Creating Synergy Podcast

#37 - Erin Faehrmann, CEO of Youth Opportunities on Purposeful Leadership, Mental Health & Creating Opportunities for Young People

June 16, 2021 SynergyIQ
Creating Synergy Podcast
#37 - Erin Faehrmann, CEO of Youth Opportunities on Purposeful Leadership, Mental Health & Creating Opportunities for Young People
Show Notes Transcript

Erin Faehrmann is the Chief Executive of Youth Opportunities and a leading speaker on personal leadership and coaching to help our inner superhero shine. Her experience spans from the utilities  & public industries to the youth, education and the not-for-profit sectors.  

As a kid from humble beginnings, Erin has a passion for working with young people facing complex challenges. She is known for her refreshing approach to encouraging purposeful play in our organisations and our lives to boost happiness and connection.

In this episode,  Erin shares her career journey until she became CEO at Youth Opportunities. Daniel and Erin discuss how young people face more complex challenges in today's world than we ever did, that prevention is best when it comes to wellbeing & mental health, and how important it is to learn to lead OURSELVES well.

If you enjoy this episode, please share it with your friends and colleagues, and check us out on synergyiq.com.au.   

Where to find Erin Faehrmann

Join the conversation on Synergy IQ LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram (@synergyiq) and please support other leaders by liking, subscribing and sharing this podcast.  

Access SynergyIQ Website to get to know more about us.  

Say hello to our host Daniel on LinkedIn.   

Books mentioned on this episode:  

Videos mentioned on this episode:

Synergy IQ:

Welcome to Creating synergy where we explore what it takes to transform. We are powered by Synergy IQ. Our mission is to help leaders create world class businesses where people are safe, valued, inspired and fulfilled. We can only do this with our amazing community. So thank you for listening.

Daniel Franco:

i This synergizes and welcome back to another episode of The creating synergy podcast. My name is Daniel Franco and today we have the wonderful and most out of the box thinker that I've ever met is Erin Faehrmann on the show. Erin is the chief executive of youth opportunities, and a leading speaker on personal leadership and coaching to help our inner superhero shine. Her experience spans from the utilities and public sectors to the youth education and non for profit sectors. As a kid from humble beginnings, Erin has the passion for working with young people facing complex challenges in their lives. She is known for her refreshing approach to encouraging purposeful play not only in organizations, but in our personal lives with the idea to boost happiness and connection. In this episode, Erin shares with us her career journey up until the time she became youth ops, and we discuss how young people are facing more complex challenges in today's world than we ever did growing up. Should we also discuss that prevention is the best when it comes to our mental health and well being and how there is a fine art to us learning to lead so VHS this episode is an absolute game changer with so many different angles and pearls of wisdom from Erin. If you love the episode, which I'm sure you will be sure to hit subscribe button and check us out at Synergy iq.com.au. So welcome back to the creating synergy podcast. My name is Daniel Franco, your host and today we have the absolutely fabulous Erin Faehrmann, CEO of youth ops. Welcome to the show. Erin.

Erin Faehrmann:

Thanks, Dan. So good to see you again. Joining me here this morning on Ghana land.

Daniel Franco:

Yes, you are. Absolutely actually is something that I feel like I should probably be doing more often is acknowledging. Yeah, have a look at it. No, I will. Yeah, absolutely good stuff. So thanks for agreeing to come on the show. We've known each other for many years. Yeah. Previously working in the utility space back in the day. One thing I just kind of really want to kick off with that. I reckon you played a really big part in my life. I almost turned to I did turn to you as a mentor back in the day when, when Yeah, I was sort of working a few levels below you. And I remember you talking to me about being a generalist. And it's something that you kind of really still feel strongly about, I'd never even heard the term. It wasn't you know, we're working in a world of engineers working in a world of really intelligent people with all these degrees. And I felt like I was lost and didn't really know where my space went, you know, you don't get a degree for understanding human behavior, or you don't get a degree for being able to read emotions and stuff like that, or working with people. And it was really something that you brought to the forefront of my mind. So are you can you explain to us your number one, your journey, and then how you became to understand that you are what you call a generalist? Yeah.

Erin Faehrmann:

Well, someone did the same thing for me maybe once upon a time, and I had a moment of insight where they call themselves a generalist and explained what that meant to them. And I went, I think that's what I am sorry. Isn't that beautiful? You've probably done that to other people now, too, who are living there generalist?

Daniel Franco:

Yeah. And it's funny, because you probably don't even remember the conversation that we had. But

Erin Faehrmann:

remember, I don't remember the detail. But I do remember having some really great deep and meaningful conversations with you about life, the universe and everything. And I do remember the person who talked to me about being a generalist and said, Oh, I'm a generalist. Cool, man. Yeah. I think though, before that, I had the label, I had had insight that, so I have a technical background in it. And I was recruited into that business where I was for 17 years and had 11 jobs in an IT technical role. But there's skills that I bought from having done marketing in my IT degree, which is an interesting combo, especially 25 years ago, and that wasn't really the done thing. Where I began to realize that I started getting a reputation in the business for being a generalist, although we didn't call it that. I would often call it the Mary Poppins effect, where you people go, come over here, help me with a thing and then once you've kind of taken it to the next level, you kind of go off again, and it's ready for the next

Daniel Franco:

bullet out of the bag, so to speak exactly. And you've got this, you know, this

Erin Faehrmann:

interesting thing that, that the business needed at that point in time to break through something that the technical skill sets that were sitting there weren't doing. But that you also weren't the Savior for everything that you know, you come in, you do a thing and move on, and you let the next people come in to do something. So being a generalist for me meant that, in an organization full of technical specialists, I had those bridging skills that people skills, like you said, the skills that could read between the lines, and bring people together very facilitative skill set, it had all that change management, my IT background was in business analysis, and you can now do degrees in that, you know, to be able to, but it had those business endless skill sets where you're learning how to talk to a business, about its processes, but also customer perspectives about what they want to achieve. And the technologist then about what these systems did. And try and bring the two together, and you had database engineers, but then you had clients and these people, not necessarily all speaking the same language. So I did have some technical skills in that area, which turns out are really great skills for being a generalist, and then working across different technical areas in different industries. Because they're those foundational skills about problem solving, and team building and communication and building relationships and trust with people that you can then pretty much go and apply anywhere, anywhere. The critical thing as a generalist, though, as you realize that you're not a technical specialist, so you don't, you're not really the one that comes up with the solutions. Your job is to facilitate the solution. Yeah, remove

Daniel Franco:

the bollocks out of the way. Yeah, and

Erin Faehrmann:

you don't know enough to micromanage or second guess. So I had roles in that organization that were traditionally filled by very technically skilled and competent people. And I'm sure people used to look at me and go, she's at least 30 years younger, and has no Engineering Degree or no science degree or no customer analytics degree, what is she doing? But I was just really good at asking good questions and connecting my teams with other teams in the organization. And knowing being a Smart Client knowing enough that yet my people are on top of this, and being able to summarize up because that is one of the downfalls sometimes of being a technical specialist. And this is if I get talking about youth absorbing, you know, a lot, it's really hard to cliffnotes that, yeah, because you know, so much. And so when you're reporting up or working out, it can be really hard to simplify, or, you know, they say dumbed down, or they're like, kid version of something like, yeah, how do you do that when you know, so much. And so there is definitely some value in having those types of people around. But you need the specialists as well.

Daniel Franco:

I gotta have well, it's part of the ecosystem, really have some build up a team of great people with all different skill sets and figure out how to make it work together. What do you do you think the level of empathy needs to be higher for generalist? Or does it? Is that a skill set? Or is it like understanding how to work with people and or having some connection to the purpose of what you're actually trying to achieve? Do you feel like good question,

Erin Faehrmann:

Dan, I think I'm a very values aligned leader. And so often, when I'm mentoring young people in workplaces or coaching, I'll often because it's my bias and my preference, I'll take them to their values, what do you believe in what matters to you? And then from that strengths based approach to building skills? Yeah. So if you're the sort of person that believes that being empathetic, adds value to the world, and you have a bit of a strength in that, that you want to continue strengthening, then you probably going to be attracted to jobs that require that yeah, being say a generalist or working in care services, or where I am now in profits, that there are probably certain job types you'd be attracted to, if you authentically let that come through for you. And then it might also explain why some people are frustrated in areas. I used to line manage engineers. I remember one young graduate, and she was just not happy but just technically brilliant. She'd done a great job at university was technically generating really good engineering outputs, but really unhappy and fast forward. Now. She's a florist anyway, florists.

Daniel Franco:

I think she got a bit of your Well, I think creative thinking

Erin Faehrmann:

she had that. But she, I think she as she grown up, I don't wanna speak for but as she'd grown up, she'd, I guess, received messages from the world. But if you're a creative problem solver, and you you know, have families have expectations of your education and what you do as a job, it's a common engineer. We do it's credit problem solving. What she wanted to do with creative problem solving with flowers and creative arts and hands on tactile

Daniel Franco:

I think I know who you're talking about, and

Erin Faehrmann:

it's pretty, it's pretty small. And so I think I just probably ask questions of people in a way that help them discover that your values and your strength can be brought to life in many ways. One is an engineering degree and one in forestry and a whole bunch of others as well. And that makes you very flexible and sets you up well for the future of work, because that will keep changing. Yeah. And if you think that you're going to die in a ditch you don't I'm an engineer, then that's a really risky perspective on life. Absolutely. Because that might not happen.

Daniel Franco:

So you are an out of the box thinker have only ever known Aaron to be an out of the box thinker. Right? And absolutely love that quality about you. Case in point, the example that you just gave me as a potential, your words have had some serious effects on people from aligning them in a direction that is positive in their life, right, changing direction, changing careers. How much as a leader, right and CEO now, but even in previous roles, how much? Do you look at the words that you use in your everyday life? Do you hold them in really good check? Yeah,

Erin Faehrmann:

that's a great question. It's a constant area that I work on. Because, yes, so I think I do have that mantra in my head, the power of your words. And I'm so strongly authentically myself that I often step on in miles. Because I am, as I say, so biased to personal empowerment and having strong sense of agents, and being very authentic and open about your development areas, and what you want to work on and getting feedback and the joy and the gift of receiving feedback. And you often forget that not everyone's like that. So you might give some constructive feedback without really thinking about how you're going to frame that or create a situation of psychological safety for that person, you know, not not saying, Yeah, buddy else. Yeah. And if you're lucky, they'll tell you that you stepped on a landmine, and like, Hey, I didn't really like how you did that. I didn't appreciate your words, words have negatively impacted me. If you're really unlucky, they won't even tell you won't know. And you'll erode trust, and you'll create a culture that's not sort of, yeah, so the best thing people can do is tell you when you stepped on a landmine, yeah, and react in a way that encourages them to keep telling you if that happens, and I've done a few of that. One thing is lightly

Daniel Franco:

learning. It's a learning curve for all, isn't it? I mean, no point of view said You're perfect. And when you are giving feedback, there is no point. Have you ever mentioned that what you're about to say? No, he's right or wrong, right? It's your opinion as their leader, yes. So,

Erin Faehrmann:

or a friend or a young person, right? A client of the physio or a partner with a school principal, you know, you go to your parenting, or for me step grandparenting. Or I've got 15 nieces and nephews, you know, there's so many relationships I have in my life. And as I say, if you're lucky, you've got relationships where people tell you when you've heard them, and you didn't realize that because you've built trust and respect with them in a way that they feel like they care about the relationship enough, they'll tell you, and that you'll react in a way that's positive, and in the best interests of the relationship. And my skill set in that space is exponentially better for having met my best friend, Courtney, who is who got me into youth ops, because she lives and breathes that and at some of the tools in our program, and that she learned it because she's actually graduate from when she was 15. She's in her 30s now and a parent, and she is the most technically skilled person I've ever met in how to build relationships and have those conversations. And to say, look, I really want I really want that goal congruence relationship with you. And therefore I want to tell you that you hurt me, or I want to tell you that I'm worried that you're not telling me if I'm hurting you. It's just it's magic to watch her and have her as well.

