Female Entrepreneur Shares Secrets To Success

Lezly Kaye shares her journey from a challenging upbringing to becoming a successful entrepreneur and coach. She emphasizes the importance of courage, self-love, and the need for women to create safe spaces in business. Lezly discusses the role of money as an amplifier of self-worth and the significance of understanding psychology in business. She advocates for women in leadership and the power of community, highlighting the need for a different approach to business that nurtures rather than pressures. Ultimately, Lezly's mission is to help women live fulfilling lives while achieving financial success.
takeaways
• Courage is essential for entrepreneurial success.
• You are not defined by your circumstances, but by your choices.
• Falling forward is a key trait for entrepreneurs.
• Money amplifies what is already present in you.
• Creating safe spaces for women in business is crucial.
• Understanding psychology is vital for business success.
• Women often face unique challenges in leadership roles.
• Grace in leadership is about strength and nurturing.
• Community building is essential for effective leadership.
• Helping others achieve their dreams leads to personal fulfillment.

Chapters
00:00The Journey of Courage and Resilience
02:29Defining Courageous Choices
05:13The Role of Money in Freedom
08:14Transitioning from Real Estate to Recruitment
11:05The Evolution of Selling
13:46Building a Reputation in Recruitment
14:14From Real Estate to Recruitment: A New Beginning
16:10The Entrepreneurial Leap: Building a Business
19:04Lessons from Business: The Hard Way
21:40Transitioning to Coaching: A New Purpose
24:33Empowering Women: Unique Challenges and Support
27:19The Power of Grace in Leadership
30:13Navigating Success: The Importance of Community
32:49The Role of Women in Business: A New Perspective
35:54The Journey of Self-Discovery and Fulfillment
38:44Giving Back: The Law of Reciprocity

Find Lezly here:
https://www.facebook.com/lezlyk
https://www.instagram.com/lezlykaye?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lezlykaye/
https://lezlykaye.com/

Transcript

Lezly Transcript 

Peter Anthony (00:00)

Good day, Lezly.

Lezly Kaye (00:00)

Hi, Peter.

Peter Anthony (00:01)

Now, we're talking about courage today and I've read your story and it is a remarkable story of courage and resilience. And I'm just curious about when that story begins for you.

Lezly Kaye (00:15)

it's so interesting. I've been reflecting on this a lot lately because, you know, given my business success, often times it feels like my story starts at my business success, but it starts well before that, especially in the courage piece. So I was born in a little country town, in Northwestern Australia. And, yeah, I was born into a lot of.

drug addiction and family violence and abuse and yeah, I want to say courage for me first started when I sort of learned that my intelligence would set me free from the environment that I was born into and really started to like back myself in education and the audacity to just choose different and do something with my life other than.

fall into the circumstances I was born into.

Peter Anthony (01:08)

So for you, part of that exit strategy was intelligence, was thinking your way out of the box, if you like.

Lezly Kaye (01:16)

Yeah, yeah. And, and the courage because, it's, I haven't always put my best foot forward or chosen the right path or taken the right step. And I think a lot of it is just in the audacity to keep going and to sort of pick yourself up and go, okay, I'm going to keep moving in this direction. And I like to say falling forward is one of the strongest entrepreneurial traits you can have.

Peter Anthony (01:39)

That's true. It's interesting, it? Because you think you can be intelligent enough to know what the right pathway is. But you need the courage to take that step, right? Yeah. Yeah.

Lezly Kaye (01:47)

Yes.

Yeah, and I want to say to break yourself out of the patterns and beliefs and circumstances that you find yourself in. I often say you're not defined by your circumstances, you're defined by the choices that you make and it's continuing to show up for the brave, courageous choices to keep moving in the direction of the life you know you're here to create.

Peter Anthony (02:10)

So what was that first step when you talk about making courageous choices or courageous steps? You think you're born into a very challenging childhood. You think what was the first step you can recall? Is there what I stepped not necessarily to where you are now, but you began that journey out.

Lezly Kaye (02:29)

Yeah, the first step was actually moving out of home when I was 14, almost 15 years old. Given that I was born into quite a tumultuous family environment, my older brother moved out and I was like, well, if he's going, I'm going. So the first real step was kind of making that decision to go against the grain and to step out into a life that I wasn't sure about.

Then when I was 17, I made the choice to move to Perth, which is obviously like the capital city of Western Australia. And then from there, I've really just continued to make bold choices and sort of steps towards a future that I wanted.

Peter Anthony (03:06)

So when you think of bold choices, are they still difficult for you now? Or would you say they get easier the more you take them?

Lezly Kaye (03:16)

Both, yes and. I want to say it does build the foundation of unshakable self -belief. I think entrepreneurship especially, it's like most people fail because they stop trying. They're not actually failing because they're no good at what they're doing. They just stop trying to move in the direction of their dreams. So yeah, I want to say they can feel a little easier because

underneath it all I have this unshakable knowing that I've got myself and no matter what happens, you know, I've failed to the sum of three million dollars. So I want to say the more that you learn to fail forward, the more that you realize that nothing is as scary as we make it out to be and we can continue to take the steps towards the future that we want.

