Okay. So here we go with day one, one, eight and fingers crossed. The wifi doesn’t pack it in like it did last night. So my apologies for that. I’m so sorry. As I said I will go through and make some many more detailed notes because I would just love to share so much of this stuff with you guys, especially if you, like me, want to make an impact on this world. Want to leave your mark, want to leave your legacy.
You have something deep inside that you really want to get out and do and up until now have maybe dipped your toes in but not gone fully all in. As I’ve said to you before, I can hand on my heart say I’ve never committed 100% fully to my dreams. I haven’t, and that’s okay. Forty-five is not too late, people. Absolutely not too late and I’m going to prove that to myself and to others and that sort of side.
So day two, what did I learn today? If you’ve noticed, I’ve got a bit of a thing happening with my outfits for the conference. When you travel this far for a conference and it takes you so long to get here and you’re only here for a couple of days, it is tiring I have to say. But I don’t mind that because the energy, you know me, I love conferences. I love the energy, I love the vibe, I love the speakers, I love the content. All that kind of stuff.
But it’s really important to get rid of any of the additional crap that you kind of got to think of. So before I came away I was like, okay, well what’s my, might sound wanky and I don’t mean it to sound wanky because it doesn’t come from a wanky place, but what’s my look for the event? What’s my theme so I can pack minimally. Okay, that’s bullshit. I’m not a minimal packer. [Inaudible 00:01:51] three pairs of shoes.
But so I’m not thinking, “What am I going to wear? What am I going to wear?” So I decided I’d wear Camilla everyday. So shout out to Camilla. If Camilla, if you want to sponsor me, we’ve met now, go for it. If anyone knows how to get the special invites for those VIP nights, I’ll be your best friend. Totally off topic.
Day two, what did I learn? Oh my God, I’ve got so many notes. It’s not funny. Although I did just text my bestie, Yvonne, and say I really wish I could read my handwriting better because that is not great. So I am now taking time to type a few things up and make sense of it and I’ll get there. But again, I’ve done five key nuggets of quaggy things I’ve got and then I’ve done five to-do’s. One thing we had to do today and I’ve really paid attention to was the group exercises that Brendon got us to do.
The questions behind them, what I think the thought process was behind them and I really actually, again, put myself 100% into those things today. I actually answered the questions. I didn’t think, “Oh, here we go, these questions again.” I did it and it was really, really worthwhile. A shout out to anybody that I’ve met over the last couple of days that did those exercises with me at any point. Thank you. It was awesome.
Funny start to the morning. We had the amazing Roger Love this morning. Now if you don’t know who Roger is, he’s the world’s number one vocal coach and he teaches [inaudible 00:03:36], just shocking. I get to the grocery shops, I can’t read my shopping list. Must have writing lessons. So he’s the number one voice and singing and voice coach in the world. So he’s worked with everybody from Bradley Cooper to Selena Gomez to Brendon and many of the speakers that have been on stage over the last couple of days and tomorrow.
So he took us through some vocal exercises. That’s so funny. Johnny, one liter of fluids, which fluids? Vodka, a liter of vodka? So he took us through some vocal exercises and he got us singing One Moment in Time. Well, I know you might be surprised, but I belted that mofo out as we were doing it, probably not the best key for me. They got us to turn around to each other and say, I can’t remember if it was I love your voice or you’ve got a great voice or something like that. People would turn to me and go, “Oh my God, I love your voice.” It was an unfair advantage. Okay? Unfair advantage.
But it was really good. I have to confess, when I’m singing, I’m diligent about singing practice and vocal warmups because I’m singing. I’m not diligent about it when I’m speaking. So that was really good for me today to go through those exercises with him and see other stuff and tips and techniques that I need to implement on a daily basis, instead of being a lazy ass so-and-so when it comes to this kind of thing in order to have a lifelong fulfilling speaking career. So that was awesome.
So one of the things he said this morning, which I just thought was beautiful, and I may have heard it before, I don’t know. You get told, especially in singing or dance, a lot of the time you get told you have a gift, “Oh, you’ve got such a gift. Oh, you’ve got such gift. That’s an incredible gift you’ve got.” I’m not belittling that. But it is something you’d get taught. Yeah, of course it is a gift, but there’s also a hell of a lot of hard work that goes into making that gift the best gift it can be.
So when he said today, “Your voice is a gift you give away,” I was like, oh, my God, that’s beautiful. Because whether you’re speaking or singing, the gift, the words that come out of your mouth, the way you say it, the way you sing a song, the way you tell a story to a friend, the way you share how empathetic you’re feeling in the words and the tonality and the musicality in a conversation with a friend, is a gift you give away. That was beautiful. I loved that.
