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What I've Learnt - Michelle Stanton · WHAT I'VE LEARNT

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Saving the family business with passion and strength, Michelle Stanton had to dive deep faced with the financial ruin of Bevel's jewelers, her family's 80-year-old company.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: She found a way through the mire with heart and soul, and it survived and thrived, selling to Michael Hill, a global multinational.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: So, Michelle, welcome to the What I've Learned podcast.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: So thrilled to have you join me.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Dev.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's absolutely amazing to be here.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, Michelle, your story is one of strength, courage, resilience, and finding an innovative way out of what was a dark place for a while, but you found the light.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us a little bit about your incredible story and how you managed to, in a sense, I suppose there was a reinvention of sorts, a revival, a restoration.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I grew up in Melbourne with a loving family.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: I had a brilliant childhood, a life of abundance and what I call normality.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, went on summer camps.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I never knew what to wear on casual day at school.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: I was bullied every morning at the bus stop and yes, and ended up with a severe eating disorder uh for three years in my uh early 20s.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: But what was probably a bit different about my life was that my parents owned a very successful jewellery retail business called Bevel's Jewelers, uh, which started in Melbourne in 1934.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: 1934.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: So it's 80 years, isn't it, that business?
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: It was 80 years old then, yes.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it's now 88.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: And yes, and it was an absolute privilege uh, you know, growing up with the family business.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: We ate it for dinner, lunch, uh, it was around every conversation.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: And we all absolutely loved it.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: I I particularly loved it.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: I was the young girl at five who would sneak into my dad's office and type up ads and tell the staff to get working.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: So it was always always in my blood.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: And uh when we I went straight into the business after university, it's the only job I had ever had.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: I really had the privilege of learning and working in every aspect of the business.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a great breeding ground for me.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: But I was working very hard, 70 hours a week.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I didn't mind because I loved it so much, and so did my family.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: And in 2009, when I was about 40, my brother and father elected me to become the CEO and take over my father in the role of running the business.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: And on the outside, that seemed like it was absolutely the right thing.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: I was ready, I knew the business, I loved it.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: But on the inside, it was a completely different story.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: And you had to draw on something very powerful.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: And you also carried, you know, a big responsibility of taking that family business forward, but also protecting your parents and ensuring that there was inverted, comma, success and that there was continued growth.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: So tell us what happened.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I don't know if you can relate to this, where on the outside you have this success, it looks like you're, you know, you go is you everything together.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: Everything together, yep.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: And on the inside, you feel like an absolute fraud.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like you're uh so petrified of failing, you're waiting to be found out, thinking that there's no way that you know deserve uh this opportunity.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I made some really poor decisions over those few years.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: And quite quickly from between 2009 and 2013, the business went from being a very successful, you know, 80-plus-year-old business into losing millions of dollars.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: Just on that note, you talk about you know mistakes made, and let's be honest, everyone's made them, particularly in business, and particularly because you were carrying it was an enormous business.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: So can you just highlight, for example, one of those errors that in retrospect you would do differently?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and and to give your viewers a feeling of a size, we would serve about 300,000 customers a year.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Enormous.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I mean that's a huge responsibility.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's not like, you know, this is, I suppose, something that you had to carry, but also not everybody's equipped to do that.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: I think one of the biggest ones was I hadn't learned how to make decisions.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I was so frightened of making any.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: And prior to becoming the CEO, my brother and my father and I, we would all make the decisions together.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so I could hide behind this.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: I actually didn't even realize it was such a problem.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: And then when I found myself in the CEO role, yeah, I really did need to make some decisions without asking my brother for permission on everything.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: And uh that was horrific.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: It was the most difficult thing to do.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: Another thing that I did, I wanted to change to the brand, and I really didn't go with my authentic self on what I felt like the brand went, uh, should be.