Episode 158 Transcript
Heather Porter (00:01.528)
Cherie, thank you so much for being here. Welcome to the show. How are you going?
Cherie Mylordis (00:06.468)
I am great. Thank you so much, Heather. It's wonderful to join you and hello to all your listeners. I'm excited for our conversation today.
Heather Porter (00:13.634)
Me too, because yes, we're going to talk about your business and what you do and how you help people, but also specifically about your gen, I guess your growth in your journey in business as well. So I love to start with tips because, you know, people are just, give me the tips, give me some ideas. So we'll start with those. When you think about your business and growing on your journey, what are three tips for growing a business that you recommend?
for growing with that less hustle, less burnout and a little bit more balance.
Cherie Mylordis (00:48.708)
absolutely love this question Heather because you know hustle is not the answer, working harder is not the answer, more clarity is. So I have a model that I have created based on following really extraordinary organizations and leaders around the world and I've distilled it into a phrase that I call work in 3D and so the three tips are my 3Ds. So the first D is dare.
So that's about like, why do you exist? What's your passion? What's your purpose? Make that really clear. Make it bold, make it visible. So start with your dare. What is it? The second one is ditch. The second D is ditch. So what is draining your energy? What is slowing you down? What is no longer serving you? So what could you ditch so that you can work smarter and with less hustle? And the third D is for dial. How do you then dial up better ways of working?
How do you empower team members? How do you embrace more future fit practices? And so I'm sure we're gonna dive into these deeper as the conversation progresses. But if you can just remember dare, ditch and dial, you can start small and you can apply this in countless ways. I think it will really help you.
Heather Porter (02:06.036)
Love it. Can we talk a little bit about how you use these in your own business? So currently you're running NextGenify, which you'll hear about. How do you use these? So if you were to give me an example of say, dare, how would you do that?
Cherie Mylordis (02:13.554)
Yes.
Cherie Mylordis (02:21.82)
Yeah, so DARE is about, so for my personal purpose is I want to enable people and organizations to achieve extraordinary outcomes. Because, you know, I think extraordinary is a wonderful word because it means different and special in a good way. So it's about how do you stand out? How do you do something special? So that's why I exist and that's what Next Genify is about. It's about enabling that in really practical ways.
through coaching, through speaking, and through my signature programs. So that's it.
Heather Porter (02:55.308)
Okay, and now of course you know where I'm going with this. How do you use ditch? How or where have you used ditch recently in your business?
Cherie Mylordis (02:57.424)
Yeah, I did. How do I do?
Yeah, so how can I ditch things that are just slowing me down? How can I ditch the admin? How can I automate? How can I be more streamlined and consistent so that I'm not doing things from scratch each time, whether it be proposals to clients or planning sessions for them. What can I do to make that a repeatable process?
so that it's just more streamlined so that I can spend more of my time delivering the value that I do rather than that back-end admin stuff. And I think that's also about having people that you work with, whether they be employees or whether there might be freelancers or experts that you tap into, who are the people that can do things that you're not so good at? How can they do it better and faster so that again, you can spend more time on the things that really add value? So that's Ditch.
Heather Porter (03:53.772)
Nice. Dial? Of course.
Cherie Mylordis (03:54.352)
And then dial. So yeah, how do I dial? Well, I'm always trying to keep at the forefront of, you know, the future of work, the future of leadership. You know, what's going on with emerging technology? Yes, we're all talking about AI, but there's a lot of other emerging technologies. So again, just being more contemporary with the way I work. I talk about working out loud and I talk about, you know, really collaborating with my clients so that
It feels like we're working through things together. So I'm really not sort of working in that typical consulting model where it's like you need me to give you all the answers and to tell you what all the problems are. It's about collaborating and I guess essentially doing myself out of a job so that they can dial up working more effectively on their own. So that's an example of the dial.
Heather Porter (04:34.446)
Mm.
Heather Porter (04:45.986)
Thank you. Perfect. Okay. I want to change gears a little bit about your journey. So we know that what you do essentially top level in Next Genify, but how did you, what's your background and how did you come into this business?
Cherie Mylordis (04:59.036)
Sure. So the story is I started my career in top tier consulting. So with Accenture and I was in the management information consulting division. So big scale technology change. And then this new practice area came up at a global level called change management. And this was the first time that term had come up in any of the big firms. And I went, pick me. That sounds really fascinating because I had a computer science background, but I was more interested in the people in the organization.
