The Trailblazers Experience Podcast

EP56 Nadine Maggi Managing Director : From Forensic Science Dream to Armed Forces/Military Service & Leadership Success

• Ntola • Season 3 • Episode 56

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EP56 Nadine Maggi , Managing Director of Sweet Freedom
What if your unconventional career path could lead you to an unexpected yet fulfilling destination? Join us as we sit down with Nadine Maggi, the inspiring Managing Director of Sweet Freedom, who opens up about her incredible journey from aspiring forensic scientist to military service, and eventually to HR leadership. Nadine reveals how her background in the armed forces equipped her with invaluable skills like discipline, teamwork, and resilience, which she later applied to manage a loss-making business successfully. This episode is a treasure trove of insights on how initial plans can evolve and lead to greater, unforeseen achievements.

As we chat with Nadine, she shares her personal and professional adversities, from growing up in a working-class family and navigating a male-dominated workplace to raising an autistic daughter and managing a struggling business. Her story is a powerful testament to resilience and empathy. Nadine also discusses her passion for supporting motor neurone disease research and the charitable initiatives of Sweet Freedom, offering a glimpse into her commitment to making a difference in both her personal and professional life. Her journey is an inspiring reminder of the strength found in perseverance and empathy.

Balancing career and personal life is no easy feat, and Nadine shares her practical self-care practices as well as the concept of a "balance wheel" to help evaluate different life areas. We also touch on leadership development, continuous learning, and mentoring. Nadine reflects on her career achievements, emphasizing the importance of resilience, networking, and having fun despite challenges. Tune in for an episode filled with valuable insights on achieving a fulfilling and balanced life, and hear Nadine's remarkable journey that is sure to inspire you.

Follow Nadine Maggi
Linkedin : Nadine Maggi | LinkedIn
IG @Noddylm
Sweet Freedom IG @sweetfreedomuk
https://sweetfreedom.co.uk/

Charities important to Nadine 
Motor Neurone Disease Association @mndassoc
National Autism UK
https://www.autism.org.uk/
Youtube
:https://youtu.be/6P5KVq2PkN8 

Listen : to the audio version Apple Spotify .Amazon Music Google Podcasts
Watch and subscribe to my YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@Thetrailblazersexperience
Follow Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazersexperience/

The Trailblazers Experience:

Welcome to another episode of the Trailblazers Experience podcast, the podcast where we have candid conversations with women sharing their career journeys. And my next guest today, on this sunny Saturday, is Nadine Maggi, managing Director of the founder-led brand Sweet Freedom. And they provide some amazing syrups for drizzling on your food in your drinks, and also some fizzy drinks as well. But we'll get into that. First of all, welcome, nadine.

Nadine Maggi:

Thank you, nicole. Welcome to the 5BC All podcast. I'm really pleased to be here and hopefully share some bells of wisdom or insights, or just even a couple of snippets about my career so far.

The Trailblazers Experience:

And you've had such an interesting career trajectory. I always say that progression isn't linear and life has an interesting way of opening up opportunities. Isn't linear and life has an interesting way of opening up opportunities. So I'm really curious just to talk about your journey and what sort of led you to the career path that you sort of ended up in. Yes, thank, you.

Nadine Maggi:

So I'll be totally flamboyant. This is love. The career path I visited when I was in school. I wanted to become a forensic scientist and I was curious about that. Unfortunately, I was the easily distracted one in the classroom, so my education vote probably wasn't the best. So that's covered, that career move. And then I still look at the class. I thought, well, I've become a police officer instead. And they said I was too young to join. So they said I need to join the armed forces. So I was like, okay, was too young to join. So they said I need to join the armed forces. So I was like, okay, right off I go, I'll go off and join the armed forces and travel the world and do really interesting things. You always envisage yourself being a bit James Bond-y, being undercover and all of that type. So I started some fantastic years in the armed forces and at that point obviously I just think what I want to do next, and that just happens to fall into hr I just before we even talk about that honestly.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Armed forces. My brother-in-law is ex-military and I know to join the armed forces you have to you sort of have to do a sort of assessment test to actually get into it, so physical as well. So were you sporty growing up, I mean just to go from pivoting from forensic scientist so I'm just going to join the armed forces. That is crazy but formidable in itself yeah, so yeah, it was extremely sporty.

Nadine Maggi:

So love athletics, I used to love running. But my passion was football and way back in the early sort of 70s female football wasn't really known. There was no female sports team, so I used to have to play with grown men. So I used to have to go and play football against grown men and that really hardened me up. But I loved passion. I had a passion for football so I played football a lot. So, yeah, I had passion. I had a passion for football, so I played football a lot. So you have a natural sort of inclination to running and football. So there was sort of fitness there well, I think it's.

The Trailblazers Experience:

It's important to know that is part of the assessment test, where you have to pass a specific fitness level test to get in before then everything happens. And what? What did you do in the armed forces then? What sort of you know things that you have? I was in the what? What did you do in the armed forces, then? What sort of you know things that you have? I?

Nadine Maggi:

was in the world signals. So I was in the communications field and did my training there and worked in what in in sort of basic communications and all the communications field. So did some tours of uh of the uk, did a tour of tour of Northern Ireland in the early 90s which was a little bit hairy but yeah, it was very interesting.

The Trailblazers Experience:

I mean that's formidable. And then you retired, left the Armed Forces. I mean you're too young to retire, you're only 25, so what happened there?

