Lead with Courage

Charles Street | Transforming Lives through Bicycles | Lead with Courage

• Luminate Leadership • Season 2 • Episode 2

Share episode

Charles Street is the co-founder of Inkwazi Adventures and TEDx speaker, and has joined the podcast today to share his work in providing bicycles for students in some of the poorest parts of Africa.

Many children travel around 10-20km to school on foot every day, and by the time they get to school they are exhausted, in turns impacts their ability to learn.

Through BIKES4ERP, Charles tell the story of Ria, a young girl whose life got a new direction with just one bicycle, and how they were able to help hundreds of children like Ria, taking the school's pass rate went from a low bar of 35% to 85% in a short time.

Charles also shares about the mission of Adventure by Cycle, as well as the preparation and experience of being a TEDx speaker, and his growth mindset and what it is to 'play in the grey'.

Thanks so much to Charles for joining the podcast and can't wait to continue to see the impact that Inkwazi Adventures and BIKES4ERP continue to have.

'Adventure by Cycle'
Front Wheel: Changing the Lives of People
Back Wheel: Life Changing Experiences

Did you enjoy the episode? Send us a text!

______________

Thanks for joining us on the Lead with Courage podcast, bought to you by Luminate Leadership. We trust this episode has given you some insights and joy to empower you live your biggest, best life.

If you enjoyed it, we'd be grateful if you like, share and subscribe to hear our future conversations.

To find out more about the work we do Luminate Leadership connect with us:
Luminate's Website and LinkedIn and on
Instagram : Luminate_Leadership and Cherie Canning

Until the next episode, we hope you live and Lead with Courage!
Cherie and Andy x
______________

Luminate Leadership is not a licensed mental health service and is not a substitute for professional mental health advice, treatment or assessment. The advice given in this episode is general in nature, but if you’re struggling, please see a healthcare professional, or call lifeline on 13 11 14.

Speaker 1:

Hi, I'm Chloe Canning. Luminate Leadership acknowledges the traditional custodians on the land which we record this podcast, the Terrible and Yoguripi. We pay our respects to Elder's past, present and imaginary.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to Lead with Courage, the podcast that celebrates the bold and inspiring stories of leaders making a difference. We're your hosts, Andy and Cherie Canning, and together we'll dive into the minds of the trailblazers, the risk takers and those who embrace life with a growth mindset.

Speaker 3:

On today's episode of Lead with Courage. We welcome Charles Street. Charles is a strategist, an adventurer and a TEDx speaker. He is the co-founder of Inquasi Adventures and today on the podcast he's going to talk about how Inquasi Adventures, through the partnership of Bikes for Erp, have changed the lives of over a hundred school students. We're so excited and inspired by the work that Charles and the Inquasi Adventures team are doing that we just couldn't wait to get him on the podcast and so he can tell his story and share his passion and inspiration with us all. Welcome to the podcast, charles. Charles Street, welcome to the Lead with Courage podcast. Hi, thank you for having me. Oh, thank you.

Speaker 3:

Really grateful to have you on here today. You know who said that sliding into your DMs is dead, and I appreciate that you know, because maybe a couple of months ago now, you kind of kindly sent me a message and we connected and we caught up prior to discuss potentially coming on and sharing your wonderful story through your life, as well as and forgive me if I get this wrong, but is it Inquasi Adventures? That's right, yeah, inquasi Adventures? Yep, yeah, beautiful. And then the story and the inspiration behind that. I think I'm excited to. I know a little bit about it from seeing your TED talk, but I'm excited just to even learn quite a bit more. So thank you.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, great, Thank you very much. And yeah, like I mentioned when we connected, the leadership is a big passion of mine. And yeah, just when I saw what you guys are doing and listened to a few podcasts, it was great. So thanks for the content you're providing.

Speaker 2:

And thank you for being part of it. It's really wonderful. One of the questions well, the question we love to kick off the podcast with is to ask our guests what does lead with courage mean to you? So, charles, what does lead with courage mean to you, please?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, thanks, juri yeah.

Speaker 4:

I thought it's such a great question actually, but for me I kind of use the term often of when you play in the grey, and I think to me that kind of talks to the world around us isn't black and white, it's not a mathematical formula One plus one will always equal two.

