Why Successful Women Never Stop Learning: Accessing Proven Business Advice and Growth Strategies with Joanne Brooks

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Why successful women never stop learning, accessing proven business advice

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and growth strategies with Joanne Brooks.

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Joanne is an old friend.

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We've known each other for a number of years, and today's conversation is going

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to challenge everything you think about how business education should be for

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you, particularly for women in business.

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She's had a vast amount of experience across, well, 17 different businesses from

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multimillion dollar ones to smaller ones.

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And here's what makes this episode really special.

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Joanne's revolutionizing how women access higher education and proving you don't

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need a university degree to earn an MBA.

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If you've ever felt locked out of traditional education or wondered about

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alternative pathways to advance your business knowledge, this conversation

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is going to open your eyes to possibilities you never knew existed.

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A wonderful episode of Biz Bites for Thought leaders that will change the

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way you think and add lots of value.

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Particularly for women in business.

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Well, hello everyone and welcome to another episode of

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Biz Bites for Thought Leaders.

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Today's guest, well, she and I have been, I dunno how many years we've been

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corresponding back and forth a bunch.

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Uh, quite a while.

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We've, uh, we've managed to, even though we're in different cities,

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we've managed to sit down and have a, and have a meal together as well.

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And it's, and it's never quite materialized, but we think that that's

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gonna change in the very immediate future.

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So I guess I should start by welcoming you, Joanne, to the program.

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Thank you.

Joanne Brooks: 00:01:38

I'm so excited to be here.

Joanne Brooks: 00:01:40

Finally

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on your point.

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Finally.

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Yay.

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It's about time we made it happen.

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Yes.

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So for those that don't know you, why don't you give us a little bit of a,

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an explanation as to who you are and what you're focusing on these days?

Joanne Brooks: 00:01:52

Yeah.

Joanne Brooks: 00:01:53

Thank you.

Joanne Brooks: 00:01:53

Um, so Joanne Brooks.

Joanne Brooks: 00:01:55

I'm based on the Gold Coast.

Joanne Brooks: 00:01:56

Uh, I am the founder of Navigate bis, which, which launched,

Joanne Brooks: 00:02:00

gosh, nine years ago now.

Joanne Brooks: 00:02:01

Can, I can't believe it's that long ago.

Joanne Brooks: 00:02:03

I've been an entrepreneur for.

Joanne Brooks: 00:02:05

Over 20 years.

Joanne Brooks: 00:02:07

Uh, and in that time I've spent a lot of time in the education space.

Joanne Brooks: 00:02:10

I've owned my own registered training organizations.

Joanne Brooks: 00:02:13

I've owned a ver variety of businesses.

Joanne Brooks: 00:02:15

So if people ask me how many companies have I run or operated

Joanne Brooks: 00:02:19

17 in those 20 years, some of them are all at the same time.

Joanne Brooks: 00:02:22

Um.

Joanne Brooks: 00:02:23

And Navigate Biz came about because I had a business that had rapid growth,

Joanne Brooks: 00:02:27

um, to 30 minute million in 24 months.

Joanne Brooks: 00:02:30

That was crazy.

Joanne Brooks: 00:02:31

But it took me 20 odd years to get to a point to be ready for.

Joanne Brooks: 00:02:34

It wasn't one of those overnight successes, uh, but it also took

Joanne Brooks: 00:02:38

me seven years to liquidate it, you know, a a a. A myriad of micro

Joanne Brooks: 00:02:42

moments that caused a tidal wave to have us liquidate that and navigate

Joanne Brooks: 00:02:46

biz popped up as a result of that.

Joanne Brooks: 00:02:49

Um, today I work with women.

Joanne Brooks: 00:02:51

I call myself the Circle Builder.

Joanne Brooks: 00:02:53

It's about bringing women together in circle to support them in their

Joanne Brooks: 00:02:57

growth strategy, whether it's, and Circle is a concept that's.

Joanne Brooks: 00:03:01

Eons old, right?

Joanne Brooks: 00:03:02

We're very used to, um, sitting in circle and supporting and guiding one another.

Joanne Brooks: 00:03:07

And so for me, it has landed very nicely for me to have women understand

Joanne Brooks: 00:03:12

that I'm bringing other women into.

Joanne Brooks: 00:03:14

Their various businesses to support and guidance.

Joanne Brooks: 00:03:17

I don't know at all.

Joanne Brooks: 00:03:18

Uh, one of the, yeah, you'll be, you'll be helping us and supporting

Joanne Brooks: 00:03:21

us in that way as well about getting your story out and so on.

Joanne Brooks: 00:03:24

And so, you know, circle Builder, business mentor, using all the things

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that I've learned all over those years to help and support women in business.

Joanne Brooks: 00:03:33

Uh, that's as, that's as short as I can do it for you.

Joanne Brooks: 00:03:36

It, it is,

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it's very short.

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And, and, uh, having, having known you for a little while now, I know

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that's only kind of scratching the surface in some of the, in some of

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the things that you've been doing.

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And, and, and I suppose I wanted to start off with that a little

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bit 'cause you touched on about being the registered training

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organization in the education field.

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Mm-hmm.

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And I think as opposed to where you are now in terms of coaching

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and that sort of area, uh.

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This is as well, a lot of the things that you've been doing, uh, is more

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specifically in traditional education, I guess the MBA programs and other

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sorts of training and things.

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Yes.

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So tell me a little bit more about this, that space and

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what you've been doing there.

Joanne Brooks: 00:04:16

So in the, uh, so I haven't owned an RTO for that period of

Joanne Brooks: 00:04:19

time, but I've certainly worked in them.

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I've been consulting to them.

Joanne Brooks: 00:04:22

I have helped a number of organizations create their own.

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RTO help with audit, get ready for audit.

Joanne Brooks: 00:04:29

Uh, so, so that's the place that I, I hang out at, at the moment from a consulting

Joanne Brooks: 00:04:34

perspective outside of my mentoring.

Joanne Brooks: 00:04:37

Um, and, and for me, having been being a female and having run my own RTOs,

Joanne Brooks: 00:04:43

you know, you could also say that one of my niche areas is to help and support

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female led RTOs because I get what it is.

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I get the compliance, I understand the complexity of it.

Joanne Brooks: 00:04:54

It's a ridiculously heavy compliant, um, compliance heavy industry.

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And I rightly so.

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It's not easy to become an RTO, uh, but I also understand that, you know,

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there's a lot of women out there who are navigating that, and it's hard.

Joanne Brooks: 00:05:10

Really hard, you know, business is hard anyway, but the RTO space,

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I don't need to be one, but I certainly, um, help women who are in

Joanne Brooks: 00:05:17

that space, um, to be better RTOs.

Joanne Brooks: 00:05:20

Hmm.

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So, I mean, for those, listen in and, and, uh, we always like to,

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uh, clarify the acronyms, registered training organization and post.

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People usually have heard of it, but I don't think that people, most

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people actually really understand what, what it is and like, what the

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implications of it are and, and why on earth you would, you would do it.

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Because a lot of the time people e expect that training comes just from your

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traditional educational institutions, universities, TAFEs, that sort of thing.

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Yeah.

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So, but, but RTO kind of fits.

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Uh,

Joanne Brooks: 00:05:51

in between, in between

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all of that.

Joanne Brooks: 00:05:53

Yeah, it is, uh, people will heard of will know it

Joanne Brooks: 00:05:57

potentially as vocational education.

Joanne Brooks: 00:05:59

I know that's a, that's a, um, trade space.

Joanne Brooks: 00:06:01

I know that's a, um, terminology that's common overseas.

Joanne Brooks: 00:06:06

To become a registered training organization is not an easy task.

Joanne Brooks: 00:06:10

Um, if we, to put context as to what it is, uh, we are the competitors to tafe.

Joanne Brooks: 00:06:15

TAFE are the free.

Joanne Brooks: 00:06:17

Government subsidized certificate one through to advanced diploma.

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And there are over in Australia, which might surprise the audience here.

Joanne Brooks: 00:06:25

There's over 3000 private RTOs in this country.

Joanne Brooks: 00:06:29

Uh, when most people, general public think, oh, I'm gonna

Joanne Brooks: 00:06:32

go and do a certificate or diploma, I. I'll go to tafe.

Joanne Brooks: 00:06:35

That's their, they feel that's their only option if they find

Joanne Brooks: 00:06:37

someone who's dabbling in it.

Joanne Brooks: 00:06:38

Well, aren't you tafe?

Joanne Brooks: 00:06:40

I can't tell many times I've been asked that question.

Joanne Brooks: 00:06:42

So there's the government one and then there's private RTOs.

Joanne Brooks: 00:06:46

What does it mean to become one?

Joanne Brooks: 00:06:47

You, you have to, as I said, there's heavy rigor, uh, in the compliance.

Joanne Brooks: 00:06:53

And why is that?

Joanne Brooks: 00:06:53

So we are educating people to take on an occupation.

Joanne Brooks: 00:06:58

If we put it into, um, some, um, to simple terms, if we're teaching somebody

Joanne Brooks: 00:07:02

on how to build a house, they are a laborer and then they're building a

Joanne Brooks: 00:07:06

house and then a three story house, and then a highrise and a shopping center.

