Live What You Love: When Passion And Purpose Change Your Life

By Naomi Simson

• Is your career where you want it to be?
• Does your life have meaning?
• Are you realising your full potential?

In Live What You Love ground–breaking Australian entrepreneur Naomi Simson will show you how to love what you do every day and live life to the full.

Renowned for her high–octane energy and commitment to the pursuit of excellence, Naomi built one of Australia's major tech success stories, RedBalloon, from just an idea but she is also known for her inspirational blogs on happiness at work and home that reach more than three–quarters of a million followers on LinkedIn and her role on Channel 10's Shark Tank.

In this book, leading by example, Naomi shares her life lessons and shows you how to:
• channel your passion
• learn persistence
• find your purpose; and
• stay positive.

Soon your work experience will become richer, your career path more clearly formed and your life more fully realised.
Live What You Love will help you diagnose your own approach to life through its use of quizzes and Q&As, offer case histories that give you real–life examples of where mistakes were made or problems solved, and reveal inspiring examples of success in both life and business.

Naomi's dynamic approach, informed by her experiences running her own business and her corporate career, will show you how to add meaning into your life and in doing so, discover that when you love what you do, success in life is never far away.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Australia
• Release date: Mar 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781488797798

Naomi Simson

The highly charismatic Naomi Simson is best known as the founding director of RedBalloon, one of Australia's major tech success stories. RedBalloon has now served 2.5 million customers and Naomi has worked with some of the world's biggest brands, including IBM, Apple and KPMG. Naomi has a substantial online presence, particularly via LinkedIn where she has a massive 800,000 followers. Her speaking engagements reach 20,000 people a year and her blog naomisimson.com 100,000 a year and she has close to 10,000 Twitter followers. Her life is not limited to the business world. She also works in a philanthropic role as a governor for the Cerebral Palsy Alliance and as an advisor to the charities Heads over Heels and Voiceless. Naomi has be a 'Shark' on Channel Ten's Shark Tank since early 2015.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

I’m curious about what called you to pick up this book. The cover, its reputation, a friend gave it to you perhaps — there could be many reasons. And now you face a quandary, a choice, a decision: you are keen to discover what it would take to live the life you love but you are wondering at what cost. Your time is precious and you never seem to have enough of it. Yet you also know that every day seems to blur into the next — and that is not the life you dreamed for yourself. I know your pain; it is mine too. The hardest thing I have had to do — ever — is to make choices about where I spend my time. So many choices — education, reading, events, socialising, let alone work, family, friends and fitness — and so little time.

This is my commitment to you: if you decide to go on a journey of self discovery, you will reap the reward. It might be simply flourishing, it could be career guidance. Perhaps you’ll gain some insights on starting a business, or you might be in need of inspiration on your academic journey. Whatever it is, being truly present with this book will make a difference.

I know if you take the time, contemplate the words, make them your own and do the exercises I have included, your experience of life will shift. As with all the tasks and activities in this book, what you will discover about yourself is dependent on how honest you are prepared to be with yourself and your willingness to ask the real questions and explore the answers. It is your book, a safe place. There is no right or wrong — just your thoughts and ideas. You are the most important person here, so give yourself the time you deserve and have fun with it.

You will discover your passion, understand the power of persistence, know the difference that comes from being positive and ultimately experience a life filled with purpose.

This does not mean that tough times will disappear and you will be ensconced in a bed of roses. But you will see yourself as ‘bigger’ than you see yourself right now. And as a result you are likely to take on bigger challenges and in turn experience the joy of deep accomplishment. On the way, you will develop a resilience that you know you can count on.

My calling, my purpose, is to support you in this quest to live the life you love.

I decided to write this book because I had reached a ‘certain stage in life’. My children are almost adults, and my business has a CEO and I have no day-to-day role in running it. I am enjoying my philanthropic work and contributing as an advisor on several boards. I feel very grateful for the life that I have — and for the wonderful, loving family and friends I share it with.

