Navigating the Fast Lane: Lani's Business Roadmap | Lani Fogelberg - Episode 126

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Navigating the Fast Lane: Lani’s Business Roadmap | Lani Fogelberg – Episode 126

Top tips from Lani Fogelberg.

1. Make some notes.

2. Having a plan to plan, having structure to actually, your strategic priorities

Having a plan to plan, having structure to actually, your strategic priorities and business, this is going like right down the other end of the spectrum to it. So the first point that I made, but that kind of underpins my work is, why are we in business? What are we doing? And then how do we translate that into what we’re doing this week, this month, this quarter this year.

3. They need instruction.

They need instructions, right? Yeah. And if you can do that, even if you’re a solopreneur, even if you are operating by yourself, and you don’t have people working for you, at least not full time. You know, it’s very hard to be the dictator and the slave and I say, so you kind of need that that structure or those constraints. So that you know what you’re doing. When you get up in the morning, that’s actually going to move the needle closer to where you want it to be. It’s hugely important. And so yes, that structure. So yeah, and the other thing, as well, which I think has just come up for me a lot lately, in my work with companies is facing the things that you might be told at scale. And feel the fear and do it anyway. I think about like a new system that I helped implement in a company recently, which is very much

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, work, business, car, jigsaw puzzles, grew, ferrari, suppose, feel, great, talked, making, new zealand, big, opinions, life, driven, thought, learned, point

Lani Fogelberg 00:00

And I’ve got clients who have built multimillion dollar businesses who’ve become estranged from family members, and friends. And I think there’s this misconception with the likes of tall poppy syndrome or this kind of envy, that it’s just strangers and people don’t know you. But actually, it kind of it’s kind of just an offshoot of the alienation that people can experience when they try to do something that’s different.

Debra Chantry-Taylor 00:26

Good morning, and welcome to another edition of better business better life. Today. I’m super excited to be joined by LaniFogelberg, who I have known for a long, long time online but never actually got to meet in person. And so we’re finally in studio together and really looking forward to having her talk. Welcome to the show.

Lani Fogelberg 00:41

Ah, thank you, Deborah. I will like I said, When I arrived, I’m thrilled to be here. I finally met you face to face as well. It’s

Debra Chantry-Taylor 00:45

Been really good. We’ve had a great chat in the in the boardroom before he came in here. So Lonnie is a management strategy consultant. If you have been on social media anywhere, I’m sure you will have seen her. She’s also a big car lover as well. I think that’s probably what first attracted me to her if I’m honest. Being a bit of a Ferrari girl myself, when I saw her, I was like, Why was this lady I’ve got to find out who she is. So not only tell us a little bit about your journey to where you are now today and share with us, you know what you’re proud of in that journey so far?

Lani Fogelberg 01:11

Yeah, it’s been a really interesting one, I think a couple of things I’m the most proud of I suppose have to reverse engineer the story is the the life that I built for myself, which is one that I really enjoy, which I think a lot of people forget to place due importance on. And also the meaningful contributions that I’ve been able to make to people’s lives throughout that journey, which is largely been in the financial services space. So that’s kind of where I was on the tools, I learned my craft, I suppose, and spent time running an Australian business for a large aggregator over there. And that was back in 2012, and 2013, right up until 2019. So that’s sort of where my journey began, I suppose. It’s really weird to think that it’s actually 10 years ago, more than 10 years ago, now. I live in but when I exited that business, a lot of people asked me to do some consulting. And so that’s how Fogelberg consultant was born. And that’s essentially what I’ve done throughout the pandemic. And that yeah, that point of pride that I mentioned is around being able to support people through those difficult times. Yeah, there

Debra Chantry-Taylor 02:18

Was some really tough times over here, wasn’t it? Yeah. And I think that people it was it was, for most it was the first time I’ve been through anything like that as well.

Lani Fogelberg 02:27

And it was so we’re so used to COVID now in the sense that it’s not new to us anymore, when we think back to the sheer uncertainty of 2020. So being able to be in a position to be able to sort of, even though I didn’t necessarily have a play on myself, but to support people through that was very rewarding, strange way, I suppose.

Debra Chantry-Taylor 02:50

So I’m gonna just I’m gonna ask him about the cause first, because I can’t help myself. It’s like you know, you since I knew you had a Ferrari. So tell us, tell us about your love of cars. Tell me where that came from. And tell me a little about the cars you’ve got at the moment.

