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Shine On Success
Shine on Success is a dynamic, story-driven podcast where extraordinary entrepreneurs, visionary leaders, and resilient change-makers share their journeys to success, revealing both the challenges and the strategies that led to their breakthroughs. Each episode offers a unique blend of inspiring personal stories, practical business insights, and actionable advice, allowing our guests to connect with an engaged, growth-oriented audience ready to be motivated and uplifted. By joining us, you’ll not only have the opportunity to showcase your expertise and inspire listeners but also to be part of a powerful platform that celebrates ambition, innovation, and the courage to turn dreams into reality.
Shine On Success
The Infinite Power of Leadership: A Journey of Transformation
In this inspiring episode of Shine on Success, host Dionne Malush sits down with Kylee Leota, the visionary founder and Chief Vision Officer of Elements for Success, to explore the profound principles behind leadership and transformation. Kylee shares her unique journey from an accidental entrepreneur to a leader driving change worldwide.
Through candid conversations on overcoming adversity, embracing infinite learning, and crafting a life aligned with your true purpose, this episode delivers powerful insights for anyone looking to evolve and unlock their full potential. Tune in for wisdom on leadership, the importance of morning routines, and how embracing your challenges can propel you toward success.
Connect with Kylee here:
Website: www.elements4success.com.au
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elements4success/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elements4success/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylee-leota-certified-chair-%E2%84%A2-65a332100/
Connect with Dionne Malush
- Instagram: @dionnerealtyonepgh
- LinkedIN: /in/dionnemalush
- Website: www.dionnemalush.com
- Facebook: /dmalush
- LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/dionnemalush
Have you ever wondered what it truly takes to transform your life and achieve your dreams?
Speaker 1:Well, you're about to find out from someone who has mastered the art of transformation and success. Hello everyone, and welcome to another exciting episode of Shine on Success. I'm your host, dionne Malish. Today, we have a phenomenal guest with us, kylie Leota, the founder and chief vision officer of Elements for Success. Kylie is a true powerhouse in delivering transformational experiences to individuals and organizations worldwide. Let's dive into her journey and uncover the secrets to her success. Welcome, kylie. I'm so excited to have you on. I can't believe you're up. What time is it there?
Speaker 2:5.59 am in Brisbane, Australia.
Speaker 1:That is true. I don't even know how to explain the fact that you're on a podcast at six o'clock in the morning. It's amazing. So thank you for joining me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me on. I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 1:So let's get started. So I have my very first question that I like to ask is what is the one thing you would like people to know about you? I?
Speaker 2:think the thing that I keep talking about is this idea of infinite leadership, because I think what was most transformational for me was the fact that when I realized that life was just an evolution, an ongoing evolution, and in order to get the outcomes, we just needed to evolve and level up, and so I have this idea that the learning is ongoing, so the learning is infinite, but from that we create infinite possibilities and infinite opportunities infinite, but from that we create infinite possibilities and infinite opportunities.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love that. So share a little bit about your background and what led you to where you are today. Yeah, so I often joke that I'm the accidental entrepreneur, accidental business owner, because I grew up in a family of workers. You know, get a secure job, get a house. You know, settle down, don't take risks. And my parents provided a very safe upbringing for me in the fact that I lived in the one house the vast majority of my life. I went to one primary school, one secondary school, and so from that perspective, everything was very stable. But we were certainly not a family of risk takers and so I did what I was supposed to do.
Speaker 2:I had early rumblings. I remember putting down my preferences for university and my mom waking up really early in the morning being really excited. I got in and I woke up and I went yeah, I don't want to do that anymore. And my mom going what Like, what is this? And then I kind of like. So that was probably the first insight that I was.
