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Hello you lovely listeners, I'm Amy.
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Welcome to the Really Good Conversations podcast where we will delve into the minds of the
business people we have met in the process of launching our first card game.
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We will be uncovering their secrets to success, their biggest mistakes and sharing the key
lessons they have picked up en route.
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So if you're looking for an engaging chimp wag mixed with business insights and a good
pinch of fun, you're in the right place.
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Let's have a really good conversation.
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Welcome to the Really Good Conversations podcast.
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Today I am joined by Michelle Broadbent, a business strategist with over 25 years
experience empowering female entrepreneurs across diverse industries.
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As the founder of the Accountability Circle, Michelle fosters supportive communities where
women connect, share experiences and hold each other accountable.
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Welcome to the podcast, Michelle.
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Amy, thank you so much for having me.
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It's great to be here.
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I'm so delighted you agreed to join me because we do go back a couple of years actually
ourselves.
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And I've certainly, you know, leveraged your wisdom and insights over the years.
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And particularly when Alex and I were preparing for maternity leave and as a husband and
wife working duo with not traditional maternity leave, that was a, how on earth are we
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going to do this?
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And how are we not going to attempt?
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to juggle and be everything.
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So I've always valued your guidance and your experience.
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Absolutely.
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There's obviously so much we could talk about from both your personal journey, but also
the work that you do.
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But I thought we would really delve into the connections and accountability that you see
in the work that you do.
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So firstly, why do you think building strong connections is critical and especially for
women in business?
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Amy, I think it's absolutely vital.
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I don't think that there is a business owner in the land that would deny that building a
business on your own, it's lonely.
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It is, it can feel really, really lonely, really isolating.
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And I think like so many things in life, we're not meant to do it alone.
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Like yes, you can be a solo business owner, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you need
to walk.
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path alone and I think if we're just kind of muddling through trying to figure it all out
of ourselves we're operating in a bit of a bubble and having those connections with people
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who are there in the trenches with you is so it's critical it's critical to success I
think.
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Absolutely.
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And I think certainly even from the journey I've been on just with this podcast alone and
speaking to either other product-based businesses or people who are operating as an
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entrepreneur with their own business, we all share a bit of that behind the scenes, often
off recording, of the wild roller coaster and some of those moments of, oh, why are we
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doing this crazy journey?
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So, yeah, I can totally resonate with that.
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Can you show any examples for yourself personally of how you found connections has
transformed your career along the way?
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Yeah, I mean, look, I think it started right when I actually had the idea, like that
little seed of an idea, that little whisper of an idea that I wanted to start a business.
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So for background, I had been working in the television industry for 12 years before I
started my business.
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I was, I guess for want of a better word, quite institutionalized.
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I only knew myself and what I could do and what my value was within
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that industry within that world and in the roles that I did in that world.
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So the thought of actually, well, A, starting my own business, but B, it's like, what am I
gonna do?
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Like, I did not know, I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up.
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I knew I couldn't figure it out while I was working in that world, so I left.
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And I think that the most, one of the most vital connections that I made right from the
get-go.
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was actually with a coach that I worked with.
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she did not know me.
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We had no history, no connection.
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And it was the work that I did with her that really helped me unlock and recognize what my
value was to the world outside of what I had.
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know, because I was TV executive, I was a mom, I was a wife, like all of those other roles
that I had.
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And it's like, okay,
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What is this going to look like?
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And having that connection, having that wisdom from someone who just knew all the right
buttons to push and all the right questions to ask, but also who had connections who could
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help me step into this next stage of my life.
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And that was nine years ago and hands down still just one of my most precious and valued
connections in business.
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If think about building relationships with the women that you work with in that
connection, how do you see we can build better authentic relationships without them
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feeling transactional?
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Because sometimes when you are on the journey and we all, you know, I think everybody
hates the phrase when they hear it, can I pick your brains?
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And I think a lot of people cringe, if you will.
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And I'm always the first person to agree to a phone call and all of that and probably, you
know.
