This transcript has been edited for clarity and checked against the available source transcript and recording. Filler, false starts, and obvious transcription errors have been corrected without changing the speaker’s meaning.
Intro#
Mel: I went to the doctor’s one day. He took my blood pressure and said, “I don’t know how you’re walking around. I’ve never seen blood pressure so high in someone as young as you. If you don’t make some major changes in your life, you’ll have a stroke before you turn 30.”
James: Hello and welcome to Graduate Theory. My guest today is a communications expert with more than two decades of experience in strategic communication and leadership.
She was recently recognised in the LeadersHum 2022 Power List of the top 200 biggest voices in leadership. She also has her own podcast, This Connected Life.
Please welcome to the show today, Mel.
Mel: Thanks so much, James. It is an absolute pleasure to be here today.
Mel before she became a leadership expert#
James: It’s fantastic to have you on the show, Mel. I’m excited to dive into your career, what you’ve done and what you teach now. But I want to start with your experience before you became a leadership communications expert. What was your career like before you got into this work?
Mel: It took me a while to get my career going. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I started studying economics at university and got two and a half years through a three-year degree before deciding, “No, I don’t really like this.” I dropped out, went travelling, came back, did a degree in tourism management, loved it, finished it and went travelling again.
What else do you do with a degree in tourism? I came back to Australia in my mid-twenties because I was offered a job in a small business organising conferences, something I’d always been really interested in. I took the job, moved to Sydney and absolutely loved it.
I worked for that small business for three years, and I really credit its owner with helping me start my career in a way that would get me to where I am today. Every time I tell her that, she’s highly embarrassed, but it’s true. She supported me and believed in me, even when I didn’t believe in myself. She took a chance on me when I had no professional work experience. All my jobs had involved money in some capacity: working in a shop or department store, or as a waitress.
She gave me this great opportunity. Because we were a small business, we all did everything. When it came to conferences, we had to manage the logistics and look after the operational side.
We also had to conduct all the client meetings, and some of our clients were Australia’s senior leaders. One conference we ran was for the ASX, and I don’t think anybody in the room was below vice-president level at one of Australia’s top 200 companies at the time.
They were really influential, powerful people, and she had confidence that we could have conversations with them. The other thing we had to do was get bums on seats. This was in the nineties, so social media didn’t exist and the internet was just starting out.
I know you probably find that hard to believe, given that you’re quite a bit younger than I am, but there was a time when the internet didn’t exist. To market our events, we had to create hard-copy brochures and post them. We would start working on an international conference two years beforehand.
If we didn’t get the initial brochure out a year before the event, people wouldn’t have time to arrange to come to Australia. I learnt so much in that job and absolutely loved it, but after three years I wanted more. There was nowhere else for me to go in an organisation with only four staff.
I was headhunted by a global marketing agency to run all the events for one of its major clients, a major player in the tech industry in Australia and globally. It was a really interesting experience. I won that job over many people with much more conference experience because of the all-round experience I’d gained in my previous role.
I wasn’t prepared for how exhausting it would be to run 300 events in one year with a team of six. We basically had an event every weekday of the year. It was full-on; I can’t explain how demanding it was. My team and I did an incredible job, and I’m so proud of the young men and women I worked with. I was the oldest at 29, and all my staff were younger. Half were backpackers who wanted a cushy part-time job, which they certainly didn’t get in this organisation or with this client.
I learnt a lot, but I didn’t look after myself. I was at the beck and call of my client and the agency I worked for. I reckon I worked an average of 70 hours a week, travelled a lot and was exhausted all the time. Partway through the year, I started feeling unwell.
I was eating the wrong foods, drinking too much alcohol and almost mainlining caffeine, which I knew didn’t agree with me. I had a really dodgy stomach, chest pains all the time and was completely stressed to the max. I went to the doctor’s one day. He took my blood pressure and said, “I don’t know how you’re walking around.
