Tina:           Hello, I'm Tina Tower, and you're listening to Her Empire Builder. For my first decade of business I thought grinding and hustling and working harder than everyone else was my path to success. It was pretty successful by a lot of measures, but it led to burnout and adrenal fatigue. Then, when I travelled around the world on my family gap year, I discovered the simplicity and the reach of online business, and I completely fell in love.

You have so much knowledge and expertise that's within, and I want to help you to package that so you can also help to lift others up. So, how do you build a thriving million-dollar business based on everything that's in your mind? This is Her Empire Builder, the podcast.

Hello, and welcome to Episode 54 of Her Empire Builder. Today's guest is super dooper cool. Her name is Genine Howard, and I actually didn't know who Genine was. I don't know what rock I was sleeping underneath of, but Genine actually interviewed me for her podcast, and you know when you have conversations with people and you’re just like, “I like you.” So, we could have talked for all day long, and the more that conversation went on, the more I was like, “You know what, you are my flavour. I like this. I like what you're sending out.”, and so I asked her to come on Her Empire Builder as well, and so today, we have her gift with us and she's talking all about stepping into your feminine power, and it's a message that I totally love. She's an absolute powerhouse of a woman which you're going to hear all about.

Best known as magazine publisher, and a feminine leadership coach, after decades in the media, Genine now heads up a movement to teach women to embody their feminine wisdom, intuition and soul work so they can build impactful legacy empires. How cool is that for what you do for a job? Anyway, her multimedia empire profile champions and showcases women across the globe who are the epitome of fearless feminine founders. So, I want you to get ready for this incredible conversation with Genine Howard.

Tina:           Genine Howard, welcome to Her Empire Builder.

Genine:       Thanks, Tina. So excited to be here with you.

Tina:           Yay, yay, yay. So, the reason that you're on was I, I spoke to you a couple of weeks ago. So, it was, is kind of in, in promotion with my One Life Book, and you were interviewing me which is actually going to come out after this one [laughs].

Genine:       [Laughs].

Tina:           But knowing that, you're interviewing me and the whole time I'm going, “You're really intriguing. I need to know more about this.”, and then I went, “Okay, you're going to have to come on my podcast now.” So, that's really how you ended up here. So, tell me, for everybody that doesn't know you, what you do and why you do it.

Genine:       Well, we could have a long story or a short story. So, how about like a medium? [Laughs]

Tina:           Go medium, yeah.

Genine:       So, what I do and what I've always been known for is actually promoting other women who are doing amazing things in their business. So, for a, for a lot of my career, I've been in magazines, and, you know, my role has really been to, to showcase female entrepreneurs who are, you know, really make, being change makers and doing things differently in the world. Then for me, I had children and my whole life changed, as it does.

Tina:           Quite.

Genine:       So, I really gave up that whole magazine deadline world.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       And moved over into a business that was more conducive to my lifestyle and that was really going into coaching. You know, being in magazines, really, every day, I was just coaching businesses on their marketing so.

Tina:           And so, what happened with the magazine.

Genine:       Yeah, so interesting story. I had my firstborn and he was about eight months old, and I just decided I was no longer available for it. It's time to go, and I actually sold it, and I cleverly sold it to one of my top clients because it was a perfect medium for them to get their business out there. So moved on, we actually moved interstate from where we were. Started a whole new life really from a place of what, what, what do we want to do when we grow up, and my husband said, “I want to be an actor.”, and I said, “Tops. Let's do that.” [Laughs]

Tina:           And what did he do before that?

Genine:       He worked as a carpenter.

Tina:           Right, so you truly had this, this time and space in your life that your child was a catalyst for, where you went, “Let's look at our entire life and then redefine the life we want to live moving forward.”

Genine:       Absolutely, absolutely.

Tina:           Amazing.

Genine:       It was literally this real awakening period where we, we took everything of our life and living broke it all in half and started from scratch. So, we ended up moving to Melbourne and my husband, you know, since then, has literally being an actor, so on stage, in film, TV shows like Neighbours, Winners and Losers, Offspring, all of that, and for me, I was actually in a bit of a honeymoon phase when I moved down to Melbourne because I was a bit cashed up, you know, just sold my business.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       So it allowed me space to really decide who I was, what was important in my world and how I could literally craft up a business that I could work from home, I could have my baby, and in fact I had another baby, so, I had to be able to do that business whilst being pregnant, breastfeeding.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       All of the above. So, I chose coaching and it was perfect for me because I'm a teacher at heart.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       But also, too, just having that experience of years and years of media, advertising, marketing.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       But, yeah.

