Latest / She Said It Out Loud with Emma Young / CEO of the Port Hedland Airport and Legend Hayley Vale!

Transcript

CEO of the Port Hedland Airport and Legend Hayley Vale! · She Said It Out Loud with Emma Young

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: You're listening to She Said It Out Loud, where real women share real stories without sugarcoating a thing.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Emma Young, and I'll bring you on filtered conversations with ambitious women who faced challenges, made bold moves, and learned a lot along the way.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: You'll get real takeaways, honest lessons, and stories that you're gonna relate to.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_01: Righto, let's get started.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: Hey there and welcome to the podcast.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Emma Young, and this is of course, She Said It Out Loud.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: My episode today is kindly sponsored by Fourfold Cafe down in Cable Beach.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: It actually is the hip and happening place to be, and not only that, they do delicious cold brew, that's my new thing I've been trying, and also asai bowls.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's right, you heard right.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone that knows me knows I am absolutely addicted to asaibowls, so this is going to be dangerous.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: The fact that they've got them there, delicious and ready to go.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, my guest today is Hailey Vail.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: She is the CEO of the Port Headland International Airport.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: And recently, when I was doing the road trip with my boss on the way back up to Broome, we stopped in for 24 hours and he was like, You need to go and meet this incredible person.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: And the funny thing is that I actually had been connected to her by Scott, who is one of my friends, and he happens to be the CEO of the Port Headland Chamber of Commerce.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: He's been talking about Haley Vale for quite some time now.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: And then, of course, then Nathan chimes in and tells me that I need to interview this incredible person as well.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: So we have been on WhatsApp chating away because both of our daughters happened to have gone to Perth in the same year where they are both studying, and though they have actually gone and reconnected themselves, and it's just great.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so I figured, you know what?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: While we're there in Port Headland, I need to get her on the podcast.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so we chat about what it takes to be CEO of such an incredibly busy airport, and not only that, one that's in a mining town.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: And we also talk about how she actually got into this role.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: Trust me, this is a conversation that you're gonna want to hear from a very, very ambitious woman.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: And not only that, she is incredibly down to earth.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: My type of woman.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: Enough of me waffling.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: Here is our conversation.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the podcast, Haley.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: I am so incredibly pumped.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: I am currently sitting here at the Headland Hotel in Port Headland.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: I would have mentioned in the introduction that I've got my guest on today who is Hailey Vail.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: She's the CEO of the Port Headland International Airport.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome, Haley, to the podcast.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's great.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: And welcome to Port Headland.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: This is the second time I've been here in less than a year.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I was here last October at the women of the Pilgrim Forum.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm back again in September, and I just I just love the place.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: And we're talking with Nexus, how I love Nexus.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm definitely going to be back and get get on the plane and be here again.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: Look, can you explain to my listeners out there a little bit about yourself?
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so um I've lived in Port Headland for the last eight years.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, of those eight years, seven at the airport.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but prior to that, I actually grew up on the Gold Coast.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: So my background was tourism, but theme park tourism.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: So 15 years for village roadshow theme parks.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: A variety of roles, starting at the front gate where I had almost, it seems, I think, 50 mothers who I worked with, and I was a 17, 18-year-old working in a group of middle-aged women, and they used to give me great advice and on my career as well.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but went to a multitude of roles and into all of the different theme parks as well: Movie World, Sea World, Wedding Wild.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, had the pleasure of being on the opening crew of Australian Outback Spectacular.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then my husband threw a spanner in the works one day and said, Hey, I think we need to try and get ourselves ahead.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a job interview in Port Headland.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: So we lived here 2008 to 2010, went back to Queensland after that, and then he was doing FIFO, never saw each other, and so we uh headed back to Port Headland so we could actually be here together.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's cool.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so, yeah, look, eight years this is your eighth year, did you say?
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, eighth year.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: Eight year in Port Headland eight years in Port Headland is no joke.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: No, so no, it's not, but it's it's a great community and one that we've really actually enjoyed being back in around this stint.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, no, it's been good.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's awesome.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: Look, to start with, to me, being the CEO of an airport, let alone a regional airport that is based in a mining town, I feel like, you know, trying to manage the logistics of it, it sounds so incredibly stressful.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: I want to know what it takes to get into this leadership position and what qualifications do you need?
