Transcript
Luisa Hogan: What happens when stay positive stops feeling like something that is a supportive thing to do and starts feeling like pressure? Today's conversation is about the emotional weight of being expected to fight and inspire and stay strong. while privately trying to make sense of fear and uncertainty and personal identity. Because sometimes healing begins the moment we stop performing resilience and stop showing everyone that we're strong and we start really embodying it.
Luisa Hogan: Welcome back to the Second Voice Podcast, where we explore the conversations that leaders don't have out loud. I'm your host, Louisa Hogan, and today we're exploring what happens when life forces you to confront vulnerability in a world that rewards staying strong, having composure, being positive, and having strength above all else. And my guest today is the very lovely Bron Watson. She's the founder of the Social Coach and the Serenity Project. And after decades working as a nurse, educator and business owner, Bron's life changed through two cancer diagnoses that reshaped how she thinks about healing, resilience and the pressure to always stay positive.
Luisa Hogan: And in this conversation, we're going to explore the emotional weight of being strong for everyone else, perhaps hustle culture, and what it means to find calm instead of just survival. And it's definitely and a topic I'm very passionate about. Thank you so much, Bron, for joining me today. I'm very excited to speak with you.
Bron Watson: Look, thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Great to be here.
Luisa Hogan: and like Brilliant. Well, tell us more about, I've given a little bit of a bio, but the bio is never enough. So tell us your story. What do you do? What brought you here? Mm-hmm.
Bron Watson: Well, thank you. and I'm going to provide a little bit of context. So when I was younger, i started nursing when I was young, obviously quite young. And, you know, I went into that because I wanted to help people. Obviously, as a nurse and a nurse educator, we're helping, helping, helping. So empathy and care were part of who I became and who I was.
Bron Watson: So at that same time, I've actually had a dual career with marketing, which is kind of weird. I didn't really understand why I'd fallen into two complete careers, but I did.
Luisa Hogan: fifty
Bron Watson: And I'd switch between basically professions. um As I kept having children, I have five amazing sons.
Luisa Hogan: Wow.
Bron Watson: in itself again give give give caring for the children you know I remember when ah when the boys were little so they're from 10 and a half down to zero so 10 and a half years five used to take me like 15 minutes to get in the car like
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Luisa Hogan: Wow.
Bron Watson: Make sure youve got enough kids, make sure you've got enough shoes, make sure you got enough bags. was remarkable.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: But the reason why I'm sharing that, give give, give, give, there's literally no time in there for me, which coming up to getting around my 40th birthday with Babe on Hip, number five, I'd look around and I'd go is this it?
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm.
Bron Watson: wow, okay, this is what I signed up for, was it?
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm.
Bron Watson: That I was unhappy with my life, but I was unfulfilled for myself. And that's when I started to get into the entrepreneur land and started my first business.
Bron Watson: Again, it was in nursing at the time, in education, the things that I knew well. Then within a couple of years, I started my own business called the Brun Watson brand, which then became the social coach. And i did what everyone else did.
Bron Watson: We worked on the retreats. We did the mentor. We did, you know, the masterminds and the workshops and all of the things that online, that's what success in entrepreneur land, online business was all about.
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm.
Bron Watson: So I did all the things. But during those years, I'd had this niggling feeling in my gut going, wow, Bron, do you really think this is what you should be doing? And it was then came the hit of the breast cancer in 2017.
Bron Watson: And, you know, that's where my motto at the time, and I still have it sort of, which was you don't know how strong you are until you have no choice.
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm.
Bron Watson: I was the strong one. You know, i had this thing where, you know, I had a ah saying, which was I wanted to deliver what I say I'm going to deliver because that's what Bron does. She's reliable. She turns up.
Bron Watson: And it was at that time, and I think it was at the second diagnosis, no, so not the second, it was the second chemotherapy at the time. i would i did a Facebook Live four hours after getting out of hospital from chemo.
Luisa Hogan: Wow.
Bron Watson: What the hell was I thinking?
Luisa Hogan: That's mad.