Peter Anthony (04:00)

You mentioned the big word there, entrepreneurship. I'm sure when you were 14, 15, 16, were you thinking about entrepreneurship then or you were just thinking of getting away from that debiting sort of background you were moving away from?

Lezly Kaye (04:15)

I want to say that I was thinking about money truthfully. I sort of had this knowing that, you know, I come from, I want to say, not exactly poverty, but, you know, raised on pensions and living off the land. was actually, thankfully, partially raised by my grandparents who, although are beautiful people, still couldn't shield me from my childhood. But there wasn't ever a sense of money or wealth or, you know, my clothes were made for me.

Peter Anthony (04:17)

Okay, yeah.

Lezly Kaye (04:40)

And I had this idea that if I made money I could sort of find my way to freedom somehow. So it wasn't entirely entrepreneurship, more just this ingrained knowing that if I could bring wealth into my life in some way that I could set myself free from the circumstances I was born into.

Peter Anthony (05:00)

It certainly helps, it? mean, money isn't everything, but it helps most things, doesn't it? Most situations you're in, if you have money, life tends to be better than.

Lezly Kaye (05:13)

Yeah, I want to say it's an amplifier. So it amplifies what's already there. And I built a multi -million dollar business and actually at the helm of that business discovered that I was deeply unhappy because it was just amplifying the fear of the little girl that run away. So I want to say, although I have a great relationship with money now, it's only because I've done the inner work to know who I am and it amplifies the self -love that I have versus when it used to previously amplify.

the lack of worth and the fear because if you think about how I just spoke about my story, to me it was well if I have money I can escape. So there was a scared little girl trying to run away from her childhood and so when I hit that pinnacle of multi -million dollar business and you know multi -million dollar salary and designer handbags and Range Rovers and the picture -perfect lifestyle, what is amplifying then was the lack and the fear and the

the scarcity of the little girl that was running away. And so the difference is what it amplifies now is the self -love. And for me, money buys me a level of self -love. And what I mean is like, I only eat organic food. I only travel business class. So for me, it's an amplification of how well do I want to love myself. And before I didn't really love myself.

Peter Anthony (06:32)

So this entrepreneurial journey, when did that stage start?

Lezly Kaye (06:40)

Mmm.

Part of who wants to say I've kind of always been a hustler. The first memory that popped into my mind was like, think being like, would have been like 13 and creating, like baking all these cakes and then selling them at a store when I was a kid. Cause I would go to these markets and be like, well, if I'm spending all of my money, what can I do to make money here?

Peter Anthony (06:46)

Yeah, hustling, I like that, I like hustling.

Lezly Kaye (07:10)

But I started my first, I want to say like, I mean, I started my first job when I was 13 years old. I worked in a corner store, but I started my first real job when I was 17 and I started working in a real estate agency. And I quickly then became a real estate PA because I understood that I could own commissions. And that way, the more that I worked and the more committed I was to my job, the more money that I could make for myself. And that's really when I first started this understanding that

backing myself and backing my capacity to learn new skills. And back then it was to learn sales was going to help me make more money.

Peter Anthony (07:48)

So is PA in a real estate agency, is that a sales role, is it?

Lezly Kaye (07:52)

Yeah, so basically I didn't list the properties, I just sold the properties. Yeah, yeah.

Peter Anthony (07:59)

when you were 17.

Lezly Kaye (08:01)

I started in reception when I was 17 and when I was 19 I started in a real estate position.

Peter Anthony (08:04)

Yeah.

So that was your first taste of selling in the commercial world.

Lezly Kaye (08:14)

Yeah, yeah, was the, okay, cool. Well, if I just learn this and apply myself and the better I get at it, the more money I can make.

Peter Anthony (08:25)

And how did you see selling then? mean, was, what were like, because I'm sure there would have been some little light bulbs going off in your mind. this is what selling is. This is how to sell. What are those insights for you? Yeah, the truth. The one that just sets you free,

Lezly Kaye (08:28)

Hmm.

where do you want to know the truth? And the way I sell now is very different to the way I sold back then. And actually there's a whole other story around ethical selling and selling with heart basically. And when I stepped into coaching, for example, given that I'm very heart led these days, I really had to change the way in which I sell. But back then truthfully, back then it was manipulation.

Peter Anthony (09:01)

that, yeah.

Lezly Kaye (09:05)

Back then it was if I can understand enough about these people and understand their wants and needs, I can shape what I'm selling to help them make their choice for them. And all I cared about was bridging the gap between, and there is some truth to it and there is some veins of crossover in selling with heart and selling with authenticity, but really there was less, I didn't care.

