 Aloha! Welcome to the Savvy Chick Show. Thanks so much for coming back. I've been away in Canada so for those of you who've been watching, thank you to everyone who I've interviewed while being away and for the viewers for continuing to watch. So today it's back in the studio. Very exciting here in Honolulu in Hawaii at the Think Tech Hawaii studio and I have a very special guest who well now I guess we're a bit of the Savvy Chick sort of radio show podcast because we're not able to get this guest on Skype but it's Lisa now she is a wellness coach a yoga instructor and she's also the founder of Illuminaire Yoga all the way from Sydney, Australia and she's very passionate about young women and teens and girls just as I am and we're very excited to do this episode on the Savvy Chick's Life Style School. Welcome Lisa! Aloha! Hello, hello, how are you over there? What's the weather like in Sydney? It is. Oh, you're in Melbourne. I'm so sorry. She's in Melbourne. The sun hasn't quite come up yet here. Oh yes, because it's not even 7 a.m. over in Melbourne. Yes, it is. The birds are just starting to chirp. Very, very good. Well what a great way to start the day. We're going to be talking about those life skills that they don't necessarily teach you in school and that's hence lifestyle and creating a lifestyle that inspires you so that it's not don't do this don't do this don't do this it's you can do this and if you do this you can do even more and that's why Lisa's actually come up with some great ideas of how to create a Savvy Lifestyle School and together we're working on that so I'd love you to start with a you know what what don't they teach you in school Lisa? I think one of the first things is finances you know they're taught basic maths or maths that generally can't be used once they finish school so it's about I guess them empowering themselves and going okay you know I want to go and get a loan I want to go and get a personal loan I want to go and get a mortgage I've got some savings how do I best get you know value out of putting my money into the bank and getting a really good return on interest rate also you know getting a car loan buying a house you know how much money do I need how much do I need to you know put down as a deposit to make sure that you know that I don't have to pay something like mortgage insurance so these are all things that I think I would really like to educate girls on and just so that when it when it does come to that point in life they don't necessarily need you know a man around to to help them make those decisions and what what age do you think is a good age to start looking into these types of things or to start sort of being mindful about about your finances yeah I definitely think you know girls these days they're starting jobs at like 15 almost 16 so you know what what do we do with a portion I mean my daughter just got her first paycheck you know $80 and I said okay well let's um let's look to see what we're what we're going to do with this maybe set up another bank account so that you can put maybe you know half the money into the bank account and then you've got you know you can you can actually spend and feel like yay I worked and I can you know I can go and buy something but maybe just pop a little bit of way and then we started talking about you know what what is she going to save for so I think definitely from the ages of 16 with our children and then obviously when they get a full-time job or when you know the money sort of starts coming in about definitely setting up a goal and a plan of of where they want to be and what they want to do I might be just putting the money away for traveling she has traveling traveling is a great one I think that that's something for for girls and young women to relate to because they sort of are inspired to travel and want to travel and that's something that we've spoken up about before traveling I mean I traveled when I finished high school I ended up that's when I went to Australia and went to England but a lot of girls don't even know you know how to do it or what to do it and I think that's another one of the important points that you were wanting to discuss what is it about travel Lisa that that you think that they should be teaching in schools or if they're not teaching in schools just so that girls have access to this sort of information yeah exactly um I I definitely think they need to learn just how to book a flight you know often we we send them off to a travel agent and you know get them to do it all for them but let's get them online let's get them looking at flights you know a website like Expedia that will give you you know if you want to go to London it will give you 10 different options with 10 different airlines that are going to London and different stopovers we definitely need to um they definitely need to be talking to their bank before they go so all that hard earned money that they that they popped in the bank they definitely need to be securing that and um making sure that their bank knows so that the bank doesn't start closing their account thinking you know someone in London is um is you know hacking hacking this account um also about using their f-post card so you don't necessarily have to carry a large amount of cash around with you um the other thing is um just knowing where you're going so doing a little bit of research and knowing you're connecting flights I mean many um as you probably know when you've travelled many cities have different airports so if you allow you know an hour for a connecting flight but you have to jump over to another airport it could be um you know it could be a matter of missing a plane so yeah um they're probably they're probably my main tip and things like you love traveling you probably had some experience with travel definitely I think even things as simple as and I'm actually having an experience with this my brother