Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates, exclusive content, and new podcast episodes delivered straight to your inbox!
Struggling with Behavioural Questions in Interviews?
They are the most common and also the toughest for many candidates.
This free E-book shows you how to answer them with confidence.
They are the most common and also the toughest for many candidates.
This free E-book shows you how to answer them with confidence.
Career Reshaped Episode 2: Only 1% Are HAVING FUN in Their CAREER
What if reshaping your career isn’t about following a set plan, but about following what truly catches your interest?
In this episode of Career Reshaped, we dive into the real challenges of building a career that feels meaningful—not just a routine or a paycheck, but something that connects with your values and passions. Shawn shares how unexpected moments, like learning a new language and exploring new cultures, became turning points in his journey.
You’ll discover how building authentic relationships—especially across different countries—and pushing through doubt and uncertainty are key to growing in your career. Sometimes it means taking risks and stepping outside your comfort zone, other times it’s about finding guidance from mentors when things get unclear.
This episode is for anyone who’s unsure about their next step or feeling the pressure to fit into a traditional career mold. It’s a reminder that your path can be unique, and that embracing the unknown can bring unexpected opportunities and growth.
If you want to find a career that’s both successful and fulfilling, this episode offers practical advice and honest stories to inspire you to take that next leap.
🎧 Tune in for a thoughtful conversation about courage, clarity, and creating a career that’s truly yours.
Discussion Overview
Career direction often came through informal conversations and introductions rather than formal events. Chatting with people in the community led to discovering new industries, showing how casual networking can reveal unexpected opportunities.
By clearly expressing what kind of work was truly of interest, there was a chance to build something from the ground up, such as starting a sourcing division. Openness and honesty in job discussions opened doors that might otherwise have stayed closed.
Facing unfamiliar roles and industries brought uncertainty, but staying open-minded and willing to learn on the job helped turn new responsibilities into valuable experience, leading to even broader opportunities over time.
Ongoing networking and maintaining relationships provided a steady flow of new business ideas and chances for collaboration. Simply talking to people, sharing goals, and following up on introductions led to growth and expansion.
Adapting meant staying flexible, shifting roles as the market evolved, and being prepared to step up when opportunity knocked—sometimes in the middle of global challenges. These shifts often brought new skills and greater resilience.
Obstacles such as financial crises or business uncertainty were viewed as chances to innovate or expand. By looking for the upside in every challenge and taking calculated risks, it was possible to keep moving forward.
The journey highlighted the importance of learning from mistakes and not letting setbacks become roadblocks. Growth came from reflecting on what didn’t work, making improvements, and staying willing to try new things—even if it meant taking risks.
Podcast Transcript:
| Time | Transcript |
|---|---|
| 00:00 | i got a call hey we've got a job for you i need to be |
| 00:03 | there in three days why did you decide that you wanted to learn mandarin and |
| 00:08 | why go to china the language you know little snippets of opinion and how it's |
| 00:13 | pronounced i just thought it was interesting i was just drawn to it for |
| 00:15 | whatever reason i spent a summer living a friend's house on the beach it was |
| 00:19 | when the world cup soccer was on and every single bit of news commercials and |
| 00:24 | everything was had something to do with china so i kind of took that as a |
| 00:28 | message how did you build those networks |
| 00:31 | especially overseas what advice could you give with the networking side of |
| 00:35 | things to people that are starting off in their careers this podcast is your |
| 00:39 | go-to guide for landing your dream job think of it as your free masterclass |
| 00:43 | packed with all the tips advice and strategies you need to take your career |
| 00:47 | to the next level in each episode we will dive deep into those inspiring |
| 00:54 | stories of professionals who've been exactly where you are today searching |
| 01:00 | for their next big career move from nailing the job hunt to securing that |
| 01:04 | perfect role we'll explore their challenges breakthroughs and the lessons |
| 01:09 | they've learned along the way plus you'll hear how they've grown |
| 01:12 | personally and professionally throughout their journey i'm pulling i'm natasha |
| 01:17 | and we are your career hosts and we couldn't be more excited for you to join |
| 01:22 | us along in this journey so welcome to career shapes where your dream job is |
| 01:30 | with a reach hi and welcome to another episode of career reshaped we're your |