All I knew was that I needed to make a sale and I could understand, you know, I've always had a keen understanding of psychology, which is probably why I ended up in this work. But yeah, I just understood people. I understood their pain. I understood their desires and I was really good at matching what they wanted in a home, for example, with their needs and closing sales in that way.

Peter Anthony (09:56)

wasn't a hundred percent ethical you're thinking back then. No, not really.

Lezly Kaye (10:00)

No, no, not really. don't, I mean, I don't, I never like tricked or scammed anyone, but I think there was a lot of hijacking of emotions and pushing people into fast decisions and, you know, really putting a lot of pressure on to make decisions. So like really jacking people's nervous systems and putting them into a bit of a fear state. And from that fear state, people make rash decisions and quick decisions. So.

I understand the psychology behind it and it's not the way I like to operate these days.

Peter Anthony (10:29)

So you're almost like triggering a fear or triggering a stress response and encouraging them to make decisions they may not have made if they weren't, what did you say? Hijacked, emotionally hijacked? I like that.

Lezly Kaye (10:41)

Emotionally hijacked. Yeah. So basically it's like, let's make them think there's a lack happening here. Like there's another offer on the table or, you know, the sellers are only going to, if we get this deal across the line today and, you know, they'd would have bought the same house and they were likely very happy. But yeah, there was a lot of,

Peter Anthony (10:56)

Yeah.

Lezly Kaye (11:03)

pressure to make the sale and a pressure to make a decision.

Peter Anthony (11:05)

Yeah.

think anyone that has bought real estate would have felt that being done to them. It's almost an expectation because you think as a buyer, as I have been several times, you wonder how much of the truth you're being told.

Lezly Kaye (11:23)

I was just reflecting on this the other day, the last house I bought, I bought it like an online live auction. I was like, I'm pretty sure there was fake bidders in that auction.

Peter Anthony (11:28)

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I know even in real auctions, there's like when you're in person auction, there's fake bidders there. I mean, the law is a bit stricter now than it was, but I'm sure that sort of thing is still taking place. a of buyers are aware of that. probably the it would be the biggest decision to make in life apart from maybe getting married or committing to someone in a relationship. It's certainly the biggest financial decision most people make in their lives. So there's a lot of stress around

Lezly Kaye (12:00)

And starting a business. want to say the two quickest ways to learn who you are and learn what life's about is to get in a relationship and start a business.

Peter Anthony (12:06)

Yeah.

Yeah, don't buy a house. So that was the real estate selling. And obviously that didn't last indefinitely because you're not a real estate mogul.

Lezly Kaye (12:22)

No, I'm not. I'm not.

Peter Anthony (12:24)

No, no, no. So what was the next step for you? Transitioning out of real estate sales?

Lezly Kaye (12:31)

Yeah, so I transitioned into recruitment and basically, you know, to sell real estate. If someone calls you at six, seven o 'clock at night, you have to be on, you have to like answer the phone, be in sell mode, be ready to convince this person to buy what you've got to sell. You know, home opens on Saturdays and Sundays and I'm like 19 and 20. So, you know, there's no, not that I've ever really been a huge part or although there was a period of my life I was, but that's a whole nother podcast, I'm sure.

but I just got really sick of waking up on Saturdays and putting on a suit and going to a home open. I was speaking to a friend of mine and she was like, why don't you try recruitment? It's still selling, but you know, you do it at a desk. You don't have to go show these homes. So yeah, I started in recruitment when I was 21. and fast became the world's best recruiter. selling was a little different selling similar, but,

I really started to believe in the products that I had and I really started to believe, which I did and I was, I still hold that title to this day. for me, it became then this belief in, if you don't work with me, you're actually missing out. And it really started to be this understanding that...

The more I believed in the product that I had, the more that I could convince people to work with me in that way. And I really sort of broke the rules in recruitment because I worked in the mining space and essentially I'd nailed the process to getting people to site really quickly. And I built a reputation off the back of that. from there, was part of the world's largest recruitment organization and went on to start two businesses from there.

Peter Anthony (14:14)

You're recruiting into mining. And for those that may not know, Western Australia is one of the biggest mining districts in the world. Yeah, yes.

Lezly Kaye (14:22)

Yes, yes. And so that was my second round. And then from there, I started to recruitment businesses. And that was sort of the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey.

Peter Anthony (14:31)

Okay, so you started, you thought, well, this is great, but I'm giving away a lot of money, a lot of margin to the boss or to the company. Why that I do that for myself? So what you quit that global firm and started your own.

Lezly Kaye (14:44)

Yeah, so there was two reasons. Yes, I was making them a shit ton of money and only taking, I mean, it was a good percent. I was earning 700 K as an employee because that's how much money I was making them. But I was like, why am I giving all this away? And then second to that, I was pregnant with my first son, my only son, but my first son. And

Basically, they said that if I took maternity leave that I couldn't keep my business because I'd built a business inside of a business. So I didn't really own it. And so I got a little bit of a B in my bonnet, which can be a great motivator in business. And I was like, do you know what? I'm not going to let you dictate to me what I can and can't do. And this is my business. built it. So like, how dare you try to take it from me just because I choose to be a mother. And so with a six month old.