“I’ve never seen blood pressure so high in someone as young as you. If you don’t make some major changes in your life, you’ll have a stroke before you turn 30.” My 30th birthday was about three months away, so it was the wake-up call I needed to start looking after myself.
James: Wow. There’s a lot I want to unpack there.
Mel: I just did a big blur. Sorry about that.
James: That’s okay. There’s so much there that I want to touch on. I’d love to continue your story, but there are a few things I want to get to first.
How did moving cities impact Mel#
James: You said you moved to Sydney to start that role. I’ve done that myself twice now: moved somewhere to live for an extended period. How did that affect you? Was the move itself beneficial, or was it the role? You mentioned that the role was great and let you do many different things. Do you credit the physical move to a new location, having new friends and recreating yourself in some way?
Mel: I found living in Sydney really difficult. I’ve lived in a lot of places. I moved to Sydney from Vancouver, where I’d moved the year before. When I was very young, we moved around a lot before settling in the house where I spent much of my primary and high school years.
I travelled and moved around a lot in my early twenties, so I underestimated how hard moving to Sydney would be. I’d gone to high school there and knew a few people, but I found it really difficult to form a friendship circle of people whose company I genuinely enjoyed. I also worked for a small business and worked 70 hours a week, so when I wasn’t working, all I wanted to do was sleep. I wasn’t earning much money, either, so I couldn’t afford to do many of the things that people I met could do. I was pretty miserable during my four years in Sydney, and I didn’t fully appreciate how unhappy I was with life in general until I left.
I loved my job and the people I met through it, but they weren’t people I was becoming friends with. They were mostly much older than I was, and we had professional relationships. When my doctor said, “If you don’t make some major life changes, you’ll have a stroke,” it was the catalyst for me to realise that I not only hated my job, but also hated living in Sydney.
I turned up at work after Christmas that year, and my boss asked, “How was your break?” Before I even knew what I was saying, I replied, “It was great. I quit.” He asked, “What? Are you sure?”
I hadn’t thought I would say those words; resigning was the furthest thing from my conscious mind. But the words came out, and I stood by them. I gave about six weeks’ notice because I didn’t know what I was going to do. Within a week of resigning, I decided to leave Sydney and move to Brisbane. Moving to Brisbane was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
I remember driving across the New South Wales–Queensland border and thinking, “I have come home,” even though I’d barely been to Brisbane before. It was such an unexpected sense of calm amid all the chaos of the previous 12 to 18 months. I loved living in Brisbane.
I met amazing people who became friends within the first week or two. I moved to Brisbane 22 years ago, and three friends I made in that first week are still among my closest friends. I had one really close friend whom I met in Sydney, but we met in my last year there. I couldn’t even tell you the names of anybody I met in my first few years in Sydney because it was such a different environment. Brisbane was so friendly, welcoming and supportive. Many people had either moved to Brisbane or returned after growing up here and leaving, so many understood what it was like to move somewhere without knowing anyone. I felt that the welcome mat had really been rolled out.
James: That’s good. Moving to a new place is so hard, and social connection is so important.
Mel: Having said that, I reckon it’s easier today than it was. I moved to Sydney in 2000, when the internet was just starting. There was no social media or MySpace. There were some chat rooms, but I didn’t really understand what they were at the time. Now you can go to your social media platform of choice and say, “Hey, I’m moving to wherever.
“I’d love to meet some people. Who’s there? Where should I live? What suburbs should I look at? What schools could I send my kids to? What cafes are great? If I don’t want to work from home or in my office, where should I go? Who are the sporting teams?” You can create really strong friendships on social media before moving somewhere.
That gives you some context and friendly faces when you arrive, even if you don’t know anybody in the real world.
James: As you said, the internet makes it much easier to connect with new people. You said that when you drove across the Queensland border, you realised, “I’m home. This is the place for me.”
Does Mel have certain things that she likes in cities?#
James: Did you have a checklist of things you wanted in a place—reasons Sydney wasn’t good for you and Brisbane was better?