Daniel Franco:

Thank you, Courtney. If you're listening, you are you owe. We owe you a lot for getting Aaron into the world that she's in. So tell us about that role into youth ops and becoming CIO, I understand that you're on the on the board previously, before becoming the CEO. Can you tell us about how that transition worked?

Erin Faehrmann:

Yeah. So I did meet this wonderful person, Courtney, who I was friends with, she would go on and on about youth at the time, she had been working there as well after school, but had left to have some children. And she just made me fall in love with this organization. She went back to work there again, once I babies got a bit older. And it was at that time I was doing an MBA and was saying that look, I do volunteering with youth organizations and other places. But I'm feeling like I want to use my MBA my strategic kind of board and executive management skills in my volunteering now rather than what I had been doing, which was kind of really unskilled volunteering. And she said, Oh my gosh, I mentioned it to RCA. And anyway, fast forward to being on the board. That was A fun Steven Bradbury moment for me because I, we, I was going to just volunteer to provide some strategic support through a Youth Advisory Committee to see and the board. And so that all was getting set up on the side. And then the board said, Well, we love that idea. But also they could go rogue. So we want the chair of the committee to sit on the board, and I got a call while I was in China on my MBA study tour, saying, You've been appointed to the board as the chair of subcommittee, and I'm sorry, what? I'm a board member, what happened? Yeah, great. Well, I know, I'm like 35, or whatever. Thank you. I was like that was on my bucket list for 50 bucks. I'll take it, I'll take it. So I was very fortunate to learn how to be a board member, real time I was doing my Australian company directors courses, the final subject of my MBA, like nine months after I became a very active learning experience. And I've been away a fantastic board to support development of young person and a new board member. So that was very good. And then a couple of years on, we'd had a few goes at succession planning, our chief executive, who I think technically had come out of retirement in his business career, as a bit of a favor to the founder, Peter marshman, who is still involved in our organization. So yeah, I'll come look after it for a few years for you. And this is trying to get back to retirement for succession planning and worked out. And because I was a known entity, and I'd been helping the board for a few years was strategy and succession planning, culture change. They said to me, one day, the chairman called me in and said, Would you take a pay cut and come run the organization? And I said, Sure, yes, that's correct. Why not? I loved my job. And actually, I made them wait six months, because I was doing a project I was really passionate about finishing in and it was a community based projects, I felt I'd made a community unity to deliver that with our organization. So they waited six months for me. And then I had a year transition. Shadowing that see, to go from it being my a side hustle my day job. Yeah, yes, I got to be his understudy for a year, the business side? It I mean, it's a totally different industry. Yeah. And I, when I arrived, I think about 20 people there. That's just, I couldn't believe how complex it was compared to the company I'd come from have 2000. Like, how can it actually be this complex, and it was. So there's a lot to learn in terms of the industry and the way the business operated, but the business fundamentals I had already, so that wasn't a stretch, finances and culture and keeping your eye on safety and customer experience management, and you know, that kind of stuff. But the relationship management in the philanthropic world was a whole new world. And that was something that I still call him, Peter Carey, who's our ambassador, now, I still call him for advice, because he is an expert at relationship management and building really meaningful value adding relationships with people. And that's something you're not going to know. He's learnt that over decades of experience and his values.

Daniel Franco:

I'm interested in the pay cart. And I know out of all that, I've pulled the pay cut, but I'll tell you where I'm going with this is it really speaks true to your values, right? That you and your purpose in life, about giving back? Can you unpack to us where that decision? And why that decision? Because so many times you hear? No, I'm not going to go there. It's look, it's really it's an air industry and an area that I want to go into. But it's 20, grand, less kids defeat, you know, all this sort of stuff. Yeah, you took that plunge? Based on your purpose, I believe in the values that you live by, Can you unpack that for me? Yeah.

Erin Faehrmann:

And I think you're right, there are real barriers to people. And it wasn't a punch me. Because I designed my life in a way that it wouldn't be a plus. Okay, so let me take you back a bit. I think I'd had enough experience within that organization and my husband had in his professional and personal life as well, that people were holding them back from the things that would make them genuinely happy in life because of the very real financial and life expectations of them. I can't just quit being an engineer, be a florist, my parents, you know, invested my degree in. society expects me to live in this particular suburb and taking my kids out of that private school was a really big deal for me. And so no judgment there. But I saw that in people who are deeply unhappy and grappling with, sometimes with mental health issues, and I grew up around a lot of really bad mental ill health. And I knew that was something I wanted to avoid it at all costs. And I thought that's not the life for me so much. And I really purposefully have designed our lives in a way that if both of us ended up unemployed tomorrow, unlikely Touchwood but possible for anybody. Yeah, that we would be okay. We'd be okay emotionally physically that, you know, I've had to sleep on a couch, I'd be okay with that. If we had to live in the caravan park, I'd be okay with that. If the worst case scenario happened, we would be okay. Because that's what matters to us, our well being and happiness more than anything else. So we live very modest lives. And consequently, we now have money to donate, which is really nice. And to pay for his son's degree and his daughter and her family living with us right now we've bought a house for them to live in. So we can choose where to invest our money. But we know we've got that core. So it's not a big plunge for me. And I know not everyone is willing or able to take both decisions. But for us, it meant that when someone said to me, would you love to take on a new role with an enormous amount of growth, and I'm backing you and I believe in you. But I really can't afford to pay you what you're currently being paid. It wasn't a barrier. It's like fine. Sounds great. Yeah. But not everybody's necessarily in that position. But if you want to get in that position, you can get into that.

Daniel Franco:

Yeah, correct. And I feel like I was in the same position, starting my own business was what I felt like was a punch, but in the same in the same breath, I had set up my life to have enough in the kiddie. I also have the luxury of having a family that if I was to lose everything, I could just go move in. Right? Yeah. So like that, that is a luxury. But that thought process of well, it's not so bad. My ego takes a hit no problems. You would see otherwise different scenarios in the work that you do. And some of the kids or the youth, the young people, I should probably use the right terminology that that you work with. Can you give us a bit of background why youth opportunities exist? What is the purpose of the business?

Erin Faehrmann:

Yeah, so I mentioned our founder, our founder, Peter marshman, who's a South Korean businessman, I think, Oh, am is the proper post nominal fee. Yeah, he started the charity about 24 years ago, very successful in business, and was finding in his businesses, mostly sales oriented, so burns for blinds. And that kind of industry, trying to hire young, up and coming sales professionals, you know, you're talking door knocking cold sales type stuff, as well as other roles, who had the skills to talk to people talk to people understand their needs, you know, sell to them but in a genuine way and struggling with that. So he created his own internal development program for his staff. And it was so successful that he eventually became so successful in business, he sold that business and started charity and started the Youth Opportunities personal leadership program, and started delivering that as a non for profit in South Australian schools most in need of support. Yeah. So we started at Salisbury High School with that

Daniel Franco:

passion come from there like what Peter? Yeah.

Erin Faehrmann:

I think you should interview Peter about that. Yeah. Because his story is amazing. Yeah. So I don't always speak for him. But I just know that I get benefit. As I say, he's still involved near organization. And I have fortune of having lunch with him at least once a month to pick his brain is amazing thought leader. But I think he did, definitely a philanthropic heart lots of values in that, obviously, and wanted to give back to the community and wanted to go and support young people who needed it and saw that where young people are is at school, and that there would be a way to partner philanthropy and school leaders in delivering this program. So fast forward to today, it has evolved quite a bit, obviously, over 24 years. But today, we work with 29 schools across South Australia, also a whole bunch of non school organizations, but 29 schools to deliver personal leadership programs. Now if you're in business, it's, you know, what a leadership program is, you've probably been on a few of them. It's, yeah, I highly recommend that it's like that for 15 year olds. Yeah. So in a sense, so we have a framework. There's four big decisions about 50 tools. The core program is a 10 week face to face program. So we take the young people out of school a day a week for 10 weeks, they have graduation at the end, there's they get syce points. It has to be aligned to the science curriculum. It is a very serious part of their learning. And we take them through how to become personal leaders. So for us, and this is why I'm so in love with youth opportunities. For us. That's about how do you lead yourself and what is your version of success? We believe it's happiness, but you have to work out what's Gonna make you happy in life. And that doesn't have to be a selfish version. It can be service to community, for example, or service to family. But what is going to make you happy in life? And now how do we give you the skills, the tools and the competence and the practice to pursue that version of success for you, you lead you no matter how easy or hard your life circumstances are, you can do it, it'll be harder for some of you and easier for some of you, because you'll have more or less support, and more or less stacked against you. But you can do that. And we live that aspiration and confidence in themselves through that program, and two years of post program coaching, and scholarships and a whole bunch of other opportunities that we offer them to help them thrive in life.

Daniel Franco:

Such a such a good thing, isn't it? Alright, privilege 1000 questions out of that. Happiness being the objective? Is that is my, my way of thinking about happiness is that it's a moment in time, right? You're happy in a moment in time, the next day something can happen, and they can all fall? Fall. So that is it about being content or grateful? Is that sort of another word?

