This Connected Life with Mel Kettle

Fully human leadership with Kate Billing

Kate Billing and I met when we both started at Thought Leaders Business School on the same day, about two and a half years ago. I immediately knew we would become firm friends, and we have. As well as being one of the smartest people I know, she is also kind, generous, funny and determined to make the world a better place.

I can’t tell you how delighted I am to share some of her wisdom with you.

Kate is an edge thinker and path-maker on a mission to forge better leaders for New Zealand. She is a co-founder of Blacksmith, an Auckland-based boutique leadership development practice that uses fully human development approaches to evolve leadership at a personal and collective level. She is committed to a conscious approach to life, leadership and business and believes that ‘fully human development’ is the best mechanism for unlocking the potential of individuals and organisations to thrive.

She has worked in the people, culture and leadership space for over 20 years, and is known for her sharp insights, compassionate challenge, warmth and energy. Over that time she has worked within a range of industry sectors and organisations, with leaders from the boardroom to the front line, all of whom have demonstrated their capacity for personal and collective transformation.

Kate believes New Zealand can be a leader in the new world; an example of what’s possible when people commit to the highest levels of personal and collective responsibility. Blacksmith’s recognition as one of the top 10% B Corp Companies globally suggests they are on the right track.

You can find Kate through the Blacksmith website and connect with her on LinkedIn.

You can listen to this episode via the link above, on iTunes or Spotify or via the podcast app on your smartphone.

What Kate Billing and I talked about

• Connecting to yourself
• Being diagnosed with alopecia areata at 24
• Learning to meditate
• Otto Scharmer and his work on new theory
• Connecting to the land and our environment
• Being a humanist
• The recent Business Roundtable statement on the purpose of a corporation
• Kindness in business
• Saying thank you
• Working with our husbands
• Cal Newport – Deep Work
• Giving permission
• Building a movement around this more human-centred conscious approach to business and leadership
• Flexibility at work
• Tim Ferris podcast interview with Chip Conley
• Modern Elder Academy
• Orphan X books by Gregg Hurwitz
• B Corp and being recognised as one of the top 10% of B Corps globally

If you enjoyed this podcast, I would love you to subscribe on iTunes or Spotify or via the podcast app on your smartphone.

You can also connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #thisconnectedlife and tagging me @melkettle.

If you REALLY loved it, please leave me a rating and review on iTunes.

Become a Social CEO - a minisode with Mel

We live in a digital world and people today expect CEOs and leaders to be seen and heard. Both within your organisation and within the broader community. This means you need to have an active presence on social media. In this minisode we talk about how you can become a Social CEO.

Why is this important? It’s important because people do business with people they know, like and trust. And if they can’t see you or hear you then how will they get to know you? Let alone like and trust you.

Research by recruitment firm DDI found CEO candidates with a social media presence were 46% more influential than CEO candidates without. Those without a social media presence miss opportunities but also risk looking out of touch.

CEOs and leaders with an active digital presence also have greater influence than those without. They are seen as being more connected, more confident and more curious.

Why is this important?

Seriously though, there are a few reasons. The biggest of which is that it will help you solve a few of the challenges facing many organisational leaders today. You know the ones: finding and keeping good people; managing customer expectations; providing greater experiences for your people (including your workforce and your customers) so they want to do business with you; showing greater transparency and accountability.

Having an active digital (and yes, this includes social media) presence, where you share your thoughts, ideas and knowledge will help you position yourself as an expert in your field, and your business as an industry leader. It will also help you become more known, both internally and externally.

Mark Schaeffer in his book Known, says that being known is about having the proper authority, reputation and audience to realise your potential and achieve your goals.

It’s important to realise that having a digital presence isn’t only about being active on social media. It also includes using other digital tools – writing a blog, sharing videos on YouTube, having an active presence on your company intranet or internal networking tool (such as Yammer or Facebook for Work), being a podcast guest (or hosting your own), sharing content on LinkedIn and Medium.