Lani Fogelberg 03:02

Yes, I definitely came from idea dad. So there are some photos I’ve shared previously online of me like in the passenger seat of his Triumph TR six when I was three or four years old. So he was a classic car lover. I spent many, many fond childhood afternoons at ecopark Raceway, which of course was kind of decommissioned in March this year, and it really just grew, I suppose, from those great family memories of spending time with mom and dad and my brother, very small family at the racetrack. And then as I got older, gosh, you know, there was a guy who lived on the bottom of our street who built kitset Ford GT 40s. And so that car would sometimes drive past which was a no exit strategy. And, you know, when I was kind of 12 1314, and it just grew from there. And then I was exposed to some of the charity work that the Ferrari Owners Club does through a colleague that my father worked with, and I ended up going out to one of their charity events as a 14 or 15 year old, very impressionable, very, very impressionable at that age. I not only saw like these kids who were sick, come in from his hot laps, just beaming and so happy. But I also had a couple of laps myself and I think if you have that, you just get addicted. This is amazing. Like, this is something that you can actually do in life. Yeah, so I vowed that I would buy a Ferrari one day. So come 2017 I had the means to for a while and yeah, decided to push the button on it.

Debra Chantry-Taylor 04:39

Now we were talking about this earlier, and we’ve got similar stories. My father was a big part of that as well. And he actually has come up from the shows, the car shows over in Europe and back to the UK and bring us little car models and Fodor’s latest Porsches and Ferraris and things. That’s when I first vowed I would have won. And in fact, I had a photo of a Ferrari on my wall forever growing up, that’s what it’s going to have. I haven’t quite made it yet, but I’m going to get there one day but you were saying that it has changed, it changes the way people treat you in some respects. Is that true

Lani Fogelberg 05:05

overnight? Yeah, overnight. And it’s, I think, because it’s a very, it’s a very out there thing people can, you know, see touch feel people can see it. Whereas the professional accomplishments that have led you to have the financial means to spend your money and that way is easily seen. Yep. And so, I don’t know. And it’s just such a negative connotation, I think and with Ferrari as a brand, specifically, you mentioned earlier about some of the other cars I’ve got, I bought a McLaren six months ago, which is newer, more expensive, bigger, sparkly. Arguably, it’s a more of a more radical looking car. Yeah. I don’t get any kind of like verbal abuse driving that whatsoever. I get like, thumbs up. It’s bizarre. But the Ferrari just has this like negative connotation. People will, strangers will seemingly hate you. Because of a car that you have. It’s it’s bizarre, and especially, I guess, when you’ve grown up really loving cars and cars, I’ve never had any kind of negative connotation attached to them. So yeah, that’s been an interesting one. I used to have a lovely Porsche as well, which I sold a couple of months ago because the McLaren essentially replaced it. But I did own them at the same time, which is very silly. I’m naughty of me. But anyway,

Debra Chantry-Taylor 06:30

Lifespan living, isn’t it?

Lani Fogelberg 06:33

So that was in storage for last six months? And I don’t have any way to put it right. But my call was tower is actually in 1993, BMW M three, for any true and those years. Yes, you’re listening to this episode? They, like the heart will be racing. Now, because that is like that is a true enthusiast car. Right. So it’s a very, very special car to me. Yeah, I love that. Yeah.

Debra Chantry-Taylor 06:58

But I suppose it was that sort of critiquing that you got from people about that car that actually made you want to stand up and, and bring that to people’s attention. And like you said, in order to have the means to buy that car, you worked really hard. And you probably were very, very good your savings, you were making sure we’re very frugal. And yet people see it as a negative as opposed to a positive. And that happens a lot here in New Zealand, doesn’t it?

Lani Fogelberg 07:19

It really does. And it’s again, it just comes back to me that I don’t understand it, because I’ve never had that kind of mentality. Whenever you see someone who has something, and it could be an expensive handbag, or a kind of a, you know, beautiful diamond jewelry, or I’m trying to think of other examples, but I’m actually struggling to catch up with them. You kind of think like, Oh, my goodness, isn’t that beautiful? Isn’t it lovely? Yes. And so I think it’s it’s a very difficult thing to understand where you can’t imagine taking such a judgmental stance about anyone else or anything. But what’s really highlighted to me, is this kind of underbelly or like this dark side that we do have, you know, down under, I’d say it’s an ANZ thing. Yep. It exists around the world, right. In the exists. It’s a human emotion. Yes. For whatever reason, it’s it’s particularly prominent down here. And it’s really made me want to have spoke earlier about changing the culture, you know, with you out in the boardroom, but it’s really made me want to bolster people against those kinds of judgments, because they are so prevalent, I don’t know whether there’s anything that I can do to change them. But I think it’s really, really important that we do prepare people that if they are going to hang around and try to do something cool, and New Zealand that, hey, this unfortunately can’t happen. So what probably will happen? Yeah, so what can we do to actually support you to deal with that?