| 01:34 | hosts natasha and pauline and today we have a very special guest |
| 01:40 | his name is sean and sean comes to us all the way from the usa and he's had a |
| 01:47 | very interesting career journey that started |
| 01:50 | in america he moved to china beijing then to hong kong and now he is in |
| 01:56 | australia melbourne and i am really excited to dive deep to |
| 02:02 | find out what created this amazing adventure |
| 02:08 | and where his career started and what were |
| 02:11 | the steps that he had taken to become to be in australia where now now he is a |
| 02:19 | managing director with nutrition apac and nutrition apac is a company that |
| 02:23 | distributes sports and healthy lifestyle products to gyms supermarkets and all |
| 02:30 | these other places i don't know sean needs to be the one to explain to us in |
| 02:33 | a little bit more detail so i would love to introduce you now to everybody sean |
| 02:39 | welcome thank you pauline nice to be here hello |
| 02:42 | natasha we're really happy to have you with us today sean yes thank you for |
| 02:46 | joining us hopefully i can help give a little bit of uh info and and uh insight |
| 02:52 | into the journey i've taken and it'll be interesting to have this chat today yeah |
| 02:56 | and we hope that you can maybe inspire some |
| 02:59 | people who feel that um |
| 03:02 | their careers might not take them on an adventure and |
| 03:06 | we will like to talk about how yours has and |
| 03:10 | what were the things that led to it and what opportunities you saw that you |
| 03:13 | decided to take advantage of so i think natasha do you have a |
| 03:18 | question like to start with i guess the main thing would be to set the uh set |
| 03:23 | the story for our guests today and uh our listeners today and |
| 03:29 | start off by what you first started with what your |
| 03:31 | ambitions were maybe when you were in university or even high school what |
| 03:35 | goals did you have and what steps did you take to try to achieve those goals |
| 03:39 | yeah look uh that's that goes back a ways now but uh |
| 03:44 | you know thinking back to that time um you know in university i was studying |
| 03:48 | mandarin and so one of the i didn't really have |
| 03:52 | i guess a real direction that i wanted to take |
| 03:56 | other than i wanted to use the language in china |
| 04:00 | all right so that was kind of my my |
| 04:04 | path our guiding path was that i wanted to get to china somehow right and um |
| 04:09 | and so you know while i was in uni a lot of |
| 04:12 | people were signing up they're going into finance and going into |
| 04:16 | corporate jobs and getting themselves lined up before they graduated |
| 04:21 | and for whatever reason i just i didn't really |
| 04:24 | have that pool i wasn't sure what i wanted to do i just knew i had this |
| 04:29 | desire to use the language i had been studying for so |
| 04:32 | long in |
| 04:35 | china right so i just wanted to get there somehow so that's really |
| 04:38 | interesting so far about your studies and the choice of doing a double major |
| 04:43 | with your mandarin classes we're both really intrigued with that |
| 04:49 | one and i really love the fact that you chose |
| 04:53 | that show something different and that is what anchored you |
| 04:57 | to your next steps it's very different to other people whether a major in you |
| 05:01 | know finance or something like that where you your path followed a language |
| 05:06 | i find that very very interesting so can i ask you why why did you decide that |
| 05:11 | you wanted to learn mandarin and why go to china |
| 05:15 | what was the pool well look i studied um i took one class in high school with |
| 05:20 | chinese history right now just |
| 05:23 | while taking that you know just learning about the history and then seeing the |
| 05:27 | the language you know little snippets of opinion |
| 05:31 | you know which is you know how it's pronounced um |
| 05:35 | i just thought it was interesting i was just drawn to it for whatever reason and |
| 05:39 | i studied japanese the summer before and i was like |
| 05:43 | well look i want to i want to have an interest in |
| 05:46 | language i want to pursue that but then after i graduated high school i |
| 05:52 | spent a summer living at a friend's house on the beach and |
| 05:57 | it was when the world cup soccer was on |
| 06:02 | we would stay up late we'd come back from work stay up late and watch the |
| 06:05 | soccer and every single bit of news and commercials and everything was |
| 06:10 | had something to do with china so i kind of took that as a message that |
| 06:15 | probably should stop us instead of japanese |
| 06:19 | right so that's what i ended up doing and um wow amazing and i guess you know |
| 06:24 | once i'd selected it and started you know you kind of you get into it and |
| 06:29 | then all of a sudden a month has gone by and |
| 06:31 | you're like oh i don't know if i can get out of this |
| 06:34 | now so just continue continue |
| 06:38 | um but yeah look here it certainly like |
| 06:42 | you know there's no regrets in taking the language and i really enjoy it |
| 06:45 | today and um and yeah it was it was certainly i guess a different |