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: So when we first moved here, I actually worked for the Port Authority in a great role.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Two two roles actually, uh in HR and also in an airmarine marine department.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And the airport actually advertised for a heliport supervisor role.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: And being from a theme park background, that was operations.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what I actually truly loved.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I think probably where I excelled, I guess.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so I thought, I know nothing about aviation.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: I knew nothing about aviation.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, let's just give it a crack.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: Applied for the job, went for an interview with the general manager at the time, got the job, and he basically said to me, if you want to learn, I'm gonna give you that opportunity to learn.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: But you need to want to like learn more about aviation and learn more about why and how.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what I did.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't actually have a background in aviation, but worked my way through a variety of different roles until about two years ago when I was the head of airport.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I was running all of the airport operations.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: We'd rebuilt our terminal, massive terminal redevelopment, uh, airside landside, uh, you name it, we did it.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then the CEO role actually came up and I had a great CEO at the time who really backed me and put me through some management training, and I got the job.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: It was uh yeah, a really proud moment for me.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, I've worked hard for it.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: We we worked hard.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: We're only a small team, we're only 15 people.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but we we work our bums off and and we're a great team.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what you know it takes to be able to run a successful regional airport, especially in a mining town like Port Headland, where we've got really large passenger numbers.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, for sure.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: Geez, I mean, thanks for sharing that.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: I would have just assumed that you would have, you know, I don't know, when I think of CEO of an international airport, uh I'm thinking like a four-year degree in like some sort of airport, something.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: But wow, that's incredible.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: No, and so a lot of my stuff, like I said, I've learned on the job and I've learned quick, like you have to learn quick.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, no two days are the same in any airport.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I think everybody in aviation will tell you that.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's probably why we love it so much.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, didn't go to uni, didn't have, I guess, that, you know, standard, I guess, process that most CEOs would actually have.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's been such a great ride and such a great journey.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: This is amazing to think that you didn't even have to go to uni.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know what I mean?
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: To be in this position.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: But this is also a great lesson to anybody that's listening that's potentially got kids that are about to graduate or even young women themselves that are thinking that to be, they might have aspirations in the future to be a CEO of something.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: You don't actually have to go to uni.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: There will be obviously positions where you do, but something like this.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I think as well, you you give yourself those opportunities as well.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I was really lucky at the time by having that CEO who really wanted to try and support my career, but also our board of directors and our chair of PHIA, because they said to me, we want to give you this opportunity.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I did an international um airport executive course um over 18 months, which was an amazing opportunity for me as well, just to learn from others within the industry, uh, in international airports, overseas, but also within Australia as well.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: But being able to learn what you learn on the job, it's I don't think anything can take that away.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I still learn something new every day.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, good.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for sharing that.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: So aviation resources and look infrastructure, these can still be very male-dominated industries.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: What's your experience been like, you know, as a woman in this environment, but especially in a mining town like Port Headland?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: They are, um, and they still continue to be.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but we are starting, and you know, there are lots of female CEOs, uh particularly over on the East Coast, that are running airports and airport managers that are female, and we celebrate that.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: The Australian Airports Association have a forum every year.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: It started as a breakfast now.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's an event that's attended by over 400 women and men, and it's the first day of their national conference that they have, and that's a celebration for everybody in aviation, but it's it's different.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: But the support in Port Headland in particular is amazing, and it comes from people like the Port Headland Chamber of Commerce, the resources industry, um, and others that are also, you know, supporting women in executive positions and leadership positions uh and giving them the opportunities that sometimes you might not always get somewhere else.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: So what do you think women bring to leadership itself?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, perhaps compared to or what hasn't been in place even 20 years ago?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think we think differently.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: I I I don't know.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: I I'm I'm a bit of a realist as well.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I like to think that we probably have a different take on things.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'm not saying that men aren't compassionate or that they're not kind, but we just we we've got so many different competing things going on in our lives sometimes with bringing up our children and being able to, you know, time manage those things.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think we we just think differently and we just do things differently.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: I love the fact that our airport is we've got a great female, you know, percentage of staff that actually work for us.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's so far outside of what the aviation, I guess, sector is um experiencing and us and and you know, people trying to drive females into any position within aviation.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we are starting to see that change, but it's been very slow.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: So what percentage are you saying before?