Debra Chantry-Taylor 08:45

So you do a lot of work with actually making sure people are mentally strong enough to deal with when those things aren’t happening to them? Yeah. And

Lani Fogelberg 08:51

I’ve got clients who have built multimillion dollar businesses who’ve become estranged from family members, and friends. And I think there’s this misconception with the likes of tall poppy syndrome, or this kind of envy, that it’s just strangers, and people don’t know you. But actually, it kind of it’s kind of just an offshoot of the alienation that people can experience when they try to do something that’s different.

Debra Chantry-Taylor 09:15

Yeah. Well, it’s funny as well, we didn’t we talked a little about this before as well. But yeah, the whole condition that we have as we grew up and what’s expected of us and we, we live our life trying to be what we think we should be, as opposed to just actually enjoying it. And we’re only here once, maybe, maybe more times, who knows, maybe this time we’re here. And, you know, we’ve got to make the most of it, which is why I think you and I share a similar passion. It’s like actually making sure you’re doing what you love with people you love making a difference, but all that kind of stuff and yeah, okay. And you talked about the fact that that, you know, this is actually encouraging some of our young people to actually move away too, right. So in the country, we are potentially losing great young people, because they are, well first of all, they might be finding it more difficult over here, but then also then they’re not celebrated if they if they if they are successful at Tell me a bit more with that.

Lani Fogelberg 10:01

And you mentioned the word celebrated as well. And I’m very much of the opinion that we don’t necessarily need to celebrate success because I think that’s, you know, you could you could argue that that’s being greedy is not the right word. But just to not crap on it would be really good. Celebrating is kind of like me Yeah, absolutely we should celebrate the successes that we see around us, you know, our partner achieved something or one of our friends achieved something. Yeah, it’s great to celebrate that. But at a more macro level, I think just changing the narrative to not crap on people that have gone out, and often taking big risks. To do something would be a really, really good start. And it’s not even just my observations, or my perception, or my opinion about what happens, this is, like, anecdotally been proven to me, hundreds, if not 1000s of times, when I kind of inadvertently spoke up about tall poppy syndrome. In the media, for example, I had about 3000 messages. And there were parents, teachers and people in a sporting world who all shared stories with me about what they’ve done. What happened to the child to the child, what they’ve experienced in the industry, or why they left, or why they came back, and they left again. So this is not just an opinion from some chick, who’s like, Yeah, I thought this or experienced it herself. But there’s just so much anecdotal evidence out there to. Yeah, confirm that.

Debra Chantry-Taylor 11:38

So I mean, how do you help people with that? Because, yes, it exists, we can’t pretend it doesn’t. So what what do you how do you see us as as a whole being able to help with that, and what can we do?

Lani Fogelberg 11:50

So very good question. It’s a very good question. I spoke about this at the into summit last year. I didn’t speak about it. Sorry, I touched on it. Yeah. That presentation was essentially how making high performance as accessible to as many people as possible was crucial for our social, economic and environmental future in New Zealand. And one of the points that I touched on, particularly around the social aspect was the narrative that we typically see and what I call our most prolific information sources. This also came up in many conversations I had off the back of another presentation I delivered last week with the with a group of CFOs and senior finance leaders, and it was around essentially the media. And the morning, I delivered this presentation last week, I actually jumped on to the news, which I don’t typically do, but I wanted to start have some anecdotal stuff. And the first six headlines all had these terribly negative words. And then like stoush, and like bogus, or like all of these very negative words, and we kind of see that. And what are our conversations comprised of? What is the stuff that we see on social media comprised of it’s it’s largely opinions that people have formed from consuming this information. So I do think that we collectively, one of the big things that we can do is actually call it out when we see it. And survey Avery mentioned this in a video that he did recently with the common room, collectively, what can we do? Yeah, we need to call it out when we see it. Yeah. Especially when it’s coming from the media. I could go into that so much.

Debra Chantry-Taylor 13:26

No, just thinking about I mean, I actually stopped watching the news about 10 years ago, I decided it was not a great thing to be doing for myself. And, and I believe that I don’t want to be uninformed, but I only want to be informed about things. I can make a difference on some things we can affect. So that was Yeah, and they’re very negative. And I believe now with the current economic downturn recession, I’m traveling a lot at the moment, and I’m seeing in different countries, different ways that they’re dealing with it. We are so negative, we’re almost talking ourselves into a massive recession, when the rest of the world is actually going well. That’s, that’s over and done with how do we move forward?