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allow myself, give people access shall we say.
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But there's getting that fine line that sometimes you hold back, you don't want to reach
out because you don't want to feel like it is a transactional, I want something from you.
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How can we work on that?
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Yeah, it is look that fine line, but something and I will go back to those early days when
I started my business and I am so incredibly grateful for the women who did agree to have
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a coffee with me.
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And I think, you know, if you are feeling a bit cringy, particularly if, know, as you and
I, Amy, who are further along in our business journey, it's like, remember what it was
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like to me.
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uh
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be in those early days and not knowing, not having a clue.
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mean, we still don't have a clue, right?
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Like we're always learning.
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We're always learning.
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And I think that is the thing.
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So you use, in your question, you actually used the word authentic and that is the key.
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It's be yourself.
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Don't try and be, you know, this shit hot business person that knows everything kind of
like, it's like, it's okay.
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not to know everything.
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It's okay not to have all the answers.
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And imagine if someone came to you and asked like genuinely for help in that authentic
way.
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It's really hard to say no to that.
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But I think that, you know, having
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boundaries and being respectful of people's time.
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So uh there's that old adage around like business building.
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It's like it's a little bit like dating.
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So don't try and get married on the first date.
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Don't propose your life plan and your plan for children and where are we going to live and
all of you know, you're not going to do that on a first date.
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So don't do that on that sort of first ask and don't use the phrase, can I pick
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your brain.
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I think it's being really clear about what it is that you want to get out of that ask.
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like what is the ask?
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And sometimes even just having to define that and saying, hey, Amy, would you mind?
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And is it a coffee?
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Could it be an email?
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Or is it like, I've got a meeting in your building.
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Could I grab you for 15 minutes before I go into that meeting or whatever?
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But I think it's
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being respectful of people's time and acknowledging that for a lot of us, for us
service-based businesses, it sounds a bit crude, but time is money.
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So it's like, remember what you are actually asking.
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Are you asking for professional advice that you should actually be paying for?
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Or is this just a little nugget that you can get?
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But yeah, buying me $5 coffee doesn't equate to
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you know, what I could potentially be earning if you were paying much more professional
services.
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So, but I'm always like I do, always go back to the early days of those people that helped
me and it's like paying it forward, but there is a limit.
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So it's having boundaries.
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of the people you work with are women.
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What are the top three challenges you consistently see female entrepreneurs facing today?
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Okay, I think if you'd have asked me this question a year ago, probably be looking a
little bit different because uh the current problem is cash flow.
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So this is a really big thing where once upon a time, people were paying upfront, people
were paying their bills on time.
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Right now, consistently across the board, people are struggling with cash flow.
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And then that has a knock on effect in so many other areas of business.
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The other one, this is a tale as old as time, People, team, getting that right support in
their business is an ongoing challenge for so many business owners.
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And when I do have those examples of people who do have superstars in their team,
incredible.
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you know, humming along beautifully team.
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It's like, want to bottle it up and God, if I could sell it, I would be a
multimillionaire.
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So we're getting that right support, having a great team.
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And then the other one, which is consistent is time.
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Time to work on the priorities, to really be able to give the priorities the space that
they need.
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So time to work on the business as opposed to getting caught up in the weeds and in that
sort of hands-on stuff in the business.
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Yeah.
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And it's great to hear those answers from you because I think a lot of people are probably
nodding along listening to this.
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And it is refreshing if we go back to having that, you know, connection and network that
you can share all of that in.
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It helps you realize, okay, it's not just me in this situation.
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It's actually, it's a common problem that many people.
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That's the power of connection, is having those conversations.
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And we talked at the top of the episode about not doing this alone.
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When you realize that you are not the only person that's struggling with cashflow, or you
are not the only person who is struggling to get great support in your business, whilst
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that may not necessarily solve your problem straight away, there is comfort in that.
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And we need that in our lives.
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Yeah.
