February 24, 2025 • 59 mins
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#129 Discover how Feng Shui can positively influence your environment, wellbeing, and life experiences. Jane Langof shares practical insights and the transformative power of energy alignment in your living spaces.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What is Feng Shui?
Speaker 2 (00:01):
So Feng Shui is the art of arranging your living and
work spaces to create theoptimal flow of energy.
It's about your relationshipwith your environment and your
surroundings and how the energyin your environment can affect
you on a mental, physical andspiritual level.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
G'day guys.
Welcome back to another episodeof Level Up.
We are back in the shed foranother warm summer's day today,
something a little bit out ofthe ordinary.
It's midday here in southeastQueensland because we have a
very special guest with us todaythat has flown up from Sydney
just for the day to spend theafternoon with us, and we've
actually done some really funkystuff before this recording.
(00:43):
But before I get into who it isand what we're going to talk
about, you would hear me on thispodcast bang on all the time
about if you want to have asuccessful business and be able
to separate yourself from therest.
It doesn't matter whether you'rea trader, builder, whatever
type of business you are.
You need to be able to offeryour clients value, and there is
(01:06):
thousands of different types ofclients in this world, and if
you're not educating yourself,expanding your horizons, your
mindset and all those types ofthings, you are really
restricting the type of clientsthat you're attracting to your
business.
The guest we've got today issomething that we've actually uh
(01:26):
.
Her specialty is something thatwe've actually had quite a few
clients over the last 12 to 16years reach out or mention
during either during the designprocess or during the build.
So when I ran into this personwhen I was speaking down in
sydney recently, we connectedwell and I was being really
excited about catching up todayand we actually did.
(01:48):
My wife and I did a sessionwith her before recording this
podcast.
So huge, big warm welcome toJane Langhoff.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Langhoff, that's correct, yep.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
How are you?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, really well thanks.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
It's great to be here , Dwayne.
I look.
Really appreciate you coming uphere.
So look guys, jane is anestablished author, just
released this book this year.
It's all about feng shui, so oh, did I say that wrong?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Well, there are different ways of saying feng
shui.
So the way I say it is fengshui, but you can also say feng
shui, feng shui, feng shui, fengshui, feng shui, feng shui,
just not feng shui.
But the way I like to remindpeople to say it in an easy way
is feng shui.
It's like it's a fun way, a funway of working with Jane.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Awesome, I love it.
Look, before we lose you.
You run away because you heardus talking about woo-woo stuff.
Please hang around, becausethis conversation is going to
cover a lot of ground and, likeI said, we've had clients reach
out and mention this throughoutthe years and in the last two
hours, I've learnt so manythings about this stuff that I
can help guide my clients, andit's something Camille and I are
(02:54):
interested in as well.
But look, jane has this greatnew book, a Home Owner's Guide,
to Abundance, so go and check itout.
How do they get a hold of yourbook, jane?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Through my website, which is fengshuaconceptscomau,
but if you just Google Jane FengShui, you'll find me pretty
easily.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Excellent.
So how I met Jane was what wasit?
September, Back in September,yeah, so a few months ago I got
asked to speak at the MasterBuilders North Shore Division.
It was a monthly thing.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah, it's a monthly divisional meeting.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, and after I spoke, there was a few people
that come around and spoke to meand Jane was one of them.
And yeah, we just connected andstarted talking about stuff and
I think I overheard somethingyou were talking about to
somebody else and I'm like, hmm,that's very interesting.
I've had quite a few clientsmention that over the years, so
maybe it's time I actually learnmore about it yeah, fantastic
(03:51):
and now you've flown up heretoday and we've done a session
and, um, yeah, it's, it's, it'sreally opened my eyes to what it
is.
So, before we go into whatwe've done and what you do, what
is fengui?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
So feng shui is the art of arranging your living and
work spaces to create theoptimal flow of energy.
It's about your relationshipwith your environment and your
surroundings and how the energyin your environment can affect
you on a mental, physical andspiritual level.
So feng shui has been aroundfor thousands of years.
Has originated in China.
There are many myths andmisconceptions about feng shui.
Has been around for thousandsof years.
Has originated in China.
(04:26):
There are many myths andmisconceptions about feng shui,
but essentially, you know, 5,000years ago, whenever it was
first developed, ancient Chinesemasters discovered that
different patterns of energyaffected the human body and mind
, and when people were alignedwith positive energy, they
experienced periods of goodfortune, whereas if they're
aligned with negative energy,they experienced misfortune or
(04:48):
obstacles.
And so these observations havedeveloped into guidelines, rules
, formulas and systems thatdetermine what feng shui is
today.
There have also been a few sortof breakaway sort of schools of
feng shui that have come outthere.
In the 70s feng shui wasbrought out to the west a very
(05:10):
simplified version of feng shuithat suggests that every home
has a grid of energy.
That's the same in whateverhome you look at.
So if you're interested in fengshui.
You might have seen this aroundon the internet, but it's not
real feng shui.
You might have seen this aroundon the internet, but it's not
real feng shui.
So true feng shui is unique toeach home, based on the
orientation of the home, thefloor plan, the occupants that
(05:33):
live in the home and you knowwhen the place was built.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah, so I can contest all this because we,
like I said, we just Jane flewup early this morning and my
wife and I we sent Jane some.
You sent through a form, wefilled out some information and
we sent you the house plans.
So Jane did a bit of homeworkon it before she got here.
So can you explain this?
So for people that arelistening it might be a bit
(05:58):
difficult, but Jane turned upwith this colouroded energy map
overlaid over our house and itwas done.
There was one for the groundfloor and one for the second
level.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yes, so what that is is, if you imagine your floor
plan and a pie chart I guessover the top of it, with the
various directions north, south,east and west, and the
intermediate directions of north, east, south east and so forth,
and each of those directionshas a particular, the segments
(06:31):
within the directions has aparticular configuration of
energy.
That will tell someone like me,feng Shui master, how
supportive that area of the homeis for the occupants, so
whether that is supportive forwealth, health, relationships
and all that sort of thing.
And so what we try and do issearch for the really great
(06:52):
energy zones, like the wealthsector.
Everyone wants to know wherethe wealth sector is and where
the best energy is for harmony,health and relationships.
And then if you're designing ahome, it's about putting those
zones into spaces that canactivate that positive energy
where you can.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah, look, anyone that listens to the podcast all
the time.
I talk about wee-wee shit allthe time now because I'm
addicted to it, but what blowsmy mind is, the more that I do
of it and the more I expand mymindset and the more I listen to
every different person, theiropinions and all those types of
things, how much of it linkstogether.
Um, and look, so this, this issomething that I, um, like my
(07:31):
mum, used to talk about thisstuff all the time and I didn't
really like read books andthings.
I didn't really know much aboutit, but it was.
It was enough to plant a seedand it's.
It's definitely somethingthat's made me think about parts
of it over the years.
Jane, you're not a numerologist.
There's a numerology.
Part of it isn't there?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
I'm not a numerology specialist.
That's a separate sort of fieldto feng shui.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
But we have our last three houses we have selected
because of the street addressand so it was good to you backed
it up like we live at numbernine and that's a good number
and the position of the house onthe street, and like you don't
want to live at the end of acul-de-sac or a t intersection
and those types of things.
But after this session we'vejust done with jane, like we,
(08:21):
our lives have changeddramatically.
So we've been in this house foronly just over four years, like
four years and three months,and going through this energy
map with Jane, our circumstancesin this current house are far
different to the previousoccupants.
And look, I don't know if itties in or whatever, but we were
explaining to Jane that thelast people that lived here had
(08:44):
some not so good circumstances.
His wife passed away, he fellinto a hole and financially
couldn't get out of it and likethat was the whole story behind
us buying the house.
We got a good deal and the bankwas trying to take and all that
type of stuff.
But at the time, like when weknew all that, it didn't really
like make any sense, but like Idid have a bit of a worry that
(09:09):
shit.
Are we moving into a house thathasn't got good vibes and are
we gonna take on this bad energyand all this type of stuff?
And but it's.
It's been the complete opposite.
Um, and we've gone through thehouse.
We've we've, internally, we'vereconfigured it quite a bit,
changed a lot of walls around,we've done all the floor
coverings, all the bathroomslike repainted, like we've done
(09:32):
a lot of renovations to the home, but we have changed the use of
the areas.
And I'm really ecstatic now,after going through it with you,
because the way that we use thehouse now is actually like we
haven't got a lot of improvementto make.
Like the areas where we havethe office like my office, for
example is is where the wealthis yeah um, focused and, like
(09:53):
our living room and the frontentry is all perfect for wealth
and happiness and stuff.
And the reason I'm telling youall this background stuff is
because everyone thinks thatit's just hard work and, like I
do, work my ass off.
A lot of people can't keep upwith how much I do and what I do
.
But the reason I'm giving youall this backstory before Jane
tells what she does our life haschanged dramatically since
(10:17):
we've been in this house acrossthe board, like family,
situationwise and definitelyfinancially, and so I contribute
a lot of that to what you'vejust told us.
With this energy map and howthe house is, and I guess we'll
get into it more Jane's given ussome things we can improve on
even more.
(10:37):
So do you want to talk to usabout how this sort of energy
map stuff works?
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Yeah.
So when I look at the energymap, it shows the configuration
of energy that affects thedifferent occupants in your home
.
So I would look at the energyat your front entrance and
analyze that and see how thatsupports your wealth, because
the front entrance is yourgateway to wealth.
So we want to know what thequality of energy is at the
(11:06):
front entrance.
Your bedroom is reallyimportant as well.
We want to know what thequality of energy is there.
Does it relate to illness, doesit relate to conflict?
And then what elements we canuse to harmonize that energy.
So when I talk about theelements, feng shui is part of
Chinese metaphysics, which alsoincludes acupuncture and
(11:27):
traditional Chinese medicine,and in Chinese metaphysics we're
looking at the five elements offire, earth, metal, water and
wood, and each of those elementsrelates to a particular colour,
shape and material.
And so in the energy map we'relooking at harmonising what's
going on in that energy map withone of those five elements.
(11:48):
So we're looking at it from anenergetic perspective, but we're
also looking at it from aphysical layout perspective as
well, because that's reallyimportant.
So we want to make sure thatthe bed is in an area where the
energy is most contained.
That's like the wealth area ofa room, which is the area that's
diagonally opposite the door.
We want to make sure that thefront door has an open area
(12:10):
where the energy can collect andbe contained and then meander
through the rest of the houserather than move too quickly in
straight lines so is thissomething that people should be
like after what we've just donewith you now, like if we were to
build a new house from scratch.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
It's something that we would get you involved with
the design.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
To make sure that that energy flowed perfectly.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
The best time to work with a feng shui consultant or
feng shui master is at the timewhen we're still dealing with
lines on a page, when we'restill dealing with concept plans
, when we're still dealing withlines on a page, when we're
still dealing with concept plans.
Or you can even go one stepprior to that and say well,
which piece of land should Iselect or which property should
I buy, if you've got a couple ofdifferent options to choose
(12:55):
from?
But the thing with feng shui isthat it's so important to a lot
of people in the community and,regardless of whether you say
that you're a believer or not,it's going to have an impact
when it comes time to sell yourproperty.
So you know, incorporatingthose, those principles at the
start is a no-brainer, and a lotof people don't realize that
(13:19):
that even if they're not Chineseor or of Asian background, that
feng shui is relevant yeah,definitely so how?
Speaker 1 (13:27):
and so one of the things Jane just did with in our
house was, um, we actually wentto all the room, the bedroom.
So because, like, obviously, mywife and I have different
energy and, like my, both mygirls have different energy.