Tina:           So, I want to ask a little bit more about that, because it's one thing. I mean, I'm a huge advocate of, if you don't like something in your life, throw it out and change it, but it can sound, when you've done it, it can sound super easy. You know, “We just did this. We re-evaluated. We went in a different direction.”, but what you did and the significant change of life was a very brave thing to do, and I know a lot of people sit on that and go, “There's, there’s a yearning for something different or a yearning for something more, but how do you actually go about doing that?” Can you really go a little bit deeper into that in going, you know, how did that conversation start? When your husband wanted to change from a carpenter to an actor? When you wanted to stay home, sell the magazine and then start a whole new business that you hadn't been involved in before? How, was that a quick thing? Was it a long thing? What were the conversations?

Genine:       Yeah, and I think that's a really important point to make, because a lot of people have that yearning for, “I wish I could have a different life.” I'm going to tell it straight.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       We made a rash decision

Tina:           Excellent. [Laughs] They’re the best kind.

Genine:       [Laughs] Literally, it was.

Tina:           And go!

Genine:       Oh my gosh, and do you know what? I think if we hadn't just made a rash decision, then we would have over analysed it, procrastinated and really made it quite difficult. So, it's like we jumped before we even thought of the ramifications. So, for example, when I decided to sell the magazine, it took probably, maybe five, six weeks.

Tina:           Yeah, so not long.

Genine:       Because I was very clear on who it would benefit. You know, who I would sell it to and did the deal. When it came to the decision on moving, it was a process of four weeks. So, from the time that we decided that, “Do you know what? What if we just, like, did something completely different?” We went, I remember we went to my husband's agent because he had been doing a little bit of acting.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       We went to his agent and we just said, “Well, what do you think he needs to do?”, and she was very clear. She said, “You have to move to Sydney or Melbourne.” Now because my mum and my family's based in Melbourne, we're like, “Okay, well, let's do Melbourne. Great, well let's go.”, and we literally had it all, just one step after the other. “All right, yes, we need somewhere to live. Okay.”

Tina:           Let’s get a house. [Laughs]

Genine:       A friend looked at rental properties for us. So, he got a house for us and we just packed everything up and move. So, it was, we didn't think about it too much.

Tina:           Yeah, and do you think that gets in the way of people, is sometimes the overthinking and thinking of everything that can go wrong, and then the fear builds up, builds up around that?

Genine:       Absolutely.

Tina:           Yeah. I do too. Yeah.

Genine:       We often don’t move forward in all sorts of things.

Tina:           Mmm.

Genine:       Even sometimes doing a Facebook Live. [Laughs].

Tina:           Totally.

Genine:       Because, we over-analyse and think, “What, what could possibly happen?”, whereas if we just stay in the step that we're in, and it feels good, just move one step forward, and literally that's how I live my life on a daily basis to be honest.

Tina:           Yep, yeah, and so since you made that move, and then you went, “Alright, so I want to have something that's more conducive around the kids and the lifestyle that I want to lead. I'm going to start coaching.” How did you even start that? Because I mean, when you start any new business it’s hard to get the reputation going and get clients and do that, how did that work for you?

Genine:       Yeah, I started it, really, from as simplistic as I possibly could. So, I got a coach, first up.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       I wasn't available to do that by myself, because I hadn't been in that space before, so I first of all got a coach, and she really just helped me craft my packages and pricing up. So, once I had that grounding, and I, really, there's a lot of mental work that's involved in.

Tina:           There is.

Genine:       “Who am I to do this?”, but I got over myself quickly and just went, “Just get this out there.”, because.

Tina:           Mmm.

Genine:       To be honest, I'd started, you know, I'd had the honeymoon phase, drinking the lattes.

Tina:           [Laughs].

Genine:       Pushing the pram every day, shopping, all of that, so it was like, the pressure started to get a little bit more real.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       And, I was, like, ready. So, what I did, is, I really just reached out to, to people that I already knew, and, and I literally suggested that they have a conversation with me about what I could do for them for their business.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       And, I just got a handful of clients, and it literally went from there, and I was one on one coaching over the phone, from my bedroom.

