TIME - Travel Industry Mentor Experience
TIME - Travel Industry Mentor Experience
Unexpected Journeys: Brianna Drummond's Path to Leadership and Networking Success
What happens when a chance encounter at a panel event transforms a career path? Join us as we chat with Brianna Drummond, the inspiring Product Operations Team Leader at Inspiring Vacations, who shares her journey into unexpected opportunities. From skepticism to success, discover how Brianna's scholarship experience, mentorship with sales coach Nicole O'Sullivan, and bold steps outside her comfort zone have redefined her professional growth and leadership abilities.
Without a sales background, Brianna reveals how understanding personality traits and communication styles can revolutionize networking. We swap stories about the challenges and triumphs of becoming more outgoing, and Brianna explains how pushing beyond familiar boundaries can lead to meaningful connections. With insights into vibrant networking scenes in Melbourne and Sydney and tips for leveraging LinkedIn, this conversation is packed with strategies to elevate your career and personal development.
But it's not all business! We spice things up with some podcast banter, a quest for Melbourne's best croissants, and family tales of unpatented inventions. Laugh along with us as we explore the quirks of life, like waiting hours to witness a rare flower bloom or the whims of dressing up for a podcast. Tune in for a lively mix of professional insights, personal anecdotes, and a reminder that growth often comes in the most unexpected ways.
Hello and welcome back to episode 2, season 5 of the Time Podcast. Today we have our newest clown from Cirque du Soleil here, the one, the only, Arnaud Michelin. Welcome back.
Speaker 2:Thank you. There's a bit of noise in the background. Great start, it's a great start. Yeah, I'm really excited to be here. Season 5, episode 2. That's pretty exciting. I think that episode one we started with a bang, so I'm really glad that we managed to stick around for episode two. And then today we have a special guest. Her name is Brianna Drummond and she's the product operations team leader.
Speaker 3:At Inspiring Vacations.
Speaker 1:There you go. Yeah, that's me. That is very exciting. Welcome to the show, brianna. It's good to have you here.
Speaker 3:Yes, thank you for having me, thank you for inviting me, and I love the background.
Speaker 1:I know it's just a sheer curtain and some plants, I know, but it looks a bit like silver.
Speaker 3:I tried to blur it and to put something else there, but it wasn't working for me.
Speaker 1:No, it's perfect. I actually really like it.
Speaker 3:My house.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's pretty cool, awesome, nice. So did you have good weather where you are?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's pretty warm. It's been pretty consistently warm lately, a bit windy and stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Sydney's beautiful. We have a tropical storm and about 200 litres of water coming down each half second.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, I think that was us a few days ago. So yeah, just sharing the love.
Speaker 2:Thank you for sending that to us then.
Speaker 1:You're welcome. That's really great. Anyhow, we're not here to talk about the weather. We're actually here to talk about time. Yes, yep, brianna, let's go back to the very start. Do you remember the amazing moment when you heard for the very first time of that groundbreaking future initiative for you?
Speaker 3:I do. I do. Yes, it was something. The program in itself was something that I sort of saw through LinkedIn popping up there. I've always sort of had informal mentors throughout my career, generally people that I work with internally, but it was a bit serendipitous in that I was on the panel of the Cato IWD luncheon last year that was held in Brisbane. I'm on the panel and there was another girl there with me, Sarah Hoskin, who had just finished the time program as well.
Speaker 3:So I just met Sarah at that event and she's a Melbourne girl as well and she was speaking quite highly of the program and what she got out of it and I was obviously a little bit familiar with it. But that sort of I guess gave me a bit of a kick up the bum to maybe take the next step and so I was looking into it and then it just happened to be that there was a scholarship opportunity for the program, so Mint were sponsoring a place in the next program, so I think I was program 56. And so I wrote up an application. I ran it by, obviously my employment first, I did the application.
Speaker 3:I applied and I think it was maybe the next day that I got the call from Mari to say that I was successful with the scholarship. I do remember because I was quite surprised in that, a I got the call so quickly and B that I was obviously chosen for the scholarship. So having that funding financially was very appreciative at the time. So yeah, that was the moment that I applied and that I got accepted.