Speaker 2:I probably had a few rumblings of not settling for one thing, but anyway, I followed the traditional path of getting a secure job. I went into a job in education and did that for a very long time. But again, interestingly, the area of education I went into was complex behavior, trauma, disability, so nothing standard all out of the box thinking required every single day. And so now I'm like as an entrepreneur and business owner, I'm like, huh, there were some of those signs early. I guess that I was always this out of the box thinker, creative solutions to traditional problems, so that was kind of my background. And then what happened was the key part, and usually there's something I'd love to say, like we just get this like real big epiphany, and it's always this positive experience, but usually it's some form of adversity we're overcoming right, and in the moment we can't see the wisdom in that wound, but in hindsight there's always gifts to be learned. But I injured myself in 2019. And I'd love to say I was doing something really cool, but I really wasn't. I was rolled over in bed to get away from my youngest son who was annoying me, and I had this massive crack in my neck and you know. And so what happened was I actually think the universe was going Kylie, I've tried to be subtle and you're really not picking up what I'm putting down and so that led to this very big reflective journey very big, you know, soul searching, and I looked at all the parts of the job that I loved in education. And then I looked at the parts of the job that I did not love, including timetabling and all of those kinds of things, and I went how can I craft something out of that? And so, in the middle of COVID, as a single mom of three kids, I decided to take a deep dive off the end of that very big cliff and start my own business, and that's evolved into more than one business.
Speaker 2:I do a number of different things, and I think Earl Nightingale, along the same lines as Napoleon Hill, same era, he talks about success being the ongoing, progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal. And that was game-changing for me because I always had this idea of success being the mansion or the. It seems so far and so out of reach that I couldn't even conceptualize what being a successful business owner, entrepreneur, person really. And so when I had this new definition, I was like, wow, this I can do, and this is what people realize is their own successes. And so the business elements for success came from that definition of success and recognizing there's lots of different up and what elements you need might be different for what somebody helping people find the right elements that craft their success journey and get them the outcomes that they want, and empowering others to do the same. So that was part of that driver.
Speaker 1:I love your references to Earl Nightingale and Napoleon Hill. Of course I'm an avid studier of both. And one thing you said about the positive and every negative. That's my simplistic way of it. You know there always is right. So I had that crack that you did and my Achilles popped on my leg and I was taking a Spanish dancing class, which was kind of fun, but it was the first time I ever took it, and that literally changed me and my trajectory of where I'm at, because I spent a few months on my butt because I couldn't get up.
Speaker 2:I couldn't walk.
Speaker 1:I couldn't drive and as a real estate professional, you have to walk and drive right. It's important to your career. But I also spent a lot of time very down in the dumps and I realized I could have taken those three months and I could have filled my mind with so much good, but I didn't. So it's taught me a lot. I learned a lot from that point and that's why I'm so avid to be studying. You know successful people and learning from them and seeking expert counsel, because it's important to me. So you have red thinking, I think.
Speaker 2:I always think of the unicorn in the pile of poo.
Speaker 1:There's got to be a unicorn in here somewhere, right I've never heard of it like that, but I will not forget that that is really good. So, before we got on the call, you were talking to me about a morning routine and and I wanted to, you know, discuss that with our listeners, because I've recently just started my you know, 515 wake up call and after having years of staying up till two in the morning working and then sleeping until seven, you know. So now I'm shifting, I'm shifting that, and it's made a tremendous difference. And you said something about your grandmother, so can you talk a little bit about that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so my grandmother was born before the first world war and she lived to be nearly 107. And so these stories that I didn't really appreciate growing up, but stories of, you know, working in the munitions factory and then being married and going out in Australia post-World War II, they were sometimes a plot of land and she went out into the country and did a whole heap of things. And so my grandmother had a number of lessons she lived a life of, so she was all about serving others. She was the member of the women's like supporting women's country association, and did a whole lot of stuff. Even at 95, she was still volunteering at an old people's home where she was actually all people she was volunteering and looking after.