CEOs and industry leaders such as Richard Branson from Virgin Group, Janine Allis from Boost and Sara Blakely founder of Spanx, are all leaders who regularly share their thoughts using digital media – whether it’s blogging, video, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, internal networks or a combination.

They share their experiences – the good, bad and sometimes ugly – of what it’s like to live the life of a leader. They share professional wins and losses, personal stories, photos and video with their families, their thoughts on their industry’s future and so much more. And if you’re a fan of Survivor Australia then definitely read Janine’s blog as she talks about what her experience was like!

One of the most compelling posts I’ve ever read was when Rand Fishkin, the founder of Moz, wrote an extremely honest post about his struggle with depression. This was one of the first times I had read something so raw written by a CEO. This post made me want to know him a whole lot more. It also made me want to give him a hug. And yes, it made me want to know more about his business and how I could support it.

If you’re a CEO, Board Member, or want to be seen as a leader in your field, these are a few reasons why you need to be using digital and social media.

1. To communicate
2. To connect
3. To share your expertise
4. To demonstrate your purpose
5. To attract better people
6. To show your personality
7. To fulfil your curiosity

So now I want to ask you what does your digital presence look like?

Do you consider yourself a social CEO?

What’s stopping you from doing more?

I’d love to know. You can connect with me on LinkedIn or twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #thisconnectedlife and tagging me @melkettle

Or you can email me – mel@melkettle.com

If you need help with this please get in touch. I run training, coaching and mentoring programs for CEOs, other leaders and teams to help them become raise their profiles and help them become more confident using digital and social media. If you would like info about this please get in touch.

If you enjoyed this podcast, I would love you to subscribe on iTunes or Spotify or via the podcast app on your smartphone.

If you REALLY loved it, please leave me a rating and review on iTunes.

You might also like to:

• Attend one of my upcoming events
• Download my latest whitepaper The Social CEO – from invisible to influencer
• Signup to my newsletter
• Buy a copy of my book, The Social Association
• Book a time for a 15 minute chat

Mel Kettle is all about connection, communication and collaboration. She works with CEOs, leaders and teams to help them better communicate and collaborate (online AND offline) to achieve better relationships, revenue and results. Mel is a facilitator, trainer, speaker, author and mentor who provides practical advice that achieves results while having some fun!Download her latest whitepaper, The Social CEO – from invisible to influencer or order a signed copy of her book, The Social Association. To inquire about working with Mel, please email mel@melkettle.com or call her on 0404 600 889.

Barefoot leadership with Jeremy Watkins

Jeremy Watkins (aka the Barefoot Leader) is one of my favourite peeps and so it was an absolute pleasure to chat with him when we were both in Melbourne last week.

Jeremy works with Senior Leaders, Corporate Executives, Business Owners and their teams across Australia and internationally to help them develop new insights, that increase their influence and maximise their impact as leaders. He is on a mission to free leaders and emerging leaders from default patterns of thinking and behaving, so they refocus the attention of their energies and re-train themselves for the future of work.

if you listen to this episode with Jeremy, you will realise why he says the future of leadership is not important, it’s VITAL.

And a word of warning - we go deep quickly in this episode as we talk about the death of our loved ones and the impact this has on life.

You can find Jeremy through his website and connect with him on LinkedIn.

You can listen to this episode via the link above, on iTunes or Spotify or via the podcast app on your smartphone.

What Jeremy Watkins and I talked about

• being deeply human
• lightbulb moments
• the impact of death on life - and how it helps you prioritise what's important
• making conscious decisions, decision fatigue and simplifying life
• tracking our physical, emotional and spiritual energy
• the importance of sleep and exercise
• addiction
• making big life changes
• creating habits
• Adam Alter - Irresistible
• James Clear - Atomic Habits
• Let my People go Surfing - Yvon Chouinard
• Born to Run - Christopher McDougal
• Close to the Wind - Pete Goss

If you enjoyed this podcast, I would love you to subscribe on iTunes or Spotify or via the podcast app on your smartphone.

You can also connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #thisconnectedlife and tagging me @melkettle.