Bron Watson: crazy, right? But I wanted to deliver what I said I wanted, that I said I was going to deliver into my mastermind group.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm.
Bron Watson: And then I caught a glimpse of myself and i I literally pointed at myself and I said, Bron, do you want to die? You keep this up, girl, and you're in a lot of trouble.
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm.
Bron Watson: And I shut that mastermind down overnight with no plan B. It wasn't an easy thing to do, as you could imagine. Pivot, pivot, pivot, do all of the things. And fast forward,
Bron Watson: Social coach was going great. We'd worked, we were more in that marketing agency kind of lane by this stage and 2023 came and then came an incurable doses diagnosis of cancer.
Bron Watson: And that's the one that dropped me, not even to my knees, just dropped me to the floor. And it was coming back out of that that we are where we are today.
Bron Watson: and And the lessons there for me were, because I mean, I'd be just literally, please God, give me time, and insert whoever you believe. And I started to listen to the serenity prayer, which is God grant me serenity to accept what I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah. Yeah.
Bron Watson: And that, it's taken years to go from being in that vortex of fear, let me tell you, it's it's terrifying.
Luisa Hogan: yeah
Bron Watson: And going through treatment and and what I learnt was through that experience of a stem cell transplant and the whole shebang that that comes with, that vulnerability and gratitude, because grief and gratitude can coexist at the same time.
Luisa Hogan: yeah
Bron Watson: And that is where we get to where we are today, which is very convoluted story. But I needed you to sort of see that, you know, coming through, doing what everyone else told me to do and being the good girl, then being the mama, then the business owner.
Luisa Hogan: who
Bron Watson: And it's like, well, you know, Bron, some people get little feathers or little knocks going, hey, where do you want to show up in life? No, I needed the brick through the back of the head.
Luisa Hogan: And what a brick, what a brick.
Bron Watson: It was hell of a brick. Don't recommend it, just saying.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: I'm so grateful because I'm fantastic now.
Luisa Hogan: That's such good news. And and also it's it's made you who you are today. i love that because you talk about it has to be gratitude and and the serenity prayer. What I love about the serenity prayer, it's actually about surrender, isn't it?
Bron Watson: Correct, it is.
Luisa Hogan: It's surrender.
Bron Watson: 100%.
Luisa Hogan: if you like It's about this accepting and surrender to what is in front of you. And it's a hard thing to do People find it because you've just got, especially if you have that personality, like you were saying, like, I'm just going to hustle.
Luisa Hogan: I'm going to do what everyone says.
Bron Watson: yes
Luisa Hogan: It's about control, right? And I've got to control everything.
Bron Watson: one hundred percent
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: It's all about control and what happens when that gets taken away. it's you you know For me, there was no other choice but to be vulnerable. So first cancer diagnosis, I would say to all the boys, you know if I'm okay, I'm okay.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: if If I'm not okay, I'll let you know and then you can worry. There's nothing for you to worry about.
Luisa Hogan: yeah
Bron Watson: I just took all of it on board, irrespective of what they felt or needed, might I add.
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm.
Bron Watson: i mean, it was only like two years ago that my now 20-year-old came to me and said, Mum, you know, that I would go to school and I'd be terrified that you'd be gone when I came home.
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm.
Luisa Hogan: God bless.
Bron Watson: I had no idea. But the lesson there that because, not because of the control, because I don't want, you can't undo, you can't undo what's already happened, but it was such an eye opener, which is, you know what, Bron, you've got to let go of all this stuff.
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm.
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm.
Bron Watson: And, you know, in actual fact, it's not, for me, it wasn't letting go because I had had a mentor say to me, Bron, just got to let it go.
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm.
Bron Watson: Well, I would if I could. Now I say, you know what, Bron, just let it be. And I consciously stop choosing. I consciously choose not to think about something.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: So no, I can't fix that right now. yeah Thank you, but no thank you.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: And that is that's a game changer.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah. It is. i you know I just went through this in the last week. you know i was My husband and I were laughing because for two weeks, every single one of my appointments meetings with clients or potential clients all got rescheduled, canceled or no shows.