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Do you think there's any particular hurdles that you see that do hold women back more than
men?
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do.
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Yeah.
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And this is awful, but women are notoriously bad at asking for help.
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Something that we all struggle with.
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is that nurturing gene that we kind of, that we, it's like, we, we, are the caretakers.
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are, we're, we, I mean, men are helpful.
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They're great, but
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tell them what to do.
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Please, that's right.
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know, you hear that.
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How can I help, honey?
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By not asking me this question.
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Proactively taking the rubbish out, proactively putting the laundry on.
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But I think we're just women like, you know, is it the Marta Jean as well?
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But we are terrible.
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We are not great.
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It is something that we really have to work on.
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Whereas I notice with guys, they just don't hesitate.
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And so something, a sort of challenge that I sometimes give myself is when I catch myself,
it could be when I'm in the middle of responding to a request or an email or something
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like that.
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I'll check myself and just go, how would a guy approach this?
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How would a man, how would I do this differently if, yeah, if I wasn't female?
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And yeah, I tend to remove a lot of words.
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Is this about to say if it was my emails, would go from like three paragraphs to like two
words.
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But I do like detail, you know, I like to think, you know, Alex and I have this
conversation if we're storytelling on a conversation with someone and Alex, especially if
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we're there together and he'll jump to different parts of the story.
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I like to tell a story in chronological order with details.
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because I say I like to pass on the info to reduce the amount of additional questions.
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Because he's saying it and the person's like, but then what?
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And then what?
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I'm like, if I just tell...
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I took the whole story up for a little drop.
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But yeah, I know that can be a bit more long winded.
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But tell us a bit more about accountability.
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I mentioned in our intro that you are founder of the Accountability Circle.
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So what does accountability mean to you?
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Well, to me, it's essentially declaring your intentions or your goals or your plans to
someone and having them keep you on track to hold you to those promises that you make to
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yourself.
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Yeah.
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Because I see it so much in my own life.
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I signed up to a gym challenge.
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I signed up to golf lessons.
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I signed up to this thing.
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Now I was there at the gym and I was practicing the golf before the next lesson for that
fear of being called out.
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And Alex actually said, Amy, if you were so accountable to yourself, as much as you are to
other people, like imagine all the stuff you would achieve.
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Do you have any insights on?
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Why are we more accountable to other people than ourselves?
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Because you, so there are personality archetypes and you would be an obliger, like that
would be your personality.
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So as an obliger and uh like there's four, this is a framework that Gretchen Rubin, who is
the author of Better Than Before, she's got a uh brilliant body of work, but this is a
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framework that she has basically categorized the population into.
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So there's obligers.
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upholders, questioners and rebels.
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And the majority of people are obliges, which means we are more likely to uphold a promise
that we've made to somebody else or a commitment that we've made to somebody else than we
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are to ourselves.
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Alex is probably an upholder if he's saying, why can't you just do it yourself?
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So upholders, they uphold promises to other people, but they are really good.
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upholding their own, uh as it says on the tin, upholding the commitments to themselves.
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So because so many people need, they're counting on other people to count on them in order
to do things.
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That's why you talk about your gym challenge, like PTs exist, tennis coaches exist, uh
tennis clubs exist, where you think of like the competition or.
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Team sport, I need to show up because my team is counting on me.
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And that's the power of accountability.
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ah And the thing coming back to that operating a business alone, there's no one breathing
down your neck.
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your clients want things from you, but if it's goals that you've set for yourself and your
business that literally impact nobody else but you, then.
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who's holding you to account there.
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So it's really easy to let that stuff slide and then take care of everyone else's requests
because as the obliger that you would be Amy and I am absolutely like a card carrying
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obliger myself.
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I will always uphold my promise to somebody else.
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It's just the way that we are wired.
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You probably really answered this next question of why business owners do struggle to be
accountable even when they know it helps themselves.
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That's right.
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And usually what sort of kicks them into action is declaring it to somebody else and
having someone, you know, checking in on them.