Speaker 4:

And so I think when you're a leader and really kind of stepping to that courageous point is really about kind of saying I'm comfortable to play in a grey space which is ambiguous, you're not always going to have the answers or you're not always going to have it all worked out. But being comfortable to step out and lead a team or kind of put yourself out there to kind of play in that space, and I think that obviously then requires you as a leader to be adaptable, to be open to change, sometimes humble enough to be wrong, I guess yes, yes, because surprises will come up. But I think it's expecting those surprises will happen, expecting things will go not according to plan I don't always like to say it goes wrong because you don't actually know how it may play out but it's that courage to say we're going to go this direction, we're not sure exactly how we'll get there, we'll work it out, and that's a grey space that, I feel, is kind of a big thing for me.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love that, and it's a particularly takeaway when you say it's not when it's gone wrong. It's just not the plan that you might have imagined. It's such a good takeaway, thank you. It's not every person that has the opportunity to say that they're a TEDx speaker. That is definitely on my list one day of what I'd love to achieve, and you are one of those people. So can you tell us a little bit about who is Charles? And then what are some of those, I guess, pieces that led to your TEDx and to the work that you're doing as well?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, thanks, yeah, so I guess a bit of background on myself. So I, you know, born and grew up in South Africa. My parents moved from Joberg to Perth when I was about 11. So it was quite a while back now, not too late my age, but 11 years ago, yeah, exactly. And you know, that was probably one of the big kind of life moments of moving countries I grew up Africans. Moving to an English only kind of speaking country was a big move and yeah. So I basically did my kind of high school and university in Perth being South Africa, and I played a lot of rugby obviously, and yeah.

Speaker 4:

So when I finished uni I decided to go back to South Africa for a year, initially to play a bit of rugby count to a friends.

Speaker 4:

And you know, like life does, it kind of plays out differently. And you know, I ended up working on the graduate program for a big bank in South Africa, met my wife, so they gave me good enough reason to stay a bit longer, and so we got married in South Africa and then, yeah, we made a decision to move back to Australia and so that was kind of my second time back in Australia and we moved to Sydney because that's where most of the banking, I guess, work is. And yeah, we lived there for 12 years and then in that time our family grew three kids. So we've got, you know, two young daughters and a young son. So I think my wife said you know your son, that's it, stop. And then, yeah, then we made a big move to Perth, back to Perth, because that's what folks are and it's always nice to be close to parents. So when the job opportunity came up, we made the big move to Perth, which in itself was a bit of an adventure, because we kind of drove from Sydney to Perth, oh wow.

Speaker 2:

During COVID.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, which in itself, you know, if you talk about playing in the grey, that was, you know, a strong, dark grey, I guess Wow, yeah and yeah. And I think the techniques talk you know again about four years ago I had this idea because of my passion around adventure, outdoor in particular, south Africa's got some unique animals, and then just the passion about making a difference, and so I kind of wanted my friends for now who's part of Inquad's adventures? We've basically grown up together like brothers and so we've known each other since we're eight. And, yeah, we said how can we bring these together into an idea that we can share with others and kind of take other people on adventures, life-changing adventures?

Speaker 4:

So that's how Inquad's adventures started, because I think I've, you know, I've had the fortunate opportunity of living in Australia and South Africa, and so I got this concept of especially when I looked at my kids and my young girls, the world they're growing up in in Sydney was so different to how I grew up in South Africa, and so the idea of Inquad's adventures was how can I take people from Australia and expose them to this different world, take them out of their comfort zone in a safe and controlled way, but share that reset life moment, reflect a little bit on kind of you know what life is, what's really important in life, and then reconnect with what's important. And so that's how we started. The Inquad's adventures idea was, you know, let's take people to South Africa, get them to experience that unique wildlife and immerse in nature, but also go and make a difference in someone else's life so you can kind of you know, just see the world with perspective, but yeah, yeah, it's fascinating.

Speaker 2:

I grew up in Sydney myself and I have a few friends who immigrated either from South Africa or Zimbabwe and so many of them would then share as teenagers. It was just so hard for me to process what they, how they explained, even in the houses with, like, the gates inside the houses for safety and things like this, and in gated communities that they lived in. And just when you're saying about growing, you know, bringing up kids now in Australia and them having that perception of what growing up would have been like in South Africa at the time as well, yeah, it's, it's worlds apart, I suppose, and it's so incredibly from that. I mean from when you would have been growing up to now. You know the 11 years ago, of course.

Speaker 2:

But you know, I feel like that world, somebody I've seen so many times where people say, once you go to Africa, your life you know from as a non-African person when you go to Africa, your life will be changed forever and there's something just magical and Andy and I we did go to Africa on our honeymoon a few years ago and I think that it's so true. It is so, so true. It just leaves this beautiful mark on you that you are completely changed.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah, definitely, I think you know I kind of often, you know, I talk about it. You know I saw how my girls grow up and I think I said with Andy as well a bit. You know, there was a moment when I just started in Quasadvindus and took my daughter into like a Westfield shopping center and we kind of walked in and the first thing she said to me was you know, are we going to have a baby Chino and sushi? And I was. You know, it was about three or four, and you know I guess I've paused.

