G'day leaders. Welcome to season two of Captain
and the Clown. We took a hiatus so that we could
concentrate on Michelle's book, which is now
released, and we talk about it in this podcast.
We also talk about an upcoming workshop that
we're going to be running in Bali next year on
confidence and anti -fragility. But in the meantime,
we talk about the lessons from writing Michelle's
book or the lessons on getting Michelle's book
published as well and why one bite at a time
is the way you achieve anything. Enjoy. Why did
it count backwards? We're now recording. What?
Hello, Captain. Come fly with me, let's fly,
let's fly. What are we going to talk about? I
don't know. Leadership, life and everything else.
Yeah. And we're live, finally. We are. It's about
time. It's been a while. It's been a minute.
You didn't say we're not live. We're live right
now. We are live right now. And in Bali. Yes.
I know. Life's tough, hey? It is tough. Who would?
Over here. We found the destination for our workshop,
which we'll be running next year. No one knows
about the workshop yet. I know. Well, let's tell
them now. Okay. Okay. So next year as... Because
my book will be closer to publication. It's on
confidence. Yes. Taking the con out of confidence.
Still working on the title. So true confidence
is the current title. And we're also going to
be teaching anti -fragility in that workshop.
And confidence, yeah. Confidence and anti -fragility.
Three and a half days we've worked out so far,
haven't we? Yes. So we've got the content sorted
for three and a half days, but we might be extending
or shortening depending on. how long people think
they can come over here and learn. Yeah. What
a place to do it. Yes. But this podcast is about
your book. Lady MacGyver. Lady MacGyver. Yes.
So bestseller on which list on Amazon? Aviation
Engineers. Aviation Engineers. How exciting is
that? Thanks, people. I love you. And then bestseller
at WHS at the bookstore at the airport as well.
Yes, it was on the bestseller stand. I was very
excited. I met the book buyer there and she was
saying, yes, it's been a bestseller. So very
excited. It's very exciting. So, okay, we're
finally recording again. So we're going to call
this season two of Captain America. and the Clown
podcast. I think so. Yeah, because we had a lot
going on, so we put a pause to the recordings.
We were experimenting with video, but... Most
of our listeners listen to us in audio and they
don't really want to see us. I know. I think
that's probably, if we're being honest, the real
reason why we haven't recorded for so long is
that pressure for video. Yeah, we're getting
a lot of people coming to us saying, oh, you've
got to have video so you can promote it on social
media. But we're more of a slow burn with regards
to our promotion. If people find us and start
listening, that's great. But we don't want to
go down the path of diary of a CEO where we're
putting things. on social media every day to
drive listening. No, no. Maybe one day. One day,
one day. Yeah, we just enjoy sharing the knowledge.
Yes, that's right. So this episode is going to
be about your journey with your book, but what
people can learn, what we learned during that
journey because it was a two -year journey. Yes,
just over two years for Lady MacGyver. And I've
been writing books for years and one of the things,
I think we may have spoken about this on another
podcast, but I saw it as a big thing. And when
you see things as big, you tend to put them off.
Yes. You put them off because your brain thinks,
ah, that's daunting. It's overwhelming. It's
going to take too much of my energy. Which is
what a large percentage of procrastination is
all about. You put off things that your body
thinks would take too much of your precious energy.
It's too hard. It's too hard as well. So you
fear failure. Yes. I used to be of the belief
I was an ideas person. Yeah. Came out with all
the ideas. I met lots of ideas persons where
they go, oh, I've got all these great ideas,
but yes, I'm not the execution. I'm not the person
who executes, but they're basically procrastinating
because they have these big ideas, but they don't
then turn it into. And the way you do that is
by doing what? Small, like doing small actions.
Small actions, breaking things down. Yeah, so
with your book, we, every morning, we set out
the front of the office with a coffee. Yes. You
told a story. I recorded it. We transcribed it.
You then put aviation terms around it and made
it more accurate. Corrected it, yeah. Took out
my ums and ahs. Yeah, well, they weren't in the
written version. No. There was a few of them
in the audio version. And then, yeah, slowly
by slowly, your book emerged. It did. And it
was actually, I really enjoyed the process. Yes,
it's lovely to have a book, holding a book at
the end, but I will treasure it. of that process.