Lani Fogelberg 13:58

Oh, did you see the post I made about the overheads motorway sign in Melbourne? A few months? No, no, I missed that. No, because I know that you obviously have spent a lot of time and Australia. Yes. I was on the way from the airport.

Debra Chantry-Taylor 14:13

Oh, it was a positive reinforcement as opposed yet again. Please share it. Yeah, I’m away

Lani Fogelberg 14:18

from the airport. I had arrived on a Sunday because long story anyway, I don’t have it on Sunday. So Cruzan and beautiful sunny day, I walked out of the airport and beautiful warm air. Going into the Uber on my way to the hotel and a few kilometers from the airport, there was one of those illuminated overhead signs with text on it and it said, incident, three kilometers ahead, merge right, or left or whatever. And in that moment, I just thought oh my god. Does this not just perfectly summarize the difference in sentiment between a place like Melbourne Australia versus New Zealand at the moment because of that sigh If I was in Auckland, it would say incident ahead. landlocked Yeah. I could not I was just as penny drop moment, I could not believe how perfectly summed up that difference in sentiment can do versus no, yeah.

Debra Chantry-Taylor 15:24

Yeah, no, I would use it like I do. I honestly do believe that. I mean, he has a huge part to play in this because like they can actually change the narrative there. And that’s what we were listening to looking at every day,

Lani Fogelberg 15:33

setting aside the fact that the very definition of an economic recession is GDP going backwards, two quarters in a row, our GDP went backwards 5.6% in the quarter to the end of December 2022. Yep. So the media is like the recession is coming up, you know, everyone batten down the hatches or whatever, maybe nine months ago. Last year, yes. See what the program? Yeah. How are we? How are we getting out of it? How are we going to get the GDP back up?

Debra Chantry-Taylor 16:02

That’s right. Yeah, focus on what we can do. As far as what’s the what’s the past? I mean, you were doing all this work with your companies that you work with, as well as like, you know, it’s we’ve got to have lagging indicators. So we can actually see what’s going on, you’re looking forward and go, actually, what can we do to move the needle? How do we actually change it going forward, as opposed to worrying about what’s happened to

Lani Fogelberg 16:17

me, the worst thing is, right, now we’re in an election year as well, right? So the dialogue is all about who’s the best and who didn’t? And all of that, actually.

Debra Chantry-Taylor 16:31

Now, it’s perfectly fine. Everybody who knows me knows, I swear. Okay, so that whole highperformance thing is really, really important. What about resilience? Is that part of it as well.

Lani Fogelberg 16:42

And this is kind of like, I’ve got two missions, right. So I’ve got my entrepreneurial mission, which is to make I call it relative high performance, because it’s, you know, performance is relative to where someone’s at ratio. So but making a higher level of performance, accessible to as many business owners across Australia and New Zealand as possible, so that we can get those kind of more nerdy outcomes, I suppose that I’m driven by which is essentially a greater level of productivity, so that we can see a better country, because obviously, we’re seeing the detriment of poor productivity the moment with, you know, low wage growth, excellence of cheese. So that’s like my entrepreneurial mission. And, you know, obviously talk about that later. But my personal mission is, going back to that first point of pride, I mentioned, I’m very proud about the life I’ve crafted for myself, the fact that I’ve got a very fulfilling enjoyable life, which is conducive to the way that I want to live. And it feels bloody good. And I want other people to feel that way, too. Yeah. Because life is too short. Yes. You said. So how do we do that? Well, we build confidence in ourselves to take the action that we know that we want to take and here. But that isn’t necessarily the norm. And by bolstering ourselves against the barriers that we will invariably encounter, because life is life. Yeah. So I do think that resilience is extremely important. Extremely important.

Debra Chantry-Taylor 18:06

I think we share similar kind of passions and beliefs. And I think I mean, I always laugh because we live just next to the park, Western Park. And when we go for a walk in the mornings, I’ve got this beautiful playground, but it has all that rubbery stuff underneath of swings and slides and things. And I kind of got that’s really nice. It feels really nice to walk on. But it’s kind of it takes away consequence. And I do wonder, because you know, when I was a child if you fell off a swing or or a slide, because you’re doing something stupid, because you generally don’t fall off slides and swings if you’re doing the right thing. If you fell because you did something stupid, you generally broken arm or a leg, and then you kind of went Okay, that wasn’t a good idea. I won’t do it again. Whereas now I feel like we’re kind of wrapping everything in cotton wool and making it almost impossible to fail. And I know from a more personal experience, business wise, I’ve had two spectacular failures that have cost me everything. And I learned more from that than the successes I’ve had. I’ve also had some great success as well. So I think it’s important that actually you got to resilience will help you and you only build resilience by actually experiencing and learning how to cope with those things.