Luisa Hogan: It was weird. It was like the weirdest thing. and then I started stressing, you know, like what's going on? And then I thought, you know what, like just read books.
Bron Watson: Thank
Luisa Hogan: You've got time in your schedule, go to the gym, relax, read books. And I tell you what, the minute I let it go and I surrendered, it all like resolved itself. And I started getting new clients emailing me.
Luisa Hogan: It was, it was just a strange time, but you thought if you find it, it doesn't work out, you know? But when you start letting go it starts to to feel better. Yeah.
Bron Watson: 100%. And you know what, it's happened for a reason. Maybe you were meant to have a little slow down time.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: Maybe you were meant to have some reflection and read the things you've wanted to read.
Luisa Hogan: yeah Yeah.
Luisa Hogan: yeah yeah
Bron Watson: Yeah, I'm 100%. There's something there and it's it's up to us how we handle it.
Luisa Hogan: Something there.
Bron Watson: You know, the old run was running too fast to even and notice.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah, it's wild. And you know, what struck me about the the story about your son saying that, you know, you were being positive, if everything's okay, you'll know.
Bron Watson: Absolutely. Yeah.
Luisa Hogan: do you know what you you people the positivity doesn't always work, right? Because it robs them from understanding the reality and the transparency, ah right?
Luisa Hogan: Like in getting an understanding. I see this with leaders too. We're going to be toxically positive about everything. Meanwhile, something's bad and then they get blindsided by the bad thing and they're waiting for the bad thing to happen.
Luisa Hogan: But the the leader thinks our being positive fixes stuff, right? Yeah.
Bron Watson: It does and it doesn't because I think when you're vulnerable, which equals honesty both for yourself and your team, i mean, gosh, my team have been through a hell of a ride and they've all stuck with me.
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm.
Luisa Hogan: My place.
Bron Watson: you know, and it came back to speaking my truth. I mean, remembering that when it comes to, to I call it toxic positivity, when someone's giving, you'll be right, Bron, my Aunt Sue, she had breast cancer, she'll she's great.
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm.
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm.
Bron Watson: or the other stories, oh, you know, oh, yeah, that, you know, my uncle had myeloma, he's dead now. LAUGHTER
Luisa Hogan: just
Bron Watson: I'm laughing because it's ridiculous.
Luisa Hogan: I understand. That is ridiculous.
Bron Watson: And you know what? And it's, and it's just you, it's usually the uncomfortableness of that person and they don't know what to say. How, what do you say? And you know, what do you say?
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: You just acknowledge, my God, Bron, that sucks.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: How are you feeling would be a great start.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah. yeah
Bron Watson: And I think with with my kids, leadership, the team, when you come from, and it's not like sharing blow by blow descriptions and and wearing your heart on your sleeve and and it as you're experiencing it, you're sharing it.
Luisa Hogan: yeah
Bron Watson: That is not what I'm talking about.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah. Yeah.
Bron Watson: I'm talking about providing a place where you are speaking your truth to yourself, which is the most important thing you can ever do as a leader with someone who's going through adversity or you're the friend of someone who's going through adversity.
Luisa Hogan: yeah
Bron Watson: Speak your truth.
Luisa Hogan: hundred percent. Oh, I couldn't agree more.
Bron Watson: And, yeah, does.
Luisa Hogan: And it builds trust too between you. It's just trust because you know what to expect.
Bron Watson: It does.
Luisa Hogan: You know that they're telling the truth. It's just, there's no bad outcome. Even if it's short-term discomfort, there's no bad or long-term outcome to telling the truth.
Bron Watson: Nope, there's nothing.
Luisa Hogan: It really isn't.
Bron Watson: and and and And I would withhold that because I wanted to be, i well, I was the strong one.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: i Oh, Bron, you're the strong one. Everyone tells you everything. Well, that's okay as long as I'm processing. What if I'm just carrying everyone else's stuff, which is what I was that person.
Bron Watson: So with the boys, with the boys i would with a second diagnosis, I would cry. I would share my fears, not about dying or anything. like Please, listen to context.
Luisa Hogan: You didn't go the exact opposite. Mm-hmm.