Heather Porter (05:05.144)
Yes.
Heather Porter (05:22.04)
Ha ha!
Cherie Mylordis (05:28.818)
and how do they transition to technology and how do they make the most of it. And so I jumped into that new practice area. So I'm one of the founding members of Accenture's Global Change Practice. So I've really worked in change my whole career, complex change in many different shapes and forms. And then my big career highlight was being accepted for the strategy team of the Sydney Olympic Games.
Heather Porter (05:54.03)
Amazing.
Cherie Mylordis (05:54.374)
Now that was both terrifying and the most exciting thing I could ever imagine because I'd never been to an Olympics and now I'm one of the few people having to build that strategy. Hello, imposter syndrome. But it was a really defining moment and it's actually shaped everything I've done since because we were given this quite extraordinary work environment where we could radically collaborate, we could work together.
Heather Porter (05:59.182)
Yeah.
Cherie Mylordis (06:21.586)
Because like me, I was working with a team of Olympic rookies, so we just had to figure it out. And so whilst the Olympics is very specific in what you have to deliver, like the host city contract is like that thick, and then every sport has its own detailed specifications, we weren't given any playbooks, we weren't given any procedures, any how-to guides. So each previous city had just kind of done their thing and wrapped it up. And so...
We got the opportunity to visit Atlanta before our games and observe and talk to people, but essentially we had to start from scratch. So what that meant was we just had to roll up our sleeves and use our initiative and figure it out. So it really taught me again, sort of that purpose, daring, like we had that bold purpose of staging this incredible event. We had to just think on our feet and work together.
Heather Porter (06:52.278)
Okay, yeah.
Cherie Mylordis (07:17.004)
And we actually delivered the best games ever. And that term has never been said since. But also the International Olympic Committee acquired our playbooks and our approaches for future game cities to use. So I like to feel that Sydney's had a part to play in all of the future games ever since. And so I went from feeling really out of my depth, like so excited about this opportunity but scared to, you
Heather Porter (07:29.752)
Okay.
Cherie Mylordis (07:46.416)
working together in this really dynamic collaborative way to deliver this extraordinary outcome. So then when I stepped out of the games, it was about a five and a half year project, I'm back inside big or iconic organizations on complex change. And it only clicked a few years ago, Heather, that I was feeling pretty unsettled because I was back in that old paradigm of, you know, the pyramid and fixed job descriptions and hierarchy.
and just do what's in your job and don't get out of your lane and don't contribute something that's outside of your remit. And I could actually see lots of people that were highly capable, had so much potential, but they were pretty constrained. They were unfulfilled. They weren't really able to deliver the value that they could have because of this model. And so it dawned on me years later that the reason why I've been on this quest to find more
Heather Porter (08:22.958)
Mmm.
Heather Porter (08:34.86)
Okay.
Cherie Mylordis (08:44.668)
contemporary and future fit ways of working and ways of leading was because I'd had that extraordinary experience with the Olympics. So after a number of years working in big iconic companies, feeling that I wasn't really delivering the value that I could, I stepped out of the corporate world about seven, eight years ago now, and that's when I started Next Gen of Five.
Heather Porter (09:07.79)
brave because that's huge. mean, you came from these massive projects and now you're like, okay, let's yeah, like you say, dare, right? So, so you started the business and we'll learn a little bit more as we have this conversation on what you do shortly. But I wanted to ask you a quick question because you come from a really diverse background. Do you find
Cherie Mylordis (09:14.535)
Yep.
Cherie Mylordis (09:21.714)
Right.
Heather Porter (09:29.294)
If somebody's feeling a little bit overworked, which let's be honest, there's a lot of people with all the emerging tech and chaos that's going on right now. But if somebody's feeling a little bit overworked in their organization or their business, do you find that out of those three D's you discussed, is there one of those that they should be focusing on first?
Cherie Mylordis (09:47.312)
Yes, do you know what most people say to me? They say, we're always given these new things, know, new methodologies or new things to try, but they're never given permission to ditch. And so there's always these layering on top of what they're already doing and they're trying to take on more and more and more. But nobody thinks about, maybe we should pause and have a look at what's no longer serving us, what's slowing us down, asking our people for their ideas.