Joanne Brooks: 00:07:10

There's, that goes from certificate one to advanced diploma.

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And so thinking about the complexities of what it would take

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to do that sort of construction.

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There's some very heavy education that needs to be passed on to that

Joanne Brooks: 00:07:22

person to be authorized and to be able to apply for their license.

Joanne Brooks: 00:07:26

So that's a simple explanation that most people could probably relate to

Joanne Brooks: 00:07:30

probably as most people live in a home.

Anthony: 00:07:33

I, I, yeah, absolutely.

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And I think it is a very, very simple and, and easy way to understand.

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Standard.

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But I think there's, the, the next layer I suppose to that is, is yes, it makes

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sense that if you're looking to become a builder and you want to build houses

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and you, you've gotta go and do that.

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Yeah.

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But we come to further education really, that also falls under this banner as well.

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And I think that's an interesting space, particularly, um, you know, for

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women who are, maybe I'm being a bit.

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Um, wrong here, but I seem to feel like there's a lot that feel like they need to

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prove themselves and need more education.

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I don't know whether that's necessarily true.

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Yeah.

Anthony: 00:08:09

Um, but it, it sort of feels that way at times.

Anthony: 00:08:12

How is, am I right in, in thinking that?

Joanne Brooks: 00:08:14

Yes, I agree.

Joanne Brooks: 00:08:16

Um, I recently, which I shared with you the other day, I

Joanne Brooks: 00:08:18

completed my MBA or two weeks ago.

Joanne Brooks: 00:08:21

Uh, and a lot of people went, wow, that's such a lot, big effort and amazing,

Joanne Brooks: 00:08:25

and all those sort of things, which it is like, it was, was I was very.

Joanne Brooks: 00:08:28

Pleased to be able to complete it, but I'm someone who was never given the

Joanne Brooks: 00:08:31

chance to go to university, so it was definitely a bucket list item for me.

Joanne Brooks: 00:08:36

I've done a myriad of certificates and diplomas.

Joanne Brooks: 00:08:39

I do come across many women, uh, when I start talking to 'em about

Joanne Brooks: 00:08:42

the higher education opportunity.

Joanne Brooks: 00:08:44

And, and I guess we, again, default, just like looking at certificates,

Joanne Brooks: 00:08:48

we default to TAFE when we are talking about degrees, we default to

Joanne Brooks: 00:08:51

the traditional university spaces.

Joanne Brooks: 00:08:53

That are out there, like, and we've got the, the lovely thing about

Joanne Brooks: 00:08:56

Australia, we have an amazing, um, reputation of education.

Joanne Brooks: 00:09:01

The quality of the education is outstanding because we have such

Joanne Brooks: 00:09:05

rigorous compliance and protocols that the government insists that we

Joanne Brooks: 00:09:09

deliver under, which is a good thing because it's good for the student.

Joanne Brooks: 00:09:13

To get the depth of knowledge that they need to learn.

Joanne Brooks: 00:09:16

Um, but when I speak about the deli, the degrees that I'm bringing into Australia,

Joanne Brooks: 00:09:21

they're, they're via Deser Global Business School, which a good friend of mine has

Joanne Brooks: 00:09:25

owned that business for about 17 years.

Joanne Brooks: 00:09:28

And the wonderful thing is, whilst he's based outta the US and Aussie

Joanne Brooks: 00:09:31

guy, he is, he has had these MBAs, um, built to Australian standards.

Joanne Brooks: 00:09:37

Because he understands the quality that that implies.

Joanne Brooks: 00:09:41

And I, what I know is, and we've seen it before, many people from overseas

Joanne Brooks: 00:09:46

come to Australia to undertake higher education because of the quality.

Joanne Brooks: 00:09:50

And this is just a different option for women in business.

Joanne Brooks: 00:09:54

Uh, what I love about it is like, nobody loves exams.

Joanne Brooks: 00:09:57

I can't take say anybody could put their hand up and say, yeah,

Joanne Brooks: 00:09:59

give me a three hour exam, please.

Joanne Brooks: 00:10:01

That would be amazing.

Joanne Brooks: 00:10:01

I'd love that.

Joanne Brooks: 00:10:02

Right.

Anthony: 00:10:03

No thank you.

Anthony: 00:10:03

No,

Joanne Brooks: 00:10:03

definitely not.

Joanne Brooks: 00:10:04

Well, you gotta get that stuff outta your head.

Joanne Brooks: 00:10:06

Um, but what I absolutely love.

Joanne Brooks: 00:10:09

And feel so relevant to entrepreneurs today and particularly my audience,

Joanne Brooks: 00:10:14

female entrepreneurs, is that there are no exams in these particular MBAs.

Joanne Brooks: 00:10:19

What you get to do is to work on your business as projects and produce

Joanne Brooks: 00:10:24

projects that are based on your business.

Joanne Brooks: 00:10:26

And so what has come, what has helped me to redefine my marketing message,

Joanne Brooks: 00:10:31

my branding and my focus has been a direct relation to my completing my

Joanne Brooks: 00:10:36

MBA Circle builder came out of my final project, rebranding came out

Joanne Brooks: 00:10:41

of my marketing subject that I did.

Joanne Brooks: 00:10:43

So we all know we should work on our business, but we often

Joanne Brooks: 00:10:46

don't make the time to do that.

Joanne Brooks: 00:10:48

So we've got a, a double, a double whammy if you like.

Joanne Brooks: 00:10:52

We can work on our business and build our skillset to be, to step into

Joanne Brooks: 00:10:56

our C EShip is how I think of it.

Joanne Brooks: 00:10:58

And that's why I speak a lot about it for women in business.

Joanne Brooks: 00:11:01

And the awesome news is you don't have to have a degree,

Joanne Brooks: 00:11:04

which is why I was able to do it.

Anthony: 00:11:07

Yeah, I mean, I think the, these are all really important

Anthony: 00:11:09

points and I think, you know, the education system, a lot of people's,

Anthony: 00:11:14

uh, view of how it works is not actually the reality of how it works.

Anthony: 00:11:19

Yes.

Anthony: 00:11:19

And, uh, you know, now's not the time to get into it, but, you know,

Anthony: 00:11:22

certainly this pushed for the need to do the HSC, uh, is a good example.

Anthony: 00:11:28

There are ways and means around.

Anthony: 00:11:29

Doing it, uh, getting the education without having to do that.

Anthony: 00:11:32

Yes.

Anthony: 00:11:32

There's still ways you can get into university if you

Anthony: 00:11:34

want to do that later on.

Anthony: 00:11:36

Exactly.

Anthony: 00:11:36

Uh, so there's lots of opportunities as, as you've done.

Anthony: 00:11:39

I, I, I guess the, the, the question as well is, I. There's one thing in this

Anthony: 00:11:45

sort of scenario that you've painted in terms of doing the MBA, because that

Anthony: 00:11:50

scenario of course, is that there's a bucket list of wanting to do it.

Anthony: 00:11:53

Mm-hmm.

Anthony: 00:11:53

There's the combining it with being able to work on your

Anthony: 00:11:56

business, it ticks those boxes.

Anthony: 00:11:58

Yeah.

Anthony: 00:11:59

But there are a lot of people who'd be sitting there and going, well.

Anthony: 00:12:02

I've, I've got a university education already.

Anthony: 00:12:05

Yep.

Anthony: 00:12:05

I've been in business.

Anthony: 00:12:06

Mm-hmm.

Anthony: 00:12:07

We've got people working on the business.

Anthony: 00:12:09

What's the incentive to do an MBA does?

Anthony: 00:12:12

It does, you know, and, and not just an MBA.

Anthony: 00:12:15

There are, there are other things that you can do.

Anthony: 00:12:17

Of course.

Anthony: 00:12:18

What's the real incentive to do, to do it?

Anthony: 00:12:20

I mean, is it.

Anthony: 00:12:21

Is, is it for your own ego or is it because it's actually, um,

Anthony: 00:12:26

going to help you get ahead in terms of achieving the next role?

Anthony: 00:12:29

I mean, we're talking about people who might be employed here.

Anthony: 00:12:31

Employed, yeah.

Anthony: 00:12:32

Is it gonna, is it gonna put you ahead of the next person?

Joanne Brooks: 00:12:35

Uh, I genuinely believe so.

Joanne Brooks: 00:12:37

Particularly the Deser Global Business School, um, opportunity.

Joanne Brooks: 00:12:41

And the reason is very simple.

Joanne Brooks: 00:12:43

Uh, a no exams great.

Joanne Brooks: 00:12:45

However, the people who've written these programs are entrepreneurs and so.

Joanne Brooks: 00:12:51

Traditionally our academic, our academia will write the degrees and the, and the

Joanne Brooks: 00:12:57

um, um, master's degrees, all those sort of things in traditional university space.

Joanne Brooks: 00:13:02

So what, uh, Matt Jacobson from Deser Global Business School, who's the

Joanne Brooks: 00:13:06

owner, he, he specifically sought.

