Live Your Values Loudly: Wisdom from Sonya Corkery

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:00:41

Well, hello everybody and welcome to the Unstoppable Leadership podcast. I am your host, Jaclyn Strominger

And as you know on this podcast we hear from amazing leaders and get their game changing insights about being incredible leadership, about incredible leader, incredible leaders, I should say, and incredible leadership and how we can actually be better at that. And so today I have an amazing guest, Sonya . And Sonya , let me tell you a little bit about Sonya .

She has, let me just, I'm going to read her little bio.

So Sonya Corkery is the founder of Clear Plan Consulting, specializing in helping trade business owners build profitable, sustainable businesses that support their personal goals.

With nearly two decades of experience as a business owner and background in commercial lending, banking and financial planning, Sonya understands the unique challenges and opportunities in the trade industry. She plays a key role in scaling her own business into a multimillion dollar enterprise, earning recognition along the way.

And now through Clear Plan Consulting, she helps trade businesses owners streamline operations, improve profitability and create businesses that work for them, not the other way around, which is so important. And through over those amazing years has also garnered a lot of knowledge on leadership. So welcome Sonya .

Sonya Corkery: 00:01:59

Thank you so much, Jacqueline. Really a great pleasure to be on here today.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:02:04

Yeah, so, all right, so here's a couple things like so we were talking obviously pre show about like what you're doing and obviously you're in Australia, I'm here in the United States. So I'm really, really curious.

You know, as you know, you are, you've got different businesses, you come from corporate and so I'd love for you to share, you know, how you as a, as you know, the leader in your business made that transition right from corporate to entrepreneurship. And now that you're as this, I know it's a two part question.

As a coach I shouldn't ever do that, but I am, you know, how does that play into how you lead as an entrepreneur?

Sonya Corkery: 00:02:56

Well, I came from a well oiled machine that corporate is. So I worked for a major bank within Australia and it's obviously due to the grand size of the business that I kind of grew up in.

The systems and procedures, everything was run like a well oiled machine. It had to, there were millions of employees, you know, so many locations and so many departments within the machine.

And so for me that was kind of my norm to be in a very structured, output focused entity. That, that was my normal. So when I was, and I, and I'm just gonna be really clear, I really had no intention originally of coming into the business.

I did not want to have a part of it.

It was not gonna be a part of me because I was coming home every evening from having this 100 hour a week job and then helping in this business that my husband decided one day he was going to open without even asking me. And I was doing all this work, right?

And I was very resentful at the beginning because I was already working 100 hours a week for a massive company that in hindsight now, you know, I was a number in a huge game.

And that was, that was fine because I was grateful for the experiences and so much of the learnings and the education I got in that machine, you know, because that was largely paid for by that organization. So I have to be extremely thankful and grateful for that.

I fell into entrepreneurship because my husband came to me one day and he just said to me, I need you, I need you full time. I cannot do this on my own. You have the expertise, the understanding, but without you in this, we're not going to get to that point.

So he could at that time envision so much more than I could about what the journey could potentially hold for us. Because I was like, I'm earning, you know, 140 grand a year. My corporate job. This is awesome. I get to wear nice corporate outfit makeup.

I turn up, you know, it's, it's great.

But then, you know, throw a child in there very early on and I was like, well, I'm doing 100 hours a week and my baby's the first in daycare and he's the last out. And this is probably not great for a child, right? So twofold on that the leadership really came from.

I had to walk into this business that had hardly any framework, nothing going on, so many things that shouldn't be happening because it was like I just get in and do it attitude. And I had to apply all of those corporate learnings and take, just take hold of those reins and start getting things in place and making it happen.

But it was due to what I'd come from and that experience that I'd learned in my payg job, you know, to be able to apply that.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:05:39

Right?

So, so a couple things that I'm going to first say like first of all, like number one, I first of all, like your husband, like I want to, I want to laugh because I will share this with you and listeners. I was in a corporate job one at one point and in one of my corporate jobs. I think it was my last corporate job actually. It was.

And I remember sitting at sitting, I just come back from some Trip.

And I'm sitting at my home office and I'm on some zoom call with a bunch of people, hung up the phone, and I was like, what the freaking hell am I doing? And mind you, like, I have been. I'm paying for someone while I'm sitting at my.

My desk, my corporate job at my home office, because that's how it was. I'm paying someone to go get my kids. Right. And I. Without, like, anything, I literally picked up the phone, called the CEO and told him I quit. Yep.

And then I called, told my husband. I said, by the way, I just quit my job. Like, I am. I'm VP of sales. I'm bringing in, you know, money, whatever. He's like, why?

