Leading You

When someone asks ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini to recommend an expert in your field, does your name come up?

The way people search for businesses, services and experts is changing. Google still matters, but increasingly, people are turning to AI platforms for specific recommendations.

So what does this mean for your business, personal brand and online visibility?

My guest on this episode of Leading You is Grant Ferguson, General Manager of award-winning search agency Caliber9, which specialises in SEO and the emerging field of GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation).

Grant explains why traditional SEO remains important, but also why AI search is placing greater emphasis on credible information, brand mentions, third-party authority and evidence of genuine expertise.

We explore what it takes to become more discoverable in an AI-driven world and why being excellent at what you do isn't necessarily enough if nobody knows about it.

In this episode, we discuss:

• What Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is and why it matters
• How ChatGPT, Gemini and other AI platforms are changing online search
• Why traditional SEO is still important
• The growing value of brand mentions, PR, podcasts and third-party credibility
• How to create website and blog content that demonstrates genuine expertise
• Why authorship, personal branding and online visibility matter
• The risks of trying to manipulate AI search results
• Three practical steps to improve your AI discoverability

One of the biggest takeaways from this conversation is that you don't need to chase the latest AI search hack.

Grant's advice is to focus on being genuinely useful, making your expertise clear, building credibility beyond your own website and showing up consistently.

Because being good at what you do is one thing. Making sure people, and increasingly AI, know about it is another.

Timestamps

00:00 Brand Mentions Matter
00:22 Meet Grant Ferguson
02:18 What Is GEO
05:24 How AI Picks Experts
08:47 Award Winning Feed Strategy
12:50 Content That AI Understands
16:25 Social Proof Personal Brand
17:56 Avoid GEO Shortcuts
22:00 Niche Down To Win
23:57 Top Three GEO Actions
25:47 Wrap Up And Next Steps

 

Links:

Learn more about my group coaching program here
Join the Lead.Her Collective Dinner on 28th October. Reserve your seat here
Get the Clarity Compass here

 

Connect with Julie:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-hyde/
Instagram: @juliehydeleads
Website: https://juliehyde.com.au

 

Connect with Grant:
Website: https://calibrenine.com.au/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grant-ferguson-0b6a1911a/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Five years ago, in the middle of Melbourne’s COVID lockdown, I heard the words: “You have Stage 3 melanoma, and it’s aggressive.”

At the time, I didn’t know whether I would make it to this five-year milestone.

Now I’m here. And I want to stop and acknowledge it.

This is a very personal episode of Leading You about what these five years have really looked like: surgery, treatment, scans, side effects, hospital stays, fatigue and an enormous amount of waiting.

But there has also been so much life.

I’ve worked. Travelled within Australia. Spoken on stages. Written a book. Hosted this podcast. Laughed a lot. And some of these past five years have been among the best years of my life.

One of the biggest things I’ve learnt is this:

You don’t need a crisis to change how you live.

In this episode, I explore:

• Reaching the five-year milestone after my Stage 3 melanoma diagnosis
• Why I’m choosing to celebrate rather than immediately move the goalposts
• How serious illness changed my relationship with waiting
• Why resilience is often much more ordinary than we imagine
• Letting go of who I was before cancer and creating a life I love now
• Who gets the best of our energy, and who gets the leftovers
• Three questions to help you think differently about your next five years
• What self-leadership looks like when so much is outside your control

I’m not going to pretend cancer suddenly made me enlightened. I still worry. I still work too much sometimes. I still get annoyed by things that don’t matter.

But I understand time differently now.

So I’ll leave you with one of the questions I ask in this episode:

If the next five years went incredibly quickly, what would you be disappointed you hadn’t done?

You don’t need something dramatic to happen before you build a life you genuinely want to be living.

Don’t wait for the crisis to give yourself permission.

