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Amber Bites Big with Lucy Bloom - Founder, Creative Director, CEO & Author
29 Plays8 days ago
In Episode 14, we crank the volume way up. Amber is joined by speaker, author, and rebel leader Lucy Bloom, a woman who doesn’t just challenge the rules of leadership, she rewrites them in hot pink.
From running a top creative agency to leading game-changing charities and launching global firsts like Beer + Bubs (childbirth education for dads at the pub), Lucy’s career is a wild masterclass in passion, resilience and reinvention. With four books under her belt and a speaking career that lights up global stages, she brings truth bombs, belly laughs, and brilliant advice in equal measure.
💥 Boss Takeaways from Episode 14 with Lucy Bloom
- “Do it with passion or not at all.” Lucy’s mantra isn't just catchy, it’s a life philosophy. If it doesn’t light her up, it’s a no. Period.
- Burnout is not a badge of honour. After decades of going full tilt, Lucy’s now all about boundaries, sleep, and putting health first.
- Confidence is a muscle, not a gift. Lucy proves that being bold doesn’t mean being fearless, it means practicing courage over and over again.
- Be so good they can’t ignore you. Whether she’s on stage or running a business, Lucy’s approach to success is simple: back yourself and deliver.
- Purpose makes it worth it.From training midwives in Ethiopia to empowering women in Uganda, Lucy shows that real impact comes when passion meets mission.
- When in doubt, just start. Whether it’s a business, a book, or a sewing project, Lucy’s advice is clear: you don’t need a perfect plan, just the guts to begin.
🔗 Follow BITE BIG for more unfiltered stories from women who lead big one mantra at a time.
Links:
Lucy Bloom LinkedIn
Lucy Bloom Instagram
Lucy Bloom Facebook
Lucy Bloom Website
Lucy Bloom's Books
Lucy Bloom Blog: Why I will never work full time again
The Imperfects: The Science of sleep
Love Mercy Australia
Amber's Instagram
Amber's LinkedIn
The Edison Agency's LinkedIn
The Edison Agency's Instagram
CREDITS
Host & ECD – Amber Bonney, The Edison Agency Founder
Producer – Niki Beeston, Group Account Director, The Edison Agency
Marketing – Liz Archer, Head of Operations, The Edison Agency
Social Assets – Alyssa Payad, Intern, The Edison Agency
Post Production – Francine Toscano, 17th Street Audio
Recommended
Transcript
Acknowledgement and Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
On behalf of the Bite Big team, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we are recording on today, the Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation. We recognise that with over 60,000 years of experience, First Peoples of Australia are most definitely the original storytellers, designers and artists of this country, and we pay our respect to their elders past, present and emerging.
00:00:30
Speaker
Hello, before we get stuck into this episode of Bite Big, let me tell you a little bit about who the hell I am and why this content is important to me. My name's Amber Bonney and for the past 25 years, I've been reshaping iconic Australian and international brands, helping them stay relevant, get noticed and be remembered in the good kind of way.
00:00:47
Speaker
I'm a passionate feminist and committed to advocating for better representation of women in senior creative and marketing roles, which is why this podcast is proudly brought to you by my business, The Edison Agency.
Meet the Hosts: Amber and Lucy
00:01:00
Speaker
If your brand or organisation needs help aligning your vision to your reputation, then you can find us at www.edison.agency you can connect with me on LinkedIn. Let's get into it.
00:01:16
Speaker
Hello and welcome to season three, episode 14 of Fight Big, a podcast about boss women leading big. I'm your host, Amber Bonny, and today i am co-hosting this episode with one of the most dynamic women I've had the joy of researching and also meeting. A very big welcome to our co-host today, lucy Bloom.
00:01:34
Speaker
Thanks for having me. You're welcome. Lucy, you are a one-of-a-kind leader who is known for not just pushing boundaries but really redrawing them and in hot pink, as you can see from your hair if anyone has a visual.
00:01:47
Speaker
um From running a high-performing ad agency for nearly 20 years to completely reinventing the way charities operate, You're famous for your fearless, creative and entirely unapologetic approach to leadership, something that I find really inspiring. You're named as one of the world's top social CEOs. Your work has raised millions for global causes and you have captivated audiences around the world with your very distinct no bullshit speaking style.
00:02:10
Speaker
To liken you to a brand, I would describe your hot pink mohawk as your most distinctive brand asset. do you think that's fair? Yeah, i think that's fair. You are the author of four books. I haven't read them all, I'll be honest, but I did read Get Your Girls Out. It is a really heartwarming insight into your life. It's funny. It's a straight down the line book, as is your personality. It's part memoir, part life lessons.
00:02:33
Speaker
And I highly recommend any of listeners to jump online and buy that. But today, we are not here to rehash the stories that people may already know about you or what we can find on LinkedIn. We are here to talk about what inspires you, what you've learned about influence and what it really takes to lead with authenticity in a world obsessed with beautiful, perfect performance.
Lucy's Leadership Philosophy and Career Insights
00:02:56
Speaker
So let's kick this off and get under the skin of what your personal mantra is and why we think you're a boss woman with a hot pink story to tell. Awesome. Let's do it. There you go Topic one, your personal mantra. And I'm going to read this out and then you are going to tell us about it.