One of my greatest joys is when I hear that my experience has assisted or supported someone else on their journey. This is why I give keynote speeches, have written close to 1000 blog posts, am a LinkedIn influencer and am as driven now as when I started out on my career.

As I reflect on my accomplishments — and my failures — I often think, ‘Oh, if only I had known that then, I would have …’ Clearly we have the opportunity to learn from our mistakes, but we don’t always. So as I reflected on what was next for me, and how else I could contribute to happy workplaces, I thought it was time to put pen to paper.

I suspect I have been rather self-indulgent, seeing the world from my perspective, and not always having another view. But my greatest delight will come from knowing that this book may have assisted others in living a life they truly love — and that they are able to follow their dream, pursue their passions and celebrate moment by moment.

Please feel free to share with me what you have discovered and learned, and how this book has made an impact on you. The best way to contact me is via my blog, naomisimson.com.

PART I

Passion

CHAPTER 1

WHAT’S PASSION GOT TO DO WITH IT?

DRIVEN BY PASSION

Passion is a strong and barely controllable emotion, a compelling enthusiasm or a desire for anything. I know passion when I feel it because all of a sudden I simply cannot think about anything else. It is as if something has taken over my life. The first thing that pops into my busy brain when I open my eyes in the morning will be connected to my passion — almost as if for some hours my sleep took me away from my mad obsession.

You may have felt like this when you were working on a school assignment that ignited your imagination, or maybe with your first love, or a book that you could not put down. Passion happens to us. It is not something that we can make up. You can’t ‘fake it until you make it’. Passion is when your strengths, insights and emotions align.

‘Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.’

– Oprah Winfrey

How we operate has a massive impact on our experience of life, whether we are available to our passions or whether we hide them because we are fearful of ridicule or failure. But passion is not a dirty word — it is truly exciting. Finding your passion reveals the real you. You may already know what drives you but your life’s true passion can be hidden from you. In fact, it might take some exploration to discover what your passion truly is. And maybe you have more than one. You might be a world champion poker player but also love working in a team. You might be a great chef but are also deeply passionate about collecting antique clocks.

I knew that I was passionate about working somewhere that I felt valued, doing a job I could believe in. I did not want to waste my life by giving the ‘best years’ to a cause I did not believe in or working with people I did not respect (or like).

My work has always been important to me. I have always been passionate about the contribution my work made. Yet when I became a mother I was passionate about being ‘good’ at that too. I knew, for instance, that being a great mum was about having time to listen to my children, and if I was always racing because my career was so important to me I would struggle to find the time to be truly present and in my children’s worlds. How many times do you find yourself where you wanted to be — at a party, for instance, or a concert — and you still find yourself checking your phone for ‘updates’? When you operate from your passion it is very easy to be truly present.

It seems really crazy now in hindsight but I thought if I ran my own business I would be able to spend much more time with my children. I did go to sports days and do reading in the classrooms, but the reality is that my passion for the difference I was making for the broader community meant that I had to make really hard choices and work some really long hours. The rule I had was this: even if I only got one hour a day with my children I had to be truly present with them, listen deeply and understand their world. So basically I had two great passions that could coexist — parenting and my entrepreneurial endeavours.

I thought I was starting my business because I had a ‘passion’ for work–life balance. But I soon discovered this was not in fact the reality. I am passionate about ‘playing full out’ — being totally engrossed in whatever I’m doing and spurred on by the feedback I get on the difference I am making. Creating a great place to work, a business that could become world famous for customer experience and technology innovation, was all consuming. But I was completely okay with that. There is always a downside, there is always an opportunity cost. Of course other things may have suffered. I know I cannot do it all (at once) but I can enjoy and thrive on what I am doing.

I know I missed out on many things along the way but I also know that life is merely a collection of choices — some we make are better than others. But when you are driven by passion to be the ‘world’s best’ then you know that there is a price to pay. No world champion or Olympian got to achieve what he or she did without consequence. The question to ask is: ‘What are you prepared to sacrifice to live a life of passion?’ Think of the great love stories. There is always sacrifice. So when asked ‘can you have it all?’ the answer is simply ‘don’t be ridiculous’. No one has it all! But what you can have is a life full of powerful choices that follow your dream. And when you live a life of passion and you share that joy with those around you, then you know you are living the life you love.