It was just being able to, yeah, have a coffee
out the front. Tell a story. Tell a story to
you conversationally. Yeah. Whilst it's being
recorded and then, yeah, then get into the editing
part. I think that was the beauty of it, listening
to them in conversational style and then. having
them transcribed into a chapter. So it's already
written as a story. So each individual chapter
in your book is a story, isn't it? Yeah, yeah.
So actually I got a compliment from one of the
flight crew, or the captain on board our flight
over on Monday night. And he had a read of it
and he said he actually enjoyed the fact that
they were like... snack bite -sized stories,
and he was flicking around. He said, I could
see that it was obviously chronological, but
he flipped straight to the Virgin Captain section
straight away. Yeah, because he was one of your
fellow Virgin Captains. Yes, we used to fly together.
And then he said, you know, he started flicking
around, and whichever one kind of tickled his
fancy, the title, he had a look at that. So he's
now here. has a copy and he's he's going to he
said he's you know going to read it from cover
to cover yeah and we've had so much wonderful
feedback about your book lady macgyver um out
now in all good bookstores and um that's right
the feedback has been that people go on an emotional
journey with it. And that's one of the best things
I like hearing about it is that people have cried,
they've laughed, they've got angry, they've got
sad. It's been inspired. Yeah, I've learned.
And I love hearing that because obviously I know
the book very, very well, having been on the
journey with you. It is inspiring to listen to
your stories, Michelle, and I know you're quite
humble and we haven't shared many of your stories
on this podcast. But I think we should start.
I think we should start. Maybe we can release
one little story today. We could. This is impromptu.
Yeah, it is impromptu. But let's go back to what
we wanted to be talking about, so breaking things
down. So is there anything else that you've achieved
in your life where you would consider the fact
that it was originally daunting because it was
big, but you broke it down into small chunks
and as a result you achieved something? Hmm.
I can give you my story. I think I've already
told this story on this podcast, but I'll do
it again. I don't care. This is for the people
who haven't heard the story. I bought a house
in Sydney many years ago and the people who had
sold it to me had renovated it to sell. Renovating
it to sell is different to renovating it to live
in. I bought one of those. Yeah, so we had plugs
in the wall that had no wiring behind them, ethernet
plugs. We had a bathroom with no waterproofing.
And then the front deck, the porch on the front
of the house, it's only a small one, instead
of ripping up the old deck, they just put new
wood on top of old wood and it was rotting. Yeah.
I think this was the first winter in that house.
And I came home and noticed that there was mushrooms
growing in between the boards. And so I noticed
and then I took a closer look and that obviously
just put new wood on top of old wood. So there
was no air coming, no drainage for any water.
And I went in the house and wrote on my big list
of things to fix around this fully renovated
house was build a deck. And every time I looked
at it, it stressed me because... As you know
now, I'm useless, Michelle. I'm not like you.
You're not useless. Well, I consider myself useless.
I couldn't build anything. And you're the polymath
in this relationship. You can do anything. Ladies
and gentlemen, she can weld. She can paint. Yeah,
she's got all the skills. But I didn't have any.
So I'm looking at this list of things to fix
around the house. And we couldn't find the builder.
Couldn't find the owner. It was really stressing
me. But then I teach this stuff. So I came home
one day and took that big list of things to fix
around the house off the wall. Oh, we've got
someone next door. And that happens when you're
in a beautiful resort in Ubud, Bali. Yes. Anyway,
so I took this list off the wall and instead
of it being build a deck, which is a big, daunting,
scary task, I... broke it down into a project
plan. And the first step was watch YouTube, learn
how to build a deck. The second step was probably
the most fruitful. Call a friend and ask him
to come over from Adelaide and help. One who's
also a polymath. Yeah, he's a polymath. He can
do anything. And then, you know, measure up the
deck, order the wood, cut the bearers, cut the
joists. And, you know, six weeks later, there's
a deck on the front of the house. Like a checklist.
It's a checklist. But if it's a big thing, build
a deck. It's daunting. It's scary. But if it's
lots of little things, little things are easy,
which is, I guess, the journey you went on with
your book. Yeah, absolutely. And I thought writing
the book would be the hardest part of it. It
hasn't been. And I learned so much in myself
because even when I was – I thought I was finished
at the fully edited version of the book. I was
very fortunate. I had it edited by your niece,
Talia, who has a – what's her qualification?
She's amazing. She's got a degree in literature.
Yes. And then – Sarah Newton -John, Olivia Newton
-John's sister, she edited the book and I thought
it was all ready to go. But on me, and I own
this, is that I had trusted and hadn't actually
read over properly the edited version after it
came back from the editor. And I skimmed, I skimmed.