Heather Porter (09:49.934)
Hmm.
Cherie Mylordis (10:15.058)
could we ditch that would then create more space for us to dial up more contemporary things. So that's what comes through time and time again.
Heather Porter (10:21.07)
okay. Then when is it appropriate to revisit the dare? Would you say dare is a little bit about the mission and the vision and dreaming big?
Cherie Mylordis (10:32.656)
Yes, and it's, I guess it's really that why do you exist? And so I believe, and there's a lot of research around this, that every organization should have a bold purpose. So this isn't just, you know, you're not for profits or you're, you know, meaningful organizations that are trying to, you know, do something really profound in the world, like, you know, solve a disease or something. Really every organization should be able to articulate why they exist that is deeper than
Heather Porter (10:37.388)
Hmm.
Heather Porter (10:54.796)
Yeah.
Cherie Mylordis (11:01.958)
what you do. So it's often different from your actual vision or your mission. Like so your vision is sort of your destination. I guess what are you trying to achieve as an organisation? And your mission is more about the what. The purpose is the really deep why. And so for example, a mechanic, well why does a mechanic exist? You'd say, they fix cars. But maybe the why is to keep people safe on the roads. There's a nursery near me that has one of those.
big signs like you see outside schools where they have notices and things. But on the border of that banner, they say enriching people's lives through plants. And I just love that because, yeah, they sell plants. And we actually know through the research that nature and plants and getting out in the garden is so good for us. It's so good for our mental health. So I would really encourage your listeners and really challenge them to take a step back and think about the why.
because that is your guiding light and that is the real essence of why you exist. And it's really important to articulate that both internally for you and your colleagues, but also externally, because we know that people would much rather work with or buy from an organization that has a clear purpose. So it's really good for business to do that. So yes, that should be the starting point, but then in terms of your ways of working,
Don't just go chasing the next bright shiny object. Make sure you take that time to ditch and create that space.
Heather Porter (12:35.96)
I really appreciate that you said that in that order. I think that's interesting. I was thinking you were gonna start with dare, but it makes perfect sense on why you said ditch first. So thank you.
Cherie Mylordis (12:45.857)
you're welcome.
Heather Porter (12:46.702)
Now, I want to know a little bit more about your business. So first, tell me a little bit about what you guys do. So what sort of you mentioned, I think a program that you have or Academy. So tell me what you do. And then if you could think of maybe a case study or someone you've worse, worse, worse, recently worked with and walk me through how specifically you've gotten somebody results.
Cherie Mylordis (13:09.586)
Sure. So with Next Genified, there's two parts to the business. So there's the more sort of high touch consulting, coaching, speaking piece, which is really about me showing up. I do have collaborations and alliances with amazing experts in their field all around the world. So I can draw on those experts as needed. But essentially what I do is I work with executives in terms of their purpose.
Heather Porter (13:31.565)
Yeah.
Cherie Mylordis (13:39.538)
in terms of their leadership, their culture and their ways of working. So for example, so I have all these signature programs that really, I guess they enable a rapid start rather than starting from scratch and just understanding their problem and what they're seeking to do and then coming up with an approach. I have all these signature programs based on the work I've already done and so they are a great way to rapidly kickstart the process.
Heather Porter (13:44.493)
Mm.
Cherie Mylordis (14:07.686)
So for example, if they don't have a clear purpose, I have a program that involves three workshops where firstly I educate them on why purpose is important. We talk about inspiring examples and the different shapes and forms. Then we go through some brainstorming, some critiquing, getting out of the building and socializing the shortlist and then landing on the purpose. So that's one example of a Signature Program. So it might be about purpose. It might be about leadership.
Heather Porter (14:32.481)
Okay.
Cherie Mylordis (14:36.658)
or leading change, that's a big piece that I work in given my background in change. But also I do a lot of work in innovation. I am aligned with a global cohort that is accredited in a particular innovation methodology and I run boot camps with big corporates all around the world with other coaches that have the same background and training as me.
Heather Porter (15:03.736)
Amazing.
Cherie Mylordis (15:03.738)
And so that is like a three month bootcamp where we work with teams. They have the support from the executive level and we help them think about a big problem that they want to solve and we coach their teams through a process of contemporary tools and we help them think bigger and bolder than they have about their work. And then they pitch these ideas at the end, a bit like a shark tank kind of experience.