Lani Fogelberg 19:07

It’s like a muscle. Yeah,

Debra Chantry-Taylor 19:09

That’s exactly right. Yeah,

Lani Fogelberg 19:10

I think that’s why as we get older, we become more resilient as well, because we just won’t just have more

Debra Chantry-Taylor 19:18

so going back to your business stuff, and so you know, what, what, what motivates you what drives you? Why are you so passionate? I mean, I, I hear you, but why are you so passionate about what you’re doing?

Lani Fogelberg 19:27

I mean, you know, there’s there are definitely some selfish reasons why I’m so passionate. So I, just since I was a little girl, I have just been so driven by learning, I suppose. I love just taking on new information. Yeah, ever since I was very, very small. And so doing what I do, I find it incredibly satisfying from that point of view, because I’m constantly learning. Yep, I’m constantly taking on new concepts, solving problems, I just enjoy them. So there’s definitely a selfish aspect to what I do I just enjoy solving these giant adult sizes just kind of the way that I describe it, or logic problems. I mean, you got a few told 10 year old Lonnie, that you can you can have make an entire career out of just like, you know, these little logic problems books that you do. Yeah, you just do those bigger? Wow. Yeah, there’s that. And I think it’s, it’s when when you do enjoy something, it’s very easy to be to cultivate, cultivate the discipline to do the things that you need to do when you’re not otherwise motivated, right? Yep. or tired or sick or whatever it is that secondary to that I do think I was put on this earth for a reason. I do think our responsibility as humans is to enjoy life, not necessarily to accomplish things. But I do feel like I was put here to create some value, and leave a bit of a legacy, I suppose. And when I look at the way that our country has become, you know, we’re not really this great nation anymore. Like we’re really lagging behind the rest of the OECD on many, many fronts. And it’s quite sad. And I really would like it to be better. Like I grew up here, yeah, my parents grew up here, hopefully, my children will grow up here. And so if there’s something that I can do, which is going to have a tiny, tiny, tiny, positive impact on that, to me, that’s hugely motivating. A friend once asked me what makes me happy, and I said, making other people happy. And he was like, No, can’t be there. That’s bullshit. Like, no, the genuine satisfaction that I get from, I mean, especially in 2020, my goodness, you know, ensuring that people’s livelihoods remain viable. These the I think we’re just intrinsically wired as humans to derive satisfaction from that. So yeah, there’s a big motivating factor for me to just have an impact. Yeah. Sounds terribly.

Debra Chantry-Taylor 22:00

When I’m sitting here. And I think, you know, obviously, quite a bit older than you. But yeah, we share the same passion. I mean, part of me is, I’m not from New Zealand, but this is now my home. And I’m really disappointed as a country because I think it’s a beautiful country that has huge potential. And I just see it going backwards. And my my dream is, again, to leave the earth probably a bit earlier than you, but in a better position than when I came into it. And I drive huge pleasure out of helping people and just seeing them succeed. And and, you know, my story, I’m driven by the fact that I don’t want anybody to not spend the time doing the stuff that they love with the people they love. Because life is just too short.

Lani Fogelberg 22:33

It’s fleeting, fleeting. And I had some lessons about that. When I was very, very young, I experienced some I wouldn’t say traumatic events. I feel like the word trauma is overused now, but it’s like, yeah, a relative of mine was killed in a train crash when I was 10. And I witnessed a fatal accident when I was 14. And I feel like, yeah, those kinds of things, they they do stay with you in the sense of that. It’s just immense kind of perspective that you get in your formative years. Yeah. So I think that has kind of that that definitely has given me I suppose this zest for life and appreciation for how short it is, and how we must make the most of it as such.

Debra Chantry-Taylor 23:14

I just want a little note here, like you talked about jigsaw puzzles and adult jigsaw puzzles. We’re talking about normalizing certain behaviors and things. I think that’s really interesting. When I was growing up, I was a real geek, like, I was always top of the class, I was naughty, because I got bored in class. And so I was often also the naughtiest and the one that was stuck in the corner with you know, to behave. But I used to love things like jigsaw puzzles. And as I got older, and I wanted to be part of the in crowd, they took the mickey out of me, for me loving these things, I actually kind of pushed it aside and when kinda jigsaw puzzles because they’re just geeky, and nobody does that. And then as an adult, remember sharing, I was doing a jigsaw puzzle at home on my own. I remember sharing it on Facebook, we were always friends of mine, when we love our jigsaw puzzle, it’s okay to do jigsaw puzzles, I really had no idea. And it’s a very simplistic version of how we kind of get brought up with things that people tell us we ought to should do, or you know, all these kind of constrictions around what is right and what is wrong and what we should do. And I’m guessing you must see a lot of that in business as well.