Erin Faehrmann:

Yeah, that is often how people will articulate what we mean by that. I mean, there are a couple of tools and some time we spend with young people talking about enduring happiness, like a baseline level of happiness or contentedness, versus just short term emotional happiness. And there's ups and downs every minute of the day, months, years. But that enduring sense of happiness, that sense inside you that even on tough days, you're headed in the right direction, you have the confidence in your capabilities, you and we use it, what they call the a POC measure measure of well being. So there's a POC haitch, five constructs. And, you know, do you feel engaged in life, you feeling positive, you feeling optimistic, the you feeling happy, that these are enduring measures, not just points in time measures. So we do help young people come to terms with what that difference is, because happiness does, it's kind of almost come a bit full circle. And there are there are some really great books on toxic positivity, for example, because you don't wanna be too happy and in denial about the world. And Dr. Tim sharp, who's often referred to as Dr. Happy is one of my favorite speakers on this topic, he talks about, you know, you can say you're happy, and you're smiling, and you're laughing as you're falling off a cliff. And that's just stupid. Yeah. That's, that's toxic positivity. That's not what we're talking about being happy every

Daniel Franco:

minute. But it's not being authentic. Is it really well, no. And it's not necessarily

Erin Faehrmann:

leading you towards a life success. Yeah. So we help them connect with that enduring version. So one of the really simple tools for us, let me share with you, we call it looking for blue. And it's about how our brains are designed as humans to be biased towards noticing the negative, and how you can, this is a lot about habits. You can train your brain, it's not easy, but you can make a big decision to train your brain to notice the positive things in life. And this is the practice of gratitude, right? Get out of your way every day to notice three things to be grateful for. That doesn't make the 20 Terrible things that happened today go away. They're still there. But you get to choose whether you focus at night on the 20 things that went wrong or focus at night on the 20 things that went right. And they do make fundamental changes to your attitude course. But even to your body physically about the kind of chemical reactions. Yeah, so we we talk to them about what are you looking for? Because they both have their the positive and the negative in life, and train yourself through habits to look at the positive?

Daniel Franco:

Yeah, absolutely. There's two really good books that you could I could tack on to that, which is the Happiness Project. Yes, yes. So that's a repo where he talks about going home and reviewing the three things that you're grateful that happened during the day. And then atomic habits

Erin Faehrmann:

for anyone, right? It's still that's about habit stacking. Yeah, habits. Yeah,

Daniel Franco:

start with small items. So it's a completely different example. But if you want to, you know, if the ultimate goal is to lose some weight, for example, then your first habit that you should do would should be get up and make your bed, right. Yeah, I know. It's got nothing to do with losing weight. But the next habit is then do 10 Push ups or whatever it might be. So you stack on Yeah. And then once you get that in, you make your bed for a week. Yeah, at the push ups, then you then you go out for a 15 minute walk. Yeah, you stack on top of come back, you have breakfast and you create a routine. Yeah. So getting home every night, whether it's journaling or writing down three things that you're grateful is definitely something that is powerful. So we

Erin Faehrmann:

use the that that evidence based tactic with our young people, I call them small acts of bravery. Yeah. And so we will often will the program is group base has about 18 Young people in a group so they get all that really great experiencial learning and that normalizing of sharing experience. Oh my gosh, you feel that way too. I thought I was the only one that was too scared to put my hand up in class. Wow. So there's all that great stuff happening facilitation. And then there's one on one coaching. And you guys know you're experts at coaching, you know the power of coaching. And in those coaching sessions, we're working with young people to understand their specific goals, and how we can get them from where they are now to where they want to be. And that won't happen overnight in some cases. And so using the habit stacking with them, what we'll might say to them in week two is okay, the goal you're working towards is a better relationship with your parent. So don't go straight in have a really difficult conversation with them, you can start small and it's habits to positive communication is a really big part of our program. One of our four big decisions is sending stars, which is positive communication. So how about this week? What do you reckon you could do to send a message to your mom, let's say that you do actually care about it? Oh, no. Okay, well, you know, if you have to help them, you help them? Well, how about when you come home, instead of throwing your bag at the door and going to your room and sitting on your phone for 10 hours, you don't just say hello, that'd be stop doing stop there. And sometimes I say, that's enough. I'll try that for a week. And I'll report back. And sometimes I go, I can do that. And I can do more. Actually, I'll make them a cup of tea every night. Great. Love it, then, you know, three weeks down the track, they've got into this habit of positive communication and opening up that relationship with their parent who is hopefully starting to respond back as well. Yeah, it's similar. And now you're ready for different conversations. Yeah, Mom, it really matters to me that you and I are on the same page about me getting a nose ring, that was one of the ones I have a student with last term, I really want a nose ring, and you don't really want me to have one. And I know it's been a big thing that we've thought about, I want to talk about that. If they go from throwing the bag at the door and sitting on their phone for six hours in bed, not talking to the parents to I want a nose ring, of course, that's fine. It's the you've got to build up those habits of positive communication and relationships before you can get to the next level. Yeah,

Daniel Franco:

that's, that's so good. So my, my conversations I have with my kids, everything, right? And it's a matter of influence. And I don't think it's manipulation. But influence is that I think a better word, it's, it's about you almost you have to give to receive rock, it's that simple, then I believe that's the way the work, the more and more you put out, the more and more positive energy you put out, the more and more it comes back at you, the more more negative energy you put out, the more more that comes back. And it really just works that way. I'm so interested in the parent child relationship, because you talk about, you know, making a cup of tea. Yeah, there are parents who are so unaware of the environment or what their actual their child is actually trying to achieve, that they might criticize. What do you actually up to? What are you trying to get out of me? What do you want? You know, those are the questions that come out when, when, whoops, when the when the youth, young person, I should say changing their behavior is changing their behavior. That's right. So how do you how do you do with those scenarios? where parents skeptical? Yeah, for example? Yeah. And probably not at the level of self awareness that they need to be at as well.

Erin Faehrmann:

Yeah, maybe also, two prong attack brass in that sense. One is that, you know, in any relationship, when people start behaving, one person starts behaving differently without saying why, you know, you kind of know the rules of the game in a relationship. And when one of them shifts without telling you why he may or may not notice that it's happened. And if you're lucky, you've noticed and you've asked the person, is there something going on with you because you're acting differently? either positively or negatively? So there's that there's like, it's natural for people to go Wait, you don't ever do that? What's going on? Yeah, even if it's a positive thing. So that's going on. So one thing we can we do with young people is we set them up for success by warning them, you're going to change your behavior, and people might not understand what's going on, because that happens. So if you feeling really brave, then you can tell them, that's what you're doing. I want to make you a cup of tea, because our relationship really matters to me. And they still might send what we call a black hole, the opposite of a star black hole black, like, Oh, that's weird. Just go clean the dishes. Yeah. And we've given you now the skills and the tools to accept and understand that you're putting out stars, they're sitting back black holes, that's their habit. You're changing your habits, but they're not changing this yet, because they don't know stars and black holes. So you tell them about stars, and tell them about habits. And maybe they go Yeah, no all that. But I didn't realize or actually this is all new for me. So we help the young people determine how much of that they'll incorporate into their lives and with teachers or parents or whoever it might be even friends with bullying situations. The other way we come at it is with parent educator workshops. So and the work that we do with parents so the program that I have personally trained last term, every three weeks or so we were sending emails to the parents or carers of the young people on the program saying this is what we're doing with the kids this week. Here's the stars and black holes video. It's about positive communication. You might like to watch it. There's a webinar next week on the human brain and the science of teenage minds. Yeah, you can come along to that we're talking about change loop, which is about changing behavior and attitudes. So we're trying to if those parents are open and willing to understanding the journey that the young person's going on or themselves just wanting to know more, then that that options there for them. So the best case scenarios are where the parents are putting that work in asking their kids what they're doing at youth ops, why are they changing? And the kids are feeling brave enough to speak up about it as well.

Daniel Franco:

It's so good that you you work in in hitting the both ends are so yeah,

Erin Faehrmann:

we call it Project 360. Rapper all the way around that young person to give them the best chance? Yeah, successful.

Daniel Franco:

Brilliant. So what is your typical avatar for if you know, from a young person look like is it? Is it the high achieving kids that you go into the school? And these are high achieving, or is it Yeah, it's all of them. So there is no,

Erin Faehrmann:

there's one common denominator? Yeah, they want to do the program. Okay. It's very important to us. So the way that we work with all our programs, not just the one, that's the 10 week in schools, there's online versions, there's non school based versions at football clubs, and trucking companies and still works. Always, the fundamental core of our philosophy is we go in, and we talk to people about what they can get out of the program, and will often have someone who's completed the program share their lived experience, because their language will resonate more than whatever we might say you get out of it. Yeah. And they applied to do the program. And in the school based setting, that means we'll go in and we'll talk to a whole bunch of year 10s. About hey, here's youth ups, here's a kid that did it last year, that another now this is what you can get out of it is an application form five minute interview, we select a 10 young people and say congratulations, you've got a spot on the program. And here you go. In some schools, we have really long wait lists in other schools for various reasons, like, you know, pulling together at young people. And so they have to want to do it. And you guys would know here, right? Like you, when you're coaching people and their leadership programs, if they don't want to change anything about their life, then what are you there for? Yeah, they've got to, they've got to see some reason why they might want to integrate this new knowledge. I mean, it can be a curiosity and a growth mindset. So those young people could be the school leaders, the high performing athletes, the person who's in the well being hub, helping people with bullying problems. Yeah, the people that are doing coaching at netball on the weekend, but they just have a growth mindset, and they want to continue being the best version of themselves. And then there could be the young people who are really hating life. They're not happy at home, they're not happy at school. They're feeling completely disengaged, they're probably got really serious mental health challenges. But they see that from something that maybe the previous participant shared that maybe life could change for me, maybe I could do something about where I am now that would get me out of this. There's some hope there. And you get SES points and you get a day off school or week to go out at lunchtime and hang out in plain clothes, you know, do a uniform. Yeah, sometimes those are the things that hook those kids. Yeah. And then they get there and realize this is really life changing opportunity.

Daniel Franco:

Does it? There's an opportunity that some fall through the cracks that are there. Yeah. Is it really want to go on but they don't enough. They're not confident enough. Yeah, to another school that day, you're not at school that day. They feel like their life and their life at home. No matter what leadership program they go on, it's not gonna change anything anyways, so that I'm bothered, is there a way to capture those? Or what do you do in that space?

Erin Faehrmann:

Yeah, we try. So as a nonprofit, now, programs don't cost the young people in schools or their families anything. We have partnership arrangement with schools where they pay a third and we fundraise the other two thirds through philanthropic purposes, we have a little bit of funding from the Department for Education, but most of it is donors. So my team and I spend a lot of time finding people who want to invest in youth and getting money from them, so that we can increase what I call our dance card. How many kids can we get through how many schools can we work with? And we can we throttled by how much we can grow there by how much we can fundraise. Yeah. So that's one of the ways that we do it is constantly trying to find people who want to invest in youth, and want to put some money into partnership in helping these young people and removing some of these social issues, systemically, and bringing that to life through partnerships with schools, the other is completely adapting our programs and services. So we can offer things in different ways. So we now offer programs outside the school gates, and that's a relatively new innovation for us 23 years of delivering mostly through schools. Now, if a young person contacts us and says, Look, I'm 16 years old, I don't go to a school that you're in my principals not very interested in having you. But can I do your program, we now have a way to say yes to that, which is phenomenal as of like two weeks ago. It's very new. Thank you. So much, and businesses, so we were trialing in Whyalla. Last year it went amazing. If a business comes to us and says I've got in that situation, I've got apprentices, they're learning their technical trade skills, they're technically looking really great and brilliant. But there's so much more in business success than that. And they're not gonna learn that in their, you know, their TAFE automatic mechanic type program. So can I offer yours alongside that, and we'll go in and run our programs alongside their technical training so that they become really great holistic community leaders and business leaders at you know, 15 years old, or for some of them, they're, you know, 29 years old. So we've got lots of different ways now that we can say yes to people. Yeah. Some of that is under a social enterprise model, like with the businesses, so we don't fundraise to support them. They support themselves, they see value in it for their workforce in their community, right, when we work, particularly in schools and with our scholarships program that is subsidized by our donors.