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: I took the advice of the uh advertising agency, and we came up with a formula for that was black and dark and horrible, and the customers hated it.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a really good point because I think in business, we talk about advisors, whether they be advertising um agencies or they be even financial advisors, and we'll get to that because that story is really interesting.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: But using having faith in your own intuition and backing your own judgment is not always so easy when you're faced with people who say, we're the experts, we know what we're doing, listen to us.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: And and that, you know, that was an example where whether you call it a mistake, you probably deferred to something that you thought they were the experts.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I I probably, you know, in part led it to it as well.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: But I think when you're you don't back your own confidence and your knowledge and you're feeling overwhelmed by having to make so many decisions, then you're just not actually in alignment with making good ones.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I made many.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: And the other thing that was quite difficult at the time is because prior to that, I was actually doing the job of about four people.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: And that I could do successfully.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: But when I took on the CEO, CEO role, I had to bring in a management team to do the things that I was doing.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I were doing four jobs, important things.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I understand.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: So you really had four roles, which when you're running a family business, sometimes that's what happens.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: But what you're saying is that that was part of the collateral damage because you couldn't keep an eye on all of the balls.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, retrospectively, what would you reflect on what you learned from those two particular instances?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Ret on those particular two, uh, when I had the opportunity after um, you know, the story unfolded, I was really able to lean into creating a brand that I was absolutely in love with that I knew that my customers would love.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I wasn't trying to be something that we weren't.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: So that authenticity came out in the brand.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: And the second and the second thing was the two things that I let go of was the buying.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so prior to when prior to that, I was overseeing every single piece of design that came through the business.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I would bless it and love it and make sure it was perfect in its design.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I had let that go when I brought in a senior team and I had let go of connecting with my team.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so those two things became my um, you know, juggernauts of of strength in when I had had a new opportunity to go again, and I never let them go.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: And also, I suppose what you're saying is that while you can get expert advice, as you did with the ad agency and that that brand, that rebrand, which was such a disaster from your perspective, it's something that you next time, you know, as as you evolved, you worked out that you had to listen to your own intuition, combined with obviously advisors.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: But the story unfolds really interestingly because your evolution is quite fascinating.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: And you and I have touched on this earlier.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, okay, you you then find yourself overwhelmed.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: And there is something also, just for our listeners, there is something to be said for the pressures of taking on that role and how equipped we are when we do take on that role, and how do we equip ourselves better?
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: So tell us what happened next.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: So, as the business started losing millions of dollars, um, and you know, possibly some of your viewers know bankers are great friends when you're doing well, but they quickly want to take the umbrella away when it starts raining.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: And good description, yeah.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: And they gave me 90 days to come up with five million dollars.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, I'm gonna foreclose the business and put it into voluntary administration.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, that was just, you know, sickening to my stomach that A, I had been the person that had led the business to this state and took responsibility for it.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: But even worse still was that, you know, a lot of people were going to lose millions of dollars and people's jobs were at stake.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: And those two things were actually the things that uh really I felt so bereft by.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: And after working so hard and sacrificing uh, you know, time with my family, my health um during these difficult years, doing everything that I could to try and save the business.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, there was one morning when it was just after I'd received this notice, and I was walking into my dressing room, you know, I was in my pajamas and my UG boots, bereft with this just distraught feeling.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I fell to the ground and um just crying those tears that you know are so overwhelming.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I in that moment just couldn't believe that I'd I'd let myself become this and and led was leading this particular result.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: And my son, who had never, who was about seven at the time, had never seen me cry, saw me on the ground and you know, bent down and said, Mummy, you know, what's wrong?
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I told him what was happening.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: And in that moment, Deb, it was like this lioness started to wake up inside of me.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: And she was pulling me up off the ground.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: The image is so yeah, like climbing.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: You described climbing up the the shelving, yeah.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: The dressing on, yeah.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: Pulling myself up to, you know, to be on my knees.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I looked at my son in the eyes, and I just said to him, Sweetie, you know what?