00:03:10
Speaker
So your personal mantra is do it with passion or not at all. How did this come about? Did you know it was a mantra or did you make it up when we sent the questions through? I've actually been living to that one for a long time, at least 10 years. About 10 years ago, i was the CEO of an international aid charity that was funding work in Ethiopia.
00:03:31
Speaker
And we had a big on diversification of income streams. It's like a basic survival. And one of our income streams was retail because cannot end the underestimate how much people want to buy stuff.
00:03:45
Speaker
yeah I'd rather buy stuff than give a donation. Okay, we'll let you buy stuff. And so we developed a retail strategy that was in enormously successful. And I remember my awful board of directors used to refer to it as playing shop.
00:03:59
Speaker
And they eventually shut the fuck up when we had a turnover of ah three quarters of million dollars It's like when people say when you're in the creative industry, you're just playing with crayons. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's missing that you spent $300,000 on a car. It's the miners who played with crayons.
00:04:17
Speaker
Or clients used to say, have a play. ah So one of the products we developed was a really strong, um robust, fabulous tote bag with those words on It was black with chunky white words that said, do it with passion or not at all.
00:04:32
Speaker
It's about focus. And I'm not a half-arsed person. I'm all ass or no ass. I'm in or I'm out. That's partly why i gave up drinking. like I didn't want to leave it to myself to keep making the decision on whether this was an occasion worth having a drink yeah so but not to drink at all so um you make a decision once hey presto let's go but but with passion or not at all is kind of about choosing what sets you on fire and do that and say no to absolutely everything else and that's partly because as I've got older I've cracked into my 50s I cannot believe it
00:05:10
Speaker
I'm nearly, I'm on your coattails. I'm literally months behind from cracking a half century. I identify as late 30s and ah your energy like your energy changes and where your energy appears in the day changes. So i used to be a late night creative person.
00:05:27
Speaker
And now I'm an early morning creative person. You ask what time I'd like this interview, 10 a.m. This is where my brain's nice and juicy. I will give you fabulous replies. A 4 p.m. interview would be sloppy. But that's not how I used to work.
00:05:40
Speaker
That is so fascinating because that is my exact experience, but I never really realised why that was. I i could work, I could actually work around the clock with, I could just keep going and then get on a plane the next day.
00:05:53
Speaker
ah Now it's like even 3 p.m. and i you're starting to lose me. Yeah, so I leave my juicy brain work for the morning. I write the best blogs first thing in the morning and then I leave my dopey work for the afternoon. So that's like housework, chores, admin, stuff that I can just put headphones on, listen to someone else's genius and get things done, but I'm not producing. So it's output versus input.
00:06:17
Speaker
My output happens when my energy is best. My input happens when I'm waning. So limited energy, you've just got to do what um do it with passion or not at all. No one wants a sort of a vague, slow, unenthused response to things. Yeah, half-assed.
00:06:37
Speaker
there's There's lots of ways to look at that phrase. Yeah, and I suppose, that yeah, context is important. I want to ask about, I mean, there's a real double-edged sword, I think, to a passion can be a loaded work, but in terms of burnout leading from giving too much passion, is that something that's familiar to you?
00:06:59
Speaker
Yes. Do tell. Let me sit back and enjoy my coffee for a minute. And I think that's why this Do With Passion Or Not At All is so much more meaningful now than it was 10 years ago.
00:07:10
Speaker
10 years ago, it was more of a war cry. Now it's like a lady, you're going to kill yourself if you're not careful. yeah ah Burnout, absolutely.
00:07:21
Speaker
Did it many times in my career. And I'm really lucky that I haven't picked up more serious health problems. So i I wrote a blog about why never work full-time again. i gave 25 years, a quarter of a century, the best years of my life to working my ass off, slogging for my family and also for myself, you as a competitive, ambitious person, and then for massive causes, not small-scale causes.
00:07:52
Speaker
I went big. I went with trying to train a midwife for every single village in the whole of Ethiopia. Yeah. Yeah, just a small, I mean, if my mantras bite big and chew like hell, don't know what is bigger than that, but you might be it. yeah And i was more ambitious than my body could really keep up with. So I had three little kids when when I first took up that CEO role. before That was the Catherine Hamlin Fistula Foundation. is that the first one? Yeah, I took that CEO role.
00:08:22
Speaker
I had three little kids and I'd been running an ad agency and i used to do all-nighters all the time. Like you said, work like hell then catch a plane. used to do back-to-back all-nighters and then catch a plane to Ethiopia thinking I could sleep on the plane.
00:08:40
Speaker
And I think back to that lunacy and how I was just putting myself, my body, my hum like my mortality last.
00:08:52
Speaker
And i remember, but will never forget this, this GP had such an impact on me. She kept saying to me, oh, Lucy, just put your feet up. You're not getting enough rest.
00:09:04
Speaker
And she'd said that to me enough times that it really irritated me. And I said, if you say that to me one more time, I'm going to poke you in the eye. And then she got serious with me and she said, Lucy, which autoimmune disease would you like to pick up?