Nadine Maggi:

Well, I found a lot of time at Mother's Dungeon. I'm still with him today. It's 30 years later. So, and in the unfortunate, one of you gets posted one of those and another one gets posted, and another one happens to say, well, see, what I'll do is I will leave and I'll call with you because I think I can use my Royal Signaled Skills to go and do a career somewhere else, type of stuff. Now he followed me out a year later because we then realized that even one of you being in the armed forces, you'd get posted um away. So yeah, I met my husband and decided to lead the armed forces and I had a great time in the armed forces and in so many brilliant skills that I still use today. But that's when I fell into.

The Trailblazers Experience:

HR and when you say, fell curious, as you've always been.

Nadine Maggi:

Yes, curious, and it was a temporary job. I thought, well, I'll get this to buy me over, believe it or not. Obviously I'll only do something in personal training, because I did a little bit of the employment and sickness and nutrition whilst I was in the armed forces and I thought, well, i'll't do personal training. I don't know why I'll take this job Just to bring in an income whilst I'm looking for a personal training job and building up my career. I fell into HR. I absolutely loved it. I had a great female mentor, hr director, and just my career progressed there. I just loved being with people and it was just a natural thing for me. I ended up staying in HR for many, many years because I was just curious about people, curious about psychology, curious about human interactions and behaviours. I think it's a really fascinating area and that's how I came into HR.

The Trailblazers Experience:

It's really interesting just hearing your story. Your career path is quite unique and I'm connecting the dots to the discipline that it takes to be in the armed forces and working as a team, being resilient, facing different challenges, different scenarios, different conflict situations, and then human resources, which is all about people. I feel like it's shaped trajectory in terms of now in a managing director role, all those competencies but real life experiences has sort of helped you in this dynamic.

Nadine Maggi:

Absolutely. I think I credit my story in the Air Force and HR for this. I always hope to say I'm a much well-rounded leader because you're right, the Air Force gives you strategy, direction, decision-making, planning, vision. You have to make sure that you're making the right decision in the Air Force because they can have significant consequences If you don't get it right and you have it planned meticulously. You've got a lot of people who you're responsible for, so I believe that my hr career gave me that.

Nadine Maggi:

But also working as part of a team absolutely is. It's not just a solo effort. You don't get anything accomplished by yourself. You have to make sure that everybody is with you, everybody believes in that vision and is willing to come with you on that vision, and that's where I gained some great leadership skills. And then, on the other side, the HR piece is all about empathy, collaboration, communication, understanding people's situations, understanding how people think, how people behave and how you can get the best out of people. So with that strategy and vision and leadership, and then the people, empathy, eq type of thing, I think it's made it much more rounded and I think that's why it's such a different career path to most people. You don't tend to find many HR people moving into becoming a managing director. There's not many of us out there and I credit that with the armed forces and HR.

The Trailblazers Experience:

So let's talk about that because you are right, if you sort of do a Google search or look on LinkedIn, most people become managing directors or CEOs. They either have a finance background, so they were CFOs before that, so the whole finance trajectory has helped them, or they were management consultants who've slipped into that role. It is different and I think it's also inspiring because I think the brands, businesses, service providers of today I personally don't think you have to come from one specific area in order to become a managing director or a CEO. There are so many key skills and competencies, which you've just talked about. And what makes a leader? There's so many definitions. You can be a transformational leader, a collaborative leader, authoritative, which is great in terms of making decisions, but just that whole encompassing, it's really great to hear and just see that there's a different way, a different path that one can take. Talk to me about how you landed that role.

Nadine Maggi:

I was taking thought. You mentioned the word rise of the stars and that was curious and inquisitive. I always start doing one of those annoying HR narratives. You're always asked why? Why are we doing it this way? Is there a better way of doing it? How do we sort it differently? And what that gave me is a lot of insight into Eslier. And that's when you get a talk about finance. There's talk about having insights across the business.

Nadine Maggi:

Hr has exactly the same thing. You work with salespeople, marketing people, operations, people, finance, finance people, because you have to understand what they do. And I used to always say to my team in order to be a great hr person, you have to understand the business. How can you advise the business and how can you help people if you don't truly understand what they do? So it's about getting on with the scene of what makes people good and how to achieve the best out of them. So you have to understand every single role. So I think it's actually the nature of always wanting to know more about every single discipline in an organization. And the last thing is my ceo, who took the wisdom on me, stole those insights rather than just to shoot me up around the ball table from now on.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Okay, then you come in now, nadine, and you do it. You show us how it's done. Basically, yeah, yeah, I'm doing it, you're going to build the skills rather than just to shoot me. I love that.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Yeah, that's just the best way to just shut someone up to say we'll give you the role and then you can stop asking all the questions you can provide with the answers, um as as well, and just talk to me about your um, the challenges that you faced. So if you've sort of summarized your, your life in a whistle-stop tour in 10 minutes of things that you've done, but you, you must have had some challenges during this time, and we know that in society today, there are a lot of people who are suffering with mental health as a result because they haven't had anyone to talk to or had any leaders showing examples of challenges they may have had. And I feel this is an opportunity to say you know what? It hasn't been an easy road and these are some of the challenges I've faced've faced and this is how I got through it yeah, I think it's a lot of stuff from the outset as a woman, sort of growing up from a low socio-economic background.