Timestamps

00:00 Welcome to Leading You
00:23 Five Years Since Diagnosis
02:42 Googling Prognosis and Resolve
04:04 Living With Ongoing Treatment
06:04 Hope and Celebrating Milestones
09:58 Stop Waiting to Live
13:09 You Are Stronger Than You Think
14:58 Lead Her Collective Invitation
15:54 Three Questions for Your Life
20:32 Choose How You Lead Yourself
22:09 Gratitude and Final Goodbye

 

Links:

Learn more about my group coaching program here
Join the Lead.Her Collective Dinner on 28th October. Reserve your seat here
Get the Clarity Compass here

 

Connect with Julie:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-hyde/
Instagram: @juliehydeleads
Website: https://juliehyde.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if conflict isn’t a sign that something has gone wrong?

Most of us would rather avoid difficult conversations if we can. We hold things back, try to keep the peace or, at the other extreme, become defensive and determined to prove our point.

But healthy conflict is an essential part of leadership, relationships and innovation.

My guest on this episode of Leading You is award-winning author and founder Tim Duggan, whose latest book, Clear Intention: How to Get Better at Conflict, explores how we can become more skilful at navigating something every one of us experiences.

Tim shares his CLEAR framework: Clarify, Listen, Explore, Align and Reset, and we explore why preparing for difficult conversations, understanding our own responses and learning to listen generously can completely change the way we handle conflict.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why so many of us instinctively avoid conflict
• Tim’s CLEAR framework for navigating difficult conversations
• How preparing for conflict can change the way we respond
• What emotional hijacking looks like and why awareness matters
• The relationship between trust, healthy tension and innovation
• Why generous listening is such a powerful leadership skill
• Why not every conflict needs to be resolved

Strong teams aren’t necessarily conflict-free. When trust exists, people can challenge ideas, disagree and have robust conversations without making it personal.

The question isn’t whether conflict exists. It’s how we handle it when it does.

Timestamps

00:00 Why Conflict Matters
00:42 Meet Tim Duggan
02:16 Why He Wrote Clear Intention
04:38 From Avoider to Seeker
05:58 The CLEAR Framework
08:02 Clarify and Prepare
09:55 Event Invitation Break
10:51 Emotional Hijacking Explained
14:35 Healthy Conflict and Trust
18:52 Listen Generously
21:36 Surrender to Listen
24:51 Reset the Story Endings
26:57 First Step for Avoiders
29:13 Wrap Up and Review

 

Links:

Learn more about my group coaching program here
Join the Lead.Her Collective Dinner on 28th October. Reserve your seat here
Get the Clarity Compass here

 

Connect with Julie:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-hyde/
Instagram: @juliehydeleads
Website: https://juliehyde.com.au

 

Connect with Tim:
Website: https://timduggan.com.au/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timduggan1/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tim_duggan/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How many things have you already decided you’re too late for?

A career change. Starting a business. Going back to study. Applying for a bigger role. Putting yourself forward. Starting again.

In this solo episode of Leading You, I explore the invisible deadlines we place around our careers, ambition and reinvention, and how easily we can start treating those self-imposed timelines as fact.

Inspired by my recent conversation with Ani, who began her career at 40, I also share my own experience of leaving a 21-year career in finance and starting my business at 39.

Because starting again doesn’t mean starting from zero. You bring your experience, judgement, resilience, relationships, mistakes and perspective with you. That is leadership capital.

In this episode, I explore:

• The self-imposed career and life deadlines we rarely question
• Why success and competence can sometimes make change harder
• The difference between starting again and starting from zero
• The leadership capital you carry into every new chapter
• Why waiting to be noticed can mean handing someone else responsibility for your next move
• Why we need to consider the risk of staying, not only the risk of changing
• How to take a next step without needing certainty or a complete roadmap

Reinvention doesn’t have to mean blowing up your life. Sometimes it begins with a conversation, an application, an email, a question or simply admitting that what you wanted ten years ago isn’t necessarily what you want now.

Perhaps the question was never, “Is it too late?” Maybe it’s: Who decided there was a deadline in the first place?