Speaker 2:Exciting Congratulations, yeah, this Exciting Congratulations, yeah, this is good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and can I ask when you prepared your application, what KPIs, what outcome preferred outcome, I should say did you put in there?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So the focuses I guess for me at the time were around my leadership skills. So I've been in the industry for a while but I guess leadership has always sort of been the area that I'd like a bit more focus on and a bit more guidance on. So it was the leadership as well as my personal development, so getting a bit more confident in social settings and networking as well. So those are the two sort of key areas that I think I put on the application. And that's when they decided to pair me with Nicole O'Sullivan, who is a sales coach. So she is ex-Flight Centre, now runs her own sales coaching business. So that's who I ended up being paired with to work on those things.
Speaker 1:Awesome and I know, don't you think it's always interesting that people say when they're just 22, they're already for years in the industry 22, definitely yes.
Speaker 3:I've been in the industry for over 15 years.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:Over 15 years. So yeah, when I was about 19 and I'm 35 now.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, I thought I was going to say, wow, so did your mom have a travel agency and you started to work there since you were five. Okay, I didn't realize that my mom was a florist, actually, so okay, that's a good fun fact I like I didn't get those, those genes from her, unfortunately so tell us a little bit more about, like, the first time you met with nicole and and and how you, how you went into that first meeting with her.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it was good because Nicole is Melbourne-based as well, so she's not too far from the office where I work. So our first meet-up was in person. We just thought that would be a good way to sort of kick it off. We met one day after work and, yeah, just in like a food court area near the office, and it was just a really sort of get to know you based discussion and then asking me questions about, obviously, why I'm part of the program, what I'm trying to get out of it and I was, and I've told Nicole this as well, so it's no secret.
Speaker 3:I was a little bit skeptical and nervous when I was paired with someone with a sales background, because I'm just not very sales. I've been in the industry for a long time, but sales is just one of the areas I've never really been quite niche at.
Speaker 3:It's always been to operations and product management and things like that. So in that aspect I wondered about the pairing and if she'd have that sort of insight and knowledge I guess into that aspect of the industry. But then as the conversation sort of went on and we got to know each other a bit more, it did start to make a lot of sense, especially when speaking to the two sort of core reasons as to why I joined around leadership and personal development. Nicole has a very strong leadership background and, being obviously sales, she is a lot more sure of herself and confident, has great networking skills and definitely things that she worked with me on, into trying to be a bit more personable and learning different styles as to why that people work and interact and things like that. So the synergy of the relationship definitely made a lot of sense and it definitely got stronger over time.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you for being quite detailed there. I really love that, if you don't mind, if you can even go a little bit further, just for me to understand how it works, because I think it's probably super exciting to work with a sales coach, especially when you're not from sales. So I'm obviously also from operations. I know sales and drinks a lot of coffee and goes to fancy lunches and dinners and functions.
Speaker 2:I'm in operations.
Speaker 1:Now I'm in operations. Now I don't do sales anymore, I'm working hard like a horse on the fields, you know.
Speaker 3:Operations is where I'm at.
Speaker 1:I know you know trying to become a unicorn while other people live the lifestyle. But back to you. Back to you. How exactly did she help you to gain those networking skills, to be more confident with yourself and to be more knowledgeable about the different types, and how can you use that now in a networking setting?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So I guess a couple of things. We would just go through typical sort of scenarios or examples of, maybe, situations that I had been confronted with at work. So there was a couple of different suggestions that she had. We did a lot of what would you call it.
Speaker 3:It's not like tests, but, you know, like the disc, personality styling and things like that. So I did that for myself to learn what my sort of traits were and where I sat in that sort of spectrum, and then that sort of helped me understand and identify where, like colleagues or other people in the business sat within that, um, those traits as well. So, and that just helped me, especially with the role that I'm in at the moment. It helped me, I guess, get a bit more perspective on people and their situations and that everybody is different and then, if I'm passing on feedback to someone, that there's always going to be a different approach for different people depending on how they absorb information, um, whether they like gratitude or, um, yeah, how they deal with confrontation and feedback if they've done something wrong and things like that.
Speaker 3:So we did a few tests and and things like that around profiling, like personality profiling and things like that, and then it was really just suggestions on like actual events that were coming up, like networking events, and putting myself out there to attend those and really getting out of my comfort zone to go up to someone and that I don't particularly know very well or know at all, and just to get that confidence to go up and meet them and say hello and to reach out to someone at work that I might not really interact with day to day, just to sit down and have a coffee, just to really break those barriers down and that the more that I do that, the more confident I'll become. So it's a work in progress. It's not one of those things that you can typically sort of change overnight. I like to say that I'm sort of an introverted extrovert.