00:09:16
Speaker
because already had one, I had a thyroid problem, which was autoimmune. She said we've got, she was really animated and funny about it. And it spoke on my level. She said, we've got type one diabetes.
00:09:28
Speaker
That's autoimmune. We've got MS. Would like that one? Or this is a fun one, lupus. And that, yeah, she got me. I was like, you're right. No, I don't want MS or any of those full on medical issues.
00:09:41
Speaker
I am pushing myself far too hard and I gradually was able to pull back. As my kids got older, I got wiser. I think it was 2017 was the last time I worked for anyone else and it was in 2017 I decided I wouldn't work full-time again.
00:09:59
Speaker
So that's also about being more experienced. Now I've got work on the board. I'm paid a lot more for the time I spend. I work part-time but I earn more than I ever did as a CEO.
00:10:10
Speaker
Yeah. What did you think back then when you were working that hard, what was at stake for you? a few things. There's always providing for my family.
00:10:23
Speaker
So three little kids and um and a lifestyle I chose. So I speak about, I write ah about this a lot and get the girls out about how I made some big decisions in my early twenty s And I had no idea what I was walking into.
00:10:38
Speaker
Big house, husband, kids, and that was a lot to take on. And my divorce actually gave me the chance to undo a lot of those big decisions. Now I live in a much more compact, simple way than I ever did.
00:10:51
Speaker
But what was at stake? Providing for my family. But I also,
Challenges and Achievements in Charity Work
00:10:55
Speaker
once i was ah when I was running my ad agency, I felt like it was my reputation and being a sought after creative was at stake.
00:11:05
Speaker
Then when I became the CEO and I was overseeing funding this really important work, life-saving stuff, ripple effect that, you know, every midwife you train helps safely deliver about 350 babies a year and the ripple effects into that baby's community goes on forever.
00:11:26
Speaker
And so these ripple effects just go on and on and on and these were big life-changing things. It wasn't It wasn't selling treated drinks tickets to the footy or what else did we work on? um we ah Our biggest client before I folded the business was they sold hinges and drawer runners.
00:11:49
Speaker
Yeah, so it wasn't that. Not life-shaving stuff. So then i then I felt this huge weight of responsibility for a cause that really mattered and had a profound impact on the patients that we were seeing in the hospital and the midwives we were training and then going out into the community.
00:12:08
Speaker
So that was at stake and the pressure of that was enormous. Tell us about that moment when you decided to walk away because I imagine, so ah listening to you and having read your book, a lot of that resonates as an agency owner and I have a similar amount of experience in the industry and I know that that sort of pressure i imagine other listeners will too.
00:12:32
Speaker
When did you know when to walk away? From ad agency life, it was really, it was done for me. um i might seem like this brave warrior, but I'm not at all. Every major decision in my life has pretty much been made for me and I had to roll with it.
00:12:47
Speaker
So had a massive motorcycle accident at my first year out of high school. That meant that i became an agency founder, not because I'm super brave and a total entrepreneur, but because i had leg in plaster and I was unemployable.
00:13:00
Speaker
ah just rolled with the shit that happened to me. When I folded the business 20 years later, an offer landed in my lap that was too good to be true. The founder of the hospital in Ethiopia said, will you be the CEO of a brand new women's health charity to fund my legacy after my death?
00:13:16
Speaker
Too good to be true. course I will. so I mean, that's very hard to say no to, isn't it? And I'd been running the agency for 20 years and I say this in speeches, like I bore easily and 20 years is a long time for someone who bores easily to keep doing the same thing. Even though it was a across um a broad range of clients from, you know, sport to the building industry to bikinis, I was still bored with the burn and churn by then. Yeah.
00:13:41
Speaker
I used to look back on client files and go, oh, God, imagine if we did that job again. What a drag. You just can never do it again. Yeah, i was I was ready but something landed in my lap and I took it. I did not need any thinking time.
00:13:55
Speaker
Well, that's bravery in that though because you say that's not brave but that is brave because some people would look at that and go, oh, but what about all the risks? So it is brave to email all your clients and say,
00:14:09
Speaker
yeah yeah I have something better. Take your hinges. They're going to get a CD for you. but milly yeah Look, I guess so, but I don't know why, but I haven't had a moment's imposter syndrome my whole life. I know it exists, but I've never gone, I couldn't do that because nobody knows what they're doing.
00:14:35
Speaker
This is why my mantra is bite big and chew like hell. I feel the same. I'm just like, sure, I and like can give that a crack. I always say this when I'm the emcee of a big one, I am literally 15 seconds ahead of the audience.
00:14:49
Speaker
Literally just before I walk on and announce, you know, a change or a shift or the next speaker, a change has been given to me. just blows my mind how events always change on the ground. And that's what life's like. that The people look like they know what they're doing.
00:15:03
Speaker
They're literally just a few steps ahead. And durability. You do get better, though, i feel. you get, with age, more practised at looking more seamless with your adaptability to change.