had when he was 18 which is a few years ago now he went to europe and didn't have travel insurance it ended up basically um diving and smashing the whole side of his face and didn't have travel insurance yes you know those are things that you also don't think about you know it's exciting you want to go on a ship or you want to do what you want to do but at the same time there's things like travel insurance and I mean it's not my expertise but these are things that I've had to learn and visas for countries and correct just so that there's no surprises when you get to the airport or disappointments and also just so you can feel more secure like in each country there's a line that you can call if you run into any issues and whatnot so and also some countries aren't that safe to travel in so these are you know they seem minor but they're actual yeah and that's where I definitely encourage them to do their research first um also I'm just having the right appropriate clothing I mean we all know that the middle east has never done and you know let's make sure that we're following and respecting what their religious beliefs are about you know not even in public and about covering up our shoulders I mean there's a lot of Asian countries and temples and churches and we just want to make sure that we're covered up almost we're respecting um you know respecting their um place of um of being yeah yeah we're where they are and I think that that what you and I both share in this is the fact that it is a great thing to travel I graduated high school you know I was 18 years old I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to study and I've said this before I went to the guidance counselors I was trying to explain advertising marketing and they they said my maths weren't good enough and so I decided to travel I knew I'd eventually study and that was the point that I made the decision to go to Australia and just to know that it's not a bad thing to take time to travel I mean parents might be watching this saying oh my gosh no make sure you know kids finish school go to university but I've turned out just fine and there's a lot of people that don't even go to university and are very successful so I think that's something if you're you know if you're a young woman watching this or your parent of a young woman watching this it's not necessarily a bad thing to take a year to explore and and have a look around such as long as you do it in a responsible way and you know make sure everyone's aware of where you are and whatnot and and I um traveled to Malaysia and one day I came in and there was a little bookmark on my pillow and the bookmarks quote sticks with me forever it says the best way to get a perspective of where you are is to get as far away as a far away from it as possible so I think sometimes we do have to step away to really know what we want definitely I couldn't agree more with that you know this show is is we could go on for days with with you know travel and with finance like we started off with but I just love to go through more of the points because there will be a savvy chicks lifestyle school coming soon enough Lisa and I are working on this and Lisa's a she's a good you know it's great to get together and and this is probably one of the points we'll discuss later in um you know with like-minded people who love what you love but also have their own skills so um what's another point from there Lisa um I think um we also need to talk about positive influences so we go through childhood you know idolizing you know different people and then once we sort of get to you know 18 who really resonates with us you know try and find that tribe try and find those those people um that group of people whether it's online or whether it's um you know in your community that you really resonate with and you feel like they're on a similar journey to you and whether it's um you know a speaker or an educator or um an author um I'd really encourage people to step out and um contact these people and say you know I've got a question for you I love this passage in your book and start making comments on their facebook page and um comment to them on twitter because every time I reach out to someone I 99% of the time will get a um will get a comment back um a private message you know authors and you know these people are just that they just want to help I mean just like you and I um they just want to they just want to help the next person to reach their dreams and um yeah just reach out and have some conversations with them I think that what you're saying there is basically it's also um the office authenticity of the connection because if you're reaching out to someone that you are very inspired by they'll feel that and I think that connection is what has them replying because if it was someone that you had told to reach out to but it wasn't a genuine connection they might not get back so I think the important thing here is to make sure if you're reaching out to someone it's someone that you really want to connect with not because you think it's going to get you to the next place someone that you genuinely I mean it will get you to the next place don't get me wrong but something you genuinely are inspired by because that can be felt and you can't fake a connection like that so I think that's a really important point and and as you said everyone you've reached out to yeah similar for me everyone I've ever reached out to even if they were as high as the sky has um has pretty much come back to me I think that that's you know knowing yeah what you want from them and what they have to bring and just connecting those dots I suppose yeah and you had a you had a beautiful connection with Liz Gilbert when we're in Sydney and that was just something that you know it wasn't that that was a message for you but she she gave a message to the audience so sometimes by asking out and asking a question