If you REALLY loved it, please leave me a rating and review on iTunes.

You might also like to:

• Attend one of my upcoming events
• Download my latest whitepaper The Social CEO - from invisible to influencer
• Signup to my newsletter
• Buy a copy of my book, The Social Association
• Book a time for a 15 minute chat

Mel Kettle is all about connection, communication and collaboration. She works with CEOs, leaders and teams to help them better communicate and collaborate (online AND offline) to achieve better relationships, revenue and results. Mel is a facilitator, trainer, speaker, author and mentor who provides practical advice that achieves results while having some fun!

Download her latest whitepaper, The Social CEO - from invisible to influencer or order a signed copy of her book, The Social Association. To inquire about working with Mel, please email mel@melkettle.com or call her on 0404 600 889.

How addicted are you to your smartphone?

I’ve said many times recently that the irony of our increasingly connected world is that we – as individuals and as organisations – are becoming more disconnected than we ever have before.

I can’t remember where I first heard this analogy but I love it – we all carry around our smartphones as though they are epi-pens and we all have a fatal illness. Isn’t it great?

In this podcast minisode I question why this is. I ask what’s stopping us from being connected, and I reflect on a few comments I made in the last minisode. So many of us struggle with nomophobia – that fear of not knowing where our phones are.

I reflect on how social media and our phones are designed to be addictive. Adam Alter, in his excellent book Irresistible reminds us that addiction is produced largely by environment and circumstance. And the environment and circumstance this digital age places us in are far more conducive to addiction than anything we have experienced in our history.

In this episode I talk about:

• how social media is shaping our brains,
• creators of smartphones and apps study user behaviour to determine which colours, fonts, audio tones maximise engagement and minimise frustration
• I ask how addicted are you – take the challenge!
• How can you become less addicted?
• What’s your current screen time? Which apps do you use the most?
• Convert your phone to greyscale

Create your personal tech policy

What’s one thing you can do now so you’re in control over your device and it doesn’t control you?

• Is there an app you can delete?
• Can you set a tech-free time during the day / week?
• At work can you talk to your colleagues rather than emailing them all the time?
• Do you really need your phone on the table in meetings? Or when eating dinner with your family?
• Are their parts of your home that can be device free? What about your bedroom?
• How often do you turn your phone onto flight mode?

I’m certainly not advocating for no technology!! But what I am suggesting is that you create a tech policy so YOU are in charge.

What are you going to do to manage your technology use? Are you going to create a tech policy for home or work? What’s one thing you will do? I’d love to know. You can connect with me on LinkedIn or twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #thisconnectedlife and tagging me @melkettle

If you enjoyed this podcast, I would love you to subscribe on iTunes or Spotify or via the podcast app on your smartphone.

If you REALLY loved it, please leave me a rating and review on iTunes.

You might also like to:

• Attend one of my upcoming events
• Download my latest whitepaper The Social CEO – from invisible to influencer
• Signup to my newsletter
• Buy a copy of my book, The Social Association
• Book a time for a 15 minute chat

Mel Kettle is all about connection, communication and collaboration. She works with CEOs, leaders and teams to help them better communicate and collaborate (online AND offline) to achieve better relationships, revenue and results. Mel is a facilitator, trainer, speaker, author and mentor who provides practical advice that achieves results while having some fun!Download her latest whitepaper, The Social CEO – from invisible to influencer or order a signed copy of her book, The Social Association. To inquire about working with Mel, please email mel@melkettle.com or call her on 0404 600 889.

Connecting through photography and video with Jen Dainer

Jen Dainer is a Brisbane based photographer and videographer. While she specialises in taking photos in dangerous places – such as hanging out of helicopters! – she is also great at getting reluctant victims clients to enjoy the whole photography experience. I should know, she has shot me three times.

Jen and I met at a networking event about ten years ago and have been firm friends ever since. This conversation involves a lot of laughter after a delicious meal potato curry cooked by moi.

When not in the potato section of her local greengrocer, you will find Jen at Industrial Photography & Video.