Speaker 4:

But two things I realized. One was, you know, wow, what a different world she's growing up in, because I didn't know what sushi was until I got to uni. But and there's nothing wrong with that, right, that's actually how I would love everyone else to be in this kind of safe and fortunate world. But on the flip side, I realized this kind of almost bubble that you know all these great things, and so you know, the biggest thing for me was, you know, growing up as an advocate taught me how to be resilient, resourceful, because you just have to be. Things just kind of happen. You don't have everything, and things go wrong and stuff, and so how can I create that for my kids to, in a way that I can know that they'll be set up for life when they kind of grow up, and so, yeah, yeah, and it's beautiful because I love how you said that there's nothing wrong with the sushi and the baby chino.

Speaker 2:

But also I feel really passionate about exposing our kids, who are fortunate enough to grow and have these experiences, growing up in the safety and what opportunities, their education, the things that they have afforded to them, living in these communities here, but realizing that not every child, and certainly not every young girl, but not every child around the world has that same opportunity. So that perspective is so important to be able to contribute, to give back where we can, and also, I think that gratitude perspective for our kids here. It's so critical, isn't it?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. And I think that's you know, definitely from when we started Inquiry Adventures, that was, you know, a big part of our vision. You know it's changing lives, one adventure at a time. So if we can take people with us on this amazing life-changing adventure and you get that bit of exposure of what a different world looks like, what are some of the challenges those communities, kids in those communities have, and then hopefully that creates a platform for you to kind of reflect a little bit on your own life or situation, and then you know, coming back to Australia, you'll hopefully reconnect with what would be important.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love those words that keep coming back, that reflect and reconnect. It's beautiful. Can you share with the listeners who might not have seen your TEDx the story about the cycles and the young girl that you shared with us, that you shared on the talk? I'd love to hear a little bit about that.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah, so just for the listeners.

Speaker 4:

So part of our Inquiry Adventures.

Speaker 4:

So we partner with an organisation called Bikes for ERP, and ERP stands for Elephants, rhinos and People, and so the people side is where the bicycle comes in, and I guess it's very much part of the leadership journey as well, because leadership in that is not all about being completely alone. So partner with Nikolai, who's one of the founders of this, and they kind of do a lot of this work with the bicycles and kids, and so the need there is. Some kids walk very long distances to school, some 20 kilometres a day just to get to school and back, and so their bikes for ERP is this amazing workstation who we partner with and then so every year when we do our adventures, we fundraise money in Australia and then the idea is that adventures go with us and we go and deliver the actual bicycles we fundraise and bought. And so last the October was a trip like that and we ended up going to an area called Matiqua in South Africa and that's about three, four hours quite remote. Driving takes about a day to get there, wow, from.

Speaker 4:

Joburg yeah from Joburg, pretoria, and part of it is because you can't drive very fast, you kind of going on off-road kind of, you know, quite remote areas.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, and so this is amazing experience when we kind of build the bicycles in the morning and then the kids arrive and there's a big kind of ceremony and we hand the bicycles out to each of the students. But not all the kids can actually ride a bicycle. It's the first time they've ever received something like a bicycle. And so this little girl called Ria approached me because her brakes wasn't quite right and I'm going to help to fix it. And I asked her do you know how to ride your bicycle? She said no, but I'll learn. And you know that was amazing because it was just almost. She was just you know. Of course I'm going to learn this, it's not an issue. And I said let me help you. So let's go around the block. And I didn't realize, obviously, being quite remote, the block is about two kilometers deep.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, exactly, and I was running, obviously holding the bike and then helping her balance, and you know. But what struck me was this little girl. Not once did she complain or say I can't do this, or you know I'm scared, or what if I fall. It was all about you know, I'm going to learn this. And she said you know, by the time we get back to school I'm going to be able to ride my bicycle like you had this goal.

Speaker 4:

And I stopped about halfway because obviously I was getting tired from running and asked her you know, what do you want to be one day when you grow up? And she said you want to be a social worker, which you know was amazing, because this little girl, who now has much easier access to education, actually now has a much better opportunity to actually finish school and then go to university and actually what she wants to do is come back and help the community. So there's amazing ripple effect of, you know, one bicycle can change the life and empower her now to make a difference in her community. And that's a kind of you know stories that I just love through this adventures is you never know, you know what a difference one bicycle can make and and you know it's small things Everyone can play that role of just making a small difference in someone's life.