Speaker 2:And then from there we were just always had this amazing morning routine. She was always up early, she always went for she lived in a coastal town when they retired and so it's about, you know, we would wake up in the morning at like nine o'clock and she will have already had the prawns peeled in the fridge, ready for our lunch, kind of thing. So and you're like, how did you do that? And I remember for a long time thinking, oh my gosh, that's just crazy. She had this incredible morning routine. That, again, was unconscious, and you know Napoleon Hill talks about the unconscious mind a lot and so I also talk about. You know, we learned through modeling and it wasn't something I was really consciously aware of. But now I sit there and when I'm reading the books about the morning routine and the 5 am morning and all this kind of stuff, and I'm like I already knew this because it was actually unconsciously ingrained in me my whole entire life and whether my Nana was staying up with us in where we lived or we were down visiting her, her routine never shifted and she could still have a lot of fun and joy in her life and still get up and be really productive. And I think that's a really powerful model. And once I adopted it, it actually was pretty funny because I actually wasn't a morning routine and then I had children that didn't sleep and so I kind of was like forced into an early morning routine, kicking and screaming. But once I got it on board it was really transformational.
Speaker 2:And I think, as a single parent, the other thing we do is we try and I say excuses, but with the valid excuses, right. Like I'm a single mom, I'm working full time, I don't want to be away from my kids more, so I can't go and do that exercise class at 7pm at night because that just makes me a bad mom, because I'm already about away from my kids and so. But that excuse was valid, but it wasn't really getting me the outcome. So once I flipped it and once my children were old enough, you know, I could go down to the gym for an hour before they work up. So be at the class at five o'clock, be home by 545. They work up at six, and so I wasn't missing that quality time with them and I was still getting my needs met. So flipping the script and finding a way through the excuses that were actually valid for me, but through the excuses that were actually valid for me, but they weren't getting me the outcomes I wanted.
Speaker 1:Well, I do believe you. Now I really do, because I'm living it, and today was the one day that I did not make the 515 and I felt guilty about it but I knew that I needed to sleep. I've been pushing myself a lot, so I said I'm just going to lay back down because it's only another hour and a half, but I really needed it today. So there's going to be a day that you might not be perfect at this, to everyone listening and I'm sure you're not either, right, kylie?
Speaker 2:No, as I've moved through this journey, particularly over the last couple of years, I think that permission piece is so important because we don't give ourselves permission to do a lot of things. We have the whole shoulda, coulda, wouldas and then we beat ourselves up. But it's okay to say, hey, I actually am going to give myself permission tomorrow or today to actually not go to that class because I'm going to allow that time to rejuvenate myself so that I can show up more powerfully tomorrow, rather than resentfully kicking through and then burning out. And then you don't go to the next five classes because you've just pushed too hard. And I think that's part of that really self-awareness journey is that that's actually not an excuse. That's a valid identification of understanding and self-awareness of meeting your needs where they are in that moment.
Speaker 1:It makes so much sense. And so let's talk about challenges, because that's one thing that we try to overcome on this podcast is hearing something from you that's been a challenge or problem you faced in your journey and how you.
Speaker 2:If I'm going to be truly honest, I've been my biggest challenge. There's lots being a single mom is challenging, surviving domestic violence is challenging. They're all really big challenges. I think probably the biggest ongoing challenge is when I self-doubt myself. And I think, because you know, the biggest challenge about being your own biggest challenge is you actually can't escape yourself, right? So if you've got a business partner you don't like, you can actually leave or you can move away from that partner for a while. But understanding that I'm probably the person that gets in my own way the most, because I'm the one that holds myself back from sending that message, the one that stops me from putting up that social media post, it's my own, you know, unconscious triggers that become, you know, present in my life. So I've done a lot of work, a lot of work in the last seven or eight years on my own mindset and removing myself as my biggest challenge, but also acknowledging that still doesn't mean that I'm not my own challenge at times and it still continues to be. But going back to that permission piece, instead of beating myself up over that, going okay, there you go. What's happening now that you keep putting those blockers in front of yourself?
Speaker 2:And Gay Hendricks has a book called the Big Leap and he talks about the fact that we actually can hit an upper limit problem, and so many people fear failure. But we actually also fear success at times as well, because of the story or the narratives that we've created around. What other people will think of us for being successful? And I think I remember I was listening to the audio book. I was driving, I was on a long drive and I was listening and I'm like literally like talking to the you know the radio going shut up, like you're being mean to me right now and actually recognizing that that was a really, you know, powerful piece.