| 06:51 | slightly different path i just wanted to go down um |
| 06:57 | i guess i was just driven to want to use something i'd spent so much time |
| 07:01 | learning and i didn't yeah fair enough i didn't |
| 07:04 | really mind or i had an idea but i didn't really mind |
| 07:08 | how to do that how how i would do that right |
| 07:12 | so i actually lined up a job um working for |
| 07:16 | a company in china |
| 07:19 | right all set to go and then soros broke out |
| 07:23 | so everything all right so it was a proper |
| 07:28 | job working for you know a corporate company |
| 07:31 | and then you know with everything canceled like |
| 07:34 | you know just in limbo sitting around trying to figure out what to do |
| 07:39 | so i had reached out to a number of um contacts that |
| 07:44 | you know just to see what was out there and i got a call |
| 07:48 | i guess kind of when sars was you know |
| 07:51 | everything was kind of coming back to normal |
| 07:54 | i got a call saying hey we've got a job for you it's |
| 07:58 | it's teaching english but it's in beijing |
| 08:01 | and you need to be there in three days and so |
| 08:04 | wow okay let's go so |
| 08:08 | okay amazing you know that's really great that you just come to that |
| 08:11 | opportunity because like you said you wanted to use what you've spent so much |
| 08:15 | time learning so that's really good that you still took that opportunity yeah |
| 08:20 | that's it and authors like you can use your networks too |
| 08:23 | which is something i know we're going to continue with your story but that's |
| 08:26 | actually a good point with those networks how did you build those |
| 08:31 | networks especially overseas |
| 08:34 | what advice can you give with the networking side of things to people that |
| 08:37 | are starting off in their careers i look networking in in general i i won't |
| 08:43 | profess to be any good at it i'll put it that way right so what would |
| 08:47 | you like that what's worked is i guess just following |
| 08:51 | you know i think you know there's a lot of pressure on |
| 08:56 | people especially young people to have to select what they want to do with |
| 08:59 | their life and i feel like that's a heavy thing |
| 09:03 | to try to figure out at an early age and i think what's worked for me is that |
| 09:08 | you know i never i didn't know exactly what i wanted to do but i had an idea |
| 09:13 | of or a vision of kind of where i wanted to get to |
| 09:17 | and so done |
| 09:20 | and you know gone through in my journey has been |
| 09:25 | based off of a a loose i'll call it loose for lack of a |
| 09:29 | better term but a loose vision that i had of kind of |
| 09:32 | where i wanted to end up and that was influenced by the |
| 09:37 | experiences that i had right so i started abroad in china |
| 09:41 | in uni and i had gone to australia you know for a semester and studied |
| 09:46 | there for a semester so you know in my mind when i first went |
| 09:50 | abroad i was like look i want to i want to do something where i've got |
| 09:53 | this language i'm using as part of my career |
| 09:55 | all right but then i thought i'm only going to go to china for |
| 09:59 | one year maybe two all right and i thought |
| 10:02 | it might be cool to move to you know spend some time in hong kong |
| 10:06 | and then i was like i kind of wanted to |
| 10:10 | come back and live in australia for a period of time |
| 10:16 | idea of what i wanted but you know if you picture if you think of a picture |
| 10:22 | nothing was colored in right so didn't know what it was going to be |
| 10:25 | didn't know when it was going to be didn't know how it was going to happen |
| 10:29 | but along the way you know you talk to |
| 10:32 | people you meet people i you know you start discussing what |
| 10:36 | you're doing what you want to do and then |
| 10:39 | they they help they can help |
| 10:42 | some some do and they either give you some advice or direct |
| 10:46 | you um |
| 10:50 | you know on what's worked for them or put you in touch with other people that |
| 10:53 | they know and so just it's just pulling that thread and just continuing to |
| 10:58 | you know just be open to what comes to you |
| 11:01 | right i'm a strong believer in that things |
| 11:03 | you know your timing plays a massive part in |
| 11:07 | where you end up getting to and i think you know as long as you're having |
| 11:12 | conversations and you're open to what people are |
| 11:15 | you know either advising or you know just talking to you about or |
| 11:19 | who you can meet then quite often that will lead to |
| 11:22 | opportunities and it's up to you whether you take those opportunities or not |
| 11:31 | yeah um |
| 11:33 | so what i understand is that you had a plan |
| 11:36 | you thought a couple years here a couple years there but |
| 11:39 | it wasn't really a couple years was it and like you were saying timing is |
| 11:44 | everything well it didn't unfold quite the way i was planning no uh |
| 11:48 | i ended up being in china for six years total |
| 11:51 | all right so |
| 11:53 | much more than one year yeah so the the first |
| 11:57 | obviously i went across i took whatever i could so i taught english for a year |
