Tag Archive for: Leadership

After a whirlwind 2 days in Sydney at the Future Women Leadership Summit I was invited to “The Download” –  a Future Women Membership Podcast to reflect on the success of the Summit, its speakers, and the message of “Accelerate”. 

As it turns out there was more than one Kath speaking at the conference which meant that to differentiate me from the other Kaths, I became “Lightning Kath”.

Watch ‘The Download’ for the funny story that Sally Spicer tells about the evolution of my new nickname. 

 It was a pleasure to speak to Sally and Tarang Chawla and would happily do it again anytime!

 Take a watch…

 

 

At the start of 2022, I received the most delightful news I had won a scholarship for a Platinum membership to Future Women,  headed up by the amazing Helen McCabe and Jamila Rizvi.

What ensued was a year of confidence building and amazing new connections,  plus a load of empowering support from their online Facebook community.

A few weeks before their International Women’s Day summit in 2023, they put a call out for members to pitch an idea for a 7-minute lightning talk, to fit in the theme of the conference which was “Accelerate”. 

Given I have spent two good long years repositioning my business into personal brand strategy to really help leaders make the impact they wanted to create in the world, at speed,   I felt like this call-out was talking directly to me.

I was prompted by the beautiful Christine, who sent me a message saying “this one is made for you”.  

I pitched my 7-minute talk on how to ‘own your uniqueness to accelerate your impact’.  They received many applications but I was selected as the lightning speaker!

Apparently, I became known around the Future Women offices as “Lightning Kath”! Turns out they felt, coincidentally, that the nickname suited my personality perfectly!

My Lightning Talk was delivered to over 200 women and men in the Ivy Ballroom in Sydney, on Tuesday the 7th of March 2023. 

I was sitting alongside speakers and changemakers like; Major General Susan Coyle, Commander Forces Command of Australian Army, the former Queensland Premier Anna Bligh,  Money Girl co-founder Mariam Mohammed, Comedian Em Rusciano, Commonwealth Bank Group Executive Human Resources Sian Lewis, the Commissioner for Children and Young People Helen Connolly,  Karen Mundine from Reconciliation Australia, Dr Lois Peeler AM,  and KPMG Australia’s Chairwoman Alison Kitchen, as well as the hilariously on point ABC presenter Annabel Crabb!

This is just a small selection of the incredibly talented and high calibre women who spoke at the event and sat on Q&A panels throughout the 2 days in Sydney. 

I will forever be grateful for the opportunity to position my thought leadership among such impressive and talented women.

If you enjoy watching my presentation and feel it might be relevant to your team I’d love to have a chat with you please reach out via email or the contact form on my website.

 

 

See what people had to say during the talk:

 

Debbie O’Neill chats through what the Impact Alchemy has done for her leadership style, and state of influence in her new leadership role!

Highlights include:

  • permission to be me!
  • increased collaboration, less team frustration
  • invited to speak to global office about her new approach
  • ripple of purpose driven organisation change – actual cultural change!

Transcript of Interview Below:

Debbie: Should I give you the feedback on what I kind of sort of feel the alchemy has done for me? 

I’ve kind of given this a lot of thought last night and I kind of probably hadn’t quite realized how much it had done for me actually until I really started to think about it. 

But I think you know I think I said to you at the time I really enjoyed the process for starters and I think the thing that I enjoyed about it the most it was kind of like in some ways potentially the most exciting thing you can be doing right because like here you are as a person and it’s like you’re going to find stuff out about yourself which sounds really crazy but it’s just it’s almost kind of you got like this little fireworks going off in your head because it’s just kind of wow, I wonder what I’m going to find out about myself. 

You know it was a bit bit like that, but the process was great. Remember when you first started to kind of read it out to me and I did feel quite emotional about it and I think it was just because I kind of felt gosh it’s me, you know it was kind of really weird sort of sensation but I think moving on from there, I think that probably what it’s done for me and as a kind of a leader and now kind of running this, this organization is it’s kind of on one hand, it’s given me permission to be me. 

That’s really important, right? Because I was just trying to weirdly kind of fit in and be all things to all people and it didn’t feel comfortable or right. And then suddenly by having gone through the process with you and you’re reading that out to me. 

It’s not like I look at it every day to remind myself who I am, but I am, I kind of just kind of stepped into, you know, something else. 

And it’s just kind of because it’s almost like, I don’t know, like it’s like you’ve given me that permission to be me. 

