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Produced by - Lucy Kippist

Edited by – Morgan Sebastian Brown
‍Interviewers - Carrie Kwan and Lucy Kippist
‍Guest - Elaine Davies

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Episode 96 Transcript

Carrie (00:26.524)

Now, Elaine, we're passionate about sharing and telling women's stories. Can you tell us yours?

Elaine Davies (00:51.489)

Well, it's a long one. I grew up in West Wales, right at the top of a mountain. I used to live with my grandmother and we didn't even have an indoor toilet. So I had very incredibly rural upbringing and here I am, you know, in the middle of urban. I left Wales, and I actually moved to London then when I was 19 and I'd never been to London before and I've always just kind of bounced and then I stayed in London for five years and I moved to Hong Kong which blew my families mind even more. From Hong Kong I did move to Australia, I flew into Darwin and travelled down the East Coast and then I had to leave Australia, my boyfriend lost his job. Though all this travelling was on my own, I met an ex-boyfriend out here. And I went to Bangkok and that's where I got into property. So that's where I first started property was for Richard Ellis back then, I think Richard Ellis still exists, yeah in Bangkok, and that's where my property journey started. And then I went back to Hong Kong with Richard Ellis and then I finally came and settled in Australia about mid 90s.

Carrie (02:24.64)

So have a bit of wanderlust. Started into property. Tell me about your property business and I believe you have another business too.

Elaine Davies (02:31.061)

Yeah, I do. So my property business, I started as a real estate agent that everyone understands. But 17 years ago, I became a buyer's agent because I was really tired of the way us real estate agents treated buyers. Because it's an interesting industry. You've got those incredibly glamorous receptions. And then the second you walk behind that reception, it's awful. It's dusty old desks and old computers and people swearing and saying really bad things about buyers. It's like two different worlds in one building. And so 17 years ago, I thought, no, the buyer needs as much help as the vendor. Because I find it interesting that when people are selling a house, they don't think, shall I use a real estate agent? It's which one? But when you're buying, which is when you make your money, it's not like

which buyer's agent, it's like, should I even use one? Yes, of course, that's what I see as more important than the real estate agent. But that's just my humble opinion. So I worked for some big names in the industry. I seem to just work for people who are on telly, for Chris Gray, Veronica Morgan from Location, Location, Location,  Simon Cohen from Luxe Listings. And then in 2016, I set up my own business, New Road Property. But that whole time when I first came to Australia, it was mindset I worked in. So back then I was on TV, I was on Beauty and the Beast, I was writing tonnes of articles, for about seven different magazines on mindset. But it's when my marriage broke up I got back into property here. So I don't know why I thought being a single mother of a two year old with no support, no family, you know, property that is not a waged job would be a secure option. And I don't know how I got through those years between when he was two and certainly started school, but I look back and it was like, oh my God, but I made it. You know, it worked. And then as I said, I became a buyer's agent, but Morgan was often with me. He'd be at opens with me and, or I'd be taking him out with me with clients. You know, I look back and it's like he's 21 now. I can't even fathom it, you know, what women have to go through. But it was always mindset. It was always mindset.  

Carrie (04:51.8)

That's fascinating. I mean, when you were talking about why wouldn't you have, you know, when you sell, you have an agent and when you buy, you know, it's not as common. Um, but it makes so much sense because it's a little bit like running a business when, you know, you're doing this alone and you don't have that level of expertise to draw upon, and having someone next to you that actually has the experience, knows the tactics, has got the right pulse in the market because there's lots of information that you might not be privy to.

Elaine Davies (05:21.061)

Knows the agents, knows them. Like just knows what they're gonna say, knows what they're gonna do, knows the whole shenanigans.

Carrie (05:32.364)

Love it so you can demystify all that. And then you mentioned the coaching. So like a third of business owning women in Australia, you're running two businesses at once. I wanted to just take us a little bit step back in terms of what inspired you to make that leap into the world of coaching.

Elaine Davies (05:48.257)

Well, as I say, it's always been coaching for me. In fact, back in 2018, I wrote a book and it's called Mind, Body, Soul. The first part of the book is all about mindset. So this is for people who don't want to use a buyers agent. It's got everything you need in it, including your mindset stuff. But now, so it really was my son leaving home and I was just like, right, okay, so, I need to get back into this because I've always been passionate about my own mindset. I don't think I'd be here to be honest if I hadn't always really kept my mindset fresh and sharp and believed in myself, forced myself to believe in myself. And yeah, so I'm now an accredited coach and I realise what I wrote in mind, body, soul. It's great. I mean, it's got meditation, it's got visualisations, it's got really good goal setting out, you know, when I read back on it, what I wrote. But I realise now being a coach and actually knowing these amazing tools and coaching is very much about listening because we've all got the power within us here. We all got the answers. It's knowing the right questions. It's not saying, right, this is how you meditate. This is how you visualise. This is your vision board. You know, so I think it was my son leaving home. My son is transgender, I did think it would be really great to help people whose families are going through children coming out as transgender what people say, and it's obviously the word de jour at the moment, but it's always, and parents are allowed to be shocked and parents are allowed to be shaken, so I kind of wanted to go down that route, but really what I've stayed in and what's come to me is buyers agents, so I'm, and women, women my age, who some have transgender children and some don't.