Nadine Maggi:

So my family was very working class. I brought, I was brought up. Unfortunately my my father's business went under and we were all unemployed. My parents were unemployed for a long while. So Ben was one of the children in school who was on free school meals, who was turning up to get provident checks so we could buy our school uniforms, getting candy downs from our friends.

Nadine Maggi:

So I started out with that trajectory and then with, as I say, unfortunately I was easily distracted so I wasn't focused at school. So then I had the challenge of not leaving school the best of occasions. I left school at 16 because I felt I needed to work to bring income for my family. So I rolled points at 16, I had three jobs that helped me with that whole resilience and that whole work and hard ethic. So, like this felt before the forces just having three jobs to bring in income to help support my family. That started out that career.

Nadine Maggi:

And then I think, as a woman growing up in the sort of and starting a career in the 90s, there was still a lot of inequality. It was very much a male world, dominated by men in the boardroom, and you really had to treat yourself twice as much as the man next to you for promotion. And so, yeah, being a woman growing up, you really had to free yourself twice as much as the man next to you for promotion. And so, yeah, being a woman growing up, it was those challenges. And then, I suppose, at that point then, unfortunately, my mother passed away when I was very young. I was 25 when she passed away and she'd had mental health issues. So that was another challenge is helping her through that and seeing those mental health issues and how they can truly impact people. This is not a volunteer stress. This is that she was significantly impacted by mental health.

Nadine Maggi:

And then, as I got through my career, I had money issues starting starting out. We struggled to pay the bills. It was a very challenging time. Luckily, we worked really hard to get ourselves through that. And then, when I had my daughter, we found out she was severely autistic and had learning difficulties. So then, being a mum trying to work and bringing up an autistic daughter another challenge on top of that. From a personal perspective, yeah, it hasn't been an easy journey and the same with work I've, I've had challenges, really bad bosses for them, peers who would be very political and backstabbed, and businesses that were struggling at any times as well. So I've had the business struggles at the same time as well, and when I became managing director I took over a loss-making business. And that's not an easy thing to do and having to make decisions about people's livelihoods to keep a business afloat. They're probably some of the toughest decisions you ever have to make and the toughest challenges I've come across.

The Trailblazers Experience:

I mean, dean, thank you so much for being so vulnerable. You never know what's going on in people's lives and what situations have shaped who they are from a personal experience and professional and as someone who's also been through adversity. From a personal perspective, when you're going through adversity, you just feel like there's just one thing and then there's another thing that happens, and then another thing happens and you sort of think seriously when am I going to get out of this? And it's only hindsight is a very interesting thing. You're probably on reflection. All those experiences you talked about have made you show more empathy. The way you think about things, the way you view people, the way you view the world, the way you view about things, the way you view people, the way you view the world, the way you view business is probably your perspective has probably changed as well, definitely I think the spine wall was during COVID.

Nadine Maggi:

Um, I found out my best friend was having a neurodivergent neural disease and given five years to live, and I suppose the great little horror quote summarizes that journey which, which is in the face of adversity, there's dream, and I never forgot that dream of wanting to be the best person I could be, no matter what the challenge was. It's how can I overcome this challenge? What's the next thing I can do? So yeah, that's a very recent challenge that I've come across and try to use my social positions to try and help and raise funds for motor neurone disease as well, because that's my best friend's being diagnosed with that. That was another challenge, not as much of a challenge for that, but trying to raise awareness and raise funds for that as well yeah, yeah, indeed, and even just looking, we're going to talk about sweet freedom.

The Trailblazers Experience:

I've seen that there's a big push around supporting charities, as that is a business. So talk to me about your role at sweet freedom and why that's important to you and an interesting business that I hadn't heard of, and here we are talking about it.

Nadine Maggi:

Yes, yeah it's an interesting move. So I've worked for big smcgs before I mean multi-million pound smcgs and during covid had a little bit of an epiphany. I was writing an email to every employee every day during covid, talking about trying to keep focus on your mental health, how to get through adversity, and then what your passion is in life, what should purpose, what makes you happy. And at that point I thought what do I want to do? And I'm working really hard so I can help support my daughter, but I'm not spending any time with my daughter during the year she's growing up. So I decided to take a career break and take a year out. I was in sort of six little things.

Nadine Maggi:

In that career break I was approached by somebody to say I have a very little company, it needs to help um to grow and your career path is really interesting and would love you to come on board because of some of the ethics that you're displaying as an individual is the ethics of street freedom, and as soon as I heard about this company I just thought you're taking every single box. It's about helping people to have a healthier diet, trying to get people out of the obesity problems that we have, but not forgetting that things have to taste really nice. You can't just give up on things tasting good whilst whilst having those ethics. Well, as soon as I spoke to founders and saw all of the charity things they did for cancer, for animals, for welfare, listening to the ethics they have about sustainability, using no palm oil, not using refined sugar, no chemicals or artificial sweeteners, I was just like this is sold.

Nadine Maggi:

I love this company and for those who want to take a company like this to sort of sway my mind as well, because I had beforehand worked with Lyndon McCartney and they had the same the family had the same ethics, which was about focusing on watch for life, for the planet, watch for the people, watch for animals all that type of stuff and that sort of stuck with me. So the next company I joined I wanted to make sure it had those ethics, because it's not just about career, it's not just about finance, it's about it's that try to job your love and you then never work a day in your life, type of stuff. It's very easy to wake up and come towards knowing that you work for an ethical company and making decisions based on ethics rather than pure profit.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Yeah, and a smaller business as well, isn't it? So you're getting to work closely with founders as well. What unique perspectives do you think they've brought to the table to sort of, you know, invigorate your decision making and being an MD and asking the why questions that you love so much?