Timestamps

00:00 Welcome to Leading You
00:30 Annie’s Late Start
00:59 The Timeline Trap
02:41 Success Makes Change Hard
03:49 Surrendering Competence
05:13 Starting Again Isn’t Zero
08:05 Ask for What You Want
10:12 Too Late Stories
11:42 Lead Her Collective Invite
12:38 Sunk Cost and Staying
13:47 The Risk of Not Changing
14:57 Move Without Certainty
16:17 It’s Never Too Late
17:02 Final Question and Wrap

 

Links:

Learn more about my group coaching program here
Join the Lead.Her Collective Dinner on 28th October. Reserve your seat here
Get the Clarity Compass here

 

Connect with Julie:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-hyde/
Instagram: @juliehydeleads
Website: https://juliehyde.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if the timeline you think you should be following has very little to do with what you’re actually capable of?

My guest on this episode of Leading You, Anne-Marie “Ani” Deieso, didn’t begin what she now considers her career until she was around 40.

After making a deliberate choice to stay home and raise her children, Ani returned to work without a grand career plan. She eventually found her way into mortgage broking almost by accident, entering an industry she knew very little about while battling plenty of self-doubt.

Today, Ani is Associate Director for Victoria at Loan Market. Her career has included mortgage broking, business ownership, Macquarie Bank, business coaching and senior leadership.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Starting a completely new career at 40
• Why confidence is often built through action
• Moving beyond “fake it till you make it”
• The lessons parenting can teach us about leadership
• Authenticity, integrity and finding your own leadership style
• Resilience and learning what you can and cannot control
• The people and moments that can change how we see ourselves
• Why fear of regret can sometimes be more powerful than fear of trying
• Why there is no arbitrary deadline on ambition or growth

 

Ani’s story is a wonderful example of why careers don’t need to follow a conventional timeline. Sometimes you take the next opportunity, learn something about yourself, build confidence and keep moving.

Perhaps you haven’t missed your window at all.

Timestamps

00:00 Resilience Origins
00:42 Meet Ani
02:58 Starting Work at 40
05:02 Accidental Mortgage Broking
08:16 Family Pressure and Purpose
10:53 Proving It to Yourself
13:02 Lead Her Collective Invite
13:59 Confidence and Recognition
17:11 Authentic Leadership Values
19:26 Mentors Who Backed Her
22:21 Parenting Lessons in Leadership
25:06 Resilience Tested and Rebuilt
32:03 It’s Never Too Late
34:04 Final Thanks and Wrap

 

Links:

Learn more about my group coaching program here
Join the Lead.Her Collective Dinner on 28th October. Reserve your seat here
Get the Clarity Compass here

Connect with Julie:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-hyde/
Instagram: @juliehydeleads
Website: https://juliehyde.com.au

 

Connect with Anne-Marie:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-marie-ani-deieso-a7736a57/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why is asking for help so hard, especially when you’re usually the capable one?

I recently found myself exhausted, overwhelmed and lying awake at 2:00 am trying to solve every problem in my life at once. When a friend asked a very simple question, “Why don’t you ask for help?”, my immediate response was:

I should be able to handle this.

And that got me thinking.

In this episode of Leading You, I explore why capable, strong and independent people can find it so difficult to ask for support, and what happens when being “the capable one” becomes part of our identity.

We look at the relationship between independence and control, why “it’s easier if I do it myself” can turn leaders into bottlenecks, and what we inadvertently teach our teams when we always appear to have everything under control.

In this episode, I explore:

• Why capable people often wait until they’re overwhelmed before asking for help
• How capability can become part of our identity
• The relationship between independence and control
• Why doing everything yourself can create a leadership bottleneck
• Why receiving support can feel harder than giving it
• What leaders model when they never ask for help
• How to recognise your warning signs before you reach capacity

Perhaps being capable doesn’t mean being able to do everything alone. Maybe it means knowing yourself well enough to recognise when something is too much, trusting the people around you and being secure enough to ask for support.

Ask yourself: What would I ask for if I didn’t believe asking made me less capable?