So it was, um, can you justexplain what it was?
I can't remember.
The orientation was becausedifferent people have different.
(13:49):
Yes, what was the deal withthat?
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Yeah.
So I analysed your birth datesand found what your favourable
directions are.
So what are the best directionsthat you should be aligned with
when you sleep?
So people generally have fourfavourable directions, so they
might be south, east, northeastand so forth, and if your bed is
aligned with those directions,then that's seen as a good thing
(14:16):
from a feng shui point of view.
You're aligned with that energy.
But if you're not, then it'sabout well, how can you tap into
that positive energy flowthrough other ways?
Perhaps your desk can beorientated in such a way that
you can face your favorabledirection.
So there's many differentthings to consider in feng shui.
It's about where the bestenergy is in your room, the
(14:38):
quality of energy in terms ofthat energy map that I talked
about, the physical aspects ofthe space and where you should
be locating your bed in relationto the door and the windows and
you know, the light and thebreezes and so forth, and also,
looking at those, the aspects ofthe birthdates of the occupants
(14:59):
.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
And look, so if you think this stuff's woo-woo, we
walked into our bedroom and Janepointed out that some of the
colors that my wife has on thebed, on the cushions, are not
ideal.
And it really clicked for mebecause my wife only literally
put these new pillowcases on twoor three days ago and for the
(15:20):
last two or three days I've hada terrible sleep, to a point
where we just said this morningmy wife said to me you're gonna
have to do something about yoursleep because you can't keep not
sleeping.
I'm not a good sleeper the bestof times, but the last couple
of nights have been shithouseyeah and straight away.
Now I'm like well, it's thatcolor.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Like you, change the color that does change the
energetic quality of the roomand that that bedroom actually
has this particular energy.
And it relates to illness thatwe need the metal element to
reduce and you have having thoseparticular, that particular
color, which is that that pinkysort of color, is the fire
element which actually feedsthat metal element and makes it
(16:02):
stronger.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
So we want to reduce that and that's the last couple
of nights I've just been firedup, Like I just haven't been
able to calm down and go tosleep.
So, yeah, look, I think thisstuff's fantastic, Whether
you're on board with it or not,I definitely think it's.
You need to be looking into it,Because the other thing that I
find amazing, like I said before, is it's all tying together.
(16:24):
Like I went and saw Deb thecolor lady the other day.
We did a session with her andquite a lot of points that she
brought up, Camille and I you'vebrought up again with your
expertise.
So, obviously, like I am adefinite believer now, that
everything on this planet isenergy and there is so much
(16:48):
energy just floating around us,and that energy has a lot to do
with the moods we're in, ourpersonalities, how, how
successful our days are, howwell we sleep like, how good our
relationships are, like it's itso, if you can, for me, if we
can be learning more about allthese I don't even know what to
call them like, I just call itwoo-woo stuff, but um.
But for me, if we can belearning more about all these, I
don't even know what to callthem like, I just call it
woo-woo stuff, but um.
But for me, if we can learnmore about it, like, why not
(17:11):
give it a go?
Speaker 2 (17:12):
like absolutely what have you got to lose?
Speaker 1 (17:14):
yeah, yeah because I definitely know that, since I've
been giving it a go, my life isjust getting better and better
and better.
Um, and for those that areworried about, or focusing on,
the dollars in the bank account,my bank account is definitely
growing and growing, and growing, like the more time I spend on
understanding myself, yes, andhow I work.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
The other thing that we just did with Jane.
What was the MMFs?
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Oh, EMFs EMFs Electromagnetic fields.
So, we went around with my meteremfs electromagnetic fields.
So we went around with my uh,my meter that measures electron,
electromagnetic fields, andwent around to each of the rooms
to see, uh, what the readingswere in each of the bedrooms
around the bed.
Because your body is made up ofmostly water and if you've got
this interference fromelectromagnetic fields it can
(18:01):
really upset and disrupt yourhealth.
So what we, what we found inyour house was the EMFs were low
around your beds, which isfantastic, but in the bedroom
where your mother in law isgoing to move into, really high
EMFs because the other side ofthe bed head wall has the meter
(18:21):
box.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
So it's funny because , again, this is something that
we're getting requested more andmore from clients and I've
heard a little bit about it butI wasn't.
I've never actually used ameter to walk through a home and
measure it and it was reallyinteresting with Jane to walk
through our house and place thismeter on different surfaces and
different walls and see thedifferent types of readings and
(18:46):
long story short.
But my mother-in-law isactually moving in to live with
us next week.
I'll keep you updated on thatone.
But yeah, all the bedrooms inthe house were fine until we
went to.
So the room that used to be inthe past owners of the house
used it as an office and Janesaid there was a few things
(19:07):
there that weren't quite rightwith the energy and stuff.
And then we've said, oh, it'snow going to be getting used as
a bedroom, like we've renovatedas a bedroom and that's where
the bed's going to go.
And, yeah, like it went throughthe roof yeah, the reading was
so high.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
That is definitely not supportive for your health.
Someone could really get sickthere.
So so the and the remedy forthat is just putting the bed on
the other side of the room yeah,and so we did.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
We, given that we found that out.
Um, I grabbed the meter offjane and I went around all the
walls in the room and literallyfour meters away on the other
side of the room, like it wasperfect.
Yeah, literally nothing so.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
So the moral of that story is know what's on the
other side of your bedhead walland if you're having trouble
sleeping or you've got somehealth issues and you've got
your meter box there, move thebed.
Well, move the bed if you'vegot the meter box on the other
side of the wall anyway.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Yeah, and Jane was telling a story about how even
in her own house there was acopper pipe.
Do you want to tell us aboutthat?
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Yeah, so when I was living in Melbourne for some
time, we had a home that hadvery high electromagnetic fields
and the previous occupants toldme how people had trouble
sleeping, especially their sonand I had my meter, emf meter
and I was measuring in themaster bedroom, where I was,
there were very high EMFs but nometer box.
(20:28):
On the other side of the walland along the floor as well
really high EMFs throughout.
One of that you know theprevious occupant's bedroom and
what we discovered was that theEMFs were actually conducted
through the copper pipe that wason the other side of our
bedhead wall and that was comingfrom the street and from the
(20:49):
actual water meter, from thestreet or one of those meters
anyway.
And then what we ended up doingwas getting calling in the
plumber to cut the copper pipe,to replace it with PVC, and then
the EMF readings camecompletely down.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
So just a section.
You just took a section of thepipe out to stop the.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Stop the conduction of whatever was coming through
from the street through thatcopper pipe.
It was bizarre.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Yeah, but it makes sense.
Yeah, a lot of mandals areconductive, but it makes sense.
Yeah, like, yeah, a lot ofmetals are conductive, so it
makes sense.
And you never know, we'vedefinitely had situations on
projects where doing arenovation and the existing
house or a previouselectrician's done some dodgy
work and you've literally gotlife current going into ground,
like from all types of thingsthat you can never think of.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
So that's obviously going to be tracking through and
conducting around other metalsyeah, and those people were
living in that house for, youknow, 20 years or so, and if
they would have known about this, they could have saved
themselves a lot of issue yeahyeah, so on that emf stuff, like
we've recently competed,completed a project for
(21:58):
ourselves where it got broughtto my attention by one of our
past clients.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
I'd never heard of it before and one of our past
clients started talking about it, asked if we would work with
her to help reduce it.
And that's my first sort of Iguess exposure exposure to it
and so on that particular job,she'd done a lot of study on it
(22:22):
and so we placed, like all theWi-Fi in the center of a home in
an isolated cupboard.
We ran a mains cable to there,like we put a isolator switch so
literally when she went to bedof a night she could walk to the
cupboard, turn the switch andcut power off.
Look at the time I thought, man, like this, this, they've gone
a bit overboard here like isthis stuff really real?
(22:44):
And then, yeah, after learningmore from her about it, like I
said, we just finished a well,not far off, finished a um a
project for ourselves and weactually did design the wet
areas and where the cables andwhere the copper pipe work went
away from sleeping and livingareas and so we kept it all sort
of centralized to one areabecause we didn't want to have
(23:06):
it behind beds and those typesof things.
So fantastic, that's so goodyeah, like this is all stuff
that, like you just don't knowabout.
Yeah, but it's definitelyaffecting our health and our
sleeping patterns and all thosetypes of things.
So what are some of the otherbenefits?
And I'm really glad we did thissession first, because it's
given me some ammunition to havethis conversation but one of
(23:29):
the other things you picked upin our house, or you asked a
question about, was the positionof the oven.
Can you explain that to us abit more?
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Yeah.
So when we look at the energymap of a home, the major
features like major waterfeatures and fire features have
a big influence on the energy,because water especially
amplifies positive or negativeenergy, regardless of that
quality.
So water really activates theenergy in a space, so we need to
(24:02):
make sure that it's in a goodspot, and the same goes with
fire as well.
So fire is a very activeelement that charges up the
energy in a space.
So there are these certain fireformulas from a feng shui
perspective that govern howsupportive its placement is for
the occupants.
And with the placement of yourstove and oven it was in a
(24:27):
really good spot.
That is actually ideal for CEOswho can handle high power sort
of positions, but it's not goodfor people who can't handle
those positions in their jobthis typical worker because it
(24:48):
might be too much.
And so we look at where thesefire features are located and
then figure out what to do tobest support the occupants who
are living there.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Yeah.
So if things like that come up,obviously not everyone's going
to go and tear the house apartand rebuild.
No, what's some things you cando to help with these situations
if they're not ideal.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Yeah, so if that stove of yours was in a
particularly challenginglocation and there's nothing you
could do about it, I would lookat the position of the stove
then compare that with themidpoint of the home and then
have a water element in betweenso that could be something like
(25:26):
a uh, like a tank for drinking,you know, one of those water
purifier type things.
Uh, it could even.
You could even go as simple ashanging a charcoal or black
coloured tea towel from the ovendoor, like there are certain
remedies that you can use thatreally help to reduce that
(25:50):
energetic quality.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
You mentioned several times, while we were going
through our home plants and thenlike different types of plants,
like whether they're planted insoil or whether they're
something that's growing in a inwater pot full of water yeah,
so you, you.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
There are certain energy configurations that
require the water, the elementof water, or still water, not
active water features, and thatis where you'd have something
like a vase of water that hassome a living plant in it, like
lucky bamboo, if you've seenthat I'd love to get some of
(26:27):
that or any plant that can livein water.
It might be pothos or devil'sivy yeah yeah, and, and then
that helps to.
That helps to regulate thatenergy as well.
Yeah, so, and then, and thenthat helps to regulate that
energy as well.
Yeah.
And then plants in general aregreat to have in a home, but
there are certain places thatwill benefit from the addition
(26:50):
of plants.
Yeah.
But in general, we want to beconnected to nature, so it's
good to have them in there,regardless of its placement.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
I think it's unreal that so much of this woo-woo
stuff, that's it.
It literally just comes back tonature, like getting back to
natural products, surroundingyourself with natural like water
, stone, wood, fire.
Yeah, I just feel that so manyissues that we have in the world
(27:20):
these days could be fixed soeasily if people just went back
to basics.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Yeah, people just need to connect to nature.
Even doing simple things likewalking barefoot on the beach or
in your backyard on the grassor in a park has such a great
influence.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Yeah.
So, jane, how are you seeingpeople do this like, is it
something that, like I guessit's your business, so obviously
there's enough people out thereasking for this sort of thing?
Yeah, but are you, is it morejust the general homeowner, or
do you have builders that youwork with?
Yeah, so I do actually havebuilders that you work with.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Yeah, so I do actually have builders that work
.