Joanne Brooks: 00:13:10

Entrepreneurs to help him write them.

Joanne Brooks: 00:13:12

And the entrepreneurs that he's, he's got woven through in video, um, interviews

Joanne Brooks: 00:13:18

and the written content are people like our past prime ministers heads of state.

Joanne Brooks: 00:13:23

Uh, the head of the CIA, uh, Goldie Horn, Desmond Tutu, uh, Julie

Joanne Brooks: 00:13:28

Gillard, just to name a few of them.

Joanne Brooks: 00:13:30

And a lovely equal spread of men and women.

Joanne Brooks: 00:13:33

But, you know, if you're gonna learn, um, negotiation skills, who doesn't

Joanne Brooks: 00:13:37

wanna learn it from the person who's been the head of the CIA, I

Joanne Brooks: 00:13:39

think he's got something to share.

Joanne Brooks: 00:13:41

And so that, that piece was one of the main.

Joanne Brooks: 00:13:46

Main reasons besides the bucket list for me, one of the main reasons why I wanted

Joanne Brooks: 00:13:49

to go and do mine, because I wanted to hear what those people had to say.

Joanne Brooks: 00:13:54

I wanna hear Julia Gillard and how she navigated the tricky piece of the,

Joanne Brooks: 00:13:58

you know, the, you know, we all, uh, remember the misogyny speech that she did

Joanne Brooks: 00:14:02

and how she navigated that environment that many, many women face in corporate

Joanne Brooks: 00:14:08

and or even in their own business.

Joanne Brooks: 00:14:10

And I didn't do it for the letters.

Joanne Brooks: 00:14:11

The letters are going to be handy potentially if I'm going to go for

Joanne Brooks: 00:14:15

tenders or corporate work, et cetera.

Joanne Brooks: 00:14:17

So as an entrepreneur it makes total, total sense.

Joanne Brooks: 00:14:20

But what I see these programs are.

Joanne Brooks: 00:14:23

Learn from these world leaders who are sharing their insights.

Joanne Brooks: 00:14:26

And some people would say to me, well, I can go and find them on

Joanne Brooks: 00:14:29

YouTube, and absolutely you can.

Joanne Brooks: 00:14:31

But I know that the interviews have been curated to meet the learning

Joanne Brooks: 00:14:35

requirements of the subject.

Joanne Brooks: 00:14:37

And so they're sharing their insights in negotiation skills.

Joanne Brooks: 00:14:41

I, Goldie Horn, I always thought of her as the crazy ditsier actress.

Joanne Brooks: 00:14:46

She has an amazing business mind and an amazing foundation that she

Joanne Brooks: 00:14:50

has for, for women and children.

Joanne Brooks: 00:14:52

Um, so she's somebody that go, wow, well you, I've learned

Joanne Brooks: 00:14:55

a bunch of things from you.

Joanne Brooks: 00:14:57

And so, you know, we all learn differently.

Joanne Brooks: 00:14:59

Video, audio, text.

Joanne Brooks: 00:15:01

So it's got all those through it.

Joanne Brooks: 00:15:03

Um, so for me, when I speak about it as an entrepreneur, for me, it's the final

Joanne Brooks: 00:15:08

piece to my pathway for entrepreneurs in what Navigate Office and, and I

Joanne Brooks: 00:15:12

speak to women in business to say.

Joanne Brooks: 00:15:15

We've worked on you.

Joanne Brooks: 00:15:16

We've got your foundations right now, you are ready to grow and scale your business.

Joanne Brooks: 00:15:20

Let's really step into your C EShip and let's build your international

Joanne Brooks: 00:15:25

network, your global network, learn critical thinking skills, learn problem

Joanne Brooks: 00:15:30

solving, all those things that you need as a CEO of a business that you

Joanne Brooks: 00:15:34

are gonna scale to whatever level.

Joanne Brooks: 00:15:36

It doesn't matter.

Anthony: 00:15:38

We hope you're enjoying listening to the Biz Buys Podcast.

Anthony: 00:15:41

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business where your brilliance is exposed to the rest of the world?

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Well, come talk to us at podcasts Done for you.

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That's what we're all about.

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So come talk to us podcast done for you.com au details

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in the show notes below.

Anthony: 00:16:17

Now, back to Biz Bites.

Joanne Brooks: 00:16:19

We've worked on you.

Joanne Brooks: 00:16:20

We've got your foundations right now, you are ready to grow and scale your business.

Joanne Brooks: 00:16:24

Let's really step into your C EShip and let's build your international

Joanne Brooks: 00:16:29

network, your global network.

Joanne Brooks: 00:16:32

Learn critical skills.

Joanne Brooks: 00:16:33

Thinking skills, learn, problem solving, all those things that you need as a

Joanne Brooks: 00:16:37

CEO of a business that you are gonna scale to whatever level, doesn't matter.

Joanne Brooks: 00:16:42

So I see it as a natural process, a natural endpoint, if it's, if there's

Joanne Brooks: 00:16:47

going to be an endpoint in working with me, is that you need to do your

Joanne Brooks: 00:16:51

MBA because of the, all those other elements, not so much the letters.

Joanne Brooks: 00:16:55

It's not as important for me.

Anthony: 00:16:58

Yeah, and I think that's, and it's an interesting thing, isn't it too,

Anthony: 00:17:01

is it's that, um, you know, we, this program is all about thought leadership.

Anthony: 00:17:05

And I think to be a thought leader, you need to keep working on things you need

Anthony: 00:17:09

to keep learning from, from other people.

Anthony: 00:17:11

And you need to keep expressing your ideas.

Anthony: 00:17:13

I think that's the important thing too, where, um.

Anthony: 00:17:17

You can get stuck in this idea.

Anthony: 00:17:18

And I think that's the traditional educational model.

Anthony: 00:17:21

Yeah.

Anthony: 00:17:21

Where you do a bunch of things, you answer an exam, you've got something

Anthony: 00:17:25

at the end of it, and it's kind of like, huh, what was the point of that?

Anthony: 00:17:28

Which is exactly, sadly, what happens with a lot of degrees I.

Anthony: 00:17:32

Yeah,

Joanne Brooks: 00:17:33

indeed.

Joanne Brooks: 00:17:33

Yeah.

Anthony: 00:17:34

But I think this whole concept of, of ongoing learning and

Anthony: 00:17:39

challenging the way people think and talking and allowing them to talk

Anthony: 00:17:43

to yes, that is so important, is what's gonna help people stand out.

Anthony: 00:17:47

Mm-hmm.

Anthony: 00:17:47

Uh, and so the, the MBA and other such, you know, courses, uh, is a

Anthony: 00:17:54

culmination of where that might.

Anthony: 00:17:57

Take your mind land.

Anthony: 00:17:57

Yeah,

Joanne Brooks: 00:17:58

exactly.

Joanne Brooks: 00:17:58

Exactly.

Joanne Brooks: 00:17:59

You know, I remember speaking to a lady who, uh, enrolled in a an MBA with

Joanne Brooks: 00:18:04

er and she was having, um, challenges in securing a promotion in her.

Joanne Brooks: 00:18:09

Particular business.

Joanne Brooks: 00:18:10

And I said, I asked her, I said, have you shared with your employer?

Joanne Brooks: 00:18:14

Well he knew.

Joanne Brooks: 00:18:15

They knew she was doing the MBA, but have you shared what you are learning and how

Joanne Brooks: 00:18:20

you are implementing it within your role?

Joanne Brooks: 00:18:22

And she said, well, no, that would be a bit egotistical, wouldn't it?

Joanne Brooks: 00:18:26

I went.

Joanne Brooks: 00:18:26

Uh, absolutely not.

Joanne Brooks: 00:18:28

And this is something that women struggle with a lot is, well, you know,

Joanne Brooks: 00:18:32

I can't go, oh, look at me, look at me.

Joanne Brooks: 00:18:33

And it's not about that.

Joanne Brooks: 00:18:35

It's about I suggest to, you should approach your manager or your boss

Joanne Brooks: 00:18:40

because she'd been, she'd been bypassed for a promotion when somebody

Joanne Brooks: 00:18:43

with less experience, et cetera.

Joanne Brooks: 00:18:45

And I said, just think about.

Joanne Brooks: 00:18:47

Think about this when you're applying for a role, you know,

Joanne Brooks: 00:18:50

a lot of corporates, rightly or wrongly look for the letters, right?

Joanne Brooks: 00:18:53

MBA and Bachelor's and PhDs and all that sort of stuff.

Joanne Brooks: 00:18:56

But do they ever look a bit deeper and go, well, where did you get that from

Joanne Brooks: 00:19:00

and what did you do to achieve it?

Joanne Brooks: 00:19:02

I said, what?

Joanne Brooks: 00:19:03

What I would recommend you do is you write a paper about what

Joanne Brooks: 00:19:06

projects you are working on, because some of the MBA programs

Joanne Brooks: 00:19:11

through deser, you get to work on.

Joanne Brooks: 00:19:13

Live global projects and I think at the time she was working on one for Disney.