Timestamps

00:00 Podcast Intro
00:50 Why Help Feels Hard
02:53 The Capable Identity Trap
04:20 Waiting Until Drowning
05:53 Control and Bottlenecks
08:29 Receiving and Reciprocity
09:36 Event Invitation
10:33 Leadership Ripple Effects
11:52 Redefining Capability
12:56 Catch the Signs Early
14:05 What to Ask For
16:22 Closing and Call to Action

 

Links:
Learn more about my group coaching program here
Join the Lead.Her Collective Dinner on 28th October. Reserve your seat here
Get the Clarity Compass here

 

Connect with Julie:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-hyde/
Instagram: @juliehydeleads
Website: https://juliehyde.com.au

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have you reached the point where you know you’ve had enough, but you have absolutely no idea what you want instead?

I seem to be having this conversation with women everywhere.

They’re less tolerant of things they once accepted, more protective of their time, more willing to speak up and less prepared to carry everybody else’s problems or keep doing things simply because they’ve always done them.

And underneath it all is a feeling: something needs to change.

In this episode of Leading You, I explore what happens when you begin to outgrow a life, identity, relationship or expectation that once suited you.

It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re having a midlife crisis or need to dramatically reinvent your life. Sometimes, you’ve simply changed.

We explore:

• Why becoming less tolerant can actually be useful information
• How we outgrow identities, relationships and definitions of success
• Why something can have been right for one chapter and wrong for the next
• How our relationship with time changes the choices we make
• Why knowing what you’re sick of is only the beginning
• Why “I don’t know yet” can be an honest and useful answer
• The questions that can help you work out what you want next

 

Self-leadership eventually asks us to move beyond “What have I had enough of?” and towards a harder question:

“What am I ready to choose?”

Your next chapter doesn’t need to arrive as one enormous moment of clarity. Sometimes it begins with a boundary, a conversation, something you stop tolerating or one choice you start making differently.

Timestamps

00:00 Welcome to Leading You
00:31 Sick of the Bullshit
03:02 Outgrowing Your Old Life
06:37 Time Changes Everything
07:40 Small Shifts Not Blowups
08:41 Sponsor Clarity Compass
09:34 From Complaints to Choices
11:04 Space Before Clarity
12:37 Questions to Ask Yourself
14:11 Pay Attention to Your Voice
16:35 Closing and Reviews

 

Links:
Learn more about my group coaching program here
Get the Clarity Compass here

 

Connect with Julie:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-hyde/
Instagram: @juliehydeleads
Website: https://juliehyde.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What could change if you became a little more willing to put yourself out there?

My guest on this episode of Leading You, Nick Bendel, set himself an unusual challenge: to have lunch with 500 complete strangers.

For an introvert who preferred staying home with a book and a cup of tea, it wasn’t the most obvious choice. But after starting a business, Nick realised that if he wanted different results, he needed to become more willing to connect, initiate and put himself out there.

What began as a networking experiment became something much bigger.

Over six years and 500+ lunches, Nick built an extraordinary network, developed greater confidence and discovered the power of what he calls social courage - taking action even when you don’t feel completely ready and despite the possibility of rejection, judgement or embarrassment.

We talk about why social courage is like a muscle, why confidence often comes after taking action, and what happened when around 95% of Nick’s lunch invitations received no response.

But perhaps the biggest change wasn’t his network. It was Nick himself.

He became more proactive, more willing to ask and more prepared to create opportunities rather than wait for them.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why an introvert decided to have lunch with 500 strangers
• What social courage is and how we can develop it
• Why confidence often follows action
• How repeated exposure changes our relationship with rejection
• Why we reject ourselves before giving other people the opportunity to say yes
• How curiosity creates more meaningful conversations
• Why small, sustainable actions can create significant change
• The increasing value of human skills in an AI-driven world
• How social courage can strengthen leadership, connection and opportunity

You don’t need to start with 500 lunches.
You simply need to begin.

 

Links:

Learn more about my group coaching program here
Get the Clarity Compass here

 

Connect with Julie:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-hyde/
Instagram: @juliehydeleads
Website: https://juliehyde.com.au

 

Connect with Nick:
Website: https://www.nickbendel.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-bendel/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if your biggest competitor isn’t another business, another leader or someone offering exactly what you do?