Mel: All I wanted in a place was anything that wasn’t Sydney. I wasn’t discerning in any other way. At the time, my frustrations with Sydney included how expensive everything was.
I wanted to buy a house, but I couldn’t afford even the crappiest little studio apartment. I wanted to meet somebody, fall in love and have a relationship, but I spent every minute of the day either working or sleeping.
I didn’t have time for that. I also found it frustrating that it took so long to get anywhere. I lived in Cammeray and worked at Bondi Junction. One day, it took me 90 minutes to drive the 11 kilometres to work.
That was the day I thought, “Life’s too short to be stuck in traffic for this much of it.” Everything collapsed in on me at once, and I thought, “I just don’t want to be here.” I also didn’t feel that I had much support in Sydney.
My family were in Gosford, so they weren’t far away, and my brother lived in Sydney, so I did have some support. But I was so deeply unhappy and borderline depressed that the only option I could see was to move away, start again and reinvent myself.
How do you escape 70 hour weeks?#
James: You were young, working so much and fairly burnt out. Everything fell over. What steps do you take now, and what did you learn from that experience? When you’re working 70 or 80-plus hours a week, you’re not exercising, so you have takeaway more often and make other unhealthy choices. It’s a downward spiral. What did you learn from it?
Mel: I’ve learnt that I need to put myself first and listen to my gut. If my gut instinct is saying—or screaming—“This is wrong,” I need to do something about it.
It might mean sitting back and asking, “Why am I feeling this? Is it a long-term systemic problem, or a short-term problem that will go away?” In my previous job, we ran many conferences and events, but took a six-week break at Christmas. In the new job, there was no Christmas break.
We ran events until Christmas Eve, or at least 20 December, and started again around 10 January. It was constant and unrelenting. I also wasn’t sleeping well. I would wake in the middle of the night thinking, “Oh, I haven’t done that,” and write down a list of everything I had to do. I was panicked about everything I hadn’t done.
After that, I put a firm rule in place: if I had three consecutive sleepless nights worrying about work, it was time to quit that job and get something else. We all occasionally have sleepless nights when small or large stressors keep us awake.
But three or more nights in a row is a big warning sign that something isn’t right in my life. I still have that rule, and I’ve used it with boyfriends, jobs and clients. It’s your body’s way of saying that things aren’t right and you need to listen.
James: For people listening, it’s useful to be able to take those lessons and apply them.
The Feather, The Brick and the Truck#
Mel: I recently read a story about how the universe gives you signs: first it sends you a feather, then a brick and then a truck.
For me, with my stress and burnout, the feather was not sleeping, drinking too much wine, having my local Thai takeaway on speed dial and calling three nights a week, constantly feeling anxious and then getting chest pains. The brick was my doctor saying, “If you don’t make a major change in your life, you’ll have a stroke pretty soon.”
I didn’t have the truck, but a stroke would have been it. Think about what’s happening in your world and the signs you’re being sent. I’m not a woo-woo person. I’m highly practical and pragmatic, and I have a very scientific, methodical brain.
But I believe there are signs when things need to be different, and you need to listen and pay attention. I wish I’d done that sooner. Even before I took the job, I had a gut feeling it wasn’t the right thing to do. But I’d never been headhunted before.
My ego took over, and they offered me much more money than I was earning. I quickly realised the money wasn’t worth it, but by then I felt I had no recourse but to continue. The money is never worth it, by the way.
James: There’s a lot of wisdom there. One of the aims of the podcast is to share experiences like yours—something people probably don’t want to go through themselves. If somebody faces a pathway in life where they could go down that path, they can learn from those who have been there before.
Mel: I had planned to move to Mexico for a year, and then this job came along. I cannot tell you how much I wish I’d gone to Mexico. I still never have, because my priorities shifted. I believe there are many times in life when we reach a fork in the road.