00:15:18
Speaker
Yeah, and your confidence in the way you say things and know things. I often give this example in in speeches of how Google's done this mapping of where our eyes look on a page and if you want, and this is from my agency days too, if you want someone to read a message, if there's something that's crucial, if this is the only message they get from this piece of communication, let this be it, it has to go in the headline, in the images, in their captions or in a pull quote like every art director The world knows that.
00:15:48
Speaker
And it's only people over 65 who read all the copy. Now, people always snigger laugh, like the old folks have got the time to read all the detail. No, the old folks have got the experience that informs them that the devil is in the detail.
00:16:02
Speaker
And if you book a holiday based on pictures, you will wind up at a boat wharf. Somewhere in the Philippines with no one picking you up because that was all in the detail.
00:16:15
Speaker
Experience, yeah, informs you and you're clearer on what you know and what to skip. And, yeah, people might sound like they know what they're doing, but they're half a second ahead of you. So every big step I've taken, like the first book I published, I figured I could figure it out.
00:16:31
Speaker
Walk into the library, is every single author there figured it out. Yeah. and Yeah, you just figure it out. No one's going to And that's my risk management profile.
00:16:45
Speaker
Risk management You ask yourself to two questions. ah What's the worst thing that could happen and will anybody die? And truly answer those questions for yourself. So when I published my first book, what's the worst thing that could happen?
00:16:58
Speaker
I'd lose 20 grand in all the costs it took to publish that book myself. And when I drove into my garage, if they didn't sell, 70 cartons of books would be looking back at me, telling me I'm a loser.
00:17:11
Speaker
what I can handle that. And will anybody die? Absolutely not. On we go. um So that when anyone, everyone, ah well, not everyone, when various people were saying, don't write that book, focus on getting clients for the agency, I could ignore them and go, no, this is a risk worth taking.
00:17:28
Speaker
The offer or the request to be a CEO for the first time, I'd run my own business since I was 19. So becoming a CEO was just and another piece of learning in reporting to a board,
00:17:41
Speaker
in dealing with public funds. I had to very quickly upskill on the whole um technicalities of running a charity and reporting to the Australian government. Yeah, which is a big leap. Don't undersell yourself. It is a big leap going from agency to that level of governance and operational complexity. Yeah, I had to become an expert really quickly on governance so that my board couldn't bullshit me because I found it. Yeah, they do love to do that.
00:18:09
Speaker
Yeah. um And after that, policy is really important. And I used to make whoever on my team would be responsible for that policy. I got them to write it because when it's your baby, you're so much better at it. And I'm creative to love policy and governance is really strange.
00:18:25
Speaker
But I learned quickly that it gives you the fundamental, the really great base of safety. And then you can take risks and be wild. ah So yeah I had to learn fast so that people couldn't bullshit me, even on the inside of the business.
00:18:40
Speaker
And then the step to not run companies anymore. Again, that was almost made for me. I quit my last executive director role when I read an article that listed off a whole bunch of illnesses that CEOs tend to get, executive stress type things.
00:19:00
Speaker
And on this list were all the things I had and things that you just write off like disturbed sleep. You know, when I got sick, I got really sick. you know, I didn't just get a head cold. I'd get pneumonia.
00:19:12
Speaker
yeah And I thought, whoa, this is me. I'm killing myself. And I did what I tell. i do a lot of coaching and I'm constantly saying to people, just what's what's your superpower?
00:19:24
Speaker
If you want to quit your job, never go back to that job again. Lean on your superpower. Or if you're pushed into a corner, lean on your superpower. If you're in panic mode, what where's your biggest strength?
00:19:35
Speaker
What is your superpower? And mine was speaking. I've always, I hadn't always, but I'd been a good speaker for a solid 10 years and that was fun. And I'm big on chasing the fun.
00:19:46
Speaker
That's good for your health too. And so I went to my superpower because my health was waning and I have never looked back. But it was at a stage in my life where I had all this experience and credibility and um I could turn all my most difficult challenges and horrific crap that's happened to me in my life and I could turn them into stories that I now speak about on stage. And so horrid things have actually become money spinners.
00:20:16
Speaker
Yeah, well, I wanted to ask about, I suppose, the commerce of turning something that you are passionate about into something that's not only profitable from a business perspective, but something that you enjoy doing. Because I i imagine lots of people, i mean, in in the startup space, for example,
00:20:35
Speaker
There's a lot of passionate energy, but also a lot of failures that potentially don't always lead to a second attempt by people. What are the things that you, I suppose, can lean on or reflect upon that make the difference between something that can lead to success versus just a passion?
00:20:53
Speaker
Yeah, sure. Okay. So me as a speaker, ah knew I knew could make that work and leverage this talent I had because I only had to rely on me.
00:21:06
Speaker
One of my other mantras is be so good they can't ignore you. I know a guy who is a knitter and he knits for the movies. So any period piece, it's him and his team who create these beautiful knits, works with all the biggest stars.
00:21:21
Speaker
And he said, oh, this I have two types of customers, the ones who want to work with me and the ones who have to.