Bron Watson: I didn't hold it within, you know, like Rumi back in the day, what, 1,200, 1,300, like it was a long time, wrote that that poem or that piece around opening the door, allowing the emotions in but opening the door at the back and letting them out.
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah
Bron Watson: And it's not till for me going through such a serious adversity do I realise just how how essential that is to life.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah, for sure. Emotions really last 90 seconds. It's us ruminating on them and not letting them out and processing them that makes them last for days, you know?
Bron Watson: They do.
Bron Watson: Exactly. i talk about the 90 seconds, go, you know what, just roll with it.
Luisa Hogan: So, yeah.
Bron Watson: And then, you know, it's just leave the past where it belongs and leave the future where it belongs and just so consciously present where now, you know, I don't get shaken by when I go to the Cancer Institute or I've got something going on.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: I'm not shaken because I'm just so here now. I'm not giving energy to something that hasn't happened and I'm sure as hell not worrying about what's already happened.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah. Present. Yeah. I'm really interested to know, you know, in those times where you're putting out that positive, you know, face, where you also just telling yourself those positive messages or where you internally, where there are things that you were saying to yourself when you said the positive thing, you didn't really believe it. And internally you were saying something completely different or where you being toxically positive to yourself too.
Bron Watson: No, I was 100% authentic these last few years.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: So pre that, it would have been saying it to to help the people around me not worry. So,
Luisa Hogan: Yeah. But inside what were you, in those times when you were telling them not to worry, what were you saying inside?
Bron Watson: yeah, so now 100, yeah, so right now I'm great. I am 100%.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: The way I like to explain this, which is here's the trajectory of Bron over here.
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm.
Bron Watson: Here's the bronze that's the healed version or the healing version. And what would the healing version say to the one who's who's having the thing? So back then, was I honest?
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: You know what? It's a really good question. i don't want to say I was dishonest because I believed what I believed and I only did the best I could with what I had when it came for information.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: Was it ideal? No. But it was better... than the Brun Pre breast cancer, which was, and that that was the mask, you know. and I think leaders are really good at masking because your team relying, you know, they're relying on you in lots of different ways.
Luisa Hogan: Very much.
Bron Watson: But when you're in that vulnerable lane, when we're working together, like with my guys, I'd say, guys, we're now, we here we go again. and one of my girls, Tenille, she'd say to me, oh, Brun, is this another pivot? And we hate the word pivot, just so you know.
Luisa Hogan: So do I, yeah.
Bron Watson: I hate that word, right? And I go, yep, let's go.
Luisa Hogan: yeah
Bron Watson: And she has such faith in herself and has faith in me that she knows we'll be okay.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm.
Bron Watson: And I'm being vulnerable when I speak that because I wouldn't have a clue what the answer is sometimes. can't know it all.
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm.
Bron Watson: But I'm not being vulnerable to the point where I'm living through second-guessing myself. I'm working on myself. to be able to be the best version i can be for me and then those around me.
Bron Watson: So nowadays what you see is what you get and and I'm very much in alignment with myself.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Luisa Hogan: How long did that process take you to become that? You know, was it? Was it, ah you know, you talk about the realizations that you had and, and, you know, the experiences that you had that shaped this, but is it something you to work on over months, years?
Luisa Hogan: Did you, have you had moments where sometimes you fall back on bad habits and you have to come back?
Bron Watson: Hmm.
Luisa Hogan: Like, tell us about that. Cause somebody listening might be going, okay, great. So how do I get to where you are? They want to aspire to that, that same level of self-talk and, and authenticity and vulnerability. But they're like, well, you know, ah do I need to have a cancer diagnosis to get there? How do how do I do it? How long will it take me?
Bron Watson: Look, that's a really good question. And no, you don't need a cancer diagnosis.
Luisa Hogan: seven
Bron Watson: Learn for the people who are learning the lessons. We all have different lessons to learn.
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm.
Bron Watson: And I would say years. And it's a forever ending thing, right?