And only when I was narrating my book for the
audio version, And did I notice that some things
didn't make sense? Like planes being flown without
a pilot? Well, no, it just aviation terms had
been changed and the language I had used had
been changed without an aviation background understanding.
And I hadn't picked it up until I was reading
it word for word. So that was a lesson for me.
And I was very fortunate that the lady who was
her audio company, she let me. as I was like,
oh, this doesn't make sense. I need to rewrite
these bits. And that was still before the release
of the fully edited book. Absolutely, yeah, before
the book. So I was then able to. So it was fortuitous
that you recorded the audio version before releasing.
Absolutely, absolutely. So, yeah, and I do take
that as a lesson on me not to be lazy and to,
you know, assume, what do they say, make an ass
of me and you. Then once that, you know, there's
the cover design and I had to release the grip
a little on that as well because, yes, I've done
art and design. Oh, you're an incredibly talented
artist. I know what I like, but, you know, when
it comes to, I also need to trust professionals.
Then, yeah, the whole releasing it to the publisher
and getting them to do it, it has been a big
lesson. Yeah. One that. Well, it was also your
first time writing and publishing a book. Absolutely.
And next time, I'd like to say it will be so
much different. Well, it will. It will because
the second time you do anything is with more
knowledge. That's how you get good at anything.
Breaking big things down into small things makes
them easier. And if you look at all the little
steps being easy, you realize that nothing...
Everything that we typically say is hard is actually
not hard. It's easy. It's just easier not to
do it. Yeah. And the reason why you don't do
it is because you think it's big and you think
it's hard, but that's because you're looking
at it. as its entirety rather than its component
parts. That's right. I like how you say that,
easy or easier, not easy and hard. Yeah, we've
got to reserve hard for hard things like climbing
Mount Everest. Yeah, going to the gym isn't hard.
It's easy to go to the gym, but it's just easier
not to go to the gym. Yes, yeah. So a lot of
people in our industry, the professional development
industry, have said, well, me growing up listening
to all the experts. say that breaking habits
is hard. No. And I vehemently, is that the right
word? Vehemently. Vehemently. It's spelled vehemently.
I prefer your pronunciation because I know it's
correct. Vehemently. disagree with with breaking
habits is hard it's not hard it's easy it's just
easier not to if we say that it's hard we're
actually making it difficult for our brains because
when we when we label something as hard our brain
now needs to make it hard for for that to be
correct our subconscious mind is listening to
every instruction we give it without questioning
the validity the accuracy or the helpfulness
of the program that we we personally put into
it so if we say something is hard so that we
can be correct our brain will now Now make it
hard. Yeah. Yeah. And look for all of the aspects
of it that seem hard rather than looking for
all of the aspects of it that seem easy. And
if you label it as hard and big, your brain doesn't
want to then break it down into small chunks.
It has to leave it as a whole thing to justify
why you called it hard in the first place. So
big things become easy when you break them down
into small things. Yeah. Yeah. Well, what did
Lao Tzu say about the longest journey? It begins
with? A step. A single step. Yes. Yes. How do
you eat an elephant, Michelle? One bite at a
time. You don't eat elephants. You start at the
toenails. You start at the toenails. No, you
don't eat elephants. But yeah, big things become
easy when you make them into small things. Yeah.
What else did we learn going through? I guess
patience was something else we learned. Oh, absolutely,
because it doesn't happen on my time. It was
a little bit of a lesson as well that, as you
say, impatience, because, yes, the publisher
has many book projects happening, not just mine.
Yes. So hurry up and wait. We need to let things
unfold. So work hard. I think the lesson was
work hard, do your bit, but things will unfold
around you. Yeah, we had a saying. in aviation
is hurry up and wait. So you'd get prepared and
then you'd wait. I like that. I like that. So
hurry up and wait. So get prepared, do your bit,
do what needs to be done and then wait. You're
ready. Yeah, you're ready and be patient with
those around you. But the fact that you're ready
will also put pressure on those around you, I
guess. Well, not necessarily. Not necessarily.
If you say, I've done my bit, have you done yours?
No. No. Okay. Quite often they're not even there.
Well, I think we should talk a little bit more
about this retreat or what are we going to call
it? A workshop? Retreat? Workshop? Yeah. It's
not a retreat. A reset? Reset. A reset. Yeah.
