E066 - Kate Strong from Strong Culture

Welcome back to the Green Element Podcast, where we feature business leaders and innovators transforming their operations to be more environmentally and socially sustainable. I'm your host, Will Richardson, and I can't wait to meet our guest today and help you on your journey of sustainability. Hi, Kate. Thank you so much for joining the Green Element Podcast. I'm really, really looking forward to finding out more about how you ended up in sustainability and the course that you've been on and the journey that you've had. So welcome to the podcast and thank you for joining us.

My pleasure. Thanks so much for having me, Will.

So let's start off with understanding a bit of background and a bit of history of who you are and what you've been doing for the last 15 years, I guess.

Sure. It's quite diverse. I graduated with a double master's in mechanical engineering and went traveling immediately after that around predominantly Latin America and fell in love with local indigenous communities, setting up grassroots projects as well. So whilst I was traveling, I was also helping leave a legacy, if you want, to make sure people weren't just given $5 or a bag of pencils when I left. They were also left with a business they could continue and thrive and prosper from. But I did eventually return and got into aerospace for a couple of years. So finally put my degrees to practice. Realized it wasn't where I wanted to be. My heart wasn't in it. So moved to Australia and set up a couple of hospitality businesses. And that's kind of where I sat for 9 years, watching people travel, learning about their journeys, getting to know humans as well. And I also picked up sport at the same time. So I started my own personal journey of healing and self-discovery. So it's very— I lived in a World Heritage Park, so I was surrounded by immense beauty and nature that attracted people. For their own journeys, be it just to take a photo or a healing or whatever it was. And that's where I became age group world champion in triathlon. So I competed for Australia in, I think, 6 world championships in total and picked up the question of, you know, how can I impart with other people a way of opening up in themselves to be their— it sounds very cliché and I apologize, but to be their best self, but also make sure that they're positively impacting the world that they live within. And so 4 years ago, I discovered that people were prepared to pay me for that how, how they could start living a better life, to be responsible, to create a business, but also make sure that it was in alignment with other areas, their purpose and the environment and other issues. And now I'm going back into aerospace as well as a consultant to help them step up and make sure sustainability policies aren't just coming from the top down. You know, it's ingrained in every single thing they do in their supply chains as well. So it's quite, quite a circular movement.

Yeah, absolutely. The hospitality industry that you worked in in Australia, you said you worked for 2 different things. What were they?

Well, the first one was I bought a Subway franchise. So I didn't want to go back to uni, and I thought that the easiest way to learn is to put your money down and you won't make the same mistake twice. So that's what I did for a couple of years. But I did flip it up quickly into a guest house and restaurant. So I owned that in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales.

Okay. And what was the next one?

Well, the Subway franchise was the first business. The guest house restaurant was the second business.

And have you found that you have— I may have been a bit— someone just walked past in the garden and I was a bit like, oh, right, okay, fine. The guesthouse and Subway, has that helped you with the sustainability and environmental stuff, looking back on it?

Yes, because it made me ask questions. So I was in Australia surrounded by avocado plants, and we were importing frozen avocados from Mexico. And it got me thinking as a consumer, where, where do I get my things from? How can I discover this? And so in a sort of negative way, it got me aware of the environment. And I was— that's why I ultimately sold the franchise is because I wanted a best policy. I wanted to offer local homegrown produce, not just the stuff that they forced me to purchase because it was Subway approved. So this isn't a rant on Subway. There's a lot of positive things about franchises.

Mm-hmm.

But for me, it just opened up my eyes to how sometimes as consumers, we're just unaware. We just make assumptions and never dig a little deeper with the second question of, well, where does it come from? You know, I'm assuming it's an Aussie avocado, but is it really?

I think, I think what you learn from different parts of your career is so interesting. I ran pubs for a while after leaving school, and hence why I was asking questions, because I do feel I draw on quite a lot of the experience that I've had through my life. And I would imagine for you, when you're coaching people and when you're talking to different individuals, everyone's had different experience, and to be able to relate to that experience is really, probably really beneficial for you to be able to empathize with people.