When I started RedBalloon back in 2001 it never occurred to me that all these years later I would still be driven by such a deep passion to make a difference. Those days now seem like ancient history. Life was a blur. I was always rushing; everything was urgent. That urgency has not diminished with time. There is still so much to do. This is how I know that I found my passion — because I have never tired of it. This is not to say that at times things aren’t exhausting or frustrating or very challenging. But that is business. I’m sure if I had found my passion inside a corporation I would have all those things in buckets.

What I’m passionate about

I’m passionate about great workplaces where people get to do their best work.

I’m passionate about people sharing good times with the people who are important to them.

I’m passionate about reducing people’s experience of isolation and exclusion, given that depression is on the increase and deaths from suicide are twice the road toll.

I’m passionate about having strong, authentic and transparent role models who demonstrate diversity and balance.

I’m passionate about colour (particularly bright colour) — I am still a hobby painter.

WEARING RED

It is no coincidence that to celebrate my coming of age the theme of the party was ‘bright’. My first attempt at entrepreneurship was a consultancy business called ‘Bright Marketing’. My home is filled with brightly coloured paintings and furnishings, and I have always been attracted to wearing bright colours. My childhood bedroom was the brightest sunflower yellow that you could imagine. For me, colour has always represented happiness, vibrancy and vividness. Colour gives me energy and inspiration.

The psychology of red

Colour can have a strong influence on mood. There has been some substantial research into ‘colour psychology’ and it has shown that our moods, actions and the way we see the world can be affected by colour. My colour, red, even changes your physiology, hormone balance and performance.

The studies suggest that when wearing red we seem more attractive to the opposite sex. That study was conducted in a laboratory with subjects judging photos, but other research into online dating suggests that when you wear red in your photo, you have a better hit rate. Waitresses wearing red T shirts certainly get bigger tips.

So why does red, in particular, have such a strong effect? The flush that comes to our face when we are interested in someone or find them attractive could be the reason!

I named my business RedBalloon after a beautiful 1956 Oscar award-winning French children’s movie called The Red Balloon, a beautiful tale of friendship and adventure. Balloons are a symbol of ‘party time’ — and red is the most memorable, the most evocative colour of all.

In the early days of RedBalloon I was at an event and just happened to be wearing a red dress. I had only one or two back then — not my whole wardrobe, as it is now. My colleague Jemma Fastnedge had recently given me some pretty frank feedback about my dress sense. At the time the business was still operating from the front room of our home and we had about seven employees. ‘If you are going to call yourself the CEO,’ Jemma said to me, ‘I think you need to start dressing like one.’ Confronting? Yes! But she had a point. Sometimes I would rush to my desk still in my gym gear. ‘You dress for others, not yourself,’ Jemma lamented. ‘How do you want to come across?’

So at this event someone asked, ‘Do you always wear red?’ These two separate comments landed at about the same time.

If you listen beyond your initial reflex action of defence there can be gold in other people’s feedback.

I asked myself if I wanted to be the brand ambassador for RedBalloon. If I did, that job would be all the easier if I wore red. Red is memorable. People might not remember me but they will remember the colour I was wearing. In fact I have overheard people talking about me as ‘the red lady’.

So the reason I started wearing red was not accidental. Red is my public uniform — it helps identify what I stand for. The colour is distinctive. Red is the most used colour in brands and it’s memorable. People take nanoseconds to work out who you really are. Is she who she says she is? Well, if you’re consistent, that reinforces the trust factor: she is indeed who she says she is. She is the woman in the red dress.

My wearing red also helps my audience relax. It doesn’t matter if the audience is male or female; it’s human nature to ‘check each other out’. Malcolm Gladwell spoke of this succinctly in his book Blink. Once a person has you ‘worked out’ they are far more available to listen intently to what you have to say. It is my job to help an audience feel comfortable.