Speaker 2:

It's incredible and I remember you stating, I think you had a letter from a principal of one of the schools, if I recall this correctly, and that he'd said about the increase that the kids who then had the bicycles, who could get to school easier or more regularly or safely, that then their results, like the results of their academic results, were was it something like 30% to 80%, something percent?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, it's phenomenal, actually, like, yeah, you're right.

Speaker 4:

So we got this letter from from the principal, and he just wanted you to say, you know, thank you very much, because he didn't realise how much this was going to energise the whole school. And you know their academic pass rate. So you know a lot of these kids would drop out of school because they just find that too hard to go to school or exhausting, and so their pass rate went from, you know, 35% to above 85%, and these are, you think, about 10 kids in year 12, three to four would only finish. Now eight to nine are finishing school and you know their academic report, compared to other schools in the area, went to number one because they are now outperforming and it's all just, you know, giving these kids a much safer and easier access to school and energising them. And the other story I love is just, you know, we've heard stories of some of the students who finished school who've then handed their bicycle down to a younger student because they've seen the value in having this, this tool to get to school.

Speaker 2:

Basically, oh, it's incredible, Charles, and you know it's so easy for us to sit here in in our baby Chino sushi world in Australia at times, and it's not until you're you hear stories like this of what you and the people on your adventures are contributing to, that you realise, like these kids, 20 kilometres a day and an education is, I guess we take it for granted here. We have an incredible education system and you can pay for it or you could get an incredible education for free and it's just part of life, isn't it? But we forget that it's not that accessible and not that easy, but education is everything for for the future, for these kids. So, yeah, it's an incredible contribution.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah, I think definitely you know and and you know Mandela is often quoted of saying you know that the greatest gift you can give someone is education. And I think you know, like you say, sometimes we take it for granted because we kind of just assume kids will go to school and they'll finish year 12 and and that. But I think it's great and some of the schools we've had involved in fundraising have used these as great tools to speak to their students in the school to say just look at the comparison between you know how you got to school this morning. Or just some of the photo show the buildings of the schools and you know the buildings over there have got no tech here. You know kids have got all the tech in the classroom and so it's just again. It's an opportunity to create that perspective. Yeah, that helps you become a, you know, a bit more resilient to say you know, it's okay if my bus is five minutes late, it's looking into the world.

Speaker 2:

Yes, isn't it? It is a massive perspective injection. And now I feel like I need to show that talk to our daughter, who still actually is not very good at riding a bike. So I need to say, hey, come on, what are you complaining about?

Speaker 3:

I think next time, next time just what you were saying before as well like next time a toy breaks or something like that, first thing she does is like dad, it's broken, can you go to the shop and get a new one? And you know it's the ultimate perspective. Injection is like no, no, we're gonna, we're gonna play with its broken pieces and we're gonna love it back to life. It's just gonna be a different version of itself. And yeah, wow, that's so incredible. How often do you get back to South Africa, charles?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, we try and do the tours now once a year. So I'm going again in October and then, yeah, so again through the partnership with the organization, we fundraise for about a year to try and get enough funds to buy enough bicycles to make the drop worthwhile and then, yeah, we kind of do that once a year. Maybe you know our kind of vision is that hopefully one year, you know it'll grow and we can maybe go twice a year and it'll just kind of grow from there or yeah. So we'll see how that goes.

Speaker 2:

How many people are typically on this annual adventure?

Speaker 4:

Yes it's been tricky with COVID, of course, but yeah, yeah, covid gave us a bit of a speed hump, but yeah, we take a maximum of eight adventures and the reason for that is so the first part of the bicycle drop that we do. But once we get to South Africa there's through the bikes for ERP organization there's about 40, 50 volunteers that come along with us because we need a bit of, you know, people power to build the bicycles and get there. But then the second part of the tours is where we go for on a hiking safari for four days into, really immersed in the kind of bushveld of South Africa. And there's two options. One is completely you know, live, breathe, sleep in the bush, eat everything for four days, and the other one is kind of every day you go for a hike but you sleep a bit more comfortable in the evenings.

Speaker 4:

But the eight is basically a safe number that we can actually go and walk in the middle of the bushveld where there are lions and elephants and all those animals roam, and we can keep everyone safe and in a group.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, fantastic. And is it just adults I imagine not kids on those trips.

Speaker 3:

Are you thinking of the next canning holiday? Yeah, yeah, I am yeah, yeah, which it might be.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, at the minimum age we kind of allow is 16. That's kind of a good age where, yeah, kids are kind of they're engaged, they're old enough.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, old enough to fight off a lion.