Joanne Brooks: 00:19:18

So how cool would it be to have on your resume that you've worked on a project

Joanne Brooks: 00:19:22

in Disney and they've implemented it?

Joanne Brooks: 00:19:24

Right.

Joanne Brooks: 00:19:25

So she was an employee and, and um, it took a fair bit of convincing to have her.

Joanne Brooks: 00:19:31

Step forward and, and, and share that because I, you know, the way it is,

Joanne Brooks: 00:19:36

men and men and women are women, men will, will, will tick three of this 10

Joanne Brooks: 00:19:40

criteria and go, yep, I'm gonna go for it.

Joanne Brooks: 00:19:41

Whereas women just won't naturally do that.

Joanne Brooks: 00:19:44

They find that pretty confronting.

Joanne Brooks: 00:19:47

But, but when we looked at the criteria of the role and what she was

Joanne Brooks: 00:19:50

learning in her MBA, I said, you are ticking boxes left, right, and center.

Joanne Brooks: 00:19:54

She said, but I haven't finished yet.

Joanne Brooks: 00:19:55

I said, doesn't matter, you're still, you, you've, you're passing subjects as you go.

Joanne Brooks: 00:20:00

So, so, you know, take a big breath, have a go, and just, even if you just

Joanne Brooks: 00:20:05

go and have a talk to the boss and say, these are the things that I'm learning

Joanne Brooks: 00:20:08

and this is what I'm implementing in my role for you as an employee.

Joanne Brooks: 00:20:13

Uh, I, I never did find out how she went, but, um, I, I don't

Joanne Brooks: 00:20:17

think that's an unusual situation.

Joanne Brooks: 00:20:20

Sad.

Anthony: 00:20:21

Yeah, it is.

Anthony: 00:20:22

And I, I know what you mean.

Anthony: 00:20:23

It's, it's being scared to have that conversation.

Anthony: 00:20:26

'cause you feel like you need to get to the end of it first to be able to do that.

Anthony: 00:20:29

And then there's, at the end of it, you think, oh, I need to get

Anthony: 00:20:31

some runs on the board before I do.

Anthony: 00:20:33

And suddenly you're 10 years down the track.

Anthony: 00:20:35

No.

Anthony: 00:20:36

And, and rather than having the conversation now, and I think that's

Anthony: 00:20:39

the important thing, what separates.

Anthony: 00:20:41

You know, leaders ultimately is not being afraid to put yourself out there.

Anthony: 00:20:46

You're not always going to be right.

Anthony: 00:20:48

Correct.

Anthony: 00:20:48

And it's also how you frame the conversation as well.

Anthony: 00:20:51

Yes.

Anthony: 00:20:51

Having a conversation with the boss and saying, look, I am, you

Anthony: 00:20:54

know, in this particular case I'm doing an MBA, and these are some

Anthony: 00:20:58

of the things I'm looking at.

Anthony: 00:20:59

This is what I've been implementing and thinking about in the role.

Anthony: 00:21:03

I'm interested in your opinion as well.

Anthony: 00:21:06

Suddenly you are mixing it at an intellectual conversation Yes.

Anthony: 00:21:09

At a completely different level to what you were before.

Anthony: 00:21:12

And that on its own is of value.

Anthony: 00:21:15

Whether there is a position that you're aiming for or not.

Joanne Brooks: 00:21:19

Mm, exactly.

Joanne Brooks: 00:21:20

And you know, to take that to the next level.

Joanne Brooks: 00:21:22

What does sir are always looking for.

Joanne Brooks: 00:21:24

A larger organizations that have a team of executives or management, they, they would

Joanne Brooks: 00:21:29

love to work with a team of management.

Joanne Brooks: 00:21:31

To work, to enroll, and then they will ask that organization, what project do you

Joanne Brooks: 00:21:36

want them to work on for your business?

Joanne Brooks: 00:21:39

That doesn't cost that organization anything, but they might have outsourced

Joanne Brooks: 00:21:42

that project to some of the large consultancy firms and spent many

Joanne Brooks: 00:21:46

hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Joanne Brooks: 00:21:48

But think how the return on investment for an employer to have a team, a

Joanne Brooks: 00:21:52

cohort of staff working on a project for their business at the same time

Joanne Brooks: 00:21:57

achieving their MBA game changer.

Anthony: 00:22:01

Yeah.

Anthony: 00:22:01

I mean, it, it, it's something we've spoken a little bit about

Anthony: 00:22:04

on the program in the past, but investing in your team Yes.

Anthony: 00:22:07

Is more and more important these days, I think.

Anthony: 00:22:09

Exactly.

Anthony: 00:22:09

Particularly in the face of AI and other things when you can invest

Anthony: 00:22:14

in your team and that creativity and that ability to problem solve

Anthony: 00:22:18

and think about things differently.

Anthony: 00:22:20

Which you can transfer to new things as they come along.

Anthony: 00:22:23

The, the truth is, is that, you know, the, the information that we're dealing

Anthony: 00:22:27

with today on how we navigate AI and where we use it in a business mm-hmm.

Anthony: 00:22:31

Was not something we were thinking about really five years ago.

Anthony: 00:22:34

In most businesses cases.

Anthony: 00:22:35

Certainly not 10, 20 years ago.

Anthony: 00:22:37

No.

Anthony: 00:22:37

For the majority of people.

Anthony: 00:22:38

Now, there are some exceptions out there, by the way.

Anthony: 00:22:40

Yeah.

Anthony: 00:22:40

And I, I remember working with an organization probably 10 years ago that

Anthony: 00:22:44

was already dealing with a, a, an ai.

Anthony: 00:22:47

Yeah.

Anthony: 00:22:47

Um.

Anthony: 00:22:48

Type situation.

Anthony: 00:22:49

Uh, very basic compared to what is out there today.

Anthony: 00:22:52

Yeah.

Anthony: 00:22:53

But nonetheless, 10 years ago it was extremely advanced and we

Anthony: 00:22:56

don't know where we're going to be.

Anthony: 00:22:57

So being able to problem solve and understand these things is

Anthony: 00:23:00

an incredibly important part.

Anthony: 00:23:03

Um, you know, an organization and, and, you know, pushing that

Anthony: 00:23:07

with your team is rewarding.

Joanne Brooks: 00:23:10

Exactly.

Joanne Brooks: 00:23:10

And, and the great news is for Deser, literally, Hmm.

Joanne Brooks: 00:23:13

I'm gonna say about two months ago, they launched their MBA in

Joanne Brooks: 00:23:16

artificial intelligence through, um, one of the European, uh.

Joanne Brooks: 00:23:21

University.

Joanne Brooks: 00:23:22

So it went, oh my gosh, that's something that I'm not gonna enroll straight away,

Joanne Brooks: 00:23:26

but I figure I might do that next year.

Anthony: 00:23:29

Another, another one on the bucket list, another one

Joanne Brooks: 00:23:32

I went.

Joanne Brooks: 00:23:32

Well, I'd love to learn more about that.

Joanne Brooks: 00:23:34

Yes.

Anthony: 00:23:34

So, so let's, let's change tact a little bit because I know that,

Anthony: 00:23:39

um, the things like the MBA are sort of the culmination of things, inspiration.

Anthony: 00:23:44

It's not necessarily where people are able to start, and I think

Anthony: 00:23:48

that's often, I. We don't know what we don't know as a lovely phrase.

Anthony: 00:23:54

Yeah.

Anthony: 00:23:54

But it's, uh, and, and, and I think a lot of people think that,

Anthony: 00:23:59

well, you only can learn on the job and pick things up that way.

Anthony: 00:24:03

Mm-hmm.

Anthony: 00:24:03

There's, there's often a gulf of people who.

Anthony: 00:24:06

Don't understand the value of coaching.

Anthony: 00:24:08

Yes.

Anthony: 00:24:09

And, and being enrolled in courses that are going to advance you, that are

Anthony: 00:24:14

beyond the very simple technical things.

Anthony: 00:24:17

'cause I think most people think about that going, okay, I've gotta learn

Anthony: 00:24:20

how to operate this machine so I'm therefore gonna do a course on how to

Anthony: 00:24:23

operate this machine, use this piece of software, or whatever it might be.

Anthony: 00:24:27

Yes.

Anthony: 00:24:28

But your business or the business that you are working in is in of itself.

Anthony: 00:24:33

A machine and multiple pieces of software, usually many liars.

Anthony: 00:24:36

Mm-hmm.

Anthony: 00:24:37

And, and so how do you, you know, how do you get people into the kind of program

Anthony: 00:24:43

that you are running in the first place?

Anthony: 00:24:45

In that?

Anthony: 00:24:46

Do people have to put up their hand first?

Anthony: 00:24:48

Do they have to know that this is something they wanted to do?

Anthony: 00:24:50

Or are you spending a bit of time telling people that.

Anthony: 00:24:53

You know, this is something you should be thinking about.

Anthony: 00:24:55

Yeah.

Joanne Brooks: 00:24:55

Well, I think as a business owner, I would be remiss in not talking

Joanne Brooks: 00:24:58

it about it loud and loud and proud.

