0:00:43 Ben Wright: Hey, Jemimah, happy Monday.
0:00:45 Jemimah Ashleigh: Hi, Ben, how are you?
0:00:46 Ben Wright: I am really good, thank you. Have had a great morning. You know, in fact, I’d have to say that almost every morning I can sit here and say when I’ve exercised. I’m pretty happy about how the morning’s gone, so I am very, very happy. How about yourself? I actually learned something about your most recent entrepreneurial adventure this morning, which I didn’t know. So I’d love to hear more about it. In fact, I’d love everyone to hear more about it. So what’s something you’ve just done that’s a little bit different?
0:01:14 Jemimah Ashleigh: Yeah, so I’m obviously the funnier of the two. We already know that. But I did a comedy show during Melbourne Fringe Festival and it went very well. So we, I did a show called He Had It Coming, a cast of six and the show was all true crime stories about female murderers who had taken the lives of men. And the question we asked the audience is sure it was a murder, but does that mean it’s a crime? And we got people to vote. So it went exceptionally well. We had a six night run which is pretty unheard of for any fringe shows. We sold out. Also unheard of. And we got a five star review in the Age and a couple of other media outlets and a few very famous people sitting in the audience, like people I recognize. And I went, oh, that’s a member of Auntie Donna. That’s interesting. Like very famous comedians in the audience watching it.
0:02:04 Ben Wright: Wow. And next steps for this play
0:02:08 Jemimah Ashleigh: We are currently we got some attention is what happened. We got some attention from a funding body and it looks like we’re going to development and to pre production. So it looks like we’re actually turning this into a paid YouTube series and someone else is putting that bill for us. I’m like, that sounds amazing.
0:02:24 Ben Wright: Fantastic. Well, congratulations.
0:02:25 Jemimah Ashleigh: Thank you.
0:02:26 Ben Wright: Because I’ve got quite a few friends in media and I can say that bootstrapping this type of project is really difficult, as is any business. But for those Listening. If you would like to talk with someone who knows more about weird and wacky murders committed by women. It seems to be your tagline here.
0:02:44 Jemimah Ashleigh: Yeah, look, the show He Had it Coming is about women killing men for sure. But I do love a good wacky murder in any other way. You can take the guy out of Laura Bosman ben, you can’t take the law enforecement out of the girl.
0:02:54 Ben Wright: Yeah. And for those who don’t know, Jemimah has a really strong background in the.
Jemimah Ashleigh: Criminal intelligence space.
Ben Wright: Yeah, yeah, I was going to say the ADF.
0:03:03 Jemimah Ashleigh: Wrong. Australian Federal Police.
0:03:05 Ben Wright: Australian afp. Adf. That’s where I check myself. But, you know, I will stand by that. All the stories you’ve been telling me about female murderers, which is different, right? Because I’m going to assume I haven’t seen the stats, but far more committed by men.
0:03:19 Jemimah Ashleigh: Yeah, you guys definitely, absolutely killing the rankings on that one. But female murderers, My thought was that. I thought women got away with it a little bit more. That’s where my interest came in of. I think women just. I don’t know what happened, Officer. And start crying. I think women got away with it a little bit more. So that was my interest, where it really started. And then I’ve been telling you stories, some of which you didn’t believe, if I’m honest. You said that can’t. No, I didn’t hear about that. That kind of happened. And then you googled ye and I was, in fact, correct.
0:03:51 Ben Wright: Yeah. Another story for another day. But I think the message for me is congratulations. That’s a terrific achievement. The topic is descriptive and specific as I’ve ever seen when it comes to running a play. But I wish it all success in the future. So much so that we’re actually going to dedicate a podcast topic to serial killers. No, I’m joking. Who said you were the funniest? We are going to dedicate.
0:04:14 Jemimah Ashleigh: Me, I maintain that.