Kath: It’s just so that’s some crazy psychology thing that’s going on there, isn’t it? And we look back  “what an idiot! I should have known that about myself!” “As if I didn’t — of course I was already!” But I don’t know what is it about needing permission? I don’t know what that is, but everyone does and I do.

Debbie: Yeah, yeah, it’s just, it’s madness and it was, but it’s so, I think the word in the way it’s been put together is so lovely as well, you know, in terms of the storytelling around it. So it kind of feels, you know, it feels nice, but definitely for me. 

So I was promoted in april, I can’t remember exactly when, when we did this actually, I think it was before into that position and, and I’ve just kind of, yeah, I’ve really, it’s just made a massive difference for me simply because I’m turning up to work and being me there’s something about the ripple effect, you know, for sure in that because I’m being me and you know, that it’s kind of being kind of picked up by others. 

So like for example, we’ve got like healing crystals in the office. They’re not my healing crystals, right? They’re not mine. I didn’t take them in, but there’s something about me kind of owning who I am that is kind of giving other people permission to do that. We’ve got kind of, I’ve got some oracle cards in the office.  

Yeah. Sometimes people come to my desk and I’m like, let’s pull a card and whatever and people are loving that, but it’s not uncomfortable if I tried to do this a year ago, it would have been really weird for me and everyone else, but somehow now it’s not. 

Kath: It’s just everyone in an ease in some ways. 

Debbie: Yeah, it’s great. And, And when do you remember, they don’t expect you to remember the detail of the meditation saying that you took me through, but the essence was, you know, we’re in that kind of, it was like a bit of a Disney type thing and color in the marketplace. 

Kath: Yeah, 100% remember. 

Debbie: And what I found is that that has stuck in my subconscious, I think really, because I find myself using some of the words, so I’ll talk about kind of whether it’s to myself sometimes even others the lurkers because, so it’s in my mind, I’m almost kind of, you know, and it’s not a conscious thing. 

It’s kind of identifying, right? This is all these people, this is all the color at the front there with me yet. We’ve got the lurkers at the back in the brown cloaks. 

They’re coming, give them time, you know, it’s that kind of thing that stuck with me and certainly when I’m coaching people and it’s kind of like over half the people in the organization now, you know, they’ve stepped forward to coaching.

So I think I’m like 15 people since the beginning of the year that I’ve taken through this coaching program. And I come into that in a minute. 

But remember the kind of going up the stairway Shane and the view and that again, with coaching, it’s just, I’m very kind of, it’s what I’m doing, but again, not in a conscious way, but I think that whole story plays itself out in my head and it’s almost kind of the, I don’t know, that kind of gravitas maybe. 

So everything else that we’ve kind of gone through. It’s like that, that story is kind of there in the background as this kind of reminder of the magic, I suppose.

Kath: I’ve experienced that as not that I’ve done this on myself, that certainty is like, yeah, like that foundation. And so when you, when you, I guess, you know, even just having that, knowing that this is the journey that they’re on and then seeing the markers as they hit them and going, yeah, they’re on the right path, sort of. Do you feel that that’s what’s happening? 

Debbie: Yeah, yeah, definitely. It’s great. And it’s I don’t think when I talk to other people about their experiences. I know that this piece is about me, but when I’m talking to other people, not in and out of coaching, right? it’s still that kind of maybe through going through this for myself, it’s easier for me to take people on that journey for their selves or to help them to see things.

And I think what it’s also done is given me this real, I don’t know, this sense of just calm, you know, because I think maybe because I feel like I do know, you know myself, I mean, this role, you know, I’m not feeling particularly stressed by it. 

There’s lots of decision making and lots to be done particularly post pandemic in in the industry, but I kind of I don’t feel that I’m attaching myself to the problems, you know, I can kind of stay back here and and it feels like that wise woman in the marketplace, right? 

It feels like that kind and it’s like that sorceress. I mean it’s my sorceress is my highest score anyway, but I kind of sort of feel that I can just stand back and just think it’s alright, everything’s okay, and I think I’m kind of giving off that vibe to everyone else. 

Kath: You claim it because you’re not attaching yourself because you’re more, let’s say that the experience of that storytelling through the marketplace up the lighthouse and the tower and looking at knowing that storyline and knowing that you’ve had that success with people that they’ve traveled on that storyline, knowing that let’s identify that as your purpose just for the sake of this conversation, but knowing that that’s your purpose and being attached to the purpose rather than the problems.  Do you feel that that’s what creates the harm? 