Daniel Franco:

Great. Is there is that? Is it a problem that from a funding point of view that it's the schools are only coming from a philanthropic point of view? Or, you know, is there a way that in? Are you targeting private schools that have money or you like he

Erin Faehrmann:

says, we've worked with private schools who similar to the businesses, yeah, we say, Hey, we've got money, and we see value in this, we want you to come in and run it. Often private schools have enough funding and resources that they'll self service on staff, psychologists and curriculum developers, and you know, they'll often have their own teams of people doing that. But

Daniel Franco:

we went to a private school, there was nothing. There was nothing

Erin Faehrmann:

at all the Dan. Well, they didn't have one back in mind. It's fine now. Yeah,

Daniel Franco:

I don't I'm not sure that is my children go to a private school. Well, that's the thing. I I believe that there's probably still an element that you could target there. I mean, yeah, no business.

Erin Faehrmann:

And you know, at the moment, it's an you know, federal budget, while we're recording this is recently just come out. And for us, we have amazing outcomes in well being and mental health distress prevention. Yeah, hasn't been traditionally very much funding there at all. But that's increasing, which is amazing, very exciting, sad that it has to happen. But very exciting that funding starting to shift into preventative models, and our program has amazing results. Half the kids that do our program that are at high risk of psychological distress, complete the program, no longer a high risk. And that's phenomenal.

Daniel Franco:

I saw that you had that in your annual report the 48%. Yeah. 48% right here. Yeah. 48% less likely to develop mental health issues. Yeah, yeah. That's a bloody good stat isn't actually knew what that

Erin Faehrmann:

unpacking? Yeah, unpack that, because that's amazing. So at the start of our process, this is our 10 week, start of the program, we use the well being which is a pop score, and a K 10. A Kessler 10 score, which is the risk of psychological distress. So that either means you're already experiencing a mental health issue, like anxiety, or depression, self harming something or eating disorders, whatever they might be, or you're at very high risk of developing it, sometime in the near future. And we see the stats about something like 75% of young people developing a mental health issue either now or by the time they're 24. So that's what you're seeing that very high risk. You might not have it yet, but you're very you're on the path to it. Yeah. And so what we see is a having in 10 weeks of the number of people at high risk of having one of those to no longer being at high risk. They might be down in the orange band. Yeah. Because you know, they might still be homeless. Yeah. Or they might have gone even into the green band. And in addition to that, we have young people in the amber kind of orange band that go into the green band. Yeah, this is just the reds. Yeah. And so personally, last term, I was working with young people who had previous experiences with headspace, because of their mental health issues, and their 15 trying to get back into headspace, which is positive because they'd had a positive experience and they believed in help seeking. But Ron something like they knew that if they even got the courage up to ask mum to take them to the GP for a mental health care plan. They were up for a nine month wait to get into their particular headspace. And that does vary for different headspace, but that's what she believed. So she wasn't help seeking even though she knew it would be a positive outcome for her. So she's experiencing anxiety not currently being treated. And in that 10 weeks, coupled with her experience she had previously at headspace. She finished our program saying, I love headspace, and maybe I will go there, but I don't really think I need to go there right now. So we've just taken that young person for now who knows what, like Yeah, for her future. But for now, we've avoided her having to go to a GP having to get into the headspace system and having to get that support. That is that's a real time preventative outcome.

Daniel Franco:

That's a win, huge win

Erin Faehrmann:

and she's a

Daniel Franco:

person well is that so I'm gonna We get into business voters. I love this part of the evening. So is there an opportunity to get funded by NDIS? And stuff like that? There is? Yeah. So yeah,

Erin Faehrmann:

NDIS job network provider type space, we are partnering. We're looking at partnering with one of the big headspace providers here in the state, wonderful men called Steve, who runs those that we're talking about how do we make this work together? Because he thought sort of our values is being stronger together. We're big on partnerships and having allies, but don't want to duplicate things. If great people are already doing great things, let them do those and just refer people to them. So primary schools I don't do prompt. Yeah, if you're in primary school and you want to do something like we do, go see my my ash at growing with gratitude. Yeah, he's amazing. He don't none of us are silver bullet for any everything. But primary schools, he's the expert, my schools, he does some high schools, too. That's where I hang out. I don't need to duplicate that stuff. What a

Daniel Franco:

primary schools what I know, my children's school is for one doing the growth mindset stuff, which is great. So it's already sending him on. I am going back to the young girl that the 15 year old that you were talking about in your previous example, sparkly question in my head about you know, mental health, and those who are at higher risk. What, like for the for the adults listening into this podcast? What are some of the issues or concerns? Because it's it is different now, right? We grew up in a world where Facebook in social media wasn't a thing. Bullying is at an all time high mental health is going crazy. What uh, what's going on? What's going on? What's going on? Yeah, and the million dollar question, can you help lots of things

Erin Faehrmann:

is the short version. There's a great podcast called The happiness lab that comes out of Yale, I think. And the example that I remember the strongest that I hadn't heard, so yes, all the things you just mentioned. There's also things. The big thing for us is that young people are facing greater uncertainty than people like you and I, at a society level experienced. The young people that I trained last term out of that group of young people, I think only three of them still in Job parent households. And so we know the divorce rates and separation rates and look at the micro level in some family separation is a better outcome. Sure. But let's look at a social level here and say divorce and separated families is on the rise, obviously, that whole sense of connectedness and having trusted adults in their life, who are all working together to back you and support you as a young person. Yeah, it's very difficult to achieve in those environments, which fluffy and civil. Yeah, but it's not impossible. But I see so many examples of young people who are torn between physically between two households. So that's a time management nightmare. Different parenting styles, different valuing styles. And to be able to then as a single person, have a problem that you raised with your parents becomes very complex. So the sense of having an adult that you can rely on the connectedness and relationships, which is so fundamental to well being and mental health is harder. There's challenges there. There's also things as you said, social media fear of judgment and failure, huge issues that very well researched, but there's also with that uncertainty as climate change anxieties of me now. So, and even, you know, one of the tools on our program is a visualization, we asked young people to imagine waking up in the future in their ideal life, and we talk them through a guided kind of meditation of that experience. And last year, pre COVID, one of my trainers said to me, they're struggling with that tool. And I said, What do you mean, she's, and she's trying for some time, she said, they're starting to really struggle to imagine their futures, because so much is changing. And then COVID here, and then it got a bit harder even. Yeah, I don't even know what's happening tomorrow. And you want me to imagine waking up in 10 years time in my ideal life? How am I supposed to imagine that? Everyone keeps telling me the careers of the future don't even exist yet? How am I supposed to imagine my future and God plan towards that, which is why our program helps them go back to basics, go inside, go find your values, go find what will make you happy. Build your own skills, habits and confidence in you can navigate uncertain situations, don't have climate change, anxiety and anxiety about future careers. Trust in yourself that you will find a way no matter what comes and that you have the power to shape the world. Yeah. And so that I think is causing massive issues. The happiness lab podcast, talked about the small acts of bravery, the opportunities of young people, learning how to be brave in social interactions is diminishing with the rise of technology. And the scenario they used as you know, when you and I were young, if we went to a supermarket, you'd either get your parents to go buy it or you had to go up to a checkout person and you had to like be brave and give them the money and take the thing and you had to go into a record store and like go and buy a CD Have, you had to go to a bank, there's pre my time maybe. But back back in the day you went to a bank and to a teller and you got money out. But now you can do that from home on your phone, you don't need to interact with a single human being, you don't have to be brave learn social skills, learn how to make eye contact, but how to build relationships. It's all outsourced to technology. And then you want to put them in a conflict situation with a person they don't have a relationship will. They don't know how to scaffold the skills to get there, because they haven't accumulated the skills and the confidence to say, oh, yeah, I made a cup of tea and they smiled. Next, I'll say hello. And they smiled. Next, I'll put my hand up and ask for help. And it went, well, now have a conversation have to scaffold those experiences rather than throwing them in the deep end?

Daniel Franco:

Yeah, the avoidance is a whole time is it? Really it's because it's avoidance from the fear of by design, but not yet been by design, but not not? Are you doing it's

Erin Faehrmann:

happening because they don't know they didn't grow up in a world where normal that you went to self serve checkout at a supermarket, so they don't know they're missing out? Or they just know that they don't know how to interact with humans. It is interesting,

Daniel Franco:

though, because I think for me, who, from my point of view, so for someone who absolutely values human connection, if there's one thing that I am trying to instill in my kids, if we're at a restaurant, for example, I definitely have some ice cream set. Yep, go up in order. Yeah. You know, things like that, where, you know, oh, how, what money? Well, I'll give you a nice 10 bucks or whatever it is, go get what you need. But you need to figure out a change. Yeah, back to right. So you're gonna tell me how much can go there? Yeah, so ask what the prices of the ice cream come back, tell me and we can figure out how much change you should be getting, you know, and

Erin Faehrmann:

when they say Dad, I don't want to I'm scared you go. I believe in you and safe guy for them when it gets to and then celebrate them when they do come back.

Daniel Franco:

Well, again, that that first conversation is the I'm scared, but after once or twice they they almost run for the next. Yeah, because there's a there's a Oscar but at the end of it right. So that's either do that and get Oscar or don't do it and don't get ice cream. So there's a little

Erin Faehrmann:

don't underestimate the reward of you celebrating their success. Yeah, ice cream, and dad's proud of me. And that makes me proud of me. Yeah, I think. Yeah, but subconsciously, even if they don't know what's happening, but they're also rewards. Yeah. So a lot of the time at youth ops, we just cheerleaders, honestly, we're just independent people that back these kids and believe in them no matter what. And of course, we have the luxury of not knowing how messy the room is, and how ratbags they were in math class. And all of that baggage, we don't have to come to terms

Daniel Franco:

with it's really too late. Yeah. And that's such a good point. I'm reading this book. It's by Robert Greene at the moment. It's called the laws of human nature. And it's a it's a ripper. The one I read it, I literally read it last night, and it was saying that it was an old quote. So it was written as men, right men will prefer an an applaud and to be applauded, as opposed to be rewarded with pay or something like that. So they would prefer the recognition. Yeah. And Pat in the back, or well done the words of affirmation, as opposed more so than any other form of celebrate.

Erin Faehrmann:

Yeah, so so much research.

