Kerryn Vaughan - Gratitude and compassion at Christmas
Christmas was never meant to be about consumerism and stress. It should be a time for family and love, and for those who don’t celebrate, they too should be able to enjoy the love that’s extended at this time.
Let’s slow down a little over this holiday break and consider the things and people we have around us to be grateful for. It’s a stressful time and people do and say some pretty ordinary things due to these conditions. We don’t have to push and shove and place huge expectations on each other. We can choose to slow down, reflect, and extend love and compassion to ourselves and those around us.
Kerryn Vaughan - Values
Values are more important than we often realise. If we express and demonstrate our values effectively, decision making becomes a breeze.
In this episode, I talk about values and how important they are as a lens to make great choices. Also, when communicated and demonstrated effectively, they help others to feel a sense of trust around you.
Kerryn Vaughan - Gratitude and Joy
In this episode, I talk about the power of gratitude and joy, and how both of them can transform your life.
In this episode, I talk about the power of gratitude and joy, and how both of them can transform your life.
Kerryn Vaughan - Taking action
Is there something you want to do? All it takes is a decision to move forward with it and actually make it happen.
In this episode, I talk about taking action. Last week we had our 5th annual Girls With hammers conference, and Gem Gale spoke about her new book that’s about to be released. At last year’s conference, Gem talked about this being an idea. She took action and made it happen.
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Kerryn Vaughan - The power of one idea
Do you have an idea that your keeping in a drawer? Maybe you can save lives but haven’t realised that potential yet. Take a listen and be inspired.
In this episode, I talk about the power of one idea, and how that one idea can change lives. The problem is, we often give up on our ideas because we fear failure, rejection or criticism. Also in this episode I introduce two amazing young men who are actually saving lives through their ideas. One, Heman Bekele, has invented a soap that has the power top heal melanoma, and is accessible to all. The other, Jack Andraka who was featured in my book ‘Magnificent Kids’. Jack invented a pancreatic test strip, extremely cheap and far more accurate than the regular test methods. What’s your idea?
Megan Munckhof - Cleaning up with Lead n Hand
Megan Munckhof is the co-founder of Lead n Hand, a simple product that keeps leads, ropes and hoses tidy and wrapped up with the perfect loop.
Megan Munckhof is the co-founder of Lead n Hand, and product for keeping ropes and leads looped perfectly without the tangles.
The idea of Lead n Hand was dreamt up many years ago by Megan’s Dad (Darcy White) who is a farmer and contractor in Queensland.
It came about due to a need to tidy up his service vehicle and to provide a storage for all his leads and hoses. The issue of tangled ropes and cords is a problem a lot of people have, and this is what drove him to find a solution.
The handheld device is secured to your cord, hose, rope etc on one end so you will always have it handy. The size of your loops depends on the length of your cord and where you wish to store it. The ergonomic shape is suited to both left and right handers and many different sized cords etc. You simply just click your item into the Lead n Hand and keep it secure for storage.
Darcy started by making a prototype in his shed then advanced to the family kitchen, where he heated up the plastic to mould it into shape. The family toyed with many ideas about how to over engineer it, but then simplified the shape and functions to what exists today.
Megan and Darcy have gone through the process of Patenting, trademarking, and securing the design in many different countries. This has taken a long time but has been well supported by a fantastic team. Lead n Hand is an all Australian made and owned product registered with the Australian Made Campaign.
Lead n Hand is very new to the market but has already received great feedback and fantastic ideas about how others are using the product for their own application, from electric car/bus leads to people with disabilities with limited hand mobility.
Megan and Darcy are excited to see the growth of Lead n Hand, and hope that people will love it as much as they do.
Socials:
Website: https://leadnhand.au/
FB: Lead n Hand
Insta: Lead n Hand @leadnhand
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Kerryn Vaughan - Kindness Matters
Kindness really does matter, and we should not express it solely in the hope of reciprocity. Kindness to self, others, animals and the planet.
In this episode, kindness is the focus. I always wonder why we need specific International Days for particular things, and wonder why we can’t be decent human beings every day of the year. Despite my personal thoughts, November 13th is International Kindness Day, and that should extend to self, others, animals and the planet. By the way, kindness has scientifically proven health benefits, so why wouldn’t be practise it?
Kerryn Vaughan - Time travelling 200 years into the future
Will we still exist 200 years into the future? Will the planet be healed? Will the planet still exist? What if we could ask a question of somebody from 200 years into the future. What would you ask?
In this episode I ponder the answer to the question “What question would you like to ask a time traveller from 200 years in the future?”. Firstly, I’d be surprised that humans still exist at that time! But I’d be curious about what solutions humans found to resolve problems. I’d also want to know what I could do better today to contribute to a better world in the future.