| 12:03 | you know towards the end of that they're you know they're like hey we want you to |
| 12:05 | keep going and i was like look i've got no interest in continuing down this path |
| 12:10 | um so you know |
| 12:13 | i was spending quite a lot of time trying to |
| 12:16 | figure out what to do and i wasn't really sure so i started talking to my |
| 12:20 | friends right and i was like |
| 12:23 | when you live abroad you tend to fall into a bit of a |
| 12:26 | community and uh there's a bit of an expat |
| 12:29 | community and so we all know each other pretty well and |
| 12:32 | so you talk to one person they're like oh you should talk to so-and-so they're |
| 12:36 | doing something in that field so i just started talking to people and i ended up |
| 12:42 | talking to a friend of a friend uh who ended up |
| 12:45 | becoming a friend uh who worked in manufacturing |
| 12:49 | um and so he he would source you know go to different factories |
| 12:54 | in china and get things made to export to |
| 12:59 | you know in this case back to australia um i found that really interesting right |
| 13:04 | so i was like okay sourcing this is something i want to look into |
| 13:06 | and so that's that's kind of again that influenced my decision as to |
| 13:10 | what i wanted to do and i started |
| 13:14 | it gave me an idea and i started interviewing and started looking for |
| 13:17 | work where i could |
| 13:20 | you know work in that kind of industry you know |
| 13:23 | go to go to factories source products send them out to other companies |
| 13:27 | around the world right so that was kind of |
| 13:31 | the first kernel of i guess the seed of what i wanted to do |
| 13:36 | um that was just you know literally came about through |
| 13:40 | conversations with casual conversations with people and men |
| 13:46 | it's not something you had considered before or thought about before just |
| 13:50 | having those conversations no no it wasn't i just it was more something you |
| 13:55 | know that in talking to you know to different |
| 13:58 | people that was interesting to me i just i |
| 14:01 | thought it was quite exciting it's something different |
| 14:04 | all the time right you're going around to different places |
| 14:07 | something new um and so i like the idea of it so i |
| 14:10 | just thought you know let me try to pursue that yeah |
| 14:13 | i just wanted to sort of touch on that is it's very similar to the |
| 14:18 | story that we were talking about last week um where |
| 14:23 | it you don't know where inspiration can come from and the thing is that you're |
| 14:27 | saying you're not very good at networking but that is exactly what |
| 14:29 | networking is you're talking to friends and friends of friends so people |
| 14:35 | believe that networking is about you going to an event rubbing shoulders |
| 14:40 | sending out business cards but it's |
| 14:43 | doesn't have to be that complicated it could be straightforward as just talking |
| 14:47 | to people you know and |
| 14:50 | getting them to introduce you to other people and opening doors in a very |
| 14:53 | casual way and that's what i love about this your story so far is the fact that |
| 14:58 | you had a loose idea but you were also open |
| 15:01 | to exploring where this idea can fit in within a career so like i know i want to |
| 15:09 | use this language i know i want to travel |
| 15:13 | i know i want to finally end up in australia |
| 15:16 | how am i going to get there and you're kind of almost working backwards a |
| 15:19 | little bit from your plan and |
| 15:22 | being open to well what seems interesting to me and how can i apply |
| 15:29 | my goals to what seems interesting and take it to the next level so love that |
| 15:35 | so after that then you you started looking at jobs that you could be |
| 15:40 | interested in how did what would the next steps how did you end up in hong |
| 15:44 | kong and australia and all of that well yeah i'll make this a short story but um |
| 15:49 | yeah look i was a number of friends were like hey i've |
| 15:53 | just started work at this company you should come like it's it's quite |
| 15:56 | interesting coming into you uh so i did a few interviews and then uh |
| 16:01 | with with one of my friends um he worked for a company that was |
| 16:05 | importing vitamins to sell in china and so i did the |
| 16:10 | interview met his boss and |
| 16:13 | you know they had a position that they were looking for somebody to train |
| 16:17 | retail staff you know how to sell products |
| 16:21 | and i just you know i kind of said in the interview look |
| 16:26 | it's great it's not exactly what i'm looking to do |
| 16:29 | um and so so you were saying that you went for |
| 16:34 | the interview you said it's not really what i was yeah look i just was open and |
| 16:37 | i said look that's not really what i'm looking for and |
| 16:40 | um the guy who owned the company is like well what do you want to do |
| 16:44 | i said well let's get into sourcing and it's like okay great so we we finished |
| 16:49 | up um |
| 16:51 | and i got a call about two weeks later and he's like why don't you come set up |
| 16:54 | a sourcing division for us and that's amazing |
| 16:59 | being honest and like that really put that idea in their mind too |