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it could be something else as well.
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Like it could be human accountability, but there's all sorts of fantastic technology that
can, and apps, you know, they say there's an app for everything, but there's apps to keep
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you on track with your habits and things like that.
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it could be...
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that sort of accountability as well as the humankind.
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But I think as business owners, there is so much that we could do.
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And that's a bigger problem as well.
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So it's having someone who just cares about you and your success to keep you on track.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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mean, and you did touch just there on potentially a couple of em practical techniques
people could use or could consider, but have you got a couple of additional tips you could
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share to our listeners that if they are trying to stay accountable on some of their goals,
where they could start with that accountability?
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So first and foremost, tell someone.
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Declare your goals to someone that absolutely increases your chances of achieving them.
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uh But that someone needs to be someone that you trust and someone that understands what
it is that you are trying to achieve.
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So, you know, our family and our partners are wonderful people, but
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in terms of business goals, they may not necessarily be the best person to hold you to
account.
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You might have a health goal or a fitness goal, like getting someone who sort of
understands that space, who you can trust, who's got your best interest at heart.
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That is like, know, top-tier kind of thing.
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But like I said, there's the apps that you could use, but having some kind of tracking.
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system for yourself.
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And that could be as manual as, you know, uh a post-it note on your desk that you tick off
each time you do something or make incremental action towards something or habit trackers.
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There's so many things available that you could utilize.
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And the other thing too is like just having
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your goals where you can see them is another thing.
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Out of sight, out of mind.
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Often, you you think of New Year's resolutions.
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You think like, run business planning days.
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So people go into these things and, you know, they have a really kind of uplifting day and
they're surrounded by really motivated people and the energy is super high.
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And then they walk out of the room and real life gets in the way and all those amazing
plans that they made.
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get shoved in a drawer somewhere, never to be seen again, or they look back at them at the
end of the year and go, my God, I didn't do any of that.
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So make sure that if you have big plans or even small plans, have them somewhere where you
can see them and make sure that you make time to work with them.
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think some people are like, I just can't find the time.
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It's like, you're not gonna find it.
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It's not gonna appear.
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You need to make the time, you need to schedule the time.
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So I think that's really important too.
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Yeah, and I'm nodding along with all this because we're, you know, we are great at doing
planning documents, strategic documents, but they remain often as a digital document on
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the Google Drive.
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That's the importance of human accountability.
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It's like declaring your next action.
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First of all, knowing what that action is and declaring it to someone.
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And that's absolutely, that's a big part of what I do with the women in my accountability
circles.
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It's like, you don't leave that room until you have declared what that next action is.
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And it's the first thing that you're asked about the next time we gather.
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So it's like, you've got nowhere to hide.
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Yes.
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They're all such useful tips and help for anyone listening.
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And if that works business or life, what you've just been sharing.
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That's why things like, you you think a book, like I'm, I'm a member of a book club and
there are women in, like I've always loved to read.
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And the reason I joined book club was so that I read different books.
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So I wasn't just kind of reading the same thing all the time, but there are women in my
book club that never read, like never, ever, ever read.
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But because we meet every six weeks and we talk about the book, you don't want to be the
person that shows up at the book club.
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not having read the book or not having finished the book.
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And you know, there's always the WhatsApp group as people are like, my God, you know, I've
got two chapters to go or we're meeting tomorrow night and I'm a picture.
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But that's so, yeah, it doesn't just be business related life stuff as well.
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Yes, fantastic.
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And before we move on to some of the questions from our Really Good Conversations pack, I
will just get a bit further insight about, you know, when we think of women and the whole
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work-life balance area, obviously you do work, as we said, with women, but what are some
of the common misconceptions that you see women have about work-life balance?
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that it exists.
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Yeah, look, I just think this balance piece is, it's tricky, right?
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It's more of an emerge, like emerging, a blend.
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Nothing exists in isolation, I think is, and as business women, we are wearing so many
different hats.
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are.