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like before We're 65%.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, 65%.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's incredible.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: Are women that work at the airport?
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's wonderful.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: And and it's not through, I'm not saying that, you know, we're I'm like we're targeting women to actually work within our airport, but we're encouraging them to do it.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: We're saying to them, this is an industry where you can actually succeed.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: This is an industry where you can grow your career and it can be your career for as long as you want it to be.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, great.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, what now, what does being the CEO of an airport actually involve that you think that the average traveler wouldn't know?
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's a bit crazy.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I say it's not.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's funny because when it comes to regional airports, we've got to be all rounders.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said before, we've only got 15 staff.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so if we've got birds out on a runway, if we've got a baggage belt that's broken down, we've got somebody stuck in a car park, and we've got 15 people, then it's all hands on deck.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: And especially when it comes to like there has been so many times that we're off throwing bags, and I've worked in the bag room because we've broken a belt, and we've got to get the aircraft out on time.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's time-critical operations.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: We have to make it seem like it's seamless to you when you're actually coming through the airport and you putting your bag into our check-in and then it just disappears and magically gets on the plane.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's not always that easy.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: So we're hands-on.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yes, most of my time is taken up with the strategic direction and where we think our airport's gonna go and and what we see in our future.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, if you see me walking really quickly through our terminal, you usually know that something's not going uh to plan and that I'm gonna actually go and help them to try and save the day.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: And that's good that you do that and that you're not like I'm CEO.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: I get to sit in my office and watch.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Regional airport CEOs don't have the um advantage of being able to do that.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, it's all hands on deck, and our staff are not adverse to seeing me walk through and uh pick a bag up and throw it onto a cart.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's good.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so obviously, you being in this position, you are the CEO.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: How do you handle situations when you know that not everyone is going to agree with one of your decisions?
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's a tricky question.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think anybody ever agrees um 100%, and they're not going to.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I have this conversation um with our team all the time.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm always trying to get the best outcome for everybody, but it's not always going to happen, and they're going to be people that are disappointed, might be our ground handler, they want something and I can't give it to them.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: But it's about having those conversations.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's about that simple, hey, I can't give you this, but what can we do to actually work with you so that we can try and give you a fix or or or or something different?
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's a hard conversation that we have right now about the public like who want our Bali service back, our international service.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, okay.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: So look, that was going to be my next question as you know, how d how difficult is it to convince just airlines to introduce new routes, but also how difficult it is to deal with this constant question.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we were talking about this.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: We went to lunch before we had this episode and or press record record on this episode, and I kept on saying, obviously, coming from Broome, I'm like, I miss the Singapore flights.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: I've got no doubt that, you know, the CEO and even Christy Bailey, who I interviewed here, I asked her the same question, and she was like, the amount of times that people ask me, when are we bringing back international flights?
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: Now, me not being involved in aviation whatsoever, I'm like, it can't be that hard.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: Got to Qantas and tell them this is what we want, let's set it up next week.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: But I clearly know that it can't be that easy if it was that black and white.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: But tell me what actually goes into that.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: I think people really need to know because it's easy for us to sit back in our chairs and our couches and start screaming into the void.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_01: Bloody hell, bring back international flights, but it's not that easy.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we obviously we had an international barley service prior to COVID and it had operated for 25 years in the airport.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: COVID unfortunately put a stop to it.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's been obviously some government decisions as well around biosecurity and border force and being able to bring back services into regional towns.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: So it was great to see Broom be able to, you know, get the Singapore service back and to be able to operate it.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: And we were hoping that would be the case with our service as well.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: So it's hard.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: You're right, trying to get an airline committed to being um able to undertake that service is difficult.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: Luckily for us, we have interest.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um so there are a couple of different airlines that are actually really interested in the service, which is great.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: We do have an international terminal, we didn't renovate it as part of our renovations.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: Right now we're going through a process with Canberra and with Border Force and Biosecurity to be able to do detailed concepts to designs on the terminal.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: I have those conversations with people in Woolies all the time.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: When are we getting back Bali?