Yeah, definitely. And, you know, I speak to quite a few startup coaches as well, and I personally don't have a coaching certificate by choice because I think we need to draw in our own personalities. We need to actually sort of have confidence to know that what we've learned in our 30, 40, 50 years of life is enough for us to move forward as well. We don't need to always lean on that certification or degree. Life gives us a lot of lessons, and that actually, to me, I think is the best teacher of them all.

From going on from there, and I'd love to talk to you about, because we touched upon this when we first spoke, about sport and the mindfulness, I guess, and the way you're able to focus yourself and how that's benefited you going forwards.

Sure. I mean, we just need to sit on a bus or a bus station or walk down the street today to see how distracted we are. We're, we're constantly getting buzzed or tweeted or vibrated by something in our pocket or our bag. And so for me, sport was a way to disconnect from the distractions and just be in the moment, to actually notice what is around me, what my body is telling me as well, and how am I feeling. We love to stay in our comfort zone, that is, you know, by default. And sometimes we feel we don't want to do something, or it's easier to go shopping and buy plastic bags because we forgot, or we just don't want to go training at 4 o'clock in the morning when it is -5 degrees centigrade outside. By just being in the moment and committing to what we said we'd do and remembering the bigger goal, we can actually step away from our feelings and just be outside our comfort zone and know that it won't be comfortable, but we still, still get the stuff done. And that's actually where we grow. And that's where we can thrive and do things that excite us.

And there's a long-term benefit as well. Isn't there?

Yeah. Your shoulders grow so you can support more, but you can support greater stuff as well as the burden. So we accomplish more in other areas as well. So I might do well in sports, but I know that if I step up, as you know, just last week I climbed Mont Blanc with my father. I feel already bigger and more competent in my business that I'm addressing areas where before I was shying away from them because I didn't really like doing, you know, the sales calls or whatever, whatever I was avoiding. Yeah, it makes me grow.

Did you see the glacier when you were at Mont Blanc and how it's receded? And did anyone talk to you about that? Because I've got friends who live in Chamonix and have talked about that glacier.

Yes, I also went to another one in Gran Paradiso in Italy, and that was much more visibly shrunk because there's a lot more debris around the area, so the gap of where the glacier was to me was much more obvious. I did talk about it briefly. I mean, by nature glaciers recede and grow, so that in summer it will recede and in winter the snow that's fallen will then push the glacier forwards. But the rate of recession, if you want to use— I'm not sure if that's the correct word to use— is significantly faster than its rate of growth. And it's sad. And what sort of is sadder to me was the amount— there's a lot of tourists there who catch a cable car up, take a photo, maybe without they're not— when I say they're not tourists, they're not hiking there with intention to assume the relationship. They're there just to tick a glacier off their ticket list, their bucket list. They're still saying that climate change doesn't exist. They're still saying this is just, you know, a trend and it will return. And to me, that is the sadness, because we're not actually seeing the reality. And it's again that unconsciousness. It's more comfortable to say there isn't a problem, to say it's not receding, than to actually sit there and go, we need to do something about this. What is that? Is that less flying? Is that, you know, eating less meat? Is that— what can we do as a community, as a family, to make sure this glacier we like to take the photo of and visit will still be here for my great-grandchildren?

Yeah, so it's so true, that's so true. When you were in Australia and you were doing the triathlons and you ended up Running, cycling, and swimming for Australia. How did you end up— have you always been really good at running, cycling, and swimming?

Well, physiologically, I've got long legs, I suppose, so, you know, and broad shoulders. So I was always built to be able to do well in the sports, but I didn't have the hunger. So when I was young, whenever my coach sat me down and said, you've got potential, let's get serious, I'd shy away because to me life was never about getting serious. It was always about staying fun. So yes, I am built to swim, cycle, and run well, but I never pushed myself further than what was comfortable.

And you just got into it, but you can't just, I would imagine, get into something and end up swimming, cycling, and running for Australia. There's got to be a lot of hard work. Um, you've got to be tenacious, you've got to be driven, you've got to really see the long-term goal of what it is that you're wanting to do, because it's not— you're not going to wake up one day and go, oh well, on my word, Australia's just asked me to run for them, brilliant, you know. So can you take me through that and take me through what the feelings that you had and that kind of experience of moving up towards it?