Nadine Maggi:

I suppose I always thought I was passionate about the businesses I work with and the brands that I work with Until you meet a founder. You do not know passion until you meet founders of their own businesses. They have put their own blood, sweat, tears, life do not know passion until you meet founders of their own businesses. They have put their own blood, sweat, tears, life and health on the line to follow a path which they're passionate about. So that's certainly true with the founders of Sleep. Freedom is the love. To do better is amazing. Do you have challenges amazing? Did you have challenges? Absolutely yes, because you're coming in especially as an outsider to say, like what you've done before is fantastic, but in order to get it to the next level, I'm going to challenge some of the thoughts that you have about your brand. Um, and that's. That's been tricky sometimes, but I work with some great sound.

Nadine Maggi:

I work with a great founder who is flexible. The first thing you learn about founders is the ability, the agility, the flexibility, the willing to make mistakes, the risk-taking that they are willing to do. You don't get as much of that in an FMCG because you've got lots of teams and boards who are maybe aren't willing to take as big a risk as what you can when you're working with founders. They are much more flexible than I am, so I found working with founders very, very interesting, and some people say they don't work for founders because they're a nightmare. I was lucky at my previous organization. I worked for the person who founded the business, so I had a little bit of experience about entrepreneurship and how entrepreneurs think, so I think that helped me to move to an f2, I'd say a v sme. It's not an sme, it's a v sme. It is a terribly small company, um, where you can bring your fmcg thinking to it because the founders are opens at that that that's interesting.

The Trailblazers Experience:

So working with founders I worked with founders before is really interesting. I'm always in awe of how they first of all had an idea and decided to run with it and then it's grown into a business that has a P&L and revenue and profit, et cetera. You're joining a business that's founder-led, so there's the passion about the mission, the vision of what they're doing, but we all know that companies fail that are startups and that even though they've scaled up, they just failed to to get over the line where they are profitable and can continue to grow. What made you say, looking at the finances, that you said? I think there's an opportunity here, apart from the passion and the people and the message that there's something I can do here to help this business, I think it was seeing the tenacity and resilience that those founders brought.

Nadine Maggi:

As you say, not many people can succeed in doing that. You've got to have extreme resilience and extreme tenacity. I saw some of the challenges that they've been through. I thought, right, because we are in for a bit of a rough ride here. We're going to have a lot of a challenge. Working in FMCG is not easy at times, especially when it's about commodities and pricing and working with retailers. People have their own challenges as well, but it is the physical company. So, knowing that they wanted to do the right thing, it was the resilience and tenacity that they showed and also the willingness to learn is I work with a founder who is willing to learn, who's willing to listen, who wants to get better, who is willing to listen to challenge and ideas. And when you've got a willingness to learn, a resilience and a synopsity, ethics and passion, then you go right. I think we can do something here. We can, we can do something with this business and it's great that helps as well, isn't it?

The Trailblazers Experience:

yeah, market fit, market product fit. It has to be. You should be able to sell a product and there should be a customer out there as well, but someone who doesn't know this and who doesn't know what fmcg is? Yes, mention it a few times what is it?

Nadine Maggi:

so I've got a cg as well as what's known as fast moving consumer goods. So pretty much soon. For anything you buy in the supermarkets is what we consider a fast moving consumer goods. Something that you go in and buy in the supermarkets is what we consider a fast-moving consumer good. Something that you go in and buy in the shop has been made by a fast-moving consumer good. So FNCG is about. It could be food, it can be non-food. So I've had experience in non-food with Hall Co, so the greasing card industry to the greasing card industry, and in food with Hayne, working with some brands like Yorkshire Ponder, linda McCartney, snoop Dogg and Stoom, and then moving to Sweet Freedom. So Fast and Moody Consumer Goods is basically a business which sells products Okay, sell consumer goods.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Yeah, it's so interesting. We always forget about how much what actually goes into producing food products, and there's so much in there and very tight margins as well. What are some of the challenges or the successes you've had as a brand that is so? First of all, it's vegan, it's healthy, it's, you know, has all the ingredients for something that are good for people, especially if we're fighting an obesity crisis, nutritional crisis, just people not knowing or understanding what they're putting into their bodies. Does that affect the decision making of who you want to trade with and where you can sell your products? Because if they're squeezing your margin but they might provide you with that larger customer base, they still might not be the right one for you as a brand.

Nadine Maggi:

Yeah, I think you've got to be sensible in these things, which is working with the resellers. It means you get volume, which means you get sales, which means you can keep your prices affordable. And certainly during the cost of living crisis is you've got to make sure that you're helping people, because it's all about having healthy food, but if you're on a lower income, that's not your first point of call is you can still be seen as a luxury. So how do you help lower income families to move into a healthy agenda? Well, first of all, you've got to be value for money. The second thing you've got to be tasty, because it's okay being healthy, as I keep saying, you've got to be affordable and you've got to be valuable money. The second thing you've got to be tasty, because it's okay being healthy.