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: What are you doing about it?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: Why aren't you doing anything about it?
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: But I'd like to say it's within our control, but it's not.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's a really difficult conversation.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's something that this community wants more than anything.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: We want to have connectivity in and out of this town.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's not just to Perth.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um we'd love to have interstate connectivity as well, but being able to convince an airline uh and then obviously to be able to put those services in place that allows you to facilitate it.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's not always easy.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and look, I'm I'm glad that you explained that because in my head I forever thought whoever the CEO is, it's their job.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: They're the boss, they get to say it, and they just get to have make it happen.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: But clearly, after listening to the way that you've spoken in our prior conversation, it's simply not that easy.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's not.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: It and I want to be able to go to Bali as much as you want to be able to go to Singapore.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's about us all supporting each other as well.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: It means that, you know, uh Broom and and, you know, we're we're all very similar.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: We're we're similar operating airports.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: We've operated, Broom's operated international for many years as well.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I think we need to all get together collectively.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it might be about us um, you know, doing that advocacy piece with government and saying, all right, well, what's it gonna take?
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we we we know that we want to do this, but help us to be able to, you know, facilitate it in a bit more, you know, of a timely manner than I guess what we're we're dealing with now.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, look, fingers crossed that we've had this conversation and that someone, the powers that be go, oh my gosh, yes, let's finally do this.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it can get it can happen in the next, you know, five years would be nice.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um look, people often think, and I'm guilty of this myself, that you know, Port Helen primarily in turn when we think of Port Helen, you think of mining.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: You think of iron ore, you think of the ships that you see out here on the coast.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: But what's something that you wish people understood about the community itself beyond mining?
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful community.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's it's a vibrant community.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: I was saying to you before that some of my best friends that I knew from the first time that I lived here, they're still my friends today.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: But it is what you make of it.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we've got beautiful opportunities, we've got a beautiful coastline, camping, you know, up and down the road, no matter which direction that we go in, but you have to make the most of it.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: You've got to get yourself involved.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we have a transient workforce as well, lots of people coming and going.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: It can be amazing.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: You can make some great friends here.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we've got amazing services in place, like the chamber that supports small and business, uh medium-sized businesses to be able to get up and running.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: And the people are friendly.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you take the time and you actually stop and start to talk to some of these people or you know, go out on a limb and introduce yourself to somebody that you don't know, that person could be your best friend in 10 years' time and still be your best friend in 20 years' time.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: But you've got to go and do that.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, definitely.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: I think, I mean, obviously, my other job as a celebrant, I marry some incredible Port Headland people.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: South Headland people, again, same thing.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: Headland people in general.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: When they say they're from Port Headland, I get excited because it usually means that they are not huity-toety, they are very down to earth, they're gonna want to have some fun, and they're just genuine people that are coming from this community.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: People that um I think we all probably come with the same agenda or a similar agenda that we're gonna move to a town like this, we're gonna try and get ourselves decent jobs and a little bit of money, and then we're gonna go home.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: But it grows on you.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think the more that you stay here, and as I said, I've been here twice, and I think this second time round, it's my home, but I've made it my home as well.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: I want to know more about this award that you received.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: I know.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: This is a big deal.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: So, Nathan, my boss, in the drive coming up here, was like, Haley is a legend, she is amazing, she's awesome.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, well, yeah, clearly, she's the CEO of an airport.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: She won this award, you know, a couple of years ago.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: I just was like, she is incredible.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't actually know what the award was.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me what this award was.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Nathan's got a big mouth.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I can say that because you'll probably hear this and you'll be like, oh, whatever, really.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was a couple of years ago.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so the Australian Airports Association have um their national conference were talking about it, and uh awards are part of that.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, awards are part of it.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: They have a gala evening.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um so usually the awards are airport awards.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: This was the first year that that actually had an emerging um airport leader award.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so my boss had nominated me for it, which was kind of him at the time, and I won.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was it was actually mind-blowing at the time, and I was very, very ill prepared for it.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: I just didn't think that it was actually a reality.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that's a big deal.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's a huge deal.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: It was, yeah.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: You should be proud of yourself.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I was, and and I still am.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: I I look at my trajectory and I look at my time in aviation and that it has been so short when there have been so many people that have been and uh, you know, subject matter experts, and I will never ever profess to know everything about it.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, like I said to you, I learn something new every day.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: But to be able to receive that honour, me to be able to to be the best that I could be and to achieve that was just um absolutely amazing for me.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's so good.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: And look, there is one person who I do think we need to do a shout out to because I was listening to you at lunch and you spoke obviously highly of your husband because he's your husband is his name, Chris.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: Chris, yes.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: I've married Chris as well.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: But to have a husband that you said he is your biggest supporter and he's like your biggest cheerleader, what does that look like for you having a husband that obviously is so supportive of his wife that's in this incredibly high stressful yet rewarding position?