Debbie: Yeah, I do actually. Yeah, and I hadn’t realized that, thank you, I’m gonna make a note of that thing that you just told me about myself.  Yes. Yeah, that is exactly it. I think it’s just kind of, you know, I’m just not getting sucked into, you know… 

Kath: …the washing machine, like it feels much more like that sort of, I don’t know why I just associated to this energy of like a glacier just very slowly carving the valley rather than a white water rushing down and turning into a washing machine, that’s where all the attachment to problems and putting up bushfires and all that getting wrapped up in other people’s negative ego, let all that go. And you’re just like, “And this is the purpose and anyone that wants to join me on this at any point in time is welcome, but this is what I’ll be doing.” 

Debbie: Yeah, that is exactly how it feels and it’s infectious. You know, it’s just like I’ve done business updates the last couple of days and of course I’m talking about all sorts of stuff, including figures. But my first slide, I was talking about fires of a forest fire, right? 

Because that’s what we’re doing at the moment, we’re firefighting. And I kind of asked my husband what it’s like fighting fire and he started off saying, “It’s really exciting.” And it’s like, “That’s not really where I’m coming from, you know.” 

Kath: Let’s just talk about tragedy. Haha.

Debbie: Yeah. And I was kind of likening that, you know, so I kind of acknowledged to them that this is where we’re at, we’re fighting fires, right? And you’ve got a pocket fire here, You’ve got a bigger one over there and you don’t know which ones to do sort of thing. 

And so again, I’m just kind of, you know, I suppose taking that high view, you know, everything that’s going on acknowledging the ship, but it’s kind of, you know, and I kind of just think I’m not getting sucked into it and it’s almost giving everyone else permission not to get sucked into it either, because it’s like, well, if she’s not, then right, 

Kath: Yeah, like certainties just underpinned that I can just tap into and go, she’s certain following her, she’s my leader. Yeah. 

Debbie: Yeah, and I think it’s kind of the best thing in a way that I did this before going into this position, because I wondered how I’d be, if I hadn’t have done this, you know, would I have been putting pressure on myself? Would I have taken their stuff on and how they’re feeling and all the problems and getting sucked in and I would have been all over the place?

Whereas I kind of sort of feel the glacier thing is quite accurate actually, it’s just like, okay, you know, it’s just we’ve got to we’ve got to keep moving through and obviously it’s not going to help anyone if we’re all kind of going into panic mode. 

Yeah, like, my God, so, so yeah, so I think that’s kind of that on the framework for coaching, you know, I spent some time looking at this before I sort of, I put a document together for the for the girls that I coached and I changed it after I’ve done this with you to bring in this this this framework, what I particularly liked was this scene, because I kind of sort of feel that in the workplace quite often people feel that they’re not seen, because obviously they’re going into work pretending they got all their ship together when half the time they just haven’t got their ship together.

I think this is like me saying to them like you know, I see you, I see you as you and not as the person that you decide to present when you come into work and they like that and and it’s you know, and sometimes I had one lady actually, she’s she’s indian and she came into it, she started her coaching with me two or three weeks ago and she came in and she started crying, I hadn’t even said anything, she started crying and and I think it was just that kind of that safe space basically, you know, and and you know, and I know this happens in coaching, right? 

You know, we all blub and whatever, but the fact that I’m running the business, she’s working in the business in the working environment, we’re going into a room together and she feels that she can let that emotion out and that she can open up about how she’s feeling even about work, not just about home life and then we come out the room and it’s kind of back to our day jobs. 

I kind of think it’s really quite magical. 

It’s magical for them, but for me as well because obviously I get to see them, I get to understand them on a much deeper level, not just like this person is in that role doing that job, It’s just like you understand them and because I’ve coached so many now and I understand them all and I know their backgrounds, I can basically kind of I’ve got a better idea of what it is they want and how to come up with a strategy. 

Kath: Yeah, it’s just like you are automatically bringing in the whole person to the business strategy because, you know, the whole person. 

So if you were to make decisions based on someone’s skill set and compartmentalize it before now, then you as a leader would find yourself being let down in the future because by the wrong strategy and people not being able to do what you need them to do because they might be skilled in X Y Z. But if A B C about their personal life isn’t gonna allow them to step in, then, you know, it all falls down, right? 

So that’s incredible.

Debbie: I think it’s and this is what I think the workplace needs more of it is about kind of understanding them as a whole person and not just what they sort of decided to present. 

But the other thing, I think I remember you saying to me, I’ve created these soft power circles, they come out the other side of coaching once a month, they come into a space again, another safe space and and they connect with each other and I was talking to joe about this a couple of weeks ago.

I was on the B laboratory and I was talking to her about it because I was saying that, you know, there’s this what we’ve got when they do coaching, I put them into a WhatsApp group, so they’re in the WhatsApp group.