Nadine Maggi:

As I keep saying, you've got to be affordable and you've got to be tasty, otherwise people aren't picking you up again, and there are a couple of companies who you work with and you go. You're basically squeezing too tight now and the more that you're putting on is very against the ethics of what we're trying to do as a company here. We're trying to keep the prices as low as we possibly can and they're asking companies who you go. Yeah, maybe you don't want to work with you, which is very tricky, because it's all about sales, it's all about growth, it's all about volumes, and I used to say sales is vanity, profit is sanity so you always like to keep looking at the bottom line, because there's no point in having a business which could go under and make everybody redundant.

Nadine Maggi:

You've got to make sure that you're keeping your head above water and making it a viable proposition for the long term. It's all just keeping a five ten year plan in mind about the decisions you make today. How are they going to impact you five years down the line?

The Trailblazers Experience:

there's something about your lived experience, isn't it, that shines through there, personal and professionally, where, like you said, it's thinking about what are we trying to do here and for the longevity of the business, but also the people who you're working with, if you're working across different functions, the impact of a sales decision on the logistics team, manufacturing, marketing, and, if it goes wrong, what has to happen afterwards. It's it's all those things to to think about yes, it.

Nadine Maggi:

It's all about the decision I take now. How is it going to impact the wire chain? How is it going to impact operations? What's the impact on the brand, what's the impact on the people, what's the impact on the employees? It's those decisions. Sometimes, and certainly in my last role, is I had to make some difficult decisions to consolidate salaries. So, knowing that, unfortunately, we were going to had to make some difficult decisions to consolidate salaries, so knowing that, unfortunately, we were going to have to make some redundancies, it's very tricky, but knowing for the longer term, it was to try and save 2,000 jobs elsewhere. So it's, it's looking at the picture again. Okay, the longer term is I'm trying to save more jobs than what I'm currently laying off and yeah, it's still not easy because you've got people who rely on you oh no, it's, it's, it's a trade-off.

Nadine Maggi:

Everyone else talks about, you know, career achievements and milestones, but having to lay off people is very difficult and very challenging, because it's people's livelihoods at the end of the day especially with my background, seeing my parents being unemployed and seeing the impact they had on me and how I was treated in school um, I think Captain No's trainers, I did have the best friends, um, and children can be cruel sometimes, so I always have that in the back of my head. Is what you're doing is going to have an impact on them and their children?

The Trailblazers Experience:

Yeah, there's a massive knock on effect, definitely so, reflecting on your career break, which I love the fact that on your LinkedIn, you actually put it on there career break, which a lot of people hide from their CVs and actually it is an important part of your life where you decided to pump the brakes and say I'm doing something different now, and this is important to me. What insights did you gain during that time? That's influenced the direction you want to go in the next few years and also, potentially, your leadership style yeah, and it is.

Nadine Maggi:

It's really interesting question because I used to be one of those people who used to look at the cds of people on a career break going well, they haven't tried hard enough to get another job. What are they hiding? Obviously they're not good enough. And so that's the first insight, which is don't take things on face value. You do not know why that person helped that career group. Was it because they wanted to spend more time with the family? Was it because they will be in a care of somebody? Was it because the adult health is? You don't know why they have that career break. So that's the first insight. It's just having a career break itself and seeing that muscle and seeing it.

Nadine Maggi:

But taking time for yourself is really important, certainly for mental health is making sure you find something that gives you you back. Sometimes you can get lost. In being so focused on the career, you forget about you. You forget about why you exist, what you do, what you bring to the world. Um, and I used that time really wisely, which was really looking at my career, put a lot of weight on, so it was about getting back into fitness, making sure that again, speaking the longer term, I don't want to be around for my daughter for as long as I can, so I need to be as fit and healthy as I can be. Um, as I said, my friend was diagnosed with mnd, so I wanted to give something back and sometimes in business again, you forget that. You forget about what can we do as a business to give something back into the world.

Nadine Maggi:

How can I help charities? How can I help charities? How can I help raise funds? How can I help raise awareness? And just giving me the passion to just relax. It's okay to just take time out. It doesn't have to be on a stone, but I think probably the biggest one is for those of you who know me know I am full force. I am in a lot of issues but I'm going for it. The three of legs helped me to take that course. I just go right. It's just the right thing to do. Take that calmness and just take that care with a reflection. So I think taking a step back is probably my biggest learning out of the whole career break piece let's talk about self-care, because I'm a big advocate for women also taking space and time for themselves.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Yes, we are naturally carers, you know. We are always caring about our, whether it's our families, our children, it's. It's a big responsibility on our, on our shoulders. What does self-care mean to you and what are some of the practices that you've done? You talked about getting yourself together. What, what are you? What have you been doing, nadine?

Nadine Maggi:

Well, today's a prime example. So the story goes for seven o'clock, get a $30 bike ride, and then I like to do walks. So every Saturday or Sunday I set myself a challenge in the years to walk 2,024 miles to help raise awareness for MND. What that time gives me is time of reflection. So I put my earphones in, listen to podcasts, get some insights. So self-care to me is about health, but mental health as well. It's just listening to podcasts and sometimes you think that's just the insight you're looking for. It can give you inspiration and it can also just help you with. Sometimes I have to put music on and just all the things you're using. You just have time, appreciate the nature, just not being in the hustle and bustle. So that's what self-care is to me, is taking that time out.

Nadine Maggi:

Um, and I'm. I'm really lucky. I've got an experienced horse of husband who just said but I don't mean giving people once. Then I basically went there four days a week. So I have a wednesday, I don't.

