“Your Network Determines Your Success”
Ask business owner Belinda Kendall about where she gets her strength and her answer is immediate: “My husband and Flic.” Flic is Felicity Ryan, Belinda’s mentor, a former colleague who she reached out to for advice when she was considering setting up a business herself.
Flic, who runs her own consultancy, says that she never consciously assumed the role of mentor. “To me it was just a matter of supporting her,” she says. “She’s very much on equal grounding with me now. She’s moved into her own space business-wise, and she’s brilliant.”
We asked the two women to share how their relationship works – and why your support network is the secret to business success.
Felicity says:
To be a mentor, you really connect with that person. I didn’t plan to be Bel’s mentor, but we were drawn together. We met through work; she was the head of her unit at the organisation she was working for, and she brought me in to provide cultural training around working with Aboriginal people. We saw quite a bit of each other, and I realised at the time what a dynamic woman she was. When she later expressed interest in the sort of work I was doing, it was very a very organic process to work together.
I had mentors of my own when I started out. I have someone that I consider to be a little brother, although we’re not blood-related, and he’s the one who got me into this line of work. At the time he needed a co-facilitator for a workshop he was running, and I helped him out as a one-off. Next thing I knew, I had people getting in contact with me and asking to help them out with more workshops. I thought that maybe I could turn this into a business and took six months leave from my job to give it a try. Shortly after I resigned to go out on my own.
I had no idea about how to be a consultant – I didn’t know how to set up invoicing or even how to quote on a job. My little brother became my mentor. I bounced a million things off him. I organically came across other mentors as I went along – there was one non-Aboriginal trainer in particular who I really connected with. I think I probably bugged her constantly but she really helped me develop my facilitation skills and consultancy.
I come from a long line of teachers on my dad’s side, so I guess this runs through me somehow, but more importantly, this feels like I’m fulfilling my cultural responsibilities for my mum’s mob. I didn’t ever think of myself as a mentor; to me it was just a matter of supporting Bel, and it’s a very natural thing in Aboriginal culture to share the knowledge with the younger ones. You don’t keep the information for yourself. I worked with Bel about 10 years ago and these days she could probably mentor me in lots of ways.
Aboriginal people are so disadvantaged in the employment field, so I’ve really enjoyed the feeling that I’ve been part of attempting to make a change for my people. One of the most important things is to hold on to our traditional values – we think collectively, we share what we know.
Belinda says:
I was working full-time when I met Flic, she facilitated training for some of my team and I would talk to her off and on about going into my own business. I didn’t have the confidence at first – I was worried about the financials and I also had young children. But when I decided to take the jump, Flic helped me with all the questions, from setting up an ABN to what kind of records you need to keep as a sole trader.
I was very lucky, I never had to look for work. The first piece of work I got led to a lot more. Flic gave me lots of encouragement and introduced me to people – she still does that today. I could call her about anything; her attitude is that there is no such thing as a silly question. I think one of the biggest things that determines your success is the network and support you have, and she made my life so much easier. I also have a great husband and family.
Another thing helpful for me was the MURRA Indigenous Business Program at the University of Melbourne. I learnt a lot but was also surrounded by so many awesome business owners. The knowledge and sharing has been really good and the relationships built will be for a lifetime.
I’m no longer a sole trader. We founded our company, Curijo, five years ago. There were four partners initially and now there are three of us. We are in business to increase equity and prosperity through connections, leadership, truth telling and education. We now have other Aboriginal businesses ringing us up and asking for advice. We give advice whenever we can and share our networks; we have a social responsibility to support our people. This is important to us – we never keep our knowledge to ourselves.
We’re all about improving outcomes. An agency emailed us a few weeks ago asking how they could train their staff internally. If I were focused just on business I’d say, that puts us out of business but my attitude is, if that’s what they need and I can help them, it’s my role to lead them in the right direction. It’s about learning and sharing for us all.
We are proud of how we have built our business and now have more than 25 staff. It is important for us to work with younger people. We want to support their career journey, provide them with training and support, so that if they stay with us they will end up in leadership roles. We are very focused on our staff living our company values and being a part of the Curijo journey.
October is Indigenous Business Month.
Interview with Felicity & Belinda by Ute Junker
Photos_ Rojan Maharjan/UnSplash, supplied