00:21:27
Speaker
The only person in the movie industry who does this. And so that's where Be So Good They Can't Ignore You becomes becomes real. yeah To be the best female speaker, because I compete with a lot of men, to be the best female or the best speaker in Australia, I'll be so good they can't ignore me. They're like, damn, we haven't had Lucy Bloom yet. then then those stages come to me.
00:21:53
Speaker
Yeah, seven or eight years it's taken me to get to that point so that it's ah I'm a known entity, but I'm only relying on myself to deliver. And that's why i knew worked and I could monetize it. I'd also done the basics of the business, like what can I charge? How many times a year do I need to speak? Can I meet my basic commitments?
00:22:14
Speaker
Living in the world's most expensive city with three very expensive children. You know, I'd done the basics. I didn't just dive in and quit, you know, quit my job and dive in and hope for the best. I'd gone, okay, I did this many speeches last year. I can double that.
00:22:29
Speaker
This is my price point. This is where I sit amongst other speakers. I'd done all that work. To the matrix positioning mapping, where am I? against the ex-news readers, the you know, because theres it's a big circle in your space, obviously a lot of blokes.
00:22:47
Speaker
I definitely feel like the persona, the pink hair
Personal Branding and Unique Initiatives
00:22:50
Speaker
persona, definitely helps you cut through that space because when you see the visual trigger, as you know, having worked in creative, it's like a prompter. And with a name like Lucy Bloom as well and the hair, it's... um Yeah, and that was it's by accident. I didn't go, right, I did it. It's a cool story, actually. I like telling it because I get to name drop big time.
00:23:12
Speaker
I was invited by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt to a movie premiere, but so were 300 other bitches. I wanted to stand out. And so I basically said to the hairdresser, do whatever it takes, do whatever you like.
00:23:24
Speaker
And I already had a bit of a quiff type mohawk when I came out with a pink one, and that was 10 years ago. And I thought it would be a temporary thing. I thought my kids would go, oh, well, mom.
00:23:36
Speaker
But my kids loved it. They were like, I can see i can see you in the playground. i remember my son, he was in year six. He goes, mom, my friends think your hair is really cool. It's pretty much what's getting me through right now.
00:23:47
Speaker
So I kept it. I loved it. I look in the mirror and at least twice a day I go, fuck, I love my hair. So it's just another fun thing. And so the fact that it's an excellent marketing tool is sort of accidental.
00:23:59
Speaker
Of the businesses, so you you had your agency pure Pure Graphics, is that what that was? Yeah, that's what it was. Beer and bubs, your books, your CEO roles. What are you most proud of out of those big enterprises?
00:24:12
Speaker
I'm so proud of beer and bubs because that's another one where it was 100% me. No one else did that. was my big idea. I pulled it off and 21 years later it's still going strong and I'm really proud of that. Just for our listeners who might not be familiar with that, tell us about beer and bubs.
00:24:28
Speaker
It's a national program. It's childbirth education for dads at the pub. So I created that when I had my first baby. He was only 10 months old when I held the very first beer and bub session at a pub in Sydney.
00:24:40
Speaker
But it was those workshops that gave me the opportunity to get my reps in, to speak and speak and speak and speak and polish. It was two hours, which is a long time to speak.
00:24:52
Speaker
So was an hour, then we'd have it chicken schnitz together and then an hour But doing that every month for six years gave me the reps. So I got really good at telling the stories, perfecting what they laughed at, getting good at the pace, leaving out the boring shit.
00:25:08
Speaker
So I'm really proud of Beer and Bubz. I sold the business to an awesome chick, one of my best presenters when I went into my first CEO role. i was like, whoa, i can't do everything. And I sold that business, but I very cleverly kept the license to the book.
00:25:23
Speaker
I also wrote a book called She's Childbirth. That was my first book, the one my husband didn't want me to write. He wanted me to just keep looking for business for the agency. And i'm so glad I did. It was in a lull in the business. I have every single, i always say this in library speeches when I go and speak to readers in libraries or writers' festivals.
00:25:42
Speaker
Every time I've written a book, it's been when there's been a big lull in my life, a big gap in my schedule. So my my novel, the manuscript, I wrote when we were all in lockdown.
00:25:53
Speaker
Biggest lull we've all had. And so I'm very proud of that whole body of work I did in the childbirth space specifically for men. It's a world first.
00:26:03
Speaker
Love me a world first. um And it continues. It's also good for the website, having a world first. Just find a world first. Yeah. I'm also immensely proud of the work I did with Catherine Hamlin.
00:26:16
Speaker
She was a really, really magnificent woman. I have never met anyone who makes me want to be a better person. She was a really special person. She was a shithouse business person. She was terrible.
00:26:30
Speaker
And she would admit it too. was terrible at governance. She was not business-minded. She was horrific at understanding budgets. But was she good at bringing the right people in me ah support her? She was just the most magnificent doctor, holistic doctor.
00:26:49
Speaker
So the right people were attracted to her very holistic way of being a doctor because she treated the whole person. She didn't just treat an injury. She spent a lot of time with each patient. She understood their story.
00:27:04
Speaker
um She sent them home with um skills. you know If they didn't have any reading or numeracy, they could stay longer. So they could do some classes. They could learn other skills.