Tina:           It’s amazing isn’t it. [Laughs].

Genine:       And, you know, you could be in your pyjamas.

Tina:           But you’re not. For people listening by the way, when I hit go on this. So, we’re doing this call on Zoom and Genine is dressed in the most stunning tangerine dress with a bright red lip and these gorgeous yellow palm tree earrings so [laughs] far from the pyjamas right now.

Genine:       I did, I’ve been on a coaching call before with my crew, so I’ve got a reputation to uphold.

Tina:           [Laughs].

Genine:       You know, but I could do it from my bedroom, and I guess sometimes it can sound overly simplistic, but simplicity is actually the key to starting a business. It really is. Keep it so simple. I had one package to sell.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       One price.

Tina:           Yep.

Genine:       One focus of who I worked with and that really got me through a good couple of years.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       In my coaching business.

Tina:           I do. I do totally agree that that's the key. I often see people starting off and focussing on too many things or focussing on not just doing that one thing and getting going and making revenue but distracting themselves with all of the other things that don't really make a difference. Yeah, totally. Yeah.

Genine:       I don't think I even had a website for the first few months in my business.

Tina:           Oh, really? [Laughs].

Genine:       Yeah. [Laughs].

Tina:           [Laughs] Well, I would say get a website.

Genine:       [Laughs].

Tina:           How long, how long ago was that?

Genine:       That was in 2014. So, I started my coaching business January 2014.

Tina:           Yep. Okay, and so how has that evolved to now? Are you doing many different things now? Or are you still going through the same thing?

Genine:       There are quite a lot of similarities of how I run my business to how I very first started it, and that is simplicity.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       But I will say now, you know, I do have a team, I have two group programs. We do, everything's online that we do, and, you know, for example, this morning, I had a group call with you know, 15 women dressed in my beautiful tangerine.

Tina:           Mmm.

Genine        And, and they’re from all over Australia, but we do actually a lot of live events, more so because I love the connection and the energy that those live events.

Tina:           Yeah. I do love the hybrid of online and offline.

Genine:       Yeah, and I think it's that high touch that we're known for. So, you know, for us, it's, with all of that group programs, there's an element of private coaching through my coaches, so it’s that high touch high level.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       That we do.

Tina:           And so, you're focussing now on helping women step into their light. What do you think holds people back from doing that?

Genine:       Oh, so much that I was about to, like, that there's so much that holds women back from really, you know, we call it stepping into the feminine power, and a lot of it, just the pre-programming. It's honestly the pre-programming, the conditioning since we were children, if we want to go into lineage, DNA, and all of that, but it's that pre-programming of that we're not enough.

Tina:           Mmm.

Genine:       Or, that it has to be hard, that we have to work hard, that we don't deserve, that we have to be, do, have it all, all of these conflicting messages that have really happened over the aeons and in the last few decades, we've really, as women, have lost our identity of where our power is, which is actually internally.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       That’s what we're really teaching our clients, to tune back in, keep business simple, so that there's a lot of, you know, beautiful, feminine power behind what they do, and it's very, they get to do, honestly or just get out there with it, they get to do there soul’s work.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       You know. They get to do their soul’s work and create a legacy and a ripple effect.

Tina:           Yeah, and so, how do you encourage people to do that?

Genine:       Well, for example, we just had a group coaching call this morning.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       And it's, I think we did strategy for about five minutes.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       And the rest of the 90-minute call was on vibrational frequency.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       Energy, mindset.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       Trust, letting go, receiving.

Tina:           Mmm.

Genine:       So, we do a lot of this work. We teach a lot about vibrational frequency.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       And quantum physics and how when we, really, to keep it simple, stay happy, happy things happen.

Tina:           Totally, yeah.

Genine:       Yeah, and that, I’m being very, very facetious and simplistic about it all, but, [laughs] but sometimes we need to dumb it down. It's like, really.

Tina:           Mmm.

Genine:       If we can get our clients to, to feel expansive every day, to feel like they're enough, to feel like they're worthy of receiving, that is when it's actually easy for them to bring in clients.

Tina:           Mmm.

Genine:       To make, you know, really brilliant money, and to, to really get out there and do what they meant to do. They get out of their own ego.