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: This is not going to be my story, and nor is it the story you're going to be sharing about me for the rest of your life.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: And in that moment, although I had been trying to find a way, and I'd been trying everything, I was just obsessed at trying to find a solution.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: It was like something else took hold.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that lioness is a very good description, the lioness.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: And we've all we can all relate to that.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: That, you know, when you know that's a very powerful image because I think many of our listeners can relate to that feeling of absolute desolation and desperation, and just finding that little bit extra to literally get up off the floor.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so from there, take us through what happened next.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: Well, a miracle did happen.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and amazing.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I suppose the lioness came to help me.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: And a I did find an age of investor who literally, over a um hug, gave me the money in the 90 days to save the business.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: And it's extraordinary.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: And he I only knew him for a couple of years before, and he he said that he'd seen me um with my three-week-year-old baby flying to India, breastfeeding, um, do you know, choosing jewellery.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: And he thought that this, you know, there was something remarkable about this, and he just wanted to come and help me.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: That is more than serendipity.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that is like serendipity on steroids.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's like, but but it does say something about relationships, connections, and how some of those small connections we make, we never know where they're going to take us.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll come back to that.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: But it talk we talk about faith and the underpinning of having a manifestation, but we'll come back to that because it's part of the story, isn't it?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: That you faith is everything.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, faith is everything.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: And you and I have talked about this.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: So you basically met the 90 days, but that just kept your head above water, didn't it?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: All that did was pay off the banks, but the business was still losing the millions of dollars and nothing had changed.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I had a small window, it was about nine months, to um try and think about how to actually change in, you know, the the way that the business functioned to um stop the bleeding.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I worked with an amazing advertising agency, and we came up with a new brand uh for the existing company, took its strengths, but really they really got to know me and wanted to um bring that to life within the brand because I I felt like I and the brand were the same thing.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: We we were we were one.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: And they did a fantastic job, and we came up with a new look for the stores, we modernized them, we made them more feminine, they were accessible, they were gorgeous, and I had time in that nine months to do two test stores, and uh I launched those stores in uh November and December of 2013.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: They were a great success.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: Our customers were lining up to shop there.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: But of course, I had at the time, I think 28 stores that were losing money.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so within a couple of months, I had run out of runway and uh needed to make some very hard decisions.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Very hard decisions.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, 28 stores, a lot of people, a lot of landlords, a lot of negotiation.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so for you, first of all, did you get support from anywhere or anyone to help you navigate?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: What is that is a pretty tough story to manage.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: So so it clearly you can't do that all alone.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Were the banks helpful at all?
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Were the was the who who helped you?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, the banks certainly were no help.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, they are not your brand.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: Typical, yeah.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I would say there's probably two parts of this story.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: One is when you're in trouble, the vultures are everywhere.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of people are coming in to try and um take what they can and bring more fear to you um in and and benefit from it.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so very interesting.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of consultants, a lot of people who were looking for ways to make money out of my demise.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so that was one thing to be very wary of.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: But I did come across an amazing group of people who who really bought into, they understood restructures and they thought out of the box, you know, they really did not, because it no one I'd been to, and I'd been to a lot of people could see a solution.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, so people would put something on the table where they'd go, well, we can do this, we'll give you half, or we'll give you whatever, and just get out because you're gonna go down.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: But basically, you held on, didn't you?
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: You held on, and actually the story is amazing.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: That you can tell me that.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: Tell it, tell our listeners what happens when you get to that very end point, and you're sitting in the um, and and and you're sitting at the late night meeting.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's very interesting.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, the pressure was so enormous, and my dad was the director of the time, which was so he was responsible.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: He was in his uh 80s at the point in time, and the stress and the shame and the guilt uh and the disappointment was just huge.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I could see him, you know, aging in front of me.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: And um, so he on one particular Wednesday in early February, he said to me, I'm done, I can't hold on anymore.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: I know you think that there could be a solution, but I can't handle the pressure anymore.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I, you know, I certainly didn't want to be responsible for something way worse to happen, which was his health.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so we made the very difficult walk up to, I'll call it a very unfriendly uh administrator.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: They're the ones that come in and butcher everything, given goosebumps.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I feel you know, I can feel that that walk that you describe.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a walk of shame.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, we walk in there and he's been chomping his lips, you know, for for years, trying to get his uh time with our business.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: And uh he sat with us, with our lawyers, with our accountants, and said, the best outcome is that all the people you owe money to are going to get 10 cents in the dollar.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: So my angel investor, even, you know, just everyone.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: And it was going to be a complete debauchery.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we were going to lose the business, it was going to be you know, chopped up, sold off.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I wasn't even going to be able to tell my teen in person, who had been loyal to the family forever, that this is what was happening.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: I had to do it over a phone call.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: Very tough and very, very detailed and very visual.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: So in that moment, my dad was and and the lawyers, everyone was sold.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: We had to do it.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, so he came in and he gave me the um announcement to the media.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: I read it, I signed it.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: He gave me the announcement that he had written to give to my team, which was completely impersonal.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: It was like a, you know, three-minute announcement of what was happening.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: I signed that, and then he went to print the document that had I signed that, I would have handed over the business to him.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: And it was now quite late at night, it was maybe 6, 6:30 at night.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: We're in one of those, you know, floor 55 of those very expensive buildings in the middle of the city, and everyone had gone.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: And there probably would have been 50 printers in this office at the time, and he couldn't get any of them working.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so after about half an hour, we're all sitting there waiting.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: After about half an hour, he goes, I can't explain it.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: The printers aren't working, you have to come back tomorrow morning to sign the this major document.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so we all left fully in the mind that we had um, you know, the business was done.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: The curtain had fallen.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: I I describe it that it was like the coffin was in the ground, being held by the leather straps, just waiting for the snip to happen on the straps.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: And we went back to the office, and because we were handing the keys over and you have no access, and you know, often you're not allowed in, and all of those things, we had packed up our office, all of our own personal things.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: We it was like awake.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: We were crying, we were telling stories of things that we remembered.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: And uh just in that moment, I was walking past uh, and my uh CFO, who was blessed, he was beautiful, did so much to help us, turned around to me and said, Not even you can save the business in this at this time.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: And as he said that, there was something in me, that lioness popped up again.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I thought, hmm, what if I could?