In hand, I quit that job and I partnered with an organization or a gentleman and founded in partnership my first recruitment company and got that to 60 million in turnover in the space of 18 months.

Peter Anthony (15:43)

Well, with a baby.

Lezly Kaye (15:46)

With a baby,

Peter Anthony (15:47)

With a baby, okay, with a baby. So how old are you now? Or how old are you when this is taking place? When you've got your son.

Lezly Kaye (15:56)

So I'm, well, let me work backwards. I'm 37. My son is six. So I was 31, yeah, 31 years old.

Peter Anthony (16:02)

Okay, okay. So you were working for that other recruiting firm for what, five or six years or so, for a while? Eight years, okay. Eight years with other recruiter. You start your own business, you have a baby, and you turn over, how much did you say? Was it $6 million? Six zero. Wow. With two people, with you and your partner.

Lezly Kaye (16:10)

Eight years, yeah.

60 million.

Yes.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I built a whole team. I got so in the space of 18 months, we got to 60 million. I probably had five people in our core business, which was high volume labor hire in the mines in in a in that team, which was kind of just a money making people pumping out machine. And then I had four people in our white collar business. And then we had a whole other side of the,

Peter Anthony (16:46)

Yeah.

Lezly Kaye (16:54)

head office, of safety, admin, finance, accounting, yeah, all those sorts of things.

Peter Anthony (17:01)

Wow, $60 million.

Lezly Kaye (17:03)

Yeah, it's a big business. Low margins, but high, turnover.

Peter Anthony (17:09)

Yeah, yeah. So it's a volume business, yeah. Low margin, high volume.

Lezly Kaye (17:12)

Yeah, we had like 4 ,000 temps working.

Peter Anthony (17:17)

Well.

That's not bad for a little girl that left the troubled background when she was a kid, right? 60 million.

Lezly Kaye (17:23)

Not bad for a girl that was born in Jelton Regional Hospital and grew up on a farm and didn't finish year 11 and I mean well, finished year 11, didn't finish year 12. yeah, was, yeah, kind of, I want to say part of me thinks I fell into success, but it really just was a strategy to move away from the life that I didn't want.

Peter Anthony (17:48)

Yeah, yeah, okay. So it's more moving away from that feeling of lack than moving towards the wealth. And the wealth just made you feel like less lack. Is that?

Lezly Kaye (17:59)

Truly, truly. And it's a recipe for disaster. You know, I coach a lot of business founders that are in this space of moving away from some form of pain rather than moving towards the expression of self -love and freedom. And truthfully, and I wrote an article on this last year with YPO, there's this element of inner peace you can find if you allow your success and allow your money to catalyze the internal transformation to be happy at the helm of your business.

Peter Anthony (18:27)

Yeah, okay. So are you still doing that now, Lezly? Are you still running that recruitment business? No, no, of course not, of course not, of course not.

Lezly Kaye (18:32)

No, so But I want to say it was kind of my... Well, it's interesting, my programs are called Grace. I was going to say my fall from Grace, I really built... So that was my first business. I partnered with a gentleman who probably wasn't the most ethical human.

Peter Anthony (18:37)

Silly question.

Lezly Kaye (18:53)

And I was young. was 31. I didn't know any difference. So I built this company for him with a Executed shareholders agreement that was never lodged with ASIC. So I was never actually a business owner And then when I started to contest that his response was I have more time I have more money and I will keep coming after you until you have nothing and so he basically bullied me out of court because I'm you know little girl from the country with

definitely not millions and millions of dollars in the bank like he had and yeah I learned my lesson in business the hard way and that wasn't the last time unfortunately.

Peter Anthony (19:34)

So you leave recruiting then?

Lezly Kaye (19:38)

No, so I then went and founded my own company by myself. was my second lesson. Self -funded, which I wouldn't really advise, especially in a game where, you know, again, I got this business to 20 million in turnover in the space of similar time. It takes about 12 months to get going and then six months to start cranking the numbers. But yeah, self -funding a five million dollar payroll per month, even, you know, with

Peter Anthony (19:41)

Okay.

Lezly Kaye (20:04)

creditor funding on the invoices. Essentially, the cashflow couldn't keep up, the business was quite successful and we ran into an ATO debt. And rather than restructure the company at that point, I was midway through a divorce. This was my second time at having a really successful business, reaching troubles. And I essentially got to the pinnacle of burnout and the pinnacle of, well,

I don't want to keep running anymore. I don't want to keep building these big businesses if I'm not looking at myself deep enough to understand what's going on. And yeah, I was just burnt out and I was over everything I, you know, used. I said the universe taps you on the shoulder and then it punches you in the face. And so really it punched me in the face.

Peter Anthony (20:44)

That's right, yeah.