Jan Clarke - Healing eating disorders with love
Jan Clarke is the founder of Door 2, an online community supporting people with eating disorders and their families.
Jan Clarke has been a finalist in many awards across the decades. Teacher of the Year, Telstra Business Woman of the Year, and Nominated for Australian of the Year, but her proudest moment was when she pitched the Door 2 Story and won Founder of the Year in the Launch Victoria pitch event.
Jan describes herself as an ‘old lady with a startup’ but in reality she has always been telling stories, advocating on behalf of others for their voice to be heard. A passionate advocate for people on the inside of an eating disorder ‘Insiders’, and their families on the outside, struggling to understand how to reach their loved on and be effective in supporting their recovery.
With a Master of Education, Jan is recognised Australia wide as an expert in Developmental Education with close to 40 years experience in the delivery of programs across multiple sectors.
Her expertise in the field of Eating Disorders has led to opportunities to consult, coordinate and lead teams of multiple stakeholders to deliver humane, sustainable and positive outcomes for people with complex eating disorders and their families.
After a lifetime working in the Eating Disorder and Education fields, raising 4 fabulous adults and 9 wonderful grandchildren, Jan retired to the farm to enjoy the view from her verandah.
It was Audrey who pulled on her heartstrings and got her off that porch and out of retirement. In 2019, after 6 years of ‘evidence based’ mainstream eating disorder treatment, the arrival of adulthood and the independence that comes with this, Audrey had relapsed and her family was in the fight of their life to save her.
For the first time in her eating disorder treatment, Audrey was given the space for her voice to be heard. . Working together, Audrey, her family, Jan and her treatment team supported this amazing Insider until she gained the insight, skills, strength and capacity to lead her own recovery.
In 2021, Jan pitched an idea that was novel and untested. A program to help families and carers understand the ‘Inside’ experience of their loves ones with eating disorders. What was intended to be a 6 week pilot program of education, skills and support, hosted by Jan and guided through the ‘Insider’ experience, delivered unexpected outcomes.
A beautiful symbiotic relationship between Insiders and carers ‘Outsiders’ emerged. One where both sides felt validated, understood and supported. A relationship based on genuine connection, trust, honesty and commitment to one another was the result.
Door 2 has evolved from this original idea into a comprehensive program that is backed by research through practice informed evidence.
Socials:
Website: https://door2.com.au/
Insta: Door 2 - Recovery from Eating Disorders @door2eatingdisorders
Podcast: Inside Door 2
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Kerryn Vaughan - Debunking overnight success
Overnight success just doesn’t happen, and almost always, true success only comes after playing the long game of persistence, determination and guts.
In this episode I chat about the myth that is overnight success. If we were to imagine success as an iceberg, on the top we would see all the accolades, awards, and maybe even what we imagine that person has regarding finances. But we don’t see the stuff beneath the surface that has to happen first. The sacrifice, the tears, the rejection, and so on. We often feel the need to criticise the success of others, but perhaps before we do, we should reframe our thoughts and admire them for their persistence and courage.
Emilia Leese - Thinking like a vegan and rewilding a forest
Emilia Leese teaches how to think like a vegan by considering the ethics and interconnections between humans, animals and the planet. She also shares how to re-wild a forest.
Emilia A. Leese, is the co-author of Think Like a Vegan: What everyone can learn from vegan ethics. Emi is also the host of the podcast, Think Like a Vegan. She writes essays on life, travel and veganism for a variety of online publications and is closely involved in a long-term forest rewilding project in the Scottish Highlands.
Emi is a speaker on vegan ethics at a variety of events and developed life skills and ethics workshops for underserved youth. She has been a corporate finance lawyer for over twenty years. She and her husband Roger, who is also vegan, live in London and the Highlands.
Socials:
Website: https://emisgoodeating.com/
Website: Birchfield Rewilding https://birchfieldhighlands.org/
Insta:
Birchfield Forest Rewilding @birchfieldrewilding
Think Like a Vegan @thinklikeavegan
Think Like a Vegan (Book)
Think Like a Vegan (podcast)
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Kerryn Vaughan - Leading with whakapapa
We are all connected, and it is our responsibility to recognise what this moment is asking of us, and to respond to that so that those who come in the future will thrive.
In this episode I chat about the Polynesian concept of whakapapa (pronounced Far-ka-pa-pa).
Whakapapa is about an endless line of people with interlinked arms that stretches back to the beginning of time in one direction, and in the other continues on until the end of time. We hold our place in that line, and when the sun shines upon us, which is our lifetime, it is our turn to be the custodians of what has been passed on to us, and how we must take ownership of that and do right by others, particularly our tribe.