Speaker 2:And I'm pretty well read. I'm a bit of a nerd. I'm in my home office today, but if you saw me in my actual office, it's just water walled books. I just I love reading and I love learning, and so it's not that I don't know a lot of the lessons I do, it's that my unconscious still hijacks me at times and I've got to bring myself back to that conscious mindset around. Okay, there you go. What are you holding yourself back from now? Why are you not putting yourself out there? What are you stopping yourself from doing right now. And then how do I recalibrate and move through that?
Speaker 1:It's great advice for everyone that's listening. So was there a turning point or a piece of advice that someone gave you during a tough time that helped you?
Speaker 2:Marianne Williamson says you're playing small does not serve the world. Oh, so good, she's so good. Well, her and I are birthday twins I'm pretty happy to claim that one. So her and I saw the same birthday and I actually saw her speak. She came to Brisbane a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2:And when we give ourselves permission, we in turn give others permission, and I think that in my journey in education so I left a violent relationship and I remember I was in a leadership position in schools I have a lot of families come in. We worked in low socioeconomic families that had gone through horrific experiences and sitting down in my office they would be sitting there feeling very downhearted and downtrodden and when I could sit there and say, I know, and they'd look at me and they go oh, you do, and I'm like I do, and so let's do this together and let me walk alongside you as you navigate this journey. And we got some incredible outcomes because I didn't feel like I had to hide that story. It's not about bragging, it's not about you know, oh, this happened to me, kind of thing, but it's about selective sharing around those experiences that help others feel valued, seen, heard and accepted and helping them move through and I realized that I have played small a lot of my life through my own fears.
Speaker 2:And you know, in Australia we have a thing called tall poppy syndrome, that the minute you speak up about your own successes, someone's going to go oh you're such a show off, you're such a bragger, you know who are you to be great kind of idea. And I realized that when you show up authentically and stop playing small not in a raggy sense, but in a hey, this is what helped me, hopefully it'll help you then, hopefully that other people you start to build a bit of a tribe and I think, having a really solid ecosystem around me that was supportive and building me up rather than tearing me down, and that's evolved again, infinitely evolved over times, as well as the people that were in my life at certain points no longer are people in my life now and not being sad about that, accepting and acknowledging and thanking for their part in my journey and then being able to find the next ecosystem that is where I'm at now of people that are going to support me and in me, in turn, be able to support them in their journey.
Speaker 1:So can you tell us a little bit about exactly what you do at Elements for Success?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I do leadership and executive coaching with a real passion around high performance teams.
Speaker 2:One of my areas of specialization is understanding behavior and how behavior impacts on you know. We know that our thoughts guide our feelings. We know our feelings guide our actions and our actions guide our results or lack of results. So I'm pretty good at being able to understand that what's going on behind the mask of you know the behavior that we're presenting on the outside isn't always reflective of the core driver of what's going on and then helping people come together collaboratively and collectively to create high performance teams by holding space for brave and courageous conversations. I have a special passion in neuro inclusion as well, because of my background and so making psychologically safe spaces for everybody, but in particular, understanding how that works in that neuro inclusion space to show the gifts that neurodiversity and neurodivergent people bring to the table and how that can be enhanced, particularly in entrepreneurship. You know some incredible minds playing in that space that just need a safe space for that brave and courageous conversation to go well. I've got this idea and how to unpack that to move that particularly forward.
Speaker 1:So it sounds to me like you really love what you do. So how important is that? How important is loving what you do at your age, right now, because I'm in my 50s and I'm in that space where I love helping other people. I'm not sure I love the vehicle of how I do it, but go ahead and Can you show that.
Speaker 2:So I was diagnosed after my injury. I went through a whole heap of stuff and I ended up being diagnosed with fibromyalgia and I don't know if you know too much about that, but it's a chronic pain condition that really there's lots of different things and a lot of people are very debilitated by their experience with that.