Tina:           Yeah, it's changing the perception of self too, a lot, I think. I mean, someone that I was having a coaching call with this morning, and it was all about, you know, she's got an online business and so she needs a profile and a presence to be able to build that and so she was looking at, you know, I was saying, “Well, let's do some Facebook Lives and then, let's let them lead to webinars and then to live events.”, and her answer to everything was, “No. No, no, I can't do that. No, no, that's not me. No. No. I can't even go there.”, and I was going, “Okay, well, how are you going to be this person where you're known and you have this profile, if you're hiding behind your computer screen? You have to actually step into that.”, and a whole lot of it was, was changing the perception of self, in thinking she's not good enough to stand up there. What if she gets tongue tied? What if she says the wrong thing? I'm seeing all of that sort of stuff that I'm like, if people just embraced actually who they are, and went, “You know what? So, I don't look perfect today or didn't sound perfect today, but I'm just going to speak my truth and just help add value to people.” It's very simple, and it's awesome.

Genine:       And it goes back to, you asked me the question about, for example, how do we move from, you know, selling my magazine.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       And moving interstate and all of that. It really comes back to that if you can jump before you think you're ready. You know, so without over analysing even the Facebook Live, for example, it's like if you can just go, “I'm just going to press go”.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       If you just press go, you'd be amazed at how you can intuitively tap into a message whereas what we tend to do is, we over-analyse it before we've even done it.

Tina:           Yes.

Genine:       That’s what stops us. I think the fear builds up so much that we, we stop before we can even get started.

Tina:           Mmm, and so how do you, when you first started, did you find stepping onto a stage and talking about yourself and doing kind of that, that self-promotion that you have to do when you're heading something up, did you find that easy, or did you have your own fear that you had to break through there as well?

Genine:       This may not be conducive to most people, but I actually didn't find that hard. The reason being is that I have been on stage ever since I was three when I first went and did a callisthenics concert dressed as a chicken.

Tina:           [Laughs].

Genine:       [Laughs].

Tina:           It sounds like you could have joined your husband with the acting as well.

Genine:       Well, that's actually how we met but I was three.

Tina:           Ah, Okay, okay.

Genine:       But I will go back to a time when, I'm actually a tour guide by trade. I’m a biologist and tour guide, and I was an extreme.

Tina:           You were a biologist?

Genine:       Yeah, this could be a really long interview Tina.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       [Laughs].

Tina:           Okay.

Genine:       So.

Tina:           Do you know what I had written on my paper? So, you went from tourism to magazines, how was that evolution? But I didn't ask that because you kind of started at the magazines, but now I'm going there. So, you were in tourism before you opened the magazine? How did that shift happen?

Genine:       Yeah, well, this story then relates to it.

Tina:           Mmm.

Genine:       Because, so I went to university, you know, with the, the idea I was going to teach children of the world about the environment and how to care for the planet.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       And, you know, really was mission oriented, and I did all my teacher training, and I started working in high schools, and I was a baby, like, I was actually quite young anyway. Look, 19.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       Teaching 11 students, right?

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       I looked like one of them.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       And, you know, and you're still a baby in your mindset, but I was very shy. So, I actually have a condition where, and many people listening probably have the same thing, in the classroom, if I ever put my hand up and had to speak in class, I went bright red.

Tina:           Mmm.

Genine:       And then everyone would look at me and I’d go redder and redder.

Tina:           Mmm.

Genine:       And they’d go, “You’re going red.”, and you know when you just want the ground to open up and swallow you.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       So, I really had this fear about standing in front of people and speaking, not necessarily conducive to being a teacher.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       So, along the way, I ended up falling into tourism because there wasn't a lot of teacher jobs at the time. So, I went into tourism and started working at the, the Victorian, the penguin parade, at Phillip Island.

Tina:           Oh, how fun.

Genine:       I know.

Tina:           I want that job.

Genine:       It was the best. It was the best.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       So, I was helping out the tour guides, and one day, I'd never tour guided before. One day the tour guide got called out on the radio. I think a fox was eating a penguin or something.

Tina:           Oh gosh.

Genine:       Yeah, and she threw the two over to me, in front of all of, like, 25 people.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       And I had, you know, this real stammering going on for about 30 seconds, again, feeling like the ground wanted to swallow me up.

Tina:           Mmm.

Genine:       Anyway, then I just started talking, and I just started talking about what I loved, and it then was exciting, and it was easy.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       From then on, it was really interesting how my career progressed significantly. I moved to Port Douglas from Melbourne. I got a job in a beautiful wildlife sanctuary. I actually worked there for several years, became Assistant Manager.