They come to the monthly meetings and so what’s happening now is that they’re all connecting with each other. 

I remember you saying to me like, you don’t need to be the guru of it all. And so I’m trying to kind of ease myself back, but what they’re doing now is they’re connecting with each other and they’re opening up about the stuff they opened up to me about.

Kath: Aww, That’s Amazing!

Debbie: They’re talking about so, again, you know, someone in one of these meetings recently just sort of said, you know, I was I was living on my own at the age of 12 and the others the other reacted, they were like, my gosh, you know, really? 

And she said it’s a story for another time, but it was relevant to the story she was telling in that moment, but and I kind of even just that and I just sat back and just watched it all going on and I thought there understand they’re seeing each other in a different way. 

Kath: My God, I love that scene is now becoming seen like one, what do you call it? One degree of separation. I love that. Yeah! Look at YOU!

Debbie: I hadn’t realized I started talking about it, you know, I think it’s yeah, it’s really it’s magical and and the thing is this is what I’m saying to Jo is that for me, coaching is a double whammy because I see the transformation in the coaching sessions and then I see the transformation in the workplace because I can see them coming out the way that they connect with each other in relation to work. 

Actually, you know what, maybe they don’t even realize it themselves, I don’t know, but they’re just the understanding of each other. You know, there’s less frustration because they’re kind of understanding each other as a human being and people would talk about, you know, relationships and ask everyone else, you know what, this is what I find. Am I the only one is this normal? 

I feel really happy the others are contributing and and it’s great and I think for me it’s you know, everything else, the alchemy stuff aside its vulnerability, right? 

You know, I talk about Brandon Brown a lot.. a lot, but it’s it’s just allowing themselves to be vulnerable and that’s what I demonstrate to them. 

I show vulnerability, which can be quite tough, you know, as a leader I think or you know, how’s it going to go? So it’s been a learning lesson for me. 

But when I show vulnerability, they they’re basically they’re starting to do the same. 

Kath: That sort of framework that we mapped out, are you sort of following those sort of steps? 

Debbie: Yeah, I am actually. And what I did was, and I need to revisit it because I was keen just to do something with it and I kind of feel in a very kind of clunky way. What I did was I took one of many tools and I kind of slotted them into those areas. 

Kath: Yeah. Right. That’s perfect. That’s good. If you were to sort of future state the the impact on the organization, what are some of the outcomes of people, you know, like, this sort of knock on effect of you showing up in your vulnerability, understanding yourself permission to be you, then you coach them to basically do the same thing?

How do you see it sort of strategizing out for the organization? 

Debbie: I think certainly, you know, we’re already starting to see results in the business, just by it’s kind of in relation to teamwork, right and collaboration – that people are, there were all these frustrations and some of them, not all of them yet, but some of them have kind of fallen away. And it makes me realize that actually, yes, there, and I know there can be frustrations in the workplace generally, from kind of team to team, and that appears in part to have resolved itself just by people connecting with each other on a different level.

I’m thinking, well, the more that kind of goes on and continues, I think we’ll see more of that, so rather than me trying to figure out where the frustrations and what can we do about it actually, organically, it’s being kind of fixed by them and not me.

So, I think that would be the big thing. And I think, you know, the other thing that I, I want to do and I think that this is the start of the journey for the organization is to create that work place where people can flourish and thrive and when they feel they can come to work and just be themselves and they know that that is enough and that is okay without the pretense without putting the pressure on themselves. 

So I think certainly in relation to well being, that will be a great thing as well, but our staff, when you sort of talk about personal sustainability, which I started talking about now, they’ve got to take the ownership and make sure that there they’re okay, but I’m supporting them to do this. And I think the whole well-being/peace is so important now at work. 

And it’s a really difficult subject actually because well being means different things to different people. So, you know, like a lot of organizations, we care about the well being of our staff, they’re essentially ticking boxes, and we’ve tried all these different things and we don’t really know what, what do people want.

You know, we do mindful coloring and we get brownies and we do all this kind of stuff and nothing particularly seems to work, but this does and this is well-being. because it’s like, you know, 

Kath: That’s going to be my tagline: Scrap your well being box ticking programs and just do this, just get your leader to do this. 

Debbie: Because it helps them to understand because you know, I don’t know about you and I remember when I was doing my, my coaching training, I first did the needs creed, right? 

So needs creed — blank piece of paper half an hour later — blank piece of paper because I didn’t know you know what I needed.

So even that piece in itself to make people think, ship, what do I need? And half the time they don’t really know. 