I have builder clients who whoask me to do feng shui in their
own homes.
But I also work with peoplewith homeowners.
I specialize in those who arebuilding and renovating, because
that's where you can get yourbiggest bang for your buck
working with someone like mewhere you can, where you can
really make the most difference.
But I also work with peoplewho've got an existing home and
(28:20):
they can't move doors orstaircases or whatever, and it
is what it is and it's justabout maximising the energy flow
of what you've got.
But apart from homeowners, Ialso work with business owners.
I work with people who aredesigning office refurbs,
casinos, people in the clubindustry, where they're looking
(28:41):
to create a place that feelslike a lucky space to be for
feng shui conscious customers.
Yeah.
Yeah, and when I talk aboutpeople who are feng shui
conscious, you know the obviousis that we're talking about
Asian clients or Asian buyers.
But aside from that, thewellness industry is booming and
(29:03):
there are so many more peoplewho are non-Asian that are
really interested in feng shui,just to bring that abundance and
health and vitality to theirown homes, for their own
families.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Yeah, I think it's fantastic.
So one of the comments Janemade while going through our
home we've got a hugetwo-storestory void area when
you enter our home that we'vedone pretty major modifications
to since we moved in and Janepointed out that what we've done
is perfect.
It's actually encapsulating thewealth and the energy that's
(29:34):
coming into the home.
But she pointed out, my wifechose these, these like we got
them because we just love thetimber, these big wooden, uh,
handcrafted chandelier things.
And jane said, oh, you wouldn'thave that if you were in a
casino no, because they looklike traps.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
So we don't want anything.
So the symbolism of items isreally important, especially
when you're dealing with acommercial, a commercial place.
Not that it's necessarily goingto be bad juju from a feng shui
perspective, but because thesethings are tied up with asian
(30:11):
superstitions and chinesesuperstitions and it kind of
goes a little hand in handbecause of the cultural origins
of feng shui.
So it's really important thatwe make sure that there's
nothing that looks like it'sgoing to kill you, that it's
going to trap you or that it'sgoing to hurt you.
So if someone, if the feng shuiis right in your home,
(30:37):
ultimately it should feel reallycomfortable it should feel
really comfortable and it shouldbe just supportive supportive
for your, for you to operate atyour highest level yeah, because
I feel like I'm actuallysitting here thinking because,
like we literally finished thesession with jane and then come
straight down to do this podcast.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
But while you're talking, I'm sitting here
thinking like I would love to dothat energy map over some of
our past properties because, um,we've had home offices several
times over the years and likeone of our home offices, like
camille and I just could notstand it, like we just hated
being in there.
It just it.
Yeah, I don't know, I can'teven explain it, but like this
(31:17):
office here, we like we love it,like we actually spend a lot of
time in there, so much so thatquite often, like our kids will
come and sit in the office anddo their homework, and like we
have really good conversationsin there.
And it was funny, like youpointed out on your energy map,
that, like my office is, isreally good wealth and, um,
you've rattled off lots of words, but, yeah, and then even where
(31:38):
camille sits in is a reallygood admin and hr position
that's right, because where shesat is has the best energy for
harmony, health andrelationships, so that's a good
space to to be doingnegotiations or talking staff
issues, dealing with problemswith, um, you know, within the
company or within the familyeven.
(31:58):
Yeah, and so that's where weactually hold our team meetings
and literally last Friday we hada team training event with the
leadership team because we'vegot some issues and it was at
that position.
But other areas of the house,like this house, just feels so
comfortable.
Yeah.
And, like we did, we sort ofjust felt that it's good, it's
(32:21):
got good orientation, it's beenwell designed, it's got a lot of
good airflow.
Yes, but obviously it ties in alot with that's also important
from a feng shui perspective.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
So feng shui and great design should go hand in
hand yeah unfortunately, um, ourindustry has got a bad name
because sometimes things gowrong and sometimes I will meet
an architect where they've saidoh, I worked with a feng shui
person before and we had to putthe pool in this strange
(32:51):
location and no one was happywith it at the end.
So I want to make sure thatyou're considering the design
aspects and, yes, having abackground in design always must
you know, the physical aspectsof a home are so important.
Even take precedence to that,to that energy map.
But yeah, good design and fengshui should go hand in hand.
(33:12):
So if you ever see somethingthat does not make sense from a
feng shui perspective or from adesign perspective, then it
should be raising alarm bells sowe don't want to feel some
people think that feng shui isabout filling your home with
tacky ornaments or golden moneytoads and things like that,
turning a place into a chineserestaurant.
But no, it's.
It's not about that.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
It's just getting the energy flow right I just think
it's so important, like I likewe're very heavily involved in
the design stage now through ourPAC process and quite often
I'll be sitting at meetings andjust thinking to myself, like
why are you pushing the clientto do that?
Like I feel like it's likeeverything in the world these
(33:56):
days, but with design andarchitecture it's all about what
other people are going to think, and I think we get caught up
and we actually we live ourlives like it.
I hope you don't mind myswearing, but like, who gives a
fuck what other people think?
Like, if it's your house, like,this does frustrate me with
(34:18):
design as an architect.
So you're supposed to bedesigning spaces to suit the
client you're working for and Ifeel a lot of the time, or some
of the time, it's more over.
I'm not sure how to word this,but it's.
It's more about the.
I don't know if perception isthe right word.
(34:38):
It's more about the.
I don't know if perception isthe right word.
It's more about the perceptionthat.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
What will people think?
Speaker 1 (34:44):
The rest of the industry is going to think when
they see a finished photo on.
Instagram over how well thatspace is going to work for a
client.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Yeah, does that make sense?
Absolutely?
Quite often you see places thatare built that are just, uh,
you know, a monument to thearchitect who's built it's a
good word, yeah, yeah and um no,it needs to suit the people who
are living in the space and andfulfill their needs.
And that's what I loved aboutthe architect that I worked with
when I, when I did a majorrenovation in my own home they
(35:17):
they were.
I'd seen.
I'd had meetings with otherarchitects and I always came
back to this particular one thatI'd worked with, he.
They engaged me for a feng shuiproject and I saw how they
dealt with the client and how itwas all about the client and
saving them money and makingsure that their needs were met,
making sure that the light, thelight and the natural you know,
(35:38):
the air and the light camethrough the home really well.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Yeah, well, that's a good segue.
Let's jump into that, because Ireally want to talk about your
building experience.
Yeah, so can you talk usthrough the journey and what
happened?
Speaker 2 (35:50):
My building experience was probably the
highlight of my life.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
I'm going to cut you off for a minute, so before Jane
goes any further.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
the reason I want her to tell this story is because I
think it will help educate alot of builders and tradies
about what you can do better inyour business yeah, so we we, we
lived in Victoria for a while,bought and sold there and then
came back to Sydney where whichis where I'm from and looked for
a home that I wanted to.
I wanted to use my feng shuiskills on it and to use it as a
(36:24):
bit of a showcase for mybusiness, and so I found this.
We found this lovely old 1950sdouble brick thing that was like
built like Alcatraz, and Icould see the vision for turning
it into something reallybeautiful.
And so I worked with somearchitects Mark Hurcombe design
practice in North Sydney andcreated this lovely soft deco
(36:48):
sort of look with the house.
And we had these builders whowere referred to by some friends
of ours Irvine's Building and Ijust loved them.
They were so fun to work with.
My experience with building, Ijust loved it.
Every day I was out on site.
I don't know if that was alegal thing or not, but I was
(37:08):
out on site Towards the end.
I was sitting with them duringsmoko and having my lunch and
just got along so well with allof the tradies and the subbies
and it was just great.
It was such a fun experience.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
So what do you put that down to?
Speaker 2 (37:23):
They were really good at what they did excellent
craftsmen.
My builder, jason, was just allover everything and made sure
that everything was as it shouldbe.
There was none of this cuttingcorners crap communication
communication was really good,so I knew what was going on with
at every step of the process.
Uh, the, the subbies that werehired were great as well, like
(37:48):
really good, really good at whatthey did.
Our, our um renderers were likethey were.
They were like craftsmen wasartists or like sculptors, I
don't know they they just theway they did their work was so
good.
So we just had top qualitytrades and so it was the
communication.
It was their pride in theworkmanship and I think our
(38:13):
place was just built with a lotof love and I think it really
shows in the result so that'sthey got along well as well yeah
yeah, everybody got alongreally good
the culture was really good.
So the builder, my builder,jason Bennett, he didn't yell at
the tradies.
You know, if there was ever anissue which hardly there ever
was it was just everything wasjust resolved and move on.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Move on to the next thing so for you that's all
about energy and and spaces andyour environment and stuff like
that would have been verycomforting because you didn't
have any bad energy gettingbrought into your home no that
you were going to live in no, asI said, it was built with love.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
It's like when you cook with love.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
It's very different to when you're just slapping,
getting food that's been slappedtogether from down the road
yeah versus having a lovelyhome-cooked meal so I thought of
it like that yeah so I thinkthat makes a difference to.
I feel like the walls wereconstructed with a lot of good
energy yeah, yeah, it makessense, doesn't it like, when you
(39:16):
think about that everything onthe planet is energy.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
Like it's.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
I find that a lot of people like because a lot of
people don't understandconstruction and the costs
involved and how it operates,and even what a builder really
is and does like.
It's easy Like a plumber,people know what a plumber does.
Electrician, they know whatthey do like there's a lot of
people out there that don'tactually know what a builder's
role is.
But quite often the wholeprocess like the bad energy
(39:46):
starts from the design stage,where people aren't listening,
there's not a lot ofcommunication, communication
isn't, communication isn'taccurate and things are getting
put on paper that may not suitthe client's requirements, but
nine times out of ten definitelydoesn't suit their budget.
And so right from that point,when they have to start making
(40:10):
changes and pulling things back,that bad energy starts.
And it really disappoints melike you hear so many stories
like I'm the same as you, like Ithink building should be a
incredible experience, like wego out of our way to make sure
our clients have the bestexperience they can.
But it breaks my heart when youhear clients tell these stories
that they literally like theyneed somewhere to live, they
(40:32):
need a new home, they need arenovation, but their passion
and their energy and everythingjust gets slowly destroyed to a
point where, once the job'sfinished, they actually can't
have that excitement and thatgood feeling.
And like I feel bad because Ihad clients like that, like back
(40:53):
in the day when I was running ashit show, like there was a lot
of jobs that I just could notwait to get paid, hand over the
keys and get out of there.
Yeah, because the relationshipwas ruined, the energy was bad,
there was a lot of negativity.
And I think back now I think,well, that was terrible, because
right from day dot, thoseclients moved into those homes
(41:17):
without having a greatexperience yeah whereas nowadays
, like our clients are in tearsand we're all hugging, and even
we get phone calls months afterwe finish, we go on holidays
with our clients like that's sonice it's a different energy.
We got one client at the moment.
I had a site meeting thismorning.
Every single thursday shebrings um like anything like for
(41:40):
the team.
So like today it was croissantsand chocolates.
Like every week, she brings foodfor the whole team, whoever's
on site, like painters,renderers, electricians, like
amazing so I'm really proud ofthose connections and those
relationships and that's why Ireally how how I started this
podcast.
I think builders need to ortradies, people in this industry
need to think outside the boxand stop being just a tradie or
(42:05):
just a builder.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
Like talk to people like yourself, learn more, like
expand your horizons, learn moreabout different things, because
, but from what I've learnedfrom you today, next time a
client asked me about better,I'm gonna be able to say, oh,
hey, get in contact with Janeand discuss this, so she'll talk
to you about this, this andthis.