Heather Porter (15:29.228)
Wow.
Cherie Mylordis (15:30.202)
So there's all these sort of, guess, programs that I have in place that span purpose, leadership, culture, innovation and transformation. And so it's really about understanding where the client is at, typically working with the executive team and what they're trying to achieve. In many cases, it's also coaching, one-on-one coaching with the executives. So that's the Next Gen of FISC side.
The other side is Next Genify Academy, which is a new venture that I launched at the end of last year. And that's really responding to the fact that time and time again, what I see is future fit coaching and leadership tools and techniques is not accessible to most current and emerging leaders. And, know, doing an online course, yes, you can sort of
Heather Porter (16:14.894)
Mmm.
Cherie Mylordis (16:19.538)
try and find an appropriate course, whether it's online or in person, maybe you can seek funding from your organisation. But often I find, yeah, they go and do this course and it's quite inspiring, but it doesn't necessarily translate to a practical approach that they can bring back to work. And so for years I've had this idea of this online academy that's quite dynamic, that can help them not only with online programmes, but with tools and curated scenarios that...
helps them with the situation that they're facing at that moment. And so I've built that. So it has programs, has curated tools, it has scenarios, and it has stories of future fit leadership in action, as well as all of my models like my working 3D model. So those are the two aspects of the business. One is very accessible and scalable and designed for any current or emerging leader at any level. The other is more high touch.
Heather Porter (17:06.462)
my goodness.
Okay.
Cherie Mylordis (17:17.66)
end.
Heather Porter (17:18.85)
Got it. I love asking this question because there's so many different ways of getting to where you want to be with different business models. And I think we always learn from talking to other people. And I like that you have both. That's interesting. So do you have a preference of the high touch versus the scalable side of your business or do you like both equally?
Cherie Mylordis (17:36.582)
I I love working individually with leaders and with teams, but I find that there's so much more that can be done. so that sort of one and done project approach, I feel is limited in the reach you can have and the value that you can deliver. So I'm very excited to have the academy as an option now that is more accessible and it's more repeatable.
Heather Porter (17:39.81)
Yeah.
Cherie Mylordis (18:01.552)
And even though a lot of it is, it is an online platform. So a lot of it is self-paced and accessible. I've still built in monthly coffee chats and master classes and other forums so that people can tap into live sessions as well. And I invite experts in for the master classes so that they can tap into, you know, other areas of expertise. So I'm excited about the future of that piece because I just see an enormous need for that accessible.
Heather Porter (18:11.414)
Okay.
Cherie Mylordis (18:31.21)
and tools and scenarios to help leaders. I see so many people that are stuck and especially at that younger level, those leaders that are five to 10 years into their career, they don't have the budget, they don't have the access to these contemporary thought leaders or tools or programs and so I really want to help them.
Heather Porter (18:51.48)
This is big. love this is yeah. Wow. Amazing. I'm going to sidetrack on this a little bit because of the emerging tech and change that's massively happening so quickly right now. what's your, what is your advice for people to harness? What is changing right now all around us with all the advent of AI and different ways of managing teams. And also the fact that there's so much media out there saying
Cherie Mylordis (18:53.168)
Hahaha
Thank you.
Heather Porter (19:20.47)
jobs are going away, they're gonna be going away. Well, what are your thoughts about the current climate?
Cherie Mylordis (19:26.31)
Don't get scared about the hype. I honestly believe that human interaction, human connection, we can't automate that, AI can't do that. And it comes back to purpose. Like, why do you exist? What are you passionate about? What do you want to do in the world? What impact do you want to have? So really be clear on that day. Now then with the ditch, what could you possibly ditch that technology could do for you? You can create your own GPT, for example.
and you could upload your key collateral in there, which is a private space. So depending on the work that you do, you might upload recent examples of those types of things. So then when you have to do the next one, you can, you know, ask it to do a draft for you, but then you can refine it. So whether that be a proposal or a report or something like that, you might be able to get some help with getting that going. But...
never feel like it's going to be done for you completely. It needs to have your oversight. mean, you know, there are mistakes, there are all sorts of crazy things that happen because this tool is purely just drawing on the information that's available for it. So it has, it has bias. So yeah, just look at how might you leverage this emerging technology and how might you tap into thought leaders and you know,
whether there's webinars or things you can read about that. In fact, one of my close contacts, Tracy Sheen, is about to release a new book called AI and You. And it's really designed for small business owners to really think about, you know, what could I do to help my business be more efficient and more effective? So, yeah, I'll let you know when that's available because, you know, there's so many resources available to you and you don't have to reinvent the wheel or start from scratch.
