Learning to Fly: The origin story

From corporate heights to skiing ⛷️, dreaming ✨ and entrepreneurship 📝

I published my first post a couple of weeks ago and in my eagerness to start my Substack, I didn’t start with my origin story. If you plan on reading my posts then I think it’s important to know who I am and how I got here.

I have always loved writing and as a child I was always lost in my own imagination and stories. If I had my time over again, perhaps I would choose a different career path - study literature or philosophy at university.

Instead, I followed the safe path where I knew I could get a job and studied business instead which led me to a successful corporate career in People & Culture (formally known as Human Resources) for almost two decades, an MBA and working across various industries and geographies.

I have no regrets and I loved my time in the corporate world and have made lifelong friends along the way, but I was yearning for something more meaningful, creative and purposeful.

I can recall the exact moment, almost five years ago when I had an idea, a dream to create unique experiences to combine adventures with personal and professional development. It was a chilly December afternoon in the breathtaking Canadian Rockies at my favourite ski field, Marmot Basin. My ski coach and I took the last chair to the summit as the sun began to dip behind the majestic Rockies.

That year had been a rollercoaster ride of triumphs and challenges, starting off with a skiing accident that needed months of rehab, and would have stopped most people from going back to the sport. Our family moved to Canada for a work assignment, only to discover, after three months, that we were being uprooted again.

This was heartbreaking for our little family as my husband has resigned from his job of fourteen years and my son was diagnosed with anxiety about a year earlier which meant that any change was hard work, let alone a move across continents. He had just settled into the local school in Edmonton and was loving his new teacher, friends and his new life. How was I supposed to tell him we were moving back to Australia.

Amidst the uncertainty, anxiety and stress (and a lot of tears), skiing became my lifeline - a source of solace, strength, and precious family moments, cherishing the time we had together in the mountains knowing that this life we created and so desperately wanted to maintain was about to end.

As our conversation meandered on that chairlift, I shared an idea that had been marinating. I envisioned a transformative experience, where leaders would venture into nature to rediscover themselves, forge connections with the world around them, embrace challenging activities to foster resilience, learn meditation, and reimagine a thriving life. In that moment, the seed for Bluebird Leadership was sown - an idea that would later give birth to Thriving Women.

So, in July, when the editor of Ski Asia sent me a copy of the article for review, I couldn’t help but get emotional and a sense of pride for the path I have chosen to follow.

It hasn’t been easy and our return home to Australia was painful as we navigated my son’s anxiety, a global pandemic, corporate restructures and a departure from the corporate world for me.

At the end of 2022, after experiencing my first panic attack during a corporate restructure, I knew I needed to follow my dreams and a took a severance package from my high paying job to start my tiny business with now two brands. As any entrepreneur would know, the first year is always the hardest and while I haven’t quite reached my anniversary yet, I am feeling lighter, freer and know that I am on the right path.

It certainly hasn’t been easy, and I am constantly unlearning and relearning. Through my leadership development and coaching work, I know that true growth comes when we unshackle ourselves from the handcuffs of conditioning and embark on a path self-inquiry and exploration.

At the end of July, a project with a client finished up sooner than expected and as I was working through my emotions and serendipitously, the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' song Learning to Fly came up on my playlist as I was driving off from the morning school drop off.

As I reflected, it feels like as soon as I take flight, I can come crashing back down. The lyrics:

I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings. Coming down is the hardest thing

were very apt and inspired me to start my Substack as I had been thinking about it for a while after following Jenny Blake’s Rolling in Doh. Thank you,

❤️ Jenny Blake

!

Well I started out down a dirty road
Started out all alone
And the sun went down as I crossed the hill
And the town lit up, the world got still

I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings
Coming down is the hardest thing

Well, the good ol' days may not return
And the rocks might melt and the sea may burn

I'm learning to fly (learning to fly) but I ain't got wings (learning to fly)
Coming down (learning to fly) is the hardest thing (learning to fly)

Well, some say life will beat you down
Break your heart, steal your crown
So I've started out for God-knows-where
I guess I'll know when I get there

I'm learning to fly, around the clouds
But what goes up (learning to fly) must come down

I'm learning to fly (learning to fly), but I ain't got wings
Coming down is the hardest thing

Learning to Fly (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers song)