It’s like the sliding-doors moment from the Gwyneth Paltrow movie: you can take door A or door B. You may end up where you need to be, but the route there can be very different. When you have an opportunity—or two opportunities and a decision to make—think carefully about which decision is right for you, not only today but longer-term.
I wish I’d thought more about whether my decisions in my twenties would make me happy in my twenties. I made many decisions that made me deeply unhappy, and I can’t overstate how important it is to feel joy and be happy with your life. We’ve got one life, and you need to make the most of it.
James: That’s great advice. Thank you for sharing it, because it’s powerful and clearly comes from your own experience.
Mel: It does. It’s also easy for me to say with hindsight. I’m in my fifties, and I’m assuming many of your listeners are in their twenties or early thirties.
If someone had said that to me in my twenties, I would have gone, “Yeah, whatever.” But if you take away one thing, think about what makes you happy and how you can get more of it.
James: What you’ve shared is great. As you were saying, asking only what will make you happy in the short term may not lead to the best option. I’ve heard that if you extend the timeframe for decisions—even around productivity—you see them differently. Instead of thinking, “I have to have this done by this time,” stretch the horizon to five or ten years. A particular day when you didn’t maximise every last bit, or taking a job where you had to work extremely hard, becomes less important when you’re considering where you want to be in the future.
Mel: What you just said is so important. If you have to make a big decision, give yourself the time you need and make it when you’re in the right headspace.
In one of my past jobs, I was a media manager in a government department. I learnt quickly that whenever a journalist rang looking for a quote, I would say, “What’s your question? I’ll get back to you,” so I could think about it, particularly if it concerned something that wasn’t great.
Much of the media I did at the time was great. I just wanted time to craft a response that would put my agency in the best possible light. If it was emotional, I needed time to consider what I would say and the most appropriate response to satisfy both them and us.
I learnt that you should do this not only with little decisions but with all decisions, especially big ones. It’s also important to delay a decision if you don’t need to make it now. My husband and I moved from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast last year, and we’d talked a lot about what we would do when my stepson finished high school.
We started the conversation when he was in Year 7, brainstormed ideas and then parked it. We said, “We don’t need to make a decision for another five, seven or perhaps even ten years.
“Let’s touch base every two or three years, see where we are and reassess.” When the time came, we considered many options and were much clearer about what we both wanted and what would work for us. That’s an extreme example of delaying a decision.
But even if you receive a job offer that means moving, leaving a company you love or making another big change, don’t feel you need to say yes immediately. Take some time. Ask for references from people who work in the organisation and do your own due diligence before deciding.
Even something as simple as taking two pieces of paper, writing the pros on one and the cons on the other, and then ranking them can show what comes out on top. I wish I’d done that with a few decisions in my life.
Ranking Decisions#
James: That’s a good strategy, and I’ve used it for many decisions. One was whether to go overseas on exchange at university. It was a fairly big decision: was I going to do this? I did go—to Sheffield in the UK, near Manchester.
On the pro side, it would be a fantastic experience. I’d meet new people, go to Europe and travel. The cons were that I wouldn’t see my friends for six months—which isn’t really that long—and money: how would I pay for it? That worked out as well. Clearly, the pros outweighed the cons. It was a rare opportunity, so I ended up going. Sitting down, identifying the pros and cons and actually thinking about them was useful, rather than going solely with my initial reaction.
Mel: I’m curious. You said one of the cons was leaving your friends. When you came home, had anything changed with your friends or their lives?
I ask because I was an exchange student after finishing high school. I went for a year, which was something I’d always wanted to do. I changed so much during that year that I was shocked when I came home and nothing had changed. I thought, “How come nothing’s changed? I’ve changed.”
James: I had a similar experience. I went away as one version of James and returned as a different one. I have an Excel sheet with my university grades, and you can see that there was James, then James went on exchange, and afterwards he was completely different. The experience affected so many areas of my life, and I’m very glad I did it.