You can connect with Jen on LinkedIn and check out some of her photos and videos on Instagram.

You can listen to this episode via the link above, on iTunes or Spotify or via the podcast app on your smartphone.

What Jen Dainer and I talked about

• cooking and eating potatoes – Jen’s favourite food
• feeling vulnerable in front of a camera and how to get comfortable
• starting life as a forensic scientist before becoming a professional photographer
• visual storytelling
• how photography shoots have changed over the last ten years
• finding a photographer who makes you feel comfortable
• being a “social commando”
• being safe on site
• making 500 cold calls in her first year of business
• being diagnosed with MS
• Good One Podcast
• Sex in the City
• The Bold Type (on Stan in Australia)
• All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
• 
  

If you enjoyed this podcast, I would love you to subscribe on iTunes or Spotify or via the podcast app on your smartphone.

You can also connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #thisconnectedlife and tagging me @melkettle.

If you REALLY loved it, please leave me a rating and review on iTunes.

You might also like to:

• Attend one of my upcoming events
• Download my latest whitepaper The Social CEO – from invisible to influencer
• Signup to my newsletter
• Buy a copy of my book, The Social Association
• Book a time for a 15 minute chat

Mel Kettle is all about connection, communication and collaboration. She works with CEOs, leaders and teams to help them better communicate and collaborate (online AND offline) to achieve better relationships, revenue and results. Mel is a facilitator, trainer, speaker, author and mentor who provides practical advice that achieves results while having some fun!Download her latest whitepaper, The Social CEO – from invisible to influencer or order a signed copy of her book, The Social Association. To inquire about working with Mel, please email mel@melkettle.com or call her on 0404 600 889.

Connecting with teams

A stat I quote often is the one from Gallup that tells us that only 13% of people are engaged at work. This means that 87% aren’t engaged. Imagine what this does to your performance, your productivity, and your profit?

Think about how much opportunity is being missed.

In this podcast episode, I talk about why people are less engaged at work. Spoiler alert: quite often it’s because of a lack of connection in the workplace.

It shouldn’t be a surprise that people WANT to feel connected to those they work with, and yet it often is. It’s about simple things like saying good morning, asking how your colleague’s weekend was and asking how they are. Don’t ask “How are you?” but instead ask:

• What are you working on?
• What are you reading right now?
• What podcast are you listening to?
• What can I help you with / how can I help you?

Simple? Yes, it is. But I can tell you when I worked for a CEO who scurried in, head down, avoiding all eye contact each morning after morning, despite my best efforts to say hello, I did not feel valued. And my work reflected this.

The way you connect with your team and your greater workforce plays a HUGE role in increasing your potential for engagement, productivity and growth

Research by EY reminds us that when people feel like they belong at work, and have a sense of connection to their colleagues, managers and the organisation they are more productive, motivated, engaged and 3.5 times more likely to contribute to their fullest potential.

What’s stopping us from being connected?

• Nomophobia – fear of not being able to put our phones down
• Technology – phone, Netflix etc – sleep is Netflix competitor
• Moving away from where we grew up
• Reliance on email / messaging apps rather than talking on the phone or face to face

How can you help your people know their purpose?

Something else that’s stopping us from feeling connected at work is that often a lot of us don’t know their purpose. Ask 10 people in your organisation what their purpose is and you’ll probably get 10 answers. Many of which will be related to specific tasks they need to do as part of their job.

What are somethings you can do to create a connection? And therefore more engagement?

I believe there are three primary qualities that people who are connected have.

The first is that they show empathy.

The second is that they’re kind.

And the third is that they’re authentic. They show their real and human side. At work. All the time.

What are you going to do to connect with your team this week? I’d love to know. You can connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #thisconnectedlife and tagging me @melkettle.

If you enjoyed this podcast, I would love you to subscribe on iTunes or Spotify or via the podcast app on your smartphone.

If you REALLY loved it, please leave me a rating and review on iTunes.