Speaker 2:

I don't know about that, but old enough to appreciate where they are. And yeah, that's great, that's great, fantastic. How long have you been doing the adventures for Charles?

Speaker 4:

So we yeah, inquadra Adventure has been running for about three and a half, four years. We obviously, you know, we started Inquadra Adventure just before COVID, obviously not knowing Kau was going to hit them. Then we got this you know, everyone got this and this big thing happened. So there was about two years we couldn't actually do the adventures themselves, but we still did the fundraising. And Cornell and Annika who both are, you know, partners in Inquadra Adventure in Basin South, I guess so they still went to the bicycle drops and made sure we delivered the bicycles each year.

Speaker 4:

So that part still continued, which is really good because we could still continue the kind of real impact of that. And then last year we kicked off again with the tour officially. So yeah, so it's wonderful.

Speaker 2:

Well, we'll make sure that in the show notes here we'll send put some links in if people want to do the fundraising obviously the adventures themselves, but also schools and communities if want to do the fundraising and get behind that as well. So make sure that we share those links.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, great.

Speaker 2:

Thanks, yeah, brilliant.

Speaker 3:

Charles, I'm curious to know about TEDx and preparing for TEDx. Had you done much keynote speaking before? Or you know, no doubt through your career in you know different banking worlds and services that you'd probably had your fair share of Death, by PowerPoint presentations perhaps, but you know in terms of out now keynote speaking. Could you talk a little bit to what it took to prepare for that? How did you kind of become selected in it? What did that look like?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah, good question, because, yeah, I think so through my work, you know, and kind of my day job is in strategy, strategy development stuff, and so you know I'm fairly used to doing presentations but you know, like you know, but there's usually lots of PowerPoint involved and you know talking about a particular topic, so that's pretty easy.

Speaker 4:

Tedx, you know, and through usual, how these things are going to evolve through.

Speaker 4:

You know, small business or business, you know networks from, so connected with an old friend of mine and she organised TEDx for Albany and so there was an opportunity to, you know, form part of the kind of topic that they were looking at, which was, you know, about imagining, you know, and so that was great.

Speaker 4:

But the experience was phenomenal because we talk about courage and that, and Ted Exif obviously got a very specific way in which they protect the brand and the quality of speakers, and so it was really interesting to go through that experience of making sure the topic was relevant and so being selected to actually take part of it, then writing a 10 to 12 minute talk and it goes through a bit of a process, which is great because you understand they want to make sure that it's telling a story. It's not a strategy presentation or that kind of thing, but I think the bit that really was kind of if you talk about the gray or uncomfortable bit is learning to do your talk with no notes and really then getting up on the stage and looking at all these people and you're kind of I'm about to tell the story and at least you know.

Speaker 4:

So, yeah, no pressure at all. No pressure at all. And to be transparent, like there's lots of rehearsals, obviously, and I've been practicing speech and then the day before we did our kind of final rehearsal and I actually, out of everyone there, I actually hit a blank when I did mine, which was the first time that ever happened to me in presentations, but I just yeah, I think it was just one of those things and it was at the moment.

Speaker 4:

It was a bit confronting because I was like I know this and I've been through this hundreds of times and stuff, but again it's just one of those things you have to learn to kind of accept and take a step back and think about what's happened and why this has happened and how are we going to quickly recover from this. But then obviously on the day at all went smoothly.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, the.

Speaker 4:

Moment goes through that.

Speaker 2:

My reaction is like well, better that day than the next day on the rehearsal than in front of the crowd. But yeah, it's crazy what our mind can do to us, like the tricks that can play on us, and just draw a blank, when of course, you know the speech. But yeah, it's wild. How do you mentally recover from that?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, I think it's just being accepting that we're not perfect, being vulnerable enough to kind of say, yep, that's happened, there's nothing I can do about it. Now I have to step out of that, because I think surely you're like a messier Sometimes you're biggest enemy, and so you can fester on this thing and then start going down this negative spiral of you're not going to be ready for tomorrow and what if this happened tomorrow? And all this kind of stuff. And yeah, so for myself, I guess I've learned quite a bit of this from sporting as well, where you sometimes have a really bad game but you need to kind of reflect on it.

Speaker 4:

It's important to kind of find out what maybe has gone wrong or where you're underprepared or you're not focused or whatever, but then learn to kind of pick up and move on. And so that for me was just like you said. That wasn't the moment, so it was okay. It was only there 10 people in the room who saw that happened. And so I just kind of went back and went through the notes and my big thing for me in terms of how I reset a little bit of this go for run or training, and so I just did all those things that I knew would kind of work for me, and so I was ready for the next day. So, yeah, it's just getting that kind of confidence back and knowing that you've done all the things that you have to see. No, no, it was just maybe a bump in the road.