For me, the red dress has been an important part of being identified easily. But what is really great is that if I put on another colour or wear jeans on the weekend people literally don’t see me — not even people who know me. People are programmed that if they see red it is me.

You too can be content in terms of your look, whatever it is. Remember, you don’t have to look at yourself whenever you’re out and about: you can’t see your own face, after all. But you do need to look like the role you’re playing. I learned a long time ago that we dress for others. Ask yourself: ‘What impression do I want to leave with the people I meet?’

I watched with interest the controversy some time back regarding Mark Zuckerberg’s continued wearing of hoodies during the lead-up to the stock-market launch of Facebook — and the impact it had when he did not in the presence of the American president. Steve Jobs only ever wore a black skivvy and jeans for launches, and I’m sure it was so the press talked more about the technology and less about him as a person.

I definitely don’t wear the red dress for me. I wear it to help people identify me. I took Jemma’s point and have invested in my uniform ever since. (Wearing red also makes it easy when I go clothes shopping!)

Our appearance helps others identify us, our role, our position.

YOUR PERSONAL STYLE

There’s a lot of information available to help you to consider what is right for you. You will want to dress to create an image that reflects your circumstances as well as your aspirations. Your best party outfit is not your best outfit for work!

Ask yourself:

• How do you dress for work? For comfort, according to what everyone else wears, or to stand out?

• How do your customers, colleagues and peers dress? Do you reflect that?

• Do you dress for the position you would like to have, or the one you have now? (I’m not saying dress in a suit and tie if you one day want to be a CEO and are currently at university!)

• What impression do you want to leave people with?

• What is the occasion or circumstance you are dressing for?

• What sort of dress do you feel comfortable in?

You do want to be yourself. Don’t wear clothes that are uncomfortable or don’t fit properly. (I have bought too many shoes in the wrong size. I never wear them. There is nothing worse than seeing someone almost crippled by shoes too small or too high to walk powerfully in. And while I’m on the subject of feet, I can tell a lot about a person by the state of the heels of their shoes, no matter whether they’re male or female.)

Rather than developing your ‘personal brand’ — because brand really relates to your reputation — at this point I would like you to consider your personal style. By this I mean your style in everything (which will reflect your passion). Start from the top down — hairstyle (and men, also consider facial hair), make-up and perfume.

Do not let what you wear be a distraction to the people you are with. Even glittery jewellery can distract an audience if they look at what’s around your neck or dangling from your ears rather than listening to your content and being inspired by your words. Don’t let your physical presentation get in the way of your authentic self or dominate who you are. Don’t hide in a lacklustre colour (this goes for men too). Express yourself without offending who you are.

Take the time to work out the appropriate ‘fit’ — for what you do and who you want to be. How do you see yourself? How do you want others to see you? You want people to hear your passion and remember you because your style matches that passion.

Simple dress sense?

More interesting than ‘simple dress sense’ on the part of entrepreneurs may be the ‘dematerialisation’ and ‘demonetisation’ trends as discussed in the book Abundance by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler. I simply could not put this book down. It is the sort of book I want to read with my teenagers. I can highly recommend it.

The authors argue that the poorest people in the USA now have more services than were available to the richest person 100 years ago — and that we all have access instantly to more information than the American president did only a decade ago. Hence, we live in a time of abundance. What this means is there is a massive shift in what the ‘trappings of success’ look like. Many possessions are becoming increasingly less important. The most precious resource of all is time — no matter how rich you are you only have the same 24 hours every day as everybody else.

Passion is infectious.

SHARING PASSION

I like to share my passion for making the world a better place, for sharing what I have learned about happiness, customer experience and creating a successful enterprise. To do that means allowing myself to make mistakes. People appreciate the humanness of my authenticity, even though I am not one to wear my heart on my sleeve.