So we have, we have this thing where people make kind of suggestions and they’ve got ideas and it goes around each week and somebody recently suggested morning meditation like on air once a week or once a month. I mean what she said, but I thought, gosh, for her to publicly say to the whole company, we should do a meditation. 

I thought that’s, you know, Yeah. And again, it’s that corporate workspace where people feel certain things don’t belong and they do because we’re all a bunch of human beings that just want to… 

Kath: Yeah, exactly. How many people are you managing?

Debbie: So we’ve got, I’ve got about 35 in my division, there’s probably about kind of, you know, three or 400 in the UK and in the wider 10,000 globally, but of course Kath what’s happening is everyone’s starting to ask questions. 

So I’ve got someone else from a different business division who’s asked me to do a talk to his, his guys beginning of September and then from another division, people are asking what I can do for them and I’ve got other people wanted to talk to me and we’ve got an association of women sort of travel executives. 

It’s like a travel travel body in the UK. So I’ve been speaking to them. So it’s just that kind of, you know, ripple effect. 

Kath: Anytime you want to drop my name while you’re standing on stage, please do. Haha.

Debbie: I’ll give you a mention. I’ll give you a mention.

Kath: YEAH!

Ticker News_Kath Clarke Interview

Ticker News interviews Kath Clarke on #personalbranding

Personal Brands built on your authentic self is the most powerful tool you have in creating your own opportunities in work and business.

In this interview with Mike Loder, Kath answers the key questions:

  • What is a personal brand?
  • Why do you need a personal brand?
  • What happens if I don’t have a conscious personal brand (and how it leads to unaligned and unfulfilling work-life)
  • Why is it important people are fulfilled?
  • How can people find a more aligned work life by understanding their unique contribution?

 

 

Transcript below:

Mike Loder: All right as usual, there is a lot going on in the world right now and today we are fortunate enough to speak with a couple of guests, working hard to create and to educate with new ideas and tools that look to improve our businesses, our lives and hopefully our future is to Ticker insight starts right now.

Hello and welcome back to Ticker Insider. I’m your host, Mike Loder, into our latest story for now.

And Kath Clarke is a personal brand strategist, helping people create a fully aligned personal brand so they can build a work life around their life’s work. It’s my pleasure to welcome Kath into the studio, thank you so much for your time. 

Kath Clarke: Thank you for having me.

ML: It’s always nice to have people face to face once again now that things are back to normal, but let’s start off simply. What is a personal brand?

KC: Thanks for asking. A personal brand is essentially a conscious curation of the public perception of you. So that might sound a bit contrived, but in a way, we’re selling ourselves in every moment and in every interaction. So you want to sort of take control of how you’re perceived. So yeah, so it’s not, not everyone needs one, but but that is really what it is, is taking control of the external perception of you. 

A personal brand is essentially a conscious curation of the public perception of you. Click To Tweet

ML: And this just goes beyond social media, Tiktok, all those kinds of things as well? 

KC: 100%! But encompasses all of it.  People might get lost in the way you present yourself, your personal styling, but really as I like to encapsulate it in the idea of your unique contribution which is a packaging of all of your principles, your values, how you present yourself, so that you’re a complete and authentic package. People know what they’re going to get. 

ML: They’re more likely to engage with somebody who’s honest and truthful. 

KC: That’s right. Exactly. 

ML: So why do we need one? Just based off what — algorithm?

KC: Well look, I mean, you know, I love to think that everybody should do a little bit of personal brand work, even if they don’t necessarily need one for a monetization reason. So monetization will be you’re a coach, a consultant, a business leader, a corporate leader. But doing a little bit of personal brand work for everybody is a nice way to tap into it. Just getting a bit more aware around how you come across to people because that can only make the world a better place if you’re sort of you know, putting yourself out there with a bit more awareness. But essentially, the people that need them are someone who is going to monetize them. 

ML: Right. So what happens if I haven’t got one and there’s a little equation here: 

unaligned = unfulfilled = great resignation.

Can you explain this? 

KC: I can, I can give you a bit of an idea. Yes.  So look, if you don’t have one, then you’re really leaving it up to chance, how you’re perceived. So I really believe so the women that I work with and I primarily work with women. It’s not exclusive, but it tends to be, that’s how it works out. So the people that I work with  come to me usually because they don’t know how to articulate what it is that they’re actually a genius at, they might have been in the in a work role for 15, 20 years by the time they come and work with me and they may have built a career path around and and it can be a business or their own, you know, a corporate career path around one version of themselves. 

unaligned = unfulfilled = great resignation. Click To Tweet

ML: Interesting…

KC: And so then they sort and it happened to me when I worked in television, I sort of was very good at being a production coordinator, kept going down that path even though I wanted to jump over to the creative side. But once you’re pigeonholed as something that you’re good at, it’s hard to kind of get out, you know, sort of draw back from that and then repackage yourself. So I like to work to start with the sort of whole self, that authentic self, what is it all that life experience — the tapestry brings it all together and package it up as one unique concept.