Lezly Kaye (20:47)

And this time I was willing to listen. And so I used this catalyst to restructure the company, sell out the assets, sell out the contracts, and then use that money to fund my evolution into the woman I am today, basically.

Peter Anthony (21:01)

Okay, so recruitment business number two ends, your business, and then it's the business that you're running now, is that right? Okay, and what is, so this is not recruitment we're talking about now.

Lezly Kaye (21:06)

-huh. -huh.

Yes, yes.

Well, I want to say yes and no. So interestingly, I just started a VA agency. When I stopped recruitment two years ago, I was like, I'm never going to do recruitment again. given that I'm in the space of coaching and helping business owners, and now I understand the world of offshoring support, I just founded a VA agency, which is technically recruiting. But yeah, I'm a business coach and essentially

The lessons that I learned in the journey in scaling multiple weight figure companies, I know how to scale and I also know what to look out for if you're too quickly.

Peter Anthony (21:48)

You also know how much to scale.

Lezly Kaye (21:51)

Truly, yeah, literally. I know in a very precise way how not to scale. And also I sit in the intersection of psychology and strategy. So I've spent two years studying why we do what we do, why we don't do what we want to do, and really understanding what motivates us as humans to create the life that we want. And I use business as a catalyst for deeper self -relationship. And so through my...

lessons that I say I like to embody my lessons so through my lived experience of yeah understanding what it takes and also understanding what not to do I help founders to scale in a way that feels good and easeful and not yeah not not as stressful as it can be if you are in it alone.

Peter Anthony (22:38)

Okay, okay. So you're a mentor that's done it already. Yeah, and you've been successful and you've also, you've made some great decisions and you've made some poor decisions and you can guide them away from the poor decisions and towards the smarter decisions, yeah, okay. So you're talking about scaling businesses. So what sort of businesses do you work with now? What sort of entrepreneurs do you work

Lezly Kaye (22:43)

Yes, yes.

Yes.

Towards the good ones, yes.

Female founders basically. I do work with some gentlemen, but my group programmes are all female. And I want to say there tends to be a different set of...

support that women need, especially if they're mothers. And the support that I lacked in a lot of the organizations that I came up in was sort of the spaces that I now create for the women that are in my world.

Peter Anthony (23:26)

I like that, I like that. One of the first women I interviewed on my podcast, she is an expert in women in leadership and she told me this surprising statistic. She said, there are more men called Andrew that are CEOs in Australian businesses than there are women.

Lezly Kaye (23:44)

Wow.

Peter Anthony (23:45)

more Andrews than women that are seen. Yeah. Yeah. And she, she is a specialist in women in leadership, like in corporate leadership and helping women understand that. I mean,

Lezly Kaye (23:47)

and women. Well.

Mm, mm.

Peter Anthony (23:59)

What you mentioned some differences there is that there's some special needs or some unique needs that women have. What are they? What are they? I get that bit.

Lezly Kaye (24:08)

We're not men.

Well, the world expects us to build businesses like men. The world expects us to hustle and to compartmentalize and to not bring all of us to our business worlds, to not be emotional, to not have needs basically, and to really shut down what fundamentally makes us women in order to build success in our businesses. So creating spaces where like

Peter Anthony (24:23)

Yeah.

Okay.

Lezly Kaye (24:36)

It's actually okay to cry and it's actually okay to talk about being a mother and it's actually okay to talk about wanting to separate from your husband or wanting to deepen your intimate life with your husband or you're going through a separation with your husband. Not asking women to leave parts of themselves at the door. And what I found and with a lot of the women that I speak to is there's separate spaces. So I had really great business support when I was coming up, like some really great organizations that supported

the business side of me, that I had really great like mothering support or spiritual support. And I never really found that place where all of me was invited to the table and all of me was invited to the conversation. And so, yeah, it's really just creating a space for, I want to say, the vast experience that it is to be a woman in a man's world. And not that it's a bad thing. I love men. I'm a great ally of men. But I think

I think we are asked to do business differently and it doesn't work. We get burnt out, we get overwhelmed, we feel under supported and really we need to understand how to, I talk about infrastructure and leadership and infrastructure in our lives. So we do feel well resourced, well supported and we can tackle everything we want to take on as women in the workforce.

Peter Anthony (25:54)

like that idea. I like the idea of women coaching women to be better female entrepreneurs. think guys wouldn't get that. They might know it, but they wouldn't understand it really. Yeah. Yeah. So that's, and you find a lot of women resonate with that idea, like resonate with that idea that I have as a woman entrepreneur. I have a unique understanding of the business.

Lezly Kaye (26:06)

Truly.

Peter Anthony (26:22)

I've got a unique set of outside business needs too, like family needs, relationship needs, health needs, and only a woman can really understand that.