Yeah, with pleasure. And I'd sort of put my life on hold for 9 years. Well, I had a boyfriend for 9 years, we had a job, and I was living that life of When I have more money, when I have more time, then I can look at my health. Then I can you know do a triathlon because it was always on the list. It was just never dated. But after nine years, I realized that that day was never going to happen, and I just had this a moment when I was celebrating my birthday with yet another drink. I thought there is nothing that's standing out in my life. This post could have been last year's birthday or the year before's birthday. When am I going to actually? Do something that excites me, not just sort of dumbs my life down to that moment. So I just sort of went, "Well, today I'm never going to be any younger than I am, so I'm going to do something today." And that's why I said, "Right, I'm going to do a triathlon." It's always been on my mind for ten years. I haven't done an Ironman. I'm going to do it. And but where'd you go? Like I've never. I don't know the times, how far I could run, how quickly I could run as well. So I thought, well, if I don't know what I can do, why am I going to limit my potential? So I'm just going to look at what number 1 does. And I'm going to do like the number 1 in the world training and see how close I can get to that person. Now, it might be 200th, it might be 2,000th, it doesn't matter. But if I aimed for 500th, I would never have got to 200th.

Hmm.

So I'm going to aim for number 1 with no ego. And I'm going to get as close as I can. And so that's what I did. And some things I didn't accomplish. I was age group number 1, not world number 1. So, and it wasn't the full distance I wanted. It was 2/3 Ironman, not full Ironman. But to me, that's not a failure. That's, I found my potential and I found my maximum without that glass ceiling. So once I decided that I wanted to be number 1 in the world, or my number 1 in my world, I then needed to write a plan. So at the time in hospitality, as I'm sure you know, it's a 7-day-a-week job. I did work alone at the time, so that was cleaning the bedrooms and preparing the foods as well. So, you know, 12-hour days, 7 days a week. I wrote a training plan that fitted in with that. And being a true engineer, I think this is where the skill comes in. I wrote down all the skills I needed, you know, how to sleep better, what food. is digestible quicker. You know, what swimming, cycling, and running do I need to do? But how do I avoid injury? How do I run a business, you know, automated? So I wrote down every single tool that I'd need, and I looked for online mentors or people who succeeded in those areas, and I just copied or simulated what they did. And so I sort of automated as much as I could of my business. I learned to operate off 4 hours of sleep a day. for 2 and a half years. I ate immensely clean foods, whole food, plant-based, grown locally, because I found that it was quicker to digest so I could actually repair my muscles from my training every day, so I could double up my training as well. And so it was wake up at 4 o'clock in the morning. I had to light a fire because I lived in the cold. I didn't have heating. I'd then run for 3 hours with a head torch, seeing my breath at night. Get back to work, shower, do a 12-hour shift. Then 7, 8 PM at night, I'd either jump on my turbo trainer at night, um, facing a brick wall, because I really wanted to break me down to the worst possible scenario. So no distractions, no music, no TV, no YouTube, just me and this brick wall and the beeper to tell me how many minutes or hours had passed. And so when I was on race day, if I saw a tree, I was excited. Because to me, I'd never seen a tree when I'd cycled before. It was always pitch black or facing a brick wall. So I used the training as the worst possible scenario. So I trained to be the best, but I also trained in the worst conditions. So after that, everything was a luxury, you know. Um, another stupid example, I'd only eat muesli with water for a week before my race, just in case I couldn't find any juices to buy. So So at least to me, I was used to just having water and it wasn't a disappointment. But if I found an orange juice, it was a bonus. So I became almost like a little kid celebrating the stupidest and simplest luxuries in life.

And have you found that what you learned over those 2 and a half years has been helpful moving forwards in your current role and in your future roles that you want to start to do?

Yes, we as humans, we have such great potential to achieve stuff, and the only thing stopping us is ourselves.

Yes.

