In 2017, I was given an amazing opportunity to be somewhat of a motivational speaker, facilitating workshops on how to pitch yourself, have more confidence and ace your work. It was a such a fun job involving travelling around, meeting new and interesting people. The company is called The Happiness Concierge, founded by Rachel Service, it’s still going strong and Rachel even wrote a book which is pretty amaze.
It was going to be my new career but it just didn’t fit in with having a young family, being away from everyone for a week at a time wasn’t sustainable so I had to let it go. Maybe it’s something I’ll come back to one day?
Anyway, to get the job, I had to drive down to Melbourne and do a presentation about myself. It was pretty nerve wracking but so fulfilling. I thought I’d share the presentation I wrote. There’s also a post I wrote after I got the job, which I’ll share at a later date.
But for now, here’s the preso:
Hi I’m Nick.
I used to be cool. I was a well known DJ, loved, popular and could rock a 2000+ crowd spinning the hottest jams on a weekend, hanging out with some of the hottest acts in Australia and then rocking up to work on a Monday and own the working week across multiple federal government departments and private organisations making sure that their software was released with high quality and minimal risk of failure.
I was like Clark Kent and Superman. Work me and DJ me. I hated my day job and loved my night job, saving masses of people from the onslaught of bad music and introducing them to the freshest dance floor weapons.
My day job was a treated as my fall back in case the DJ thing didn’t quite work out. I was destined to be world famous and hang out with the rich and famous.
That was about 10 years ago when life was a little more quiet and relaxing.
Life these days is unpredictable, wild, full of parties and sleepless nights, constant worry and self doubt. I still do the same kind of work with government departments but I treat that as my R&R time where I get to sit down and chill.
I’m no longer a DJ, in fact I rarely leave the house on weekends, my idea of fun is checking out the latest stationary at Officeworks.
But what is it that makes life so wild these days? Well, I’m a parent. To four kids. four kids 6 and under. I can see you doing the math in your head…. that’s right when the twins were born, my beautiful wife, Till, and I had 4 kids 4 and under. Crazy enough, right? Well during the pregnancy, Till was super sick with morning sickness, we had to sell our 2 bedroom townhouse, find a bigger place to rent , we bought a KIA Grand Carnival which blew up 12 hours after purchase and then ended up having to find some other totally glamorous 7 seater people mover.
When the twins were born, we really didn’t have a good network of help, Till’s Mum had moved from Canberra to Bermagui, a 4 hour drive away and my Mum and Dad were pretty old and weren’t able to that much for us. Within the first 6 months, we had a bout of gastro and chicken pox sweep through the house, the dishwasher and oven broke, my Mum was diagnosed with Alzheimers and shortly after my Dad had a heart attack and sadly passed away. My Mum had to go to a nursing home and we had to sell the family home to be able to pay for the costs involved with putting her into aged care.
To say it’s been ridiculously stressful and challenging over the past 2 and a half years would be an understatement. But despite all of that, Till and I are still here and soldiering on. It’s these kind of experiences in life that change you, that can either break you or make you. I think it’s definitely made me stronger and with all these crazy things that have happened, I’ve somehow ended up here, telling a bunch of strangers about what makes me me. I feel as though these next few days are my “hit refresh” moment. A moment where I can look back and say that this was a definite turning point.
I know that my whole “thing” is to say that “I used to be cool” but funnily enough I still think I’m somewhat cool. I still love music, mostly hip hop and house, but I’ll listen to most things if it’s good. I love my fam, we’re always busy and having good times, I love stationary, I don’t keep up with the news, I enjoy trail running in my abundance of spare time, I’m an Apple freak, I spend way too much time keeping up with all of Cupertino’s latest. I enjoy design but at the same time know nothing about design (maybe I just like shiny things)
I listen to the Tim Ferris podcast and always wonder where all the successful people are who have young families and don’t have time to meditate for an hour before going to the gym and then writing a new chapter for their book all before being at work by 7am... do these people even exist? They’re out there somewhere, right?
I first met Rachel when she did her Brand You workshop with KJR, the quality and risk assurance consulting company that I work for. I was blown away by her realness, finally a “self help” guru who wasn’t a cliche Tony Robbins wannabe. Just a really great human with a real story and a passion to help others from making the same mistakes she had. I was sold.
I was fortunate enough that KJR brought her back a number of times so I was able to see that the first presentation wasn’t just a one off, Rachel really had something that I really believed in. I started seeing things differently, realising that work didn’t have to be boring and run of the mill. You could be yourself and you could put yourself out there. It was fine just to be you and to be truthful. There was no need to put up a barrier, to stop people letting them know the real you.
I’ve really tried to put what I’ve learned from those sessions into practice and I feel as though it’s really been working. I’ve been able to be the bad guy, giving feedback to members of my team about their less than stellar performance, I’ve changed the way I dress and I’m no longer afraid to speak up when I disagree with what others are saying. I’ve altered my delivery techniques for bad news - compliment sandwich for the win!
I was convinced that if I could, I need to be a part of the Happiness Concierge journey. I’ve always felt as though my career wasn’t me - a square peg in a round hole. I need something where I can be challenged by something I believe in and I also owe to my children to show them that you should always follow your dreams and to not let the status quo be your goal. I’m excited to be here to give this my best shot and really change the direction of my professional life and to be the person who I’ve always wanted to be.
“I need something where I can be challenged by something I believe in and I also owe it to my children to show them that you should always follow your dreams and to not let the status quo be your goal.” - 100%!!!
Ps: officeworks is awesome