Tina:           What a beautiful life you've had.

Genine:       I lived on Heron Island for 12 months. Was the Guest Activities Supervisor. I’d, you know, semi-submersible tours, took people on, you know, paddle skis and rockpool rambles, all this right. Again, it seems miles away from the magazine.

Tina:           Mmm.

Genine:       But I did that for a really long time, and then, I, as I do, because I'm very driven and ambitious, I work my way up. So, I'm always taking the next step up.

Tina:           Yep.

Genine:       I ended up becoming the Assistant Manager at this wildlife sanctuary in Port Douglas and I was booking all of the media. So, I used the radio, the TV and the magazine advertising.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       I got very good friends with the people who ran a magazine, and I remember one day they said to me, “Why don't you come and work with us and dress like a lady?”, and I was like, “What? [Laughs].

Tina:           [Laughs].

Genine:       You can't say that.

Tina:           Oh, because you were wearing, like, your khakis and your boots?

Genine:       Correct.

Tina:           Right. [Laughs].

Genine:       I spent, like, 11 years in khakis and boots.

Tina:           Okay, and now you’re such a fashionista and everything.

Genine:       I was always a fashionista underneath.

Tina:           I mean, one scroll through your Instagram and you can just tell you love the fashion.

Genine:       True. Yes. So, I ended up in being an advertising rep for a magazine, and then again, driven, love what I do. Really it comes down to people.

Tina:           Mmm.

Genine:       I love people. I love working with them. So, I ended up running the magazines, ended up running my own, you know, it's a long story, but it is actually conducive because then it brings me to today. At the end of the day, I'm still teaching.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       I'm just teaching different topics now.

Tina:           Mmm. Yeah, I love that. I love that. So, with the magazine, I mean, that's still quite a leap to go from, you know, you were high up in the magazine to, “I think I'll just start my own.”

Genine:       Yeah, you know, I think I've, I've always had this thing about myself.

Tina:           Mmm.

Genine:       That I've trusted myself.

Tina:           Yes.

Genine:       And really, at the core of, say feminine principles, is trust.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       You know, leaving Melbourne when I was 23 years old and driving to Port Douglas, I actually had no job. No house. No nothing.

Tina:           Mmm.

Genine:       I just trusted that it would work out. Got in the car and drove up. Same thing coming from Port Douglas to Sunshine Coast. I got offered a job to come here. I'd never been here before, didn't know anyone.

Tina:           Mmm.

Genine:       I just trusted that it was all going to work out. We bought a house on the internet without seeing it.

Tina:           [Laughs] I love it.

Genine:       And then we moved from Sunshine Coast to Melbourne trusting that it would all work out.

Tina:           Yeah. Yeah.

Genine:       And now we're back on the Sunshine Coast and again, we just trust that everything always will line up.

Tina:           Yeah. So, I'm curious with that. Are you a planner as well?

Genine:       Look, I'm a Virgo. So, there is this part of me that likes to have the structure.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       And planning and so forth, but I have worked out that that's the thing that actually trips me up.

Tina:           Yeah, okay.

Genine:       So, over the years, the less I plan, the more my business grows.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       And I don't know if that's a good thing that I'm telling people this. [Laughs].

Tina:           Well, I mean, I think it depends on the type of business. Like, I've found, so my whole life I've always been hyper-planned. Crazy hyper-planned to like, I'm talking a 10-year plan, broken into one year, broken into 90-day action plans, broken into daily tasks. Like hyper-planned, and then the day is broken into 15-minute increments. The company that I had before had to have that level of planning. So, I grew a franchise company, there are a lot of other people that were invested in it, and we needed that long-term view and it needs to have a, an element of certainty to it. It also gave me beautiful certain comfort, but now that I've exited that, and don't have it, I am loving, being a lot more agile and going, “We actually don't know, with businesses like ours, now, if we're working in an online space, what's going to happen in the next 12 to 24 months.” It changes so quickly, that you don't know which direction it's going to take or what opportunities are going to come up and different things that you're going to go. I mean, at the moment, I'm running a retreat in Palm Springs next March. That was not anything that was in, like, a 12-month plan. That was me lusting over Palm Springs’ houses, wanting to go and stay in a Palm Springs house, talking to someone and going, “You know, we should, we'll get together and do, like, our year and figure out how we can get really good speakers into to, to elevate where we're at and do all that, but it's not going to do it, you know, if we hire someone one on one for coaching, it's going to be too expensive.”, and then we decided to do it. And then the week later, out it goes, which is how the best things seem to happen, at the moment. So, I think, you know, it's an, it's a hybrid of both of having, having good planning and knowing where you want to go and what's important to you and those values, and then just trusting if you work in the right ways, it's all going to end up beautifully.

