Posted on

Curiosity killed the Cat

becoming annie

How many times have you heard the phrase ‘Curiosity killed the cat’?

If you are anything like me, you will have heard it many times as a warning because your inquisitive nature may have been leading you to mischief, or even injury.

The thing is though, when we get curious, we discover more about the world in which we live, and more about ourselves.

When this happens, we learn more about what is possible, and again if you’re like me, this leads to excitement and incredible opportunities presenting themselves to us in abundance.

And let’s be honest, who doesn’t like being excited?

Or being gifted opportunities simply because they got excited due to their curiosity?

“Sorry, I don’t want to be excited or given the opportunity of a lifetime” said no one in my network!

I get it.  Curiosity kills the cat in many ways.

But, and this is a big but, and like I have said before, we know big buts do not lie…

(And if you haven’t figured out this reference yet, you are obviously not on my wave length, and a little bit of curiosity will deliver a smile to you!)

Anyway, back to curiosity killing the cat, which it has done on many occasion I am sure, but we are talking about a level of curiosity which will light you up from the inside, and the path ahead to the success you want in life.

Take Annie Gibbins for example.

A woman who was told she couldn’t do a lot of things.

Had a two sets of twins within 2 years of each other! (That in and of itself needs an applause and a level of curiosity to find out how she coped with that!)

Experienced life threatening asthma, yet still managed to climb mountains (quite literally!) and come back down the mountain with a business idea having just had her very own lipstick moment.

Yeah, a lipstick moment! at Everest Base Camp! Because where else would you have a moment of wanting your lipstick ladies, having spent several days in the same clothes sweating in the freezing cold.

Not sure about you, but the more I started to learn about this lady, there was no way I was going to miss the chance to learn more about her, especially as she is one of Australia’s leading ladies, and I don’t give her that title willy-nilly either!

(In fact I didn’t give it to her, it’s what her peers tell me, and something she gave herself!)

Annie’s rise to the top of the medical world in Corporate Australia has been nothing short of incredible and I for one love being in the company of unsung heroes, and then making sure others know about them too.

So when Annie asked me to be a ghost writer for her autobiography, and I had composed myself from giggling, I told her there was no way a woman such as her wanted an autobiography.

Nothing less than a biography would do, and four months later I am here to share with you her story.

Yes, four months it took for me to research this incredible human being, interviewing family, friends, colleagues and mentors, and then get this book ready for you to read.

I stalked her for three months on social media, went down the rabbit whole of the internet, finding out as much as I could about her.

Not a lot blows me away these days, especially with a lot of female leaders out there in the world, but Annie? Yeah, you could say I am every so slightly impressed with her.

Had a bit of a girl crush actually.

Why?

Because so many women who have reached Annie’s level of success, well quite frankly they are a far too egotistical for my liking, and to use one of my favourite sayings “Their heads are so far up their backsides, its back on their shoulders!”

As women we have experienced male domination for centuries, then it was the ‘Bitches with Briefcases’ in the eighties, which morphed into ‘Boss Bitch’ towards the end of the nineties, many of whom still remain today.

Now alongside them, we have the ‘Love and Light Brigade’ who send love but the moment you start to shine even remotely as brightly as them, they start to distance themselves and take their love and affection elsewhere.

Not so with Annie Gibbins.

Annie is just pure joy, open hearted and as one of her mentors Stephen De Sede, Founder of the DeSede Institute says “Annie has no ego, and her purpose is to make everyone believe in themselves”

And that’s just what she does for the women who take part in her Magic Transformation programme, a programme which encourages women to get really curious about their lives, and if they have a business, get curious about that too.

I for one have always been curious.  It is one of the reasons I love travelling so much, well, not at the moment obviously, what with the restrictions in place.

That said, I have been making plans for the Brazilian leg of my book tour and building the foundations of my United States book tour… I mean after all I’m already in America, it just happens to be South America.

They say curiosity killed the cat, but curiosity is a powerful tool to work with.  It allows us to discover scientific and technological breakthroughs.

It allows us to explore our  body and mind, as well as our own soul if we choose to allow ourselves too.

We’re even getting curious about life on other planets, and if you speak with some people, they are really curious as to what is REALLY going on in the world at the moment, and not just with Hollywood and Royalty either.

Is this whole KoVid-XIX really a play by The Rockefeller Foundation?

Choosing to be curious is a choice, like everything else in life. 

Choosing to be happy, choosing to laugh everyday, choosing to be healthy, choosing to ignore the truth we know about situations, choosing to ignore the truth we know about ourselves.

Choosing to simply BE all of who we are, in each and every area of our life, regardless of what others think of us, takes a deeper sense of curiosity than anything else.

Why?

Because when we get curious as to why we are not being true to ourselves,

Or why we are not ourselves when others are around,

When we choose to not be all of who we were born to be,

Then we discover answers which will set us free and allow us to become the very person we wish to be.

And isn’t that what we all want, deep down inside?

Would love to hear your thoughts, so join me over on my social media pages and let’s continue the conversation.

In the meantime though, to purchase your copy of Becoming Annie: The Biography of a Curious Woman, click on this link, and enjoy the ride!

It’s a beautiful one I can promise you that.

With love as always,

Dawn x

If you are not yet part of my communities on social media, well really.. where have you been?? Goodness Gracious!

