WHEN LIVED EXPERIENCE BECOMES LEADERSHIP
Keynote Speaking That Creates Awareness, Conversation & Action
Recently I had the privilege of delivering a keynote to business leaders at the mySolutions Business Leaders Conference at the Radisson Hotel in Auckland. Thank you to Audacious Magazine for your complimentary past issue for each attendee.
I was originally invited to speak for around 45 minutes. And while I’ve spoken publicly many times throughout my career, this keynote was different and went for an hour and 15 mins.
Because this wasn’t simply about business theory, governance or leadership. It was about lived experience and what happens when we are prepared to use the difficult chapters of our lives to help develop others.
I spoke about business.
I spoke about leadership.
I spoke about risk.
But I also spoke about cancer, financial vulnerability, insurance, banking, advocacy, resilience and what happens when the carefully constructed world you thought was secure suddenly isn’t. Because sometimes the greatest professional development doesn’t come from another textbook, framework or PowerPoint presentation. Sometimes it comes from hearing what actually happened to someone who lived it.
THE CONVERSATIONS WE DON’T EXPECT TO HAVE
Most business owners understand commercial risk. We insure buildings. We insure vehicles. We protect equipment. We build cashflow forecasts. We develop succession plans.
But how many business owners seriously consider:
What happens to my business if something happens to me?
That became very real for me.
A diagnosis of aggressive triple negative breast cancer didn’t arrive politely around my business commitments. It didn’t care about meetings, cashflow, employees, mortgages or economic conditions. Then came another reality. A medicine I needed as part of the internationally recognised treatment pathway wasn’t publicly funded for my early-stage cancer in New Zealand.
Finding approximately $120,000+ for treatment became my problem. That experience fundamentally changed the way I think about risk. And it is one of the reasons I share it.
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