Genine:       Definitely, and I think you're right in that, there isn't, you've got to have an element of structure.

Tina:           Mmm.

Genine:       That allows you to have the freedom to be agile. So, when I say I don't plan a lot, I have planned my videos, I’ve planned my content.

Tina:           Yes.

Genine:       My marketing, you know.

Tina:           Yep.

Genine:       That's all planned so the team actually knows what they're doing and we can move forward each day, but I have a lot of space in my, literally space in my calendar for that creativity, for those opportunities that may come along and they’re the parts that I love, you know, being a true entrepreneur.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       You know, I can get distracted by bright shiny lights sometimes.

Tina:           [Laughs].

Genine:       But that’s fun. You know I go, test over here, is that aligned? Oh, no it's not, we’ll come back.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       Because I’m really clear on my values.

Tina:           Yeah. Beautiful. And was that something, when you say you’re clear on your values, because I know, you know a lot of people go through exercises where they're actually trying to identify their value system and how they want to live by. Is that something you've consciously done or you kind of do that gut check with different things and, or do you name those values and say, “Hang on, this is what I'm going to live by? How do you do that?

Genine:       Absolutely. So, it was, we started with our family values.

Tina:           Yep.

Genine:       We had to get really clear as a couple.

Tina:           Mmm.

Genine:       What we valued for our life and for our children, and how we wanted to live every day. That then shaped the way that our business values came through.

Tina:           Perfect. I love that so much.

Genine:       Then those business values are, they’re so grounded in our, you know, just that emotional core of us.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       That we wouldn't break them.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       You know, so therefore, it determines the type of clients that I take.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       It determines the type of programs that I do or don't do. Everything has to come back to those values. So, it's actually very, very conscious.

Tina:           Mmm.

Genine:       I still think there's definitely that element of, like, that gut instinct. Do I go there or not go with it? Absolutely.

Tina:           Mmm.

Genine:       But if you get into one of those moments where you're like, “Oh, I don't know if it's a yes or no.”, I just come back to the value system.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       And we're, we've got a really clear document in our business. So, it's our business vision document. It talks about what our values are.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       You know, everything about the culture, who we were.

Tina:           What you stand for.

Genine:       Exactly, what you stand for, then that brings you back so that any team member can really decide a yes or no, because it either fits or it doesn’t.

Tina:           Totally. Yeah. Which is beautiful. Yep, and so if people are starting to, kind of, work out, you know, I always say to people, the easiest way to work out what your natural values are, is look to where you spend your time and where you spend your money, and sometimes, if you pay attention to that, you can actually look at that and go, “Oh, hang on, I don’t want my values to be there. I want to consciously change them.”, and I do think that, that sometimes, who we, who we can get if we're not paying attention, is not serving ourselves the best, and we do want to consciously choose those values and then make a purposeful effort to live more in line with that. How did you go about, like actually defining in that document, these are the values that we stand for? Was it an exercise that you did, or how did you do that?

Genine:       It was literally an exercise.

Tina:           Yep.

Genine:       Step by step [laughs] template.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       Honestly, because if I was left to just, you know, write it from the top of my head, you're so right, that we only come from what we know.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       Whereas, if you’re consciously having this step by step way of.

Tina:           Mmm.

Genine:       And this is the document we give our clients as well, step by step, that it really makes you consciously think about it, “Oh, hang on a moment.”

Tina:           Mmm.

Genine:       “Is this true for me or isn't it true for me?”

Tina:           Yeah. Yeah.

Genine:       Is a lot of it again but I'll say a lot of it’s pre-programmed.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       Growing our business from what we think that we have to.

Tina:           Mmm.

Genine:       I’ll give you an example. On our coaching call this morning, one of my clients, who is an incredible energy healer, she works with women whether they've got pain, money blocks, business blocks, whatever it is, and she helps clean all of those, and she was having this battle with herself about the, “Don't I have to niche? Don't I have to, have like, you know, she's from 35 to 55, and you know, be marketing 101 about it?