we're not just getting the answer for ourselves we're getting the answer for a lot of other people that was such a special experience and I can't thank you and my friend Mel enough for getting out there for those of you who know Elizabeth Gilbert who eat pray love basically I decided that I was going to get up and ask a question which I don't normally and went to a microphone and there'd already been people full on the other microphones and she just pointed out and picked me and I said you know I have this too I'm caught in two worlds I want to inspire girls follow their dreams hence this as well as I love to help all people with wellness and just to create and lead healthy lifestyles and what she said to me yeah stop trying to help people and do what you love and yeah and well that's what we're doing right now this is I couldn't do anything more than I love than being in the studio chatting interviewing inspiring people meeting great people and just doing a wellness myself so that was great advice and what was even funnier is when you caught when you caught up with her and a while later and she remembered that exact question 12 months later I said to her do you remember asking my girlfriend asking her um use this question she said oh my goodness yes I thought about that when I went back to the hotel room so yeah she um she said you know I you know that was my first instinct to say and I said no you said exactly the right thing and she's she's a beautiful lady and one thing that she says is follow your curiosity um you know because you just don't know where it will take you and that's one um you know I love her books and I love what she does and um she really she actually says you know a lot of a lot of the time we say you know try and find your passion you know for you know follow your passion what's your passion and then she says you know sometimes people might not have you know they might not have that particular thing yet so maybe follow your curiosity um and and what interests you and what sort of um you know um dragging you towards you know like a magnet like towards something and then um and then see see what happens I think yeah let's follow following what likes you up and you did it yourself when you decided to go out and pursue yoga and you're passionate about teens and you have a daughter yourself and and that's just keeps unfolding and now you're in schools and I I mean you've got the great website there and you're opening up to more things and opportunities and even what we're connecting on and doing together it's pretty it's just that you following that thing that you loved and now it's just getting bigger and bigger and bigger so that's very exciting yeah yeah and we just have to um empower teens and let them know that they don't always have to um follow the pack you know the pack is I mean if that's where you want to go go with them but there might be a different pack and it might be slightly smaller and you know um not as popular but that goes into personal branding which is obviously a big thing of yours um is you know personal branding yes personal brand I'm very excited to talk about that and then I know in a lot of segments I actually touch on it but in the next segments we're going to take a short break and then we'll start the next sure segment and talk about personal branding stay tuned we'll see you soon on The Savvy Chick Show hi my name is Kim Lau and I'm the host of Hawaii Rising you can watch me live every other Monday at 4 p.m. Aloha Aloha my name is Danelia D-A-N-E-L-I-A and I'm the other half of the duo John Newman we are the co-host of Keys to Success which is live on Think Tech live streaming network series weekly on Thursdays at 11 a.m. Aloha Aloha Aloha everyone I'm Maria Mera and I'm here to invite you to my bilingual so Viva Hawaii on Think Tech Hawaii every other Monday at 3 p.m. we are here to talk about news issues and events local and around the world join me Aloha Aloha I'm Kirsten Baumgart Turner and I'm fortunate to be able to host Sustainable Hawaii at ThinkTechHawaii.com I hope you'll join in with us every Tuesday from 12 noon to 1 p.m. to see the interesting people we have to share with you their information Aloha. Aloha and welcome back to the Savvy Chicks show we're here live in the Honolulu studio interviewing a Skype guest Lisa Main all the way from Melbourne Australia and we're talking about savvy lifestyle school so it's for Savvy Chicks and Lisa knows all about Savvy Chicks she's got a teenage daughter herself she's very passionate about young women and girls and the first segment we covered a lot of the life skills that you don't learn in school which we're going to continue on and we're going to start with personal branding because it's a particular favorite of mine and Lisa knows how important this is as well so what are your thoughts on personal branding Lisa? Yeah I think I think with personal branding it's about stepping into your authentic self so giving giving what you authentically have to offer opposed to as we said just as you know we're going to the break just following everyone else what everyone else is doing you know how many people would think about moving to Hawaii and starting their own TV show? Not quite starting but I did get a bit of a leg up there with Think Tech Hawaii but what is true about that though is that I actually had the intention and I was pursuing a show without having a show to pursue so I think that that was yes it was one of those internal things that I actually pursued when I couldn't see anything and that's why I'm always a believer and believe it until you see it not see it and then believe it because I mean when I was in Sydney Australia all I wanted was a show but there was no way well not no way but it was becoming very challenging and then arriving here in hawaii and being able to have this opportunity is just but that's because I followed my own internal