Mel: My year in Canada was one of the five best years of my life, perhaps even the top three. It influenced so much of my life. I went in 1988—33 or 34 years ago—and it still influences my life today.
There are decisions I would never have made without that year. It opened my eyes to the world in a completely different way: different perspectives, ways of seeing and doing things, and lifestyles. Canada, the UK and Australia aren’t that different on paper until you get there and realise they are.
James: For me, it was about getting out of my routines—the way I did things at home—and having to reset them.
One of my previous guests described it as having a bucket into which you put things as you go through life. When you go overseas or to a completely new place, you empty it out and get to put things back in, redesign how you run your life and reflect on what you’ve done.
Mel: Another huge thing for me was that I’d lived in the same community for much of my childhood and teenage years. People had known me for a long time and held preconceived ideas about who I was based on how I’d been as a younger child. Going to a country or city where nobody knows you is liberating. You can be whoever you want, do things you would never do, and take chances and risks you would never otherwise take.
If it all goes pear-shaped and you make a complete fool of yourself, you’re not there for long, so they’ll forget by the time you leave. It’s a great way to experiment with different aspects of life. I love it.
How does someone become a communications expert#
James: I’d love to take the conversation in a different direction. Your current work in communications and leadership is impressive, and you’ve been recognised for it. How did you get into this kind of work? Presumably, you went from being an employee to becoming an expert in the field. What was the catalyst?
Mel: When I moved to Brisbane, I briefly worked on contract doing marketing for the Brisbane Festival. Then I worked for five years in the Queensland Government. I remember ringing my dad and saying, “I’ve just got a job with the Queensland Government.”
He laughed so hard that he accidentally hung up. He said, “You’re not government material. You’ve come out of corporate, and you’re not going to cope.” I told him I’d give it five years, and I lasted five and a half, which made me quite proud. But I needed a change.
I’d seen Dad go from government to consulting and then working for himself, and watched him blossom and do work he loved every day. He and Mum taught my brother and me that life is short: you have to do what you love. If you don’t love what you do and the people you do it with, you need to make some changes.
That applied to big things, such as who you work with and the kind of work you do, through to your friendships and romantic relationships. If you don’t genuinely love most of what’s happening in your life, you have the control and power to make a difference.
I reached a point in government and working for other people when I thought, “There’s got to be more to life than the drudgery of going to work every day.” I wanted to work part-time because I had many other interests and things I wanted to do, so I submitted an application.
The head of HR couldn’t understand why a woman in her thirties without children would want to work part-time, so my application was denied. I resigned and have never looked back. I’ve been working for myself for nearly 16 years, and I love it. It gives me complete freedom and flexibility to choose whom I work with, the work I do, and when and how I do it.
All those things have changed over the nearly 16 years I’ve worked for myself, and I’ve changed too. I’ve become more experienced and confident. I’m more confident asking for what I want; in fact, I know what I want, which I didn’t when I started. That comes with age and experience. As you get older, you become more confident and more willing to value what you’re worth.
Today, I work with leaders and teams to help them become more connected so they can create real connection and sustained engagement. A major part of the work I’m starting to do with clients is helping them connect with themselves. How do you lead others if you can’t lead yourself? If you don’t lead yourself first, you won’t be as effective as you could be at leading a team or organisation.
James: There’s wisdom there, and I agree with much of what you’ve said. How does your previous experience with burnout and a corporate lifestyle that wasn’t what you wanted influence what you now do, teach and share? Is there a thread connecting those things?
Mel: In terms of how I work, I went for a swim at lunchtime at the beach because I could. I try to live what I teach.
I’m not perfect at it by any stretch, but I think it’s important. Leaders today are extremely busy and face many pressures. It’s easy to get caught up in day-to-day busyness, and in other people’s demands and priorities, and forget to prioritise yourself.