And yeah, or, if they're like,with a little bit of knowledge
(42:28):
that I've gained from today,when I'm sitting in a design
meeting, I'll be oh, shouldn'tput your bed, obviously, like
straight off, so you yourdoorway, because it makes a
difference.
Yep, so good.
Yeah, so I really think it'sgreat what you're doing and I
hope more people reach out toyou, but do you still speak to
your builder after that?
Speaker 2 (42:50):
Well, it's been a few years now since then, but we
still sort of are on the socialnetworks, you know on.
Instagram and Facebook and thatsort of thing, yeah.
But yeah, you know, I wasreally sad when the whole
building experience wrapped up,I was like, oh, these were my
little friends that I used tolove chatting with, with and and
(43:17):
now and.
But then it was just a newphase of my life and then it
just became me focused on my, onmy business, after my beautiful
feng shui house was built.
So then it was about tappinginto the energy of the home and
really making it work for me andmy family which is what we did,
went on you.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
You enjoyed it so much that you then thought about
getting involved more.
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
so I loved it that much that I thought you know
what I want to help people buildtheir home so I can deal with
these tradies on a daily basis.
And so what I did was I went tothink about, well, where can I
study project management and getsome sort of qualification?
And I came across MasterBuilders Association and I
thought this is a great idea.
(43:55):
I think I'm going to do this.
So I went and enrolled fortheir project management diploma
and I found out from there thatthere were these divisional
meetings with the local masterbuilders and I thought you know
what?
I'm just going to show up oneday.
And it was really intimidating.
I showed up at one of thesemeetings in Sydney and I knew,
(44:16):
no, no one.
I just rocked up there bymyself and there was a room full
of I don't know 50 builders orsomething they're all having
chats with amongst each other,and there was this one table
that had no one there and Ithought, okay, well, I think I'm
going to go and sit over hereby myself and hope somebody
comes and talks to me.
And then soon after, one of thebuilders from the Manly
(44:39):
Warringah Division who's a pastpresident there, sean Coddington
, came and sat next to me and hewas so welcoming and friendly
and really nice.
And then the others Idiscovered I was on the Manly
Warringah table.
Then the others from thedivision came up and started
talking to me and then Irealised wow, this is a great
(44:59):
community.
And they invited me to theManly Warringah MBA sort of
divisional meeting.
So I started going to that one.
I just really loved their vibe.
But where do we?
I digressed there.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
We're talking about.
You got into project management.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
I got into project management, yes.
So then I was continuing to dothis project management course
and found that it was.
I think I did about a year ofit and it was really hard going
for me because I wasn't from thebuilding industry and so I
didn't have access to some ofthe policies and things that
they were requiring for as thedeliverables for this course.
(45:34):
And then I realised that it wasactually taking me away from my
purpose, which was abouthelping people create abundant
spaces.
So I just I was at a positionwhere I discovered you know what
this isn't right for me and Ifelt really bad.
I was actually in tears.
I was talking to one of myfriends who's a neuroscience
(45:54):
coach and I was saying, you know, and?
And she said to me Jane, whatis your actual purpose and why
are you doing this projectmanagement?
Is it actually guiding you moretowards your purpose or is it
taking you away?
And then I discovered no, it'sactually taking me away and I
think I really need to pull thepin and, um, after a lot of soul
searching, I did, because Idon't like quitting um, I pulled
(46:15):
the pin and then I still keptgoing to those MBA meetings and
I loved it and it's been great.
That's where we met.
That's right and I've been doingthat ever since, for the last
few years, and it's been so goodbecause I've met some really
great quality builders and I'veeven collaborated with some
builders when I had my booklaunch.
So Pament Projects in theeastern suburbs in Rose Bay had
(46:40):
the opening of their showroomand we did a collaboration.
So the opening of theirshowroom and my book launch was
the same party and it was justso good and it's just wonderful
to be part of that community.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
Yeah, that's bloody fantastic.
So your experience goingthrough a build and renovate
yourself, part of that communityyeah, that's bloody fantastic.
So like that would uh, likeyour experience going through a
build and renovate yourself andthen even the 12 months that you
did on the project managementcourse, like that would have
added a lot of value now to whatyou do with your clients
because you understand the buildprocess a lot more absolutely.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
That really opened my eyes then to the whole project
management process and what youneed to go through to have a
really efficient build.
And then when I was talking tothese guys from the MBA the Sean
Coddingtons of the world andJohn Oxleys and that sort of you
know those sorts of caliber ofbuilders then I was saying, well
(47:33):
, what do these guys do in theirbusiness?
And they're all over it withtheir systems and processes.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
I really, really enjoy it and love it.
But before we start to wrap itup back to the feng shui, I
guess what's a couple of thingsthat you can give just the
general people that arelistening some tips on.
Speaker 2 (47:53):
Okay.
So when you're designing yourhome, try not to have your front
door in direct alignment withyour back door, because what
that means is that money'scoming in and the energy's not
being contained and thereforeit's just leaking out again.
So feng shui is about energycontainment.
We want the energy to meanderthrough the property rather than
(48:14):
move too quickly throughstraight lines.
So we don't want the front andback door to be aligned.
We also don't want the frontdoor to be in direct alignment
with the stairs, because againthat's like the energy rushing
out of the property.
So try and avoid those twothings, because if you get those
two things wrong in the designprocess, it's very hard to fix,
(48:34):
obviously.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
Well, I'm glad you've told me that or impossible.
That's the next state.
Our second stage of renovations, that was we were going to move
the stairwell and the stairwellwould have finished straight in
front of the front door.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
Yeah, yeah, so we want to avoid the front door and
the back door being in directalignment.
If your place is like that,though it's not the end of the
world, it doesn't mean you'regoing to die or you're going to
be struck by lightning.
We need to then make sure thatthe energy can be circulated and
slowed down.
So it might be, you know, ifyour front door is in direct
(49:05):
alignment with your back door,slowing that energy down maybe
through artwork, through somefurniture, placement, plants,
that sort of thing.
But for more in-depth detail onthat, have a look at my book,
because it's all in there.
In terms of a bedroom, as youmentioned before, we don't want
to have the front door, thebedroom door, in direct
(49:26):
alignment with the bed.
That's called the coffinposition, which sounds very
scary.
It doesn't mean that you'renecessarily going to die.
Sounds very scary, doesn't meanthat you're necessarily going
to die.
But we want to make sure thatthe bed is in the space that's
diagonally opposite the door,because a space that's
diagonally opposite a door in aroom is known as the wealth
(49:48):
corner of the room.
It's where the energy is mostassembled and contained, and
this is where you want to placeyour study desk or your bed or
your the lounge, so we want tomake the most of that.
Uh yeah, and then with the, withthe bedroom also.
Let's.
The bedroom is the mostimportant space in the home
(50:10):
because that's where you'reabsorbing all the energy around
you for majority of the timewhile you're in the home.
A third of your life is spentin bed, so things like not
having the en suite opening upinto the bedroom is one of those
things.
So there's this big trendtowards having these resort
style rooms where you've got theen suite open into the bedroom.
(50:33):
So we want to be able toenclose that, have that
separation, because we don'twant to mix up dirty bathroom
energy with the nurturing, relaxyou know, relaxing energy that
should be in a bedroom yeah soit's very interesting bathroom.
Speaker 1 (50:50):
Energy is dirty, dirty baby we want to keep it
separate I'm was looking throughyour book here.
I was trying to find what we'retalking about before, but um, I
just come across your um fengshui method by jane langoff yeah
, yeah that, like I'll show youbefore you go up in my office um
my training, business, live,life build.
We have just created um asuccess like the nine.
(51:14):
Nine points to the success andwhat success looks like yep um,
and it looks identical to that.
Wow, so hopefully that means wegot good feng shui.
But, um, I was just trying tofind what we talked about just
before we come down here.
Um, I can't find it, but it wasabout the armchair, like, like
(51:34):
it should surround your houselike a lounge chair.
Speaker 2 (51:36):
Yeah, so we also look at the landform surrounding
your home.
So ideally, you want to havethat.
You want to have solid, well,like this, actual.
This structure that you've gothere in your podcast studio is a
perfect example of it.
You've got the support frombehind.
So in a, in a home, you want tohave tall trees or hedges or
(51:58):
something at the back to protect, to hold in that energy from
the, from the back.
You want to have the the sidesof the home, having some trees
or some sort of protectivestructures on each side of the
home.
So it's kind of like anarmchair type scenario, yeah,
where you're protected at theback because that gives you uh,
(52:19):
that gives you a securityfeeling of security and
protection.
And that's the case withplacement of furniture as well.
You want to have your bigpieces of furniture placed
against solid walls, things likeyour bed, your sofa, where you
can, rather than floating in themiddle of a space.
Speaker 1 (52:35):
Yeah, no, jane, it's getting bloody hot in here, so
we'll get out of here.
Look, I really appreciate youjumping on the plane, coming up
to have a chat and look foreverybody listening.
I really hope you've made itthis far.
You haven't zoned out because,look, this is all important
stuff and look, don't just takemy word for it.
(52:59):
Like, try some of this stuffout.
I am a big believer.
I do think that when you, whenyou get more connected with your
true self, with your naturalenvironment, um, it helps across
the board with yourrelationships with your wife,
your kids, your family, umdefinitely helps your business
and all those types of things.
So, um, do you want any?
Have you got to add any more,jane, before we get out of?
Speaker 2 (53:19):
here.
I just think that feng shui issomething that people really
need to know about, because itit's something that affects
property value at the end of theday.
Because you want, though, youwant people who are interested
in feng shui to show up at yourauction when it's time to sell.
So if you want to tick allthose boxes when you're
designing and building a homelike the sustainability, you
(53:39):
want something that's beautiful,you know you want it to have
all of the luxury sort of modcons.
Think about feng shui as well.
Speaker 1 (53:49):
Yeah, it's funny you say that because we my wife and
I we do the odd development forourselves.
We don't really talk about itthat much, but one of our more
recent ones was some townhomesand we sold that off market.
We got spoken to by a buyer'sagent and they asked us if we'd
(54:10):
had that was one of theirtick-flick boxes, like have you
had a feng shui expert involvedin this project?
Wow.
So it's out there like peopleare sure definitely wanting and
thinking about this stuff yeahso, jane, uh, just for the
people that are listening, wherecan they reach out and find you
?
Speaker 2 (54:27):
so the best place to find me is through my website,
which is fengshuiconceptscomau,or they can find me on instagram
.
I'm very active there.
At feng shui concepts is myhandle, and if that's all too
hard, just google jane feng shuiand I will pop up everywhere
awesome and uh, go and grab acopy of your book my book feng
(54:49):
shui a homeowner's guide toabundance.
It's available online throughmy website, and also at
booksellers and the library too.
Speaker 1 (54:56):
It's there as well awesome look as always, guys.
Thanks very much for listening.
Please like, share, subscribe.
We want to continue to makethis australia's number one
construction podcast.
Yeah, look forward to seeingyou on the next one.
Please reach out if you want tohear something on this podcast,
you want us to talk about aparticular product, product, or
(55:19):
even if you want to knowsomething about business or
whatever, or you want to reachout to one of our guests, let us
know, because we're here tohelp.
Look forward to seeing you onthe next one.
Are you ready to build smarter,live better?
Speaker 2 (55:28):
and enjoy life.
Then head over tolivelikebuildcom forward slash
elevate to get started.
Speaker 1 (55:57):
Everything discussed during the Level Up podcast with
me, dwayne Pearce, is basedsolely on my own personal
experiences and thoseexperiences of my guests.
The information, opinions andrecommendations presented in
this podcast are for generalinformation only, and any
reliance on the informationprovided in this podcast is done
at your own risk.