00:27:16
Speaker
And some of them, she made sure they had the opportunity to set up micro businesses. So they They come with a hole in their bladder and they leave ah with a microbusiness. What hospital does That is quite the upskill, yeah. Yeah, so cool. And then and her so staff, her Ethiopian staff, absolutely adored her, would die for her, would lay their lives down for her. They loved her so much.
00:27:40
Speaker
um by the time she retired, she was actually the only white person working at the hospital. She really focused, um she realised very late in life that thats that that it's that sustainability piece where, um you know, an organisation has to be able to run itself. It shouldn't be white people coming in and running the show. It needs to be run in local ways and local languages for local people.
00:28:05
Speaker
What a legacy she left behind. that would have been quite the funeral service, I imagine. Well, wasn't. She didn't like attention, didn't want it to be a big loss, and she died in March 2020, so she made sure of I'm so impressed that she died right when no one could travel and the Ethiopians couldn't put on a great a big street parade and she's just like, just bury me next to my husband and don't make a fuss.
00:28:33
Speaker
Yeah, she was epic. um Some of the people around her, not so much. um When she went on the Oprah show, which is how I came to know about her work, so she did it with some good people.
00:28:45
Speaker
ah When she went on the Oprah show, the fame factor attracted some of the wrong types of people who who were hard work. um And there's a whole chapter on charity in my memoir about how people want to give but they give on their own terms instead of saying charity need.
00:29:03
Speaker
They decide what they want to give and can be a total nightmare. As CEO, I saw a lot of that. So we had people donating blankets, but they cost us $10 each to ship to Ethiopia on the other side of the globe.
00:29:17
Speaker
And I actually ended that program. It was enormously popular, but it cost too much and too many. They were coming from Britain, just, you know, just up there, but much quicker. And so we sold them.
00:29:29
Speaker
um for what they were actually worth. So sometimes as a CEO, you've got to make the right decision, not the popular decision. Yeah. Well, I wanted to ask about leadership because for women in leadership, we've definitely made, you know, some pretty positive grounds on the gendered perspective, but there's still an expectation for women to behave a certain way, given that you are ah leader who has really challenged that status quo.
00:30:00
Speaker
What would your advice be to women who potentially with that that kind of no bullshit approach does not come naturally? I'm going to pass on some secondhand advice from a bloke called Tim Minchin.
00:30:11
Speaker
He brought out a little book. We'll call it a booklet because you can listen to it in under an hour. And it's really good. It's like everything. It's like all his advice. And ah he tells his story of how he went from just doofus to who he is now and how he took up the piano and The crux of what he has to say there, and it's so juicy, is be yourself and then get really good at something.
00:30:37
Speaker
It's so good. Be yourself then get really good at something. Being yourself is actually far more, it conserves your energy so much more than trying to be someone else or trying to edit.
00:30:50
Speaker
And I think because I've always had a level of self-confidence when someone tells me to do chill to dampen i do the opposite you tell me to be quiet i'll shout a bit louder you tell me to tie my to you know flatten my hair i'll footh my makeup my mohawk i know my mohawk is the right size when it touches the roof of my car yeah that's the that's the metric yeah so i can only be me and and me will appeal to some people and not to everyone and that's okay you'll be you'll die of exhaustion trying to appeal to everyone even to appeal to the people who matter. You can only be you. And then the crucial bit is get really good at something because then you'll be so good they can't ignore you.
00:31:37
Speaker
It takes practice. But anything, courage takes practice. Yeah. um I speak on this. it takes Courage takes practice. People think that courage is this thing, incredibly brave, you know, paratroopers, soldiers at the front of a war zone. They're courageous.
00:31:55
Speaker
They're courageous. They have actually practiced that shit so many times. They can load their weapons literally with their eyes closed from muscle memory. In the military, they say, do not rise to the occasion.
00:32:08
Speaker
thought that was a good thing. Apparently not when you're being shot at. Do not rise to the occasion. Fall back on your training. Yeah. And it's just repetition over and over, over and over. remember the first time I had to appear in court, never appeared in court, watched a lot of Judge Judy, seen a lot of movies, but never appeared in court myself.
00:32:25
Speaker
I was terrified. I didn't know where to stand. had to Google what to call the judge. Second time I had to appear on the same matter, I'd only been there once and suddenly I knew that stuff. I knew, okay, that's the mic. ever When you're called up, you stand behind that mic. This is who the defence is.
00:32:41
Speaker
That's where all the baddies sit. They're all the ones. I was an applicant. All the baddies are over there. And it's just familiarity.
Career Reflections and Advice
00:32:50
Speaker
So be so good they can't ignore you. Get really good at something, really good, and be yourself.
00:32:57
Speaker
I read a statistic last year that when women are on boards, the performance of the entire board elevates, not just because of the woman, but because the women are so well prepared and they know what they're talking about, that all the men have to up their game.
00:33:15
Speaker
They have to swan in like they usually did after a golf game. They actually need to get better and therefore the entire board actually upskills. This was explained to me beautifully once. Women are more likely to be qualified to be on that board. So they'll have done the qualifications to be board director and then they'll arrive on a board and they might be the only woman, they might not, but they're qualified and they'll be the one going, no, that's no that's not the compliant way to do that.
