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Welcome to the Tuesday Trailblazer, my weekly newsletter delivering actionable advice from my personal experiences in 15+ years of people and business leadership.

Today’s Email:

It’s a short newsletter today, but this is my most personal edition of the “Tuesday Trailblazer” yet.

I am writing this on a wimb today.

No structure, no system as there usually is with this newsletter each week…
Just an outpouring of what I am thinking and feeling.

What we’ll cover off:

• A new arrival to the team

• How support = life changing experience

• How this experience reminded me of what matters most

Over this past week, I’ve witnessed greatness. Felt pure joy, pride and love in ways I hadn’t felt as of yet.

But first, let me take you back…

In 2020, my daughter Hazel was born.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to witness her birth.

In fact, my wife and I were separated both during and post birth for almost 4 hours.

It was heartbreaking. For both of us.
Whilst, Mum and Hazel were both healthy (a blessing I don’t take for granted), we didn’t get our moment as new parents that we’d assumed we would get.

In fact, it was almost 3 hours after Hazel was born that I got to see Katie after she’d been sent in for an emergency C section (4 hours in total) and due to being in the midst of COVID, I had to leave the hospital less than an hour after we’d reunited.

It was tough.

Tough then, and tough ever since. Even for myself I remember just sitting alone in a room outside the operating room, praying and praying for Katie and our unborn child. I waited for a babies cry for what felt like an eternity.

And when I heard it, all I could think about was my Katie.
Is Katie ok?
When will someone come and let me know?

So many emotions.

Like I said it still sits with me.
So I can only imagine the depths of the struggles Katie faces around that experience today.

Given this, when we received the great news in the back end of 2023 that Katie was pregnant - there were a flood of emotions.

Katie was extremely proactive (as she usually is) in thinking about support heading into this birth and ensuring we were prepared as much as possible.

Katie brought in the support of a doula (worth every cent and then some).

The focus and purpose of this support became clear very quickly.

To ensure no matter what happened, that this would be a positive birth experience for us.

The mindset and preparation empowered from our amazing doula Christa Buckland was amazing and on Friday the 26th of July 2024…

We got our positive experience.

I witnessed my wife be a pillar of strength, resilience, power and greatness all in one as Katie gave birth to our second daughter Rosie.

#girldad 😉 

Best of all, we got to share in it together this time.

Mum and Bub are home and doing healthy and big sister Hazel is extremely smitten. The joy in her eyes when they first met is an image that will be etched into my mind forever.

I’ve been so fortunate and blessed in my life to have achieved many great things personally and professionally along with many memorable life moments (Agueroooooooo!!)

However as of Friday 26th July at 12.41pm, I got to experience one of (if not the) greatest moment in my life to date as I watched proudly (and sobbingly) as Katie caught our little Rosie from the water.

Since 2016, I have been committed to changing my leadership habits of putting work before everything else, and I’ve been able to do that successfully since 2019.

Since then, my leadership habits have been focused on how I lead outside of work as a husband, father and Christian.

It’s moments like these that I thank God for watching over us, our family and helping me recognise what truly matters.

And right now I have more clarity than ever on that.

I’ll never forget this moment, this experience and for that and I am so thankful that this time Katie & I got to share it together.

Right now, it’s time for us to enjoy this bubble and settle into a new way forward as Team Blackburn…family of 4!

Until next Tuesday,

I have built and led teams across 3 successful businesses and have over 15 years of people and business leadership experience.

Over the past 4 years, I have grown my business working with “busy” leaders across multiple industries (retail, hospitality, construction, mining, education) and helped them simplify their leadership.

Igniting their impact in leadership and at home.

Let me share my insights and help you:

• Reclaim your time

• Prioritise your wellbeing

• Achieve work/life harmony

• Improve customer centricity

• Connect & elevate team culture

• Simplify your leadership beyond busy

• Building a bench and plan for your successors

I’ll be taking some time off coaching for the month of August, and have one remaining spot for September/October/November 1:1 coaching.

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