0:04:15 Ben Wright: Yeah, that’s probably true. You’re probably right. So we’re going to have a podcast specifically today that’s focused around success and what are the drivers for us of success. Like, how do we define success across our lives? So you’ve graciously suggested I go first today. So I will.
0:04:32 Jemimah Ashleigh: Because I think this is the thing with success. I think especially the business owners and I know our friends out there will definitely be thinking the same thing, that 90% of the time, people will put monetary value. My business had this amount. It did this much. I made this much. This is what’s in my savings. This is My investment. And this was the discussion that really had last night about this is the thing with comedy, there’s no money in it unless you get funding for it. What does it mean to be successful in this arena?
0:04:59 Ben Wright: Yeah, and that’s the caveat we’ve put on today. What does success look like to you on a non financial lens? So we can’t talk about money, which is difficult because it’s something that drove me really heavily in my 20s and 30s. But let me get started. I am actually going to work around a really common framework that I was taught when I was younger. And that was around learning or studying, I should say, in your 20s, learning in your 30s, making money in your 40s. Really common framework. I’m actually going to work, in fact, I’m actually going to talk about how that impacted me in a slightly different manner.
So for me, I was not interested in studying in my 20s. I did my bachelor degree, I finished when I was 20. I wanted to get out and learn in the workforce. I wanted to do everything that you talk about in your 30s about learning and really getting ready to make money in your 40s. And for those out there, right. A lot of people will be saying, hang on, I’m making my money in my 30s. Wait till you get to your 40s and then look back and see that conversation. Right. I’m into my 43rd year and I can certainly say I’m seeing that.
0:06:02 Jemimah Ashleigh: There’s money and then there’s money. Right.
0:06:03 Ben Wright: But I wanted to take what I could learn in my 30s and do that in my 20s. So my 20s was all about learning in the workforce as much as I possibly could. Soaking up any pieces of information about how I could do things better because I was impatient. You can still argue I possibly am, but certainly I’m more patient now than I was back then. Right. As for those who are watching on video, you could cue obligatory eye roll from Jemimah. So for me it was about how much can I learn to rise through the corporate ranks at that time in my 20s. So that was my key definer of success in my 20s, was actually rising up the corporate ladder. I certainly did as well as I was hoping to do to the point where at 29, I exited the corporate workforce. I’m out. And that was when my next stage of my success, driver started, which was the saying in your 40s around making money. That’s what I wanted to do in my 30s. And I decided I didn’t think I was able to do that in a corporate career. But also I wanted to have a bit of control over what I did. So for me, my 30s was about entrepreneurial adventures, which obviously continue now, but about trying to make some money out of those.
0:07:13 Jemimah Ashleigh: Yeah, love that.
0:07:14 Ben Wright: And for me, the driver around making money was dream home, which we bought just after we’d turned 40. So we’re very close, number one. Number two was to not have to work. Right. So I don’t know if that ever comes true for someone because I think at a financial level, right, there’s certainly you can get to that point where you don’t have to work, but at a mental level. For me, I actually did stop working full time at 36. I was a mess after 6 months. Just intellectually I was no good until I actually went back.
0:07:48 Jemimah Ashleigh: I’ve met you and you need structure. Like you are one of the most structured people I’ve ever met and I love it. I started laughing yesterday when you trying to get me in a structured box for a second. And it was fun to me. But I can imagine that that is a. You would thrive with parameters around you.
0:08:04 Ben Wright: Yeah, structure is very, very important to me. So in the 30s it was that piece around making money. Now I’ve broken the rules by talking about non financial goals, but the layer behind that around how I make money was actually starting my own business. So my definition for success was in my 30s was a viable business that we could then sell. And we did. We sold first half when I was 36, the second half when I was 37. So obviously had a few businesses around that, but the major one we sold in that point of time. So that was my driver of success there.
0:08:35 Jemimah Ashleigh: Yeah, great.