Nadine Maggi:

I may have day off where I go to the gym, I think paddleboard, and I even have spa days, which is is is that whole me just taking time again. I do believe that gives me the energy for the other four days a week to physically work the equivocal, or five days a week anyway, because I'm so invigorated each the weekend and the midday break. Um, it just keeps that energy up and keeps that passion, and that's why I think burnout is something we've all got to be aware of is you've got to take time to yourself, otherwise it's you can't be everything, you can't do everything, and that's been a big lesson for me is trying to be the best life. I could be the best mom, I could be the best md, I could be the best peer, I could be the best boss I could be. You can't have it all so you can't.

The Trailblazers Experience:

You can't, isn't it? Yeah, you have to be moving the dials and adapting to the different phases of your life and prioritize. Reprioritizing at different stages, I think, is really key.

Nadine Maggi:

Many, many years ago, I did a training course called Investment and Excellence, and one of the biggest things I got used to do was to do a balance wheel. So on the balance wheel you write things about health, fitness, family, love, education and whatever you want that wheel to be which is important to you, and you score yourself out of 10 and basically what allows you to do is to go okay, there's an area in my balance wheel that I'm not paying as much attention to, so I need to just shift the dial a little bit to make sure I've got this balance wheel. Um, and I've always lived by that, and every every now and again I'll do a little balance wheel and say okay, what's the things that are important to me? How am I soaring? All right, I've dropped off a little bit there and now I need to refocus my life in that area.

The Trailblazers Experience:

That's such a good way of looking at that because we'll have different women at different stages of their lives listening to the podcast, so they may not be able to afford a great bike or join a gym walking. You know it's free get out the house or your flat, wherever you're living, and just embrace the sunlight. They always say sunlight before screen time is a big thing that's going on.

The Trailblazers Experience:

And just getting out there and getting your steps is the best way to start. And as you then improve in these little areas, I believe in incremental gains. Then you can progress to I think I will join a running club, or I will now join a tri club, I can afford to buy a snazzy bike, or et cetera, et cetera. There is no excuse for you not to start taking care of yourself at the different stages of your life.

Nadine Maggi:

No, I think walking is so underestimatedimated and it's something that I did to start my weight loss journey. To do walking was combined with trying to raise money. But walking is I. I try. Well, I do walk 12 000 steps every single day, uh, rain or shine. Um, I even bought myself an indoor treadmill, but yeah, just even getting out up your front door taking the fresh air, even in the rain, it's just mentally and physically the best thing you can do. That's amazing.

The Trailblazers Experience:

You mentioned loving to see others achieve great things and, having interviewed so many women, I was talking about how networking, but also mentorship, has played a very big role in either them moving into the next stage of their life or seeing someone who they mentored or coached progress. Do you want to share a story how you've helped someone in your journey achieve a goal, how that's impacted you in in your journey as well?

Nadine Maggi:

yes, and. But I say that's what makes me, when I'm the happiest, when I see somebody else achieve something really good, I still look good in hand, like me. It was early on in my HR career. I had a HR advisor who was working for me and she'd come from a company, a boss, who was not great. So she came in with extreme low self-esteem, doubting her ability, doubting what she could do. But she had a real passion to want to go further in life. She wanted to be a hr director and other hr directors. She said I want to be hr director. How did you get there? What did you do?

Nadine Maggi:

So I think what I needed to do is what is the first thing you need to do is understand that end goal. Why do you want to get to that end goal? What is it that's important to you to get to that end goal? If it's just purely financial, then it's going to be a very difficult journey. But you want to have an impact, an influence, you want to change things, you want to make a difference in the world, then that's a very easy way to start helping somebody. So the first thing I had to do was let's call it all the first thing I had to do was to build up that self-esteem again, was to help her to understand all the great things that she'd achieved so far in her life. She hadn't got to the position of being a HR advisor by not being intelligent or not being proactive or not being useful or good at what she did. So it's about helping her really look at self-esteem all of the time. So sitting down there just asking questions and I always have to look of curious nature comes in. It's asking questions to her to help her see her own responses. So not telling her how she was good, but helping her to tell herself how she was good. Once they've thought that that whole self-esteem, they'll start to say, ok, so if you want to be a HR director, you've got experience in this area of HR, but you haven't got this experience, this experience, this experience.

Nadine Maggi:

So let's talk about secondments, let's talk about projects. We can give you that you can do to give you that experience to help a much more rounded CV. So for a gallery, there are a few projects. Again, you have to balance that with other people because you haven't just got one person in your team more around and see the tougher a day. There are a few projects. Again, you have to balance that with other people because you haven't just got one person in your team. You don't really do favouritism. So I did the same thing with other people. I made sure that I gave people projects to give them that experience, and then I asked her to then start helping other people, to helping junior people in HR.

Nadine Maggi:

She progressed through her career. Now you start paying it back, so help, mentor and give guidance to other people. I was also very open and honest and said you might not get to do this in this business and there's something I call the PAD in effect, my fair lady, which is, if you get progression in a company, always see you where you started. So it's a bit where, um, there's an analysis of the little line which basically says that henry higgins will always see her as a flower of love because that's how he met her. So, despite bringing her into being a lady, he always saw her and treated her as a flammable. So sometimes you have to take that leap to change organizations, to get out of that mindset, to help you to progress, you grow further. She did that, um, and she is a hr director now and we're still in touch and we'll metapholize you in a week. And she now say okay, so speak to me.

