Get Off The Bench Podcast

Jan Clarke has been a finalist in many awards across the decades. Teacher of the Year, Telstra Business Woman of the Year, and Nominated for Australian of the Year, but her proudest moment was when she pitched the Door 2 Story and won Founder of the Year in the Launch Victoria pitch event. 

Jan describes herself as an ‘old lady with a startup’ but in reality she has always been telling stories, advocating on behalf of others for their voice to be heard.  A passionate advocate for people on the inside of an eating disorder ‘Insiders’, and their families on the outside, struggling to understand how to reach their loved on and be effective in supporting their recovery.  

With a Master of Education, Jan is recognised Australia wide as an expert in Developmental Education with close to 40 years experience in the delivery of programs across multiple sectors.

Her expertise in the field of Eating Disorders has led to opportunities to consult, coordinate and lead teams of multiple stakeholders to deliver humane, sustainable and positive outcomes for people with complex eating disorders and their families.  

After a lifetime working in the Eating Disorder and Education fields,  raising 4 fabulous adults and 9 wonderful grandchildren, Jan retired to the farm to enjoy the view from her verandah.   

It was Audrey who pulled on her heartstrings and got her off that porch and out of retirement.  In 2019, after 6 years of ‘evidence based’ mainstream eating disorder treatment,  the arrival of adulthood and the independence that comes with this, Audrey had relapsed and her family was in the fight of their life to save her. 

For the first time in her eating disorder treatment, Audrey was given the space for her voice to be heard.  .  Working together, Audrey, her family, Jan and her treatment team supported this amazing Insider until she gained the insight, skills, strength and capacity to lead her own recovery.  

In 2021, Jan pitched an idea that was novel and untested.  A program to help families and carers understand  the ‘Inside’ experience of their loves ones with eating disorders.  What was intended to be a 6 week pilot program of education, skills and support, hosted by Jan and guided through the ‘Insider’ experience, delivered unexpected outcomes.  

A beautiful symbiotic relationship between Insiders and carers ‘Outsiders’ emerged.  One where both sides felt validated, understood and supported.  A relationship based on genuine connection, trust, honesty and commitment to one another was the result.  

Door 2 has evolved from this original idea into a comprehensive program that is backed by research through practice informed evidence.  

Socials:

Website: https://door2.com.au/

Insta: Door 2 - Recovery from Eating Disorders @door2eatingdisorders

Podcast: Inside Door 2

Enjoy the visual here on Youtube

In this episode I chat about the myth that is overnight success. If we were to imagine success as an iceberg, on the top we would see all the accolades, awards, and maybe even what we imagine that person has regarding finances. But we don’t see the stuff beneath the surface that has to happen first. The sacrifice, the tears, the rejection, and so on. We often feel the need to criticise the success of others, but perhaps before we do, we should reframe our thoughts and admire them for their persistence and courage.

Emilia A. Leese, is the co-author of Think Like a Vegan: What everyone can learn from vegan ethics. Emi is also the host of the podcast, Think Like a Vegan. She writes essays on life, travel and veganism for a variety of online publications and is closely involved in a long-term forest rewilding project in the Scottish Highlands. 

Emi is a speaker on vegan ethics at a variety of events and developed life skills and ethics workshops for underserved youth. She has been a corporate finance lawyer for over twenty years. She and her husband Roger, who is also vegan, live in London and the Highlands. 

Socials:

Website: https://emisgoodeating.com/

Website: Birchfield Rewilding https://birchfieldhighlands.org/

Insta: 

Emi Leese @emisgoodeating

Birchfield Forest Rewilding @birchfieldrewilding 

Think Like a Vegan @thinklikeavegan 

Think Like a Vegan (Book) 

Think Like a Vegan (podcast)

Mentions:

Trees For Life

Enjoy the visual here on Youtube

In this episode I chat about the Polynesian concept of whakapapa (pronounced Far-ka-pa-pa).

Whakapapa is about an endless line of people with interlinked arms that stretches back to the beginning of time in one direction, and in the other continues on until the end of time. We hold our place in that line, and when the sun shines upon us, which is our lifetime, it is our turn to be the custodians of what has been passed on to us, and how we must take ownership of that and do right by others, particularly our tribe.

Mentions:

Habits of Leadership podcast

Belonging (book) - Owen Eastwood 

Harry is a 12 year old reptile breeder & keeper in Gippsland. He currently has 17 reptiles in his collection including 7 snakes ! Harry is also a public speaker and advocate for reptiles.

Harry is seeking to change the way people view reptiles – especially snakes – and the language parents use about them so as not to create fear about these animals, but awareness instead. He wants people to understand that snakes are not as nasty as the movies would have people believe and to help them realise how incredible these animals actually are.

Harry also wants to be the youngest person to build and own a reptile zoo in Australia and is well on his way.