COVID highlighted for many people that there were major aspects of their lives they weren’t happy with. I’m not saying people were happy with lockdown, but being forced to spend time with yourself makes you reevaluate what you love, what you don’t love and what’s important to you.
Why do you get up and go to work every day? Why are we doing it? What’s the ultimate benefit we want? What do we want people to remember us for when we’re no longer here?
I’m trying to help my clients—and the broader world—think about those things. If you were to die tomorrow, what would you want people to say, think and remember about you? Does the way they currently see and remember you match what you want?
Do you want to be remembered as a workaholic who never had time for his kids, or who was always grumpy at work because he was so stressed? Or do you want to be remembered as a great leader who listened, genuinely cared and walked the talk? That leader might say, “I don’t want anybody here after six o’clock. If you can’t do your job in the reasonable time we have over the course of a week, let’s have a conversation and see what we can change.” I want to help people understand the questions they need to ask those in their lives:
“What do you need from me to do your job better? What do you need from me to be a better person? What do you need from me to fulfil your goals? Do you even know what your goals are? If not, what do you need from me to help you work out what they might look like?”
James: I like that a lot. It’s a good way of looking at things: service first, rather than asking, “How can I gain from this relationship?”
Mel: Absolutely. As leaders, we’re here to serve. If leaders don’t have anyone to lead, they’re not leaders. You want the people under you—and that’s not the right way of describing it—to look up to you and say, “I want to be like that person.”
We’ve all had different managers and leaders. Some I remember clearly because they were amazing: they supported me and believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself. Others I remember because they were awful. I don’t want anyone to think of me as the awful leader, although I know some past staff will, because we all go through awful phases when we don’t know what we’re doing and we’re stressed and overwhelmed.
James: That’s important to remember. You have a book coming out soon, Fully Connected. Tell us what it’s about. In particular, what are the main principles you want readers to take from it?
Mel’s book, Fully Connected#
Mel: The book is called Fully Connected: How Great Leaders Lead Themselves First. I look at why we need to lead ourselves first, what’s preventing us from doing so, and three ways to do it.
The first is becoming more self-aware and understanding your purpose, values, attitudes and behaviours. What are your strengths and weaknesses, and how can you capitalise on your strengths? How do people see and perceive you? Is your self-awareness good enough that you understand how others see you as a leader and a person?
The second is how to stay self-motivated. Motivation is terrific, but when it comes time to do the work, it tends to take a hike. What do you need to become motivated? I believe people are motivated by knowing their purpose and seeing their role in whatever they want to achieve in the world.
But what do you need to do to act, and how do you become disciplined enough for that motivation to help you achieve your goals?
The third part is self-care: developing a toolkit to look after yourself physically, mentally and emotionally. Self-awareness leads to self-care, and self-care leads to resilience. If you look after yourself physically, mentally and emotionally, you’ll cope far better when things are hard or turn to shit than if you haven’t looked after yourself.
What stuck out to Mel while she was researching the book#
James: Those areas are so important. As you’ve researched and written the book, what has been the most surprising thing you’ve learnt—perhaps something you discovered recently? What really stood out to you?
Mel: In senior leadership roles, I experienced real loneliness and thought it was just me. Then a whole heap of senior leaders, clients and friends said, “I’m really lonely at work.” I realised there was a big problem because we shouldn’t be lonely. That was enlightening: how do we make ourselves less lonely, while also ensuring our people feel that they belong at work?
What can we do to help them feel valued, aligned with the organisation’s purpose and aligned with their own purpose, so they arrive able to do their best? I believe everybody wants to do their best. People don’t turn up thinking, “I’m going to do a shitty job today.”
Okay, some people probably do, but most don’t. People arrive wanting to be and do their best and wanting to succeed. Sometimes they don’t know how, and often they aren’t given the tools.
You can’t do your best without clear directions, if you don’t feel valued, or if you don’t feel there’s compassion in the organisation. You definitely can’t do your best if you’re stressed, overworked, overwhelmed and exhausted. It’s not possible.