Heather Porter (21:18.114)
Mmm.
Cherie Mylordis (21:18.426)
So, but don't be afraid. It's not going to take away your job, but just be really clear about what you do so that you can be focused on that. But how might you leverage tools and technology to help you do it smarter and better and avoid the hustle?
Heather Porter (21:29.486)
Mm.
Heather Porter (21:33.878)
Love it. And change. Okay. We're going to talk about change a little bit as well. So in high moments of change. let's say somebody is like, okay, I'm going to ditch a whole bunch of systems and things that are no longer serving my business and my team. What's some advice around handling moments of change in your business?
Cherie Mylordis (21:50.266)
Okay, so what we want to achieve with change, because change isn't going anywhere anytime soon, right? There's change in the world. There's a great quote that I like, is, know, change is happening, know, the rate of change now is the slowest it's ever going to be. Even though you feel like change is really fast now, it's only going to get faster. you know, hold on, it's going to keep going.
Heather Porter (21:51.502)
You
Heather Porter (21:57.08)
you
Cherie Mylordis (22:19.494)
But what we want is, we don't want the roller coaster. We don't want the huge dips every time a change comes in. We want that oscillation, right? And there'll be multiple changes happening at once. So we just want them all to kind of dovetail together and oscillate rather than the big freak out, my God, you know, I can't cope with this change. So how do we do that? Well, first of all, we have clarity on our direction and our priorities.
Heather Porter (22:27.576)
Yeah.
Cherie Mylordis (22:46.53)
Secondly, we then map out what are the changes that we need to bring in? Do we need to upgrade our systems? Do we need to integrate our systems? It's very important to integrate your systems and to have either less that all talk to each other or find dashboards that sit above your systems because that real time data is really important for your business. So how do you then create milestones that are
logical and that make sure that you're delivering the highest value as early as possible. And then how do you test and learn and evolve through the changes? So it's about, I guess, you know, recognising that change isn't going anywhere, but it's having that sort of more of a test and learn approach and that growth mindset so that you're not just feeling overwhelmed and freaked out. And also how do you bundle things together so that it's,
themes of change or initiatives rather than just 25 things that I have to do.
Heather Porter (23:46.703)
Just hearing you say that, by the way, I, it made me more calm because it's pulling this sort of energy that is a bit chaos and I'm never going to be able to get through this moment into bite sized tasks or chunks and milestones. As you said, nice. Really, really good. Now I want to know a little bit about you and your business. And so let's think back in time over the last year with NextGenify. What's something that you feel you've done exceptionally well?
Cherie Mylordis (23:59.536)
not yet exactly.
Cherie Mylordis (24:16.082)
Well, I launched the Academy. And so that was such a huge milestone for me, Heather, because I first thought about it in 2020 during COVID. And that was, when a lot of us were having to think differently about our work and that in-person connection was, you know, out the window. And so I actually can see my notes going back to July 2020 where I actually came up with a name and what it would do. Started to ideate on the concepts. And then I finally got it up and running and built.
by December last year. So that was an enormous milestone for me. And of course, when you're building an online platform, even if you're using an existing platform, that's, you you're not starting from scratch, of course, but it takes, you know, 100 times longer than you think. there's all, once you start like, I didn't know about this and I've got to do that. And there's all this backend stuff. So it was an enormous amount of work, but
Heather Porter (25:03.159)
yeah.
Cherie Mylordis (25:09.692)
What I think I did exceptionally well that might be of interest and value to your listeners is firstly I had the whole concept of what is the purpose of this academy, who is my target audience, and what problems am I going to help them solve. So being really intentional on that. And then what I did was I designed what I call my schema.