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You know, we're running our business.
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We may be caring for children, family members.
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We want to be a good friend, a good daughter, a good community member.
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There's all the different things that we do and they do all impact one another.
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So I think instead of trying to strike a balance, it's being able to identify like what is
important at any given time.
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m
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you know, a saying that I lean on a lot is like, it's wherever you are, be all there.
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So don't try to, you know, cook for dinner with a toddler screaming at your ankles while
answering really important emails.
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Like that's kind of a recipe for disaster really.
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So yeah, I just think it's trying to silo things, but don't, yeah, that balance.
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Getting swery again, but the balance is bullshit.
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Yeah.
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I know it's refreshing to hear.
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It's refreshing to hear from you that, know, one, you work with a lot of people in
business, but you're also walking and have walked the path yourself with a family and
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daughters.
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Yeah, this golden nugget that people may be looking for.
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Actually, no one has it.
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They don't.
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And even the ones that appear to, because I see behind the scenes and I know that they
don't and they're usually the biggest offenders.
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It's like, they're the ones that are having an actual nervous breakdown in the background,
but front facing everything's polished and sunshine and rainbows.
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So that's something that I am a huge believer is sharing the reality of what it is like to
build a business.
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have other responsibilities.
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And I work with a lot of women who don't have children, but their lives are full and they
have other responsibilities.
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So, you know, I don't like that whole thing of like, well, you you're not a mom, what
would you understand?
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And then it's like, no, it's, is, we are all in the same ocean.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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And finally, what's one of the most impactful pieces of advice either you've received or
given about succeeding in business?
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So this is something from very early days and I know that I heard it on a podcast and it
was just something that stuck with me and it is don't climb the mountain until you are on
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it.
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So something can appear so huge, so overwhelming, so challenging and if you are looking at
like the whole mountain, you're not even gonna stop, right?
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Whereas if you just focus on that first step and then the next step and you might take 20
steps and you know, some hot guy on a motorbike might come along and scoop you up and pop
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you on the back and ride you up to the top.
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Or like you just don't know, right?
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So yeah, just like one thing at a time, one day at a time and business as you and I both
know Amy, you can be having, you can be at the top of
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top of the world one day, one minute, one hour, and then the next disaster may strike.
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it's like the good, let's celebrate the great, but knowing that sometimes we're gonna have
to really lean on those memories of the good times when the bad times come.
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But that's all part of this roller coaster that we have agreed to.
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right as business owners.
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And there's not really a stop button.
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No like emergency, yeah, like on the escalators when you just press stop, it's like, no,
we're not going anywhere.
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Like it's not one of those on this roller coaster.
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uh
306
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Oh, so true.
307
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So true.
308
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Oh, thank you so much for just sharing so many insights of what, know, you do see behind
the scenes.
309
00:27:24,289 --> 00:27:31,931
So I'll now jump into three questions from our really good conversations, put you on the
spot.
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Question number one, what is one of your pet hates?
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Um, pet hates.
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Horrors.
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that hover around like, you know, we talked touch before, what can I do to help?
314
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Oh, question number two, and you did mention working in TV queer previously.
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Who is the most famous person you have met in real life?
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like, so I have, like, you know, I sound like a dick, but I have, I have met a lot of
famous people, most famous, uh, God off the top of my head, Keith Urban.
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Um, God, um, yeah, I'm going to say Keith Urban just because of that exposure, but a lot
of, yeah, I used to, I, I worked, the Osborn's is probably, they're probably like huge.
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So I worked on the first
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MTV, VMAs here in Australia.
320
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So they had a huge like very like, and I worked, like I was literally talent courting,
like moving them from one spot to the next.
321
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it was pretty It was really fun.
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yes, I did meet a lot of very famous people there, but I'll probably say that that was my,
yeah.
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I mean, I, when I, and when I say met, I mean like actual have a conversation.
324
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Like I have met Jennifer Aniston who is like my absolute.
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girl crush but that was literally just like shake hands on a red carpet.