What if it’s irrelevance?

In a world where customer expectations, technology, workplaces and buying behaviour are constantly changing, being good at what you do is no longer enough. The bigger question is whether the value you bring is still relevant to what people need today - and where they’re heading tomorrow.

In this episode of Leading You, I share a snapshot of my keynote on relevance and explore why successful people, leaders and businesses can be particularly vulnerable to becoming irrelevant.

Using Kodak as an example, I look at what happens when we become more focused on protecting what made us successful than questioning what needs to come next.

I also explore two of the biggest threats to relevance: busyness and playing not to lose. When we’re constantly delivering, reacting and managing what’s immediately in front of us, we stop looking up at what’s changing, out at what our clients or organisations need and ahead at what we need to become.

In this episode:

• Why irrelevance may be your biggest competitor
• How yesterday’s success can become tomorrow’s limitation
• Why busyness can make us dangerously short-sighted
• What happens when we start playing not to lose
• Why staying relevant doesn’t mean chasing every trend
• The importance of communicating your value, not simply what you do
• Why your thinking demonstrates your future value
• My Relevance Reset: Look Up, Look Out and Look Ahead

 

Time Stamps

00:00 Welcome and Setup
01:02 Irrelevance as Rival
02:07 Kodak Cautionary Tale
05:06 Why Leaders Disappear
06:48 Two Relevance Killers
10:46 Relevance Reset Framework
11:18 Look Up and Position
12:13 Look Out and Communicate
13:24 Look Ahead and Adapt
14:35 Choose Relevance Daily
15:24 Wrap Up and Invitation

 

Links:

Learn more about my group coaching program here
Get the Clarity Compass here

 

Connect with Julie:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-hyde/
Instagram: @juliehydeleads
Website: https://juliehyde.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if the engagement problem in your team isn’t really an engagement problem at all?

When people become disengaged, it’s easy to look outward - workload, culture, generational differences, competing priorities or the people themselves. But sometimes the more useful question for a leader is:

How might I be contributing to this?

In this episode of Leading You, I’m joined by executive coach, speaker, facilitator and author Kylie Paatsch to explore why connection sits at the heart of strong leadership, employee engagement and high-performing teams.

Kylie shares a confronting moment from her own leadership career when she discovered members of her team had deliberately gone to lunch without her and spent the time expressing their frustrations about her leadership. Painful as it was, it prompted her to examine her own contribution, seek feedback and change the way she led.

We explore why leaders can mistake proximity for genuine connection. Regular meetings, emails, Teams calls and constant communication can create the impression that relationships are strong, when the real question is whether your people feel understood, valued and able to be honest with you.

Kylie also shares her practical Know, Show, Grow framework from her book The Connection Effect, designed to help leaders better understand their people, demonstrate that understanding through their behaviour and invest in their development.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why engagement is an outcome and connection is one of the things that fuels it
• How your leadership may be contributing to team disengagement
• Why proximity and communication don’t necessarily create connection
• How to ask for feedback without becoming defensive
• Why protecting one-on-one time matters
• Kylie’s Know, Show, Grow framework
• Why connection is a leadership skill that can be developed

Timestamps

00:00 Own Your Leadership
00:22 Meet Julie and Kylie
01:54 The Bathroom Moment
07:52 Why Leaders Miss It
10:53 Engagement vs Connection
15:35 The Feedback Conversation
19:48 Protect One-on-Ones
22:09 Know, Show, Grow Model
25:33 Show and Model Care
28:44 Grow Your People
30:24 Wrap Up and Next Steps
31:02 Ratings and Farewell

 

Links:

Learn more about my group coaching program here
Get the Clarity Compass here

 

Connect with Julie:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-hyde/
Instagram: @juliehydeleads
Website: https://juliehyde.com.au

 

Connect with Kylie:
Website: https://kyliepaatsch.com.au/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kyliepaatsch
Instagram: www.instagram.com/kyliepaatschleadership

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.