Nadine Maggi:

As an MD, I want to be a better HR director. What will I need to do in business now as a managing director who has HR people? What would you say to me now is the most important thing. So again, I'm really lucky. I've got a lot of ex-people who work for me who I'm still in touch with and still ask me questions and still want to know how to rest and say what would you do in this circumstance? And one of them even says as a HR director, I always go. What would the dean do? Which is probably the biggest compliment I should ever say to you, which is what would the dean do in this circumstance?

The Trailblazers Experience:

You've become an acronym now. That's, uh, highest form of praise, isn't it as well. But you've shared some really great insights. I think one of the reasons why she's also successful is she took action, so she, she sought advice and put in the work herself to, to get herself to the, to the level. And I love what you said about progression we are. If you are complacent and too comfortable in a certain area, that is not where growth comes from. Growth comes from stepping out of your comfort zone, moving into unknown territories, and that is how you develop as a leader, as a person. It's so interesting. But when we're in that situation, sometimes well, not sometimes we as humans just think there is no way I'm going to get over this. There's no, I'm going to make a difference somewhere else. I'm in my comfort zone, I know this business, I know this area, but actually the growth and the development comes from stepping into the unknown.

Nadine Maggi:

Yes, it is and it's one of those ones which is because you're up against other people who are talented as well. So it's not just you who wants this career path, you're up against a little four or five people who've also got this career path as well. So is sometimes you have to make that move, and that's one of the reasons why I left forward, because I wanted the next level. So I had to take that risk and I moved to a different company, in an unknown company, and that's what you have to do sometimes if you want to progress.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Yeah, and there's something there about what you said is there as many good leaders as bad leaders? And, unfortunately and this conversation, the candid conversation that you had with her at the time may not have been possible if you weren't the leader that you were. So, for the audience that's listening, you may try to bring on that conversation and may not yield the same results. It's time, then, to reflect and think maybe other opportunities are where I need to go to get that growth. That is the hard truth as well, isn't it?

Nadine Maggi:

And I don't believe in disabled truths to people. You've got to be authentic. People see through non-authentic people. You've got to be authentic, you've got to believe what you say and people can see straight through it. People aren't stupid. So sometimes you've got to have those hard conversations, which is it might not be possible to do what you want to do in this business. Um, so you might have to think, or it might not be. You want to go into this area. I'm sorry, but you haven't got the experience yet and you need to go and do xyz to broaden your horizons, to get you to that place where you want the things you're working on next.

The Trailblazers Experience:

You've had such an amazing career and a great career career journey, so to say, what's inspiring you now, what is getting you out of bed and where do you see yourself from a career perspective and personal perspective as well?

Nadine Maggi:

yeah, I think the first one is this one needs free freedom. It's just so because it's such a great company that it's about changing lives of people for good, so it's it's really easy to go up and be cashing for that. But ultimately, longer term, I'd love to get into non-exec directorship. I'd love to go and help mentor other small businesses, other weak female leaders, to go and help on mergers and acquisitions, because I've done a lot of mergers and acquisitions in my background to help turn around companies. So, yeah, my long-term role is to be a non-exec director. What I suppose feeling these podcasts is hopefully sharing some. I can just help one person, then me talking to you has been a valuable time. So just knowing that I might help other people is where I'm seeing the future it's all about, yeah, that personal achievement. But also keeping on with that theme is if I can help others do better, then I like to do that. If I can see others getting results, then that's a great accomplishment.

The Trailblazers Experience:

And definitely with all that we've been seeing in the news of businesses going under, not surviving, and you always wonder did they have the right tea? What could have been that turnaround strategy? How could this have gone another direction? I think it's important to know that there are people out there, such as yourself, who are like hey, call on me so we can help, potentially, turn this business around and move it in the right direction, and also there are great up andand-coming brands like Sweet Freedom, who just have a different point of view, different purpose, mission, vision that we need new businesses, new ideas that are just looking at the consumer from a different lens.

Nadine Maggi:

Yes, and as a Jane, that's another reason I not only give thought to the ethics of Sweet Freedom, but I wanted to get small business experience because FMCG so big corporates where you've got lots of money, lots of people to invest in in a very different world to small and medium companies. I was late. There's a bit of a culture shock coming into an SME. I was used to working for a client but such a big brand like Linda McCartney, where I thought pretty much you could cut the phone to any buyer in retail and say can I have a meeting? Leave all sorts of ex-fines out. You come to an SME where no one's heard of you, grant, no one knows who you are, and you go can I have a meeting? They're like, hey, I've got time for you. So you suddenly go all right, okay, I have to think about this a little bit differently. So again, hope I could help people to understand.

Nadine Maggi:

As an sme there's very different challenges. In that mcgs I didn't really have to worry about cash flow, how much money was in the bank. I had a big company with lots of money in the bank, whereas in SME you're looking at the bank statements every single day going like, okay, I've got to plan my production. I've got to plan what my spend is, what my outcomes are, because, again, cash in the bank is critical to a small business. So we're getting hope in the future I can help small businesses as well as big businesses Because, as I say, I've got lots of experience in mergers to help people with this how to make mergers successful, because it's not only about the business you buy. It's about how you integrate that business into yours and how you get the synergies and how you get the best out of people. So, yeah, that's what I'd like to help with in the future.