Lani Fogelberg 24:09

Totally like life and business. 2028 called adulting as a fallacy. And I can’t make it was I had a subtitle as well. But I think I mentioned how sometimes people like hundreds and 1000s of my breakfast because I want to hear if it’s not appropriate for someone my age. And I do think that yeah, personally, professionally, it’s probably a slightly different conversation, right? Because there there is an element of appropriateness that is certainly required in a professional context. But with the way that our lives and our professional lives now blend together. I do like how we’re starting to see this much more human element come into our professional lives and that appreciation for the fact that will actually when I go home I am just another human and my dream. Yeah, so I yeah, I quite like that. And I think that’s probably one of the reasons why I am so open and authentic online as well, setting aside the fact or just make too much effort to do anything. Finding something that you’re not right, yeah.

Debra Chantry-Taylor 25:14

Yeah, I think the sooner we actually learned that, the better. I wish I’d learned a whole lot earlier because I think Gino Wickman, who wrote the kind of attraction book when the stuff that I teach in Eos, he actually talked about the fact that if we’re always trying to be something different for different people, it’s a huge amount of energy we have to use to do that. And he talked about the fact that he had his 30th birthday party, his wife organize a surprise that his birthday for him, and he had friends, he had family, he had colleagues, he had worked people, and they all knew different versions of Jena. And so he literally arrived with First of all, he was like, excited. And then it was like, but who am I supposed to be with all these different groups of people? And that was his like, Aha moment of like, actually, if I was just myself and more authentic all the time. It’s a huge, it’s less energy wasted on things that are not important.

Lani Fogelberg 25:56

That was me in my early 20s, that were lucky, you know, that I’ve heard things like, yeah, there’s this presentation last week, which I think there’s about 300 people all up largely over zone with like 50 or 60 people in the room. I don’t know if it was just in my head, actually could watch it. But I’m pretty sure I said, you know, in that in that presentation, I mentioned something about not using perfectly crafted professional photos of myself, because I wanted to make this a very human presentation. Yep. And the point I mentioned was that like, yeah, earlier today, I ate a bagel sitting on the floor of my lounge with my cat next to me and the sunshine. Yes. It doesn’t make me any less intelligent or capable. Yes, you know. So I just think that that’s it’s really important. And that that can also be quite a little bit of a bomb on some of the wellbeing issues that we’re starting to see, kind of as a result of the modern world and all of the crazy things that have gone on

Debra Chantry-Taylor 26:59

in recent years. Yeah, I was thinking about my niece over in Australia saying to you, she’s 16 years old, that they live a lot of their time online in the social world. And I think I tried to be reasonably authentic online. But at the end of the day, I’m not going to tell you about every single dowel moment that I have, because nobody’s going to hear all of that stuff, right? So you’re gonna get more positive than you are negative. And that probably is actually quite a genuine reflection of my life, because I’m mostly pretty positive. But they have this almost unrealistic kind of an understanding of what they should look like, how they should behave. What people live like, you know, yeah, the lucky like, thing is scary. Yeah, yeah.

Lani Fogelberg 27:37

Turning into clients with all this like cosmetic work, and it is quite lyricism, you can look at whatever they say. But anyway, Stepford Wives, I would call them the filters.

Debra Chantry-Taylor 27:46

I tell you what I had people actually use filters, sometimes on their LinkedIn profiles, you’ve got to think, what must it be like? So you’ve been engaging with this person online for a period of time, and you finally get to meet them? And they’re completely different?

Lani Fogelberg 28:00

Oh, look, you’ve got snow lines. I thought you had last advice, because all your video is about that? Yeah. Okay, so we can get easily distracted this guy.

Debra Chantry-Taylor 28:15

So back to business, where, you know, we’ve actually we’ve already been talking for well over half an hour. So if you had to give kind of three really top business tips, what have you learned because you’ve, you have grown and managed allows large business, you’ve worked with business owners, multiple dollar businesses, what will be the three kind of top things that you would say you’d like to share?