00:33:42
Speaker
we need to We need a motion to, no, because they know what they're talking about. But then the men that will call her a nag. She's the one keeping things. In check. You can go to jail for cocking up on a board. Yeah.
00:33:59
Speaker
Well, there's a lot of nepotism in corporate senior roles, especially with the bloke, so that doesn't surprise me at all. I want to ask about biting big, given that's the name of the podcast, but because your career, I think, is a, I suppose, a masterclass in reinvention.
00:34:15
Speaker
Now, you talked earlier about when you felt like you'd bitten off more and your, I suppose, your, some of the health impacts um where you felt like maybe you were biting off more than you can chew.
00:34:25
Speaker
Are there any regrets? No, I don't. Because once I realised that, I could pay them back. So as soon as I realised I was working a job that didn't float my boat, I left it.
00:34:39
Speaker
So, no, I don't have regrets about taking on too much. You have regrets about taking on something that didn't, that maybe was a the wrong choice or that. Not regrets because I just action them. so and I'm out of here.
00:34:53
Speaker
Yeah, I fired in my agency life. I quite liked firing clients that were a drag. Yeah, I fired a big coffee chain brand.
00:35:06
Speaker
I won't say it it is, but it rhymes with jeans. And they were really unpleasant to work with. They were not nice people. They were the family who brought the brand out from the States.
00:35:19
Speaker
And I fired them. They were fucking horrible. I fired another client who every time I sent his monthly bill, he would phone me within five minutes of receiving it and drag me through every line of the invoice.
00:35:30
Speaker
The work's already done. This is the invoice for work to complete it. Yeah, and I used to have ah a billing strategy that if a client was a pain in the arse, they would pay ah roughly $1,000 more.
00:35:43
Speaker
I would just fit it in places. But I fired him because he was a drag to work with. He wasted my time. He thought he was funny. He wasn't. His product was boring. It was these boring DVDs.
00:35:57
Speaker
And he bitched at me every single month about, paying me properly. So when I've taken on something I haven't liked. yeah So you you chew like hell, you spit it out. Would that be the?
00:36:08
Speaker
Great analogy. Yeah. And I don't give it too long. Every time in my life, I've lost something. It has created the room for something else that's better, bigger, more fabulous.
00:36:21
Speaker
So fire a shitty client and And you suddenly got room to take on a fabulous client or write a book or do some of that online education you want to do that you didn't have time for because you were servicing that difficult client. You know, when I've lost a job, so um it's not a secret that I was fired from the Ethiopian charity.
00:36:42
Speaker
I thought I was losing everything. I thought I'd be in that role until I was a little old lady. And it was devastating. But it opened up a big gap in my life to do so much more and to work with much better people, Catherine excluded. ah So yeah, whenever you if even if you lose things that you didn't want to lose, a decision that's made for you, or you go awful client, you've got to be fired. Don't worry about the lost revenue.
00:37:09
Speaker
In your time and in your concentration where something epic will step in, there needs to be a gap. Now, I want to ask you one last thing before we talk about your chosen charity. Now, you can answer either of these.
00:37:21
Speaker
Either what is the best career advice you've ever received, and it can't be the Tim Minchin quote, or what do you wish that you know now? Like what have you read or watched or listened to that you wish as a younger version of yourself that you knew?
Book Recommendations and Health Priorities
00:37:38
Speaker
okay you told me I could do either or. Pick your own adventure. But either or. and I'm going to do both i go of course you're going to both it isn't career so much as just why I've just read Hannah Ferguson's book Taboo and I actually had a little cry for my younger self that book wasn't around when I was 16 I've made sure that my daughters I have to read that book it is so good it is so great it Taboo, the title's perfect.
00:38:06
Speaker
um Just about life and sexuality and career and it's just flipping good. I haven't read it so I'm going to add that to my list. Absolute cracker.
00:38:18
Speaker
I listen to books and and she reads it so it's pretty fab. And then the career advice that was really important to me and it recaps a lot of what we spoke about and a woman said to me,
00:38:32
Speaker
It's no good being the hardest working skeleton in the graveyard. She was big on metaphors, that chick. She said, ah I was, when I was working at a big law firm called Malison's, big law firm, now merged with another one, then now something Malison's, massive top tier law firm.
00:38:50
Speaker
She said, one of my colleagues died. was 38. She got out of the flu. She was so sick she went home to work and she died. And she said only the death People who worked very directly with her were permitted half a day off to attend her funeral and then it was back to business as usual, which was a very high-paced work environment.
00:39:14
Speaker
And so that woman said, it's no point working yourself to death, Lucy. you need to You need to be careful about that. And that was that was at the time I was doing back-to-back all-nighters and my children were very young.
00:39:29
Speaker
And she was absolutely right. and it took me ah It took me, with lots of these learnings, it takes a few goes for it to sink into your skull. And so then, you know, it was also my GP. So there were a few places in my life where I've had someone tap me on the forehead and go, health is all you got, sister.