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: So to me, I'm on a path of healing. So the way I liken... my experiences now, which is so filled with uncertainty. The world is uncertain, but my life is particularly uncertain in the fact that I have a health issue that can flip on a on a dime. Let's use an American term here, flip on a coin. And it's taken years 2023.
Bron Watson: years from twenty twenty three So i would say at least two to three years. But that doesn't mean someone else is going, oh, God, Bron, i I don't want to do this for another two to three years. You don't have to.
Bron Watson: You don't have to.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah. Yeah.
Bron Watson: But the way we handle that is a bit like, and i always liken it to playing basketball, right? So you and I are on the basketball court. We've got the team and we're running down. We're in a fence and i shoot and I miss the hoop.
Bron Watson: Coach, timeout, timeout. There's a very famous story on this too. Timeout, timeout. Come on, girl. Get off, get off. We need to talk about this. In that choice, i have I have a choice right then for two things.
Bron Watson: One, I can go back and re-pull apart agonisingly that particular play in the game or i can focus on the next play.
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Bron Watson: Not the game, not the season, not the next five years, but literally the next play. Insert serenity prayer here. We name emotions like I'm annoyed at myself, I'm frustrated, I'm covered with, you know, like overwhelm, anxiety, whatever it is, and name that feeling.
Bron Watson: There's a lot of, ah when I'm talking stuff, I'm talking with psychology to back me up, even though i'm not a psychologist or and a neuroscientist. There's a lot of evidence out there.
Luisa Hogan: who
Bron Watson: But when we name something, So you don't want to take three years to work this stuff out. You can start today with this exact process, which is when you name that a feeling that you've got right now, psychologically your brain goes, cool, okay, I'm going to give, so it it just, we get space between the emotion and ourselves.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah. Yeah.
Bron Watson: So thinking for me, uncertainty can either be smack up to my face or I'm going to name and go, oh, my God, I'm so, I'm actually really scared today. That's my emotion. Not really, but so it's my scared, right? It just pushes it out.
Bron Watson: It's not going to remove it. And then I control the controllables. Well, what can I control?
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: And then I pause and it's that pause. And that's when we talk about that 90 seconds.
Luisa Hogan: Yes.
Bron Watson: The pause is the game changer because then we can reflect and then we respond.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: We do not react.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: And you might have to do it 30, yeah, 30 times in a row.
Luisa Hogan: It's that. Moment of regulation. Then you do exactly. It's that moment of regulation because you go into the space of threat, right? And then you name it and your brain's like, okay, we know what this is.
Bron Watson: Yes.
Luisa Hogan: So I'm a little bit more safe now. And then we pause and then we take a few deep breaths and we anchor ourselves and then we go, what's the first next step? And when we do that, you're giving your body a sense of safety and regulation.
Luisa Hogan: and I love the neuroscience behind this. So I love that you talk about this because like you're speaking my language.
Bron Watson: Oh, me too. You know, and we, yeah.
Luisa Hogan: I love it.
Bron Watson: And, and, you know, like your brain, your brain physiologically will get you out of fight and flight.
Luisa Hogan: You know?
Bron Watson: It'll bring you back.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: The pause is the most powerful thing, which is knowing that when that thing fires off, we know, as you and I both were talking before, there's 90 seconds.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: So you can either feed the next 90 seconds or you can actually use the 90 seconds Two, name the emotion, control the controllables, pause, reflect, respond, rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat, and just let it be.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Luisa Hogan: And off you go. Yeah. Such great advice. And it actually works to people out there think, oh, that sounds too easy. Trust me. And like, it sounds like you use this with your clients and with yourself.
Luisa Hogan: I've used it with clients and I see it every day, how this actually works.
Bron Watson: Oh, myself.
Luisa Hogan: And it's, I can't believe people don't know more about this and don't actually practice it. And it's not, that's not hard, is it?
Bron Watson: It is not hard. It is so simple. I think that humans go, oh, it's got to be harder than that.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: You start doing that, your my three years, you're going to get it sorted very, very fast, very, very quickly because...
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Luisa Hogan: You're a new person.