Carrie (07:42.328)

Thanks for sharing a little bit about your family and your son's journey as well. And, you know, I do strongly resonate with everything starts with how you think and how you frame and how you perceive. And we've got to get those elements right before we can tackle the next steps.

Elaine Davies (08:06.821)

Do you know the fabulous thing about your mindset? You've always got it. It's with you all the time. It's not like you can be out and having a stressful time or somebody says something and those limiting beliefs come in or your values conflict comes in and you go, I'll sort that out when I get home. It's with you. If you know the tools, you know, you've got your mindset with you there and then you can just go, okay, that wasn't about me or this limiting belief is right that you can see it objectively that actually isn't the truth.

Lucy (08:47.257)

I wanted to tap into a bit about purpose because I know that that's sort of key to your to the fundamentals of your coaching service or the program that you run. How would you describe your own purpose?

Elaine Davies (08:59.273)

It's really interesting having this conversation yesterday with another coach and I, my purpose is to bring happiness into the world. I think it boils down to that, to bring joy and happiness. And Joy and happiness is an internal thing. And we were born happy. Babies didn't know to be miserable. They knew to shout and scream if they were hungry. Shout and scream. They told, they tell us what they want. They have no qualms. They'll keep us up all night. I'm good on them, you know? Why shouldn't we be like that? So it's definitely, this thing of happiness, I feel is kind of kept within an orb. We keep it in. We don't put it out into the world anymore because we've been so hurt. We've been told silly things. We believe these silly things. So the key to happiness is very much in just belief in yourself. And as you say, this purpose, if you can know what your purpose is, now purpose sounds a massive word, right? Your purpose might be to save the world through fast fashion. It might be that, and fantastic. I'm a massive fan of that. I buy a lot of clothes in op shop. In fact, this little shirt is from an op shop. I'm a big believer in non fast fashion. Your purpose could be to have a really happy family and cook beautiful food for them. As long as you know what your purpose is and that's what your joy is and you don't worry that that's your purpose. It can be anything but you need to know what lights you up. You need to know what do you love talking about, what do you love thinking about, what do you like to contemplate if you've got half an hour you're waiting for a bus or whatever. What is it, where does your mind go and how much of that is in your life?

So I think my purpose is literally to bring happiness into the world as many people as I can and success, success and happiness, whatever that success is.

Lucy (10:48.445)

That's a beautiful purpose, and the way you speak about it is so compelling and that kind of leads to the next question I wanted to talk to you about. In terms of how you're creating visibility for these two businesses because, as you've said, they started out and they're sort of running concurrently. You've got some overlap. But what are some of the ways that you have boosted the visibility for both those businesses at the same time over the years? Is there a particular strategy you've used that surprised you that worked really well?

Any examples that come to mind?

Elaine Davies (11:21.693)

It's really interesting. Everything with me is referral and I, to be honest, I don't know what that is. I don't know why I'm a referral. I have tried Facebook ads and I network like crazy. And actually, so networking, Mums and Co is a fabulous source of support and business. So when I say referral, I think for me, face-to-face networking is an incredibly important part of my marketing strategy. And I'm gonna keep going with Facebook ads and I'm not gonna give up on it, but I really am a referral business on both. But yeah, I don't know if I'm the right person to ask that question of cracked that yet!

Lucy (12:06.023)

No, that's a perfect answer really. And it's something that we hear too within the community. And thank you for shouting out Mums and Co for that because we are very much into referring our own members of which you are one but also getting them to refer us. So I think that's not it's not a silly answer. It's an important answer. And you've also described, you've mentioned networking there, which is obviously a huge part of what we do here at Mums & Co as well. Sorry I've skipped over the question. Which aspect of networking has worked well for you and what I mean by that is the digital side of networking so the online side or is it more the face-to-face networking or is there a difference for you?

Elaine Davies (12:53.325)

Oh, there's definitely a difference for me. Um, I'm trying to think, have I ever got like a rock solid business from digital. I don't think so. But face-to-face marketing is important, but the big important thing with face-to-face marketing is to stay in touch. Ask people, are you happy to receive my newsletter? Don't send them out. This is what I say, are you happy to receive my newsletter? I don't send them out that often, and I really don't. I should send them out more often. And that's a way of just gently touching people. It's just a butterfly kind of a little stroke. But the big thing is to keep in touch. If you’ve connected with somebody because not so much the coaching but buyers advocacy it's a long cycle you know and so it's really important to not just make a connection and then skip off. The devil's in the detail and well the devil's in the keeping in touch.