Tina:           I hear so many debates on this. Yes.

Genine:       It’s driver her bonkers.

Tina:           Yes.

Genine:       And, you know, we just had a discussion about what's your values? Like, do you want to work with, who are the sorts of people? She quickly was able to go that document and go, “Oh, actually, it's, this, this and this”.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       So, she was actually able to take away the 101-niching factor.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       And it came back to her call, calling in the world.

Tina:           Yeah, yeah. Which is important, and I do think as well, values are, are a reflection of our best self as well and who we want to be. Like I know, sometimes, if I get caught up in things too much, and I'll look at our values and go, “Actually, yes, I'm choosing kindness and I'm just going to let this shit go”, rather than, than fester on that which I think if I didn't have that there stuck on my wall, I would get distracted by the different things that come up. So, it lets you make decisions really quickly and it lets you stay in that best-self sort of area. Yeah. Okay, so my next question, how do you balance your lifestyle with your work goals? Because I see you here, there and everywhere, and out and about, having a grand old time. How do you get that balance in your beautiful social life that you look like you lead?

Genine:       Yeah, well, it's all a fast. No, it’s not.

Tina:           [Laughs].

Genine:       [Laughs] No, it's, we're really clear on when we, when I'm saying we, so my husband and I, so, we're really clear on when we work, when we don't work, when I have the time off and so forth, and so for example, we have some rules around, like going away. My husband, being an actor will often go away to do film. So, we have a thing where, if it's a certain number of days, he can go by himself, like it's just easier for the family to all stay at home, and because we've got a flexible lifestyle, I don't work outside school hours. So, I can always go and pick up the children if needed. If it falls over, you know, say X number of days, we will all make the decision to go with him.

Tina:           Yeah, great.

Genine:       So, then the family unit stays together. Same if I'm going away. You know, for me, it's 10 days maximum that I can go away by myself. So, often that will be me going to a conference overseas, hosting a retreat, that kind of thing. Max 10 days, I'll go away by myself. If it’s longer than that, the family will actually come with me, say, at the start or the finish.

Tina:           Yeah, yeah.

Genine:       You know, next January, I've got a Bali retreat, and so the family's coming with me the week before.

Tina:           Beautiful.

Genine:       Then they’ll fly home and I'll stay on and do the retreat.

Tina:           Yeah.

Genine:       It actually, everything I do in my business enhances our family life. It's not contradictory against it.

Tina:           Yeah, yeah. Love that. What do you love most about your life now?

Genine:       Well, my husband and I sit on the deck every morning and we have the most expansive view of just the hinterland, animals. You know, there was possums on the deck last night, King Parrots, you know, all sorts of different wildlife around us, and so every morning we get to have utter peace. Every morning, we sit there with our cup of tea.

Tina:           Beautiful.

Genine:       We connect together, and we talk about what's going on for us emotionally, we have that really solid connection time. So, there's many, many things I love about my life. Sure, I get to fly to Palm Springs, San Diego, LA, Bali, you know, I get to do all of these incredible things, just not necessarily with my family, but also just for my own self, and I get to empower and inspire women, but at the end of the day, if I can come back to that deck and have those great connected moments with my husband, that's perfect for me.

Tina:           Sounds amazing. Okay, so to finish off, if there was just one thing that women could do to step more into their feminine power today, what would you recommend?

Genine:       I would say learn to trust yourself and to learn how to trust yourself, usually you need to get aware of where you don't trust yourself. So, for example, with my clients, I get them to give themselves a rating out of 10 on where they trust themselves. So, with different aspects of their business, for example. Like, how much do you trust yourself out of 10 with money? How much do you trust yourself with your marketing? How much do you trust yourself with building a team? All of these different facets, and then consciously make a decision to raise that trust factor.

Tina:           Mmm.

Genine:       So, we could literally, through conscious awareness, change anything.

Tina:           Yeah. We totally can. Yeah.

Genine:       Sometimes we make it too hard so if you can, you know, raise your trust scale, that changes everything. It allows you to have so much more freedom.

Tina:           Excellent. Genine, thank you so much. If people want to find you, where should they go?

Genine:       They can go to geninehoward.com and I’m a G-E-N-I-N-E howard.com or check us out at the magazine which is profilemag.com.au.

Tina:           Beautiful. Thank you so much.

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