ML: So why do you think it’s important that people are sort of fulfilled that sitting amongst all of this? 

KC: Sure. So if you, again, I mean, like I said, I ended up being unfulfilled in a sexy thing, television, right? 

ML: Good Gig, Yep!

KC: Yes, so I “should have been fulfilled” and this is what’s happening for a lot of people — “should have been”. And I think this is how we’ve ended up in the great resignation. I’ve got a good job, I should be happy with the work perks, this that and the other, but the end of the day, because they haven’t built a brand aligned to that whole self, that whole authentic self, they can’t really present all of themselves at work and therefore they’re leaving parts out and so they’re coming to work and only being part of who they are and and it leads to unfulfillment and a lack of alignment to that sort of the, the opportunities that start coming their way are unaligned to where they want to go. So, I think when you get a grasp of who you are as a whole person and bring that into the branding exercise from the beginning, then you’re really aligning yourself to the right opportunities coming across your path.

When you get a grasp of who you are as a whole person and bring that into the branding exercise from the beginning, then you're really aligning yourself to the right opportunities coming across your path. Click To Tweet

ML: Does that extend a sort of disassociation with yourself and who you are? And there’s sort of more of a mental health thing there as well in terms of burning out because you’re not over a long period of time?

KC: That’s exactly right. I think, like I said, if you begin with one version of yourself, then you are on a fast track to burnout and I truly believe, I mean, I was just reading a poll today by the Female Lead — over 70% of C suite executives say that if they could they would swap jobs right now because of that burn out there on that pathway. It’s exhausting and it is an epidemic at the moment.

If you begin with only one version of yourself, then you are on a fast track to burnout. Click To Tweet

ML: So how can people possibly sort of find more alignment in their day to day lives and maybe take a step back and go, “I need to sit on the beach for a bit and work out who I am”?

KC: And that’s it! A lot of people do, they sort of you know, crash on the couch or maybe they’ll take a sabbatical or a career break to sort of give themselves that time. Or you know, Covid gave us that time to sort of reflect, reconnect, work out who we truly are. And at the core of that now, people are sort of re-emerging and saying, you know what, I don’t want to be a cog in a wheel anymore. That and a lot of them are also searching for more purpose in their everyday life like in that 9-5 period of time. So that’s that’s a big challenge for the companies as well. You know, they’re really gonna have to sort of start seeing bringing that whole self to work and starting to create rolls around who you are between nine and five and what you can offer from your outside life and bringing that into that nine and five as well.

ML: You have single handedly explained a greater understanding of the great resignation that I’ve come across.

KC: Oh Great!

ML: So that was very clever from you. Just another side to it. It was really quite cool. But thank you so much for joining the program, in studio, unpacking it.

KC: Thank you. Thank you so much for having me!

You have single handedly explained a greater understanding of the great resignation that I've come across. -- @MikeLoder7 Click To Tweet

 

Ticker News_Kath Clarke Interview

Ticker News interviews Kath Clarke on #greatresignation

 

As we transition into a new normal, you might be reflecting. Perhaps you’re feeling a little unfulfilled like you might want a change, but don’t know how the wonderful patchwork of your life experiences adds up to what’s next for you!

The good news is we are in a highly creative new normal, which means anything could be possible! And YOUR ‘possible’ can start to unfurl by becoming aware of what your unique contribution is through some guided identity discovery work.

When you discover what YOUR unique contribution is, you have the basis of a personal brand, which directs really powerful choices of what to do next, who with, and in what ‘vehicle’…be it a new challenge, new job or new business.

I was interviewed on Ticker News about just this, how it fits with personal branding, and the bigger picture of the ‘epidemic of the unfulfilled’ workforce.

More recently Anthony Klotz (Associate Professor of Management at Texas A&M) named the trend I was hinting at #greatresignation. Much hot debate has come from this now too, and many think it’s more of a #greatrealignment.

Whatever the thoughts of the academics, I’m more interested in YOU on the ground in the workforce! What do you think  – hit me up in the comments below!