We recommend that you obtainyour own professional advice in
respect to the topics discussedduring this podcast.
What is Feng Shui?
Speaker 2 (00:01):
So Feng Shui is the art of arranging your living and
work spaces to create theoptimal flow of energy.
It's about your relationshipwith your environment and your
surroundings and how the energyin your environment can affect
you on a mental, physical andspiritual level.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
G'day guys.
Welcome back to another episodeof Level Up.
We are back in the shed foranother warm summer's day today,
something a little bit out ofthe ordinary.
It's midday here in southeastQueensland because we have a
very special guest with us todaythat has flown up from Sydney
just for the day to spend theafternoon with us, and we've
actually done some really funkystuff before this recording.
(00:43):
But before I get into who it isand what we're going to talk
about, you would hear me on thispodcast bang on all the time
about if you want to have asuccessful business and be able
to separate yourself from therest.
It doesn't matter whether you'rea trader, builder, whatever
type of business you are.
You need to be able to offeryour clients value, and there is
(01:06):
thousands of different types ofclients in this world, and if
you're not educating yourself,expanding your horizons, your
mindset and all those types ofthings, you are really
restricting the type of clientsthat you're attracting to your
business.
The guest we've got today issomething that we've actually uh
(01:26):
.
Her specialty is something thatwe've actually had quite a few
clients over the last 12 to 16years reach out or mention
during either during the designprocess or during the build.
So when I ran into this personwhen I was speaking down in
sydney recently, we connectedwell and I was being really
excited about catching up todayand we actually did.
(01:48):
My wife and I did a sessionwith her before recording this
podcast.
So huge, big warm welcome toJane Langhoff.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Langhoff, that's correct, yep.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
How are you?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, really well thanks.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
It's great to be here , Dwayne.
I look.
Really appreciate you coming uphere.
So look guys, jane is anestablished author, just
released this book this year.
It's all about feng shui, so oh, did I say that wrong?
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Well, there are different ways of saying feng
shui.
So the way I say it is fengshui, but you can also say feng
shui, feng shui, feng shui, fengshui, feng shui, feng shui,
just not feng shui.
But the way I like to remindpeople to say it in an easy way
is feng shui.
It's like it's a fun way, a funway of working with Jane.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Awesome, I love it.
Look, before we lose you.
You run away because you heardus talking about woo-woo stuff.
Please hang around, becausethis conversation is going to
cover a lot of ground and, likeI said, we've had clients reach
out and mention this throughoutthe years and in the last two
hours, I've learnt so manythings about this stuff that I
can help guide my clients, andit's something Camille and I are
(02:54):
interested in as well.
But look, jane has this greatnew book, a Home Owner's Guide,
to Abundance, so go and check itout.
How do they get a hold of yourbook, jane?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Through my website, which is fengshuaconceptscomau,
but if you just Google Jane FengShui, you'll find me pretty
easily.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Excellent.
So how I met Jane was what wasit?
September, Back in September,yeah, so a few months ago I got
asked to speak at the MasterBuilders North Shore Division.
It was a monthly thing.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah, it's a monthly divisional meeting.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, and after I spoke, there was a few people
that come around and spoke to meand Jane was one of them.
And yeah, we just connected andstarted talking about stuff and
I think I overheard somethingyou were talking about to
somebody else and I'm like, hmm,that's very interesting.
I've had quite a few clientsmention that over the years, so
maybe it's time I actually learnmore about it yeah, fantastic
(03:51):
and now you've flown up heretoday and we've done a session
and, um, yeah, it's, it's, it'sreally opened my eyes to what it
is.
So, before we go into whatwe've done and what you do, what
is fengui?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
So feng shui is the art of arranging your living and
work spaces to create theoptimal flow of energy.
It's about your relationshipwith your environment and your
surroundings and how the energyin your environment can affect
you on a mental, physical andspiritual level.
So feng shui has been aroundfor thousands of years.
Has originated in China.
There are many myths andmisconceptions about feng shui.
Has been around for thousandsof years.
Has originated in China.
(04:26):
There are many myths andmisconceptions about feng shui,
but essentially, you know, 5,000years ago, whenever it was
first developed, ancient Chinesemasters discovered that
different patterns of energyaffected the human body and mind
, and when people were alignedwith positive energy, they
experienced periods of goodfortune, whereas if they're
aligned with negative energy,they experienced misfortune or
(04:48):
obstacles.
And so these observations havedeveloped into guidelines, rules
, formulas and systems thatdetermine what feng shui is
today.
There have also been a few sortof breakaway sort of schools of
feng shui that have come outthere.
In the 70s feng shui wasbrought out to the west a very
(05:10):
simplified version of feng shuithat suggests that every home
has a grid of energy.
That's the same in whateverhome you look at.
So if you're interested in fengshui.
You might have seen this aroundon the internet, but it's not
real feng shui.
You might have seen this aroundon the internet, but it's not
real feng shui.
So true feng shui is unique toeach home, based on the
orientation of the home, thefloor plan, the occupants that
(05:33):
live in the home and you knowwhen the place was built.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah, so I can contest all this because we,
like I said, we just Jane flewup early this morning and my
wife and I we sent Jane some.
You sent through a form, wefilled out some information and
we sent you the house plans.
So Jane did a bit of homeworkon it before she got here.
So can you explain this?
So for people that arelistening it might be a bit
(05:58):
difficult, but Jane turned upwith this colouroded energy map
overlaid over our house and itwas done.
There was one for the groundfloor and one for the second
level.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yes, so what that is is, if you imagine your floor
plan and a pie chart I guessover the top of it, with the
various directions north, south,east and west, and the
intermediate directions of north, east, south east and so forth,
and each of those directionshas a particular, the segments
(06:31):
within the directions has aparticular configuration of
energy.
That will tell someone like me,feng Shui master, how
supportive that area of the homeis for the occupants, so
whether that is supportive forwealth, health, relationships
and all that sort of thing.
And so what we try and do issearch for the really great
(06:52):
energy zones, like the wealthsector.
Everyone wants to know wherethe wealth sector is and where
the best energy is for harmony,health and relationships.
And then if you're designing ahome, it's about putting those
zones into spaces that canactivate that positive energy
where you can.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah, look, anyone that listens to the podcast all
the time.
I talk about wee-wee shit allthe time now because I'm
addicted to it, but what blowsmy mind is, the more that I do
of it and the more I expand mymindset and the more I listen to
every different person, theiropinions and all those types of
things, how much of it linkstogether.
Um, and look, so this, this issomething that I, um, like my
(07:31):
mum, used to talk about thisstuff all the time and I didn't
really like read books andthings.
I didn't really know much aboutit, but it was.
It was enough to plant a seedand it's.
It's definitely somethingthat's made me think about parts
of it over the years.
Jane, you're not a numerologist.
There's a numerology.
Part of it isn't there?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
I'm not a numerology specialist.
That's a separate sort of fieldto feng shui.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
But we have our last three houses we have selected
because of the street addressand so it was good to you backed
it up like we live at numbernine and that's a good number
and the position of the house onthe street, and like you don't
want to live at the end of acul-de-sac or a t intersection
and those types of things.
But after this session we'vejust done with jane, like we,
(08:21):
our lives have changeddramatically.
So we've been in this house foronly just over four years, like
four years and three months,and going through this energy
map with Jane, our circumstancesin this current house are far
different to the previousoccupants.
And look, I don't know if itties in or whatever, but we were
explaining to Jane that thelast people that lived here had
(08:44):
some not so good circumstances.
His wife passed away, he fellinto a hole and financially
couldn't get out of it and likethat was the whole story behind
us buying the house.
We got a good deal and the bankwas trying to take and all that
type of stuff.
But at the time, like when weknew all that, it didn't really
like make any sense, but like Idid have a bit of a worry that
(09:09):
shit.
Are we moving into a house thathasn't got good vibes and are
we gonna take on this bad energyand all this type of stuff?
And but it's.
It's been the complete opposite.
Um, and we've gone through thehouse.
We've we've, internally, we'vereconfigured it quite a bit,
changed a lot of walls around,we've done all the floor
coverings, all the bathroomslike repainted, like we've done
(09:32):
a lot of renovations to the home, but we have changed the use of
the areas.
And I'm really ecstatic now,after going through it with you,
because the way that we use thehouse now is actually like we
haven't got a lot of improvementto make.
Like the areas where we havethe office like my office, for
example is is where the wealthis yeah um, focused and, like
(09:53):
our living room and the frontentry is all perfect for wealth
and happiness and stuff.
And the reason I'm telling youall this background stuff is
because everyone thinks thatit's just hard work and, like I
do, work my ass off.
A lot of people can't keep upwith how much I do and what I do
.
But the reason I'm giving youall this backstory before Jane
tells what she does our life haschanged dramatically since
(10:17):
we've been in this house acrossthe board, like family,
situationwise and definitelyfinancially, and so I contribute
a lot of that to what you'vejust told us.
With this energy map and howthe house is, and I guess we'll
get into it more Jane's given ussome things we can improve on
even more.
(10:37):
So do you want to talk to usabout how this sort of energy
map stuff works?
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Yeah.
So when I look at the energymap, it shows the configuration
of energy that affects thedifferent occupants in your home
.
So I would look at the energyat your front entrance and
analyze that and see how thatsupports your wealth, because
the front entrance is yourgateway to wealth.
So we want to know what thequality of energy is at the
(11:06):
front entrance.
Your bedroom is reallyimportant as well.
We want to know what thequality of energy is there.
Does it relate to illness, doesit relate to conflict?
And then what elements we canuse to harmonize that energy.
So when I talk about theelements, feng shui is part of
Chinese metaphysics, which alsoincludes acupuncture and
(11:27):
traditional Chinese medicine,and in Chinese metaphysics we're
looking at the five elements offire, earth, metal, water and
wood, and each of those elementsrelates to a particular colour,
shape and material.
And so in the energy map we'relooking at harmonising what's
going on in that energy map withone of those five elements.
(11:48):
So we're looking at it from anenergetic perspective, but we're
also looking at it from aphysical layout perspective as
well, because that's reallyimportant.
So we want to make sure thatthe bed is in an area where the
energy is most contained.
That's like the wealth area ofa room, which is the area that's
diagonally opposite the door.
We want to make sure that thefront door has an open area
(12:10):
where the energy can collect andbe contained and then meander
through the rest of the houserather than move too quickly in
straight lines so is thissomething that people should be
like after what we've just donewith you now, like if we were to
build a new house from scratch.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
It's something that we would get you involved with
the design.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
To make sure that that energy flowed perfectly.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
The best time to work with a feng shui consultant or
feng shui master is at the timewhen we're still dealing with
lines on a page, when we'restill dealing with concept plans
, when we're still dealing withlines on a page, when we're
still dealing with concept plans.
Or you can even go one stepprior to that and say well,
which piece of land should Iselect or which property should
I buy, if you've got a couple ofdifferent options to choose
(12:55):
from?
But the thing with feng shui isthat it's so important to a lot
of people in the community and,regardless of whether you say
that you're a believer or not,it's going to have an impact
when it comes time to sell yourproperty.
So you know, incorporatingthose, those principles at the
start is a no-brainer, and a lotof people don't realize that
(13:19):
that even if they're not Chineseor or of Asian background, that
feng shui is relevant yeah,definitely so how?
Speaker 1 (13:27):
and so one of the things Jane just did with in our
house was, um, we actually wentto all the room, the bedroom.
So because, like, obviously, mywife and I have different
energy and, like my, both mygirls have different energy.
So it was, um, can you justexplain what it was?
I can't remember.
The orientation was becausedifferent people have different.
