand Z.
(29:48):
And I went no, I don't see whyI should fill that time.
I'm quite happy reading mywhatever the bestselling book
was.
And I remember being hauledinto the HR office at the time
and being told that's actuallynot what you should be doing at
this age in your career, andI've heard it subsequently not
that same thing.
But the other one that gets meis when people congratulate
(30:10):
themselves for zero inbox andthen at the same time they're
exhausted or they've worked lateand I go who said you had to
have a zero inbox?
Where did that rule come from?
So your point about the beliefsystems that have been passed
down to us, that we've inherited, the rules that we have decided
(30:32):
are non-negotiable, and yet whyis it that sometimes, when you
give yourself a challenge, youseem to be able to find the time
.
So I love the concept of busytruck to time freedom and
equally, as someone that's beenrunning their own business now
for I think, about 14, 15 yearsand 20 years in corporate, I
reckon that is the one thingthat I have to continuously work
(30:54):
off.
I've got good at removing busyfrom my vernacular, but that
being disciplined about theother stuff and understanding
that that is as important asanswering an email.
So so much good stuff in here.
Having read this book.
I was lucky enough to read thebook in its various iterations
before you got to the finalmanuscript.
(31:17):
There are so many tools, there'sso much research gone into this
, and that's what I love aboutyour book, healthy Hustle, that
it's not just what you've seenfrom your years of work, both in
corporate and the clients thatyou've worked with subsequently,
who you've helped shift intothis place of healthy hustle.
(31:39):
It's not just that You'vebacked up with so much evidence
that it's actually hard to arguewith what you're actually
saying here, and I think that ifpeople can pick up this book
and even take 1% of it, it'sgoing to help them move from
that place of hard hustle andthe risk of that to themselves
(32:02):
and their business to beinghappy and a healthy hustle of
actually finding the joy intheir business again and
reconnecting with the veryreason why they're doing this
for themselves, for theirfamilies, for their teams and
their communities.
So congratulations on such anincredible book.
As we sort of wrap this up,what is your wish for the
(32:22):
readers that pick up this bookand have the chance to absorb
the awesomeness in it?
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Well, our wish for the individual reader who's
picked up the book becausethey're resonating with this
message is simply that they gettheir life back, that their
business can be the dream thatthey had and have the success
that they want, and they canstill spend time with those that
they love doing the things thatlights them up, that they enjoy
.
And they can still spend timewith those that they love doing
the things that lights them up,that they enjoy and make them
(32:49):
feel healthy and make them feelhappy.
And I really think it's aboutcoming back and saying there's
one part of the book that Nikkiquoted, this beautiful poem I
think it was in relation to whatare you going to do with your
one precious life?
But that's how important it isand that's our wish for somebody
who's reading the book.
(33:09):
But bigger than that, our wishfor the collective is that we
really start to change thebusiness landscape for the
better.
So we want a more sustainableway to help people thrive in
business and life and we want tocreate that ripple effect right
across, so not only touchingthe reader but their teams and
then, of course, the familiesand the children to come and all
(33:31):
of that.
That's sort of like that it goesout much further than just the
person reading the book, becausethey're applying what they know
and really having theopportunity to challenge and
break those cycles, especiallyaround hustle, so that they can
be healthier human beings andhappier human beings, and I
think that that is our wish forthe whole collective of people
who pick up the book.
(33:53):
But also, within that, itdoesn't mean anything.
If you don't do something right, we can read books, so they're
not going to have an impactunless we do it.
So we ask anyone who picks itup, our ask of you, is to just
do one thing, pick one thing andmake a change on that, and then
, of course, buy the book andthen that way, once that one
(34:13):
thing is nailed, you've got thenext thing to move on to.
So this is a long-term plan.
It's not a quick fix.
It's not going to all happen inthe next week.
It's around.
As Nikki said earlier, it'sabout challenging belief systems
and implementing new ways ofworking.
So that's really what we'rehoping to achieve through
putting this book out to theworld.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
One of the things I picked up in your book that you
said I think you said it a fewtimes through the book and I'm
quoting here is you said workingsmarter is no longer a luxury.
Can why don't you comment onthat?
Because I think there's so much, so much in that statement
working smarter is no longer aluxury.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Yeah, because it is no longer a luxury, and I think
what we have to bring to thetable here is that healthy
hustle isn't just I'm going todo a little bit more yoga, I'm
going to drink more water, likethat is important.
They're the basic, foundationalelements, but the reality is
that this is, you know,something we need to take
seriously and it's no longer aluxury, because we need to
(35:15):
create change.
Change is needed and again I goback to what I mentioned before
around.
It's actually our duty of careto do something about it.
Now we're fortunate enough tohave the capacity to do
something to break the cyclesthat have gone before.
We're not working in theindustrial revolution, people.
We are in 2024.
(35:36):
Yes, we're dealing withconstant change and challenges,
but we have it within us to beable to create change.
So it is no longer a luxury usto be able to create change.
So it is no longer a luxury,it's a must.
It's essential for survival,for your business, for your
health, for your team's healthand again that ripple effect
that we talk about.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
So I've got to ask how can people best contact you?
So the book is available.
The book is available.
You can get it, I'm assuming,via your website.
But how else can people get incontact with you?
How can we support you?
Speaker 2 (36:13):
So, first of all, healthyhustlecomau is where you
go to get the book, but also youcan visit us at
businesstogethercomau and youcan get to the book from there.
But that's if you want tofriendly stalk us and find out a
little bit more about us.
Plus, nikki and I are both onLinkedIn.
That's our social platform ofchoice and you can just look us
up there and connect with us onthere.
(36:35):
We'd love to start theconversation around how healthy
hustle can help you and we'llput all that, all those links,
in the show notes.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
I think any business owner, any entrepreneur, any
executive, any business leader,any CEO needs to grab a copy of
this book, because who doesn'twant smart growth, who doesn't
want peak performance and whodoesn't want time freedom?
Congratulations on such anincredible book and for the gift
(37:03):
that you have given the planetto drive that change from
hardcore hustle to healthyhustle and actually happily
building the businesses of ourdreams.
You're amazing.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Thank you, thanks, janine.
Thank you, janine.
Thanks for listening to today'sep.
If you loved what you heard,connect with us over on LinkedIn
and let's continue theconversation over there.
Did you hear?
You can now buy our bookHealthy Hustle the new blueprint
to thrive in business and lifeat healthyhustlecomau.
(37:37):
Want us to speak to your teamor run a workshop on healthy
hustle in your workplace?
Send us an email, or go oldschool and give us a call to
discuss.
Until next time, happylistening and here's to thriving
in business and life.
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