I'm like, because I can't do it. I'm just like, I hit uncle. Right? So, like, so your husband buying the whatever, like, without. I'm like, I get it sometimes.

Sonya Corkery: 00:07:03

He just like, My baby was 2 weeks old. My husband. Husband came home and he's like, I quit my job today. And I went, what? No conversation? Same same thing in reverse.

And like, I said, like, it. I was like, this is happening. There's nothing I can do but get on this train. And so whilst I would have appreciated a conversation, I.

He's extremely visionary. And so I, you know, commend him on his bravery to just go ahead and get that done. And same to you. You know, it takes a lot to say, I am done now.

It finishes now. And now the journey is for me, for us.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:07:40

Yeah. Yeah. Right. So.

So the other part is, you know, you were talking about, like, obviously the corporate structure has all these, like, sops in place and so coming in, you know, and this is, you know, a little bit. You know, part of my brain is like, you know, it's. My family grew up. My. I grew up in a family of. Of my parents work together. So, you know, you. You.

You know how to put in all these SOPs. And so from a.

Like, from a leadership standpoint, like, how do you, like, how did you all of a sudden, like, go, you know, and like, what is that tip that you can say to somebody? You know, you're going from that, you know, that corporate life, and you're.

You've got something big and you're the leader, and you've got to put on this hat to create, like, you see that there's something that needs to be done. How do you tell the. How do you become that leader to create those sops without rocking the boat so much? Or maybe you did Rock the boat. Oh yeah.

Sonya Corkery: 00:08:38

I rocked the boat. I rocked it hard. My husband, who asked me to come in and wanted me there, wanted me to do the things that he thought he wanted me to do.

And there was so much more that I wanted to do because I was concerned about compliance, I was concerned about safety, I was concerned about just the quality of output and the consistency in the business, making sure that everyone was following the same pattern so that everything was structured and nothing was missed. And so he was reluctant in the beginning to give me, you know, what he thought was control.

But what it was was I was saying, I'm not trying to rock the boat to offend you or upset you. I'm doing this to show you where the issues are so that we can identify them and we can fix them.

Because if we don't, this is a short lived ride and I am all in on this now. So this is what we need to do. And so essentially he said, okay, well that's fine, if you want to do that, you can do that.

I, you know, it won't stop you. And I said, but I need your brain. I am not from this industry. And so I am learning a whole new industry all over again.

So I'm going to ask you a lot of questions and you're going to be pissed off and that's okay because we need to get through this. And so I got to a point where I was like, I need to be an electrician apprentice. And he's like, what for?

And I said, because I need to understand the process, okay.

I need to understand when they walk on that site and they get out of that van, exactly what they do, what is the first thing that they do, you know, what tools do they need to have on board, you know, what, what checks do they need to do? What do they need to do when they wrap up at the end of the day to make sure it's safe?

You know, is it an existing property they're going to, is it new?

And, and all of these things started from a macro level and that can get really overwhelming if you don't have a system in place to create a system, if that makes sense.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:10:26

Right, and yeah, right. No, yes you do.

Sonya Corkery: 00:10:28

And so I, a lot of it was talking, voice dictating and then summarizing into macro level steps, creating flowcharts and then micro from there. So it, it took a long time to build that for a trade based business.

But once we did the framework that was adaptable to most trade based businesses essentially. And so it kind of became this, this asset that we could use across the board.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:10:56

Well, right.

And then, well then my brain is like, okay, that's a framework that becomes a sellable asset too that you can then teach and coach other people and other trade based businesses and they could obviously come into your fold or not come into your fold, but you can actually help them in some ways. Yeah. Okay. So listeners. Right. Like that's my brain, how my brain thinks. Like, right.

Like I'm, I always think about how can we actually entrepreneurize that process and you know, and create that.

So, so you said something that I think is really kind of, that is really important that you basically acknowledged obviously like where you're coming from.

So like key thing, you know listeners as you're hearing that like if you've got something that comes to acknowledge like make sure that you acknowledge like where somebody else is and, and their expertise and let them know that you're not there to question their knowledge or, but you're there to, there's a, you're acknowledging their knowledge as well.

Sonya Corkery: 00:11:57

So. Oh absolutely.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:11:59

And then you said something that I thought was, was really important is that you, and you basically said to him, you basically kind of set the stage. It says you are going to be, you may get pissed off. Yeah. And, and that. Is that so important. Yep.

Sonya Corkery: 00:12:16

It's like feelings are going to come out because I'm going to make, I'm going to question. And I'm not actually questioning your capability, I'm questioning to gain understanding.