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: And we hadn't even recognized the gift that had happened that we hadn't signed.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: We actually hadn't handed over the business.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, then that's another serendipitous moment.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, what do we talk about?
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Faith, that serendipitous moment.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: So we did.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: We um I made a call and that person put me onto another call, and actually we decided that we could do something, and I text the administrator at 10:30 at night, said, sorry, I'm not coming.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: And we I did go into a process of understanding that there was a way through and committed to doing that.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: So um we then spent the next three months masterminding how to actually orchestrate a what I call a planned voluntary administration, which gave the creditors an incredible outcome.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so proud, you know, we end up paying nearly 100 cents in the dollar to everyone, save the jobs, and have another opportunity to go again and have a new business, but the same business, but going forward with a new look and feel, which was an incredible privilege and honor and very difficult times as well.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think in some ways there's a few things out of that, because you, you know, you talk about the coldness of the administration process, and I think that's something that I'm sure many business people have been through.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think there's something to be said in that, in a sense, it it shuts you out of the whole process and doesn't give you any hope, which I understand it's it's part of their role, but there's something to be said about the way that should be managed with other businesses.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: Did you did you think that?
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, because we did it in a planned way rather than a forced way, we actually gave them um an offer to rebuy back the business and how to manage it in a way to get the optimal, which was nearly 100 cents in the dollar for our creditors.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: And we gave them a day-by-day schedule of how to do that.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: And there's no way they could have done it on their own.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: They would have got that 10 cents in the dollar.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: So the exquisite way of which we did it, which is using the skills of the people who are running the company, if there's authenticity and genuineness to do a great job.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: This is actually a very, very powerful process.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: And it actually became one of the uh greatest success stories of an administration, um, which you know I'm super proud and had amazing people supporting me.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: We definitely couldn't have done it alone.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: But I think there's something to be said about the relationships too of the people that were involved, as you talked about, you know, they stepped in, they you had buy-in from people who believed in the company, believed in you, believed in your family, and and bought in and went, we're going to work with you because it's going to benefit all of us.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: And there's something to be said about how we need to maybe look at the way that things are addressed when when you know people are faced with this situation.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, it's a bit like some of these um administrators are like often with these big institutions, they just go into autopilot and there's a there's a sense of disconnect.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: And that doesn't help anyone.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: It definitely doesn't help anyone.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I believe this model is the way forward, you know.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it really is it's kind of like a feminine approach to solving a very big problem.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, that's exactly what that's a very good description because it's in fact what we need is a new lens on the way things are done like this.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: And your outcome is a very good example of how a refreshed and revitalized approach leads to a better outcome for everyone.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: So you learnt a lot through this process.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: What did you learn about yourself and about your capacity for resilience and strength, and also to pick yourself up off the ground quite literally.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think uh with in terms of tenacity and strength, I I used to say that I think the words that my children first learned to spell was uh tenacious and persistence.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: And they're not easy words to spell.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: So no, they're not easy words to spell, but I thought I was giving it to them in uh spoon, you know, in drows.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: So they would know how to spell it.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's friggin'.