Kath x

When you discover what YOUR unique contribution is, you have the basis of a personal brand, which directs really powerful choices of what to do next, who with, and in what ‘vehicle’...be it a new challenge, new job or new business. Click To Tweet

Busy designing ‘Impact Alchemys‘ for clients wanting to know what to do, with who, and how, to create a fulfilling and impactful business or career.

It all starts by unearthing and reconnecting you to your Unique Contribution!

We recently took ourselves through a self-guided rebrand (given that I’m a personal brand strategist!) 

We enlisted the amazing skills of FlySocial’s David Lee Schneider to help bounce our website design, program design, and social media process off! It is nigh on impossible to do this for yourself even if that’s what other people pay you to do!

I have to say I am AMPED with the results!

 

We have had loads of insanely good feedback, and the copy really speaks to the ideal client now! 

The reason we decided to rebrand my personal brand was quite simple …we had grown.

It was like our audience wasn’t resonating anymore but our offering hadn’t changed.

At the time I was thinking it was because there were other amazing agencies on the market, and coaches, but I realised it was a lot more detailed than that, and wasn’t actually that at all!

We really embraced the change of direction from being a digital marketing agency, to really honing in on our ideal client, (who despite me thinking we had it right – it wasn’t! – Again weird that I can show my clients how far off the mark they are but not myself!)

The new personal brand has launched us into a whole new stratosphere that we are thrilled to be playing in! Working with emerging leaders who are wondering what their ‘life’s work’ is!

So how did we do it?

 

1. I built a new audience.

 I transitioned my socials (actually I had done that courageously already in a leap of faith earlier in the year) to start only really talking about what I wanted to be doing not what I had been spruiking. So the socials became more about Intuition and Edgy personal brands, and less about digital marketing hacks and Facebook ads.

2. We went through a case study process.

This is where we took on a few entirely different clients for a minimal fee to test our new personal brand and offering. That helped in two ways – 1/ it helped me get over my ‘imposter syndrome’ of targeting emerging corporate leaders when I didn’t have loads of experience with the industry. And 2/ it made me realise that it’s not only my marketing skills people are buying from me! (more on that in a minute!)

3. We reengaged the existing list around the new idea.

It was so interesting because as soon as we started marketing the fact that I was no longer necessarily just a Marketer, but that I help find people’s Unique Contribution, many of my previous clients started to make contact! When I told them I build aligned personal brands and edgy profiles now… Their response was basically,

“AHHH you’re finally selling what you actually DO, rather than dressing it up as ‘marketing’!” 

In fact so much so that someone I had worked with in 2016 had the courage to email me and say “I just got invited to be a part of your FB group, and I have to say, when we first met you rocked my world with some copy you whipped up on our first phone call, for my coaching program. I was so in awe of it I signed up for your annual program. Then I met your marketing manager, and I felt disgruntled. It’s now clear why. I bought your magic, not your marketing! I bought YOU and I got her!”

That was SO revealing (let alone AMAZING that she had the courage to tell me and I had the courage not to freak out that I had upset her!).

It gave me buoyancy to know this new rebrand and direction is EXACTLY where I need to be!

4. We gathered testimonials for our new website & socials.

From the case study program we immediately got the most profound of testimonials from MUCH higher-level clients (I’m talking COO of £80 million Investment company in the UK, as well a University Lecturer & Fellow in New Zealand.) Before then I was working with struggling start-ups who just didn’t need this level of magic yet! They just needed me to do their marketing and make their side hustle work – which was cool but not where my magic was!

5. We rebuilt the website & offer.

Working with the insanely talented David Lee Schneider, we created and designed a website that makes me happy every time I open it!

The rebrand encompassed not just the design side, but really placed emphasis on the importance of deep market research, case studies, and my client’s own language mechanisms. We built something that now really resonates with my ideal clients. (The ones who were patiently waiting for me to “put it in the right words for them!” so they could connect with me!)

I proved something to myself.

So it turns out that through my own personal brand reinvention (using my new offering of the Impact Alchemy) we really solidified and proved the hypothesis that I am indeed a Magician, not a Marketer!

 

 

Personal reflections only – not necessarily fact, and you don’t have to agree – merely food for the hopeful soul.

 

I have known for a while now, thanks to some incredible energetic work I do with my coach Grace Ambrook, that we were at a tipping point. About 3 years ago (Feb 2018) I did a meditation immersion with her (not drug-induced!).  I had a vision of a Petrie dish, with all these little cells sticking together in a structure.

In the vision, the cells began to break away from each other. Occasionally they would bump into each other, support or transform each other, but it was generous sharing, not ownership. It felt like I was witnessing whole and complete love in action.