Speaker 3:There's times that I can be, quite outgoing and jovial and loud, but then if I'm in a situation where there's a lot of people that I don't know, I can get quite introverted and quiet and just sort of go to my comfort zone with what I know. So it's definitely a work in progress. But yeah, there were a few things that we worked through together to try and break down those barriers in terms of, yeah, that personal sort of development side.
Speaker 1:Well done you, though. That's amazing, just you know, having the confidence and giving a go at going to someone unknown and just starting a conversation.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it can be very daunting.
Speaker 1:Actually. I do remember, actually, arnaud told me at some stage back in the days when he was young and he saw me at one of the many time meetings. He actually said he was intimidated by me, which is absolutely ridiculous because I'm such a lovely person, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I get that feedback as well about me. That, yeah, I can come across quite intimidating, but I don't know what it is, whether it's just my face and that's just what I look like. I do a lot with people.
Speaker 1:Look, I think I'm with you. I think it has to do with if you're in a room with a lot of people you don't know, obviously you don't look as outgoing as if you're surrounded by friends, right? So you just look probably a bit more like neutral. I'd say yeah, and that might be perceived as not being as interested, which is totally wrong, I think, because you're still obviously participating in a situation. Yeah so, but what did you think the first time you saw? I know, actually, did you have a similar experience or?
Speaker 3:um, I don't think so. No, I don't think so. He looks familiar like someone that I know, so maybe that is a bit comfy.
Speaker 2:Oh, there you go See.
Speaker 3:But no, he definitely looks very friendly.
Speaker 1:Is it someone famous?
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 2:No, I do not look like Sonny Tucci. Stop it.
Speaker 3:I got told when I was a bit younger that I looked like Helen Hunt, and I don't think I took that very well. So, especially when I was like 17 18, I got told I looked like Helen Hunt interesting.
Speaker 1:I think you look much more like Rihanna Grande yeah.
Speaker 2:I was gonna say, yeah, someone like a lot younger than Helen Hunt yeah, I hope that you're not friends with that person anymore Wow.
Speaker 3:I'm obviously hanging on to it, though.
Speaker 1:Look at times when we talk about getting people together. I'm not setting them apart, you know, and there's no hunt bashing on this podcast, but let's talk about bringing people together. So have you gone to any of the Melbourne functions, the Melbourne network functions that were organised by the state representatives of time?
Speaker 3:I missed the Melbourne function and I think that's because I was away. I was on holiday, otherwise I would have. But I went to three of the ones in Sydney. Don't probe me with which dates I went to, because my memory fails me often, but I went to three of the networking events before. Maybe it was three, yeah, in Sydney so, and one of those was obviously my graduation.
Speaker 2:Your graduation? Yeah, Because you graduated in October, is that correct? Yes, yeah yeah, have you kept in touch with some of the mentees that were in the same?
Speaker 3:Not so much like LinkedIn connections. Yes, in terms of like personally, sort of in contact with them. No, we didn't really have a lot of exposure to one another, if I'm honest, aside from obviously crossing over at some of those events. But connected on LinkedIn for sure, yes, but yeah, personal interactions no, and I think a lot of them are Sydney-based people. I don't know if anyone else was based in Melbourne in my program.
Speaker 2:And what about Sarah? Because you said you met her on that panel at a KTO event.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, no, I love Sarah, have you seen?
Speaker 2:her since. Have you been able to give her feedback? I've seen her at.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a couple of events again. Again, we're LinkedIn acquaintances. I'm going to the kato event again this year because it's in melbourne in march, so, um, hopefully I'll cross paths with her there. But no, sarah is great, but I'm still in touch with nicole as well after the program, which is so you said you went to three or four sydney events.
Speaker 1:Um, did you also go to the workshops that are usually before the events?
Speaker 3:yes, yeah, I did, yep.
Speaker 1:And please share your focus. I'm unfortunately very busy these days and old, so I didn't make a lot of workshops, but which ones did you go to, and can you just give a bit of feedback? What do you like about it?
Speaker 3:The very again, my memory absolutely fails me. So I probably needed a bit of a heads up, but one that I went to which was the very first one, and that was when I that was the event that I had my like induction into the program. My memory is failing me with what her name was oh, so you started.
Speaker 1:did you start in February?