• 23:47
  unknown: Yeah.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so that was definitely one.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: And uh my friends used to call me, Farmageddon comes, we'll put Mish in the boat, and we know that we'll get through.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: I understand why.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I really learned that about myself, and I think that's one of the biggest things to learn is that you really are greater than any circumstance or condition.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: And if you can believe that in yourself and that you have way more power and access to um a source of power, you know, with the help of others, of course, um, then you can get through anything.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: And we talk about faith, and we've talked about that a lot during our chats.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think that um are you now a woman of more faith, having been through this?
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Faith in oneself, faith in the in the universe?
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: I I would say before this, and I think that's where all the doubt and fear came, I don't think I had faith in myself.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't trust myself, I didn't love myself, I was brutal to myself.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and I think having faith in myself as a you know, a loving, kind, beautiful uh person was a huge part of the transformation.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but I wouldn't have said my, I wouldn't have called myself a known spiritual person uh prior to this.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: But you, you know, you just have to get curious at what's going on with so many miracles and serendipities and how um things are lining up in ways that you just could not even conceive as possible.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: That made me very, very curious about understanding the principles of infinite intelligence and how to harmonize with it.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, so absolutely now I would say it's probably one of my, you know, most important values.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: And in terms of your relationships, how did it impact your relationship, your marriage, your relationship with your parents?
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: How did that unravel?
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because it sounds like that through those very tough times, you actually were all pretty harnessed on and focused on the mission, which is not always the way it turns out.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: It was it was amazing.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I always had the support of my family, and uh that that was very important.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: It was one of, I mean, my for my parents, they absolutely treasured having a united family.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I really saw the gift of leading the business was that was my number one priority.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: If if we had to lose the business, we weren't going to lose the family.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: And um, so that was most important to me.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: I was blessed with uh a husband who, you know, was by my side, encouraging the lioness to come out um in every possible way, you know, gently, gorgeously, but sometimes holding me down to say, you know, you can do this.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: You told me actually a little part, I don't know if you recall, you mentioned to me when we were talking about um your husband read you an article that was quite confronting at the time.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: Can you talk to that a little bit?
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because I thought that was a really quite a powerful little story about your relationship and also your his preparedness to support you but also confront you along the way.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: Talk to me about that.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: That was quite an interesting little vignette.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: I just want to say that my husband's not a confrontational person at all.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like he runs from it.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_01: So this was a surprising act.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: So the day after the business went into voluntary administration, uh, there was an article that came out in the Jewelers magazine that was like a 20-page article of describing the failure of me leading the business.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: And at the time, our biggest competitor, which was Michael Hill, Jewellers, was booming.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: They were so confident and thriving.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so they did this massive article comparing my failure to their success.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: Pretty tough.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: Pretty tough.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_01: And here I was again on the floor in our lounge room.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: And Jamie, my husband, comes in, he goes, Oh my gosh, there's this enormous article that's come out.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: Can I read it to you?
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, No way.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, No, you have to hear this and you have to learn from this moment.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so he read and read this article, which was really incredibly uh insulting and true.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: And he turned to as he finished, I got up and I just said to him, Well, you know what?
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: If that's what they think, I'm gonna go and build a business that's so brilliant that one day they're gonna buy me.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: In 2019, I actually had a vision, I had a dream, and that was to um sell the business.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I love the business.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: I never stopped loving it, and you know, till today, but I never stopped loving it.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: But I had two dreams that I could feel that were starting to rise up uh for me.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: One was that I I had given my parents, going back to the relationship, the most um the I asked my dad and my mum what was the most difficult time of their life, and they've been through a lot, you know, then they're now uh my dad's about to turn 90.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: And he said to me the day the business went into voluntary administration.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: So I had done that to him.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so I wanted to, while he was alive, while he was healthy, I wanted him to have the most successful day, and that was the sale of the business.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm about to cry.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm about to cry too.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm listening to this, it's so, it's so um moving.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I wanted to be, I wanted him to be there and I wanted to, you know, to have that moment as a family.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: So that dream was to sell it to Michael Hill, actually, and for him to be able to um bear witness to it in health.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: And the other thing that I could feel emerging into me was a love for helping really make a profound difference in people's lives.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I had been shoving it down, doing what I could in the business, um, you know, a profound student of this of learning transformation, and I just couldn't suppress it anymore.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: And with that and feeling like it was the right time, on the 1st of December 2019, I wrote a vision of the South the business in a way that I would absolutely love, not just for me and my family, but for them, for my team, for you know, just bringing a lot of good to the world.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: And it was such a um a vision that if I'd shared it with anyone in the way that it was going to work and the financial aspects of it, it was in the land of probability or possibility.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I think any regular person would have said, no way, that is impossible.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: But I believed in the faith and I believed in what I was learning about how to create results and I believed in this dream and I had it there.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: But knowing that I needed a couple of years to grow into being this person, and so did the business.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it was in August 2021 when I really decided it was now time.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: My dad had cancer, and I wanted to make sure that this dream came to fruition before it was too late.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: And fortunately, he um is in great health and the dream came true.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what you call manifestation.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, talk about a vision board.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's about as big a vision board as you could create.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I think there is, I mean, I'm a huge believer of manifestation, that if you really want something and you write it down and you can visualize it, it's got an increased chance of coming to fruition.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: This was a very big vision board and a manifestation, but but do you think that really helped facilitate where you landed?