So how are they going to interact with it? Because I knew it was going to keep evolving and every month I add more content, but I wanted it to be really useful and intuitive in how they interact with it. the concepts of what are the different flavors of content in there and how will people interact? I really made sure I got that right and got the language around that right. And then I had branding and color theming around that before I actually started building specific content.
So taking that time to really get that design thinking element done was really important to me because that would avoid that rework and give people that experience. And then of course there's the actual technology to tie it all together, all the different elements, and then there's actually building the relevant pieces. So yeah, that would be a real insight that I'd love to share with your listeners. It's like get that schema, get that upfront thinking right in terms of why you're doing it.
Who is it for? What would the experience, the ideal experience be like? And then just start building pieces with that schema in mind.
Heather Porter (26:41.794)
That is golden advice, by the way, because I've been in projects before, quite a few projects over the years for learning management systems and portals and courses and things. And most people just say, yeah, I have 10 modules. You know, it's literally like that, right? But that is such an important step. Thank you for sharing that.
Cherie Mylordis (26:55.942)
Exactly.
Cherie Mylordis (27:02.546)
My pleasure. There's so many ways you can apply this. yeah, people often think about it in terms of courses and modules. And I didn't want to think about it like that because I wanted people to be in a situation and go, I'm not getting clarity from my manager. What do I do? So then it's like, OK, maybe there's a tool for that. Or maybe there's a scenario that's describing that exact situation. They are not courses. They are not modules.
Heather Porter (27:10.253)
Yeah.
Cherie Mylordis (27:29.68)
you can often reconfigure a platform to call it what you want. And so I came up with these names, know, module, sorry, programs, models, tools, scenarios, and stories. And so those are the five entry points. They each have a different color and they have, you know, content in there that is quite intuitive so that hopefully it's fairly clear where to go to look for what is it that you need in that moment.
Heather Porter (27:56.751)
Sounds like it. Do you mind sharing the platform you built it on? You don't have to, but I'd ask if you wanted to share it. cool. Yes.
Cherie Mylordis (28:02.194)
Yes, I built it using Kajabi. So I did a lot of research and that seemed to be a very established and sophisticated tool that had all the things I was looking for. So yes, Kajabi. My pleasure.
Heather Porter (28:08.95)
it is.
Heather Porter (28:12.672)
Amazing. Thank you. Now, if you think back again a year ago, what's, if we change gears a little bit, what's some advice that you would tell yourself a year ago to do differently for this last year?
Cherie Mylordis (28:28.668)
I think I'd start earlier because, you know, like, I think done is better than perfect, but you still have to have that schema because you don't want to do re-work. So I didn't, shouldn't build just one thing and then hope that I'll figure the rest out. So I think it's about having the big picture and spending that real thinking time on that. But then just start, you know, it doesn't have to be perfect. And there's another term that I came up with during the process, which is
Heather Porter (28:30.446)
Cherie Mylordis (28:57.21)
everything is figure out a book. So you might hit a roadblock and you're like, I'm just not getting this piece right. How is this tech piece going to show up? Or, you know, what's the backend like? But it's like, take a breath, walk away, come back. Everything is figure out a book. So yeah, just start, but start with that big bold purpose and intention in mind, and then just break it down.
Heather Porter (28:59.97)
Yes.
Cherie Mylordis (29:23.514)
and just think what's the next most important thing I can do in that direction.
Heather Porter (29:28.75)
Absolutely brilliant. Now, as we start to slowly wrap up, I would love to know from you, you have two pathways you very clearly, beautifully described in your business. Recap for us though, the type of person that could benefit from you and where would they go to potentially work with you?
Cherie Mylordis (29:50.322)
Sure. So if you are an executive or a leader of an organisation and you're really looking for that personalised approach, you want some executive coaching to help you with more contemporary ways of leading and bringing out the best in your people so that they can do your best work and so that you can deliver the best possible solutions to your customers, then that's the type of scenario where I would work one-on-one with a leader.