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he gets to hear me uh every afternoon, and um, I don't think any story is ever the same.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think I come home and he's like, Oh, what's she gonna throw at me today?
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Or or what's been going on at the airport today, and I've told him some doozy stories.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: So um, but he he's my rock.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like he is a superstar himself.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like he is a guy who uh electrician by trade, moved us over here, obviously uh a high achiever as well, but has just finished his MBA.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I've not only been like, you know, doing my transition within you know the year.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Airport and becoming the CEO, but at the same time, just watching him and being in absolute awe of him doing that because he put so much work into it.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so so proud of him.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: Think he's just the greatest guy ever, and he will tell you that he's not.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think all Chris is a like that.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: I think that it's just something in them that they go, ah, yeah, I'm alright, I'm okay.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's great.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: I I mean, look, I just wanted to do a shout-out.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: Shout-outs are so always the fact that you just have been talking about him so much, and then I'm sitting here thinking, this would take a lot to have a partner that is in this position, and then, like you said, to hear the stories coming home and then just in that alone, uh, I think is incredible.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, look, thanks for doing that, shout out.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: I just want to put you on spotlight.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: No, I like it.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: One thing that I do want to just touch on before you know we wrap things up here is you'd mentioned before about I know that you said you've got 65% women working at the airport, but you also mentioned you've got an incredibly diverse workplace.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: How has that eventuated?
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: Has that just been a priority for you, or you've just had all these different people come from different countries?
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think it's just uh it's just happened, it's been a bit of luck, but we are really diverse.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I said to you um before um we've got two uh local girls born and bred in Port Headland, our admin supervisor and our admin officer, um, which we love.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: But then we've got you know, Fiji, and we've got uh, well, she's Fiji in India in our head of airport.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we've got Serbians, Macedonians, uh Colombians, we've got South Africans.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna get in trouble if I forget anybody.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we've got a New Zealander, you name it, we've got it.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I absolutely love that we are celebrating that diversity.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's great.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: We we have half lunches every month, and everybody, you know, always throws a little bit of their own humour and a little bit of their, you know, culture and and and and where they're at in their life into it.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's great to be able to celebrate that.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: We love it.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: That is good.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean it's awesome too, just hearing in your voice how much you obviously love your job, but the workplace itself because you know that's not that common.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: Usually somebody's gotta make a comment about them being in a toxic, you know, workplace, or there's people that are just not so supportive.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: This sounds like the complete opposite.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, for your rapid fire questions, this is what I've got.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so the first one I want to know is what do you do when you take your CEO hat off?
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: Like, who is Haley?
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: Hayley's probably a little bit loose.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: What is Haley?
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: What is Haley?
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: I love a loose Hailey.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: Is this when you were talking about how you love margaritas and she's a passion for that?