dialogue and to get here. Yeah definitely and that's something that we do in yoga we always set an intention before we before we start the class because if you don't know where you're going um you know what what's what's going but you just you don't know what the path is going to look like so that's you know that's even one of my rituals every morning is to visualize what I want my life to be and you've obviously done that with that with your TV show as well and the other thing I love about personal branding is we can make it into a business so you don't have to wait until your you know in your mid 20s and you know to have all this experience before you start your own your own business so I guess just a couple of tips is just to find out you know what are you passionate about you know do you love yoga do you love horses dogs do you love traveling do you love hiking and getting outdoors and how do we um how do we put this into a business so we could you know start an instagram account or we could start an e-book and get some followers from there and from there you can start getting as a people advertising on your page so I would definitely look at doing um you know YouTube tutorials um there's free ebooks out there and there is a lot of there's a lot of literature out there that is also very cheap as well so you don't necessarily have to go and spend thousands of dollars on a on a business course to um to start a business and definitely when you're 18 let's let's look at the options of network marketing I mean we've got um Richard Branson and Robert Kowalski and um Bill Gates all saying that they wish they had have um become part of a network company um you know in their 20s that's why even now I mean even now in in my 20s not quite have decided to do one as well because it's I mean the more revenue streams that you could have the the better I suppose so if you can start that young and even with the young girls with their businesses they can start as young as 10 there's Club Kid Panora in Sydney or in Australia all around Australia and they start doing businesses when they're young but even here um very soon we'll have a couple young girls who have their own businesses and they're creating everything from earrings to t-shirts and all different types of you know creative crafts and whatnot and to be able to sell those and create a brand and create a brand around them so that'll be part of Mission Savvy Chicks and and definitely will take you on the journey of what it is to personal personal brand and I believe that the your personal brand should just be an extension of who you are um and should be a reflection of who you are and that that's goes to your career path and everything because there's no sense in trying to be something way over there that you're not when you can just be yourself and then just have your career or your job or whatever it is be a reflection but not that's not to discredit if you were doing a part-time job but it doesn't seem like you I mean I worked at Burger King um Hungry Jacks in Australia it's called when I was 15 I mean that's not an exact extension of who I am but at the time it turned me a taught me a lot of life skills that uh were very relevant so that's also important and that sort of leaves yeah and that leads into something that um I think you and I have chatted a lot about before is about um you know I'm a parent and you're just about become a parent and how can we as parents set examples for our children um because you know we think oh you know we're going to be out late tonight and we're not going to see the kids because we have to go and have this meeting or do this well the kids are going to be a good example to your children they're going to remember that they're going to go well hang on mum you know she she took a little bit of a leaker face and you know she networked and she did this and she did that to succeed and and that's just a really good example um I also really encourage um you know keeping that connection with your team so you know just saying come on let's jump in the car we're going to go for a walk um down the beach or you know into nature um I took Haley to a music festival last year so um she also bought bought a um a friend with her and they just said it was one of the best days of their life they couldn't believe the beautiful community so it's about us introducing them to these options and saying you don't have to lead down the path of you know taking drugs and doing alcohol there's definitely other options out there that can bring you internal um joy um even to the point where taking kids to work with you I think we need to keep that connection you know look where we work look what we do this is where we come every day um imagine being your daughter and and um and coming into work with you that would be amazing show you in the studio next year but I I completely agree with you and I also want to add on to that for girls or young women watching today do you can do this for your mums as well you know sometimes your mums might be caught up in in their own thing and not even realize that they're not feeling inspired so by you initiating that walk with your mom or that festival with your mom or something like that you might actually even help her or you know bring her to a better place I mean sometimes you think oh mom's grouchy mom's this mom's that well sometimes if you actually bring that light you can you can change the whole way she's feeling and um yeah so feel free to initiate things with your moms even though it doesn't seem cool you'd be pretty surprised on how much it'll improve your relationship as well as allowing you to do more things you want because we all know that when there's a good relationship and connection you can kind of get more of what you want just saying it's life in general yeah I'm a people person yeah so um yeah you know it can go both ways and I guess what I'm saying there