When I emerged from the meditative state, Grace and I debriefed on my vision. She shared an insight that we were at the start of an awakening, where the power structures that have ruled the world were starting to crumble.

And here we are in 2021, watching it unfold at a rapid rate before our eyes.

There is much to have hope about right now.

 

Let me walk you through what I see.

But first, let me address what we’ve been experiencing.

We have a climate problem. The recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report states that if we can’t limit the rise in temperatures to 1.5c (we are already at 1c), global warming poses a grave risk to humanity.

In the context of Australia, where I live, we are already seeing more and longer-lasting intense heatwaves, harsher droughts, coastal flooding and longer, more dangerous bushfire seasons.

Now we have a pandemic.

Science is moving faster than ever to keep humanity from the near and present danger of a mass global death toll.

Humanity is waking up to our mortality as a species, with something that hits them at home, right between the eyes – their own health and that of their families.

 

We are waking up…

 

While they wake up, there is anger, fear, mistrust, and judgment being flung from groups that before may have laid complacent. But equally, people are encouraging each other to be more understanding, loving, and empathic.

More and more people are researching for their own health interests, rather than outsourcing the responsibility to others.  Spurred on by questions over the impacts of the vaccine on themselves, and society, in the form of mutations, selection pressure – what it means for now, what it means for the future.

We are left with more questions than answers at the moment. But, we are learning. Learning to take responsibility for ourselves and each other, because right now no one can truly say they can save us!

and that’s where my hope springs from.

 

Before now, many left the problem solving to ‘experts’ – people who, through their own passion and sense of duty, dedicated their lives to what they believe in.

Scientists, Activists, Religious Leaders, Teachers, Philosophers, Politicians, Artists.

As a society, we got busy outsourcing the responsibility of our health, culture, and the very survival of humanity, to those who actually gave a shit. Just so the rest of us could go on taking medication, drinking booze, buying shit and chucking it out!

The great news for us is that while we all sat complacently taking our hand out, they were working.

They were at work…

 

They were tying themselves to trees in old-growth forests, where the mycelium network probably holds the answer to future vaccines of future pandemics (I HIGHLY RECOMMEND watching Fantastic Funghi on Netflix).

They were lobbying (and winning over) governments to permit (and fund) the controlled studies of experimental psychedelics, formulating treatments for the rising tide of mental health, cancer and autoimmune disorders that are threatening to swamp us.  (Australia has just recently funded pilot studies too!)

People like Charles Hoskinson were writing white papers to create the Cardano (an open platform, decentralised) blockchain so that it might become more accessible to the general public.

Blockchain has the potential to let artists OWN their art again without rip-offs. It has the potential to eliminate fraud from banking, elections, medical records and more.

Hoskinson and his team have already solved the limitations of previous blockchain based crypto-currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, created by their environmental impact through intensive power consumption to ‘mine or transfer a coin’.

Even if you don’t know what any of this means, just know this, Cardano has done deals with African and American govenrments to deploy their decentralised technology in a variety of industries. In 2021 they announced plans to launch an identity and record-keeping system on Cardano for Ethopia’s five million students.

This means TRUE election results, an end to fraudulent identities, a way for Ethiopians to get paid without using cash… the potential to ACTUALLY change the poverty-stricken situation of many! This is just one of many exciting projects of Hoskinson’s that show true leadership.

The platform is set

 

With all these exciting decentralised platforms creating so much opportunity for banking, politics, and the arts, as well as innovative science that has the ability to WAKE UP and create fulfilment for so many people… I’m filled with hope.

We are building towards a perfect storm.

(And no, not a rogue climate change-fuelled tornado!)

 

The most exciting thing is, what I see every day when I work with my clients – regular corporate managers, business owners and consultants!

In my work of helping people identify their own unique contributions (by tapping into their unique magic), I can honestly say I see that level of leadership inside every last one of us! Every one of the people I have worked with to unearth their unique contribution has a powerful way of leading people and making a massive ripple effect downstream, to create meaningful, creative, and innovative change for the better.

I believe, if we all treat humanity and the environment as if it were our own health, or the health of our children, and take the lead that we have inside us, we will survive.

And our kids might even inherit a thriving planet, not a limping one.

Look, it might take a worldwide collective and simultaneous psychedelic trip to get us there, but I don’t think so!

If we keep broadening our minds and continue to wake up to the fact that we can poke a goddamn hole in the paper bag we accepted as our reality before now (thanks for the metaphor Steve Jobs), then we might just have a chance!