(13:49):
Yes, what was the deal withthat?
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Yeah.
So I analysed your birth datesand found what your favourable
directions are.
So what are the best directionsthat you should be aligned with
when you sleep?
So people generally have fourfavourable directions, so they
might be south, east, northeastand so forth, and if your bed is
aligned with those directions,then that's seen as a good thing
(14:16):
from a feng shui point of view.
You're aligned with that energy.
But if you're not, then it'sabout well, how can you tap into
that positive energy flowthrough other ways?
Perhaps your desk can beorientated in such a way that
you can face your favorabledirection.
So there's many differentthings to consider in feng shui.
It's about where the bestenergy is in your room, the
(14:38):
quality of energy in terms ofthat energy map that I talked
about, the physical aspects ofthe space and where you should
be locating your bed in relationto the door and the windows and
you know, the light and thebreezes and so forth, and also,
looking at those, the aspects ofthe birthdates of the occupants
(14:59):
.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
And look, so if you think this stuff's woo-woo, we
walked into our bedroom and Janepointed out that some of the
colors that my wife has on thebed, on the cushions, are not
ideal.
And it really clicked for mebecause my wife only literally
put these new pillowcases on twoor three days ago and for the
(15:20):
last two or three days I've hada terrible sleep, to a point
where we just said this morningmy wife said to me you're gonna
have to do something about yoursleep because you can't keep not
sleeping.
I'm not a good sleeper the bestof times, but the last couple
of nights have been shithouseyeah and straight away.
Now I'm like well, it's thatcolor.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Like you, change the color that does change the
energetic quality of the roomand that that bedroom actually
has this particular energy.
And it relates to illness thatwe need the metal element to
reduce and you have having thoseparticular, that particular
color, which is that that pinkysort of color, is the fire
element which actually feedsthat metal element and makes it
(16:02):
stronger.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
So we want to reduce that and that's the last couple
of nights I've just been firedup, Like I just haven't been
able to calm down and go tosleep.
So, yeah, look, I think thisstuff's fantastic, Whether
you're on board with it or not,I definitely think it's.
You need to be looking into it,Because the other thing that I
find amazing, like I said before, is it's all tying together.
(16:24):
Like I went and saw Deb thecolor lady the other day.
We did a session with her andquite a lot of points that she
brought up, Camille and I you'vebrought up again with your
expertise.
So, obviously, like I am adefinite believer now, that
everything on this planet isenergy and there is so much
(16:48):
energy just floating around us,and that energy has a lot to do
with the moods we're in, ourpersonalities, how, how
successful our days are, howwell we sleep like, how good our
relationships are, like it's itso, if you can, for me, if we
can be learning more about allthese I don't even know what to
call them like, I just call itwoo-woo stuff, but um.
But for me, if we can belearning more about all these, I
don't even know what to callthem like, I just call it
woo-woo stuff, but um.
But for me, if we can learnmore about it, like, why not
(17:11):
give it a go?
Speaker 2 (17:12):
like absolutely what have you got to lose?
Speaker 1 (17:14):
yeah, yeah because I definitely know that, since I've
been giving it a go, my life isjust getting better and better
and better.
Um, and for those that areworried about, or focusing on,
the dollars in the bank account,my bank account is definitely
growing and growing, and growing, like the more time I spend on
understanding myself, yes, andhow I work.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
The other thing that we just did with Jane.
What was the MMFs?
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Oh, EMFs EMFs Electromagnetic fields.
So, we went around with my meteremfs electromagnetic fields.
So we went around with my uh,my meter that measures electron,
electromagnetic fields, andwent around to each of the rooms
to see, uh, what the readingswere in each of the bedrooms
around the bed.
Because your body is made up ofmostly water and if you've got
this interference fromelectromagnetic fields it can
(18:01):
really upset and disrupt yourhealth.
So what we, what we found inyour house was the EMFs were low
around your beds, which isfantastic, but in the bedroom
where your mother in law isgoing to move into, really high
EMFs because the other side ofthe bed head wall has the meter
(18:21):
box.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
So it's funny because , again, this is something that
we're getting requested more andmore from clients and I've
heard a little bit about it butI wasn't.
I've never actually used ameter to walk through a home and
measure it and it was reallyinteresting with Jane to walk
through our house and place thismeter on different surfaces and
different walls and see thedifferent types of readings and
(18:46):
long story short.
But my mother-in-law isactually moving in to live with
us next week.
I'll keep you updated on thatone.
But yeah, all the bedrooms inthe house were fine until we
went to.
So the room that used to be inthe past owners of the house
used it as an office and Janesaid there was a few things
(19:07):
there that weren't quite rightwith the energy and stuff.
And then we've said, oh, it'snow going to be getting used as
a bedroom, like we've renovatedas a bedroom and that's where
the bed's going to go.
And, yeah, like it went throughthe roof yeah, the reading was
so high.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
That is definitely not supportive for your health.
Someone could really get sickthere.
So so the and the remedy forthat is just putting the bed on
the other side of the room yeah,and so we did.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
We, given that we found that out.
Um, I grabbed the meter offjane and I went around all the
walls in the room and literallyfour meters away on the other
side of the room, like it wasperfect.
Yeah, literally nothing so.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
So the moral of that story is know what's on the
other side of your bedhead walland if you're having trouble
sleeping or you've got somehealth issues and you've got
your meter box there, move thebed.
Well, move the bed if you'vegot the meter box on the other
side of the wall anyway.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Yeah, and Jane was telling a story about how even
in her own house there was acopper pipe.
Do you want to tell us aboutthat?
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Yeah, so when I was living in Melbourne for some
time, we had a home that hadvery high electromagnetic fields
and the previous occupants toldme how people had trouble
sleeping, especially their sonand I had my meter, emf meter
and I was measuring in themaster bedroom, where I was,
there were very high EMFs but nometer box.
(20:28):
On the other side of the walland along the floor as well
really high EMFs throughout.
One of that you know theprevious occupant's bedroom and
what we discovered was that theEMFs were actually conducted
through the copper pipe that wason the other side of our
bedhead wall and that was comingfrom the street and from the
(20:49):
actual water meter, from thestreet or one of those meters
anyway.
And then what we ended up doingwas getting calling in the
plumber to cut the copper pipe,to replace it with PVC, and then
the EMF readings camecompletely down.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
So just a section.
You just took a section of thepipe out to stop the.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Stop the conduction of whatever was coming through
from the street through thatcopper pipe.
It was bizarre.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Yeah, but it makes sense.
Yeah, a lot of mandals areconductive, but it makes sense.
Yeah, like, yeah, a lot ofmetals are conductive, so it
makes sense.
And you never know, we'vedefinitely had situations on
projects where doing arenovation and the existing
house or a previouselectrician's done some dodgy
work and you've literally gotlife current going into ground,
like from all types of thingsthat you can never think of.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
So that's obviously going to be tracking through and
conducting around other metalsyeah, and those people were
living in that house for, youknow, 20 years or so, and if
they would have known about this, they could have saved
themselves a lot of issue yeahyeah, so on that emf stuff, like
we've recently competed,completed a project for
(21:58):
ourselves where it got broughtto my attention by one of our
past clients.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
I'd never heard of it before and one of our past
clients started talking about it, asked if we would work with
her to help reduce it.
And that's my first sort of Iguess exposure exposure to it
and so on that particular job,she'd done a lot of study on it
(22:22):
and so we placed, like all theWi-Fi in the center of a home in
an isolated cupboard.
We ran a mains cable to there,like we put a isolator switch so
literally when she went to bedof a night she could walk to the
cupboard, turn the switch andcut power off.
Look at the time I thought, man, like this, this, they've gone
a bit overboard here like isthis stuff really real?
(22:44):
And then, yeah, after learningmore from her about it, like I
said, we just finished a well,not far off, finished a um a
project for ourselves and weactually did design the wet
areas and where the cables andwhere the copper pipe work went
away from sleeping and livingareas and so we kept it all sort
of centralized to one areabecause we didn't want to have
(23:06):
it behind beds and those typesof things.
So fantastic, that's so goodyeah, like this is all stuff
that, like you just don't knowabout.
Yeah, but it's definitelyaffecting our health and our
sleeping patterns and all thosetypes of things.
So what are some of the otherbenefits?
And I'm really glad we did thissession first, because it's
given me some ammunition to havethis conversation but one of
(23:29):
the other things you picked upin our house, or you asked a
question about, was the positionof the oven.
Can you explain that to us abit more?
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Yeah.
So when we look at the energymap of a home, the major
features like major waterfeatures and fire features have
a big influence on the energy,because water especially
amplifies positive or negativeenergy, regardless of that
quality.
So water really activates theenergy in a space, so we need to
(24:02):
make sure that it's in a goodspot, and the same goes with
fire as well.
So fire is a very activeelement that charges up the
energy in a space.
So there are these certain fireformulas from a feng shui
perspective that govern howsupportive its placement is for
the occupants.
And with the placement of yourstove and oven it was in a
(24:27):
really good spot.
That is actually ideal for CEOswho can handle high power sort
of positions, but it's not goodfor people who can't handle
those positions in their jobthis typical worker because it
(24:48):
might be too much.
And so we look at where thesefire features are located and
then figure out what to do tobest support the occupants who
are living there.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Yeah.
So if things like that come up,obviously not everyone's going
to go and tear the house apartand rebuild.
No, what's some things you cando to help with these situations
if they're not ideal.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Yeah, so if that stove of yours was in a
particularly challenginglocation and there's nothing you
could do about it, I would lookat the position of the stove
then compare that with themidpoint of the home and then
have a water element in betweenso that could be something like
(25:26):
a uh, like a tank for drinking,you know, one of those water
purifier type things.
Uh, it could even.
You could even go as simple ashanging a charcoal or black
coloured tea towel from the ovendoor, like there are certain
remedies that you can use thatreally help to reduce that
(25:50):
energetic quality.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
You mentioned several times, while we were going
through our home plants and thenlike different types of plants,
like whether they're planted insoil or whether they're
something that's growing in a inwater pot full of water yeah,
so you, you.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
There are certain energy configurations that
require the water, the elementof water, or still water, not
active water features, and thatis where you'd have something
like a vase of water that hassome a living plant in it, like
lucky bamboo, if you've seenthat I'd love to get some of
(26:27):
that or any plant that can livein water.
It might be pothos or devil'sivy yeah yeah, and, and then
that helps to.
That helps to regulate thatenergy as well.
Yeah, so, and then, and thenthat helps to regulate that
energy as well.
Yeah.
And then plants in general aregreat to have in a home, but
there are certain places thatwill benefit from the addition
(26:50):
of plants.
Yeah.
But in general, we want to beconnected to nature, so it's
good to have them in there,regardless of its placement.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
I think it's unreal that so much of this woo-woo
stuff, that's it.
It literally just comes back tonature, like getting back to
natural products, surroundingyourself with natural like water
, stone, wood, fire.
Yeah, I just feel that so manyissues that we have in the world
(27:20):
these days could be fixed soeasily if people just went back
to basics.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Yeah, people just need to connect to nature.
Even doing simple things likewalking barefoot on the beach or
in your backyard on the grassor in a park has such a great
influence.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Yeah.
So, jane, how are you seeingpeople do this like, is it
something that, like I guessit's your business, so obviously
there's enough people out thereasking for this sort of thing?
Yeah, but are you, is it morejust the general homeowner, or
do you have builders that youwork with?
Yeah, so I do actually havebuilders that you work with.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Yeah, so I do actually have builders that work
.
I have builder clients who whoask me to do feng shui in their
own homes.
But I also work with peoplewith homeowners.