Speaker 2:Being able to shift into a job that I love and I'm absolutely passionate about, allows me to show up as my best self and, in actual fact, five hours in my old role felt like 500 hours and I wanted to put myself to bed at 3.30 in the afternoon and I was tired and my body was in so much pain. And now I can actually do longer days. I still have to manage and course correct at times, but I can show up. I've crafted a job that I love and I'm so passionate about in a way that works for me and my body, which then gives me further fuel to be able to show up for others, and that took again a lot of soul searching, but not being defined by diagnosis, but being able to recalibrate and readjust and realign as many times as I've needed to go.
Speaker 2:Is this still working for me? Yes, or what isn't working for me and how do I recalibrate and I always know if I'm not in alignment with my true self, because I start to get really, really sore and a good night's sleep doesn't fix it anymore or doing the things that normally resolve that issue don't work for me anymore. So if it spends too much time there, I got to go. Oh right audit time. What, in my role, do I need to look at and recalibrate right now?
Speaker 2:And sometimes it's been my ecosystem, sometimes it's around a fear that I'm not attending to. Sometimes it's been my whole fact that you know, in my very empathetic nature, I have let my boundaries down and I've just got to put them back up, and so having a really solid reflective practice has helped me move through that, and I think I always thought that my role was in education, and what I've realized is my role is in empowerment, and so as long as I'm aligned to my why, then I can recalibrate what that looks like all the time without feeling resentful. I think that's been really powerful. So that vehicle might change over time, as long as my why is at the forefront.
Speaker 1:So earlier in our conversation, you talked about something where you said it was okay to miss that. You know going to the gym today or doing something right. So lately, I feel as I'm grieving so I'm grieving my father, who is one of my favorite people on this earth and I felt like I've just spent the last 10 months filling my calendar with so much that I couldn't have time to think. So lately, though, I've been starting to prune that's what I call it. I'm pruning, taking away the things, and if I don't get on that one call, it's okay. I'm not going to miss all of that information, because I already have so much in my in my head already that I don't really need any more information, probably from now until the rest of my life.
Speaker 1:But yes, I feel like I've been doing that and you know so. Hearing you say that helped me a lot, because I realized that every professional person is going to go through stuff right. We're all going to have things that come in our life that are not always amazing.
Speaker 2:You have to figure out a way to get through them.
Speaker 1:For some people it's filling your calendar, and I'm one of those people, but I'm exhausted. I feel mentally exhausted now, so I've overdone it. Exhausted now, so I've overdone it, so you know. So now I'm working on it. I'm working on myself, because I do realize I want to share my light with everyone, not the darkness.
Speaker 1:But in order to get to the light, I have to go through the darkness. I think that is really important. So I have to grieve, and I know that's coming soon to my mind, but it's been difficult, I can tell you for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that permission piece around, it's okay to feel my feels. And I think when we've been, you know, professional, you know I don't know about yourself, but over here, that whole you know, leave yourself at the door kind of thing and show up into this role. And when you're a business owner, where does that stop and start? And to be your authentic self means showing up sometimes and going, hey, I'm actually not okay today. And in actual fact, giving yourself permission to say, hey, I'm really missing my dad today. And you might find that piece of connection of going, oh my gosh, I'm really missing this person, my grandfather. So my Nana was nearly 107, but her husband, my pop, he was the bee's knees. I was the favorite grandchild and he was a rough old man but I was the one that could steal his jelly beans and I was the one that could stories of him taking me for walks when I was a little kid and stuff like that. And you know, I think it's okay because you giving yourself permission to miss and love and acknowledge your dad probably will give somebody else permission in that journey.
Speaker 2:And I, um, I had a client a few years ago and she got some really tough news. Her dad was unwell and he's just recently passed, actually himself. And I said, because she kind of was like at the end she was walking out, she was and, by the way, dad's really sick. And I'm like whoa, whoa, whoa. And I just said to her I said so how are we finding some time to process this, what that means for you? And she goes I'm too busy for that. I've scheduled some time on the holidays and I will sit and I will process it then. And I just said to her I said you do you.