0:08:36 Ben Wright: Now that I’m in my 40s, my driver for success is around thinking my way through problems and opportunities rather than working hard through them. I’ve always had a pretty solid work ethic. I was 80 hours a week for a long period of time in my 30s. Now my driver is actually to be able to achieve what I want to achieve without those hours. And I won’t say achieve what I want to achieve in the minimum possible time because unfortunately I think that takes the lens away from driving good value. And I’m a big believer of driving value early and often. In fact, we’ll probably talk about that another episode. But for me it’s about making sure that I’m not committing myself to too much, but I’m still achieving what I want to achieve. And I will say that that requires unbelievable discipline to be able to say no to far more opportunities than I say yes to. And the only way I can think my way through to success is by checking myself and not going out and chasing everything. So they’re my three so far. What’s going to happen in my 50s? Well, I’m just hoping to get to my 50s first. We’ve got eight years when I get there. I’ll worry about it then. But certainly my 20s was all about learning in the workforce. My 30s was all about building my business up to sale. That was my definition of success. And we’re talking professionally, obviously, and in my 40s, it’s around thinking my way through, so I’d love to hear yours.
0:09:58 Jemimah Ashleigh: Yeah, I guess my career journey was a little bit different because I always knew that I wanted to go into law enforcement, so my background was exclusively going to be that. So successes looked really different to me in different areas in my life at different times, but also in really different career stages. So the only thing I ever wanted to do. I grew up in a law enforcement household. My mom worked in the courts, my dad was a cop. That’s what we were doing. And that was the only thing. And my undergraduate degree was in national security. I was 16 when I watched the Twin Towers fall. And I was like that, whatever that job is, I want that. I went and did National Security University. I have post grad masters in criminal intelligence. This was my driver. And I got my dream career by 30 and then I got burnt out by 32 and I was like, oh, actually. And there is this moment where you get what you want and it’s not actually what you thought it was going to be. I have had the absolute pleasure, pleasure of doing some banana things in my life and things that they will literally make TV shows about.
0:11:03 Ben Wright: Are you going to. Can you tell us one of those? Tell us a theme about something.
0:11:07 Jemimah Ashleigh: I’ll say a couple of words together. War zones. Fairly interesting. Human trafficking and people smuggling was kind of my arena for a long time.
0:11:15 Ben Wright: What’s the difference between human trafficking and people smuggling?
0:11:18 Jemimah Ashleigh: Human trafficking is to get a benefit people. So that might be. You might want their organs, you might want free labor. Sex industry is largely sold on human trafficking. People smuggling is bringing people over land into a place they’re not meant to be for a profit.
0:11:32 Ben Wright: So human trafficking is closer to slavery?
0:11:35 Jemimah Ashleigh: Yes.
0:11:36 Ben Wright: Smuggling is getting someone from A to B.
0:11:38 Jemimah Ashleigh: Yes. For a cost.
0:11:40 Ben Wright: Right. War zones, trafficking, smuggling. Fantastic. And which of those crimes did you commit?
0:11:46 Jemimah Ashleigh: All of them. It was my benefit. That’s why I left. I’m kidding. I did. None of that was to prevent I was like, I used to work in human trafficking and people looking. I’m like, against it. I would fight actively against that. So I’ve done some really cool stuff and it’s been a pleasure to have that career. I speak a couple of languages and got to travel the world, go to different places, but it was also. No one was having a great day then. You’re dealing with, on a society level, some really horrific offenses. On a personal level, you’re dealing with the victim of. There’s always a community impact, the victim, the family and then the criminals, who sometimes were not bad people, just in really bad situations. So it was no one was like, who was investigating who stole the puppies and then you got to play with the puppies at the other end. It was always horrific things happening.