So it's going to be targeted at leaders, but
really anyone can attend because... Everyone's
a leader. Anyone who's an older sibling who is
a parent is a... Yeah. Who has someone in their
charge or, you know... They are a leader. Well,
they set an example for others. But we're really
targeting at people who want to learn the difference
between what I call contextual confidence and
true confidence. So the book that I'm writing
and releasing hopefully next year is about, I
think I'm calling it true confidence. I think
that's the title I've landed on. So I've noticed
that most people. develop what's called contextual
confidence. So contextual confidence is when
you're good at something, you know something.
So you've got skills, knowledge or experience
in a particular area and that makes you confident
in that area. Yes, like juggling. Like juggling,
yes. I'm confident I can pick up three things
and juggle them. That doesn't make me a confident
person. That makes me a confident juggler. Whereas
I am confident that I am not good at juggling.
Which is another form of confidence. Correct.
Confident in what you know you can't do. Contextual
confidence was something that I worked hard to
get, but it didn't make me a confident human
being. And so the book is going to be very much
around the difference between contextual and
true confidence. So I've got this formula that
I finally put together, and it's all making sense
in my brain now. I've been working on this for
many, many years. So that's going to be... One
of the components of this. Reset. Reset. Reset
retreat. Reset retreat, reset workshop. And then
the other one is going to be anti -fragility.
Yeah. Which is a topic that we spend a lot of
time training and speaking on. Yes. So we've
spoken about anti -fragility in our podcast before.
We have, yeah. And so it's just that it's a lot
of it is reframing the fact that, you know. We're
humans and life is meant to be, not meant to
be, what a silly statement that is. Life has
moments where they're challenging. Yeah, setbacks.
It has challenges. And that is life. Even being
born is a challenge. It's what makes us stronger,
what makes us keep going. I'll do a quick side
note here. Go for it. So the Vedic and Buddhist
descriptions of self, and I think this is from
Vedic teachings, is that self is the source of
all suffering. Yes. Yes. Correct. We put ourselves
through it, don't we? Yeah. And they talk about
it being attachment. But in our teachings, we
talk about it's not attachment, it's expectations.
Yeah. Yeah. Expectations not being met. Oh, that's
one of them anyway. So the anti -fragility part
of it is about helping people not just build
resilience and coping with modern day stress,
but it's going beyond. It's whereby every adversity
is an opportunity to grow. You come back stronger.
And that's not just personally. It's also in
business. It's in... all aspects of human yeah
so so we we show you techniques to identify it
how to re rewire rewrite and then use it as your
superpowers your strength and and just the innovation
and and change of thinking um we've seen some
amazing I'm going to say transformation. It's
probably the wrong word. It's a bit cliched now,
isn't it? Yeah. A full transformation. Yeah.
And I want to talk about a client I'm currently
coaching. I think I've told you this story, but
I'll tell our listeners. So he's a very successful
businessman. He grew up in South Africa and he
came to Australia. He's the owner of a very successful
business. He has a great relationship. He has
a beautiful property with horses and he's got
everything he wants. So growing up, he had an
idea of what he wanted to achieve and what he
wanted out of his life. And he's achieved those
things. And I was coaching him the other day
and he said, look, my family back home are in
constant real danger. Yeah. But they're not stressed
like I am. I'm more stressed than them. Can you
help me understand that? And I said, absolutely,
I can. So modern humans are more stressed than
our ancestors. And the reason why we're more
stressed than our ancestors is because their
danger went away. So if you're being chased by
a lion or a tiger, you escape that lion or tiger,
the danger's gone. Yes. You obviously have to
be wary. It comes and then it goes. It comes
and then it goes. Or you're hungry and you find
food, you eat. Yes. So the stresses of our ancestors
were real. Yes. Real danger, real physical danger,
survival. But once the danger went away, you
no longer needed to stress about it. It too shall
pass. It too shall pass. And it did in the past.
Modern stressors. So everyone is stressed. Everyone
talks about being stressed. Everyone's busy.
And we constantly hear the same messaging in
all of our corporate clients. Everyone's saying,
I'm busy, I'm stressed. And you think about it,
we live in the best era. of humanity. We are
safer. We have more food, shelter. We've got
everything we need. But the difference between
our ancestors and us and my client and his family,
his family's danger goes away. As soon as they
close the door. As soon as they lock their door.