Lani Fogelberg 28:34

I actually wrote some notes on that. Conversations and then not making like, they’re not being really genuine value for people taking the time to listen. Yep. And Eris, this is kind of an on same with what we’ve been speaking about, but doing the work to become the person that you need to be to achieve the things that you want to achieve. And there’s some big gaps that I see there, time to time. And then as you see that gap close, suddenly, like you said, the goal is getting ticked off. And whether it’s people learning to prep practice that making faster decisions. Yeah, I’m crucial in business, especially as you are voting, like if you’re building a fast-growing business. And then, you know, on the flip side, maybe the more kind of personal side, recognizing the alienation that can potentially come in an entrepreneurial journey, or in a business journey, and doing what you need to do to kind of prepare yourself for that. And cultivating the conviction that you need to hold within yourself to, you know, help you stay connected to what you’re trying to achieve when you’ve got kind of naysayers or otherwise coming up in front of you. So yeah, becoming working out what you need to do, who do you need to beat or achieve the things that you want to achieve? So important in business, especially if your mother in law is going to alienate you or whatever happens and it’s it’s all But it’s kind of like the compromise, right? It’s like the price that you pay for succeeding. In many cases, looking at something that’s a little bit more tangible. Having a plan to plan, having structure to actually, your strategic priorities and business, this is going like right down the other end of the spectrum to it. So the first point that I made, but that kind of underpins my work is, why are we in business? What are we doing? And then how do we translate that into what we’re doing this week, this month, this quarter this year,

Debra Chantry-Taylor 30:31

bite sized chunks should be done and all lead back to that ultimate end goal?

Lani Fogelberg 30:34

Sounds it sounds simple.

Debra Chantry-Taylor 30:36

Yeah. I guess I always had this, like, the stuff that I teach with the you know, the slightly larger leadership teams things is that it’s, it is really, really simple. But it is not easy. Yeah, it takes commitment, it takes consistency takes clarity, as they’re

Lani Fogelberg 30:51

going wrong as well, like, you know, people think, oh, we need to establish an advisory panel, we know whether it’s formalized or not, whether whether it’s a board or not. But it’s very easy for them to be actually counterproductive or dysfunctional. So making sure that, okay, yes, you create some structure, actually, to what you’re doing in business, but making sure that it’s productive, it’s not cumbersome, actually gonna prevent you from doing the dough.

Debra Chantry-Taylor 31:17

Or stop you from making decisions. I think sometimes, I remember I used to work at the Ice House with other startup businesses, you know, they were had so many advisors who were advisors, not not coaches, so therefore, they were given their opinions. And then suddenly, they get very confused, they’ve got all these opposing opinions and get sediment, they’re just opinions. Yeah, and the only person who can really make the decision is going to be you. So take all those opinions, make what you want out of them, and then make a decision. I one

Lani Fogelberg 31:40

of my favorite projects is with a rapidly growing business in Australia, and over the past 18 months or so that we’ve been working together. Like, he’s now got such a great team around him of advisors, but we all work very collaboratively. And so it just means that he can focus on doing what he needs to do. And he knows that he’s kind of got people that will look after him. Yep, that makes sense. Yes. And that’s where it really, really works. Because you know, that the wheels are going to keep turning, you’re not putting something in place, which is actually prohibitive to achieving what you need to achieve. And, and I think in a post-COVID environment, as well, that’s what a lot of businesses need, they need a path to move down. They need instructions, right? Yeah. And if you can do that, even if you’re a solopreneur, even if you are operating by yourself, and you don’t have people working for you, at least not full time. You know, it’s very hard to be the dictator and the slave and I say, so you kind of need that that structure or those constraints. So that you know what you’re doing. When you get up in the morning, that’s actually going to move the needle closer to where you want tino be, I get

Debra Chantry-Taylor 32:42

Right down to my I have a uniform, people always say me, I’ve always looked sort of, you know, glamorous, and you’ve always got a dressing what’s got you actually wear the same jewelry every single day to work. I have a number of dresses up as pulling out the cover in the morning, no decisions made. And I think as an entrepreneur, we have enough decisions to make every single day without thinking about it. Plus, it gives me a chance to go right uniform into that state is that frame of mind when they get home out of that uniform, different state different state of mind? Yep.