So for me, I got my dream career. I was like, I’m working in intel. I love this. I’ve got to travel the world, I’ve got to do some cool stuff, go to places people have been to before, just on, you know, a good travel guide. But what came next was absolutely burnt out. And I was like, I’ve got the thing I wanted. And I got a bit disillusioned by. It wasn’t a particularly safe job. 90 male workforce. I was young woman. Like, it was just time for me to move on to other things. So I opted to do that. But from the outside, the success came through. When I said, I actually want to leave this, and those are big words. Like, I had worked 12 years in that job. I loved it, I’d given everything for it. And you have to give up a lot of personal anonymity, but also a lot of civil rights, drug testing and security clearances. And that’s really. They’re quite big pillars, I guess, to your life. And leaving was the next benchmark for my success to go, I’m actually out of here. I want to go do something else. It took a little while to get the career stuff down, but to me, it started to look like the biggest thing for me is probably my biggest thing for me. I’m now my own boss and I manage my own time and my own location. Now I don’t have to be in a country I don’t want to be in.
0:13:52 Ben Wright: So that was your. That’s your driver for success. You’re being your own boss.
0:13:56 Jemimah Ashleigh: Huge one, that I get to be my own boss and work where I want to work. Yes. There are times where I have to come to Noosa and have to spend time with you and I can’t fight that too hard. But it’s also my active choice. I’m not being sent there by someone else. We are doing work right now, but we’re going to do work this afternoon by the pool. It’s not the worst life in the world.
0:14:19 Ben Wright: Yeah, yeah. There’s absolute trade offs. And I’m just going to go straight past that comment around saying, you have to come up here and spend time with me because I’m happy to do this podcast on my own. Welcome to Friends In Business with your host, Ben Wright. Nice ring to it.
0:14:32 Jemimah Ashleigh: So mute me already 20 and it took 27 episodes.
0:14:36 Ben Wright: That’s it. We’re into the 28th, right? 27 and a half. So, Jemimah, so being your own boss, right, there are pros and cons. Absolutely pros and cons to that. But for me, I think sometimes people talk about not enough security and being your own boss, but I’d argue there’s actually less security in working for someone at times. So for those out there that are worried about do you take the step? Do you continue with that step because you’re concerned that being your own boss doesn’t give you that security? Think about how your future can be in the hands of others. When you work for people, that is, Jemimah, your time in the Australian Federal Police and the negative impacts actually working for someone can have.
0:15:11 Jemimah Ashleigh: Like just the amount of people that I know that are going through layoffs, I remember having discussions saying, you know, when I left government, my dad’s greatest concern for me, and understandably, he was a cop for 40 years. His discussion was like, how are you going to pay bills? What does that look like? You’re going to end up with no money. And then massive layoffs start happening around me. And I was like, the government isn’t as secure as it used to be. It’s also largely a secured salary, but there’s no real career advantage. You’re not going past $120,000 ever.
0:15:42 Ben Wright: Yeah. Yeah. Well, we look at the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, in the us they are actively trimming the government workforce at the moment. But I do want to ask you a question before we move on to your cause. I think you’ve got two pieces of definers around success is. How can you be your own boss when you aren’t owning your own business, but you’re working within a team? Because I certainly, I don’t think there’s a right or a wrong when it comes to working in a business for others versus having your own business. Ways you Think you can be your own boss when you’re not running your own business?
0:16:11 Jemimah Ashleigh: I think that if you honestly. A little bit harder. I think it can be a little bit harder considering you’re not the one making the shots there. I think that if that was me in that situation and I wanted to actively have a more active role, that’s a discussion with who your employer is firstly and saying I want a little bit more autonomy. I think there is an element now that we’ve seen post Covid from working from home that I think can really add an extra layer of, I guess, freedom or at least really good flexibility. And I think the next thing I would probably look at is if you don’t want to create your own business, contracting is amazing for that sort of work.
0:16:48 Ben Wright: Yeah, well, I’m actually going to go through very specifically around how you can have or how I see teams have far greater sense of autonomy when they do work for someone. But let’s get through your second success driver before we jump into that. So tell me success number two.