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody knows I love margaritas, that's no secret.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: No, I I just like to relax.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like I think that when you when you do a job like mine, which is pretty stressful and comes with a lot of responsibility.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: For sure.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna lie, I love getting home, pouring myself a glass of rose, sitting out the front.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very, very lucky.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: I have an ocean review.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: So um, and sitting there, usually with my husband, sometimes with my kids, depends on who's around, and just being able to debrief um and and talk through my day or their day.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I love camping, I love my friends.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a great group of friends here.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we love to go out for a camp.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's cool.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: We're really social and and just having fun and and making the most, I guess, of the town and and the limited resources that we've got available here.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, we're we're not shy of having a social event.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, well that's good.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's but that's that's great.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: What does success mean to you now compared to when you were younger?
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: Has it changed, do you think?
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think so.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm growing up on the Gold Coast, you you kind of work in tourism and I don't know, it's just that really relaxed lifestyle where it doesn't really matter.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: No one judges you for what job you've got on the Gold Coast, I don't think, or and I don't think people judge you now, but I I think you do start to change and you start to go, all right, what can I do to be better?
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: And what steps am I gonna have to put in place to be better and to you know sometimes be able to climb the the ladder?
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, you've got to you've got to back yourself and you've got to own the decisions that you're making.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I think that's just a bit, you know, you you you do change.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think your mindset does change.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: Definitely.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's a really good point, mindset for sure.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, now last one, if you weren't doing the main job that you've got now as CEO of the airport, what else would you be doing?
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think once you work in aviation, you're never gonna leave aviation.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone, um when I first started, everyone would be like, oh, you're gonna get this job in aviation and you'll never leave.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, ah, are you kidding me?
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: Can't be that good.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what's so good about it?
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it's the jet fuel, it just gets into your uh force or or what it is, but it's dynamic.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like I I I try and explain it to people, and it's really hard.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: And and even Chris says to me, Why do you love it so much?
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like you you literally love this job so much.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like every time I hear you talk about it to somebody who has never like doesn't know what you do, or you can just see your face.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: You it lights up and you just love it so much.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I I can't explain it, I but I don't think I can do anything else.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think this is it for me.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's a great and you know what?
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: I probably would have to agree with your husband because even watching you now, you just have these like rosy cheeks where you're just in so much or talking about your current position.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I honestly think that there is, I don't want to say there's no shame in it, there's certainly no shame in it because how often can you honestly say to yourself that you love the job that you do?
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: I think that it is quite rare to ask someone, do you love your job?
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: And they love it to the extent as to the way that you're describing.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I have done some incredibly shit jobs in my shit shit jobs that have just so close to breaking me as a person.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then I do think though that though I had to go through those shit jobs to get into the position that I'm in now and the job that I currently have now, obviously teaching adults on the peninsula with Judgin.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's just it honestly is the best job that I've ever had.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's because it's rewarding and you celebrate the little wins and you obviously celebrate the big wins.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: So good on you.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: Lastly, and I don't even know if I told you this, but I always get my guests to do a shout-out.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's always at the end of the episode where uh you can choose one person, two people, whoever you want to give a shout out to, to a woman that or women that have s inspired you, or just somebody who you truly admire.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm actually going to shout out to our team, like as a whole, like our airport team.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: We do 540,000 passengers through our airport every year, and every one of those people contributes to that in everything that we possibly do, and they are all amazing.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I say that like I am 100% honest in saying that.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not just pulling the piss.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's like they are great people, they're extraordinary, but there is one other person as well.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, she's our chair of our board, Cheryl Edwards.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: She probably saw something in me that even I didn't see in myself many years ago about my trajectory at the airport and in what I could actually achieve and in backing myself.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: And she's taught me to do that.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, where I probably was, I can't do that job.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to be the CEO of the airport airport.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: Why would she be looking at me and saying, you can do that?
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: She saw something that I probably didn't see in myself.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: So that's awesome.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Cheryl.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Cheryl.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: She's she's great and she truly is um yeah, a great leader.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's awesome.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, listen, thanks so much for coming onto the podcast.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for meeting me here at the Headland Hotel.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's my new favourite hangout.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I just appreciate you coming on and talking about everything Airport and you being in this incredible leadership position.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: No, thank you.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening to She Said It Out Loud.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: If you took something away from today's episode, I would love to hear from you.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: Come find me on Instagram at officially Emma Young.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: And hit follows to new episodes land straight in your feed.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: See you next time for more real and honest stories from legendary women.