Then that was followed up by a woman who I hadn’t heard of until I Googled her last night after seeing her name. Her name was Rha Goddess. I’ve got it wrong and a spirit animal to me in many ways. So she started her keynote by singing from the back of the room and it was beautiful and she had the most incredible hair. My God, that hair was incredible. She helps people with a lot of clarity kind of stuff. They’re all good speakers. So I can stop saying that.
One of the things she said that really hit me was have unapologetic devotion to what you are about. Unapologetic devotion to what you are about. Now that can be about anything. It could be because you’re a father, could be because you’re a teacher, could be because you’re a nurse, a doctor, a physiotherapist, a lawyer, a jail warden, but whatever you’re about. If what you do has a meaning behind it, and everything can have a meaning behind it, every job you do, every business you run should have a meaning behind it for you, have unapologetic devotion to what you are about. I just love that. Okay.
Then we had the amazing Dean Graziosi on. I don’t think I can say his name properly. I should work on that one. Sales genius, billions of dollars in sales in various arenas, made famous by real estate, actually. I only started hearing about him when he came onto the personal development space and [inaudible 00:00:08:05]. One of the things he said, and I found it interesting because I always think sales is one of my worst things, I’m like, Oh my God, I’m hopeless at selling. I just think people should be able to make a decision and I shouldn’t have to sell to them. So I kind of have all these, had a few more negative beliefs about selling.
Now the reality is, if you’re truly giving someone something of value, the sale is just asking for the transactional piece of it. It’s not sleazy. It’s not nasty. It’s not convincing someone. It’s not any of those things. So I’m getting better at that, but it’s hard when you have those stigmas around sales. So one of the things he said that hit me was, you need to complete a sales job on yourself every day.
I took it to mean selling yourself on your beliefs, on your dreams, on why you’re doing what you do, on how great what you do is, and the value that you’re providing and what you do for other people. To me that’s a confidence piece as well. So you know how I talk about confidence being a muscle and you’ve got to practice it every day. The various ways to build up your confidence to me, that’s a perfect addition to that routine for me is completing a sales job on myself every day about what I do. Fricking fantastic.
Next was woman I again, hadn’t heard of, called Natalie Hodson. Hodson. Phenomenal career with eBooks that started off the back of a video that went viral of her peeing her pants while she was doing an exercise video. That’s every woman who’s had a baby’s worst nightmare. Again, a great story. But she talked a lot about how we as human beings, we’re wild, Freudian. We’re wired for connection. So one of the things she said, and I don’t know if the quote’s right, because again, I can’t read my handwriting, that because we’re wired for connection, when you share your stories, much like I do here, and I hope you guys feel this, when you share your stories, people feel less alone.
So when you’re sharing your story with a friend or on a platform, a social media platform, or on a stage or in a book or on a blog or with your work mates. If it’s a story that has meaning and highs and lows and darks and lights, then chances are the people that are hearing your story, or reading your story or watching your story, will feel less alone. I think that’s beautiful because they’re hearing your story and hopefully taking some nuggets out of it because if you’re just telling a story for the sake of telling a story, you’re an egomaniac. That’s not that cool. So you should be sharing from a place of hoping to impart on something or help someone or educate them because it’s funny. There’s something there. Okay? So I love that.
Then there was ET. Not ET phone home. Eric Thomas, who’s actually a pastor and he was, oh, my God, the energy this guy brought to the stage. Wow. I’d heard about it, but it’s like as Brendon said at one point he’s going to bust out of his shirt. High energy guy. I wrote lots of notes for him, but one of the things that he hit me with what he was saying was if you have average skill, but phenomenal will, anything’s possible. So a lot of the time we get hung up on perfecting what we need to know, or how we do it. It keeps us stuck. Again, this can be about anything.
When I had Elodie, I had totally average skill in parenting. I had no idea what I was doing. A lot of the time when I was thinking about what I wanted to do as a parent, a lot of the time I was just kind of, well, I want to do opposite what my mum did or obviously what my father did or, I don’t want to do what I saw so-and-so do. So it was coming from a negative place, I have to say a lot of the time. Until I go into my rhythm of feeling of how I wanted to be a mum. But my skills were totally average in the beginning. But I had a phenomenal will to be the best mum to that kid that I could be. I believe every parent is the best mum to their child that they can be because we have a phenomenal will to get it right. So I really love that.
Now, Brendon, I wrote so many notes on, but I said only five. So they’re my five key takeaways from five of the people that we saw today. I think I’ve gone on too long. You don’t need to hear about my to-do’s. Yeah, you’ll see it all happening. It’s been great. It will be on again next year for 2020 in that next decade. Oh, my God, that’s so scary. Next decade is scarier to me than the end of the year coming. I know they’re tied together, but you know what I mean?
So day three tomorrow, it’s going to be another jam packed day. I will again, take lots of notes and fill you in and good night. Good night, good night, and sweet repose, and may the angels tickle your toes.