I want to be effective. My commitment is to make a difference. If there are 200 or 500 people in the room, I don’t know which ones I am going to impact and which ones I am not. I just need to be ready, alert and aware that I am supporting the whole audience, knowing that each person will be in a different place. People come to a room not as one entity, but your job as speaker is to unite them into feeling inspired or moved so that they go away saying, ‘I got something that was worthwhile.’ Or maybe they leave talking to their colleagues, asking, ‘What did you think of that? Did that make you laugh/cry?’ It’s unbelievably fulfilling that people can come to an event as individuals and leave with a more unified, united sense of being with others in the audience.

I feel a great sense of accomplishment when someone lets me know that because they heard me speak or read a post, they put something into action and got an outcome.

People have said, ‘I don’t know how you can get up in front of thousands of people over and over again and give so much of yourself.’ They often admit that there is nothing that they would hate more than to be speaking on stage in public. Yet I don’t recall ever feeling nervous before a speaking engagement.

That’s not to say that I haven’t had ‘disastrous’ things happen. I’ve had plenty of beyond embarrassing moments in front of audiences. On one such occasion I was speaking to a large group in a conference centre in Queensland. I often start my presentation from the back of the room, so I can walk through the participants and ‘get to know them’ on my way to the stage. The room is often dark and the stage bright, and my eyesight is not the best.

At this event, as I started speaking from the back, I had this sudden worry that no one had ever heard of RedBalloon. ‘Has anyone not heard of RedBalloon?’ I asked. No hands went up. I then asked, ‘Has anyone heard of RedBalloon?’ Again, no hands went up. I thought to myself, ‘Oh my, I am in for a ride here.’ At that moment a person with grey curly hair suddenly appeared in front of me. I thought I would be funny and act as if I were a school teacher. ‘And where do you think you’re going, young man?’ I queried. The person promptly responded, ‘Last time I looked I was a woman.’

I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me. There were 500 people in the room — I was there to speak on ‘Customer Happiness’ — and I had just made the biggest error and insulted the customer to boot. There was complete silence as I found my way to the stage. It was a painful and humbling lesson.

I learned long ago that most people in an audience are just glad — indeed grateful — that they’re not on stage. If people see you stumble or make a gaffe they will feel pity for you, quickly followed by relief that it is not them. To make an error is human – we are not perfect — and most audiences are respectful of the fact that you are just the same as them. It is about being our authentic self.

Presenting with passion

Imagine your audience. Check out the actual room, if you can. Try to meet a few people from the audience beforehand. Then you will have ‘friends’ listening to you. When you are speaking, look for these people in the audience and talk to them as if it was just you and them chatting as you did when you met them.

Remember a presentation is never ever about you, or what you want to say — it is always always always about how you want to leave the audience. Your content is only interesting if it adds value to those present. Deliver it in a fashion that is most likely to appeal to that group on the day. For example, I use different language if I am speaking to accountants versus travel agents.

My aim is always to leave them ‘touched’ (interested enough to stay listening deeply — and you know they are when no one is fidgeting), ‘moved’ (feeling an emotion, be it joy or sadness) and ‘inspired’ (a call to action, to make some change as a result of what I’ve delivered).

If you have a presentation or speaking engagement coming up, ask yourself: What is the worst that can happen? Is it likely? Probably not!

OVERCOMING OBSTACLES

Many people feel a calling to entrepreneurship — to ‘run their own show’. They think that they would thrive in that world. Many people have approached me, sharing their idea for creating a great enterprise. Their passion is barely containable — it is physically infectious. I love hearing stories from start-up founders about how they see the world and where the idea for their business came from. Their passion energises me — and I want to be a part of that excitement too.

Outsized entrepreneurs are lionised daily. We hear their names again and again, people (mainly men, too few women if you ask me — but that is a personal bias) who founded a business, a movement or a cause. People like Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, and Larry Page and Sergey Brin. These names can be both inspiring and alienating (they’re ‘special’ or super human in some way) at the same time. But every one of these people started at ground level and had to face setbacks, obstacles, challenges and defeat.

Very early