Joanne Brooks: 00:25:00

So I do that every day.

Joanne Brooks: 00:25:02

Uh, and the main place I hang out is LinkedIn, but I, but I also am very

Joanne Brooks: 00:25:06

strategic that it's, it cannot be the only place that I find clients.

Joanne Brooks: 00:25:10

I. So, so for me, collaboration has been my biggest success factor.

Joanne Brooks: 00:25:14

So I've, I've identified some networking and industry groups that align with

Joanne Brooks: 00:25:18

me and, and, and my accountant who has my, cus my customer as their customer.

Joanne Brooks: 00:25:25

So I, I am somebody who will be.

Joanne Brooks: 00:25:28

More than happy to reach out to a network associate and say, can I be a member?

Joanne Brooks: 00:25:32

And what I'd like to do is share my, my thoughts and my thought

Joanne Brooks: 00:25:36

leadership to your audience.

Joanne Brooks: 00:25:37

What does that look like for you?

Joanne Brooks: 00:25:39

So I do that regularly.

Joanne Brooks: 00:25:40

I host a number of master classes for different industry bodies

Joanne Brooks: 00:25:44

around Australia, networking groups and the u and the us.

Joanne Brooks: 00:25:49

Uh, for me that's, that's smart strategy because they

Joanne Brooks: 00:25:52

have my audience in abundance.

Joanne Brooks: 00:25:54

Um.

Joanne Brooks: 00:25:55

I recognized many, many years ago having a one-on-one conversation whilst it's

Joanne Brooks: 00:25:59

absolutely delightful and amazing.

Joanne Brooks: 00:26:01

It's not, it's not scalable and, you know, you have a podcast

Joanne Brooks: 00:26:04

that other people will listen to.

Joanne Brooks: 00:26:06

So it makes total sense to me.

Joanne Brooks: 00:26:08

As much as I like you, when we wanted to get this thing going,

Joanne Brooks: 00:26:10

there's always a strategy behind it.

Joanne Brooks: 00:26:12

Why would I do that?

Joanne Brooks: 00:26:14

So I do that often, and I, and I volunteer my time.

Joanne Brooks: 00:26:18

I, I write a post, I think it was last week, and I actually taught it up.

Joanne Brooks: 00:26:22

All the things that I do for free, I. Master classes, podcasts, all

Joanne Brooks: 00:26:26

sorts of things, and I went, crikey.

Joanne Brooks: 00:26:28

There's a lot there.

Joanne Brooks: 00:26:29

But I do it deliberately so people can.

Joanne Brooks: 00:26:32

Be like, no one trusts me.

Joanne Brooks: 00:26:34

Over time, I get it.

Joanne Brooks: 00:26:36

You know, we, look, I had this situation that I thought I was speaking to a real

Joanne Brooks: 00:26:40

person on LinkedIn and it turns out clearly it was not, because I asked it

Joanne Brooks: 00:26:44

the same question three times and I, and I was questioning what they were

Joanne Brooks: 00:26:48

responding to, and I got the exact same phrase back and I went, well,

Joanne Brooks: 00:26:52

clearly you are not a real person.

Joanne Brooks: 00:26:54

And the really sad part was that piece of software that they were

Joanne Brooks: 00:26:58

talking about was that service.

Joanne Brooks: 00:27:00

About how to respond to people on LinkedIn.

Joanne Brooks: 00:27:02

And I went, oh my gosh, there's never gonna happen, um, in Pink Fit

Anthony: 00:27:07

that, that reliance on ai.

Anthony: 00:27:09

And it's quite funny you say that this has happened to me on more than one occasion.

Anthony: 00:27:12

So there's a little tip for people that, uh, you get a

Anthony: 00:27:16

question from a potential client.

Anthony: 00:27:19

Mm-hmm.

Anthony: 00:27:19

And so you think you'll be clever and you'll jump onto a, uh, an AI.

Anthony: 00:27:24

Platform.

Anthony: 00:27:25

Mm-hmm.

Anthony: 00:27:25

And you ask it to answer that question on your behalf.

Anthony: 00:27:29

Yes.

Anthony: 00:27:30

Now.

Anthony: 00:27:31

That's clever to a degree, but if it does a, doesn't know your tone of voice.

Anthony: 00:27:36

Exactly.

Anthony: 00:27:36

It's gonna be pretty obvious in a conversation.

Anthony: 00:27:39

B, please read it before you post it.

Anthony: 00:27:42

Oh, yes, please.

Anthony: 00:27:42

I had someone post it today and it clearly said, oh, and don't forget to

Anthony: 00:27:46

ask them, you know this about their business or fill in their business name.

Anthony: 00:27:50

Yeah.

Anthony: 00:27:50

And things like that, that were clearly meant as a direction for

Anthony: 00:27:54

you to do, to personalize it.

Anthony: 00:27:55

Yes.

Anthony: 00:27:56

Not to cut and paste and they cut and past.

Anthony: 00:27:59

And it, it, it was so not them.

Anthony: 00:28:01

They'd literally taken my questions that I'd asked, put it into a service.

Anthony: 00:28:06

Yes.

Anthony: 00:28:07

Cut and pasted the responses, and it's done them more harm than good

Anthony: 00:28:10

because now I've gone from, I might trust them and I might utilize them to.

Anthony: 00:28:17

They're not even interested.

Anthony: 00:28:18

I in truthfully answering it, they're answering what they

Anthony: 00:28:21

think they need to answer.

Anthony: 00:28:22

Yes.

Anthony: 00:28:22

Yeah.

Anthony: 00:28:22

And you're just being taken for a ride.

Anthony: 00:28:24

And I, I think that's, uh, it's so important to avoid

Anthony: 00:28:28

that, but it's so important.

Anthony: 00:28:30

Um, but, but we digress a little bit here.

Anthony: 00:28:32

I, I wanna bring it back down to, to some of the people that you

Anthony: 00:28:36

are actually, uh, working with.

Anthony: 00:28:38

Hmm.

Anthony: 00:28:39

Because I think this is where there's such an important role in making an impact.

Anthony: 00:28:44

I think we.

Anthony: 00:28:45

There.

Anthony: 00:28:46

There is this gulf between those that have the higher education and those that don't.

Anthony: 00:28:50

Mm-hmm.

Anthony: 00:28:51

There's those that there is a gulf between regardless of what the level of education

Anthony: 00:28:55

you've had and when you next perceive that opportunity to learn, if at all.

Anthony: 00:29:00

Yeah.

Anthony: 00:29:00

And so bringing people into an opportunity that enables.

Anthony: 00:29:04

Them to learn and advance different aspects is so important, and it's

Anthony: 00:29:08

something that we have to foster in order to generate more innovation into.

Anthony: 00:29:12

It's not just about the individuals, it's about the

Anthony: 00:29:15

collective res, you know, as well.

Anthony: 00:29:17

And the benefit that we all have.

Anthony: 00:29:19

And, and I think this kind of idea of what you've got with

Anthony: 00:29:23

your, with your program is.

Anthony: 00:29:26

Uh, you know, it's such an important one that I think there's not enough attention

Anthony: 00:29:31

being paid to these opportunities, and it's part of the reason why I

Anthony: 00:29:34

wanted to have you on the program.

Joanne Brooks: 00:29:35

Yeah.

Joanne Brooks: 00:29:36

Thank you.

Joanne Brooks: 00:29:37

So, if I, so I have four, four elements to what I offer, and the MBA

Joanne Brooks: 00:29:42

is the pinnacle one at the other end.

Joanne Brooks: 00:29:44

But let's go back to, to here.

Joanne Brooks: 00:29:46

So I, I've had a program for a while, which is my, my signature

Joanne Brooks: 00:29:51

program, her transformation.

Joanne Brooks: 00:29:52

It's.

Joanne Brooks: 00:29:53

It's $12,000 for six months.

Joanne Brooks: 00:29:55

So I get it that there's going to be women in business who financially not

Joanne Brooks: 00:29:59

ready, mindset business, a number of reasons why it doesn't work for them yet.

Joanne Brooks: 00:30:05

And I realized by golly, there's a lot of women out there that

Joanne Brooks: 00:30:09

have a desire for coaching.

Joanne Brooks: 00:30:13

But I did do, I did do some research on that for my MBA so

Joanne Brooks: 00:30:16

that, um, I need to clarify this.

Joanne Brooks: 00:30:19

We have had an abundance of coaches land on the landscape coming outta corporate

Joanne Brooks: 00:30:24

with an amazing amount of skills.

Joanne Brooks: 00:30:26

But I, what I want everybody to, to be, be cautious of, and it's not to

Joanne Brooks: 00:30:31

say that these people don't have the skills that they need to be a coach,

Joanne Brooks: 00:30:35

but when you are looking for a coach, and let's say you're looking for a

Joanne Brooks: 00:30:38

financial coach, have the courage to say.

Joanne Brooks: 00:30:41

How's your financials?

Joanne Brooks: 00:30:44

If you're looking for a sales coach, how's your sales?

Joanne Brooks: 00:30:48

Because if they're a coach in that expertise.