You can join in the conversations by clicking on the relevant links below:

facebook.com/realdawnbates

instagram.com/realdawnbates

and LinkedIn.. just to surprise you is linkedin.com/in/dawnbates

And there’s you thinking it would also be realdawnbates

Posted on

Your message is messy!

“Your message is messy, no-one knows what you do”

“You need to stick to one thing and just promote that”

“Your social media needs a make-over”

“What is it you do exactly?”

How many times have you had others in the branding and marketing business come to you and say these comments to you?

I know I’ve had quite a few; and yes, at the beginning my messaging was a little confusing, but then again, I was confused.

I had a lot going on in my private life and I was trying to figure out how to make sense, and money, from the 20 plus years of entrepreneurship and community regeneration experience I have.

Which area of my expertise did I want to focus on?

Which of my passions did I want to harness?

And the thing is,

WE ALL HAVE STUFF going on in our lives we are trying to figure out, so to have someone we don’t know tell us what we need to be doing, how we should be showing up is just something we don’t need in our lives.

It can be even worse when people we do know, who have some idea of what’s going on, but haven’t reached out to ask us how we are and if we need anything, then start telling us what we need to do with our own business.

The words ‘Yuck Fou!’ and other emotional sentences come to the fore and before long, it’s not only feathers we are spitting.

We are seething, feeling like it is another thing we are getting wrong, another level of frustration and just another thing on our already heavy workload.

‘Why can’t everyone else just mind their own bloody business instead of interfering with mine when they know nothing about me?”

A phrase I know went through my head more than once I can tell you!

And here’s the thing (you knew one was coming!)

The people who cannot see your messaging, cannot see you for a reason.  They may think your message is messy but your message maybe a deeper message than they are currently able to pick up on.

If your message is messy to them, then maybe consider they are not in the right place to see the depth of your message.

Consider they are not meant to resonate with where you are at or work with you, because they are just not your kind of person; especially if they have not had the common courtesy to reach out to you before they start telling you what is wrong with you, and your business.

And we all know common courtesy, like common sense, isn’t all that common these days, nor are manners, but hey, that’s another post for another time!

Being in business is a bit like becoming a mother, every woman and her opinions come out in full force telling you how to be great at doing this, that and the other.

Very rarely do they take the time to understand who you are, what you already know, your experiences thus far and what your intentions and goals are for the future.

No, they just come with opinions, advice, observations and the sales pitches for this product, service and casserole dish.

When I started sailing around the world, researching captaincy and the world of sailing for one of my up and coming series of books, it seemed as though every captain and fellow sailor I met thought I’d only been born the day before.

Very few asked me about my previous experiences in life, any of the skills outside of sailing or about my life.  All they were interested in was how long I had been sailing.

And I get it.  We were off sailing, so understanding my level of knowledge in sailing was the key ingredient in the mix.

Many of them were surprised when I was able to fix sails, figure out the rigging, understand how to clean and maintain the boat, assess and prepare provisions, organise the legalities and do a stock check for entering new countries, or how to lead others on the boat without actually being a captain.

My skills were lost on them simply because I didn’t come from a sailing family or hadn’t been sailing for very long.

The arrogance and judgement in the sailing world is at times disgusting, as you will find out when you read The Mermaid’s Guide to Hitch Hiking, and The Mermaid’s Guide to Leadership when they are completed.

The same goes for business.

I may be an author and author coach, a writer for various magazines such as House of PreEminence and One Tribe but this does not mean I have no business experience.

My social media presence may not be all pattern, pastel and predictable, but then again, nor am I, and I am guessing neither are you.

We are human, we are all beautiful messy in our realness. 

Sometimes we have offers to promote, sometimes we are celebrating family moments, other times we are sharing our fitness journey’s, and sometimes we are just taking a time out.

Some of us are naturally gifted when it comes to tech skills and doing all the fancy-fancy animations and filming, for others, we are more adept at expressing ourselves through words and a simple photo.

At the end of the day though, our social media messaging may be messy to others, but it is our message not theirs.

When we show up as who we are in the moment, people get to relate to us, they get to know us, they get to see the human side of us, if they take the time to.

Those who do not take the time to get to know you, find out what you are about, are these the people you really want to do business with?

So the next time someone tells you “your message is messy” consider how well they know you, your intentions for the future.

When someone tells you what you ‘should’ or ‘should not’ be doing with your business, listen to yourself. 

Is there a doubt?

How did your body respond?

Step back, take a moment, and breathe.

Are you happy with your message?

Are you clear on your message?

Do you know why you share what you do?

Your message is messy to some people because they may not be owning all of who they are, choosing to be a one trick pony.

Your message is messy to some because they cannot see beyond the obvious, they may not be as deep as you, and that is OK.

And so are you.

With love, as always,

Dawn

*Messaging is something I go into with my clients because as authors we get to have a level of freedom to show up in a multitude of ways. Freedom of speech and the authority we have opens doors to a vast array of media opportunities, a wider variety of audiences.  With this level of freedom comes responsibility to break the patterns of thought, to disrupt the status quo and make a huge difference in the world.

I currently have 2 openings for 1:1 clients to work with me on a 3, 6, 9 or 12 month basis.  There is also the opportunity to join me for my 7 Week Intensive Author Course Programme working 1:1 on all areas of your author life and business.

If you are interested to know more, then book in for a discovery call and let’s see where the journey takes us.  Until then, have an awesome week and keep believing in YOU and YOUR MESSAGE!