Yeah. But his doesn't leave him ever because
the modern stressor is not physical danger. It's
emotional danger. And so you've got to speak
to that. employee tomorrow you've got to have
that challenging conversation with your customer
next week you've got a performance review performance
review you've got to pay that bill so these things
aren't physical dangers they're emotional dangers
and they never go away because You go home at
the end of the day and your brain will keep reminding
you, don't forget about that conversation tomorrow,
don't forget about that invoice you've got to
pay. It never leaves us. And it's because...
We even set reminders. Yeah, we set reminders
for them. In case we do do it. If we put them
on a to -do list, that to -do list keeps whacking
us on the top of our head when we're at home
and we should be with our loved ones. And then
all of a sudden your brain's going, don't forget
about that thing you do tomorrow at nine o 'clock.
And the reason why that's doing it, there's actually
something we teach in the time management course
around this, but it's because that's the danger.
That's the modern day danger and it doesn't go
away. It's always there. It's always in the background
of our head. And so next year when we run this
retreat over here in beautiful Bali in this gorgeous
resort up in Ubud. The most amazing conference
room. It's a beautiful space here. Yeah, yeah.
So we're going to help people learn how to move
away from just having contextual confidence,
the confidence that we get by being good at things
and having knowledge and skills, et cetera, moving
towards true confidence. And we're also going
to help them achieve anti -fragility. Anti -fragile
thinking. Anti -fragile thinking where we can
move beyond modern day stress. And help your
employees, help your team also move beyond that.
So there's, you know, we all know. The victims,
which, you know, everyone's adversity is real
to them, whatever it is. And your adversity,
I may disregard as not something to be worried
about for me and vice versa. But having the ability
to help others move from that in a positive way,
not only for themselves, but... in business for
the team, for the company, for their own well
-being. That's a really important gift. Yes,
yes. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to running
that workshop, especially letting people know.
The first people know what's in my book. I'm
really looking forward to it. Yeah, yes, yes.
They'll get a copy. And if it's out, they'll
get a copy of Lady MacGyver. I'll give them an
advanced reader copy just like you did with your
book. Oh, yeah, yes, yes. And ARC. We now know
what ARC stands for. Yes, all the acronyms. Advanced
reader copy. Not yet published, but here's what
it's going to look like. Yeah. Before it's fully
edited and released. Hmm. Okay, so let's summarize.
Break things down. Okay, yes, so things aren't
hard. They're easy. It's just easier not to.
Easier not to. Make small bite -sized chunks
of that elephant. Yes. Be prepared and be patient.
Yeah, hurry up and wait. Hurry up and wait. Yes.
Yeah, don't eat elephants. And turn big things
into small things. Get your copy of Lady MacGyver
online, bookstores. It's e -book. There's audio
book narrated by moi. And there's also some really
bad singing in it, also by me. I love the fact
that you sing in the book. Come fly with me.
That's it. Yeah, that's the one. And yeah, more
information is coming as we... write it, about
the Reset Retreat. Yeah, Reset Retreat. That's
the title we're going with at the moment. It
might change. But I like that, Reset Retreat
or Confident Anti -Fragile Retreat. We'll get
there. Anyway, so good to be recording again,
Michelle. Yes, yes. Do we give a shout out to
our sponsors that still haven't reached out?
I know. Bollinger, we are waiting. And Lindt.
Lindt, yeah, we're still enjoying your fine chocolates,
but a little bit of a... I have to say, I've
diverted slightly to Hague's. Have you? Yeah,
Australian, that's right. Yeah, maybe we should
reach out to them and say, hey, look, Lindt has
let us down. They haven't. I get, I spend a lot
of money to get that free sample every time from
Hague's. Yeah. Oh, you've got to love the free
sample. When they go, would you like a free sample?
Am I here for any other reason? That's right.
Peppermint, yeah, hags, hags, hags, hags? Hags.
Hags, peppermint frogs. I never know if it's
a slant G or not. Hags, peppermint frogs are
the best thing, aren't they? Yes. And they do
dark and milk chocolate. Anyway, so, Lynch, if
you don't want us to talk about hags, please
reach out. Western waging. Give us some balls.
Yeah, and bows. Bows. Bows headphones. I wouldn't
mind a new pair. Yeah, the other one. The old
one's getting a bit old now. Anyway. But, yes,
welcome back. Yes. Good to be recording again
with you, Michelle. Bye. Bye. Well, that was
fun. That was fun. You're such a clown. The clown.
Lady Captain. There we go. And who's going to
listen to this? Maybe our mums. Thanks, Mum.