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Harry Bishop - Educating and advocating for reptiles
Harry is only 12, yet he already has a collection of 17 reptiles, and has plans to be the youngest person in Australia to build and own a reptile zoo.
Harry is a 12 year old reptile breeder & keeper in Gippsland. He currently has 17 reptiles in his collection including 7 snakes ! Harry is also a public speaker and advocate for reptiles.
Harry is seeking to change the way people view reptiles – especially snakes – and the language parents use about them so as not to create fear about these animals, but awareness instead. He wants people to understand that snakes are not as nasty as the movies would have people believe and to help them realise how incredible these animals actually are.
Harry also wants to be the youngest person to build and own a reptile zoo in Australia and is well on his way.
Socials:
Youtube: Next To Nature With Harry
Insta: Next To Nature With Harry - Reptile Enthusiast @nexttonaturewithharry
Enjoy the visual here on Youtube
Kerryn Vaughan - Being impressive vs leaving an impression
It’s easy to want to impress people, but the focus should be more about did I leave an impression that will help the other person.
In this episode I chat about being impressive as opposed to leaving an impression. Too may of us worry about impressing people, or living up to the expectations of others, but what we really should be worried about is whether we left an impression on somebody. And hopefully one that will shift the other person’s life in the right direction.
Kerryn Vaughan - How to build confidence
Building confidence isn’t that hard if we’re willing to take courageous action and put in the effort to improve with practice.
In this episode I chat about the key ingredients to building confidence, and it’s not that hard if you’re willing to take courageous action and put in the effort to improve with practice. So many people say they are lacking in confidence and it paralyses them, so they end up doing nothing. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Of course you have to have some basic underpinning skills and knowledge, and then start messy.
We need to look at confidence in relation to our ability to take the next step, rather than our perceived inability to fulfil the big picture. Then we can conquer confidence one tiny action at a time.
If you think you’re lacking confidence, this one’s for you.
Kerryn Vaughan - Celebrating our differences with DISC
If we want to build stronger relationships with those around us, we have to understand others. We can’t assume they are just like us, but they’re not. Let’s look at the four DISC styles to understand a bit more.
In this episode I chat about the four personality types in DISC. There’s the Dominant Driver, the Interactive Influencer, the Steady Supporter and the Conscientious Complier. They are all amazing and they each play such an integral part in the big picture. Which one are you?
Once we understand personality types and what motivates and drives us, we can then do better at building strong and effective relationships. We can also communicate and interact better. We have become disconnected and having this tool in your pocket will help create lasting connections that are valuable and much needed.
Kerryn Vaughan - Flood the world with kindness
In a world that seems to have lost its way, we have the choice to perpetuate harm and meanness, or we can choose to be kind.
In this episode I chat about the fact that humanity is becoming more mean. It’s been bothering me for quite some time as I have not really known what to do about it because the problem seems so big. But, I actually think that flooding the world with kindness is the best place to start.
We often don’t and up or speak up because the perceive the outcome of doing so puts us at too much risk, but by extending kindness, we eliminate that concern and the ripple effect takes hold for the greater good.
Belinda Griffin - The Wheely Serious Project
The Wheely Serious Project was created by a team of 5 to raise awareness for accessibility issues for people reliant on wheels for mobility, and to create accessibility to public spaces where possible.
WE ARE THE WHEELY SERIOUS PROJECT!
But who are we? Where did this idea come from? And what is it all about?
An Engineer (Joshua Wilhelm), a Makeup Artist (Jessika Evans), a Dairy Farmer (Belinda Griffin), a Land Manager (Renee Hutchinson), and a Forester turned Planner (Andrew Stanton), walk into the Gippsland Community Leadership Program. Coming to the program from 5 different walks of life; within a couple of weeks, we were galvanised around an idea to make Gippsland a better place for people who use wheelchairs.
Early in the program, we sat around a table in Meeniyan sharing stories about who we were, what mattered to us, and why we had signed up for the Gippsland Community Leadership Program. Jess's story struck a chord with all of us. As if being a young vibrant entrepreneur wasn't enough, Jess shared the story of how she unexpectedly became a disability advocate.
One of Jess's boys can't do all the things his twin brother can do, because he lives with cerebral palsy. When Jess and her three kids go out she doesn't know if she will need to leave one of her little people out on the footpath, because there is no ramp. Or if he will be stranded at the front of the shop because the aisles are too narrow for his wheelchair to navigate. Or if their family trip to the movies will come to an end before it has even begun because no one thought the lift was a priority to fix.
