Welcome to Level Up Leadership

Hi, I’m Kate Peardon. I’m the host of this show Level Up Leadership and the CEO at Zenith Journey. This podcast is for chronically busy leaders and small business owners who are ready to get out of the weeds and start leading. Each episode, will have micro leadership lessons to be 1% better in your leadership every day.

So you’ll be able to join me every week, where it’s my goal for you to leave, excited to take your next step in growing your leadership, whether that’s building your team or creating great company culture, overcoming mindset blocks, or being the leader, people want to work for. Now, the first thing I want to do is to bust a myth.

There’s a myth that people believe that leaders are born. That it’s something you have either got, or you don’t. And I want to bust that really early because I totally disagree. Leaders aren’t born, they’re trained. And if you’re familiar with growth mindset, you’ll understand why it’s important to know that you can learn leadership.

If you haven’t heard of growth mindset, well, you’re listening to the right podcast. The other myth that I want to bust nice and early is that only some people are leaders. That’s not true either because I have news for you. Everyone is a leader. It’s not about a title. Every interaction you have with other people, you have the opportunity to influence them, whether you know about it or not.

The person who influences others is a leader. The one who makes a difference to others is a leader. Everybody CAN be a leader. But not everybody is an EFFECTIVE leader. Leadership is part of your every day, whether you have this leadership title or not. So the great thing you’ll learn in this podcast is what we talk about is applicable for everyday life. It’s applicable for everybody, whether you have a leadership title, a team, or a business or not.

In particular, my company Zenith Journey is a business focused on Positive Leadership. What is Positive Leadership. It might sound like a fluffy term, but I can tell you it is anything but that. And that is something we’re going to get into in one of the very early podcast episodes. So, why do you need this podcast in your life?

Well, it might sound a bit counter-intuitive. But the reason is infobesity. Yep. Infobesity. There is no shortage of information in this world. You can Google just about anything. But do you know what there is a shortage of? There is a shortage of wisdom taking information and applying it.

So the purpose of this podcast is that an each 5 to 10 minute episode, you’ll be able to learn one idea or one concept and turn that bit of information into wisdom for you so that it can have a positive impact on your life. 1%. Every day. So they’re small because of the purpose of infobesity. There’s so much information. You don’t need more information. You need targeted information that can be useful for you.

So you can binge on them while you go for a walk, perhaps dropping your kids to school, getting groceries or cooking dinner. Or maybe even with your morning coffee. I wanted to make it digestible. So it can be part of your every day.

If you’ve heard of the idea of compounding interest. The idea of getting 1% better every day is exactly that, that over time it will become exponential. So we’re not talking about huge shifts. What we’re talking about is a 1%. If you can pick out one small thing each episode and apply it, that is a win that you won’t realize until further down the track.

. If you work with me or with a personal trainer, you’ll probably get that immediate endorphin hit and look probably you’ll have some sore muscles the next couple of days.

But the thing with working at the gym is it happens over time. It’s all about small changes. And the same as with your leadership. So think about this podcast as your gym session, each episode is a mini workout. And just by listening, you’re increasing your leadership fitness, and the more you apply between each episode at the faster your leadership grows, it’s not a one-off fix, but good news. I’ll be in your ears every week.

You’ll notice that your Positive Leadership will grow not just at work, but across all aspects of your life. And that is pretty cool for something that takes you five to 10 minutes.

So, how did I get into this idea of Positive Leadership? Well, my background in business and human resources, I was in an executive leadership team. And I found over time that what really made a difference was people and how people work together. What motivated people in themselves and how people could have a positive impact on each other.

And I saw what worked and what didn’t. And I got curious on how can we be better leaders? And how can we be better humans for the people around us that we work with and the humans around us in our lives. And this journey led me to Spain. Which is a story for another time, but I did end up getting qualifications of a Master’s degree in Positive Leadership and Strategy or based around the Positive Psychology.

So there’s a lot of science about what we’ll talk about in this podcast, but the great news is I’ve done the research, so you don’t have to.

So during my time learning about positive leadership, I wanted to try what I learned in all different sorts of businesses. And to see if this idea of positive leadership works in different areas. So during this podcast, you’ll hear me talk about different businesses through that’s consulting or working within a business.

But you’ll also hear me apply it in my personal life. You’ll hear me talk about leadership in musicals. You’ll hear me talk about leadership in surf lifesaving in, families in all sorts of situations. Because it’s the same science that underpins everything.

Something that you’ll also hear me talk about in this podcast is a bit about my personal background. And how I had to go from being a busy person. To someone that was more conscious with their time. So in 2018, I had a vertebral artery dissection and a minor stroke. And one of the impacts of that is I just couldn’t do “busy” anymore.

It took me quite a while to recover and I use recover as a very light term because I do feel that I am a different person now. And something that I will talk a little bit more about in future episodes. But one thing I took from it is, that I wore busy, like a badge. And I think, well, I can take what I’ve learned and share that in a way that perhaps you don’t have to have the same experience to take the lessons from it.

Another part of my diverse background is the experience I get to have working with clients globally. I started part of my MBA in Paris in France, and I did my Masters of Positive Psychology and Leadership in Spain. And the other students that I met with from all over the world. So they were really diverse in their background. And I got exposure to a lot of different cultures and leadership around the world.

My MBA is now well, 10 plus years old. But it means that people that I studied with and now in leadership positions all over the world and the opportunity to travel and visit them and work with them, is absolutely phenomenal. Now, obviously we’re in an age where online is such a common way of working.

So I had to get a swish studio set up and now can and facilitate for all across the world with some very fancy tech. I say swish because I am a musician and I am a bit of a tech geek.

Some of the people that I work with face-to-face and in a virtual setting are executives who want one-on-one coaching because leadership is so lonely. You don’t have peers you can talk to about this sort of thing. I work with teams for workshops, small businesses that are growing, from a solo to a hero setup or an agency set up and leadership programs for 6 to 12 month periods. And these are my favorite, particularly working within a company because I get to experience the changes of these leaders over time.

So I have thought about studying this podcast for a really long time. And for about a year I’ve had everything outlined and something held me back from moving forward with it. Most of my work is not about me, but about my client. And it’s a discovery and reflection process of working with them.

And I follow them. It’s like picking up a thread, and following their goals and seeing where it goes. So the idea of having a podcast where I host, has been a little bit of a challenge in how to think about it, but I realized that the sessions that I have with my clients, they have these amazing light bulb moments.

And because of their confidentiality that I want to have with my clients, I don’t talk about these. But the downside is you don’t realize that others are going through what you’re going through. So I want people to know through this podcast that you are not alone. I want to share some of the stories in a respectful, confidential way. I want to use a podcast to show that we’re all human and we’re all doing our best. And we can all continue learning and growing and show that 1% today. And 1% next week. It all makes a difference.

Sure this podcast is about leadership. But really it’s about life.

So thanks for coming on this ride with me, who knows where I’ll end up, but I guarantee you’ll have a few laughs. You’ll probably feel a little bit uncomfortable with some of the myths that get busted. But along the journey. I think you’ll become a wiser human in the process and you might even enjoy it.

Make sure you hit subscribe and you can now go and binge on the first episodes of this podcast. The very first episode is about Positive Leadership, what it is and what small tweaks you can do to your leadership that will have an exponential, positive impact on the people around you.