I specialize in those who arebuilding and renovating, because
that's where you can get yourbiggest bang for your buck
working with someone like mewhere you can, where you can
really make the most difference.
But I also work with peoplewho've got an existing home and
(28:20):
they can't move doors orstaircases or whatever, and it
is what it is and it's justabout maximising the energy flow
of what you've got.
But apart from homeowners, Ialso work with business owners.
I work with people who aredesigning office refurbs,
casinos, people in the clubindustry, where they're looking
(28:41):
to create a place that feelslike a lucky space to be for
feng shui conscious customers.
Yeah.
Yeah, and when I talk aboutpeople who are feng shui
conscious, you know the obviousis that we're talking about
Asian clients or Asian buyers.
But aside from that, thewellness industry is booming and
(29:03):
there are so many more peoplewho are non-Asian that are
really interested in feng shui,just to bring that abundance and
health and vitality to theirown homes, for their own
families.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Yeah, I think it's fantastic.
So one of the comments Janemade while going through our
home we've got a hugetwo-storestory void area when
you enter our home that we'vedone pretty major modifications
to since we moved in and Janepointed out that what we've done
is perfect.
It's actually encapsulating thewealth and the energy that's
(29:34):
coming into the home.
But she pointed out, my wifechose these, these like we got
them because we just love thetimber, these big wooden, uh,
handcrafted chandelier things.
And jane said, oh, you wouldn'thave that if you were in a
casino no, because they looklike traps.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
So we don't want anything.
So the symbolism of items isreally important, especially
when you're dealing with acommercial, a commercial place.
Not that it's necessarily goingto be bad juju from a feng shui
perspective, but because thesethings are tied up with asian
(30:11):
superstitions and chinesesuperstitions and it kind of
goes a little hand in handbecause of the cultural origins
of feng shui.
So it's really important thatwe make sure that there's
nothing that looks like it'sgoing to kill you, that it's
going to trap you or that it'sgoing to hurt you.
So if someone, if the feng shuiis right in your home,
(30:37):
ultimately it should feel reallycomfortable it should feel
really comfortable and it shouldbe just supportive supportive
for your, for you to operate atyour highest level yeah, because
I feel like I'm actuallysitting here thinking because,
like we literally finished thesession with jane and then come
straight down to do this podcast.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
But while you're talking, I'm sitting here
thinking like I would love to dothat energy map over some of
our past properties because, um,we've had home offices several
times over the years and likeone of our home offices, like
camille and I just could notstand it, like we just hated
being in there.
It just it.
Yeah, I don't know, I can'teven explain it, but like this
(31:17):
office here, we like we love it,like we actually spend a lot of
time in there, so much so thatquite often, like our kids will
come and sit in the office anddo their homework, and like we
have really good conversationsin there.
And it was funny, like youpointed out on your energy map,
that, like my office is, isreally good wealth and, um,
you've rattled off lots of words, but, yeah, and then even where
(31:38):
camille sits in is a reallygood admin and hr position
that's right, because where shesat is has the best energy for
harmony, health andrelationships, so that's a good
space to to be doingnegotiations or talking staff
issues, dealing with problemswith, um, you know, within the
company or within the familyeven.
(31:58):
Yeah, and so that's where weactually hold our team meetings
and literally last Friday we hada team training event with the
leadership team because we'vegot some issues and it was at
that position.
But other areas of the house,like this house, just feels so
comfortable.
Yeah.
And, like we did, we sort ofjust felt that it's good, it's
(32:21):
got good orientation, it's beenwell designed, it's got a lot of
good airflow.
Yes, but obviously it ties in alot with that's also important
from a feng shui perspective.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
So feng shui and great design should go hand in
hand yeah unfortunately, um, ourindustry has got a bad name
because sometimes things gowrong and sometimes I will meet
an architect where they've saidoh, I worked with a feng shui
person before and we had to putthe pool in this strange
(32:51):
location and no one was happywith it at the end.
So I want to make sure thatyou're considering the design
aspects and, yes, having abackground in design always must
you know, the physical aspectsof a home are so important.
Even take precedence to that,to that energy map.
But yeah, good design and fengshui should go hand in hand.
(33:12):
So if you ever see somethingthat does not make sense from a
feng shui perspective or from adesign perspective, then it
should be raising alarm bells sowe don't want to feel some
people think that feng shui isabout filling your home with
tacky ornaments or golden moneytoads and things like that,
turning a place into a chineserestaurant.
But no, it's.
It's not about that.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
It's just getting the energy flow right I just think
it's so important, like I likewe're very heavily involved in
the design stage now through ourPAC process and quite often
I'll be sitting at meetings andjust thinking to myself, like
why are you pushing the clientto do that?
Like I feel like it's likeeverything in the world these
(33:56):
days, but with design andarchitecture it's all about what
other people are going to think, and I think we get caught up
and we actually we live ourlives like it.
I hope you don't mind myswearing, but like, who gives a
fuck what other people think?
Like, if it's your house, like,this does frustrate me with
(34:18):
design as an architect.
So you're supposed to bedesigning spaces to suit the
client you're working for and Ifeel a lot of the time, or some
of the time, it's more over.
I'm not sure how to word this,but it's.
It's more about the.
I don't know if perception isthe right word.
(34:38):
It's more about the.
I don't know if perception isthe right word.
It's more about the perceptionthat.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
What will people think?
Speaker 1 (34:44):
The rest of the industry is going to think when
they see a finished photo on.
Instagram over how well thatspace is going to work for a
client.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Yeah, does that make sense?
Absolutely?
Quite often you see places thatare built that are just, uh,
you know, a monument to thearchitect who's built it's a
good word, yeah, yeah and um no,it needs to suit the people who
are living in the space and andfulfill their needs.
And that's what I loved aboutthe architect that I worked with
when I, when I did a majorrenovation in my own home they
(35:17):
they were.
I'd seen.
I'd had meetings with otherarchitects and I always came
back to this particular one thatI'd worked with, he.
They engaged me for a feng shuiproject and I saw how they
dealt with the client and how itwas all about the client and
saving them money and makingsure that their needs were met,
making sure that the light, thelight and the natural you know,
(35:38):
the air and the light camethrough the home really well.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Yeah, well, that's a good segue.
Let's jump into that, because Ireally want to talk about your
building experience.
Yeah, so can you talk usthrough the journey and what
happened?
Speaker 2 (35:50):
My building experience was probably the
highlight of my life.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
I'm going to cut you off for a minute, so before Jane
goes any further.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
the reason I want her to tell this story is because I
think it will help educate alot of builders and tradies
about what you can do better inyour business yeah, so we we, we
lived in Victoria for a while,bought and sold there and then
came back to Sydney where whichis where I'm from and looked for
a home that I wanted to.
I wanted to use my feng shuiskills on it and to use it as a
(36:24):
bit of a showcase for mybusiness, and so I found this.
We found this lovely old 1950sdouble brick thing that was like
built like Alcatraz, and Icould see the vision for turning
it into something reallybeautiful.
And so I worked with somearchitects Mark Hurcombe design
practice in North Sydney andcreated this lovely soft deco
(36:48):
sort of look with the house.
And we had these builders whowere referred to by some friends
of ours Irvine's Building and Ijust loved them.
They were so fun to work with.
My experience with building, Ijust loved it.
Every day I was out on site.
I don't know if that was alegal thing or not, but I was
(37:08):
out on site Towards the end.
I was sitting with them duringsmoko and having my lunch and
just got along so well with allof the tradies and the subbies
and it was just great.
It was such a fun experience.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
So what do you put that down to?
Speaker 2 (37:23):
They were really good at what they did excellent
craftsmen.
My builder, jason, was just allover everything and made sure
that everything was as it shouldbe.
There was none of this cuttingcorners crap communication
communication was really good,so I knew what was going on with
at every step of the process.
Uh, the, the subbies that werehired were great as well, like
(37:48):
really good, really good at whatthey did.
Our, our um renderers were likethey were.
They were like craftsmen wasartists or like sculptors, I
don't know they they just theway they did their work was so
good.
So we just had top qualitytrades and so it was the
communication.
It was their pride in theworkmanship and I think our
(38:13):
place was just built with a lotof love and I think it really
shows in the result so that'sthey got along well as well yeah
yeah, everybody got alongreally good
the culture was really good.
So the builder, my builder,jason Bennett, he didn't yell at
the tradies.
You know, if there was ever anissue which hardly there ever
was it was just everything wasjust resolved and move on.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Move on to the next thing so for you that's all
about energy and and spaces andyour environment and stuff like
that would have been verycomforting because you didn't
have any bad energy gettingbrought into your home no that
you were going to live in no, asI said, it was built with love.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
It's like when you cook with love.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
It's very different to when you're just slapping,
getting food that's been slappedtogether from down the road
yeah versus having a lovelyhome-cooked meal so I thought of
it like that yeah so I thinkthat makes a difference to.
I feel like the walls wereconstructed with a lot of good
energy yeah, yeah, it makessense, doesn't it like, when you
(39:16):
think about that everything onthe planet is energy.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
Like it's.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
I find that a lot of people like because a lot of
people don't understandconstruction and the costs
involved and how it operates,and even what a builder really
is and does like.
It's easy Like a plumber,people know what a plumber does.
Electrician, they know whatthey do like there's a lot of
people out there that don'tactually know what a builder's
role is.
But quite often the wholeprocess like the bad energy
(39:46):
starts from the design stage,where people aren't listening,
there's not a lot ofcommunication, communication
isn't, communication isn'taccurate and things are getting
put on paper that may not suitthe client's requirements, but
nine times out of ten definitelydoesn't suit their budget.
And so right from that point,when they have to start making
(40:10):
changes and pulling things back,that bad energy starts.
And it really disappoints melike you hear so many stories
like I'm the same as you, like Ithink building should be a
incredible experience, like wego out of our way to make sure
our clients have the bestexperience they can.
But it breaks my heart when youhear clients tell these stories
that they literally like theyneed somewhere to live, they
(40:32):
need a new home, they need arenovation, but their passion
and their energy and everythingjust gets slowly destroyed to a
point where, once the job'sfinished, they actually can't
have that excitement and thatgood feeling.
And like I feel bad because Ihad clients like that, like back
(40:53):
in the day when I was running ashit show, like there was a lot
of jobs that I just could notwait to get paid, hand over the
keys and get out of there.
Yeah, because the relationshipwas ruined, the energy was bad,
there was a lot of negativity.
And I think back now I think,well, that was terrible, because
right from day dot, thoseclients moved into those homes
(41:17):
without having a greatexperience yeah whereas nowadays
, like our clients are in tearsand we're all hugging, and even
we get phone calls months afterwe finish, we go on holidays
with our clients like that's sonice it's a different energy.
We got one client at the moment.
I had a site meeting thismorning.
Every single thursday shebrings um like anything like for
(41:40):
the team.
So like today it was croissantsand chocolates.
Like every week, she brings foodfor the whole team, whoever's
on site, like painters,renderers, electricians, like
amazing so I'm really proud ofthose connections and those
relationships and that's why Ireally how how I started this
podcast.
I think builders need to ortradies, people in this industry
need to think outside the boxand stop being just a tradie or
(42:05):
just a builder.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
Like talk to people like yourself, learn more, like
expand your horizons, learn moreabout different things, because
, but from what I've learnedfrom you today, next time a
client asked me about better,I'm gonna be able to say, oh,
hey, get in contact with Janeand discuss this, so she'll talk
to you about this, this andthis.
And yeah, or, if they're like,with a little bit of knowledge
(42:28):
that I've gained from today,when I'm sitting in a design
meeting, I'll be oh, shouldn'tput your bed, obviously, like
straight off, so you yourdoorway, because it makes a
difference.
