Janine Garner, Be Brilliant – InnovaBuzz 327

Janine Garner, Be Brilliant

In this episode, I’m really excited to have as my guest, Janine Garner, the best-selling author of It’s Who You Know, From Me to We and her latest book Be Brilliant – How to Lead a Life of Influence. Over the past two decades, Janine has worked with thousands of high-profile leaders and helped countless of Australia’s top 50 ASX companies and multinationals.

Janine is a global thought leader on powerful networking, collaboration and leadership. She is passionate about building high performing leaders and teams and bringing brilliant people together to achieve remarkable results.

In our discussion, Janine and I talked about:

• How we all already have everything within us to be brilliant – we just need to be brave enough to unleash it
• Reframing by asking what problem do I solve
• Curiosity outside of our comfort zone and connecting the dots

Oscar Trimboli in episode 168 introduced us to Janine.

Listen to the podcast to find out more.

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• When you build incredible connections, incredible things happen.
• Connecting with like-minded thinkers encourages us to collaborate with a dream of mutual success. 
• We all have the capability to become extraordinary humans of incredible potential if we can unlock our own brilliance and if we can learn to connect and collaborate in the right way, without fear of showing our full selves.
• The only thing that you can ever control is yourself – who you are being, the impact you are making, and ultimately, what you want to become, and owning those dreams again.
• Those who achieve more are no different than you. They have the same challenges and lack of self-belief. They worry about impostor syndrome, but they worked their way out of all those.
• Self-belief and the vision to do more, that hunger to relentlessly pursue your dreams, is where the difference happens.
• Take the time to reflect, percolate, and consider. Really think about where you want to be. Take ownership of the action you want to take and the behaviour you want to be seen.
• There are two barriers to brilliance – fatigue and the epidemic of blame-itis. 
• Brilliance is a choice. It is a practice and is very much a discipline. No one can do it for you. You also need support – you need to have a network. 
• Brilliance starts and ends with you – who are you being and who do you want to become? It’s about owning your dreams and expertise so that you can step forward.
• All of us have a particular hunger that drives us. You are either driven by the need of power, a need for ego, or a need for intimacy.
• Slow down and reflect on what do you want to take ownership of. Everything requires you to do that whether it be in your business, in conflicts, and failures. Taking ownership empowers you to make the next decision. 
• There’s a difference between transactional connection and transformational connection. Connection is not just about people. It is also connecting the dots of your skills and people to find collaborative opportunities.
• The world is asking us to trust our intuition now more than ever and inspire others. 
• The only thing that you have to do is to own yourself. You have to be more brilliant. You need to become this human of extraordinary potential.
• You have to be exceptional to undertake any meaningful endeavor. If you are in any way doubting yourself, beating yourself up for what you don’t have, and blaming other people for your lack of progress, you will end up being stuck.
• Start tapping into what you already have and unleash that brilliance. The more that you do that for yourself, the more you create the opportunity for the people around you to become more brilliant too.
• Business has and will always be about people.
• Thinking is where the magic is. The diversity of ideas, experiences, backgrounds, and cultural heritage of an industry is where the answers are. It is what drives human challenge. 
• Be braver. Be prepared to leave that baggage behind and re-challenge what you think. 
• The things that get in the way of innovation are ourselves and our pre-determined judgement. 

• The Four Laws of Brilliance:
  1. Be YOU and own your spotlight – unless you have connected with yourself, it’s impossible to bring your whole self into how you connect and lead others. Start building your self-belief and visibility in the marketplace. Quit hiding and let people see who you really are, your expertise, and your vision for the future.
  2. Are you ready? – harness your energy and adopt the right habits and behaviours to ensure that you are time-rich and thriving versus time-poor and surviving.
  3. Move from this place of “ME” into an inclusive and collaborative space of “WE” – connect with intent. No one can be successful on their own. Think about how you can build an incredible network of support around you.
  4. Magnify your impact – lead instead of keeping ideas to yourself. Amplify your vision and the people around you.

• It is through the mastery and continual evolution, growth, and reflection, that you become better.
• Being brilliant is all about conquering yourself and continuously being brave and curious enough to look into yourself in terms of what you need to do to become a better person and help others shine even brighter too.
• Companies always own jobs but you own your career. No one can ever take away your experience. You have to own that career, your skills, and your expertise. You have to own who you are being and who you want to become. It is not up to the company to manage your career, it is up to you so own your brilliance!
• As we get older, the opportunity to reflect on our failures and share those with other people is phenomenal. Part of our responsibility is to share our mistakes with other people so that they can learn too.

The Buzz – Our Innovation Round

Here are Janine’s answers to the questions of our innovation round. Listen to the conversation to get the full scoop.

1. #1 thing to be more innovative – Curiosity. Be brave enough to step out of your comfort zone. The ability to explore outside the box of what you know is where the answers are.
2. Best thing for new ideas – Researching, asking a lot of questions, and taking some quiet time to think.
3. Favourite tool for innovation – Pen and paper.
4. Keep project/client on track – Have people around you to keep you on track. Be really clear about the expectations. Get the right project management tool that is appropriate for the way someone works and thinks. Check-in and create the space to allow forward momentum versus getting stuck.
5. Differentiate – Own what is different about you. Own your spotlight, your character, and your strengths. Own the stuff that is memorable about you. Be very clear on the problem you are solving and the value you are bringing.

To Be a Leader

You have everything you need to be brilliant. You have everything you need in that wonderful mind and body of yours, and within your teams already exist the ideas and innovation that you need to take your business into the future. You just have to be brave enough to unlock it. All of it requires you to slow down, get out of your own way, and ultimately, understand that the only enemy that exists is the enemy within. If you can control that enemy within, the world is your oyster. The opportunity to live and lead a successful, brilliant, and fulfilling life is all there for your taking, but you have to get out of your own way and put that enemy within to bed.

Reach Out

You can reach out and thank Janine through her website and on LinkedIn.

Suggested Guest

Janine suggested we have a conversation with Ben Frederiksen, Founder of Innovate and Grow ,and Australian Employment Market expert, Simon Meyer. So Ben and Simon, keep an eye on your inboxes for an invitation from us to the InnovaBuzz podcast, courtesy of Janine Garner.

Links

• Website – Janine Garner
• Podcast – Unleashing Brilliance
• Twitter – @JanineMGarner
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Instagram

Books

• Be Brilliant
• It’s Who You Know
• From Me to We

Cool Things About Janine

• She is the winner of an International Stevie Award.
• She was voted one of Australia’s Most Inspiring Women (Madison Magazine), and was nominated for Telstra Business Women Awards.
• She completed two Tough Mudders and one Spartan race.

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