You might also like to:

• Attend one of my upcoming events in Brisbane or Melbourne
• Download my latest whitepaper The Social CEO – from invisible to influencer
• Signup to my newsletter
• Buy a copy of my book, The Social Association
• Book a time for a 15 minute chat

Mel Kettle is all about connection, communication and collaboration. She works with CEOs, leaders and teams to help them better communicate and collaborate (online AND offline) to achieve better relationships, revenue and results. Mel is a facilitator, trainer, speaker, author and mentor who provides practical advice that achieves results while having some fun!Download her latest whitepaper, The Social CEO – from invisible to influencer or order a signed copy of her book, The Social Association. To inquire about working with Mel, please email mel@melkettle.com or call her on 0404 600 889.

Connecting with LEGO with Steph Clarke

Steph Clarke is an accountant turned facilitator and team coach and pommy (that’s a Brit living in Australia for the uninitiated) based in Melbourne. We’ve not actually met yet, but have some very good mutual friends so I feel like we’ve been friends for AGES! Steph and I have bonded over our shared love of facilitation, but, more importantly, our love of Ottolenghi, Middle Eastern food and reading. I hope you enjoy this conversation!

You can find Steph at stephclarke.com.

You can connect with Steph on LinkedIn and listen to her podcast, Steph’s Business Bookshelf on iTunes.

You can listen to this episode via the link above, on iTunes or Spotify or via the podcast app on your smartphone.

What Steph Clarke and I talked about

• moving to Australia
• being a recovering accountant
• becoming a facilitator
• LEGO (R) Serious Play (R) as a facilitation tool
• using LEGO (R) to connect
• Brené Brown
• James Clear – Atomic Habits
• Priya Parker – The Art of Gathering
• Tim Ferris podcast
• Yotam Ottolenghi
• Sabrina Ghayour – Persiana

If you enjoyed this podcast, I would love you to subscribe on iTunes or Spotify or via the podcast app on your smartphone.

You can also connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #thisconnectedlife and tagging me @melkettle.

If you REALLY loved it, please leave me a rating and review on iTunes.

You might also like to:

• Attend one of my upcoming events in Canberra, Brisbane or Melbourne
• Download my latest whitepaper The Social CEO – from invisible to influencer
• Signup to my newsletter
• Buy a copy of my book, The Social Association
• Book a time for a 15 minute chat

Mel Kettle is all about connection, communication and collaboration. She works with CEOs, leaders and teams to help them better communicate and collaborate (online AND offline) to achieve better relationships, revenue and results. Mel is a facilitator, trainer, speaker, author and mentor who provides practical advice that achieves results while having some fun!Download her latest whitepaper, The Social CEO – from invisible to influencer or order a signed copy of her book, The Social Association. To inquire about working with Mel, please email mel@melkettle.com or call her on 0404 600 889.

Connecting with ourselves

Before we can connect with others we need to learn to connect with ourselves.

What does this even mean?

In this latest podcast mini-sode I share my thoughts around what it means to look after our bodies, minds, hearts and souls if we are to be truly connectable. People who haven’t connected with themselves can be a bit like vacuum cleaners – they suck up all the love others have to give but never spit any back out. Yes, that’s a bit harsh, but we all know people like that. Don’t we?

We live in a society filled with interruptions and distractions and demands for our time. Most of us need to make a conscious effort to connect with ourselves.

So how do we connect with ourselves?

We need to look after our bodies by making sure we get enough rest, the right food, some exercise. As I’m at the tail end of my 40s, I’ve been working on this a lot recently! Lack of sleep and a lack of veggies makes a very real – and not very pleasant – difference to how I feel. I make sure I’m in bed by 10pm at least five nights a week so I can get 7-8 hours sleep.

Our minds can be tricky beasts. We have 40-80,000 thoughts a day and make an average of 30,000 decisions a day. The cognitive load on our mind is immense. It’s not surprising Barak Obama only wore a blue or a black suit every day. And why Steve Jobs always wore jeans and a black turtleneck. And why many people have the same thing for breakfast and have a regular morning routine that doesn’t require thought.