Lezly Kaye (26:32)

Yeah, yeah, and you know

We're often looking for somewhere safe to bring all of us. And the biggest thing I hear is like, my friends don't understand, my colleagues don't understand, my team doesn't understand, my husband doesn't understand. And really we, know, burnout actually comes when we're trying to spread ourself across a lot of different identities. And it takes a lot of energy inside of us.

Peter Anthony (26:55)

Okay.

Lezly Kaye (26:58)

to be everything to everything and not actually be in relationship with ourselves deep enough to have harmony and grace in our businesses and in the way that we scale and grow our businesses.

Peter Anthony (27:10)

You mentioned that word grace a couple of times, Lezly. What does this, what does grace mean to you?

Lezly Kaye (27:17)

Strong feminine leadership and yeah, grace, yeah. And grace isn't, I want to say grace isn't weak. Sometimes when people think of femininity or grace or it's this, there's a lot of subtle strength to it. It's the, you know, I think of a rose when I think of grace and roses have thorns. And that's one thing I like to remind people is that grace,

Peter Anthony (27:19)

Strong feminine leadership is grace. Okay, okay, okay.

Lezly Kaye (27:40)

is soft and it's nurturing but it's also strong and it's powerful.

Peter Anthony (27:46)

So what would be, if you think about that journey, you think about that journey from the beginning to now, and you think about, you've mentioned a few different themes, if you like, like a theme of courage, a theme of taking big leaps, being courageous, this idea of grace, this idea of unique perspectives that women bring to a business, what would you say are the biggest lessons you've learned?

Lezly? is it?

Lezly Kaye (28:17)

I want to say I so often because I didn't have it. you know, when I was at the helm of my self -funded business and I was going through a divorce and I wasn't really paying attention to my business because I was in the middle of, you know, like a self -awareness, a self -awakening, I'd sort of operated on autopilot for most of my life. And then that business,

restructure made me actually look at myself and be in deeper relationship with myself for the first time in god 35 years. I didn't have a lot of grace because I didn't reach out for support and I didn't know the support that I needed so it's like I was going through what felt like my life that was falling apart alone.

If I was available to me back then, I probably wouldn't have closed the business and I actually probably wouldn't have left my ex -husband. But I got to the pinnacle of success. I was unhappy. There was a lot of pressure. I was burnt out. I was overwhelmed. And there was no one that could support me to actually help me hold the enormity of the life that I had created and also help me steer this in the direction that I wanted to go.

And so I kind of just gave up and like threw it all away and started again. Knowing what I know now and having the skills that I have now, I would have just pivoted the business and sold out the assets in a different way and allowed it to transition more seamlessly into more of the woman that I am today versus burning it all down because I felt trapped and I felt like no one understood who I was and where I was going.

They say we become the medicine we want to see in the world, but my biggest lesson would be there likely was someone that could help me bring online the life that I wanted. I likely just wasn't listening or looking hard enough. I kind of just gave up and I felt really trapped by my own success and trapped by the business that I created.

Peter Anthony (30:13)

So your younger self called your more mature self into existence. Yeah, she calls you into existence. So what sort of entrepreneurs, what should I what sort of female entrepreneurs would you be ideal for? Would it be when I've already started my business, I'm a woman that started a business, I have...

Lezly Kaye (30:20)

Very much so.

Peter Anthony (30:41)

I've got customers who are established clients and I'm looking to scale. Is that when they turn to Lezly or is it before they begin?

Lezly Kaye (30:48)

I actually have a customer journey because you know, lifetime entrepreneur, know this. So both ends. So I have been that I work with that enter my lower end programs that are really just beginning their journey. So I have three women at the moment that are CEOs and are looking to step into their own business. And I'm holding their hand through that process and journey because I've been on that journey myself. And then I have women that are at the

Peter Anthony (30:51)

Yeah.

Bye,

Lezly Kaye (31:15)

half a million million dollar mark that are looking to break through that next glass ceiling. And so it's yet founding and scaling and it really it's in any industry. It's just the desire to do business differently, the desire to not feel so alone in it and the desire to have someone help you infrastructure your leadership and support with the strategy and the psychology because it's a dual game. Like honestly, if you just.

If you just throw strategy at a wall, it often doesn't work. But if you can understand the psychology behind why it's not working or why you're not doing what you know you should, or why you've spent, you know, $50 ,000 on marketing, but it's not actually working, you can really start to get into some of the granular psychological reasons as to why you're not moving the needle in your business forward. And that's really where the magic lies.

Peter Anthony (32:06)

And that's where you've got that magic dust to sprinkle. So is it a structured program or is it more you coaching them individually and using your intuition to help them through?

Lezly Kaye (32:09)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, so I actually have what is called the Foundations of Grace, which is a pre -recorded program, which is part psychology. So the mindset, the lessons, the understanding of the why, hand in hand with the strategy. So I have that as a pre -record structurally, and then a lot of women step into one -on -one coaching with me. So there's group coaching or one -on -one coaching, but all of it has a foundational piece of actually

understanding why. And I talk about the body mind connection. often we can be really, really self aware. And this was my, I want to say the trap that I fell into is I did all of the personal development and I did all of the leadership training. So I was self aware enough to know my limitations, but I didn't have the tools to move through my limitations. And so the body mind connection helps us bring all that. Yeah.