Jess's story made us all see with fresh eyes how inaccessible many of our amazing Gippsland towns are for people who use wheelchairs. And how this inaccessibility can lead to feelings of being alienated, both from the things and places you want to go, and also from your friends and family. When faced with these barriers day in day out the message for Jess' son is that he and his wheelchair are the problem and that he is stopping his brother and sister from going to the movies. We all saw that the problem is actually a lack of a ramp, the layout of a shop, or the maintenance of facilities. And that the barrier was as likely to be a lack of awareness as it was inaccessible building construction.
So we got researching, with an aim to understand this new world, and see if we could do something, however small, to raise awareness and make things a little easier for Karter. We found Australian standards for accessible design, the benefits of inclusive design for everyone, the financial benefits to businesses from making themselves more accessible, the charter of human rights, disability discrimination and equal opportunity legislation, and a whole heap of resources that had been developed to help property and business owners see what small (medium and large) changes could be made to their business to increase accessibility.
But we are not a regulator, we are not the ramp police, and we don't have the power, or the inclination to go around telling business owners how "bad" they are for renting a shop built before accessible building standards were adopted. We are all part of the community of Gippsland, and we want to work with the amazing members of those communities to understand the barriers limiting wheelchair accessibility. We want to sing the praises of people who have gone out of their way to be an accessible business. We aim to share ideas of what can be done to open up premises to a broader range of customers. We want Karter (and other wheelchair users in Gippsland) to know from the street that they can get inside and buy what that shop is offering because they can see the Wheely Serious Project Sticker.
We hope it goes big, we hope it spreads wide, and we hope that it positively influences the lives of many Gippslanders and visitors to Gippsland. But we will be happy if Karter knows that four strangers heard his mum's story and cared enough to try to make things a little better.
Socials:
FB: The Wheely Serious Project
Enjoy the visual here on Youtube
Andrea Lane - Floating art and regeneration in Gippsland
Andrea Lane is the co-founder of FLOAT, a floating art space in East Gippsland. She is also an economist who believes in the irrefutably brilliant impact of artists in regional places.
Andrea Lane is an economist who believes in the irrefutably brilliant impact of artists in regional places. She is also the co-founder of FLOAT, an art space in East Gippsland, located on the gorgeous Lake Tyers.
Andrea and the crew at the FLOAT are following their instinct. For art, nature, generosity and fairness, in pursuit of a regenerative region. With the luxury of being (non-indigenous) Elders they feel blessed to be free from bureaucratic fear, and can frugally invest in the things they know are important, stemming from their 20/50+ years of volunteer ‘project management’.
Andrea arrived in Nowa Nowa in 2001 as the Fairfax / Business Review Weekly online national manager … to marry an artist. At that time, the population was 200, and there was no internet.
As Andrea telecommuted for the next 10 years, she discovered a life from which she has never wanted to return.
Despite useful qualifications in economics, information management, community development, and art in public spaces, there were few career options in East Gippsland, and none compared to what art could do to multiply her impact on regional life and the local economy.
FLOAT revealed that regional life was jam packed with potential, particularly with art. But not just art as Andrea knew it. Rather, it was art as life, nature based art, ephemeral and environmental art, and community activation art. Towns were flipped from the poorest to the grooviest. There was an economy to be generated, and a sustainable economy to be built, and so they imagined and created ‘F Incorporated’.
Art trails dotted with wild and backyard fruit - (F)ROUTE.
A thriving maker collective in Bairnsdale - FOUNDRY.
Annual breakfasts for 200 folk, full of Johnsonville peaches – FROUTEVILLE.
An artist-made travel bureau @ Docklands – FROUTELAND.
A floating arts studio offering global arts – FLOAT.
Next up – FLOAT A.I.R. a trail of arts residencies in under-used spaces.
Andrea and her crew believe in the value of local knowledge and know that it has an economic value that has been lost in the bureaucracy. But they are finding lots of friends in the new REGEN GIPPSLAND.
Socials:
Website: http://www.float3909.com/
FB: FLOAT
Insta: FLOAT @float.3909
Enjoy the visual here on Youtube
Kerryn Vaughan - Never too old
Ageism sucks and this episode is proof that we’re never too old to do something we love or to change our life. Hope it inspires you.
In this episode I chat about the fact that ageism sucks. A lot of people have the narrative that they are too old to start something new or to change jobs, or to change their life.
I share a story about Shirley Newton (see link below), who just held her first art exhibition at 92 years old, and a few other thoughts on this matter.
Hopefully it inspires you to believe in yourself and not let your age stop you, and I also hopes it inspires people in the middle of too young and too old to encourage others to shine their light brightly.
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