Socials:

Youtube: Next To Nature With Harry

Insta: Next To Nature With Harry - Reptile Enthusiast @nexttonaturewithharry 

FB: Next To Nature With Harry

Enjoy the visual here on Youtube

In this episode I chat about being impressive as opposed to leaving an impression. Too may of us worry about impressing people, or living up to the expectations of others, but what we really should be worried about is whether we left an impression on somebody. And hopefully one that will shift the other person’s life in the right direction.

In this episode I chat about the key ingredients to building confidence, and it’s not that hard if you’re willing to take courageous action and put in the effort to improve with practice. So many people say they are lacking in confidence and it paralyses them, so they end up doing nothing. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Of course you have to have some basic underpinning skills and knowledge, and then start messy. 

We need to look at confidence in relation to our ability to take the next step, rather than our perceived inability to fulfil the big picture. Then we can conquer confidence one tiny action at a time.

If you think you’re lacking confidence, this one’s for you.

In this episode I chat about the four personality types in DISC. There’s the Dominant Driver, the Interactive Influencer, the Steady Supporter and the Conscientious Complier. They are all amazing and they each play such an integral part in the big picture. Which one are you?

Once we understand personality types and what motivates and drives us, we can then do better at building strong and effective relationships. We can also communicate and interact better. We have become disconnected and having this tool in your pocket will help create lasting connections that are valuable and much needed.

In this episode I chat about the fact that humanity is becoming more mean. It’s been bothering me for quite some time as I have not really known what to do about it because the problem seems so big. But, I actually think that flooding the world with kindness is the best place to start.

We often don’t and up or speak up because the perceive the outcome of doing so puts us at too much risk, but by extending kindness, we eliminate that concern and the ripple effect takes hold for the greater good.

WE ARE THE WHEELY SERIOUS PROJECT!

But who are we? Where did this idea come from? And what is it all about?

An Engineer (Joshua Wilhelm), a Makeup Artist (Jessika Evans), a Dairy Farmer (Belinda Griffin), a Land Manager (Renee Hutchinson), and a Forester turned Planner (Andrew Stanton), walk into the Gippsland Community Leadership Program. Coming to the program from 5 different walks of life; within a couple of weeks, we were galvanised around an idea to make Gippsland a better place for people who use wheelchairs.

Early in the program, we sat around a table in Meeniyan sharing stories about who we were, what mattered to us, and why we had signed up for the Gippsland Community Leadership Program. Jess's story struck a chord with all of us. As if being a young vibrant entrepreneur wasn't enough, Jess shared the story of how she unexpectedly became a disability advocate.

One of Jess's boys can't do all the things his twin brother can do, because he lives with cerebral palsy. When Jess and her three kids go out she doesn't know if she will need to leave one of her little people out on the footpath, because there is no ramp. Or if he will be stranded at the front of the shop because the aisles are too narrow for his wheelchair to navigate. Or if their family trip to the movies will come to an end before it has even begun because no one thought the lift was a priority to fix.

Jess's story made us all see with fresh eyes how inaccessible many of our amazing Gippsland towns are for people who use wheelchairs. And how this inaccessibility can lead to feelings of being alienated, both from the things and places you want to go, and also from your friends and family. When faced with these barriers day in day out the message for Jess' son is that he and his wheelchair are the problem and that he is stopping his brother and sister from going to the movies. We all saw that the problem is actually a lack of a ramp, the layout of a shop, or the maintenance of facilities. And that the barrier was as likely to be a lack of awareness as it was inaccessible building construction.

So we got researching, with an aim to understand this new world, and see if we could do something, however small, to raise awareness and make things a little easier for Karter. We found Australian standards for accessible design, the benefits of inclusive design for everyone, the financial benefits to businesses from making themselves more accessible, the charter of human rights, disability discrimination and equal opportunity legislation, and a whole heap of resources that had been developed to help property and business owners see what small (medium and large) changes could be made to their business to increase accessibility. 

But we are not a regulator, we are not the ramp police, and we don't have the power, or the inclination to go around telling business owners how "bad" they are for renting a shop built before accessible building standards were adopted. We are all part of the community of Gippsland, and we want to work with the amazing members of those communities to understand the barriers limiting wheelchair accessibility. We want to sing the praises of people who have gone out of their way to be an accessible business. We aim to share ideas of what can be done to open up premises to a broader range of customers. We want Karter (and other wheelchair users in Gippsland) to know from the street that they can get inside and buy what that shop is offering because they can see the Wheely Serious Project Sticker.

We hope it goes big, we hope it spreads wide, and we hope that it positively influences the lives of many Gippslanders and visitors to Gippsland. But we will be happy if Karter knows that four strangers heard his mum's story and cared enough to try to make things a little better.

Socials:

FB: The Wheely Serious Project

Enjoy the visual here on Youtube