And so you may interpret it as such, but let me be clear, I am not questioning your capabilities. You obviously extremely capable person, you've built this from absolutely nothing yourself. It's already more successful than many others.

You know, had already lasted two or three years at that point before I came into it. So you know, most businesses in Australia fell within the first three years. 85% of businesses fell within the first three years.

So on his own, right, he was already more successful than most. And so I'm, I wanted to be honest about, you know, you asked me to come in but I need this to be the best version of what it can be.

And to do that I'm being objective and I'm here to help you. I'm not here to hinder you, I'm not here to upset you.

But it may appear that way in the moment because it's emotional because you feel like somebody's kind of judging you and, and that wasn't the intention and I needed to make that clear so that we could be wearing Those separate hats. And, and as I said, you know, we're married, so that's a whole nother level of complexity.

And you know, when you're going home, you need to be able to separate that business hat away from your home life and make sure that you can still be a married couple with a family and, and make sure you support each other in that regard as well. So I could never bring in that I'm your wife to work. That was never going to happen.

You know, I was here to do a job and I did it well and he did his part well and that's why it worked.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:13:58

Yeah.

Okay, so, so that, you know, that questioning and that sharing of like, you know, information, how would you take that and put it into the, like, if you could take that and put it into corporate, how do you see, what would you say? How, how do you envision that happening in like a corporate world?

Sonya Corkery: 00:14:20

It's really interesting because in the corporate world, as you well know, they have meetings for the sake of having meetings. Right.

And that you walk out and you're like, that could have been an email or we could have just had a two minute conversation instead of that being an hour of my time. I think if it was a constructive setup of actually saying, okay, well, we're here to, to help grow this business, we need to mastermind a workshop.

What needs improvement. You guys are on the ground, we value your feedback.

We need to really understand the intricacies of the processes and feel what's missing or what can be added to streamline that more effectively for you guys as the team on the ground in the operations. We also need to make sure that it's cost effective, that we're delivering to a high quality.

So let's talk, let's have this conversation because in your own experience, like how many times have a CEO come into a company and gone, I'm new here and I'm going to shake things up and I'm going to change things that don't need to be changed. And then people on the ground are like, what is going on? You know, it's not broken, we don't need it to be fixed.

And they might make a change that they can't see the outcome of because they're not an on the ground operational person.

So I think it's super important to have that open communication because every department or every role in a business needs to concurrently work with the other roles because the output needs to be the most effective thing for the client, the end user, the teams need to feel Supported, they need to feel heard, they need to feel understood.

And when that dialogue is open, that is the, the most amazing thing to create everything that you need, as long as you are listening, acknowledging, and applying so that it works for everybody.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:16:06

Right?

Sonya Corkery: 00:16:07

And I think that's. That's just pinnacle in any business, you.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:16:12

Know, and it's so true.

Like acknowledging, listening and, and the, and listening to the people who, you know, the people who have the boots on the ground, who are there are so important, you know, and listening to the people who, you know, you don't know that, you know, you might not realize, like, you know, I'm just going to use my. Like that this case doesn't work well because you're not using the case.

But if you're the person that's using the case and you're going to be like, oh, that just, you know, that really does not work well. We could. We could use something else that's better. You have to listen to those people.

Sonya Corkery: 00:16:49

Yeah.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:16:50

Like, you have to listen to that. And, you know, and it's so, It's. It's really. It's really quite amazing.

So, so if you could think, like, you know, as your business has grown, what were. What were some of those key things?

I mean, obviously we know, like putting, you know, SOPs and standard operating procedures in place, but was there something that you thought, like, you know, come from them coming, coming from this big corporate conglomerate bank that, you know, or whatever, you know, is hugely successful. What was like. Like the one or two things that you took from that, that you were saying, you know what? I want to make sure we do that here.

Sonya Corkery: 00:17:28

I wanted to recognize people in the business. I wanted to recognize who they were. They each had a story. They each had needs. They each had different needs. So.

So sitting down and having a conversation with each of those people saying, what's going on? Talk to me like, what. What makes you tick? What drives you? Like, and it's. I can tell you to ask a tradie that he was like, who is this person?

Why are we having this conversation? Come to work. I get in my van, I do my thing, they give me a run sheet. And you've got this person saying, who are you?

Like, tell me about yourself and help me understand you so that I can best serve you. Okay, so what is it that you need? What drives you? It's not a barbecue once a week. It's not, you know, a new van.

It's, oh, I've got a family of five, and I want to spend time with My kids. Okay, so what can we do in this business to give you more time?