Speaker 3:I started in April. April, sorry, and yeah, the event was at the Amadeus office in Sydney. I remember that much. Yeah, my memory is I can see her face. My memory is failing me as to what her name was, but she was Harvey World, I'm fairly sure, and that was really about a lot about her background and her career.
Speaker 1:Actually, I know we were there as well. You actually sat next to me. It was the first time I know sat next to me in public. It was very interesting. Usually he avoids me. I can't recall, can you?
Speaker 2:recall. I know what it was, I do recall her, but the thing about her name always leaves my mind and she was a very senior person at the Hello World group and she talked about all her career and all the mentors there were in her career and she was very, very, very inspiring. And then the keynotes on that day. If I remember well, that was one of the co-founders of CTM.
Speaker 1:Is that possible?
Speaker 3:Yeah, personal branding it definitely linked in part into it. Yeah, it was about branding and things like that.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes yes, got it. See, we got it together.
Speaker 1:Good teamwork good teamwork.
Speaker 2:I liked that workshop too and actually I took a lot of notes out of that and I've applied. She was very well structured and there was a lot of bullet points and I thought this was great, and so I still have the notes in my phone because I was like I thought it was really, really, really good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, is that. Do you do the same thing, brianna? Do you take notes on your phone and every now and then just read through them to remind yourself, because I think it's actually a quite common thing that you have a learning moment, but it's kind of gone in two, three, four weeks.
Speaker 3:A lot of note-taking. I do a lot of voice notes now as well, or voice to text. I just find that a lot more efficient. But yeah, generally I'd need to write things down to sort of remember what I need to remember, I guess did you use that after your sessions with Nicole?
Speaker 1:then did you just kind of make a few notes, bullet points, or did you send yourself a voicemail taking, I think, her more so than me?
Speaker 3:but yeah, we do a lot of note-taking. I think her more so than me, but yeah, it's a lot of note-taking at our sessions. There was usually some sort of like follow-up that I needed to do and then we'd revert back to those discussions like the following week or following fortnight, depending how often it was that we met. But yeah, there was a little bit of note-taking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and if you take a scale from one to ten one being very much opportunity to improve and ten being absolutely perfect in regards to being on time for delivering the paperwork back to Mari where would you scale yourself?
Speaker 3:So ten was like on time.
Speaker 1:Ten is like you're the superstar, you're always totally no reminders needed.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I thought you would be like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so, mari hasn't given you any feedback about my punctuality or anything like that oh no, she would not disclose any of these things.
Speaker 2:She's a super pro no, but you can tell us that you're a 10, and even if you're a 5, there's no way we can verify this information I wouldn't lie, I'm a 10.
Speaker 1:Okay, for the record here for the record, this was a great example of actually I know being the mean person all the time, because he assumed straight away you would bs us, while I believed you straight away. Thank you appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Yes, I've got issues with um trusting people I know, we all know you got issues. That's fine yeah, but we will not. Just to reassure you, brianna after this, um, this episode, we will not go to marie and verify whether you are.
Speaker 3:That's fine. Fact checking is pretty important in podcasting, isn't it? Yes?
Speaker 1:not so much on our podcast, however, are you? What's the one headline that you would use to describe your learning out of your time?
Speaker 3:Oh, I think Mari asked for something similar at the end. What did she ask for? Potentially? Yeah, so I guess that it with my mentor's guidance that I boost up my confidence in my abilities, and she encouraged me to step outside of my comfort zone. I've just gained, obviously, a friend through the mentorship program as well, and it's just really helped me hone in on and focus on what it is in my career that I really want to achieve, I guess, and find my purpose.
Speaker 1:That's a very long headline.
Speaker 3:There's a reason I don't work in marketing either. If you want me to write up a process for you or something, I can definitely do that, but don't get me to write headlines or marketing Marketing drags.
Speaker 2:That's why you were on time so many of your paperwork, you know. That's why.
Speaker 1:But what's the plan for the future? If you were on time submitting your paperwork, you know that's why. But what's the plan for the future with you on time? Are you taking a bit of a break? Are you fully engaging yourself?
Speaker 3:I've got a one-on-one session with another mentor next week next week I think.
Speaker 3:So Mari reached out to our program just with a list of mentors that were offering one-on-one sessions, so not an ongoing thing, just a sort of once-off off. So I took advantage of that and I've got a session next week with that person. So there's that I have considered at another point in time potentially going through the program again, because I have heard from other people, other mentees, that have gone through it a couple of times. They still see the benefits because you're at different stages throughout your career and there's other things that you can sort of learn and speak about. So, yeah, that chat's the first thing.