Bron Watson: You're taking responsibility of what you can control and letting be on the things you can't. Whether you're the leader, whether you've got, whether you're on the team or whether you're going through adversity of any shapes and sizes or in my case going through incurable cancer,
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: where the system, just all I focus on is the disease. It's like, hello, there's a human over here.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah. There's a human here.
Bron Watson: Hello. And I'm allowed to say it because I've been in the industry for 30 years. So it's no different. It is literally no different. And there's just so much out there to read.
Bron Watson: But when we bring it back to just one small thing, that would be my one thing. That's it.
Luisa Hogan: Amazing. Gold, pure gold. Looking back now, brun like, What do you think people misunderstand about resilience?
Luisa Hogan: Because I'm sure people in your circle or around you would have said, you're so resilient.
Bron Watson: and
Luisa Hogan: So what do you think people misunderstand the most about resilience and healing?
Bron Watson: Look, what I feel for me was I was relentless, not resilient because it looks the same, right?
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm.
Bron Watson: So the way I describe this, just over there in my front yard because I live on acreage, there is this amazing gum tree that
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm.
Bron Watson: And there's a willow tree not far away. So the amazing gum tree is still is is tall, it is old, it's an incredible tree. And it's seen many, many, many storms.
Bron Watson: But since we've been here in the last year, we've had three major branches fall off that tree. And back in the day, they called them widow makers. So that gum tree, which looks to be so strong and so relentless and so tall,
Bron Watson: when the storm comes or even after, is getting the damage of being such a tall, strong tree. Whereas here we go, this here's this willow tree. It's nowhere near as big. It's not as amazing to look at. And what happens in the storm? I look like an octopus. you know
Luisa Hogan: it
Bron Watson: But, you know, like it's got the branches. I'm not an octopus. You know, like imagine the willow tree.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah
Bron Watson: What does it do? It bends and it flows and it goes with the storm.
Luisa Hogan: yeah.
Bron Watson: We don't find any branches on the ground.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: So that's the difference in my world. That's my definition of being relentless versus being resilient.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: So what
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: resilience, I wore it like a badge of honour. Oh, I'm so strong. You don't know how strong you are until you have no choice, which is true, but I'm so strong. I'm the i'm the damn gum tree, right?
Bron Watson: To the point where I'm trying to control it all, that when the storm comes, what happens? No, no, Bron, you will not control it all. Okay, branch number one, two and three, and we're talking big branches. Down they come.
Bron Watson: If you got hit by that, you would not be here. Versus Bron how about you just go with it my friend. Just go with it. Don't fight it.
Luisa Hogan: Go with the wind.
Bron Watson: Don't fight it. Put your roots down lic and strong but don't fight it. Who's the powerful one then?
Luisa Hogan: Yeah. Yeah.
Bron Watson: It's not about being powerful.
Luisa Hogan: The will of surrendering, right?
Bron Watson: Yeah. It is.
Luisa Hogan: Just surrenders to the wind and lasts.
Bron Watson: It does. It doesn't fight it
Luisa Hogan: Yeah. Love it.
Bron Watson: You know, what I think the biggest thing and for me looking through those years, was that I did want to control it all, thinking that that was the right thing to do especially when it came to the team or my family, that I, in my world, now call it sugarcoating because I wanted it all to be great. I wanted everyone to be happy versus their happiness has nothing to do with me.
Bron Watson: It's not my responsibility.
Luisa Hogan: yeah
Bron Watson: You know, so i think it's really important to start remembering that what is our responsibility and what is not and give back what is not yours.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah, I love it. Bron, tell me more about the Serenity Project and where can people find you if they're interested in that?
Bron Watson: you.
Luisa Hogan: Tell me more about the work that you're doing there.
Bron Watson: Well, the Serenity Project came about because I am the project.
Luisa Hogan: You are, as we all are.
Bron Watson: And I'm the project. We're all the projects, right? So i i I've always wanted to write a book for the last 10 years.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: i actually wrote a chapter, would you believe, ten years over 10 years ago. only found it in 2023, I think, after or during this whole time, right? And I couldn't believe what I'd written because I was writing to myself.