Well, it'd be really good if I could do one of the drop offs or the pickups, you know, if we could do like change my start time and finish time so I still do my eight hours, but I could do all the drop offs for my wife and she could do all the pickups. I'm like, sweet, let's do that. Let's make that happen.

Right, this gentleman is now working these hours and he's going to be in this team and this is going to be where he's stationed. And this is why, you know, it's listening and applying it.

We have the ability as our own, as our own business, as CEOs of our own business or owners or entrepreneurs of our own business to break the mold. There is no must do's. Let's think outside the box. Let's serve the people who are doing the business. Let's.

They're operationally, you know, we're dependent everything on them. It's, it's. We need to make sure that they have what they need in their, in their actual job. Are they safe? Are they, you know, do they have the tools?

Do they have the knowledge and understanding? Have we provided the right training? Yeah, that's all still standard. Right. But they're people we need to help serve the people.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:19:32

Right? Right. They're people first.

You know, Sonya , it's, you know, I'm so glad that you said that because I think it's so important, you know, I think it's so important to be able to, number one, get to know people. Like I talk about that all the time.

I think it's like, it's, it's a huge thing to be able to say to people, you know, to, you know, and I hate the word employee because it brings a negative connotation to me. Like they're, these are the people that are, that are in your fold. They're part of your tribe, they're part of your team.

So like to be able to get to know your team members for who they are and what they want. Yep. You know, it brings that emotional intelligence into, into the, into the workplace, right? Yep.

Sonya Corkery: 00:20:14

Absolutely.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:20:16

Absolutely. So, you know, so you, you know, you shared, you've got, obviously you've got four different businesses. You're, you're, you're a mom, you're, you're.

And you're busy, obviously your wife too, you know, in there. And so if there's like one bit of advice you could share with A leader who is that busy person just like you. Who would it be?

Sonya Corkery: 00:20:44

Find out what your own values are and leave them loudly.

And be open and understanding of others that they also have their own values and they too need to live them loudly and understand that each to their own. Everyone has different drivers, some more than others. And don't try to push people into something because it's your own belief.

You need to be open and understanding that sometimes people haven't found their thing yet and sometimes they have. And you can either be a part of that journey and for a long time or a short time. Some people are lifers and some people aren't.

But it's the impact you make on people's life that's the most important.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:21:26

I love that. I love that. So, so what's next for like. So what are you working on next?

Sonya Corkery: 00:21:34

We're looking at, you know, taking this more internationally.

That's, that's largely what we want to do because we feel that we can help people in, you know, a lot of locations, you know, especially in the western world. They're our brothers and sisters across the ditch, as we say.

You know, we've got New Zealand, America, Canada that are very well aligned with Australia and the way that we do things. And so I think there's a lot of things we can share and just put out there to people and, and see how it's received and that's our next step.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:22:05

That's so. And that's. And you're talking more from the standpoint of is it from like helping people in the trades, businesses or is it also in the construction?

Sonya Corkery: 00:22:15

Like, yeah, it can, it can be, it can be any type of business really.

I think the framework really works across most of those and having the experience of corporate businesses as well as trade based, you know, we have the ability to extend that across. So yeah, we're here to help whoever we can. I think if we can touch a few lives in this lifetime, it'll be worth it. So that's right.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:22:40

That's so true. Okay, so, so now I could talk to you for hours. And this is like, I'm like, oh my God, you're so, and you're so easy to talk to.

So how can people connect with you and learn more about you, your businesses and how they could, you know, even work with you?

Sonya Corkery: 00:22:55

So I'm across most of the platforms. You can find me on all of the socials. I have a web page as well, www.clearplanconsulting.com. i know it's a mouthful, sorry.

And you can reach out to me anytime. I'm happy to chat, do a zoom, you know, find out where you're at and just even have a, a 20 minute conversation.

Be, you know, it's not an obligate, not obligation, no obligation there. So you can have a chat with me and just have a good chin wag and find out what's happening in your world.

And sometimes it's nice to just have someone that understands and listens. And if nothing else, then it's a great conversation.

Jaclyn Strominger: 00:23:35

Right? It's a great connection. Right. So, all right, so listeners, please do me the favor of going to the socials, going to Sonya 's website.

I will put all of that in the show notes too. But please reach out to her, connect with her on social. She's truly amazing.

And you know, we are here to help you be better leaders and this is a great conversation and thank you. Please do share this with your friends and colleagues because, you know, I love what you just said and I wrote it down.

You know, to live our values and live them loudly is so important. And so with that, thank you for being an amazing guest. This is the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight podcast.

Again, like I said, please click subscribe and share. And we hope to help you be a better leader and be unstoppable.

Sonya Corkery: 00:24:23

Thank you.