We need to take time to be in the moment. For some people this is meditation. For me, it’s cooking and baking. It’s pretty obvious if you bake while distracted! In case you’re wondering, cakes baked without the butter bounce!

We also need to do things that fill our cup – and nurture our soul. Spend time with people you love. Do things you love – for me it’s reading for pleasure in bed every night.

And finally, we need to nurture our hearts. We can do this by being kind, grateful, showing love, allowing ourselves to be loved. Practice self-compassion and gratitude. Having a daily gratitude practice of writing down three good things that happened each day that we are grateful for can have a massive impact on our physical and mental health. Research shows that practicing gratitude for as little as 30 seconds a day can reduce your stress hormones, increase the flow of oxygen to your body and make you happier!

What are you going to do to connect with you this week? I’d love to know. You can connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #thisconnectedlife and tagging me @melkettle.

If you enjoyed this podcast, I would love you to subscribe on iTunes or Spotify or via the podcast app on your smartphone.

If you REALLY loved it, please leave me a rating and review on iTunes.

You might also like to:

• Attend one of my upcoming events in Canberra, Brisbane or Melbourne
• Download my latest whitepaper The Social CEO – from invisible to influencer
• Signup to my newsletter
• Buy a copy of my book, The Social Association
• Book a time for a 15 minute chat

Mel Kettle is all about connection, communication and collaboration. She works with CEOs, leaders and teams to help them better communicate and collaborate (online AND offline) to achieve better relationships, revenue and results. Mel is a facilitator, trainer, speaker, author and mentor who provides practical advice that achieves results while having some fun!Download her latest whitepaper, The Social CEO – from invisible to influencer or order a signed copy of her book, The Social Association. To inquire about working with Mel, please email mel@melkettle.com or call her on 0404 600 889.

Hacking happiness with Penny Locaso

Penny Locaso and I met at the fabulous s p a c e event we attended earlier this year. Penny is the world’s first Happiness Hacker, on a mission to teach 10 million humans, by 2025, how to future-proof happiness. She advocates fear(less)ness and she definitely practices what she teaches!! In 2018 she went viral on LinkedIn (50,000+ views) and created a global movement after delivering a keynote in her bathing suit, to demonstrate the power of getting comfortable with discomfort.

You can find Penny at BKindred.

You can connect with Penny on LinkedIn and listen to her podcast on iTunes.

You can listen to this episode via the link above, on iTunes or Spotify or via the podcast app on your smartphone.

What Penny Locaso and I talked about

• Hacking happiness and what that means
• What makes her happy
• Reading, books and creating habits
• Finding joy
• Accepting compliments and why some people find it so hard!
• Being the boss of our minds
• how technology is changing our world
• Podcast – How the iPhone is rewriting the teenage brain
• Facebook is funding brain experiments
• Deleting Facebook
• Presenting in her swim suit
• Cal Newport books – Deep Work and Digital Minimalism
• 
  

If you enjoyed this podcast, I would love you to subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher or via the podcast app on your smartphone.

If you REALLY loved it, I would love you to leave me a rating and review on iTunes.

You might also like to:

• Attend one of my upcoming events in Canberra, Brisbane or Melbourne
• Download my latest whitepaper The Social CEO – from invisible to influencer
• Signup to my newsletter
• Buy a copy of my book, The Social Association
• Book a time for a 15 minute chat

Mel Kettle is all about connection, communication and collaboration. She works with CEOs, leaders and teams to help them better communicate and collaborate (online AND offline) to achieve better relationships, revenue and results. Mel is a facilitator, trainer, speaker, author and mentor who provides practical advice that achieves results while having some fun!Download her latest whitepaper, The Social CEO – from invisible to influencer or order a signed copy of her book, The Social Association. To inquire about working with Mel, please email mel@melkettle.com or call her on 0404 600 889.

Trailer episode

Welcome to This Connected Life with Mel Kettle. The show where connected leaders share their experience, values and strategies that have helped them become more connected so they achieve success in life and business.