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm.
Bron Watson: And it was it was so profound to see that. So as I have learnt these things, for me,
Bron Watson: became increasingly concerned in the way that cancer treatment cancer patients are treated, not because of the people but because of the systems that we are we are in. So the Serenity Project was born more out of Well, I needed, what I needed, I couldn't find.
Bron Watson: You can Google everything you want under the sun, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's a good fit for you. So I call it the third space, which is where science and soul with evidence and perspective meet.
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm.
Bron Watson: So where we're looking at medicine, which is always siloed, and then there's everyone going, oh, alternative therapy, oh, you know, what treatment are you having?
Luisa Hogan: Nice.
Bron Watson: Like, I don't even have an opinion, people. It's not alternative. It's just treatment.
Luisa Hogan: Mm, yeah.
Bron Watson: It is simply treatment. So where I came from is to create a space where people could go and make decisions for themselves because I'm the CEO of me.
Bron Watson: This is my e ecosystem.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: And who's on my committee? Who did I want? having to be a part of it because a lot of times when it comes to cancer or going through disease or treatment, a lot of times people just become passive bystanders and they just go along with the flow versus what I'm saying is that I'm an active participant and no, I don't need to read all the science articles.
Bron Watson: I just need to have people who know how to read them to be able to make sense of what is right for me because when you make a decision that is right for you, it always turns out right.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah, for sure.
Bron Watson: Even when you fail, it still turned out right. So that's where the Serenity Project came from.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: And it's it's just a place and a community for people who are living through cancer, their family, their friends and the professionals who support them to start talking about this because I really would like to change the way our patients are treated because here's your treatment plan.
Bron Watson: Well, hey, here's a road map. And it's it's based on some really cool stuff with some really cool people because it's obviously way bigger than me. So serenityproject.com.au and just reach out on LinkedIn, socials.
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm.
Bron Watson: I'm always there if anyone has a question because we don't need to make this about cancer. This is about adversity because it comes in all shapes and sizes.
Luisa Hogan: v For sure. I love it. I love how you've turned something that could, you know, ah you know, mentally, not only physically, but mentally destroy you. And you've come out and you've learned such amazing things about yourself. You've you turned yourself around in terms of actual resilience, vulnerability, improving your relationships, such an inspiring story. And then you still create something that's giving back to the community. What a wonderful, meaningful, purposeful thing to do. And I think i think that's amazing.
Luisa Hogan: think that's amazing.
Bron Watson: and i And I thank you for sharing that because it's just through conversation. Like what you're doing with your clients and and and your your industry, we're having conversations for people to be aware that they can then actually be a part of what's next.
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Luisa Hogan: Mm-hmm.
Bron Watson: And um that's super, super fun and exciting.
Luisa Hogan: Push it home.
Bron Watson: And, you know, I've actually been criticised.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: Like, why are you doing this, Bron? It's like, well, and I've questioned myself, but it's bigger than me and I will while I can.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah.
Bron Watson: And that's just the way we're at.
Luisa Hogan: Yeah. Well, I'll be following you with interest for as long as you are out there doing the work. I think it's amazing. And I will definitely be forwarding people onto you who may be going through something, you know, similar or adversity, as you say. So thank you so, so much for joining me today. Such a meaningful conversation. I'm sure people have got loads out of it.
Luisa Hogan: um And I hope to bring you back, actually. I'd like to bring you back onto the podcast sometime and talk to you some more. i think I think you have...
Bron Watson: I would love yeah.
Luisa Hogan: wonderful, valuable things to say and to share. So thank you so much, Bron.
Bron Watson: Oh, thank you.
Luisa Hogan: And to everyone else listening, what I got out of today was that sometimes the strongest thing a leader or a person, even if you take leadership out of it, um can do is to stop performing strength long enough to tell the truth and be vulnerable about what being human actually feels like.
Bron Watson: Appreciate that.
Luisa Hogan: Because that's what we are. We are all human. Take all the labels away. We are human and we all feel the same things, whether you like that or not. So thank you for joining us today on the Second Voice podcast. Until next time, goodbye.