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, well, uh, creating a big vision and a clear vision and a crystal clear vision of one that you're in love with, with specificity to it, um, but you know, allowing your five senses to smell, touch, taste it as if it's already happening.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, like I knew the pen that I was going to sign it with.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: I knew I could see the cards that I had ridden for my family and walking, you know, hearing the click, click, click of my heels, walking down the driveway of my parents with my brother by my side, and what was written in that card, every aspect of it um was cellarized in this vision that I had spent those four years absolutely in.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_01: So much so that even then there were times when it was all, you know, it was almost called off and the process was halted and so on and so forth, I never for a moment didn't believe that was happening, that that these pauses were in perfect order and um allowed me to think of what else, you know, who else I need to become, or how can I harmonize more with it, or what steps can we take to help bring it uh into fruition.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: And when after we did the announcement, exactly to my vision, you know, from the table, the drinks that we were drinking, everything.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's incredible.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: It really is so it's such a beautiful image, this whole the visualization.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: I couldn't tell for the first six weeks between the announcement and the and the actual um sale transaction whether I was still in my vision or it was actually happening.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: I couldn't tell the difference.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: And during the day I'd have to go, hang on, is this in my imagination?
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: Or is this real?
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: No, I was actually there at the at the event, and uh but it was so identical.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: I it was very, very difficult to discern between the two.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: Sort of a surreality that you had, that maybe that was also because it was so that just shows how powerful your manifestation must have been, uh, that you couldn't discern between the reality and the fantasy.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: It is it is quite, and it's also incredible what the mind and body can do faced with such extraordinary stress, but also extraordinary hope and sense that you're going to come through something and the dream is going to be realized.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so this was what year was this now?
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: Your 2000, you sold in 2023, just last year.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not that long ago.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so you sold well and you sold to Michael Hill.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: And how was that handing over the family heirloom of 80 years, 88 years as you say now?
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um how how was that feeling of sort of relinquishing it to some degree?
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's a great question.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_01: I I had spent a lot of time um in doing a lot of spiritual work um in the releasing of Bevels uh because you know, I had loved it, it had loved me, it was my you know, my major teacher of life, um, let alone all the 88 years of family history.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, everything is energy.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_01: It has it, it has its own consciousness, it has its own experiences of failure and success as well.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the things the restructure or the voluntary administration helped me realize is that there is a separation, that if it was to not have made it, I was still going to survive and I was still gonna be a living, breathing person to who could create something else.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: I did learn that distinction, um, which I was blessed to have.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: And when um, so I really spent a lot of time in communing with with Bebels because I knew I always had a dream for it to be at 100 stores by its 100th anniversary, um, which was uh in 2034.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_01: And when I realized um, somewhere in that journey, that I didn't want to be that person, I didn't want to have those leases and um those obligations that was going to take it.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_01: But the brand and this living entity absolutely had the right and the desire to be, you know, sharing its beautiful jewelry with people around the world.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: But I knew I wasn't going to be that person.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so we we were in commune about this beautiful, elegant separation of love.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it's a beautiful description.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that is a beautiful description because I'm hearing the symbiosis between you, your identity, and bevels and your history and your family.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes, I suppose, like a child, you have to let them fly and you have to let them go on their journey.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: Do you do you feel a little bit like that?
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, I I knew that it needed to fly and grow and blossom.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't want to be the person holding it back.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_01: And also for me, because I had such a deep desire to have an impact with people's lives in in other areas, that I didn't it knew that it had to let me go so that I could go and do different work in the world.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: And do you want to talk to us a little bit about what work you are doing right now?