0:17:05 Jemimah Ashleigh: Yeah, the biggest. So what would happen Next? In my 30s, because I’m not quite in the four zeros yet, but geez, we’re getting close, was that I had a team around me that could do 90% of the work that I had people that I could actively say, hey, can I hand you this work that I historically be had to be the person to do. And don’t get me wrong, there are still parts and if I’m allowed back in next episode of the podcast, I have to be here for that. And that’s a pleasure and a joy to do that stuff. I have to be the person that goes to awards nights. I have to be the person who runs the seminar or the webinar because people are wanting to hear from me. But 90% of the other work that I have my team can do.
0:17:48 Ben Wright: Is there a why when it comes to wanting to have a team around you? The why for you?
0:17:52 Jemimah Ashleigh: There are probably multiple and from a perspective of as basic as I would like some work life balance occasionally. Yeah, I would like to actually have the night off or take the weekend off.
0:18:03 Ben Wright: Yeah. Great. That’s a great. It’s a great one.
0:18:05 Jemimah Ashleigh: The second one would be that the people that I have on my team have competing, challenging priorities and generally have all of my team for whatever reason are all single parents and have high knee kids. And it just happened that all of the people who were the best at their job had that situation happening. And I love that because I can give them flexibility And I can pay some of their bills and help them out a bit. So one, I can pay that forward now. It just happened that that was a situation. This was not an active. It was just over a team meeting one day. We all figured that out.
0:18:38 Ben Wright: So you’ve got work life balance and you’ve got providing for others. Are your drivers around having a team, any other drivers?
0:18:44 Jemimah Ashleigh: And also there is a part of entrepreneurship that’s quite isolating to have an additional brains trust and have additional people to grow. I’m the boss and that’s amazing. But sometimes I can run a real lose ship. I’m the boss of me and she sometimes doesn’t do a great job of that. Having some additional accountability to other people as well can actually be really even. And I don’t need it, honestly. But to be like, I better get that done because Mel needs it or Marissa needs it. Yeah, that’s a really nice feeling as well.
0:19:14 Ben Wright: Yeah, yeah. And look, no doubt there’s a piece around when you have a team around you, you get to focus on some more of the fun stuff too. Right. You get to get those doing the stuff that you’re perhaps not good at or don’t enjoy as much.
Okay, great. So we got from my end, we’ve got. I tried to learn as much as I could in my 20s so I could build and sell a business in my 30s and now in my 40s. It’s about doing what I want to do by thinking rather than too much sweat equity. For you, we have got absolutely. There’s a piece around being your own boss and the second one is around building a team.
Now if you’re okay, I wouldn’t mind doing exploring now is I know there’s plenty of people out there. Huge numbers. In fact, the number of teams I work with, I’ve got 23 corporates or businesses that I work with at the moment. Right. It’s about where I cap it. That’s about a lot of businesses to be working with. And I’ve got a couple of teams in particular where they are trying to build out engagement from within. Right. So not just from their leaders, but also from people who are within the team, the individual contributors within those teams to make them feel like they actually more are their own bosses.
So. And I have a format here that works really, really well. What I will say is for sales roles, this is an easier progression because you almost have your own territory or geography or product mix. Right. Or type of service that you can own. And there is a little bit around running Your own business. But for me, when we’re talking about engaging people to be their own boss, right, and how we can take teams along the journey towards combined success, right, we’re talking about success today. The most impactful framework that I have seen used and I use with all of my customers is to define your goals, build the strategy together, and then execute and refine it. And the reason that I talk about those three things around, because building everyone in a common journey towards success is that when you set the goals, you get really, really clear on what you need, right? Where you need to go to that journey, that destination all the way down the road.
0:21:08 Jemimah Ashleigh: And that collective buying, I imagine, is going to be absolutely killer.