Daniel Franco:

It is, yeah, I'm interested in, you know, you made a really great point, especially from a mental health perspective, and not knowing what the future looks like. We grew up in a world as What do you want to be when you grow up? Right. And so your point, I hadn't actually thought of it your point of how do I visualize a world that doesn't we don't even know what exists in what's going to be available? We know, it's, it's one, how do you do that?

Erin Faehrmann:

And people like you and I, for example, who spent a lot of time working on those skills, habits, confidence, we understand our values. And we know how to build relationships and and we have resilience and we can manage tough times and practice gratitude and get enough sleep and the elusive unicorn of life. We think, I don't know, but that's okay. And some days I feel panicky about how I'm going to get through everything, and how am I going to deal with that difficult conversation. And gosh, I've done that differently. But it doesn't push us out of that enduring happiness baseline into a world where it's really tough, really, really tough for us. And it becomes overwhelming because we have that resilience skills, habits and confidence inside ourselves. And we've built relationships around us where people we get cheerleaders, positive symbols, and all these other things around us that reinforce it. And for people who don't have that, and that's age independent. That is really it's anxiety inducing depression inducing, because they Yeah, how do you get from where you are to where you want to be? And particularly things like depression, I mean, all of our trainers are certified in Youth Mental Health First Aid and Mental Health First Aid, again, is one of those things that's just taken off like gangbusters, I recommend that anybody in the world should just do that training whether you work with young people or not. So is it mental Mental Health First Aid training? Is nationally accredited training lots of

Daniel Franco:

first day, but exactly. It's like to think of it

Erin Faehrmann:

that way. Yeah. So there is also use Mental Health First Aid, we run it as a we're accredited to deliver that training and all of our trainers have Youth Mental Health First Aid,

Daniel Franco:

and hit me up. Yeah,

Erin Faehrmann:

I'll link in. One of the things that you learn on that training like with, with with physical first aid is, you know, the consequences of not being able to breathe, how long can you go without breathing and 10 people on the side? Never? Well, you also learn about the consequences of things like depression and anxiety, and how debilitating physically that can be compared to something like full paraplegia. And they're on par. And so you can look at someone who has depression and tells you I have depression, you can say, Well, why don't you just get up and go for a run? Why don't you just have a shower and clean up the house and get your act together. And that's like asking a person sometimes, who's in a wheelchair to get up and run, just get up and run, my legs are broken, I don't care, just get up and run. And so you start to really understand the depths of how difficult it is for some people, and how that scaffolding back out of that can be really important. And how there are lots of ways and sometimes medication is a part of that. And then there's lots of you can see why some people really out there for a long time. It's really tricky.

Daniel Franco:

I wouldn't even I wouldn't even know where to begin. I there's the thing, I get the training. Well, yeah, so the thing that's going through my head, you're Brene Brown fan. And if you seen the little cartoon with

Erin Faehrmann:

ya, yeah. Brah. Yeah, they're in the sandwich.

Daniel Franco:

Brilliant, right? If you if you haven't, if you haven't get on YouTube, and just look up Rene brown cartoon, empathy cartoon or something like that. Yeah. All right, as people who are human, it's human nature to want to be able to fix things. Right. So it's, again, it's a lack of education around how to do what's

Erin Faehrmann:

the how do you fix it by telling them what works for you? Yeah, or by giving them advice? Yeah. Or do you fix it by having that empathy or the coaching, and this is you guys coach? Yeah. And that's at youth ops, we are coaches, they train and facilitate, but when they're one on one, they coach, so we don't say to a young person, unless they're really stuck, you need to make that a cup of tea. We talked to them about their own ways that they are going to come up with their own strategies. So we help them with we have a coaching model, as most organizations coach do, it starts with goal congruence and moves up to strategies after goal congruence, once you've agreed what it is you're trying to do build a relationship with them. Now you decide your strategies, if you need help with these strategies, I can give you a couple of ideas. Because I've met a lot of young people, they've told me what works and what doesn't sometimes, and yeah, but you ultimately have to be the one that sets those strategies, because you're the one that's gonna deliver on them. Now, we call them challenges. So I'll set you a challenge to take from them. Yep, that's what you want to do. I'm going to write it here. And next week, I'm going to ask you how it went. Run a little experiment, see what happens. And then will often ask them, you know, do you want to try that? Do want to keep trying it? Is it a habit now doing? Are you ready for the next level level up with that?

Daniel Franco:

What's your feedback that you normally get from from something like that? is generally work?

Erin Faehrmann:

Yeah, it's a real mixed bag. We because we've been around for 24 years? Yeah, we've got amazing resources. So I trained last term. As a first time trainer, we've been around you thoughts. I know some of the tools, I've got the four big decisions tattooed on my arm. I love the philosophy. I know what looking for blue means, but I've never delivered it with young people. So I had it on my bucket list to go and actually be a trainer and trainer program. And it was amazing. And it was really fun to see that come to life for young people. And see, as I mentioned, it's like 30 or 50 tools in the toolkit over 10 weeks. Some students really need that because that relates to their goals, relationships with parents, that's my main thing I'm going for. So all the tools related to that really resonate, they use them, they work on them. Others, that's fine, that's great homes, great, I've got great sporting. My problem is I'm struggling with my maths, and I don't know what I want to do after school great. So all the tools that are related to that will be really relevant for you. And that's what a lot of your challenges will be about your one on one coaching. So they will fall flat or they'll take them up based on their needs and on how complex Their worlds are. So you know some and again, the normalizing is so important and anytime you've done any peer mentoring, or just having friends in industry that you can just talk to where you say I tried this thing and it didn't work and someone goes Mito it's hard isn't it keep going or Mito. It's a bad idea. Try something else is really really valuable too. How'd you you know, keep going you're doing a good job. Give it a go or change, adapt.

Daniel Franco:

Yeah. mold it to suit. Yeah. Can you would have seen so many good things? Yes. Can you give us some of those stories? A lot of these things. These have

Erin Faehrmann:

actually said, so we launched our 2020 annual impact report last week. Yeah. And we invited some of our just our dearest, and most generous supporters to celebrate them. Because those outcomes have been funded by those people. They enable those outcomes. The young people put in the hard work, the schools made it happen, but those donors funded it. And without them, those changes never would have happened. So to celebrate them during Youth Week, which was lovely. I said to one, a corporate partner, as she was leaving, she said, You know, I've had a really tough week. And it was just so nice to be here. And here are a couple of the stories that a student and a donor was sharing with me about the impact of youth ops and how to change lives. And I said, Baby, you just call me anytime you're down. Yeah, I get 10 a day. Yeah, you just call me and I'll tell you the latest one. What cuz they're all the one that I remember from four years ago when I was on the board as inspiring as the one I had this morning. Even Okay, here's the freshest one. I'm not calling you later. We're not putting your phone number out for a hotline. So this morning, yeah, walking around Adelaide, I've come from up on North Terrace at the gym factory doing some amazing work with the Leaders Institute. And down to see you to record this podcast on beautiful Ghana land. And as I was walking down the street, you know, they have those like stickers, advertising stickers on the footpath for like volunteer week or whatever my fringe venue, whatever. Last week was Youth Week, as part of youth we Yaxha the Youth Affairs Council substrate one run an amazing art prize to with young people to submit their art to be named the kind of winner of the Youth Week Art Prize, and their art, then became the stickers on the street. So I challenge you to go outside this week and have a look. There are big round stickers on the ground saying Youth Work South Australia, your voice our future, and a beautiful artistic work in the middle. And that artistic work is the work of one of our graduates who also earlier that week was a student speaker at our golf Day, which raised a record amount of funding and our golf day. And I was so excited. I saw her on the floor because I'd seen it on social media like oh my gosh, there's an odd I know whose it is. And I know the journey that young person been on and how she is amazing. And there's lots of reasons why. And she does credit youth opportunities is one of the key things that's helped her get where she is. And she just went up prize and it's here on the street in real life. So I took a selfie with it and I sent it to her trainer and I sent it to our social media person. And they'll probably have posted it on social media by now. And they'll probably share with the students, the chief executive of youth opportunities. He sat next to a dinner at the golf day. So you're pumped now she's mentioned on the synergy. podcast.

Daniel Franco:

Yeah. And then I'll go out and see you go

Erin Faehrmann:

you go look for it. Yeah, it's out there for Raja. She's an amazing artist. She's finished high school and moved on from there. And she's at university doing Oh, again, she's beautiful humans. And she's doing a really technical it. Course, yeah, at Wilson lakes and has beautiful aspirations about how technology is going to help. Communities facing significant disadvantaged, particularly refugee type communities and women in those types of communities. And she just won an Art Prize and how great is that? Forget stem, it's steam. Now there's an A in there the arts are in there. Have you heard that STEM? STEM is so last season men. It's all about you know, who wants science, technology, engineering, and mathematics if you're not going to throw some artistic stuff in this listing. And she's human embodiment of a teacher.

Daniel Franco:

So there's got to be there's got to be one penny Cool. Is there someone that's sort of gone, that's gone through the program, and it's completely, you know, they've come from, you know, what's the lower socio socio economic base and then gone on, just as a result become see, you know, Hollywood stories or anything like that.

Erin Faehrmann:

We've got graduates who, I've met quite a few of the graduates who are now school teachers, which is really interesting. Some of them back at schools where they were graduates. Obviously, we've got youth ops graduates working at youth ops who are training in leading future programs. We've got youth ops graduates who are international opera stars, apparently they were in that Eurovision or something and they're out there everywhere. I met one at a very fancy soiree recently, very successful in business, probably a new nail. Yeah, it was very humble beginnings. I'm a youth postgraduate if you live in South Australia or even Australia, and you You know, someone between the age of about 15 and 30, who's just really bubbly and positive, ask him if they did Youth Opportunities. Because like, in my experience, 5050 they do some of them, baristas. And you know, they might be in their 20s, and they're a barista or hairdresser. And the important thing for me is to ask, Are you successful? Because I had this with a donor recently, this just amazing human being who's a barista and wouldn't know her age, but she's well out of school. And I would say, and she would say that she is successful in life and a wonderful person. And I mentioned it to a donor. And they said, Oh, she's just a barista. And you know, people don't know what they don't know. Right. And I was talking to someone confidentiality confidentially, again, about like, oh, this person said this thing, and I won't tell you who But isn't it interesting, because what they don't know, is where that person came from home from this room without our program. And again, a strong advocate program, without our program coming along, when they're in year 10, they would not be here, many of our young people tell us that they would not be on this planet. And youth suicide is the leading it's the leading cause of death, the people below 24 in Australia, it's a very real reality. So your vision of what success is. And this is why we teach our people you tell me what your vision of success is. Okay? So you're on your vision, good for you. Are you happy? Tell me if you're happy, you're a barista? Are you happy? Do you feel like you're successful? If you say yes, to me, that's all I need to know.