| 17:04 | i love that though but so many people feel like i can't give up an opportunity |
| 17:09 | um that whole missing out |
| 17:12 | um thing or or just declining a role but without communicating |
| 17:18 | what they're in fact looking for and this is the thing you never know when an |
| 17:22 | opportunity can come and who can give it to you so by not |
| 17:27 | verb being verbal and expressing what you want two people |
| 17:32 | this is where you're going to miss out this is why again this is another form |
| 17:36 | of networking people don't realize it but talking to other people saying look |
| 17:40 | this is what i'm really looking for even if that recruiter that you |
| 17:44 | communicated with didn't have an opportunity perhaps he knew of someone |
| 17:49 | else you know recruiters know each other and people know each other within the |
| 17:53 | industry as well so he could have known of another |
| 17:57 | opportunity and that's the thing that you won were honest and not just |
| 18:01 | declining a role where a lot of people do they decline a role they don't say |
| 18:05 | why they say oh maybe maybe they'll go as |
| 18:08 | fast and look it's not for me but they don't |
| 18:12 | say or express what is for them and |
| 18:15 | this is what i love the fact that you you did you took your career in your own |
| 18:19 | hands yeah that is fantastic okay so so that that was really great you know |
| 18:24 | taking your career into your own hands as plane said and so |
| 18:28 | when you spoke to him about that opportunity what happened after that |
| 18:31 | well okay i ended up deciding to take the job |
| 18:34 | and i had to had to figure out you know how to |
| 18:38 | how to do sourcing so how to do the job |
| 18:45 | so sometimes being confident in yourself without actually having the experience |
| 18:50 | to back you up can pay off well look the good thing is that you know there were |
| 18:54 | connections through through the jobs for companies that were |
| 18:58 | looking for stuff to be produced marketing materials packaging materials |
| 19:02 | um in china and so |
| 19:05 | we had some connections to start with and then it was a matter of figuring out |
| 19:09 | all right how to how to find the factories |
| 19:11 | how to get these things produced at the right price how to export them |
| 19:16 | and so that's what i did for the next several years |
| 19:20 | now remembering the company's core business was importing |
| 19:24 | vitamins right but through the through the sourcing we got |
| 19:28 | into working with some sports nutrition |
| 19:31 | companies and |
| 19:33 | uh and then ended up talking to them about opportunities to |
| 19:36 | bring their products into china all right so |
| 19:40 | over time you know i was kind of making products in china sending them |
| 19:45 | out of china to south africa to america to |
| 19:48 | canada to different places to europe but then the companies that we're |
| 19:52 | dealing with we started talking about bringing products back in and so |
| 19:56 | the shifts for me started it became more interesting to look at |
| 20:00 | you know these sports nutrition products and how we can bring them to china and |
| 20:03 | get them established and so i started you know my role evolved and i started |
| 20:10 | working on that import side of things uh and |
| 20:14 | you know we got a couple of well-known companies |
| 20:18 | that we started working with uh power bar being one and and cytosport |
| 20:23 | a second and |
| 20:27 | you know it took it from there and my my role completely shifted into |
| 20:31 | working in the import and sales side of the business |
| 20:35 | uh which is what i |
| 20:38 | do today yeah yeah yeah so again it's amazing it's |
| 20:43 | like you know just something |
| 20:46 | another opportunity that arose but it was an interest and i followed that and |
| 20:50 | then um you know the long story short is that |
| 20:54 | i ended up how i got to hong kong |
| 20:57 | uh through one of the brand's power bar that we |
| 21:00 | picked up they offered us the distribution rates for hong kong |
| 21:06 | and i you know i started going to hong kong and talking to companies and |
| 21:11 | put on a few clients and then said hey listen we should probably have an office |
| 21:14 | there let me go down there set up an office for you guys |
| 21:17 | and so i did that moved to hong kong um you know got the the business |
| 21:24 | established and then um |
| 21:29 | ended up you know there you know this was right around the time of the |
| 21:33 | financial crisis but uh |
| 21:37 | yeah yeah great timing right um but ended up we've had a few |
| 21:41 | challenges with with global crises yeah it happens i guess |
| 21:48 | um but yeah i looked at that became a pretty difficult period for the company |
| 21:52 | and uh there was a time like so i was working out of a shared office |
| 21:57 | with four other people all doing their own businesses |
| 22:02 | and you know at the time |
| 22:05 | you know my boss turned around was like look we're gonna i'm gonna have to shut |
| 22:08 | down the business you know just can't make it work anymore |