Speaker 3:Like I said, I'm still in touch with Nicole. I'll still reach out to her for advice and to have a chat, even just to say hi, and I am, I guess, advocating for the program internally at work as well. So there's another colleague that I've referred to go through the program and hopefully our employer sort of gets on board in sponsoring those sort of spots in the program, because I do think it's really worthwhile, especially with some of our employers at the moment. They're probably just new into the industry and yeah, I think a program like that would be pretty beneficial for someone that's pretty new, just to sort of understand what their goals are.
Speaker 2:Did you get anyone in your company that, after your experience at Time, that are now interested in getting into it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I've got a friend at work Her name's Michaela, so she's in sales, so I've had some chats to her. She's come to me with advice about certain things, which has been nice. But yeah, I definitely spoke to her about the program, I gave her all the details and she's sort of in the midst of going through that process, so hopefully she'll apply for that soon. But yes, like I said, big advocate for mentoring in general.
Speaker 2:And your employer, because you said that before you went for the scholarship you obviously asked their permission to see if they were happy for you to be part of the program. How receptive were they to that? Is it something that later down the track, they would like to invest in?
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, no, they were very receptive and they're always very supportive in terms of career development and taking advantage of opportunities. But, yeah, part of the process was getting their approval and they were very happy to do that. And obviously there were times that I had to fly up to Sydney and they were very generous in sponsoring those trips.
Speaker 3:So with the accommodation and the flights that were needed, which was really helpful. But they are definitely interested it's on their radar to implement some sort of initiative within the company to potentially sponsor a person a year to go through the program. So they're definitely big advocates for that sort of stuff.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's good. More people, better people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I was very volume driven, yeah, very volume driven. Yeah, exactly you know, meeting KPIs increasing targets. Yeah, yeah, it's my life.
Speaker 1:You're a salesperson at heart. I know, I know you pretend to be in operations now, but you know your inner soul is still sales yeah, at heart, yes, of course nothing wrong.
Speaker 2:There's nothing wrong with that obviously but I think it was really good. Like what you described, brianna basically is like you. I really appreciate the fact that you say that you were a little bit anxious because nicole had more of a sales profile and that's not necessarily who you are. But in the end what it appears to me but correct me if I'm wrong is basically it was more based on character traits that she was paired with you, because what you wanted to develop out of that program that was the character traits that she had and that she was going to be able to teach this time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And so that's really good to be able to see that those crossovers between the skill set that a person in a certain part of our industry may have and may be able to bring to someone else that has a profile which is totally the opposite, and I think that probably works for you, you know, like extremely well.
Speaker 3:so you know, I think it was, it was a, it was a good match, right it was yeah, yeah, like I said, um, yeah, initially it was just a bit um and again I just I don't think I really had any sort of expectation or anyone in mind as to who they might pair me with. I'm obviously not privy to who the mentors are in the program, but, yeah, you've just got to trust the process, I guess. And they do speak about their ability to match people together. So, but yeah, like you said, we're opposites in certain ways in terms of our traits, but that was complimentary. I guess, through that process, because I'm trying to get more of those traits, she was, yeah, a good person to sort of guide me through that it's like peeling an onion and then you know, you reveal the layers and then the fruit inside yes, yes, a lot of layers I would have actually expected a florist reference here, like you know, with the flowers to make, to make a link back to the beginning of the podcast.
Speaker 3:But now it's blooming. Maybe the french?
Speaker 1:people always start thinking of onion soup with extra gruyere cheese on top and some french spaghetti. I know exactly how his brain works.
Speaker 2:It's very obvious, you know, you know. The thing is, I don't know much about flowers, to be honest with you, and the only big event that we had about flowers in Sydney recently was this flower Exactly, and so I didn't think it would have been appropriate to make any reference to that because, basically, you're telling a good story and I do believe that that experience of seeing that flower blooming was not necessarily Did you go and see the flower? I didn't. You should have seen the queue outside the Botany Gardens. It was crazy Three hours.
Speaker 1:Three hours. I didn't go there but friends of mine went.
Speaker 3:Three hours waiting time, Most of you need to get to smell it. I imagine you have to be quite up close if people are lining up. It's not like you know.
Speaker 2:I'm sure I can find some places in Sydney that smell just as bad and don't have to queue as long.