Peter Anthony (33:12)

to get back together. It's really interesting as you're speaking and maybe it's just the environment that I'm in. I don't hear many female business gurus. hear motivational and success gurus. They're almost all guys. There's very few women out there. Like I'm thinking of the old school guys like the Tony Robbins and all those characters. But there's a real space for someone like you.

Lezly Kaye (33:34)

Yes.

Peter Anthony (33:39)

to be that inspirational, motivational person for young women. Because if they look out into that motivational world or that mindset world, it's all guys, isn't it?

Lezly Kaye (33:51)

Yeah, I want to say, and even me, came up with Grant Cardone. one of them, I wrote an article saying Grant Cardone told me to quit my job. I never met the guy, but I'd binged all of his content. listened to all of his talks. So yeah, I became the woman that I wanted. I became the woman that I needed. you know, speaking is one of the starting with podcasts, but I've done like three,

Peter Anthony (33:55)

right, okay, okay. I know,

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Lezly Kaye (34:15)

motivational speaking trainings because I do feel there's a space for women to step more into the realm of guiding women to their greatness in a way that's nurturing and not in this hustle male mentality. Again, we need a bit of hustle in us, but there's more fulfilling and sustainable ways to grow businesses. And a lot of that is to do with the strategy and the mindset.

Peter Anthony (34:39)

That's really interesting too, Lezly, because part of what I coach people in is I coach people in how to tell their story. And that could be like at a keynote conference, could be in an internal meeting to tell the story of the organization. And it's interesting how differently men and women tell stories. The biggest difference I see is that when I ask men to tell a story, it's all about them.

Lezly Kaye (34:47)

Yes.

Yes.

Hmm.

Peter Anthony (35:08)

It's all about them and how successful they are and what a hero they are and how they broke through all these barriers and how smart they are. When I ask women to tell a story, it's almost always about somebody else. It's always about the people they were doing it for, the culture they were building, caring for the customers that they looking after. It's a very different sort of story. And usually women don't like to be that big hero in the middle of the spotlight.

Lezly Kaye (35:19)

Hmm.

Hmm.

Peter Anthony (35:35)

Whereas the guys are very happy being out there with all the spotlights on them. The women are less, it's more like, no, the heroes are all these other guys. I'm just happy to be there. Did you notice that?

Lezly Kaye (35:45)

Yeah, I want to say it's not actually that healthy because we're taught to self -sacrifice as women and we're taught to put ourselves last and it is really healthy for us to say actually I'm fucking awesome and these are all the awesome things I did and here is the people that I've helped along the way. They don't have to be mutually exclusive but you know the biggest lessons I teach women is not to self -sacrifice, not to people please and how to set boundaries because we actually

Peter Anthony (35:54)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes, yes.

Lezly Kaye (36:14)

know how to do it. No one teaches us to love ourselves first and then...

Peter Anthony (36:18)

Well, tell them what I'd suggest with an enormous amount of respect, not being a woman, having coached a lot of women is it's okay to be the hero of your story. And if you're talking as a CEO to your organization, that's what they want to hear. They don't want to hear somebody stepping back and saying, it was nothing, it wasn't me. They want to hear her saying, hey, you know, I made some great decisions. I built this awesome brand.

I created this whole infrastructure. That's what they want to hear because they want to follow somebody like that.

Lezly Kaye (36:49)

Well, and the safety behind it is actually people that look to someone to lead want to know that they're a leader. So if you're sitting there saying, well, it wasn't me and I have no leadership skills, you're not creating safety. So they're not going to want to follow you. So people need to know I'm safe with you and you're going to lead me to the promised land basically.

Peter Anthony (36:58)

Yes.

No, no.

Yeah, yes, that's true. And I guess part of that great word you mentioned just a moment ago is this whole idea of following. Like leading is often more about generating followership, generating people that want to follow you rather than being a dominant leader. And I think women are better at generating that followership than guys are, because guys, it's about me and what a legend I am. And the other curious piece I find is that

Lezly Kaye (37:29)

Yes.

Peter Anthony (37:42)

When men tell their story, it's often they made all the decisions, they were so smart. And if I'm hearing it as someone that wants to follow him, there's no space for me because I'm following a guy that knows everything already. Whereas a woman will leave spaces. Like she'll say, hey, I'm really good at this piece, but there's all these other pieces. I need you to fill those spaces and go on the journey with me. Women leaders are much better at doing that than guys are.

Lezly Kaye (37:53)

So.

Yes.

because it's community. And when we...

Peter Anthony (38:11)

building community exactly,

Lezly Kaye (38:13)

Community with a shared vision. And the key when we're leading organizations is can we get people to buy into the vision and can we get our values to coincide with our team's values? Because people don't really give a shit about you. They might say they do, but subconsciously they don't. And the way to motivate people is to understand intrinsically what motivates them and what motivates people is actually their value sets.