| 22:11 | and uh and so how did that make you feel in that moment well i didn't know what |
| 22:15 | to do right because it was like oh well i feel like i've got this obligation to |
| 22:20 | my customers here right so it was like right you know |
| 22:25 | do i continue to you know what do i do do i just stop or |
| 22:28. | do i keep going not sure what's next like i need to |
| 22:32 | start looking for a job and |
| 22:35 | you know so i was a bit conflicted didn't really know what to do i kept |
| 22:39 | kept trading kept things going along uh for |
| 22:43 | you know a couple of weeks or so i was i was thinking about it |
| 22:46 | and then one of the guys in uh the office |
| 22:50 | he kind of saw that i was in a bit of a state and he's like what's |
| 22:54 | going on i was telling him and he's like well |
| 22:56 | what do you what do you actually do and so we sat down and over an evening |
| 23:00 | had a chat and then uh |
| 23:03 | and then you know he's just kind of we ran |
| 23:06 | through the numbers and he's like well what if we took over this business |
| 23:11 | so you know i was i was quite unsure but we |
| 23:14 | we did the calculations on the back of a napkin |
| 23:18 | kind of said all right well look if we had some money and we can put it into |
| 23:21 | this business would it be profitable and yes it would be |
| 23:25 | and so he kind of convinced me to to |
| 23:30 | go into business for ourselves right so we we teamed up and we bought the |
| 23:34 | business off my boss at the time and |
| 23:38 | that's how nutrition asia started in hong kong |
| 23:44 | and that's been my career since |
| 23:50 | the rest is history as they say right and obviously you moved again to |
| 23:55 | australia yeah we've had multiple country changes well yeah look even even |
| 24:00 | starting the business in hong kong right we ended up growing |
| 24:04 | and expanding into singapore and then into malaysia |
| 24:10 | and so you know this again just just following we had you |
| 24:14 | know a customers customer of ours in hong kong that had expanded to singapore |
| 24:19 | and they asked if we could service them over there so |
| 24:22 | looked into it went across did some recon set up a |
| 24:26 | business sent some product across and started |
| 24:29 | started trading in singapore right so same thing |
| 24:32 | happened with malaysia and then with australia uh you know i moved here for |
| 24:37 | personal reasons and you know i was i was here in australia |
| 24:41 | and you know some of our suppliers knew that |
| 24:45 | so the opportunity arose where they they were |
| 24:48 | one of our brands that we represented was exiting |
| 24:52 | australia they had their own team here and they asked if we could take over |
| 24:58 | um and so the opportunity came up to set up a business here in australia as well |
| 25:02 | so we set up uh what is nutrition apac which is |
| 25:06 | an extension of the businesses in it in asia |
| 25:10 | again you know just another another opportunity that |
| 25:15 | just came up at the right time |
| 25:19 | it's interesting next yeah because it seems a lot of um |
| 25:23 | you've had a lot of obstacles a lot of like i said global crises that have |
| 25:27 | happened and and things thrown your way where you've |
| 25:30 | had to shift and you know reshape your career |
| 25:34 | slightly and yes i agree with what you said it all is |
| 25:38 | about timing and you have had a lot of things align well for you as well |
| 25:44 | but with an obstacle before that so with all those challenges that you've faced |
| 25:49 | so what is that you feel that really helped you push through and stay |
| 25:54 | on track and continue going forward well look at these challenges that |
| 25:59 | you know when you're faced with them there's i guess two things you can do |
| 26:03 | right you either you you kind of succumb to them or you |
| 26:07 | figure a way out of them right so it's always about looking at what is the |
| 26:11 | opportunity what's the silver lining like is there is there a benefit |
| 26:15 | again with um you know with with covet |
| 26:19 | i was right when we were looking to start |
| 26:22 | the australia arm here and it was just looking around the market um |
| 26:27 | terrible time to be like hey let's expand our business all right let's |
| 26:31 | all your big changes seem to be when something's happening in the world |
| 26:35 | this is what i mean when you have to find an opportunity and so\ |
| 26:39 | when i looked at the market here um you know i thought okay well look |
| 26:44 | everybody's kind of pulling back and being really |
| 26:46 | conservative at the moment and i thought the opportunity for |
| 26:52 | you know to to be a bit aggressive and to come |
| 26:55 | into the market and to bring some brands into the market where everybody else was |
| 26:59 | on the defensive so it's all on how you look at it |
| 27:02 | right and yeah it's a roll of the dice but sometimes you have to roll the dice |
| 27:07 | right and back yourself to things love this thing i think if you don't |
| 27:12 | take risks you know nothing will ever happen |
| 27:17 | well that's it so you mean you can yeah it's it's an important thing |
| 27:22 | to grow like challenge challenges no matter what form they come in are |