Yep, so good.
Yeah, so I really think it'sgreat what you're doing and I
hope more people reach out toyou, but do you still speak to
your builder after that?
Speaker 2 (42:50):
Well, it's been a few years now since then, but we
still sort of are on the socialnetworks, you know on.
Instagram and Facebook and thatsort of thing, yeah.
But yeah, you know, I wasreally sad when the whole
building experience wrapped up,I was like, oh, these were my
little friends that I used tolove chatting with, with and and
(43:17):
now and.
But then it was just a newphase of my life and then it
just became me focused on my, onmy business, after my beautiful
feng shui house was built.
So then it was about tappinginto the energy of the home and
really making it work for me andmy family which is what we did,
went on you.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
You enjoyed it so much that you then thought about
getting involved more.
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
so I loved it that much that I thought you know
what I want to help people buildtheir home so I can deal with
these tradies on a daily basis.
And so what I did was I went tothink about, well, where can I
study project management and getsome sort of qualification?
And I came across MasterBuilders Association and I
thought this is a great idea.
(43:55):
I think I'm going to do this.
So I went and enrolled fortheir project management diploma
and I found out from there thatthere were these divisional
meetings with the local masterbuilders and I thought you know
what?
I'm just going to show up oneday.
And it was really intimidating.
I showed up at one of thesemeetings in Sydney and I knew,
(44:16):
no, no one.
I just rocked up there bymyself and there was a room full
of I don't know 50 builders orsomething they're all having
chats with amongst each other,and there was this one table
that had no one there and Ithought, okay, well, I think I'm
going to go and sit over hereby myself and hope somebody
comes and talks to me.
And then soon after, one of thebuilders from the Manly
(44:39):
Warringah Division who's a pastpresident there, sean Coddington
, came and sat next to me and hewas so welcoming and friendly
and really nice.
And then the others Idiscovered I was on the Manly
Warringah table.
Then the others from thedivision came up and started
talking to me and then Irealised wow, this is a great
(44:59):
community.
And they invited me to theManly Warringah MBA sort of
divisional meeting.
So I started going to that one.
I just really loved their vibe.
But where do we?
I digressed there.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
We're talking about.
You got into project management.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
I got into project management, yes.
So then I was continuing to dothis project management course
and found that it was.
I think I did about a year ofit and it was really hard going
for me because I wasn't from thebuilding industry and so I
didn't have access to some ofthe policies and things that
they were requiring for as thedeliverables for this course.
(45:34):
And then I realised that it wasactually taking me away from my
purpose, which was abouthelping people create abundant
spaces.
So I just I was at a positionwhere I discovered you know what
this isn't right for me and Ifelt really bad.
I was actually in tears.
I was talking to one of myfriends who's a neuroscience
(45:54):
coach and I was saying, you know, and?
And she said to me Jane, whatis your actual purpose and why
are you doing this projectmanagement?
Is it actually guiding you moretowards your purpose or is it
taking you away?
And then I discovered no, it'sactually taking me away and I
think I really need to pull thepin and, um, after a lot of soul
searching, I did, because Idon't like quitting um, I pulled
(46:15):
the pin and then I still keptgoing to those MBA meetings and
I loved it and it's been great.
That's where we met.
That's right and I've been doingthat ever since, for the last
few years, and it's been so goodbecause I've met some really
great quality builders and I'veeven collaborated with some
builders when I had my booklaunch.
So Pament Projects in theeastern suburbs in Rose Bay had
(46:40):
the opening of their showroomand we did a collaboration.
So the opening of theirshowroom and my book launch was
the same party and it was justso good and it's just wonderful
to be part of that community.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
Yeah, that's bloody fantastic.
So your experience goingthrough a build and renovate
yourself, part of that communityyeah, that's bloody fantastic.
So like that would uh, likeyour experience going through a
build and renovate yourself andthen even the 12 months that you
did on the project managementcourse, like that would have
added a lot of value now to whatyou do with your clients
because you understand the buildprocess a lot more absolutely.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
That really opened my eyes then to the whole project
management process and what youneed to go through to have a
really efficient build.
And then when I was talking tothese guys from the MBA the Sean
Coddingtons of the world andJohn Oxleys and that sort of you
know those sorts of caliber ofbuilders then I was saying, well
(47:33):
, what do these guys do in theirbusiness?
And they're all over it withtheir systems and processes.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
I really, really enjoy it and love it.
But before we start to wrap itup back to the feng shui, I
guess what's a couple of thingsthat you can give just the
general people that arelistening some tips on.
Speaker 2 (47:53):
Okay.
So when you're designing yourhome, try not to have your front
door in direct alignment withyour back door, because what
that means is that money'scoming in and the energy's not
being contained and thereforeit's just leaking out again.
So feng shui is about energycontainment.
We want the energy to meanderthrough the property rather than
(48:14):
move too quickly throughstraight lines.
So we don't want the front andback door to be aligned.
We also don't want the frontdoor to be in direct alignment
with the stairs, because againthat's like the energy rushing
out of the property.
So try and avoid those twothings, because if you get those
two things wrong in the designprocess, it's very hard to fix,
(48:34):
obviously.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
Well, I'm glad you've told me that or impossible.
That's the next state.
Our second stage of renovations, that was we were going to move
the stairwell and the stairwellwould have finished straight in
front of the front door.
Speaker 2 (48:43):
Yeah, yeah, so we want to avoid the front door and
the back door being in directalignment.
If your place is like that,though it's not the end of the
world, it doesn't mean you'regoing to die or you're going to
be struck by lightning.
We need to then make sure thatthe energy can be circulated and
slowed down.
So it might be, you know, ifyour front door is in direct
(49:05):
alignment with your back door,slowing that energy down maybe
through artwork, through somefurniture, placement, plants,
that sort of thing.
But for more in-depth detail onthat, have a look at my book,
because it's all in there.
In terms of a bedroom, as youmentioned before, we don't want
to have the front door, thebedroom door, in direct
(49:26):
alignment with the bed.
That's called the coffinposition, which sounds very
scary.
It doesn't mean that you'renecessarily going to die.
Sounds very scary, doesn't meanthat you're necessarily going
to die.
But we want to make sure thatthe bed is in the space that's
diagonally opposite the door,because a space that's
diagonally opposite a door in aroom is known as the wealth
(49:48):
corner of the room.
It's where the energy is mostassembled and contained, and
this is where you want to placeyour study desk or your bed or
your the lounge, so we want tomake the most of that.
Uh yeah, and then with the, withthe bedroom also.
Let's.
The bedroom is the mostimportant space in the home
(50:10):
because that's where you'reabsorbing all the energy around
you for majority of the timewhile you're in the home.
A third of your life is spentin bed, so things like not
having the en suite opening upinto the bedroom is one of those
things.
So there's this big trendtowards having these resort
style rooms where you've got theen suite open into the bedroom.
(50:33):
So we want to be able toenclose that, have that
separation, because we don'twant to mix up dirty bathroom
energy with the nurturing, relaxyou know, relaxing energy that
should be in a bedroom yeah soit's very interesting bathroom.
Speaker 1 (50:50):
Energy is dirty, dirty baby we want to keep it
separate I'm was looking throughyour book here.
I was trying to find what we'retalking about before, but um, I
just come across your um fengshui method by jane langoff yeah
, yeah that, like I'll show youbefore you go up in my office um
my training, business, live,life build.
We have just created um asuccess like the nine.
(51:14):
Nine points to the success andwhat success looks like yep um,
and it looks identical to that.
Wow, so hopefully that means wegot good feng shui.
But, um, I was just trying tofind what we talked about just
before we come down here.
Um, I can't find it, but it wasabout the armchair, like, like
(51:34):
it should surround your houselike a lounge chair.
Speaker 2 (51:36):
Yeah, so we also look at the landform surrounding
your home.
So ideally, you want to havethat.
You want to have solid, well,like this, actual.
This structure that you've gothere in your podcast studio is a
perfect example of it.
You've got the support frombehind.
So in a, in a home, you want tohave tall trees or hedges or
(51:58):
something at the back to protect, to hold in that energy from
the, from the back.
You want to have the the sidesof the home, having some trees
or some sort of protectivestructures on each side of the
home.
So it's kind of like anarmchair type scenario, yeah,
where you're protected at theback because that gives you uh,
(52:19):
that gives you a securityfeeling of security and
protection.
And that's the case withplacement of furniture as well.
You want to have your bigpieces of furniture placed
against solid walls, things likeyour bed, your sofa, where you
can, rather than floating in themiddle of a space.
Speaker 1 (52:35):
Yeah, no, jane, it's getting bloody hot in here, so
we'll get out of here.
Look, I really appreciate youjumping on the plane, coming up
to have a chat and look foreverybody listening.
I really hope you've made itthis far.
You haven't zoned out because,look, this is all important
stuff and look, don't just takemy word for it.
(52:59):
Like, try some of this stuffout.
I am a big believer.
I do think that when you, whenyou get more connected with your
true self, with your naturalenvironment, um, it helps across
the board with yourrelationships with your wife,
your kids, your family, umdefinitely helps your business
and all those types of things.
So, um, do you want any?
Have you got to add any more,jane, before we get out of?
Speaker 2 (53:19):
here.
I just think that feng shui issomething that people really
need to know about, because itit's something that affects
property value at the end of theday.
Because you want, though, youwant people who are interested
in feng shui to show up at yourauction when it's time to sell.
So if you want to tick allthose boxes when you're
designing and building a homelike the sustainability, you
(53:39):
want something that's beautiful,you know you want it to have
all of the luxury sort of modcons.
Think about feng shui as well.
Speaker 1 (53:49):
Yeah, it's funny you say that because we my wife and
I we do the odd development forourselves.
We don't really talk about itthat much, but one of our more
recent ones was some townhomesand we sold that off market.
We got spoken to by a buyer'sagent and they asked us if we'd
(54:10):
had that was one of theirtick-flick boxes, like have you
had a feng shui expert involvedin this project?
Wow.
So it's out there like peopleare sure definitely wanting and
thinking about this stuff yeahso, jane, uh, just for the
people that are listening, wherecan they reach out and find you
?
Speaker 2 (54:27):
so the best place to find me is through my website,
which is fengshuiconceptscomau,or they can find me on instagram
.
I'm very active there.
At feng shui concepts is myhandle, and if that's all too
hard, just google jane feng shuiand I will pop up everywhere
awesome and uh, go and grab acopy of your book my book feng
(54:49):
shui a homeowner's guide toabundance.
It's available online throughmy website, and also at
booksellers and the library too.
Speaker 1 (54:56):
It's there as well awesome look as always, guys.
Thanks very much for listening.
Please like, share, subscribe.
We want to continue to makethis australia's number one
construction podcast.
Yeah, look forward to seeingyou on the next one.
Please reach out if you want tohear something on this podcast,
you want us to talk about aparticular product, product, or
(55:19):
even if you want to knowsomething about business or
whatever, or you want to reachout to one of our guests, let us
know, because we're here tohelp.
Look forward to seeing you onthe next one.
Are you ready to build smarter,live better?
Speaker 2 (55:28):
and enjoy life.
Then head over tolivelikebuildcom forward slash
elevate to get started.
Speaker 1 (55:57):
Everything discussed during the Level Up podcast with
me, dwayne Pearce, is basedsolely on my own personal
experiences and thoseexperiences of my guests.
The information, opinions andrecommendations presented in
this podcast are for generalinformation only, and any
reliance on the informationprovided in this podcast is done
at your own risk.
We recommend that you obtainyour own professional advice in
respect to the topics discussedduring this podcast.
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