Daniel Franco:

Yeah,

Erin Faehrmann:

we've got five good things you got

Daniel Franco:

brilliant, there's a there is a video floating around on YouTube or social media word or wherever it is where there's a, it's a camp, or somewhere to a training exercise out in the middle of a park. And they've basically got everyone lined up. And if I can find this video, I'll put it in the show notes. But they've got everyone lined up on this line at the start, and it says, right, I step forward, if you've got two parents living in the same house, and sort of half the kids step forward, step forward, if you go to if you had the education paid for me, and you Yeah, step forward, if you get your lunch bad for you, whatever it might be. And so before, you know, step forward, if you've got a family that you can fall back on, and before, you know, there's sort of this small group up the front, and then this large contingent of kids about the statline haven't moved, right. So it just goes to show that there are some people with such a, such a greater headstart in life. So that had been Yeah, absolutely. So that is a powerful message for all to watch, I believe, because it does give you we're not all starting from the same spot.

Erin Faehrmann:

Know, if anyone's really, really interested in that there's a thing called aces adverse childhood experiences, and it's a proper evidence based index. And there's, I can't remember how many aces there are. But it's effectively a checklist of every time you take one of these boxes, you take a step back from the start line. So it's similar analogy, but you kind of go to the back of the line. And that means you have further to go. The important thing for me and for us, is our young people where they are because they didn't have the opportunities and the aspirations and the resources to get to the front of the pack. Or are they where they are because they've come a really long way. And that's where they are right now. But they're on their way to get to Eurovision if they want to. And so it is important. We don't, you know, we don't say to young people, like, oh, gosh, you live in this area, you'd be lucky to get a job like that is not what we're about. We're about lifting aspirations while recognizing that there are these challenges that they face that they'll need to overcome. And there is a thing called post post traumatic growth. So often what you'll find even in businesses, I am for myself, I grew up in horrific circumstances around all the things that you don't want your kids to grow up around. And I feel like I've lived a life of post traumatic growth that has made me resilient and strong doesn't always happen. But some of the strongest people you will know, the most grounded and humble and values aligned other ones who grew up experiencing really difficult things, because they've got a lived experience. So they have the empathy for other people. And they realize that there are bigger issues afoot, and more important things in the world. And so sometimes it can really accelerate them and it goes back

Daniel Franco:

it goes back to your point in the ice cream point, right where the you know, the youth of today just aren't given the experiences and the opportunities because everything's kind of hand fed, made easy. That's right, but those who who haven't had it, fed to him or given or made easier for them almost in one way, or leaps and bounds ahead from a behavioral point of view. You talk about you had to learn the skill, you had to learn the skills and resilience is the buzzword of the world at the moment. And if you've managed to, you know, make it through and, and and plow into so adult adult life, that skill set, you're in front. Yeah, absolutely. If you can learn, manage job as a barista or whatever, you're already in front of so much of the population pure. So it's a powerful message because parents who try to cotton wool, their childhood could almost have the same adverse effect. Which is why the job of parenting so hard. second guessing yourself doing? Yeah, and it's not only you know, we talked about the power of words earlier, but it's a Power of Emotions, the power of behavior, but the power of rolling your eyes or, you know, it's all the little different things that you can do that kids pick up hair sponges, they pick up everything. Yeah. And they become very, very good at reading body language

Erin Faehrmann:

they do. So another hot off the press example, the meeting I had this morning was with about eight adults. And one of those adults bought their three year old child with lots of things for them to play with. It's about a two hour meeting. And they said, she's only three. So you know, she probably isn't gonna leave me, let's have her here in the boardroom with us. But she's very quiet. And I've noticed this behavior because I've given you a book down and maybe we'll talk about that I notice is that they're all lovely people. And everybody was very accepting that this child was there, which I thought that's great. That's a good start. But nobody looked at the child and acknowledged them and said, Hello. Now they were looking a bit shy, too. So I don't want to write like people probably holding back because I don't want to scare the kid. But I just went, Hello, my name is Aaron, what's your name? And of course, she didn't answer me. And my mom told me what her name was. And anyway, by the end of the meeting, she gave me a sticker. I asked her for she gave me one she's and she did start getting bit chatty, which was a bit, you know, annoying for a mom, because she told you not to talk. But I'd invited her to talk. And I invited her to be noticed. You're a human in this room, you might be three, if there was a 20 year old sitting in that corner, just slowly reading a book, we would have acknowledged them. Why did we not acknowledge the three year old? You explained why they Yeah, but we didn't acknowledge them as a human. What does that tell that little human about whether they matter or not? And whether they deserve to be in that room? Whether their burden, and they're an object to be put in the corner, like your backpack? Or are you a human being at a table, but you just don't really know what's going on right now. So that was actually like a really constructive work thing. Everyone's like, sure. Bring your three year old, right? Yeah, about work life balance. And I was like, yeah, and let's take it next level. That's pretty, I'm ready to bring this kid in and get stickers from her. And we'll get on with business as well.

Daniel Franco:

Thank you so much for sharing that example. It is powerful. My children in conversation, some have come up to me, and they probably will be more self aware than most, which is great at their age at nine and seven. But I've come up to me that God didn't even acknowledge that I was around, they've actually said that to me. So it's a powerful thing. And in that human nature, but laws of human nature book that I'm reading at the moment, there's an example of of a parent who was, you know, had come home from a stressful day. You know, a single parent mother had come home from a stressful day, her job had to prepare her to do home, I had all the above issues in life. You know, that was it's tough, right? It's it's a tough gig. And a daughter was singing. And in a fleeting moment, she got this, she got this phone call that was even more distressing. And in this fleeting moment, while she was on the phone, she turned around to this child and said, Shut up, you have an ugly voice. Right? Those were the words that came out of my mouth. And it does, right and the, the the child from that point, apparently, and this, you know, she's my child now. But she was giving her example, she stopped singing, that was a day she stopped singing. That was the day she stopped believing that her voice actually meant anything. Right? So we go back to that pair of words the impact that we as adults can have on the youth Yeah, is huge. And we should really always be in checking the way we're behaving and you know, the self awareness

Erin Faehrmann:

to be aware and be kind to yourself right because like I said, we're not perfect we never showed up on this planet saying that we're perfectly unless you're a narcissist, I guess you might say that but most of us reasonably agree that we're gonna step up and step on landmines and there will be traumatic experiences our kids will subconsciously remember and it will shape the adults they become a no need counseling for that is the nature of humans. And we just try not to have anxiety about it because we were talking about that like, oh gosh, the uncertainty of what am I doing them? kids like you can have that anxiety as much as you have climate change anxiety. And try and be kind to yourself. And, you know, go back and apologize and all the same things as when you mean I remember times when I was a people leader, you know, proper manager, you've got to your manager, and you've got 15 staff and go on. I'm like, I don't know how to do this. And some of the things that I went back and apologize to people for doing in those first two years, I didn't, I made some really rookie mistakes. But I didn't know what I was doing. I did some stuff that created some really tricky situations for people. And I went back years later and apologized to some of them. And some of them went, Yeah, remember, and some of them went? I don't even remember that. And you don't know. But you know, you do that with your kids as well. I pray that was the thing that I did. And I didn't mean to and I'm growing and learning. Well, is

Daniel Franco:

this just being a human being? Isn't it really not going to nail it with everyone? As I say, Have you thoughts? What's your biggest challenge being away? You know, it doesn't even have to be used up? What's your biggest challenge is being being the top dog right being the person at the top leading, leading the way the buck stops with you? How have you handled that, you know, we've talked about mental health is that it's also something that you need to be concerned of for yourself as well. And keeping that and keeping your own brain fit. Yeah.

Erin Faehrmann:

Yeah, I think to start with, as I said, I grew up around a lot of mental ill health in and out of sideboards with my mother, who was bipolar, manic depressive, so you grew up around the really pointy end of it. Yeah. And so I guess I always had an appreciation that it's, for me, it is a fact of life. It can happen. Sometimes you come out of it, sometimes you don't. Sometimes you get to choose that sometimes requires medication and therapy. And, you know, it's a thing it might happen, like, I might break this glass. I might not, I don't know. But let's just go with it and see what happens. So I didn't necessarily, you know, through COVID, and everything last year, and we're obviously we work in schools, we work face, to face everything to go on line to sell off stuff. We're a nonprofit, we're not very tech heavy. We had to buy new laptops, set up new servers and learn how to be mobile. We're human people, we love hanging out together, we had to do everything on Zoom. So it was very challenging. Yeah. And then add to that funding is donations, donations drying up, can we even do this work, kids need us more than ever, schools are finding it hard to deliver so many things. And I called the beyondblue helpline many times for some great free help. It was usually late at night after another 13 hours of zoom. And I just wrote, I got 20 minutes, I'm calling Beyond Blue. I'm just struggling and helped me and I just really, because I grew up around help seeking. It's not not taking a punch for me to just call beyondblue and say, Hey, can I have a chat? And they and yeah, they they're great. And that's, you know, for us, that's our Employee Assistance Program, which to call me yeah, really great. Just

Daniel Franco:

cool. Was that? Was that fun, cool. Look like or sound like? Oh, it's

Erin Faehrmann:

great, great question, because that can be a big barrier. Yeah. In my experience, and in my corporate utilities, career, we had an AIP employee assistance program. And I remember the first time I ever called one, and thinking, I don't know how to start the conversation. And we say the same thing for kids with Kids Helpline. Don't you worry about that. There's a professional on the other end, you start by saying, Hello, my name's Aaron. That's all you've got to do. Their job is to go the next row.

Daniel Franco:

It's their job to ask

Erin Faehrmann:

questions. And they'll and if you just want to just you can, and they'll try and help shape that with you and support you. If you I'd say the last few times, I've called the Beyond Blue Line, I've genuinely been look, I'm not. I'm not in harm's way. I'm not thinking of harming myself in any way. But thank you for being there for me if I was in that situation. So I want you to know, we're not in that space. But I just felt like I wanted to call you and I'm not sure why. But I just felt like I wanted to do that. And then they just start asking questions, and 20 minutes later, you hang up and go, Ah, I've got some strategies. I've got some insight. Someone's listened to me and backing me. Thanks. Good. That's what I needed. But now it's like having a rest. So yeah, you just got to

Daniel Franco:

create a personal relationship with that person on the phone, or is it just sort of a

Erin Faehrmann:

What's the same it youth ops, right? So we, you know, we meet these kids and all of a sudden you're like, hi, tell me what you probably know it cost. That's not what you do. Yeah, there's relationship building. But you know, if you're, if you're a good coach, and you've got the skills and the tools to help people open up when they're ready and how they are ready. And that is, you know, things like Employee Assistance lines are brief solution based counseling. They're not psychologists, and youth ops. We're not psychotic. Just so we will often if a young person requires expert help, we help get them to the point where they're asking for that help, we are not that person, you need to go to a GP, you need to get a mental health care plan, and you need to go and see a specialist. If this is how you feeling, and this is what you've tried, that would be my advice to you. And then we help get them. You know, you need to speak up school, I do feel comfortable doing that telling the school that tell you feeling and deep, tell your parents, those kinds of things. So we bridged them to those professionals. So when you're talking about that first conversation, it's brief solution, focus counseling. So they are not sitting there saying, Tell me about all your traumatic experiences in life. They're trying to take you from where you are right now to being safer and able to move forward.