So when I'm working with my clients or even myself, and I think, oh, we'll reduce carbon emissions by 1.5%, I do ask the question, why not double it? I know 1.5% is realistic, but why can't we sort of push ourselves that little bit more uncomfortably to see if there's a bigger solution out there than just a shift? Can't we look for transformational change? Not just shifting. And so that mindset of not fearing that if I don't accomplish that 3% or 10% reduction, I'm a failure, it actually allows us to be a little bit more creative and dream that little bit bigger, where maybe we would have been settling for, you know, the bare minimum or the baseline.

It's so interesting, isn't it, talking to people and how it is that— because I can relate To what it is that you've done. I can't relate to the, you know, the amount of cycling and swimming and running you've done, but I can— it's that bigger picture, it's that goal that you had of, I'd like to get to there and this is how I'm going to get to it. And I think that's so useful to think about. It's so pertinent within sustainability. And I think when we first spoke, it became quite apparent that we should all be thinking like that because— As you say, it's so easy to drift from one day to another and to have that drink on your birthday that's the same as every other birthday, but actually that's not going to help with climate change and it's not going to help with sustainability. We need to all be thinking about the bigger picture. We need to all be thinking about where we can get to because it's such an individual journey as well. So therefore, for me or you or anyone else to tell someone else, well, this is what you need to do, Great, but you don't know my life. You don't know how to do it. We all need to be thinking about ourselves, and it needs to come from within, which is why it's really interesting to listen to what it is and how you got to where you've got to. And so you ran for Australia, and then you came back to the UK shortly afterwards.

I had five world championships in 2015, so I qualified for five different distances in triathlon, and it just felt right to return to Europe after those. So yeah, I came back to Britain and. Eventually I'm settled where I am now, which is in Bristol. So yeah, this is what I call home.

I've got one question that's probably not related at all, is how come you didn't do it for the UK being British, or are you Australian?

I'm British-born. I do have an Aussie passport. Britain wouldn't let me. So you have to do a British qualifying race. So even though I was Australian national champion, because my— the race to qualify for world championships was in Australia, Britain said no.

More for them. That's ridiculous. Anyway, whatever.

And I prefer green and gold. I've got to say, it suits my, um, my colouring better than blue. Brilliant.

And so when you came back to the UK, you weren't tempted to go back into hospitality, or?

With honesty, when I came back in October, I think I hit quite a wall. So I knew that I wanted to stop triathlon. I didn't want to go down the professional route, and that was the the natural pull after my accomplishments. And being in— I love Wales, but it was October, it was raining, it was dark, it was cold. I was alone, so I was living in my parents' flat, they weren't there. And I think I got quite— I wouldn't say sad, but very miserable. And for days I wouldn't leave the house, not knowing what to do, knowing that I wanted to see the world and change and impact the world positively, but feeling quite lost. So what I did after 3 months, I did return to hospitality, but on a zero-hour contract cleaning toilets at a franchise, a Costa shop down the road, purely to get me out of the house and sort of understand my path. I didn't want to keep leaning on the, don't you know who I was?

Yeah.

I wanted to actually add value in that moment. So I did return to hospitality, albeit briefly, But I think it was more as a need to work out who I really was and the value I was adding, not just to say, here's my resume, give me a high-paying job, and I can carry on. I wanted to feel not the pain of life, but to work from the grassroots again. So I was there for about 3 months. The toilets have never been cleaner. And then I started to sort of step back into coaching again. I found my groove. People were still attracted to ask me what I was doing, even though I was still just serving tables, etc. And so that's when I started to coach people again into finding their passion and step back into that purpose-driven pathway that I'm in now.

And what led you into sustainability? Was there a deciding factor or was there a poignant event or what kind of led you there?