Speaker 2:

Yes, oh yes, it's really resonating with me. We literally maybe two weeks ago, we had a big women in leadership conference called Ignite that we run and we had 200 odd people there and I delivered a keynote speech. But usually I'm running workshops, so it's really different. It is a bit of a different vibe because you're talking about concepts and you know leadership traits and what have you, and I'll throw the odd story in here and there, of course, but just comes out naturally.

Speaker 2:

But I had this keynote and it was really quite a personal, courageous, vulnerable conversation, to the point where Andy even said oh, I haven't, we've been together 12 and a half years. And he said, oh, I haven't heard you talk about a lot of those things publicly before. So it was really really raw for me and I think I forgot my where I was. So many times. I'm probably being a bit critical of myself, but there were moments I'd be standing and I had to come back and look at my notes and I think what just happened Like I do this all the time, but you know our mind sometimes, whatever it is, so it really resonates I'm like, oh good, it's not just me yeah it happens to the best of us, but I do.

Speaker 2:

I think, I love and love to know a little bit more about these for you, because I think it's so important for all of us to know what that toolkit is for us to recover. Like you've just said, then, about running and getting out, what are some other non-negotiables you have for yourself to be in your best mindset?

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

I think, yeah, I think for me, you know, being well prepared beforehand, because I think again and I know a lot of people use maybe sporting analogies and stuff but you know that was a big part of my life in terms of playing, you know, represent a rugby and stuff, so I learned quite a lot of skills and I think that you know, the more you prepared, the more you can kind of react and recover in the moment because there's things that'll come naturally because you're prepared.

Speaker 4:

And so I think you know, for me the big thing is preparation beforehand because you can kind of be a bit more in control of that. Obviously, I think you know it's not always easy, but the confidence, you know, so just backing yourself in those kind of moments and I think just accepting that you know, like I mentioned before when I talk about playing the grey is, you know, things are not necessarily always going to go to plan, so being accepting or expecting kind of that, and so when those things don't go according to plan, don't get caught up in those little moments, see them rather as an opportunity to kind of how do I adapt or react in that, which you know makes it natural. And you know, because we're not machines or we're not computers, and so you know, and often you'll be surprised kind of what comes out, when you kind of just don't get too caught up in that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's great, that's great.

Speaker 3:

That's a cool point actually. I'm kind of reflecting on our own sort of journey of starting this podcast and kind of shut it out. To think of the first, how critical I probably was on myself, in particular with. I remember there was one episode where I said um 12 times in about 90 seconds and I was like really wanted to individually cut out every single version of arm. But but in there you kind of lose. You lose the authenticity and you lose the moment of it and so sort of. You know I've come to the conclusion now that that it's not perfect. It doesn't have to be perfect. You kind of just it's more authentic and it's better if it just flows and it just kind of goes to where it goes.

Speaker 3:

Something you said before that kind of stuck with me and I thought what could this, what does this look like for you? But you mentioned confidence, you know, and kind of just specifically kind of when you sort of lose your space a little bit and then you sort of draw back on, the confidence Is there. I'm just trying to think of what it is for me and what it might be for you. But is there like a specific, I guess, flow or like a specific set of things that you do in order to sort of tap into that confidence.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, it's a great question because I think you know and it's something that I've worked on a lot like in my list of journey, I guess, because I would definitely put my hand up on always the most confident or I haven't been the most confident one I think it also depends on you know, like in the workplace. You might be in different forums, so you might be very confident among your peers, but you suddenly walk into a boardroom and you need to present the strategy and kind of there's. You know senior people, and so you might then suddenly not feel that confident because you kind of overwhelm by who's in the room and all that kind of thing. But I think again for me, I think what some of the things I've learned over time is just you know if you again, if I come back to you know being prepared.

Speaker 4:

So in Australia I often talk about you know, if you've done all the research, analysis and stuff, you're most often the person who knows most about this topic than anyone else in the room and so don't get distracted by you know all this work you've done and now suddenly you've kind of walk in there and you've thrown all that out because you're kind of less confident.

Speaker 4:

So I think it's backing yourself that you've done the preparation work you've done. I think you've got the experience, like if other people might be, you know, I've done this 10 years like I've got the experience, and it's not, you know, it's not that kind of being ego driven or kind of you know, it's just confidence. So I think it's that balance between I've got the experience or I've done the work and so I can back myself, but not that kind of ego bit where you're not open to listening or kind of you know other ideas that you did, yeah. So that's definitely one part of that for me, and I think the other one for me is just and this sounds a bit strange, but just mentally sometimes thinking, you know, of role models who show that confidence that you might be looking for and kind of just saying you know what is their body language, what are they, how do they kind of be able to manage their self?