Daniel Franco:

I'm interested in the way you are right now, like where? I don't know that that's something that I would do not purely because not purely because I kind of don't accept it, but more from a I shall be right. I'll get through this myself. So I'm really interested in stoicism. Well, it's, you know, resilience. Well, wait, because the trust me last year going through COVID. And, you know, the business itself took a hit. And yeah, there's times that you kind of, again, I was never in a point of being in harm's way. But there was definitely times like, should I just need a buddy and leash on someone he like, I'm getting everything that's off my chest. And I don't know who to speak to. But I kind of always just wrote it down. Like, that was my right. Yeah, that was my way. I just journaled and wrote it down. Yeah. So is that the same point? Like is that? Yeah,

Erin Faehrmann:

whatever works for you. I think what I love about that is you, you know, you've got that resilience, where you're saying, I'm not in harm's way, I have the skills and the confidence to seek out strategies and try them. I've got a growth mindset, I've got high sense of agents, this is my problem to solve. And I can choose how to do that. Will I do it myself through some journaling? Or some punching? Or go for a run? Or Paschim? Punch something? Yes, someone? Yeah. You know, asking me to go on a bike ride with me or Yeah, or, you know, have you got someone in your life that you just want to do that is, you know, okay, with you unloading like that, you're seeking strategies, because you have high sense agents and confidence that that will work for you, which is wonderful. And that's all we can hope. And for me, sometimes I do those things, and sometimes I will be on blue, because I think I don't really want to, I want to get into a big conversation with people I know who are who know the situation or know the individuals or will try and solve the problem for me, I'll go like, Oh, well, why don't you just talk to her? You know, you might blah, blah, blah. I want someone independent. And I don't I don't know what's what's going on. So I just want someone to, I want to kind of fall asleep at the wheel here. Like you asked me the question. Yeah. Where it's, you know, when you talk to a mate or your journal, and journaling is good for that freeform thing. You don't know where you're starting to start. But you know, sometimes when you're talking to your friends, like, well, what's the matter anyway? I don't know. That's why I'm talking to you.

Daniel Franco:

Yeah, I get it. Now generally, will probably give you their opinion whether whether opinion on the person on the phone, yeah, isn't more or less just

Erin Faehrmann:

a job. Now, I'm very fortunate that a lot of my friends and the people, I hang out with the opportunity. So they are highly skilled at not doing that. And so I am just totally blessed that I get to surround myself with these people. I'm just hanging out all day with these people. And young people who do it back to me as well.

Daniel Franco:

Yeah, that's so good. Yeah, it's a good life. We've just hit the year and a half mark, very quickly, last round. So we're gonna get to the first round. I do want to ask you one last question. Your your annual report, the newest one has just stated that you have an ambitious five year plan. Yes. Can you just give us what? Yeah, a bit of insight of where you're going? Yes, five years.

Erin Faehrmann:

Thank you. We're national now, which is exciting, really not national in a big way yet, but it's on the way, the second half of 2021 and beyond. We have people overseas, trialing our programs and services for us in a range of settings to tell us whether they crossed those cultural barriers, it is applicable for you in different settings and different environments and a different levels of engagement and education. You know, like if someone's willing to just log on and pay for the program and take themselves to the next level. They'll get what they want out of it because of what we were just talking about. But you know, again, for young people in another country in complex situations where they're not engaging in learning, there might be digital literacy issues. There might be neurodiversity challenges. There might not be a way for us to reach their parents and teachers. What outcomes does it How far does it get you in that situation? To know where where we can really take it. We're outside the school gates now. So definitely the philanthropic part of our business is very much about young people in disadvantaged areas, facing challenges. That doesn't mean disadvantaged children. It means people living in complex environments, and facing challenges. And as I said, the stats show that all young people are facing challenges these days anyway, no matter where you live. But we do, as I said, have the social enterprise component of working in other schools and businesses with people who see again, they've got young people up to 25 years old, in their businesses are grappling with the same issues. And they want to invest in their workforce and in the community. And so their ability to be able to say yes to that now is amazing. And then there's a whole bunch of other things that we're working on. I'm a business person by trade. So we're building a as a new CRM going in, we're upgrading to SharePoint, we've got to deal with outgrowing our combination. There's, you know, all of that stuff happening. How do you just grow a business that's gone from kind of 20 people to about 35 people in two years, and maybe we'll be about 100? In two years? Yeah, it is very

Daniel Franco:

strict budget.

Erin Faehrmann:

well being is I grew up professionally, in utility, government type space. And as I said, I come from humble beginnings. So it's in my values to be very prudent. And the partnership aspect also means that you don't have to do everything. So don't waste your money. And I'm also a systems thinker, look at the system and think about where you'll add value don't just go in. So I have this conversation a lot. Where people say, Well, why don't you just like go and see the Prime Minister and get some funding to be in every school in Australia. I said, because not every school in Australia wants me. So that's very paternalistic. And patronizing schools do some amazing work. And not every school in Australia maybe needs me, maybe they've got some really great place based solutions they're working on and I can learn a lot from them. So yeah, I really like to go with a system. Needless to go. And unfortunately, at the moment, there is a need in the system. But the good news is we're adapting to be able to put the value where we need to, and as I say, because constantly trying to inspire people to invest their time, treasure, talent and tribes, into young people, volunteer, connect me with people that might be interested in investing, open up doors and opportunities, because there's a lot of need there. And we can do some really great stuff really quickly. Yeah, absolutely.

Daniel Franco:

Thank you for everything that you're doing. Yes, let's not forget that we wouldn't be able to do half the stuff with any of it without. So quick fire questions. We have changed a lot recently. So yeah, if you have prepared if you have prepared, I haven't but hit the reading one stay the same. So what are you what are you reading right now?

Erin Faehrmann:

We are at work. I bought, I think 12 copies of a book called burnout after hearing about it on the Brene Brown podcast. And we're running a book club on that at the moment. And our book club is also looking at how brands grow out of the Ehrenberg bass Institute. Because that is obviously a big part of our growth aspirations. And we believe that yeah, that's where to start their amazing evidence based strategies for growing brands.

Daniel Franco:

So what's that book cool, so burnouts, a first one burnout and

Erin Faehrmann:

how brands grow. And there's, I think there's three it is part one and part two, and they're classics, in marketing, but of course in things like social Arabic. We are so spoiled in South Australia, because Ehrenberg bass Institute is at UTSA here, and it's a global think tank on fantastic evidence based science backed marketing. And they do it.

Daniel Franco:

Sorry, are you involved in that?

Erin Faehrmann:

No, we're just fans. We buy all their books. We just love their work. And we take them for coffee every now and again and pick their brains. And I mean, they work in automotive and fast moving consumer goods and wine and all sorts of industries. But they're, you know, those great theoretical underpinnings that apply to human nature. How do you know what is it about humans that make them buy or associate with a brand and for us, a lot of that is it might be buy, but it might also be the psychological value attached to the program for a young person. Why would I do a Youth Opportunities Program? They're not buying it, they're not paying for it, but they are buying into investing their time in it. Or you know, a donor that I met last night like what are they buying into when I talk to them that makes them go? I'm going to use some of my social capital and introduce you to someone I know that they're spending social capital when they introduced me to. So yeah, really, how brands grow. Book Club WE ARE WE Fango go over all of that. How books have helped brands

Daniel Franco:

and brands and burnout. I've heard that burnout books are amazing. Perfect What's one book that you would recommend to younger kids who to grown up or parents of kids or anything in that room? Kids? Well, yeah. Well, both parents and yes, one here that you've given, gifted me when I walked in

Erin Faehrmann:

and said, Dan, books. This is one of my questions. Yes, I'm my favorite book of all time. And it's a hard goal, because a lot of them is coming better grownups, and it's coming better grownups by Brad Montague, once again, becoming better grownups rediscovering what matters and remembering how to fly. So if anybody's ever heard of Kid President, who's a YouTube sensation, Brad Montague is the creator of Kid President and actually the brother of Kid President. And he has a company called a monkey workshops, but also established what SoulPancake. So people might have heard of that, too. They do amazing video content in the social change and kindness space. If you've got children, you need to show them Kid President videos. I mean, they're like a decade old, grown up Kid President. And it says, young boy, he's like, in a suit, I'm gonna dance. I'm gonna save the world. President and he makes Beyonce and it's all very cute. Kid President, but he's very positive, uplifting young person, but the book becoming better grownups. So that's just one of the things that Brad does. The book is about how we as previous children, grownups can be better in terms of how we create an environment for young people to be better future adults and grownups. And it can be so it's for educated. There's a great discussion guide for educators a great discussion guide parents that goes with it, but of course, its neighbors, mentors, Woody coaches, employers who particularly in places like you know, we talked to Drake supermarkets and McDonald's, very high percentage of young workforces they would like first jobs, organizations. You know, the stuff we were talking about acknowledging young people are in the room, listening to them, playing with them, I have a side hustle called Lead with play. Play is so so so important to us as humans, not just as kids but as adults. And Brad struggled himself with mental health challenges and the pressure and anxiety of being a parent to to young children. And he shares a lot of that in the book. So it's very authentic, but also very practical about how we can be better grownups.

Daniel Franco:

So good. So becoming better grownups. Side Hustle, lead with play lead with play Zack complementor source that way, you know, we, we actually, let's not go wake up for another hour if we do. Let's go back to these quick five question. What other podcasts you listen to? She said that Brene? Brown? Well, yes.

Erin Faehrmann:

Well, yours obvious. posted on social media. I love Elaine benstead. And Frank Kondo, you just interviewed you and so many other great people I didn't know either. And Elaine's podcast in particular was very triggering for me about how I navigated COVID As a CEO, a lot of the experience she was sharing. Yeah, brought up a lot of, I guess, little teacher of last year made that I kind of buried in the back of my brain. Yeah.

Daniel Franco:

How amazing was Elaine's? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Erin Faehrmann:

So tricky. And a lot of that people go through COVID. I'm like, I don't know, I don't want to think about it. And mine really did on packet. And that did bring up some stuff for me. And I didn't need to call beyondblue about it. It was it was cathartic. And that's what the burnout book tells you, you should do move through the emotion and honor the emotion. So I did that was wonderful. I'm listening to my favorite is always Stuff You Should Know. Oh, it's one of my favorites. It's so random. And I'm also currently listening to a podcast called Teach by the Department of Education. They're doing some really amazing work in curriculum development. And as people who work with schools, but are not schools, it's really important for us to understand our customers and the system that we're trying to add value to. So I'm just soaking up everything that they'll give me and I love that a government department is doing a high quality well produced podcast like how cool

Daniel Franco:

yeah, they know better. Look into

Erin Faehrmann:

Yeah, it's really good. For anybody who's interested in the school. social systems system. Yeah. From that point of view.