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's also very, I mean, with that extraordinary, I suppose, catalogue of experiences, both in business and personally, you take that with you and you bring it to your next phase.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: So tell us a little bit about what you're doing now, because that's also really, really exciting.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yes, um, thank you.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: So during um after after a few years after the restructure, and we were, you know, building the business, but we I couldn't get it to shift in its results.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I realized that in order for, you know, for the business to thrive, I needed to really change myself from the inside out.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: And although I'd been dabbling, I would call it, in personal development, I'd be doing some online courses and studying, but I wasn't like deeply committed.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: I was, you know, wasn't immersed.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought that if there was really going to be a change, I needed to understand how results are created, you know, sit under the feet of spiritual leaders, um, you know, people who are the leaders in transformation and personal development, and and get to understand how they think because they are thinking different from me.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and I did that.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like I've I think I've invested 10,000 hours of study in the last seven or eight years.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh just like the classic, um, it's the classic measure.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, who's the book, the the great book?
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's outliers, mate.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: Outliers, which, you know, just for our listeners, outliers is a brilliant book, which talks about to be good at anything, you need to do a minimum of 10,000 hours, whether you're playing violin or whether you're tap dancing.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a great measure.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: I believe it.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's very important.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: So do I.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so I went to study, you know, with the the best of the best of the, you know, what I call the old timers of the personal health uh and development and and how transformation happens, because I was just so curious about how do we create results?
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_01: How come we can apply ourselves so hard and yet not shift things?
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_01: How do these miracles happen?
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: And then how do we actually go about it?
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I realized um, you know, through sitting with them that there is a code of transformation.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_01: And if we learn this, it's it's applicable to anyone and it's available for everyone and it's repeatable.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_01: And what I discovered there absolutely changed my life.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_01: And if we go to envisioning and manifesting, you know, manifestation, it is the key, one of the key principles of transformation.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so, you know, the moment I discovered that our mind is creating our reality, you know, how we think about things is how we feel about it, how we're vibrating, which then dictates our actions and then creates our results.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_01: When I've discovered this, I was just so excited because I thought, oh my goodness, all I have to do is change me.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like, brilliant.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the way you think.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, and also to be honest, you'd actually lived that experience without fully understanding that's what it was, because it was after you'd sold and you'd gone through that transformation, you've act you'd actually applied a lot of those elements sort of intuitively or unconsciously.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: So unconscious, competent.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: Best way to be sometimes.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: And and I think, you know, and I think that the fact that you reflected post that experience and then went and mastered some of these skill sets to help others, which is what you're doing, is is testimony to the fact that you could see the outcomes.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I am assuming you're just honing that skill set and learning from it.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: Honing it, uh, loving it even, you know, loving it even more deeply because you've I've got perspective.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I think we can learn about things, but true, true aware.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we have to have awareness to to even know about something.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_01: But that true, you know, where it really starts to sink in and we change is through experience.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_01: And it's the combination of the two that we have to pull together to have a deeper understanding how these principles work.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, it's my deepest, deepest soul calling is to help people live a truly, you know, amazing life in all aspects of their life, from their health, their um relationships to their business or or their work in the world, and have all the time and money, freedom that they would love.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I created that in my own life through learning these principles.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_01: And now I just want to share it with anyone who's really willing to uh hear it and commit to it and watch people's lives change so that we can not only love ourselves more and have a bigger impact on our family, but I really believe and so passionate about you know the work in the world of both through business and our our own work in making a difference to you know community or charity as well, because collectively that's how we're going to have societal change and make a profound difference.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I completely agree, and I am so grateful for you sharing your extraordinary story and your vulnerability, which you know is part of the charm, is that you are prepared to say, I literally fell down and it's okay.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: I got up and I got myself up and I worked with people and I found a new path.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it gives people a lot of hope because there are people doing it tough right now out there, um, particularly in the business world.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, it's it's a changed landscape, but knowing that there are resources and there are different ways to approach things is so critical.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I just want to thank you so much for sharing and being on the What I've Learned podcast.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: I look forward to see what you do next.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm sure that whatever you do, um, you'll make a great impact, as you already have.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks, Michelle.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for having me.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for listening.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm blessed to have so many wonderful guests coming on the show.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: So check out my What I've Learned Instagram for updates.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, stay tuned, kind, and curious.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: Love Deb.