0:21:12 Ben Wright: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And sometimes those goals, in fact, quite often those goals are not set by the team, right? They’re set at leadership level, but they will involve you as the leader, right, who’s sitting there and building those goals. So from your own powerment, journey, engagement journey, definition of success, often leaders get to set those.
Where it’s then really powerful for teams is if they get to build the journey, right? So all those pots of gold that you need to pick up along that journey, they get to work out what they’re going to be. For me, then what we have is a team who are building combined success together. So they’re moving forward in a direction where they have had the chance to have their say, to have their input, to talk about what they think is going to work. It doesn’t mean they’ve got their way. You know, just because you’ve got an idea in a team doesn’t mean it happens. But by being part of that journey, by being part of the strategic planning, that really can help you define what your success looks like. And I think for me, as teams, that works really well. But then the critical piece comes that you’re implementing it together, right?
When we talk about defining success, for many of us, when we’re not seeing progress towards those success goals, we can become a little bit disheartened. We can work a little bit less harder, but unfortunately, and most impactfully, we can get distracted. So where we can talk about setting the goals, working out the roadmap to get there, the pots of gold along the journey, and then implementing it, reviewing it, and refining it, that gets really, really powerful. So if you’re a leader out there, a business owner, team leader, or someone that’s wanting to bring your team along for that journey of success, my strongest piece of advice is to set that destination, do it with your team, or do it on your own, I’m less worried about that. But build the journey together. Define what the pots of gold are. I use gold coins a lot when I go. Those listening who have been in sessions with me with a little. With those chocolate gold coins right there.
0:23:07 Jemimah Ashleigh: Could you just throw those at people? That would be what I would do.
0:23:09 Ben Wright: I don’t. I put them. I throw far bigger, heavier bits of chocolate people. Right. So when they land, they.
0:23:15 Jemimah Ashleigh: We might have different teaching styles whatsoever.
0:23:17 Ben Wright: But no, I love using the gold coins actually enough in the middle of the room. So for me it’s. If you get the team building that journey towards you, you’re actually setting success goals together. And that would be my biggest piece of encouragement then to finish that off is we obviously have one to ones with our team members. Right. Or we should be having one to ones is getting really clear on business success, but layering in what personal success looks like. Like to that.
0:23:37 Jemimah Ashleigh: Yeah, absolutely.
0:23:38 Ben Wright: What is the next 12 months?
0:23:40 Jemimah Ashleigh: Your staff members have dreams outside of your office. Yeah, sorry. Just to let you know, they have other things going on.
0:23:47 Ben Wright: Of course.
0:23:47 Jemimah Ashleigh: How can you support them in their journey?
0:23:48 Ben Wright: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the best question I like asking here is what does the version of you look like in 12 months? What does the version of Jemimah look like in 12 months? You map it out, you work out where the gaps are, you build a little plan with you believe it, pots of gold right along that journey. Right. And how do we get you to what that version of Jemimah looks like in 12 months? So simple, so powerful. But when you combine strategic planning and setting success goals together with how you can personally grow, what we end up having is mutually defined success. Right.
0:24:19 Jemimah Ashleigh: You put in for 5:00 tonight. Is that what that’s about?
0:24:22 Ben Wright: I know. Look, Jemimah, I know that you like to be your own boss, so I wouldn’t dare step into that. But for me, I think for those listening, have a think about how that could impact you and your team and your business.
0:24:34 Jemimah Ashleigh: I think it’s a really, really valid point about how do you make this work for you and them as well. A happy team is a well functioning team.
0:24:42 Ben Wright: Yeah, absolutely. And we talk about having teams that function together, but we also in the end like teams that are able to be friendly and happy and enjoy their time. So.
Okay, great. Thank you, Jemimah. Lots of cool definitions around success. If, if you’re wanting to drive some success into your team and you’re not sure how, you’ve got two friends here or friends in business. Jemimah and Ben, we are always open to having a chat with you, so please reach out if you’d like to. We are your Friends in Business. We look forward to seeing you again next week. Bye for now.