00:39:49
Speaker
But it took me ages to actually go, they're right. And now i can actually i can actually monetise my experience and put my health first. So I know going talk about this, but maybe this is a good time to say one of my metrics, one of my favourite numbers that I track.
00:40:06
Speaker
So, you know, you've got your super interest rates. My number one metric is sleep. Do you have one of those um rings or sleep bands? Yeah, I just have a garment and I sleep in it, I swim in it, I shower in it, it stays on. It's all scratched up from river swimming in the summer.
00:40:24
Speaker
And that will tell me um And I think i so I've already looked at my stats this morning. and And I slept nine and a half hours last night. And that's that's what I aim for.
00:40:35
Speaker
Now, I couldn't do that when I was a drinker because booze would wake me up all How did you do that? So I'm in perimenopausal phase. And sorry for any listeners who are in their 20s and 30s and not even thinking about that. But how did you manage to get sleep during this heinous time?
00:40:51
Speaker
um For me, the kicker was giving up booze. Yeah. Well, i didn't want to hear that. That's not fun. Yeah. Yeah, so I aim for over nine hours. Last year my average was eight and a half hours and I'm aiming this year for like nine hours and five minutes is my average. Well, I'm sitting probably at about five so I've got some i've got some work to do but I'm going to take a leaf out of your book.
00:41:14
Speaker
There's a gorgeous podcast that I always listen to because the guy's got the sexiest voice, ah The Huberman Lab, and one of his latest episodes is about sleep and how critical it is.
00:41:24
Speaker
We're the only species on planet Earth that fucks with our sleep, that goes, I've got to get a plane. I'll set an alarm. You know we synthetically mess with our sleep. I'll set alarm for 4 a.m. so I can get a plane and then we've only got four hours sleep.
00:41:38
Speaker
And then everything goes to shit, your judgment, your tolerance, your connection of ideas. That's my number one metric. Sometimes I do what I call sleep festivals and i will sleep 10 hours a night, three nights in a row.
00:41:53
Speaker
And I actually have to be really careful what I commit to after a sleep festival. Well, there's definitely a leaf out of your book. I've taken some notes, just not just for our listeners, but for me personally.
00:42:04
Speaker
Lucy, it's been so awesome talking to you today and hearing about how you do it with passion or not at all. If there's anyone that's living by their mantra of all 14 episodes, it would definitely be you. Some of my favourite moments in our conversation today is your reframe on what's the worst that happen. Will anyone die?
00:42:22
Speaker
So if anyone's concerned about making a decision, that is a great reframe. Be yourself and then get really good at something inspired by tim Minchin. That was a quote inspired by Tim Minchin. um And then there's no point working yourself to death. So they're the three key takeaways.
00:42:38
Speaker
Now, Lucy, this podcast is produced by women for women. um And to show our gratitude, we donate $500 on your behalf as a thank you to your chosen charity.
00:42:49
Speaker
and you have chosen Love Mercy Australia, which is a not-for-profit organisation focused on empowering women and their communities in northern Uganda income poverty um through locally led initiatives, sustainable initiatives. Talk to us about why this is important to you.
00:43:06
Speaker
oh it's it's founded by, co-founded by an epic woman. She's a um LZ Welling. She's an Aussie Olympian and she co-founded it with a Ugandan Olympian as well, Julius.
00:43:19
Speaker
And he was um he's a middle distance runner, epic dude. And they give seed loans to women farmers. They're given a 30 kilo seed loan, cost $30. I love it when things match.
00:43:32
Speaker
And then she takes it away, sows the seed, does a harvest. It might be sesame. There's all sorts of stuff. And then after harvest, she returns that loan. keeps her harvest, happy days.
00:43:43
Speaker
And then that loan goes on to the next person in the queue. And the queue just keeps getting bigger and bigger. And the the women who, I think they're to at least 10,000 women have been kicked off with a seed loan. And ah they even provide them with storage. They build them silos. And it's so cool that that's, it's women farmers.
00:44:01
Speaker
I'll never forget this from um the CEO of World Vision. He said to me a long time ago, and When you give a woman in Africa a dollar, 94 cents makes it to her family.
00:44:13
Speaker
When you give a man in Africa a dollar, 40 cents makes it to his family. So invest in women. um Yeah, so women farmers um and then they also, because that was so wildly successful and women were having trouble with their prenatal care and postnatal and just women's health in general, ah they also fund um some hospitals and my favourite's the midwives.
00:44:36
Speaker
I've been to Uganda. I've seen the work with my own eyes. um It's grassroots, brilliant. A donation goes a long way in a country like Uganda and the people running it are all locals.
00:44:48
Speaker
um Julius is a really good bloke um and, yeah, I back them all the way and donate to them every year. All right. Well, that that link is definitely going to be in the show notes as well as everything else.
00:45:01
Speaker
That is a wrap for us today. Thank you so much. It's been so awesome talking to you. And I have been your host, Amber Bonny. And until next episode, I hope you bite big and chew like hell.
00:45:12
Speaker
Bye, everyone. Thanks for having me.