Speaker 2:However, unfortunately, grief has a really uncanny way of hijacking you when you least expect it. And two days later she called me on the floor of her office with her back to the door going. I hate it when you're right, and but what I did then was create a space for her. That if she needed a space where because she had this identity as this very strong professional who didn't let anything get to her and was professional no matter what she just needed a safe space to not be okay at some times. And so what would that look like for you? And I think that's part of that. Going back to that permission piece like hurts my feelings a little bit, but it's one of those very simplistic things, but we don't give ourselves very much opportunity to acknowledge that.
Speaker 1:I'm with you 100%. I hear you for sure. So what advice would you give to someone who's currently facing a challenge or setback?
Speaker 2:I think that being able to hold space without judging yourself, I think that's a really key space. I am where I am for whatever reason, and usually because we've made the decisions that we've made, because we've perceived that it's kept us safe or it's felt like we had to do what we had to do, so acknowledging that what we did served us at some point, but it's also okay for it to not serve us any longer, so it's actually okay to say that's not working for me anymore. That doesn't make a line to where I want to go. This is not going to help me achieve my outcomes anymore and being able to recalibrate. So permission to sit in a reflective space without judgment and just acknowledge where I am at this particular point in time.
Speaker 2:I love to do audits. So energy audits people place situations that give me energy, that drain my energy, and then the people that give me energy how do I spend more time with them? Or what are the characteristics of those people that I need to look for as I'm crafting my ecosystem of people? What are the situations that are really triggering for me and do I have to keep subjecting myself to them? I don't know, like you know. So that real audit and is this serving me and is this going to get me the outcome that I desire, and am I playing small?
Speaker 1:definitely think I'm, even though to some people they think I'm doing well, but for me I'm still playing too small. I feel like I have a lot more to offer to this world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the last point I would add in is where is your safe space for brave and courageous conversations? And I think family are great, but sometimes you just need somebody outside of that space, and so the reason I ended up in coaching was coaching was the most transformational experience. I'd gone to professional development for 20 years, and if I went to one more professional development training about a particular topic, I was actually gonna like I don't know, hurt myself, probably Because I'm like, oh my God, I can't do any of this anymore. I already like, oh my God, I can't do any of this anymore. I already know it's boring.
Speaker 2:I could be running the training, but I had a coach and for the first time in my life, this coach was actually for me. And what did I need? What was going to help me moving forward on that journey? Not the organization, because by helping me I was in helping the organization right, and so it was like this light bulb moment going oh, there's people out there that really exist. And again, transformation, so much so that I went and became. I was so invested in it that I went and studied and did this journey myself because I want to create that same experience even more powerfully for others.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. So tell me this what is next for you in Elements for Success?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so my Infinite Leadership book is going to be released by the end of this year, so watch this space. It's with the editor at the moment, so that's really exciting. That's great. I'm actually coming to the US in March 2025. So I'm hoping to come over and do some workshops and to catch up with my US audience and to be able to start sharing that journey for people, and I just and every day is about looking for those opportunities and possibilities to serve more people more powerfully.
Speaker 1:Well, I am so appreciative that you are here today. What part of the United States are you coming to?
Speaker 2:I'm going to New York to start with, but I've got friends in Wisconsin and Texas that I'm hoping to align a little visit to. But I'm open. I'm open to wherever I am called to.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, so you'll make sure you let me know whenever you're on your way to America, and you'll love New York. It's amazing. They have the best pizza ever. So I appreciate you being on here today, so for our audience how can they reach you?
Speaker 2:Yep, so on LinkedIn, kylie Leota, and Facebook and Instagram under Elements for Success, or jump on our website, wwwelementsforsuccesscomau, and I would love to connect. Hit the Connect Contact Us page and I'd love to book in a call and have a chat about how I can serve you more powerfully.
Speaker 1:Again for our audience. Don't forget to like, subscribe and share this episode of Shine On Success. Remember, if we can just help one person every time, our podcast is a success. So if we can just help one person every time, our podcast is a success. So, thank you. It was a pleasure to have you on here. It's my favorite hour of the day and it was nice to get to know you and I really enjoyed it and I really hope that your business explodes, because I love what you're doing and the direction that you're going.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you so much and thank you for having me on here. I'm just so excited to be able to meet incredibly amazing people doing amazing things. Thank you so much.