Joanne Brooks: 00:30:50

We have to quality check their credibility.

Joanne Brooks: 00:30:52

I'm a business resilience coach.

Joanne Brooks: 00:30:54

How many businesses have you had?

Joanne Brooks: 00:30:55

17. I've liquidated one.

Joanne Brooks: 00:30:57

I've had trade, you know, whole bunch of things.

Joanne Brooks: 00:30:59

So I feel I can put up that shingle with pride to say that I had the

Joanne Brooks: 00:31:03

experience, but I, but in my research, I realized through my MBA, that there

Joanne Brooks: 00:31:08

are so many women in business who didn't know that there's a coach for

Joanne Brooks: 00:31:11

every micro element of your business.

Joanne Brooks: 00:31:14

Every, there's coaches across so many facets, and a life

Joanne Brooks: 00:31:17

coach will not necessarily be the one you need for strategy.

Joanne Brooks: 00:31:21

I've heard it so many times, and it hurts my heart that they, they go and

Joanne Brooks: 00:31:25

engage these people, they pay money, and they're not, they're not utilizing

Joanne Brooks: 00:31:29

those persons, um, brilliance at all.

Joanne Brooks: 00:31:32

So that, that I, I have a concern about.

Joanne Brooks: 00:31:35

I have a, have therefore created a platform for easy entry into

Joanne Brooks: 00:31:40

coaching for any female entrepreneur, and it's $97 US a month.

Joanne Brooks: 00:31:45

I feel I've made that incredibly accessible, but what I've loaded

Joanne Brooks: 00:31:49

this platform with is the many hundreds of video conversations

Joanne Brooks: 00:31:54

I've had with people about business.

Joanne Brooks: 00:31:56

Two minutes to 10 minutes.

Joanne Brooks: 00:31:58

Numerous tools and resources and lots of mini courses, but they get

Joanne Brooks: 00:32:01

me for an hour and a half every month of client led mentoring.

Joanne Brooks: 00:32:05

So there's discussion forums, all these sort of things.

Joanne Brooks: 00:32:08

So I wanted to create a, a circle, a place that was safe for women, whether

Joanne Brooks: 00:32:13

they're brand new to business or whether they're in the messy middle, and they're

Joanne Brooks: 00:32:16

going, oh, I need something, but I'm nervous of spending a lot of money.

Joanne Brooks: 00:32:20

But I know I need quality, so I, I wanted to create something that

Joanne Brooks: 00:32:25

would tick all those boxes for them and they can dive in and out.

Joanne Brooks: 00:32:27

It's not a course to finish.

Joanne Brooks: 00:32:30

It's not start A to Z. You can go a KLZ, whichever direction you want.

Joanne Brooks: 00:32:37

It's there for you to dive into, what do I need today?

Joanne Brooks: 00:32:41

I need to know about sales, what I need to do, do today.

Joanne Brooks: 00:32:43

Oh, I need to understand the financial terms of my profit and loss.

Joanne Brooks: 00:32:47

I don't understand financial literacy.

Joanne Brooks: 00:32:49

I can go find that in here.

Joanne Brooks: 00:32:51

So for me, it was about filling a chilly great big gap for women in business to.

Joanne Brooks: 00:32:57

Maybe to reaffirm the things that they think they know and make sure

Joanne Brooks: 00:33:00

it's right, but also I think I'm gonna learn a bucket load of, of

Joanne Brooks: 00:33:04

things from these women as well.

Joanne Brooks: 00:33:05

Like, I don't know at all by any means.

Joanne Brooks: 00:33:08

So I wanted to create a safe circle for women to, to come, come together

Joanne Brooks: 00:33:12

and learn and absorb and, and download whatever they need for their business.

Anthony: 00:33:19

I wanted to pick you up on something that you

Anthony: 00:33:21

said there, which is safety.

Anthony: 00:33:23

Women feeling safe.

Anthony: 00:33:25

Mm-hmm.

Anthony: 00:33:25

And it, it's.

Anthony: 00:33:28

Uh, I don't wanna gloss over it because I think it's an important, it's an

Anthony: 00:33:31

important term and I think it's important that people understand what it, what

Anthony: 00:33:35

that actually means because it's easy to gloss over it and kind of go safe.

Anthony: 00:33:39

Why wouldn't you be safe?

Anthony: 00:33:40

Yeah, you are reputable.

Anthony: 00:33:41

It's fine, but it's not it.

Anthony: 00:33:43

It's more than that.

Joanne Brooks: 00:33:44

Yeah.

Joanne Brooks: 00:33:45

It, it is.

Joanne Brooks: 00:33:45

It's, it's wraps, wraps around mindset.

Joanne Brooks: 00:33:48

It's wraps around the quality of the material that you're going

Joanne Brooks: 00:33:51

to get access to, the people who are welcomed into circle.

Joanne Brooks: 00:33:55

Uh, for me initially, I want to interview every single one and make

Joanne Brooks: 00:33:59

sure that they are ready for that.

Joanne Brooks: 00:34:01

Uh, particularly for her transformation.

Joanne Brooks: 00:34:03

You will be invited.

Joanne Brooks: 00:34:04

You can't just come in because it's such an intensive program.

Joanne Brooks: 00:34:08

But safety isn't a really important thing that came out of my.

Joanne Brooks: 00:34:11

Search as well, which is why I landed with Circle.

Joanne Brooks: 00:34:15

Um, I, I've heard stories of people spending an awful lot of money maxing

Joanne Brooks: 00:34:20

credit cards, um, you know, mortgages.

Joanne Brooks: 00:34:23

And what I know is we've got somebody, a partner, a husband, a

Joanne Brooks: 00:34:28

significant other looking at you going.

Joanne Brooks: 00:34:31

When is this thing gonna happen?

Joanne Brooks: 00:34:33

And that creates an element of fear and, and scared and overwhelm and you're

Joanne Brooks: 00:34:37

going, oh my gosh, I have to show this person that I love and admire and who's

Joanne Brooks: 00:34:42

in my life that I can actually do this.

Joanne Brooks: 00:34:45

And, and they may not say it out loud, but there's a lot of that going on inside.

Joanne Brooks: 00:34:49

You know, we've got these little people on our shoulders.

Joanne Brooks: 00:34:52

Um, and so for me the safety piece was to, to make myself accessible.

Joanne Brooks: 00:34:58

So even for a hundred bucks, if you want 15 minutes of my time, my link is

Joanne Brooks: 00:35:01

there and you can ring my phone number.

Joanne Brooks: 00:35:04

I want them to know that they can call me.

Joanne Brooks: 00:35:06

Um.

Joanne Brooks: 00:35:08

No dramas.

Joanne Brooks: 00:35:08

I, I want to, I generally want to serve and help women to get to the point that

Joanne Brooks: 00:35:13

they're ready for her transformation.

Joanne Brooks: 00:35:14

To me, that means that their business is growing or maybe they move on to something

Joanne Brooks: 00:35:19

else, and that's perfectly okay as well.

Joanne Brooks: 00:35:21

Uh, I just wanna help women to feel that this is a place that

Joanne Brooks: 00:35:25

they can, I've got an idea.

Joanne Brooks: 00:35:27

What do you think?

Joanne Brooks: 00:35:28

Without the fear of going, oh, that's rubbish.

Joanne Brooks: 00:35:30

Don't do that.

Joanne Brooks: 00:35:31

You know, you'll put some lipstick on, whatever.

Joanne Brooks: 00:35:34

That's, that's not what I want.

Joanne Brooks: 00:35:35

I want.

Joanne Brooks: 00:35:36

People to go.

Joanne Brooks: 00:35:37

Amazing.

Joanne Brooks: 00:35:38

You gave it a good shot.

Joanne Brooks: 00:35:39

How about you tweak it here or go for it Let's, you know 80% is perfect.

Joanne Brooks: 00:35:43

Don't try and hit a hundred percent 'cause it just doesn't exist.

Anthony: 00:35:46

Right?

Anthony: 00:35:47

How important is it?

Anthony: 00:35:50

For it to be a space that is purely for women.

Anthony: 00:35:54

I know it doesn't mean necessarily the people who are teaching the

Anthony: 00:35:56

things and 'cause you, for example, you've invited me to, to come

Anthony: 00:35:59

and, uh, do some stuff with you.

Anthony: 00:36:01

Yeah.

Anthony: 00:36:02

But, but the people who are doing the course are women.

Anthony: 00:36:04

How important is that?

Anthony: 00:36:06

Because I, I know that there's, I. If you go to lower education in school

Anthony: 00:36:10

system, there's a trend these days to be making, uh, what were, um,

Anthony: 00:36:16

single-sex schools to now being co-ed.

Joanne Brooks: 00:36:18

Yes.

Anthony: 00:36:19

So how important is it to keep that separation and

Anthony: 00:36:23

dealing with those separate issues?

Anthony: 00:36:25

Is it still.

Anthony: 00:36:26

Yes.

Anthony: 00:36:27

Is it still

Joanne Brooks: 00:36:27

relevant?

Joanne Brooks: 00:36:28

It, it is for me, absolutely vital.