Peter Anthony (38:29)

They don't know.

Lezly Kaye (38:38)

So if you can understand what people value, it might be freedom, might be family, might be, I don't know, movement or... Yes, yes!

Peter Anthony (38:44)

Financial security, yeah, could be. They're pretty much the same, I think, Lesley. I think they're pretty much the same. They don't vary that much. There's probably a set of maybe five or six we all share. And if you can tap into those and people trust you, they think, yeah, I trust her. I trust her. I'm in a safe pair of hands. There's an enormous amount of potential. And I'm really excited about the fact that more women are stepping forward like that because...

Lezly Kaye (38:51)

No, no.

Peter Anthony (39:11)

This whole bunch of guys just talking about themselves, it gets a bit boring after a while. It's like being an echo chamber, they all just talk about themselves. And they don't mention anybody else. That's really quite strange. think surely you couldn't have got there all by yourself. Surely somebody helped you.

Lezly Kaye (39:15)

Yeah

Yes, yes.

Yeah, I want to say again, I'm a huge ally for men and I love men in leadership and also my vision is to see generations of strong women of purpose at the helms of big businesses and I have feeling this is how we change the landscape of business operation.

Peter Anthony (39:39)

Yeah.

Yes, and improve it because one of the whole ideas here is that when you have diverse leadership, we have people coming from different perspectives, different genders, different perspectives, different racial backgrounds. You think, well, I'm going to get only at smarter decisions because there's more diversity of thought, right? Not just one like white Anglo -Saxon male.

Lezly Kaye (40:02)

Truly.

Peter Anthony (40:06)

in a blue pinstripe suit with a white shirt and a red tie that's leading us forward. You what I mean? Look, I've met a lot of them. I've met a lot of these guys and it's refreshing to see someone as successful as you have been to rather than just keep like buying the next holiday house or like buy the next jet decided, hey, I'd like to just reinvest this.

Lezly Kaye (40:12)

You said it, not me. But don't disagree.

Peter Anthony (40:36)

in helping women like me and be the mentor I would like to have had when I was younger.

Lezly Kaye (40:41)

Truly, because I've had the material success. Like I literally was like private jets to lunch, wealthy. And I hated myself and I hated my life. And I joke, I say I had a midlife crisis early. I've been a high achiever in everything. So I get my midlife crisis early. And it really just showed me that I was chasing money for the wrong reasons. Now I'm on my way to another million dollar business, but the way that I'm building that

is by helping other people hit their dreams and helping other people find their success. And the wealth that I'm making on this journey, I don't know, it just comes from a deeper place of self -love and self -knowing and it feels more intrinsically valuable than, cool, I'm just gonna build another big business for building a big business.

Peter Anthony (41:10)

Yeah.

And it's funny how the universe works, Lesley, because I've been in that space now for probably 15 years or so, like putting other people first in the way that I coach. And what I find is that when I put them first and I work for the universe, the universe works for me. It comes back in different ways. It doesn't come back in a direct line. It doesn't come directly back from those people to me. But it comes in roundabout ways.

Lezly Kaye (41:40)

And I will.

Mm.

It always does.

Peter Anthony (42:00)

It's that universe, it's interesting how it works. And I find if you do the, like some people say, who do you work for, Peter? I look, I work for the universe. And the reason I work for the universe is the universe works for me and the universe is pretty big. You've got a whole lot of forces coming to your And part of that, what you talked about earlier is this idea of being bold, right? Good boldness, not stupidity, but boldness. If you're bold, you'll find that those mighty forces will come to your aid.

Lezly Kaye (42:08)

Truly.

Yes.

Bye.

Truly, I want to say there's seven universal laws, the law of reciprocity. So what you give out comes back. And I think not that you should do it for that reason, but understanding that everything has an energetic frequency in some way and that, if we are in service to God, to the universe, to whatever it might be, I don't know, there's no losing in my book. even this whole thing of failing forward, it's like even when I...

Even when I miss a step or even when I go down the wrong path, I'm always brought back to my center and always brought back to my mission. you know, for me, it's like, I don't want women to live half lives and accept half love. And if I keep coming back to this truth and keep coming back to, we get to have really big, successful businesses that support and sustain a life, a lifestyle where we feel nourished and well loved. And we get to have really fulfilling relationships in that process. And if I can

just one woman do that, if I can help one woman live a full life and make a fuck ton of money while doing it. Like my job here is done. I've served my purpose. All of the pain that I felt, all of the holes that I've dug myself out of was worth it.

Peter Anthony (43:34)

That's.

You're doing it for them. Lezly, I could listen to you all day. And I just wanted to thank you for being a guest on Growth Tails today.

Lezly Kaye (43:55)

Thank you so much for having me. It's been an absolute pleasure.