Speaker 4:

Do that and try and learn from others.

Speaker 2:

So true. Who are some of those influences for you, Charles?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, I mean.

Speaker 2:

Australian rugby players? Of course not the set.

Speaker 3:

Oh God.

Speaker 2:

I wouldn't even know. No, I'm only joking.

Speaker 3:

I'd suggest that you maybe look, get off this call now. Look over to your homeland for support inspiration that the current day Wallabies. No disrespect to the current day Wallabies.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah, no, no, but it's good timing with the World Cup kicking off, so we'll it's definitely open.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, no, I think that it's definitely sporting, you know, but to you know it's we have a bit of a laugh, but, like you know, I played a lot of rugby in Australia as well. So you know I looked at people like Johnny Ile's, you know, phenomenal leader, I think, like you know, just charismatic, calm, but that strong sense of presence, you know earning respect, I guess, from the team, those kind of things. My kids will always laugh at me when I say this, but you know I love Bear Grylls because of the adventure bit, but just a whole mindset, nature, confidence, you know, about getting out of situations. You know, and I often talk about, like you know, the three hours, and this is where I think that adventure survivalist comes in, because you need to be ready, you know, prepared, ready, a bit resourceful, and you need to be obviously resilient because if they're setbacks and stuff, and so that's how I I've talked to my team and other people about you know, leadership and team and working through that gray is three hours, I think is definitely important.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I've got a Bear Grylls book on my bedside table at the moment actually, and, yeah, so good, so, so good. That's beautiful. We we both used to work at Flight Center before Illuminate and Johnny Ile's was actually on the board there and had the opportunity of listening to him and meeting him and, yeah, such a well respected now, you know, post-rugby, obviously in the Rugby days, but now as a businessman and, yeah, just a great guy, very cool. What do you do these days to keep developing yourself? Because obviously you've got this experience and you've had, yeah, lots of life experiences, lots of role models in the past. But what do you do these days to keep going and keep growing yourself?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think development never, never stops, and I think it's you know. So, yeah, I think it's a range of things. I think you know I love connecting with people that I can learn from, and inside of work and outside as well. So I like you know connecting with people who are either like, if I talk about the corporate world like you know who you've done some really great work and you can learn a lot from them and they can challenge you. So you know mentors, those kind of relationships out of work as well, because they can bring a different perspective.

Speaker 4:

I love reading lots of things, so you know what are biographies, books, nonfiction is my kind of big thing, and so I think you can learn a great deal from that as well. And then just experience again that kind of play in the grey, but taking opportunities when they come up that might be slightly different or outside of your normal what you've done before, because I think then obviously you're forced to extend and grow and kind of, you know, learn some new things, and so I think you can learn a lot through that and yeah, the.

Speaker 4:

Inquad Adventures was, you know, important for me as well, because I feel and I'd love to do this for my kids when they grow up is to kind of go start something outside of work, like start a small thing, it doesn't matter if it's successful or not, but I think the amount you learn just in doing that is huge, because you've got very limited resources, time it's. You need to work it all out. You need to kind of learn about people and connections and all those kind of things, and I think what you can learn just by doing something a little side passion or a project or a hobby is you can learn a lot from.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's so great because I feel like sometimes people it's like oh, if I'm not all in, I can't do it, and it's not saying you're not all in, but you can work in your regular job and also dedicate and be all in. You know, there's there'd be a lot behind the scenes, but then there's the connections you have in the country and then people can coordinate different things. So, yeah, I love that and more and more I feel like we're getting into what do they say the gig economy, but people doing things that they're really passionate about, which, yeah, it's a great reminder. What are those things you want to do? Just go and go and start them, and the things we can learn and the doors they can open could be extraordinary.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah, I think that curiosity mindset, I think just been curious and you know and then just go and explore. I think nowadays with technology, it's much easier to have access to learn more about the particular thing that it might be curious about. You know YouTube videos or just podcasts or you know those kind of things, and so I think it's yeah, that people have lots of options.

Speaker 2:

Yes, so good. I've even, you know, just thinking about your TEDx, just even downloading the TED app sometimes and just like, surprise me on what you, what people speak about, you're like, oh, I wouldn't have necessarily searched for X, y or Z, but when you start listening it just opens up your mind. Yeah, it's fascinating, so great, so great.