is it's a really important mother-daughter relationship and for those of you who might not have a relationship or connection with your mother feel free to reach out to someone else I mean I grew up without a father but then I found male mentors so um it just because you don't have one or perhaps your mom's not the best role model for you um don't don't be afraid to reach out to maybe one of your friend's parents perhaps if that's if that needs to be there just you can have a good influence in your life as a parent role model yeah I love that yeah I've actually sort of um unofficially adopted a few um girls in their 20s but it has become um you know sort of old assistives to Hailey and I love that she can contact you know keep that contact and that communication with them because sometimes you know mom isn't the one that you want to have that answer from um if they might give exactly the same answer but they just don't want it coming from their mom that's why when I do speaking at schools and I it came out just really naturally one time but now I actually say it in my speeches is basically I want to be your big you know a big sister to you and that's myself you know Chantel Seville the Savvy Chick to be a big sister although the young women and girls out there so that they feel that I'm not their mom and I'm not their teacher and I'm not anyone who's trying to boss them around I just really genuinely want what's best for them and that's always to be themselves and follow what's true to them and you know it's be yourself believe in yourself follow your dreams and I think when you're really focused on that that focus can be so strong that it'll pull you into so much inspiration that you're not even worried about the other things that you're told not to do because who wants to be told not what to do at the end of the day I mean sometimes when it comes to certain things like what shouldn't I do and then the rest is open but most of the time it's nice to know what you can do where your options are what you can aspire to and hence the whole reason for Savvy Chicks in the show so those are those are pretty important points what what other points do you have there at least um well one of my um I guess favorites is about wellness so um that's why you created your business pardon that's why you created your business yes you're so passionate about wellness and I and that sort of leveraged from my having my doing yoga when I was pregnant with my daughter so someone just invited me along and I went okay I'll come and do that um I was previously a dancer so I thought oh I can do this and I just found it so natural but also very calming as well so uh I love being able to take that to school and giving that to the children and I mean I was you know at a school the other day teaching you 12 and yoga's about checking in as well and so often with teens they don't check in with themselves they they're asking their friends how they're okay or whatever but they're not checking in and saying okay well how do I feel today and and then when you do something like a walk with your mum or your friend okay well how do I feel now okay well well you know I feel a little bit better I feel a little bit of a shift happening so it's knowing that you do have that time to be able to look in check in and then seeing if there is any type of shift and then saying okay well I have the option to do that you know when I'm down I have the option to do that away from the mat and that's what I love yoga it teaches so many things on the mat that we can take away and all these beautiful poses and everything that we do you know even a lovely simple pose like tree pose it away from the mat means about grounding and about grounding down because if we're sort of all you know up in the clouds we sort of don't have anywhere to base ourselves and when the wind comes along and when we talk about resilience the wind comes along into the to the leaves and the branches of the trees the trees is going to topple over so if we can really root down and ground down and and be in the moment be in the now when that storm does come along we're going to be able to get through it's going to be okay so that's that's that's a little bit about yoga I mean you've articulated that perfectly Lisa that's that's very well said I mean it's really getting that connection so you can ground yourself and I think that's an awesome point to really finish up on because in society I do believe that that's probably the the seed of a root of most challenges is people not connecting with themselves and grounding and re-centering if we can have young girls and women doing this from a young age and you and these schools to help it's just you know it creates a whole another world so I think we need to we need to get you and more schools doing what you're doing is really what I'm trying to say get you in Hawaii I mean there's a lot of people there's a lot of people out there but we just need I mean the schools are starting to become a lot more open which is which is fantastic and hopefully yeah with with life school we can just spread the message and just let them know that just try something I mean yoga is for all all shapes all sizes um all different levels so it's it's welcomed everyone and that's what we're and that's what and that's what we're gonna do because you know what we don't have any more time I I knew that this would be one of those conversations that could go forever but we will be back Lisa and myself will be back doing another show together I'll actually be in Australia soon so we might even sneak in for a show then but until then please do continue to watch us every Wednesday at 11 a.m on Think Tech Hawaii the Savvy Chick show as well as you can see all the rest of the episodes on the Think Tech Hawaii YouTube account as well as Savvychicks.tv thanks for tuning in and we look forward to seeing you soon thanks Lisa thank you namaste