Daniel Franco:

Who do you admire or look up to everybody? Other than me, right? But

Erin Faehrmann:

I mean, no, but just, ah, so many people, you know, you

Daniel Franco:

have that like, if you could invite three people to do Yeah, I should ask that question. So that's similar. It's the same one.

Erin Faehrmann:

I don't know. The three people that recently inspired me. We do ask the young people this and we share as well as trainers. So for May I always answer them is my mom. She's passed away. Now she passed away at 62 of cancer. But that was not her biggest battle in life, obviously, her mental health was. And she was a vulnerable person who grew up facing even worse things than I did, which maybe she would have ended up with her mental illness anyway, but it sure as heck didn't help her. But she, and it's easier now she's not here, to think back on the positive qualities that she instilled in me through a very difficult childhood, and how they're in my values and how I value those. So her sense of community is a big one for me. She owned the local general store in a small country town and she volunteered on driving the fire trucks and she'd still all of the dogs that were being looked after by the farmers if they weren't looking after them. That's it. You're not taking that dog. It's my now we had nine dogs at one stage growing up, she just rescue them all. And she would just give anything to anybody. So particularly when she was going through a manic episode where we'd come home from school and they'd just be people in the house as well. This is your new ani Jeremy and I so you're living with me now and you have what kind of drug addiction and so we're not exactly safe, but that sense of giving all that you have to people that need it even more than you do. You know, I get that from her and, and she never gave up. Gonna stop crying. Yeah, she never gave up

Daniel Franco:

good human. What's some of the best advice that you've ever received? That I've received?

Erin Faehrmann:

Get more sleep. So that's something that comes to mind. I guess

Daniel Franco:

I'm working on at the moment when you watch this tracking my sleep and I'm thinking I'm going I'm not sleeping well here. Yeah. I'm not doing this right. The one thing that you think you could do, right, I'm not doing it right. Oh,

Erin Faehrmann:

it is. So hot. And sleep hygiene for young people is a massive issue. And again, very spoiled. There's an amazing sleep researcher here in Adelaide Adelaide Uni called Siobhan she does phenomenal work on sleep. And there's just so much evidence how critical it is with I am addict for having coaches and mentors in my life. So I think I've got like six official coaches at the moment. So I get a lot of advice,

Daniel Franco:

either. Yeah. Is there is there one thing that you would like to share that just stopped you in your tracks almost when I really need to rethink this? Or the way I've always done things? There's moments I can say, I know, right?

Erin Faehrmann:

Yeah, I mean, the ones that pop into my head, I've always been growing up, I was always an overweight person. And the coach I have at the moment, Bridey Walker, who is all about don't look at the scales, and I went and got this sub body testing and tests muscle mass, and it tells you about metabolic rates. And it says, Look, honestly, if you want to be healthy, don't worry about the fat, worry about the muscle, you want to build muscle, muscle burns fat. So just focus on building muscle and a healthy lifestyle, the rest will come down scales or whatever. So that's a real transformative thinking for a young woman. I'm 42 now, so I can't really claim that I'm young. But anyway, for your purse. I used to be a young woman. Yeah, I grew up around a lot of self doubt around body image and seeing myself in a certain way and therefore not worthy of certain things. That's a huge flip. Yeah, and I guess, you know, just always fighting imposter syndrome. And when you have those moments where you get a moment of insight of like, Ah, no, I think I am really good at this. Then they're beautiful moments too.

Daniel Franco:

I'm an imposter. I could talk for an hour Do I ever doubt myself, but you know, I think the the attitude of not giving up and I think that is probably where the growth value comes in. For both of us. Yeah. We almost consistently review ourselves against others, which isn't a good thing. However,

Erin Faehrmann:

go in depth. Yeah. Inside. Yeah. measure yourself against yourself. That's

Daniel Franco:

wrong. Yeah, absolutely. It's a constant battle. Yeah. constant battle. Yeah. If you had access to a time machine is what I kept. This is one of my fire if you had access to a time machine. You could go forward or back. Yeah. Where would you go?

Erin Faehrmann:

Oh, so random. Am I stuck there? Or can I come back? You can come back. Okay. Great. So I'm just visiting. Yeah, I would definitely go in the future. If I come back

Daniel Franco:

to you. Everyone says

Erin Faehrmann:

Now you can machine break and

Daniel Franco:

now you can come back. It's a two way trip, but it's not my future.

Erin Faehrmann:

Like well, like, you know, I'm talking 100 years. Yeah, cuz

Daniel Franco:

1000s Okay. Yeah, no, that's true. Well, I want to see the human race across the galaxy. That's what I want to say.

Erin Faehrmann:

He knows right, huh? Yeah.

Daniel Franco:

But yeah, so future why future?

Erin Faehrmann:

Because as I can get lots of perspectives on what the past looks like, through certain eyes that weren't there, but nobody can show you actually what's in the future through any perspective they can imagine. But they can't actually say, what was there?

Daniel Franco:

Oh, you can help the kids prepare for the job.

Erin Faehrmann:

You need to develop skills. It's gonna be important.

Daniel Franco:

If you had one superhero power, what would it be? I already have it with positivity. Now you do

Erin Faehrmann:

is and I, I heard some stuff recently, where I was Allie? Who does another fantastic le Neitzke? Yes, I don't her podcast, someone was talking about the zone of genius. And it's like you're in flow, what are your strengths? And strengths are usually things you don't notice. Because it's your zone of genius. It's like when really strong people lift really heavy things. And they don't think it's effort. It's because they're strong at it, and they don't notice. And then a weakling comes along and tries to lift up, you know, the couch, and they can't, and that's when you realize you're stronger. No, that wasn't hard for me. I didn't realize I was strong at that. And for me, especially being at youth ops, and now it's a self fulfilling prophecy, because it just gets better and better. For me, my zone of genius is an optimistic mindset and seeing the positive in things. And it's an overused strength. At times, it can be very annoying for people where they go, Oh, that person cut me off in traffic. And I'll be like, Oh, I'm really sorry. I wonder if that like had an emergency. Like, I'm always trying to find the, you know, the optimistic reason why it's not their fault. You shouldn't blame people for things, and there could be a better way. And, like, I just want to wallow for a minute, don't make me think about the positives or like empathy. But it's

Daniel Franco:

so I'm gonna call you or your, your the top personalities because I feel like, there's so much negativity in the world, that you're a breath of fresh air because I'm the same I look at things. You know, everyone's like, No, I can't be done. Why not? Like, why kind of I'm not reinventing the wheel. Yeah, it's, it's been asked, because

Erin Faehrmann:

that's a wonderful person. We used to work with Lisa who taught me about or end language or but an end. So instead, you know, you know, having a debate, like, why can't it tell me why but it could be. And she was so great. She was wonderful change management. She said, if you've flipped that, from but or to end, which in that scenario, it's like, what if you say what if it was possible, instead of bullies? And I think it is not, I think it is you just end up in this silly battle. So a lot of the time like kids say that's too hard, or mom won't respond that way. Like, I did a nice thing for her. And she was really mean to me back. And instead of going well, but what if I just say, what if it didn't? What if it was different? What if you tried harder? What if you try it again? What if I'll never have a good relationship with that? What if you could, though, like hanging out imagining that for a minute. Now, do you want to try? What if you could What if it was possible? Would it change? Maybe it doesn't change anything? Maybe it's still too hard? Or maybe does?

Daniel Franco:

Have you read Jim quicks limitless book, no, oh, it's a brilliant, no need to you need to get onto it. But he does something similar in that book. So he the book is about how to learn. So he has all these books in the world that teach you things, but no one actually knows how to learn. So the book is about how to learn. But one thing and I said his last podcast, he did say, don't use the word I get to, I've got to I've got to unload the dishwasher. I've got to pick up the kids. I've got to do my homework or whatever. It might change the words that I get to. I get to unload the dishwasher. Why is that positive? Well, because there's some people who don't have

Erin Faehrmann:

really powerful gratitude.

Daniel Franco:

I get to do my homework. Why do I get to because there are some children that aren't Yeah, have the opportunity to learn what they do. Right. So it's just about changing the power of attitudes. Yeah. Last question, what's your what's your best mom slash dad joke? Oh, shitty joke, right? Yeah, yeah.

Erin Faehrmann:

This guy called Peter always still he is but I'll stick with what's Brown and sticky.

Daniel Franco:

I know. It's a stick.

Erin Faehrmann:

That's it simple and I can't forget it. Yeah. But what I love about it is when some people don't know and that spend ages. Check it out. And then you just go to stick in the gun. Oh, you're an idiot. Yeah, no, but How fun is that?

Daniel Franco:

I did the same. There's another one once blue and looks like a bucket of blue and blue bucket.

Erin Faehrmann:

Don't overcomplicate life, man. It's that easy.

Daniel Franco:

Thank you so much for coming on the show Erin. It's been an absolute pleasure having you on. I really Really, thank you for everything you're doing for the youth in today's world. It's a brilliant program that you run over there. So thank you to you and your team. Thanks. It's a privilege. Can you share with us how if anyone does want to donate? Yeah. Can you share with us how that someone would go about that?

Erin Faehrmann:

Yeah. So as I said, we will take time, treasure, talent, and tribes. So if you want to donate money, you can go to our website, youth opportunities.com.au. And there's a Donate button, you can look at it. You know, corporate partnerships will always love having a chat with people that have values aligned and want to align their businesses with what we're doing. So there's definitely that opportunity. If people want to volunteer with us with their time or their treasure, you know, their knowledge and their experience, then yes, reach out again, either through our website or find me on LinkedIn, my name is pretty uniquely spelled so you'll be able to find me and let me know how you want to invest your time and talent in young people. And we'll try and find a way or I might know someone you know, an ally in our field, that'd be better suited for you to go and have a chat with. And the tribe, you know, the networks, if you've come across our staff had, you know, what we what we do and you know, someone who might have time, treasure and talent that would be interested in partnering with us in some way, then let them know we exist, because we are still on a journey with people knowing our brand and our work. So yeah, the networking is really great to

Daniel Franco:

Excellent. Thank you so much. We can find you on LinkedIn is

Erin Faehrmann:

that famine? Yep.

Daniel Franco:

So if I can, I know it's the worst spilling? Well, if you German it's a ah,

Erin Faehrmann:

yeah, Erin, and it's FAEHRMA double N. Perfect. So definitely read it off of Dan's podcast title.

Daniel Franco:

Yes. Get it wrong. Thank you very much again. Thank you. It's been a pleasure. Thanks, everyone. Cheese.

Synergy IQ:

Thank you once again for joining us here at creating synergy. It's been great spending this time with you. Please jump on to the synergy IQ Facebook and LinkedIn page where the discussion continues after the show. Join our mailing list so you'll know what's happening next at Synergy iq.com.au. And of course, don't forget to subscribe to this podcast. And if you really enjoyed it, please share it with your friends.