The Trailblazers Experience:

On reflection and hindsight, what would you say are the professional milestones that you're most proud of?

Nadine Maggi:

I think well, I think the first one was because I left school with not many qualifications, was to work full-time and do a plot-time degree to an undergraduate in HR. So that takes a lot of commitment and time and as I was seeing my graduating which I never thought I would do even the background I was being with the people who I was. People just didn't go to university, they didn't graduate, they didn't have that sort of scroll. So that's probably my first proudest moment is graduating university. The second one would probably be again something out of adversity is, unfortunately.

Nadine Maggi:

I have an experience at HR where we lost two of our employees in the 7-7 bombing and how I behaved during that time, how I worked with the family. We also had somebody who was severely injured and helping her and it was awful exiting the business in the right way, that she had the right support with the right things around her. We didn't do it quickly. So I'm quite proud of that moment, of how I behaved in that instance and how I got the company to behave in the right way towards the family of the victims of 7-7. The business turnaround that I achieved in my last company, which I'm really proud of, is to take a loss-making business and to turn it into a highly profitable business and doing the things that I set out to do at the start, which was to say to employees trust me and we're all Australians together you've got to believe in what I'm doing. You shouldn't be ashamed of making money as a business, because if you make money, I can invest it back into you. I can invest it back into your wages, back into your benefit, back into your personal development and we can be a great company together. If you don't make money, it's very difficult to do that, so it's not going to be a very enjoyable career. So doing that turnaround and getting people on board to believe in the journey and to help us turn around that business is probably another fantastic achievement. And then my final thing that I'm proud of is bringing out a new product I had no experience in in a new drink, and guessing to see that product come to fruition from an idea of watching Bake Off the Professionals and seeing them in the video. Ooh, that sounds interesting. It's a normal waste product. It gives you natural sweetness, so we're getting earlier to the ethics of sweet. Freedom with that natural sweetness is finding things that are natural. So yeah, I've still got the next challenge, though, so it's going to get listed everywhere. But hey, that's the next challenge.

Nadine Maggi:

Yeah, looking back at my life, there's some really weird things that I'm a professional, I suppose. From a personal perspective, there's been to be a supportive and caring to my daughter and helping her through her challenges that she's got as an autistic child and trying to help her have a future, which is going to be beneficial, because unfortunately the statistics are not very good for severely autistic children. It's only 10% who go want to have any sort of job. 90% will be unemployed. So thinking about how we can help her on her journey. So the first one is getting a reserve of high school. The second one is helping her to understand positives about herself. So, to my personal perspective, it's self-care and that, nadine, you've still got a lot of challenges ahead of that, nadine.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Such a good way to to circle back, isn't it? And just reflecting on your, your life and your career and just humanizing you as as well. Someone may look at your profile on linkedin and say, oh my goodness, this amazing, badass woman, she's just a titan and she's done all these things and now she's an MD. But you've lived a life, you've had your own experiences, your own challenges, where you've had to learn from that. And this is the purpose of the podcast to bring people to life, to say there is nothing insurmountable in terms of what you're going through. There is a way it may be, a different path.

Nadine Maggi:

You unique, you are you and it's important to sort of reflect on that yeah, as it's, this is a great podcast to help them be able to say you will have challenges in life. Not everything is going to be easy. You've all faced brick walls, but it's not insurmountable and without, just keep the lab and you can help soon. Sometimes don't try and do it alone. There are plenty of people out there who can help soon. Sometimes, don't try and do it alone. There are plenty of people out there who you can reach out to. Some great coaches, some great mentors, great networks and networking is critical. Just to hear other people's stories, you can apply it to yourself. So, yes, love this podcast. Just for helping people to go. I'm a bit stuck. What do I do next? There's people out there, you're not alone.

The Trailblazers Experience:

You're not alone. That's a really good one. We always end the podcast with trailblazer takeaway tips. So three things to guide our viewers, our audiences, because someone may have clicked on this podcast and just clicked right to the end. If they just click on the trailblazer takeaway tips, we're happy as well. What would you say are your three takeaway tips for anyone listening?

Nadine Maggi:

I suppose my first takeaway tip was to leave a foot in the past already. Just find your balance wheel. Know what's important to you, know where you want to focus your life and do your own balance wheel is the first one. The second one is find networking opportunities, because people have been through what you're going through. There are people out there who can help and advise you. So networking is also critical. And I think the final one is have fun. Not everything has to be serious. Career is serious. Life is serious. Serious life is serious. Challenges are serious, but if you don't enjoy it, then it's. It's a lot harder I love that.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Life is for living, isn't it? The end of the day, yes, so yeah, that felt good, nadine, thank you so much. I've learned so much. I will actually be doing the balance wheel, going back and reflecting. I've got a mood board where I've sort of like put all my things that I'm focusing on, and I tend to take lots of notes, but I think the exercise of the balance is a very good one, just to say, okay, where am I dialing up here or where do I need to dial down? And you know we are constantly work in progress, as as women as well, isn't it?

Nadine Maggi:

yeah, that's really let's know about the sneak enough also, and it'll be never stop learning there you go.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Yeah, sneaky one love that. Never stop learning. Yeah, that's a really good one. Thank you so much for your time. This has been amazing and for the audience out, this has been the Trailblazers Experience podcast. I would encourage you to follow, like, share, subscribe we are on all streaming platforms and tell another woman about the podcast. Thank you very much.