Lani Fogelberg 33:05

It’s hugely important. And so yes, that structure. So yeah, and the other thing, as well, which I think has just come up for me a lot lately, in my work with companies is facing the things that you might be told at scale. And feel the fear and do it anyway. I think about like a new system that I helped implement into a company recently, which is very much in its infancy. The system, not the company. Yep. And everyone was so scared of it. Oh, look at what this is gonna give you. And now they will love it. And so they I mean, it’s a very, like vanilla kind of example. But one of the pitfalls that I saw during COVID was people not really having financial empowerment over the business. Like you could be turning over $20 million. But yeah, okay, show me your cash flow. Yeah, show me. Show me your plan. And a lot of people don’t do it just because it’s scarier because it’s unfamiliar. And so it’s Yeah, and my observations over the last few years being able to confront what makes you feel uncomfortable or incompetent, or uncertain, is actually the stuff that you need to confront. Hence, my elephants everywhere. What is it we’re

Debra Chantry-Taylor 34:24

All ignoring in this room that we

Lani Fogelberg 34:28

Absolutely want to bring the elephants.

Debra Chantry-Taylor 34:32

We could talk all day, but we don’t have all the time in the world. We’ve already had a great big long chapter in the workshop. Tell me a little bit about you know, who do you really love working with? What is your ideal client? Why would they work with you and who would you choose? Yeah,

Lani Fogelberg 34:44

I’ll probably start with the why. I suppose I bring a bit of a non unique value proposition but a real value proposition and the sense that I essentially come in as a management consultant. So learning from Fogelberg consulting to hold companies accountable to their strategic objectives, but actually help them determine what they should be and what the action steps are to achieve them in the first place. And that’s something that generally doesn’t get paired with that ongoing accountability. Normally, you’ll get like a management consultant from one of the big four, they’ll pull out their strategy, they’ll put it in front of you and say, This is what you need to do goodbye. Yeah, yes, you’re working closely with an implementation team, right. But then you kind of potentially get yourself into a, into a situation where you’ve got like management consultants running your business, and they’re just looking to deploy more people and find more problems. So my model is very much in a one on one setting, let’s work out what are we doing here? What do we actually need to do? And help them work out what that action plan is, and then hold them accountable to that action plan and provide ongoing operational advice. So it’s really getting into the nitty gritty of the business. And you know, that CRM system that I mentioned earlier, just as an example, with that business alone, in the last few months, we’ve overhauled the business continuity plan. We’ve, you know, done other things within the business, which I won’t go into now that things that are actually quite fundamentally important that, yeah, you can’t just get any old Tom, Dick or Harry and or like a typical business coach to come and do it, because they don’t have the technical, technical expertise. So that’s where I fit into the picture.

Debra Chantry-Taylor 36:25

So you’re, you’re a management consultant, who has got the ability to do the strategy and the operational, but also to work alongside build to make sure actually gets done. Yeah, yeah.

Lani Fogelberg 36:33

Because it’s not meaningful to me, if it doesn’t get done. Yeah. It’s not meaningful to me if it doesn’t actually happen. And, and again, with more of that consultant flavor, I will go away and research things that need to be researched as well, which often businesses that actually lack the resource to do, or the resource doesn’t actually have the analytical ability to understand what how that how the results of that research would be applied in a commercial environment for a tangible commercial outcome. So that’s the kind of stuff that that I get into. Yep. And that’s normally in a one on one context. Yep. Or one on leadership, Team context. And my ideal client, value system, baby.

Debra Chantry-Taylor 37:16

Yeah, we talked about this. Yeah. So we got to be ambitious.

Lani Fogelberg 37:19

There’s got to be a genuine desire to improve to be better to grow. You’ve got to be coachable. They got to be prepared to listen to me, which not everyone is prepared to do. Sometimes they think they are. And they’re really not. It’s kind of like the idea. The idea is nice, but the reality is not so different, as they have to do all those uncomfortable things. And people that operate with a high level of integrity. So my experience lends itself to blow people’s messes. Yeah, so manufacturing, construction, all the fun stuff. Wonderful. And, yeah, that’s typically where I sit.

Debra Chantry-Taylor 37:54

Fantastic. So people want to get ahold of you. How do they get ahold of you? I’m very easily

Lani Fogelberg 37:57

Stackable with LinkedIn and I will probably come up if you’re in New Zealand or Australia. That’s that’s typically the easiest way to get ahold of me

Debra Chantry-Taylor 38:06

Absolutely. Hey, look, we’ve had a great chat before we came in here and other great chat in here. Looking forward to do some more work together. And thank you very much for giving us your time.

Lani Fogelberg 38:14

Thank you for having me, Deborah. Absolute pleasure.

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Debra Chantry-Taylor

Professional EOS Implementer | Entrepreneurial Leadership & Business Coach | Business Owner

#betterbusinessbetterlife #entrepreneur #leadership #eosimplementer #professionaleosimplementer #entrepreneurialbusinesscoach

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