James: The foundation you’re describing is important in many areas, whether it’s your work or your general life satisfaction. If you haven’t worked those three things out clearly, it’s almost an accident waiting to happen. You need to examine those areas and consider what you’re doing to keep them in good condition.
Mel: Exactly. It’s the same in every aspect of life. You can’t show up as the best person you want to be—for yourself, your partner, your kids or your friends—if you’re exhausted, overwhelmed, stressed, tired, hungry, hungover, uncertain or unclear. You asked before what my advice would be.
I have a few pieces of advice. Give yourself something to look forward to every day, because anticipating something and then experiencing it gives you a massive dopamine hit and makes you feel good. I got this idea during COVID from a friend in Melbourne’s endless lockdowns.
I asked, “How do you keep going?” She said, “Every night before bed, I think of something I love that I’m going to do tomorrow. I go to bed with anticipation and joy that tomorrow I’ll do this thing I love.” Some days, it might be half an hour of quiet time without her husband and children, reading a book she’d wanted to read for a long time.
Or it might be planning special time with one of her children, or any number of things. She said, “None of the things I do for joy takes more than half an hour, but that’s enough to keep filling and refilling my cup.” I think that’s critical.
If you haven’t been to the doctor in over a year, have a health check. Physical problems can also manifest mentally and emotionally. Make sure your body is in good working order. The health checks you need depend on your age, family history and how long it’s been since your last one.
If you haven’t seen a dentist or doctor in over a year, have a check-up, get some basic blood tests and make sure everything is working. Get a skin check, because we live in Australia and many people develop nasty skin cancers.
Third, think about the feather, brick and truck I mentioned earlier. Are any of those things happening in your life now?
Are there any feathers you need to notice? Has the feather turned into a brick? Is the brick on the verge of becoming a truck? Think about what you can do to look after yourself better. Life is short, and hopefully you want to have a long one filled with joy, people you love and work you love.
James: I like that a lot. It’s an important analogy.
Mel: It’s a good one. I don’t know where I read it, so I’m sorry to whoever came up with the idea.
Mel’s Advice for Graduates#
James: That leads to my last question, which you’ve partly answered. I ask every guest: what advice would you give someone just starting their career? Given all you know now, if you could wind back the clock and start again, what advice would you give yourself?
Mel: Listen to your instincts, because they’re very rarely wrong. That would be my number one piece of advice. If your gut is saying, “This isn’t quite right,” ask questions and listen to it.
James: That’s important. You’ve got the mind and the heart, and both are powerful. You have to listen to them.
Mel: There’s a mind–gut connection. So much research now shows a close link between what happens in our gut and what happens in our brain.
There are some good books, none of whose names I can remember. Research over the last 20 years has shown a strong connection between the mind, brain and gut. If you’re interested, do some research and learn more, but I believe you should listen to your instinct.
We all have an instinct, like a sixth sense, so pay attention. You might call it your spidey senses or the tingles on the back of your neck. In my experience, they’re not usually wrong.
Where to contact Mel#
James: That’s so important. Thanks for sharing it with us today, Mel. It’s been fantastic to have you on and hear your thoughts. We’ve covered so much, and you’ve shared a lot of wisdom. If the audience wants to learn more about you and your work, where is the best place to go?
Mel: My website, melkettle.com, is probably the best place. It’s currently being overhauled, so if you look in the next few weeks, come back a month later and you’ll see it shiny, sparkly and new. I’m also active on most social media platforms. I love LinkedIn and Twitter.
I’m trying to love Instagram a little more. If you Google me, you’ll find me, and I’m always happy to chat. If you have questions or want to know anything else, please get in touch.
Outro#
James: Thanks for listening to this episode. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. To receive my takeaways and everything I learnt from the episode, go to GraduateTheory.com/subscribe and get all the information about each episode sent straight to your inbox.
Thanks again for listening today. We look forward to seeing you next week.