Carrie (13:54.132)

Now, just flipping back to running two sort of service-based businesses, I'm wondering how you would describe your relationship to risk as a small business owner.

Elaine Davies (14:03.737)

Hmm. It's too high. It's too high. I mean, I should, some of the things I've done, and I've told you some of the stories from when I was younger, like turning up with two suitcases in London, never been to that town before and didn't know where I was sleeping that night. I tend not to think too much. The one part of risk, I'm not so good at, it is funnily enough marketing. So maybe I need to do a bit of coaching. That's an epiphany for me right there. Need to do a bit of coaching, self coaching on that about putting money back into the marketing. But my risk level's quite high. You can ask my insurance broker, I just go, yeah, just try, I'm in this for the longterm.

Carrie (14:48.192)

Yeah, and I think there's two levels of that, isn't it? Because, you know, when you say it's too high, I'm thinking, okay, what does that mean? Are you actually comfortable with it being that high?

Elaine Davies (14:57.005)

Hmm, I am. But interestingly, I'm the most insured person I know, because no one is easier to sell to than a salesperson. So, you know, and I, you know, I'm not a traditional salesperson. I'm very much a relationship person. You know, I've got insurances for everything. So when I say my risk is high, I guess what I mean is I'm willing for savings to go down and to get what I want. And then I trust that money will come again, because I'm on my own. I'm still on my own. I've never repartnered in 20 years.

Carrie (15:28.756)

Yeah, it's fascinating. And I think that risk journey is if you want to achieve something, you do need to take those, those measured risks. When you're actually a business owner and you're starting something from scratch or you're starting something new, you're stepping into the unknown. You are taking, you know, you do have to take, yeah, like measured decisions and forge a path and create that path for yourself. So love that.

Elaine Davies (15:54.245)

I mean the decision to become a coach was an expensive one. It wasn't, you know, didn't come for free. But I just didn't really, I was just like, this is what I wanna do, but I was excited about it and I'm still excited about it, you know.

Carrie (16:09.916)

Now, at Mums and Co we do talk about this daily striving that I think working moms, working parents have, how to achieve harmony in life and that might be this sort of, you know, we visualise it as a triangle of ambition, livelihood and well-being. Could you describe the shape of a good life for you?

Elaine Davies (16:32.709)

So I think a really easy way, and I'd like to teach a little, a very fast meditation as well, but there's, if you think of prime and have that in your day, every day, and prime is physical, relationships, income, mindset, and excitement. If you can have those five things in your day, every day, I think, I think you're great. So I meditate first thing in the morning. I don't even, before I get out of bed. So that's mindset done. I do a lot more, of course, but. Physical, I go for a walk. Relationships, I see this as relationships. You know, I like, this is, we are now building a relationship, but I'm always on the phone and, but this prime makes me do it. Income, do something every day, just something for income and something for excitement. So if you stick with prime, you're good to go. Even if it's five minutes for each one.

Carrie (17:24.988)

It's a great acronym. We don't, I don't usually welcome too many acronyms into my life, but wholeheartedly welcome this one.

Lucy (17:37.147)

And final question for you Elaine, in the spirit of women supporting women, which we know that you do, who are the Mumbitious, the women unapologetically blending their motherhood with their ambition that you would like to say hello to today?

Elaine Davies (17:47.322)

There's two right here. I'd like to say Lucy and Carrie. I mean, you're amazing what you guys have done for this community and for us. So thank you for that. And you know, I know a little bit about your lives and yeah, hats off. Look, I know many single mums. I seem to just move in that circle. So I'd like to say Roxy, she's an amazing photographer, amazing. And she's a single mum and she's started up a charity all on her own for homeless kids. A friend of mine, Kim Cawthon, Julie Garris, she's another one, we know Julie. She's a single mum of two and has set up her own business helping women going into divorce that she can get their finances ready for a fraction of the price for the lawyer. Look, I've got so many. I mean, I'm blessed that I'm surrounded beautiful, strong, inspiring, fun, gracious, kind women.

Lucy (18:56.467)

What would you describe as the skills, the most transferable skills from motherhood into business?

Elaine Davies (19:14.493)

Oh, I love it. Do you know the big thing for me is patience. I'm a much better person for being a mother, much better. So patience with other people and in business, not everyone has to move at my speed, not everyone has to think at my speed. Tenacity about getting what you want from someone. So that thing of limiting beliefs, you know, you ask once, it's a no. It's like, oh, OK, well, I've asked. They've said, no, that's a limiting belief. You ask again. Because with children, you've got to ask it a million different ways, haven't you? Up this highway, that highway, over the mountain, through the river. And then you might get somewhere. But yes, patience, the tenacity to forgetting what you want and creating a beautiful relationship with someone who knows you so well and you know them so well. There are buttons to be pushed everywhere. So just that objectiveness of stepping back and looking at people. And that's probably age as well. But that objective of looking at people very separately to me and seeing people for who they really are.

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