326
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uh
327
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That's brilliant.
328
00:29:18,241 --> 00:29:25,718
And I could just imagine if you're having this conversation with your daughters, they
would not be at all excited or impressed.
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You know what, I somehow instilled it into my daughter because she, for the parents of
young children, they would probably know of the Norris Nuts, right?
330
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They're massive YouTube stars.
331
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Like she and her friends went and hunted them down in the last school holidays.
332
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she's, so that would be her answer to this question.
333
00:29:47,772 --> 00:29:48,922
She's a nice person.
334
00:29:48,922 --> 00:29:54,266
Like she was quickly hyperventilating, sending you videos of her crying, having met them.
335
00:29:54,318 --> 00:30:02,598
So yeah, have to say whenever I have met any of people, have managed to close up.
336
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Do know what's terrible?
337
00:30:05,159 --> 00:30:09,096
I'm gonna have to Google who those people are that you're talking about!
338
00:30:09,270 --> 00:30:16,529
He's older and he will ask any primary school aged child and they will know who they are.
339
00:30:16,529 --> 00:30:17,591
Wow.
340
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And question number three, if you were a superhero, what would your superpower be?
341
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Curing illness, like, you know, literally being able to wave a magic wand and make people
better, like cancer and awful things, know, life-limiting disease, just be able to wave my
342
00:30:43,884 --> 00:30:47,776
magic wand and cure that, definitely.
343
00:30:47,867 --> 00:30:49,228
That's fantastic.
344
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Thank you.
345
00:30:50,068 --> 00:30:51,499
They are all great answers.
346
00:30:51,499 --> 00:30:55,853
And there's actually so many questions in the pack that I was like, could ask Michelle
this one.
347
00:30:55,853 --> 00:30:57,074
this one, this one.
348
00:30:57,074 --> 00:31:03,879
So yes, we'll have to and another time go through plenty of questions and a coffee or a
wine.
349
00:31:03,879 --> 00:31:12,966
And the last question I love to ask all of our guests is if you could ask any person dead
or alive a question, who would it be and what would you ask them?
350
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This, like, just my instinctual response to this would be I'd just love to talk to my nan
again.
351
00:31:19,960 --> 00:31:24,222
Like, my nan died while my second daughter was quite young.
352
00:31:24,222 --> 00:31:28,404
you know, so much has happened in my life since she died.
353
00:31:28,404 --> 00:31:31,756
So I think I'd just ask, how am I doing?
354
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How am I doing?
355
00:31:32,857 --> 00:31:35,498
Yeah, that would be what I would want to ask her.
356
00:31:35,862 --> 00:31:36,894
that's beautiful.
357
00:31:36,894 --> 00:31:38,396
Thank you for sharing.
358
00:31:38,396 --> 00:31:41,460
Michelle, it's been so good to have this chat with you.
359
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How can our listeners find out a little bit more about what you do?
360
00:31:45,265 --> 00:31:53,068
I know we only really touched on the surface of some of the specifics of your work, but
people can obviously look you up and find out more and get involved.
361
00:31:53,068 --> 00:31:53,328
Yep.
362
00:31:53,328 --> 00:32:02,750
So best place to find me, like if you want to read all about what I do, just visit my
website, which is michellebroadbent.com.au.
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00:32:02,878 --> 00:32:08,969
I'm on LinkedIn, Michelle Broadbent, and also on uh Instagram as well.
364
00:32:08,969 --> 00:32:11,350
So yeah, happy to connect there.
365
00:32:11,350 --> 00:32:13,484
I'll include all of those links.
366
00:32:13,484 --> 00:32:15,512
So thank you so much for your time today.
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00:32:15,512 --> 00:32:16,907
Thanks for having me.
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Thanks for listening.
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I hope you enjoyed the episode.
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Be sure to check out the show notes for more information on today's guests.
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And if really good conversations are your thing, hit subscribe and join us next time for
more business journeys, insights and banter.