| 27:26 | opportunities to grow right |
| 27:28 | yeah at this stage in my career my my biggest challenge at the moment is to |
| 27:34 | take on a different role in in pushing and |
| 27:37 | driving the business and for me that's a big challenge right |
| 27:41 | and it's it's one that it's it's quite hard but you know again |
| 27:45 | it's another opportunity to learn |
| 27:49 | and to pick up different skills and to expand your |
| 27:53 | abilities to to make sure they benefit what you're doing |
| 27:57 | so that's that's not the focus and you know how we drive our business forward |
| 28:02 | you know we're continually looking you know opportunities come and they're |
| 28:05 | calculated risks that we take to to grow the business but along with that you |
| 28:09 | have to grow as well and that's that's the next challenge for me is how to |
| 28:13 | really you know step up and and learn |
| 28:18 | different aspects that um i guess what's the right way to put it |
| 28:23 | uncomfortable in doing so how to be comfortably uncomfortable |
| 28:26 | to move things i like that so it's interesting that you |
| 28:30 | said that so i'd be interested to know how |
| 28:33 | do you get those new skills do you you know do webinars attend any events and |
| 28:39 | what is it that you could suggest others to do to upskill themselves especially |
| 28:44 | when they're thinking or they need to change their |
| 28:47 | career slightly or learn those new skills well look i think |
| 28:51 | you know there's many different forms um you know again talking to people |
| 28:56 | understanding you know the challenges that they faced how they overcame them |
| 29:00 | what what what did they do i think that's super important |
| 29:04 | um resources i mean podcasts |
| 29:08 | right like you guys are doing are quite often insightful so a lot of times you |
| 29:13 | know listening to other people speak about |
| 29:16. | their experiences you can kind of relate to one of the things that |
| 29:19 | that they've said and then it provides that context to |
| 29:24 | you know follow and to look in a different area as to how you might be |
| 29:27 | able to replicate or learn or find out how they |
| 29:31 | did it yeah i think there's different resources |
| 29:34 | that you can take i'm not particularly good at uh |
| 29:38 | you know following a lot of them it's more for me it's more |
| 29:41 | about talking to people and getting some advice on on |
| 29:46 | what i can do um well that's right you find what works for you and that's what |
| 29:50 | works for you which is great when you say listening to other people |
| 29:54 | and seeing what worked for them it won't necessarily work for you but |
| 29:59 | trying different things and figuring out what fits with you what kind of learning |
| 30:04 | style you have some people are visual some people are audio it really is |
| 30:08 | what works and holding on to that and pushing forward which is what you've |
| 30:12 | done with your networks and talking to people |
| 30:15 | i think it's also learning sometimes on the job but being aware |
| 30:20 | and maybe even so a lot of people they make a lot of |
| 30:24 | mistakes but they don't recognize them and they keep repeating that being aware |
| 30:29 | and at the end of the day going back |
| 30:32 | assessing okay how did that go was it good was it bad what went well what |
| 30:36 | didn't go well and what changes i can make to make it better and maybe it's |
| 30:41 | about trying different styles and techniques that won't feel comfortable |
| 30:44 | with you but also that you'll the best results and that seemed to be more |
| 30:50 | successful and so cutting |
| 30:53 | what didn't work so and that's about evolving involving yourself and your |
| 30:58 | skills so you can learn yourself as well by with this podcast not but also trial |
| 31:03 | and error at times well a lot of times right it's uh |
| 31:07 | you know like the one thing you can't be afraid to do |
| 31:09 | is make mistakes right but as long as you own the mistakes and you learn from |
| 31:13 | the mistakes you don't make them multiple times i mean that's that's the |
| 31:16 | process of learning right and um and quite often |
| 31:23 | new opportunities come through mistakes that were made right so when |
| 31:28 | you look back and you say okay well what what could we have done differently well |
| 31:31 | we probably should have done this and that leads to another door that that |
| 31:35 | takes you in another direction right well what i was going to say was that i |
| 31:40 | agree with what you said about making mistakes and learning from it and |
| 31:45 | finding the mistakes that you've made that have |
| 31:48 | led to something else because pauline and i have done that where we've looked |
| 31:51 | back and gone oh |
| 31:53 | we shouldn't have done that but if we didn't do that we wouldn't have learnt |
| 31:56 | from it and we wouldn't be doing what we're doing now so spot on with that one |
| 32:01 | okay so you do that and then i think i might come in and wrap it up sum it up |
| 32:05 | okay so basically what we've learned here is is that one you go to have at |
| 32:10 | least an idea of your end goal have a |