If you're looking at business transformation or innovation, that's again, something that I can help you with programs that are already designed, my signature programs, ready to go, but we just make them fit for purpose. So that's about how to rapidly accelerate purpose-driven impact and growth. So that's what that side of it is about. If you are looking for more accessible, you know, just tapping into
future-focused leadership tool, techniques, if you're looking to provide those to your teams, then the academy might be a good place to go. For example, I've worked with a few not-for-profits lately where they have very tight budgets, and I've helped them with perhaps their organization redesign, helping them come up with a more contemporary way of organizing their people and their work, but then their leaders or their managers,
in some of these cases, they didn't really have a lot of experience leading people or leading teams. And so they were smart people, very passionate and purpose-driven, but they didn't know how to really show up as a leader. And so that's where the Academy comes in, because it's something that they can access in that more accessible way. For the cost of a weekly coffee, people can access the Academy. And that was something that so important for me. And I was trying to figure out how to actually price it, and I decided
It's the coffee economy. The cost of a weekly coffee, you can have access to this content that's continually evolving. So those are the two scenarios that I offer.
Heather Porter (31:47.927)
Yes.
Heather Porter (31:55.094)
and they just go to your website and can easily find what they need. Yeah.
Cherie Mylordis (31:56.902)
Correct, yes, you just go to nextgenify.com and you can see both or you can go to nextgenifyacademy.com if you're just interested in the academy.
Heather Porter (32:06.986)
and you guys seriously learning from somebody who's had the experience that Shari has had in the Olympics and the past with Accenture and all of the different areas of change and emerging tech. mean, you'd be, it's a no brainer. I can see why you've done what you've done.
Cherie Mylordis (32:21.25)
thank you. I'm so passionate about what I do. you know, I know that I can spend an hour with a passionate leader and help them with, you know, on the spot, I can come up with tools and techniques that help them deal with the situation that they're in. But I want to help more leaders with that rather than that, you one to one. But of course, that's always available if that's the preferred way of working.
Heather Porter (32:38.243)
Yeah.
Heather Porter (32:46.808)
Brilliant. Now as we start to wrap up, are there any last pieces of advice or just ideas that have come to you during this conversation that you would like to leave our listeners with?
Cherie Mylordis (32:57.83)
Yes, I would love your listeners to explore this new catchy phrase that's emerging. It's being talked about a lot in the media called conscious unbossing. Now I first heard of this in about September last year when Forbes magazine published an article about it. But I think it's just this brilliant catchy contemporary term that encapsulates the issue that I've been grappling with for decades, which is
Heather Porter (33:07.438)
Cherie Mylordis (33:23.398)
you know, there's this outdated models of how we organize people and work. You know, the triangle pyramid structure with the hierarchy and the fixed job descriptions that comes from the industrial revolution. It comes from giving people repetitive tasks. And that's not the world we work in. So conscious un-bossing emerged from research across the UK about Gen Z. And what Gen Z is saying is we don't want to be like that boss. Like if that's what the future of work and our career path looks like,
Heather Porter (33:49.944)
Ha
Cherie Mylordis (33:53.208)
I'm out. I want something more flexible. I want something where I can do purpose-driven, meaningful work. And I want to be able to make a difference and I want to be able to contribute. And so what this is saying is as a manager or as a leader, how might you show up in an unbossing kind of way that makes clear your purpose and your intention, clarifies the problems or the challenges you're working on.
and then gives your people some autonomy and some space to contribute to that. Because rather than telling them exactly what you want them to do, if you just set the direction and then get out of the way and be more of that coach than that manager, you might be amazed what they could come up with. And so I'd love your listeners to think about how might you consciously unboss your organization.
Because if you can do that, you are going to attract the next wave of talent. You're going to attract those next-gen professionals who are at Gen Z, who are looking for places that can get them and give them those opportunities. These are smart people that can contribute a lot. And those traditional organizations are going to find there's a big hole in their workforce. And so there's a huge opportunity for you to attract amazing people, not just Gen Z, but
People at all levels, they have so much to contribute. So how do you show up in a way that enables them to do that?
Heather Porter (35:21.358)
Absolutely brilliant advice, by the way. I just know with my team, I've always thought that org chart and oh, I just don't feel like it's right and am I doing something wrong? So you've just given me like the best piece of advice for how I'm running my organization, which is not that. I didn't, yeah, that's absolutely, thank you. And thank you so much for your stories, for your wisdom, for sharing a little bit about how your business runs as well and for how people can work with you. It's been a pleasure having a chat with you. Thank you so much for being here.
Cherie Mylordis (35:36.134)
Fantastic. Amazing.
Cherie Mylordis (35:51.174)
You too. Thank you so much, Heather. Bye for now.
