Sally Philip
Sally Philip tells us that, “My friends would say I am adventurous, passionate and love bringing people together. I believe in focusing on the huge natural talent in people to bring out their best and enable them to find their niche.
I am straightforward and sometimes a bit direct. I’m a full time step-mother, I have 3 rescue dogs. I cry at all sorts of things from films to animal cruelty. I love the wisdom and strength of the elephant, the protective nature of the tigress and the joie de vivre of all baby animals! I try to include all aspects in my life – family and work.”
What were your initial years of growing up like? Tell us about your life before starting your Entrepreneur journey/venture/initiative.
I was lucky enough to grow up in a family that encouraged a love of music, the arts, sport and trying everything at least once! Be it eating oysters, surfing or learning a musical instrument, playing a sport or trying some new skill. My brothers and I grew up in the countryside roaming the hills and woods near our house. We rode horses, we helped dad in the garden, we always had dogs and various small creatures in the family to look after. Mum being Australian constantly had friends popping in for coffee and we had a network of families around us that we all grew up together. My father encouraged us to try everything. His goal was for us to be accomplished and have a good awareness of everything. He wanted us to be able to talk to anyone, anywhere, no matter their background or status. He believed that by trying everything you could then properly decide what to invest your time and efforts in. He had no patience for people who didn’t give things a go! After all, how can you then say whether you like it or might be any good at something? I didn’t realise as a kid how influential these ideas would be on my life. I have always dived straight in, leaping at the chance to try things, go places and learn more. I am a naturally adventurous person! This has meant that throughout my career I have constantly done courses, taken training in NLP and mindfulness practises as well as striving to learn different business models and exploring investment opportunities. Some have worked, some haven’t.
Every industry that is now a large-scale, top-notch business once started as a small idea in the minds of entrepreneurs. What was that idea or motivation that made you start your business /initiative? What motivated you within to say YES, go for it!”
I have spent the past 20 something years learning the art of my craft. The past 12 or so as a contractor, interim and consultant. I’ve more than got my 10K hours of experience! I went out and earned the badges and the stripes and I’ve had some crazy experiences along the way. I want to help others navigate some of those peaks and troughs and find a balance in their own paths, growth and building their businesses. Over the past 10-15 years I’ve seen buzz terms like transformation and agile chucked about and still the corporate world is trying to find its feet with these. Being a ‘disrupter’ is all well and good, but actually it’s about being brave enough to feel comfortable with constant change. Not settling for the status quo and disappearing into oblivion. The world doesn’t stop turning, so by the very nature of things life, skills and environments shift and change and we have to be able to adapt and evolve to keep pace. People are at the centre of everything. We build relationships with people we like, we resonate with, we are attracted to those that vibe with us. Too many cultures have forgotten this. They have grown tall and forgotten their roots and their drivers. Their teams feel this distance and disconnection. Beautiful business building is about gravitating ourselves and reconnecting with our values, our codes. Having a rooted Truth and set of beliefs that drive us, our business and our teams. People are attracted to movements that are passionate, honest, kind and where empathy and generosity of spirit are part of the embedded culture – implicitly and yet also distinctly.
Tell us something about your initiative or current role. What is it about, and what impact are you trying to make?
The goals core to my business and objectives are firstly 1) to help businesses restructure to find this truth and grounding. 2)To be able to carve out the empathy and embed the processes, systems and practises in their organisations that enable them to build growth and make good money with integrity. 3) create community, interconnectedness and creativity in their cultures which will empower their people.
Data and strategy are brilliant reference points for businesses in growth, but these are only valuable if you have talented and skilled happy people all collaborating and feeling part of the cause, the movement that is your mission or vision. Those business mission statements are what drive teams and workforces forward, yet too many leadership teams sit back and expect their employees to pick up and run with the mantle, but without the top to bottom support mechanisms in place to encourage that or facilitate it.
Your journey and your vision are very inspiring, but are there any achievements or accomplishments you would like to mention?
Around 13 years ago I hit a massive personal challenge. I had just climbed Kilimanjaro on behalf of prostate cancer and was feeling on top of the world. It had been hard work, but I had got there. But a month later my life started to rocket downhill. I had a series of ‘accidents’ that resulted in me having 21 fractures in my ribs in the space of 9 months. I was utterly disabled. Couldn’t dress, couldn’t make a cup of tea. I had to move home and my mother to care for me again. Age 35 I was facing a massive setback. After initial bleak outlooks, I managed to reverse my condition with diet, acupuncture, and various other methodologies that I employed which in time meant that a few years later I was not in the wheelchair I had been told was inevitable, but that I had massively reversed the severe osteoporosis diagnosis I had received. I did magazine articles, I wrote a blog called peaks and troughs, I championed the National Osteoporosis Society in the Houses of Parliament. I learnt that with focus, pure bloody mindedness, resilience and firm belief that I would not be diminished by this condition, that I could in fact face in to it and come out the other side with the scars and memories but with a new layer of appreciation for life and all its truths and learnings. I also learnt that people are flaky. people shy away from pain and illness, people will let you down. you find out who the trusted few are in those moments. Who YOUR people are! But I also learnt that others totally stepped up and forward when you least expected it. That kindness is an imperative for most people. Kindness is what makes us smile. It gives us strength when we think we dont have it. It makes workplaces good places to be. It makes all situations easier and better!
Would you like to share with our young budding women entrepreneurs the change you would like to see in the world if given an opportunity?
yes absolutely. I had a handful of women who were mentors and helped me find my truth, my purpose and passion. I didn’t always see it and often the path was not clear or even visible, but with hard work, effort and belief, whether your own or someone else’s in you, you can be the change, make it happen and communicate what you need to to achieve it. I made many, many mistakes. I learnt and I picked myself up each time. I want to share some of those stories where I can if they are useful.
Women are a growing force in the workplaces worldwide, standing shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts. What are your thoughts about women leadership today?
Women need to support each other. Unfortunately I’ve also experienced throughout my career a breed of woman in the workplace that does not like to have female competition, and so have actively removed women around themselves, otherwise known as Queen bee syndrome! This is not only destructive for our workplaces and cultures, but it continues to send our male counterparts incorrect messages about who we are and what we can achieve. This kind of bullying and incivility increases as women rise through organisations, so I want to help women build supportive, kind and collaborative environments and to increase their self belief systems and processes to avoid falling into this trap – through coaching, mentoring, workshops, stories and sharing my own experiences.
What would you want to say to our young leaders/audience reading this?
I’ve been in business and the workplace for 25+ years and every year new challenges arise, new technology, new ideas, which mean I must and need to continue to learn, evolve, grow and expand my repertoire and backlog of tools and skills to draw upon. This doesn’t change. It is continuous. Stuff can come at us, sometimes sideswiping us, sometimes we are unbalanced or wrong footed, but these are all moments for insight and reflection. Everyone around you has been there too. No one ‘just knows’ without making mistakes, watching and learning from others and putting in the graft. Yes I’ve been around the block, several times in fact and seen many things again and again, I even wrote a blog about it – challenges are often the same, but dressed in different coloured bows…….there are people around you you can lean in to. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, and always have a paper and pen! yes I know it is old school, but the very process of writing something down is more likely to enable you to retain that vital fact, task, action or nugget rather than it dissipate into the ether……leadership is the combination of collaboration activity and ideas and have the gumption to try it!