| 32:14 | network and connect with people be open to opportunities don't be afraid to make |
| 32:19 | mistakes and |
| 32:22 | be flexible with the end goal too so you keep like your goal was to come back to |
| 32:27 | australia and you've done that it may not have been in the position that you |
| 32:31 | thought it would be in but that was the flexibility and your |
| 32:35 | ability to shift with your career journey so yeah you're absolutely right |
| 32:40 | with what you just said sean pauline and i have experienced that ourselves where |
| 32:44 | we've done something and then we've looked back and thought |
| 32:47 | oh we really shouldn't have done that we've made a mistake |
| 32:50 | but we've learned from that mistake and it set us on a different path which is |
| 32:54 | just makes us more happier and knowing what we're doing and |
| 32:57 | being able to adjust what we're doing with my career angels to be able to help |
| 33:02 | others better so it's really true with learn from your mistakes and see the |
| 33:08 | that silver lining where that mistake has led you to where you are today |
| 33:12 | hopefully in a positive view of course that's right and these |
| 33:16 | mistakes and are also growth opportunities and i feel personally i |
| 33:22 | believe that if we are not growing as individuals our whole life then |
| 33:27 | we really are wasting opportunities for ourselves in |
| 33:32 | living a more interesting life because we're not stagnant we |
| 33:36 | are forever moving forward so i feel that from what i've heard in |
| 33:42 | order to have a great um career journey in terms of uh reaching |
| 33:48 | that end goal is one is having an end goal having an idea of what it is but of |
| 33:54 | course not putting pressure that it needs to |
| 33:58 | happen the way you want it to happen in you you have an idea but it's not set in |
| 34:03 | stone and how you're going to get there or the time frames you're going to get |
| 34:06 | there the idea of being open to opportunities and to connect with people |
| 34:11 | communicate with people and stay yes and be flexible |
| 34:17 | and enjoy the journey of getting there |
| 34:20 | rather than getting there |
| 34:23 | if anything yeah look i i honestly i think that you |
| 34:27 | you know that's that's quite an interesting comment because |
| 34:31 | you know the journey you know where do you where does it end |
| 34:35 | you know who knows it continues in different forms a different fashion and |
| 34:39 | that's the fun right is how does it unfold and where do |
| 34:42 | you end up um |
| 34:45 | and honestly that that for me my experience has been that |
| 34:49 | you know as as in the moment as you sometimes get |
| 34:53 | if you actually take a step back and you look at |
| 34:56 | kind of where you've come where you started and where you are now |
| 35:00 | and where you think you're going to get to it's actually quite enjoyable |
| 35:04 | um and |
| 35:06 | absolutely yeah and i think it's important to there's |
| 35:10 | there's certainly times when it's not enjoyable but |
| 35:13 | um overall when you know looking at it uh |
| 35:17 | you know it's |
| 35:19 | on the whole um that process in that journey of getting |
| 35:23 | to or i guess your career or your your |
| 35:28 | work life unfolding in the way that it does is quite interesting right like for |
| 35:33 | everybody i'm sure everyone has a story that's uh it's it's really interesting |
| 35:37 | that you know how they've gotten to where they've where they are today and |
| 35:41 | and for me i think just sometimes taking stock of that and looking back is |
| 35:46 | important because it it reinforces |
| 35:50 | hopefully for most people that that you've made the right choices right and |
| 35:54 | that you're in the position that you want to be |
| 35:58 | absolutely amazing well thank you so much for joining us today we appreciate |
| 36:01 | your time it's been a pleasure and i'm sure a lot of our listeners have gotten |
| 36:06 | a lot out of what you've said and the advice you've given regarding networking |
| 36:11 | and not giving up and just just putting yourself out there |
| 36:15 | yeah it's an amazing journey and it was exciting to follow along yeah well |
| 36:19 | thanks for having me it's been it's been nice to be a part of this and uh |
| 36:22 | hopefully a little bit of insight will be helpful |
| 36:25 | to other people out there of course thank you so much |
Other episodes you might be interested in:
Stop Waiting.
Start Creating!
Take the first step toward a smarter, more effective job search with The Unseen Advantage. This ebook is designed for job seekers who are ready to move past outdated methods, create genuine opportunities, and position themselves as the candidate employers are looking for.
The Greatest Gift You Can Give Your Future is Clarity
When you take time to reflect on your career and align it with your values, you’re not only investing in your own growth — you’re creating a ripple effect that impacts your family, your workplace and your wellbeing.
Whether you’re feeling stuck, ready for change, or simply craving more purpose in your work, Career Coaching can help you move forward with clarity and confidence.
Start your Next Chapter Today!