Speaker 3:

Thanks guys. Where and kind of what does you know success look like over a long period of time? I guess, like right now, you've achieved absolutely a mountain of success. You've got, you know, incredible stories there. You've got like meaningful pursuits, you've got infrastructure there. If you fast forward, say five, 10 years time, what does your life look like? And how big a part of that is your life do you think?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, interesting question, I think. Yeah, I think we'd love to grow it. Obviously, you know, I think for us it's really, you know, that's how, when we kind of really thought about what are we actually doing here, like, so, the vision of changing lives, one adventure at a time. So I think for us it's really about getting you know, obviously, more people through the adventures and changing those lives. But I almost spoke to someone the other day about it, it's creating more stories, and so you know, cornell and Annika, who's part of this is Africa, like we've spoken about, we'd love to maybe, with each adventure that we go on, there's always one or two stories that just stand out.

Speaker 4:

That was created out of this adventure. So you know, like it was the story of Ria, and when we're in the bush, there was a story about, like, the encounter with elephants. That was quite unique and we'd love to kind of maybe write those stories down and pray. This book that you know we could maybe make available to be, because not everyone obviously can come on these adventures but I think, through people just maybe find interesting stories in these books that we've that I almost would say we haven't written right. The adventure is and the people who've come with us have written these stories together, or these stories were written together. I think is something that I think is quite special and kind of that could you know with love to see come out of this.

Speaker 2:

That's a beautiful vision.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's a beautiful vision. Thank you for that. Charles. Got one last question for you today, I think, and then the question is what is the kind of thing that someone's done for you?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, this is. I thought this is such a clever question you guys have and it can be quite tricky, right, Because you kind of made me pause and think quite a bit.

Speaker 4:

But yeah, for me, I think I kind of looked at across my journey and career and personal life and stuff and I think it's the gift of opportunity. I think is what I would say. You know, I look at my career. Like I mentioned, I started on the grad program in a bank in South Africa. I was very young but I worked with an incredible leader, anthony, and he just backed me and gave me all this opportunity because we started something very new in the bank and there was only three of us but he just gave me the opportunity to take this and run and stuff and through that I gained a huge amount of experience and confidence and stuff in starting a career. And then I just looked at my whole career like that and the moments that stood out for me.

Speaker 4:

Like here in Australia I've worked at places where leaders have given me opportunity to take a bigger role or to take something new. And then in my personal life it's just again, if I look at sporting, there were coaches that stood out that gave you that opportunity to go and play that role or to go and represent Western Australia or play Australian schoolboys or something. And Inquazit Adventures is perfect for me again because we partnered with this organisation by for a beer. Nikolai gave us that opportunity, so it's through that that we could make Inquazit Adventures work. It's the yeah. And then in personal life, like my wife and kids they, you know, we just. So I think it's really about giving people. Creating and giving people those opportunities as you connect with them Is to me, I think, one of the that great gifts someone's given me that I hope I can give other people as well. Oh, that's amazing.

Speaker 3:

It sounds like you are, it absolutely sounds like you are, and and I can't wait to follow along and hear a little bit more, and when our, when our daughter goes, we'll be on.

Speaker 3:

One of your adventures will be on one of your adventures, or maybe you're a juice of minimum age and will teach you how to fight a lion in the meantime. So but yeah, it's been an absolute pleasure chatting with you today and in hearing, hearing your story and kind of what makes your heart beat, I think you know it's your passion and passions like yours that make the world go around and make it a better place. So, thank you, yeah, no, thank you very much and yeah, I definitely love to to get you guys on.

Speaker 4:

Maybe you can help create one of those stories for for our vision of the book.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4:

And keep up the the podcast. I really enjoyed them. Like I mentioned learning from others, and that's how I, kind of you know, found the podcast and like to listen to other people's leadership journeys, and so, yeah, great, thank you.

Speaker 2:

Well, thank you so much, Charles, and we'll see you on an adventure soon. Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2:

Thanks for joining us on the Lead with Courage podcast. We illuminate leadership and it's our mission to inspire and grow the leaders of today to create a better tomorrow. We hope and trust that this episode has given you some insights and joy to empower you to live your biggest, best life. If you did enjoy the episode, we'd be so grateful for you to rate and share wherever you listen to this podcast. And until next time, go and lead with courage. Luminate leadership is not a licensed mental health service or a substitute for professional mental health advice, treatment or assessment. Any conversation in this podcast is general in nature and if you're struggling, please see a health care professional or call Lifeline on 13-11-14.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Andy Canning

Co-host
Head Shot

Cherie Canning

Co-host