Joanne Brooks: 00:36:30

Uh, I will work with men, no dramas at all.

Joanne Brooks: 00:36:33

Um, and I guess I would say to you it is for those people who identify as

Joanne Brooks: 00:36:37

female because there's gonna be men who, who identify as that, as long

Joanne Brooks: 00:36:42

as, and which is why I've, and, and it won't be scalable forever, but

Joanne Brooks: 00:36:46

as, as, 'cause I literally launched this program 15 days ago, so it's.

Joanne Brooks: 00:36:50

Brand spanking you.

Joanne Brooks: 00:36:50

It's a brand new baby.

Joanne Brooks: 00:36:52

So my intention is to interview, uh, have a quick meeting to make

Joanne Brooks: 00:36:55

sure that they are the right fit for the program, uh, and, and, um, if I

Joanne Brooks: 00:37:00

have to make those hard decisions.

Joanne Brooks: 00:37:02

When people are in, I'll make that hard decision because it has to be, it

Joanne Brooks: 00:37:06

has to be a safe place for all women to feel that they, because, because a

Joanne Brooks: 00:37:11

lot of it is confidence, A lot of it is imposter syndrome, all those things

Joanne Brooks: 00:37:16

that, and I know it's not unique to women, um, but it's prevalent in women.

Joanne Brooks: 00:37:22

Um, you know, they're, they're very comfortable and they're genius.

Joanne Brooks: 00:37:25

But then to actually get on a camera and talk about it.

Joanne Brooks: 00:37:29

Which is why I wanted, wanted you in there because it's so

Joanne Brooks: 00:37:32

important to share your story.

Joanne Brooks: 00:37:34

Um, so important to me.

Joanne Brooks: 00:37:36

I.

Anthony: 00:37:37

Yeah, the, I mean, you know, we, we could go on for

Anthony: 00:37:40

hours about the power of story.

Anthony: 00:37:41

We won't do that.

Anthony: 00:37:42

We won't do that right now.

Anthony: 00:37:44

We could.

Anthony: 00:37:44

Um, but, but I do, you know, and, and hearing your story is in incredibly

Anthony: 00:37:47

important and powerful as well, because I think that's, you know, you, you

Anthony: 00:37:51

also hit upon something that is around.

Anthony: 00:37:53

Credibility and asking people that, you know, what their background is.

Anthony: 00:37:58

There are an awful lot of coaches and consultants out there.

Anthony: 00:38:01

Mm-hmm.

Anthony: 00:38:01

And many purport to be a lot of things.

Anthony: 00:38:05

Um, I've, I've experienced different coaches, um, and some where you sit back

Anthony: 00:38:10

and you go, wow, they're are amazing.

Anthony: 00:38:12

And, and maybe not for me, but they are amazing.

Anthony: 00:38:15

Yeah.

Anthony: 00:38:15

Others where you just sort of shake your head and you go, Hmm, I'm not really sure.

Anthony: 00:38:19

Yes.

Anthony: 00:38:20

Uh, and, and, uh, and others which are just constantly, you know,

Anthony: 00:38:25

educating and furthering themselves.

Anthony: 00:38:27

And I think there's also an important thing to, to realize

Anthony: 00:38:29

when it comes to this space is that as, as I've experienced myself, is

Anthony: 00:38:33

sometimes you also need to change.

Anthony: 00:38:34

Sometimes it's.

Anthony: 00:38:37

Being in one thing for a while and then recognizing that someone that

Anthony: 00:38:40

there's something else that you can get from going somewhere else.

Anthony: 00:38:43

It's not a slap in the face necessarily to the person you've been with it,

Anthony: 00:38:47

it just sometimes opportunities.

Anthony: 00:38:49

Yeah.

Joanne Brooks: 00:38:49

Mm-hmm.

Joanne Brooks: 00:38:50

Mm-hmm.

Joanne Brooks: 00:38:50

Yeah.

Joanne Brooks: 00:38:51

I, I had a very interesting, uh, situation last week.

Joanne Brooks: 00:38:54

I was sharing the circle with, uh, navigate Circle with a, a number of

Joanne Brooks: 00:38:58

people who are my Facebook group.

Joanne Brooks: 00:39:00

And so one of the ladies came back to me and she said to me, well, I'm a business

Joanne Brooks: 00:39:03

coach, so it's not relevant for me.

Joanne Brooks: 00:39:06

And, and it, I actually, it, it caused me to really ponder that and

Joanne Brooks: 00:39:10

I actually wrote a post on LinkedIn about it and said, so why not?

Joanne Brooks: 00:39:15

Because for me, this person was an expert in marketing, not business strategy.

Joanne Brooks: 00:39:20

So in her mind, she's a different, and, and I, I then reflected on my, um,

Joanne Brooks: 00:39:24

research for my MBA, that the, the data suggests that the influx of coaches that

Joanne Brooks: 00:39:30

have arrived in the, on the landscape, most of them do not have a coach.

Joanne Brooks: 00:39:35

I find that absolutely fascinating.

Anthony: 00:39:37

I, I think that's it.

Anthony: 00:39:39

It's, and, and to me, I, you, you asked the question you should be

Anthony: 00:39:43

asking them, you know, if they're a sales coach, how are their sales?

Anthony: 00:39:46

Yeah.

Anthony: 00:39:46

The second question you need to ask them is, is who is their sales coach?

Anthony: 00:39:50

Because, or at least who their coach is, because if they don't have a

Anthony: 00:39:54

coach, then I, I, I agree with you.

Anthony: 00:39:57

I've, I've, I've worked with some, uh, some coaches who.

Anthony: 00:40:01

Uh, work on a pretty high level.

Anthony: 00:40:03

Mm-hmm.

Anthony: 00:40:05

Uh, and, and I know they're still being coached as well.

Anthony: 00:40:07

Yeah.

Anthony: 00:40:08

And, and that's, you know, because it is constantly learning, as we've alluded to,

Anthony: 00:40:12

things are constantly changing and this is just a factor that, uh, that people

Anthony: 00:40:16

have to, to incorporate into what they do.

Anthony: 00:40:20

Yeah.

Anthony: 00:40:20

Is understand that learning is a constant, but making sure that you're learning from

Anthony: 00:40:24

the right people and understanding as well that a lot of this stuff is, uh, is about.

Anthony: 00:40:30

I, I, I see it as, as being on two levels, as one is, is about

Anthony: 00:40:34

making you aware of certain things.

Anthony: 00:40:36

Mm-hmm.

Anthony: 00:40:36

Uh, that you might not have a literacy spot.

Anthony: 00:40:39

Mm-hmm.

Anthony: 00:40:39

Mm-hmm.

Anthony: 00:40:40

And, and the other part is stimulating new ideas.

Anthony: 00:40:42

Yeah, exactly.

Anthony: 00:40:43

'cause if you think about new things and different ways that ultimately then you

Anthony: 00:40:47

can deliver for whether it's your, your business or ultimately clients Yeah.

Anthony: 00:40:51

Is a big factor in having.

Anthony: 00:40:54

You know, this opportunity to learn.

Anthony: 00:40:56

I, I know, you know, from coaching I've had over the years that I

Anthony: 00:41:00

can see it playing out when I've sitting in front of a client and

Anthony: 00:41:05

going, well, what if we did this?

Anthony: 00:41:06

And I'm thinking in my, you know, in the back of my mind I'm going,

Anthony: 00:41:09

that's how I was taught, wasn't it?

Anthony: 00:41:11

Yes.

Anthony: 00:41:11

And yeah.

Anthony: 00:41:11

And that, and this is my, you know, interpretation of it, you know?

Anthony: 00:41:15

Mm-hmm.

Anthony: 00:41:15

That's the thing.

Anthony: 00:41:16

That's how it keeps advancing.

Anthony: 00:41:17

Exactly.

Joanne Brooks: 00:41:18

And, and, you know, you think about so many professional sports.

Joanne Brooks: 00:41:22

People out there, they have coaches until they retire and be,

Joanne Brooks: 00:41:26

probably become a coach themselves.

Joanne Brooks: 00:41:27

So can you think about, you know, the professional

Joanne Brooks: 00:41:30

footballers and tennis players?

Joanne Brooks: 00:41:31

Oh, I've landed, I'm now a professional.

Joanne Brooks: 00:41:34

I don't need a coach anymore.

Joanne Brooks: 00:41:36

Well, that's just not the case, right?

Joanne Brooks: 00:41:38

So why does this happen in business?

Joanne Brooks: 00:41:40

I, I struggle to understand.

Anthony: 00:41:43

Yeah, it is a really interesting thing, isn't it?

Anthony: 00:41:44

When we think about our kids, right?

Anthony: 00:41:46

They, they, by the ti, by the time they're in their late teens and early

Anthony: 00:41:49

twenties, they think they know everything.

Anthony: 00:41:51

Yes.

Anthony: 00:41:51

And when they get close to 30, they realize that they

Anthony: 00:41:53

don't know anything at all.

Anthony: 00:41:55

Uh, and we've all been there and done that ourselves, I should say.