Speaker 1:And look, I think it also depends on who's in the queue before you, that's right, good point. I'm sure that might have an impact. That might have an impact Awesome.
Speaker 2:Look, next time I will think about an echo.
Speaker 3:See, it's hard being put on the spot, isn't?
Speaker 1:it not sure what you talk about, but speaking about putting on a spot, um, what was your favorite podcast episode of the time podcast? I'm sure I'm sure you listened to all of them, right?
Speaker 3:it was definitely on my list of things to do, okay, but I have a very long list. So again me just being an honest person. I haven't listened to any of them, but I've got no doubt that they're great, so maybe after this I did want no, actually I did want to listen to them, but I worried that I would psych myself out of this conversation. I didn't want to start like comparing myself to others I thought I'd just go in without knowing a whole lot and just yeah wing it.
Speaker 2:Well, I would suggest you to listen to the episode with Sarah, because I think it was an interesting one, but also, I mean, I don't know if Timo has been able to catch up with her or see her. You know've, we've, we've been on the podcast together, but, um, for me, uh, seeing her career, how it's evolved, you know, like, from that moment where we interviewed her do you remember, timo? She was in a shopping center and then she was like there was this person that was walking around her and she was a bit, um, it's so it was, but what she described about her experience. And then, when I see her where she's at now in her career, you can really see the positive impact that time has had.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so, yeah, maybe have a listen and when you catch up with her considering she's the one who inspired you to join maybe you know that's a good way to have a chat, and then you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'll definitely do that. Yeah, I did. She was at the graduation of our program and I did give her a little bit of a mention during that speech. But no, I'll definitely go back and listen to it.
Speaker 1:Just for the records. I actually think that all of our episodes are somewhat interesting. I thought the one with Sarah so interesting, also the one with Sarah, so I just wanted to highlight that you should definitely also make an effort to listen to your own one once it's published, please.
Speaker 3:It's always interesting.
Speaker 1:See, I suggest you actually see it as a growth opportunity, because in the beginning, like when I listened to the first podcast after, I was just like, oh my God, what am I actually doing?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'll sit down with a glass of wine or something, and yeah, and a straw, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And now I just think like, oh my gosh, what am I doing? But I don't care anymore, it's a good. It's a good growth opportunity. Wow, did you just say I'm careless? Interesting, I know. Wow, every opportunity just jumped every opportunity, timo.
Speaker 2:What do you have next?
Speaker 1:Nothing, nothing, it's all good, it's all good, it's all good.
Speaker 2:You haven't made any comments on the way I dress today. Seriously, and I'm starting to get a little bit upset because I've made the effort to wear clothing to be on this episode today- yeah, you finished that sentence. You know, you haven't said anything about my hair. You haven't said anything about what I'm wearing, like what's wrong.
Speaker 1:I can totally explain that to the audience easily. So usually when we record the podcast, arnaud is at his home or wherever. He just hangs and he's dressed very casually. Today he actually looks like a normal person going to the office and obviously you're always handsome, as you know. So you know there's not much to comment on that. But today you just wear a normal shirt and you just look like business and there's not much to criticize.
Speaker 1:It's a bit easier if you just put your wig on the wrong place while you get your croissants and your high heels and your Mardi Gras outfit. After three parties Today, you look very presentable. That's why I haven't commented.
Speaker 2:Okay, thank you. I thought you didn't like me anymore.
Speaker 1:Yes, that would be impossible enough about it's all about brianna today it is brianna and I know is always very interested to understand where he can get the best croissants in town. So back to melbourne. What do you think? Where's the best croissant? From your point of view? He won't be satisfied anyway. Just letting you know. But between no no, that's okay.
Speaker 3:Obviously, there's loom in melbourne, but I feel like they have one in sydney as well, don't they? No, not, not in.
Speaker 2:Sydney. No, they have several ones in Sydney because they've just opened a few of them, but I don't think they are that good.
Speaker 1:No you don't rate them. I told you. I told you, he's never happy.
Speaker 3:What about the croissants just from Woolworths or Coles?
Speaker 2:You're pushing a little bit.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 2:I still need to find a good croissant shop in Melbourne. I'm sure there's plenty of them. I've tried a few, but nothing really that stood out. There are some really good cake shops in Melbourne, yes.
Speaker 3:There's a good bakery on Turek Road in South Yarra yeah. Near the station there, I can't remember what it's called. I think they have quite nice ones, but obviously you're going to hold a pretty high standard with that sort of stuff, yeah.
