Entrepreneurial epiphanies from Rise Conference
I recently attended Rise Leadership. It’s a conference about real estate, yet there was no property talk. It was all about people and mindset.
That’s what makes it so special. Rise isn’t about hype or hustle. It’s about truth. The kind of leadership that’s less about performance and more about presence.
It came at a time when I was questioning whether I was showing up in the way I want to as a leader, and the way my team needed.
I didn’t go to Rise looking for new systems or strategies to implement. I was seeking clarity and connection, after feeling burned out with all the changes my business had been going through. I wanted to connect with what it really means to lead.
Over the past 12 months, I’ve been so focused on performance, outcomes and what we’re doing that I’ve lost sight of what really matters as a leader – which is who I’m being and how I’m connecting with the team.
A big theme of Rise this year was a sense of belonging and psychological safety, and how it underpins trust in an organisation. Ultimately, when you’ve got high levels of trust, you’ve got deep engagement from your team – and if you’ve got deep engagement, then performance outcomes happen, and the team does really well.
When there’s deep psychological safety, team members feel that they can share how they’re feeling, what they’re going through, and what they want out of their role and out of their lives.
Vulnerability came naturally in my early days as CEO
When I was thrust into leadership and the loss of my father, and we were only six weeks of cash left in the bank plus millions of dollars in debt, I opened up to my team to share how scared I was, alongside what I was trying to achieve. I did a lot of deep listening and connecting with my team.
But over the years as we’ve grown, and specifically in the past 12 months with personnel changes, I stopped being as vulnerable. I just went into fix-it mode as a leader, bringing in structural change at a rapid rate. Many of these changes are performance-orientated, like the EOS framework, that can be unsettling and overwhelming to adjust to.
You can’t make performance without connection
It’s not easy to admit when your actions have led to employee unsatisfaction or a compromised culture. But this is part of being a leader – dropping the ego, reflect and reset, and being true to your values, even when it’s hard.
For me, it’s getting back to the people part of Nitschke which makes us so special. This means sharing what I’m facing both professionally and personally, and listening to them equally to hear where they’re at.
The work Rise is doing focusing the conversation on mental health and wellbeing, both in yourself and your team, is crucial.
I’ll end on this.
Focus on how you’re being, not just what you’re doing.
Psychological safety is not just as a nice to have, but a must-have for high performance. Leading with vulnerability isn’t a weakness, it’s how trust is built.
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I document the journey scaling my business… the good, the bad, the opportunities, and the epiphanies.
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