Anthony: 00:41:58

Uh, and, and, but it doesn't, that same maturity doesn't

Anthony: 00:42:01

often happen in businesses.

Anthony: 00:42:03

No, it's not.

Anthony: 00:42:03

People, people are on this.

Anthony: 00:42:05

Quick path that they like to be in, in, in shopping and changing

Anthony: 00:42:09

from one job to the next.

Anthony: 00:42:11

And that's their idea of, of learning, because I've just, oh, I've gone

Anthony: 00:42:14

from here to here, to here to here.

Anthony: 00:42:15

Mm-hmm.

Anthony: 00:42:15

And suddenly they find themselves in a higher profile position.

Anthony: 00:42:19

They've got no real additional training.

Anthony: 00:42:21

Yes, indeed.

Anthony: 00:42:21

They haven't got a coach.

Joanne Brooks: 00:42:22

And you know, I guess, and.

Joanne Brooks: 00:42:24

Uh, if they're an employee, you are running, you'd like to, you're walking

Joanne Brooks: 00:42:27

on a tight, there is supporting them in having these things.

Joanne Brooks: 00:42:30

But I, but I, I also know the importance as an employee to, to be aware of where

Joanne Brooks: 00:42:36

your gaps are and to approach your employer and say, look, I would love to

Joanne Brooks: 00:42:41

love to, you know, learn these skills.

Joanne Brooks: 00:42:44

How can we do that?

Joanne Brooks: 00:42:45

Can I get a buddy out of the organization or assess some training that I can do?

Joanne Brooks: 00:42:49

And, you know, the beautiful thing about Australia is we have an amazing education.

Joanne Brooks: 00:42:54

System amazing.

Joanne Brooks: 00:42:56

But there's also an abundance of education that's not accredited.

Joanne Brooks: 00:43:00

So it's not a certificate diploma or whatever, and coaching fits in that.

Joanne Brooks: 00:43:04

Uh, but there's so many other opportunities to learn.

Joanne Brooks: 00:43:07

And you know, a great place is a network absorb.

Joanne Brooks: 00:43:10

Attend those masterclasses though.

Joanne Brooks: 00:43:12

Watch those webinars.

Joanne Brooks: 00:43:13

Don't sign up and don't do it.

Joanne Brooks: 00:43:15

Don't sign up and not watch the replay.

Joanne Brooks: 00:43:18

Take.

Anthony: 00:43:26

I think.

Anthony: 00:43:27

I think it's a pity that, uh, when we are asked to put in our resume for want

Anthony: 00:43:32

of a better term, uh, even in a place like LinkedIn that, uh, it doesn't

Anthony: 00:43:37

really allow you to say, well, you know, I've been participating actively

Anthony: 00:43:43

in coaching for X amount of years with, with this kind of ca caliber of people,

Anthony: 00:43:49

whether you want to name them or not.

Anthony: 00:43:50

I, I think that, I think that's one of the other interesting

Anthony: 00:43:52

things too, when it comes to.

Anthony: 00:43:54

Naming coaching.

Anthony: 00:43:55

It's like we're very, we are very happy to name the institution

Anthony: 00:43:58

that we have an education at.

Anthony: 00:44:01

Uh, but we're not happy to name the, the, you know, the people who have been

Anthony: 00:44:04

coaching us Somehow that's kept a little bit private or, or, and I think it's

Anthony: 00:44:08

kept private because people do still look down, uh, think that this look

Anthony: 00:44:12

down on them, oh, they need coaching.

Anthony: 00:44:14

That, that's a negative when it should be seen as we're talking about

Anthony: 00:44:17

as a positive and, and celebrated.

Anthony: 00:44:19

And I think, you know, and, and investing in yourself.

Anthony: 00:44:22

Um, you know, whether it is, you know, a $97 a month program or whether

Anthony: 00:44:28

it's a, you know, $12,000, you know, MBA program, it doesn't matter.

Anthony: 00:44:33

It's, those things are important to do and you should be proud of it.

Joanne Brooks: 00:44:37

And it's like, you know, what books have we read this year?

Joanne Brooks: 00:44:40

Like there are some, like one of my mentors is Robin Jama.

Joanne Brooks: 00:44:43

I think I've read every one of his books, if not once, twice.

Joanne Brooks: 00:44:46

I've signed up to his master classes.

Joanne Brooks: 00:44:48

I listen to him every day and he's just one.

Joanne Brooks: 00:44:51

Uh, and he's not for everybody, but for me, I'm happy to tell people, well, this

Joanne Brooks: 00:44:56

is the people that I listen to because.

Joanne Brooks: 00:44:59

They've, they're arriving.

Joanne Brooks: 00:45:01

They probably will never say they've arrived, but they've

Joanne Brooks: 00:45:03

achieved some amazing things.

Joanne Brooks: 00:45:05

And, you know, the, the people who, who, who founded

Joanne Brooks: 00:45:07

Netflix, what an amazing story.

Joanne Brooks: 00:45:09

Mark Randolph amazing story of how he got that done.

Joanne Brooks: 00:45:13

So why wouldn't we put that like LinkedIn tells you about, you can put your roles

Joanne Brooks: 00:45:19

I put in my products, but it definitely has no space for you to go, well what

Joanne Brooks: 00:45:22

am I reading this at this moment?

Joanne Brooks: 00:45:24

Hmm.

Joanne Brooks: 00:45:24

Who am I listening to?

Joanne Brooks: 00:45:26

And you could write a post about it, but it doesn't sit

Joanne Brooks: 00:45:28

on your profile for very long.

Joanne Brooks: 00:45:29

It's buried.

Anthony: 00:45:30

Right?

Anthony: 00:45:31

It's, it's, so it, again, it goes back to the power of telling stories, right?

Anthony: 00:45:35

When you start missing, you know, messing around with, uh, with that and, uh, and

Anthony: 00:45:40

giving those ideas to people, sharing it, whether it's in a post or in a podcast or

Anthony: 00:45:46

in a course, I think it's so important.

Anthony: 00:45:48

Um.

Anthony: 00:45:49

We have to wrap things up.

Anthony: 00:45:50

So I've got one final question that I like to ask all of my, all of my

Anthony: 00:45:54

guests, and this is an interesting one for you because technically the

Anthony: 00:45:57

program's new, but I know you've been doing this for a, for a long time.

Anthony: 00:46:00

What's the aha moment that people have once they come to work with you

Anthony: 00:46:04

that you wish more people would know?

Anthony: 00:46:06

They going to have.

Joanne Brooks: 00:46:08

Yeah.

Joanne Brooks: 00:46:09

Um, I guess it's, I had, I, I seem to have this gift where I'm talking to

Joanne Brooks: 00:46:14

people and, and thoughts just come to me.

Joanne Brooks: 00:46:16

Have you thought about this?

Joanne Brooks: 00:46:16

Have you thought about that?

Joanne Brooks: 00:46:18

Oh, I've got a tool that will help you with that.

Joanne Brooks: 00:46:20

Um, have you, have you read this book?

Joanne Brooks: 00:46:22

I know somebody who I can connect you with.

Joanne Brooks: 00:46:24

So I have been known as a bit of a connector.

Joanne Brooks: 00:46:27

Uh, so, so for me, my strategic brain is always on.

Joanne Brooks: 00:46:31

Uh, and so, I mean, I feel I'm incredibly generous.

Joanne Brooks: 00:46:34

I share a lot of what I know and happy to introduce you to people

Joanne Brooks: 00:46:38

and will steer you in the direction.

Joanne Brooks: 00:46:40

So I. For me, the, the platform is, you'll find an abundance of things in there and

Joanne Brooks: 00:46:44

I'll point you in the right direction.

Anthony: 00:46:46

Fantastic.

Anthony: 00:46:47

Joanne, thank you so much for all of the information you've shared.

Anthony: 00:46:50

I love the different perspectives on, on education and something

Anthony: 00:46:54

that we haven't explored in enough detail on the podcast before.

Anthony: 00:46:57

So, uh, I, I really, uh, appreciate the insights and particularly into

Anthony: 00:47:01

women in business as well and, and understanding a little bit better.

Anthony: 00:47:03

And I'm, I'm so glad there is a. Platform like yours that has

Anthony: 00:47:07

so much material accessible.

Anthony: 00:47:09

We are going to include all the details in the show notes of

Anthony: 00:47:11

how to get in contact with you.

Anthony: 00:47:14

But thank you so much for being a part of the program.

Joanne Brooks: 00:47:17

Thank you so much.

Joanne Brooks: 00:47:18

It was awesome.

Anthony: 00:47:19

And thank you everyone for listening in.

Anthony: 00:47:21

Don't forget to subscribe wherever you're listening to us.

Anthony: 00:47:24

And, uh, stay tuned for the next episode of Biz Bites for Thought Leaders.

Anthony: 00:47:29

Hey, thanks for listening to Biz Bites.

Anthony: 00:47:31

We hope you enjoyed the program.

Anthony: 00:47:33

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Anthony: 00:47:36

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Anthony: 00:47:40

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Anthony: 00:47:45

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Anthony: 00:47:46

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Anthony: 00:47:51

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