Speaker 2:This is my New Year's resolution to try to find a good croissant shop in Melbourne, because usually the food is always very high standard over there. It's just that I've not really blimped on a way about anything, like you know, croissant related.
Speaker 3:That's all. Have you been to Bistro Catan on Tarek Road?
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, that rings a bell, so I need to. Yeah, I need to check it out. Next time I'm in town I'm going to call you and then you can show me the way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, many business lunches and things there, so it's very good. Awesome. Now, mianna, what's things there? So it's very good, awesome.
Speaker 1:Now, brianna, what's the one thing, the dark secret, you want to share with us? Oh, have we actually asked Penny about a dark secret? I don't think we have.
Speaker 3:Like a personal dark secret, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Something that you want to tell us that not a lot of people know about you.
Speaker 1:God, you can also tell us something that you don't want to tell us.
Speaker 3:that not a lot of people know about you. God, you can also tell us something that you don't want to tell how deep do we get here?
Speaker 1:oh, very good question.
Speaker 3:She said before she doesn't lie I don't lie before this podcast episode, I came from a therapy session, is that? And dark.
Speaker 2:Wow, I get a bit too emotional. Did you have a good time there?
Speaker 3:I have a bit of a fun fact.
Speaker 2:I don't know about that. Oh yeah, yeah. A lot of fun facts.
Speaker 3:Do you know, like lap ramps, what lap ramps are? No, they're things that elevate your laptop so it doesn't have anything underneath. Yep, my dad invented those.
Speaker 1:No, really.
Speaker 3:My dad created the very first lap ramp. My laptop's sitting on one at the moment, but he refused to patent it and sell it to office works. And then people just started copying his design and yeah no way that's not a cool story, though it's not a fact about you though but that's okay.
Speaker 3:About my family maybe. Yeah, um, fun fact about me I'm pretty. I'm a pretty open, transparent person. No deep, dark secrets. I have a benign tumor on my toe that I'm getting removed in a couple of weeks oh wow, how did you get that? I don't. Apparently, it's just a thing that just grows on your toe. It's very uncommon. Okay, I was training for a half marathon and my toe just started to hurt. So I got some tests MRIs and I found a little tumor under there.
Speaker 2:Sad. So now you're getting that removed, you're going to be able to run your half marathon.
Speaker 2:Well, the half marathon was the end of last year so I had to change that up, but hopefully towards the end of this year um, it's a bit of a recovery after toe surgery, but hopefully I'll get back out there and start training again well, if you need some support emotional support on your running, you have someone here that will be more than happy to provide any sort of emotional support and give you guidance on running, because I do a lot of it. You're a runner.
Speaker 1:I know he's actually a very good runner. You should definitely take him up for that. Absolutely, see. This is a great example that time is not only about business goals, but also about personal goals. Yeah, yeah. No, he's really good at that, so make sure you make use of his, of his experience running, like marathon running or yes, yeah, interesting.
Speaker 3:What's your like? Minute per k?
Speaker 2:average. Well, that would depend on the race that I run. So I run a half marathon in sub 90 minutes and my goal this year for a full marathon is to run it under three hours and five minutes. That's okay, so that would be like a 4.15 pace.
Speaker 3:Which marathon are you looking at doing?
Speaker 2:I'm going to run the Gold Coast Marathon and the Sydney Marathon this year.
Speaker 3:Nice.
Speaker 1:About the same time it takes me from bed to the bathroom. I'm just about the sporty one. I'm sorry, You're the sporty one.
Speaker 2:You play the Australian Open and everything. You're like a professional athlete.
Speaker 1:Please. I lost in the second round. I swiped off the court like an old leaf falling from the tree. I'm sorry for you. No, you're actually not. I just saw that smirk in your face. I am sorry. Thank you. Anyhow, we come to the end of this podcast, Brianna, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate that. Oh, it's okay. Thanks for sharing and being very open and honest. It's always great to hear from everyone's experience and I'm sure I will also see it at one of the networking events in the future. Please don't be intimidated by me. I can't speak for all.
Speaker 3:Oh try not to be.
Speaker 1:I don't mind.
Speaker 3:Life-wise. Please don't be intimidated by me when I'm being an introvert in the corner over there, but I'll definitely try and put myself out there.
Speaker 2:You can do it.
Speaker 3:Please do Thank you again for inviting me.
Speaker 1:It's been an absolute pleasure Awesome.