I've been reflecting this. I mean, my first degree, so I graduated in 2002, so it wasn't actually quite popular back then. My first degree was environmental engineering, and that was as close as I could get to sustainable work. But I think it was around— I was about 12 or 13, I'd just come home from school. I come from a very, you know, safe, secure, traditional family, and I'd never really seen pain or suffering. So I'd always had comfort around me and assumed naively that the world was like that as well. But this one day when I came back, there was an advert for an African community, and I remember there was a little child too weak to swat the flies that had landed on his face away. And just to see another human being suffering and not even having the strength for such a simple task as giving himself that peace without the flies around him, I just broke down into tears. And my dad at the same time had returned from work, quite confused why his, you know, little daughter was crying, and said, in a way to soften and soothe me, that was his only intention, but he said, there's nothing you can do, Kate, you know, bad things happen in the world, the best thing to do is just push it out of your mind and carry on in your life. And in that moment, I think I decided I didn't know what I could do to help, so if I couldn't help, That's right. I would play such a small game that I would never add to the pain and suffering of other people. So to this day, I still honor that decision of a 14-year-old to not have children. So that was a choice I made, that if I wanted to pass on anything, it would be through adoption or fostering. And I started to play an immensely small game. Now fast forward to 4 years ago, I'm ready to flip that coin to make sure my impact is positive, not just minimize the negative. But I think that, that was a hugely transformational moment for me that, that still sticks with me to this day, that I just wanted to play such a small game that I didn't want to impact, and just to push that out of my mind as much as possible because I just felt so futile, impotent if you want. I just didn't know what to do.

It's amazing what— how when you're young it can just— it does determine who you are. Whether we think it has or whether it— it's amazing how many times you speak to people and they say, yeah, actually, when I was younger, this does. And it's not until you kind of think about it. I know that I didn't really think about it until I started thinking about it, if that makes any sense at all. And you just realize that there is a pattern in your life of how you get to where you get to. And I guess it shouldn't really surprise anyone, but I think it's really, really useful to think about that and to think about why you're doing what you're doing.

Yeah, and it explains really why as well, when I got to being world champion with a platform for a voice, I went straight down to toilet cleaning because I shied away from that big impact. I, you know, because my promise was to play a small game, not a big game. I wasn't consciously aware, and anytime I had an opportunity to play that big game, I'd push it away. So not to get too psychoanalytical on this, yeah, I was living that 14-year-old decision. Up until quite recently, and now I'm ready to— I am flipping it. So yeah.

And here we are now. You're coaching people and I guess organizations as well, because there will be people that are running organizations through, you know, their own journey. And you really only work with purpose-driven, sustainable organizations and people. Is that right?

On the pathway to, yes.

Yes.

So they don't— just like me, we're never going to be perfect or there. There is no utopia called sustainability. But I want people who are at least open to this conversation and asking the question, how can I be more X? So they might not have even started, but definitely somebody who wants to make sure that we're looking at other things other than just profitability. We're looking at how we can— I mean, there's so many examples that putting sustainability first actually is a profitable decision anyway. But I am looking for companies like that to work with, and that's pretty much who I choose to work with as well.

And do you find that people are open to it?

More and more so, yes. I'm finding a lot more startups are, and also millennials. The younger generation definitely have got their heads focused on the future because we've left them with such a big pile of mess. They're now seeing that as a great opportunity to clean up and also monetize it along the way. So I'm finding a lot of young, young kids, 20-plus-year-olds, being attracted to work with me because they want to make sure their business is doing good from day one, not waiting till they're a billionaire and give back.

Thank you so much for talking to us today, Kate. Where can we find out more information about where you are on the internet and learn more about your journey and follow you?

Sure. So I'm pretty social, but the best place to go is my website, which is kate- But I'm on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn as well. So more than happy to receive private messages, answer any questions, and keep sharing.

Brilliant, brilliant. Thank you so much. I think I learned from this how you— it's so good to have a plan and to have a goal of where to get to and make sure that it's not so much give up, but you don't go, oh, Actually, there's an adage, isn't there? Don't put off today what you can do tomorrow. Yeah, that's what I got from this. Yeah. And it'd be interesting to know what other people have got from this. So if you could and wanted to contact us, that'd be great. But thank you so much, Kate, for this. And yeah, thanks for being on the show.

My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me, Will.

Thank you so much for listening to the end of this episode of The Green Element Do take a moment and share this with your friends and colleagues and rate and review the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. I'd love to know what has been your biggest takeaway from this conversation. What are you going to do differently? Please share your thoughts across social media and tag us so we can see them too, @GE_podcast. For links and show notes for this episode, visit our website, greenelement.co.uk/podcast. Thank you again, Will. I hope you will join me on the next episode, and together we can help create a better world.