Women in the Arena
Women in the Arena is the celebration of everyday women living extraordinary lives in plain sight. We seek to inspire, encourage and challenge you to reach for the great heights you're made for.
Women in the Arena
You Don't Have to Be Ready, Just Willing with Kerryn Vaughan
A profound loss can either break us or transform us. For Kerryn Vaughan, the death of her sister became the catalyst that changed everything.
Kerryn's story begins with a self-described "rock and roll life" focused entirely on herself, until her sister's cancer diagnosis and subsequent death shattered her world. Standing on stage at a cancer fundraiser years later, Kerryn experienced a life-altering revelation: "I realized I had this incredible power within me to make a difference to other people's lives." This awakening launched her on a humanitarian path that continues to create ripples of change across continents.
With refreshing candor and humor, Kerryn shares the remarkable journey that led her to write "Magnificent Kids," a book showcasing extraordinary children making global impact—like Daniel, who despite cerebral palsy travels through jungles to protect orangutans, and Jack, who at 15 developed an affordable test strip for pancreatic cancer. These stories inspired Kerryn to found One Planet Classrooms, initially conceived as a cultural exchange program that evolved into something far more profound.
What began as a simple plan to connect Australian and African classrooms transformed when Kerryn discovered the harsh realities facing Ugandan schoolgirls. Learning that girls missed school because they had to fetch contaminated water or lacked sanitary supplies—often leading to abuse, early marriage, or worse—Kerryn pivoted her organization to address these fundamental needs. Through solar power installation, clean water access, and student sponsorships, One Planet Classrooms literally saved lives.
Kerryn's humanitarian work expanded further with Girls with Hammers, a movement empowering women to embrace their authentic selves. As she reflects on these experiences, Kerryn offers this powerful takeaway: we don't need to have everything figured out to make a difference. Sometimes, the most impactful journeys begin with simply raising your hand and saying, "I'll do it."
Ready to make your own impact? Kerryn's story proves that even our "failures" can lead to extraordinary positive change when we keep showing up and taking that next step. What difference could you make today?
Welcome in everyone and thank you so much for joining me again this week. This week, I am joined by this amazing, incredible powerhouse of a woman. This week, I'm joined by Karen Vaughn, and she's an international speaker, author, facilitator and fellow podcast host, magnificent Kids, which was the catalyst to her founding the Global Organization of One Planet Classrooms, which facilitates such projects as clean water solutions and student sponsorships programs for communities in Africa. She also helped launch the Girls with Hammers, which hosts conferences and workshops that's aimed at empowering and connecting women, and she also has a second book, get Off the Bench, which helps people bring their ideas to life. It is my pleasure and my honor to introduce to you Karen. Karen, thank you so much for being here and welcome to the show.
Kerryn:No, thank you very much for having me. It's an absolute pleasure to be here, wonderful.
Audra:Well, thank you very much for having me. It's an absolute pleasure to be here, wonderful Well, thank you for being here. As people might have detected, you are not from Brooklyn. You are obviously from the other side of the planet. Will you tell us where you are from, karen?
Kerryn:I'm from Australia and down the bottom near Melbourne, three hours east of Melbourne, in Gippsland, and so technically we're like ahead of you. So right now, I don't know, it's nighttime view or something, and it's eight o'clock in the morning for me, so I can tell you that Wednesday is a beautiful day, how's?
Audra:that Excellent, excellent. Well, thank you for letting us know that Wednesday is a beautiful day. It is Tuesday evening here on the West Coast, here in the US, so I look forward to Wednesday being a great day, so thank you for letting us know that my pleasure. Today, we're going to talk about all the amazing things that you have done with your life and with your energies, and what inspired you to do that. And your life didn't start out that way you were. You were a wild rock and roll star.
Kerryn:I was, I was living the rock and roll life and, uh, thought it was all about me and, and clearly it was all about me back then. But, um, yeah, I think that was all I was focused on and and I, I don't think I'd really other than my grandma passing away with cancer. You know, when I was 21, I don't think I'd really had much trauma or much, you know, losing anybody close. And then my sister got. I was actually playing a gig and my middle sister rang me and said that the next one down, so the fourth, fourth girl, five girls in our family my poor father, but anyway he reminds us of that often and the fourth one was diagnosed with breast cancer. And it really shocked me because I couldn't and to be honest, I was probably not emotionally intelligent at all and hadn't really lived other than had some good street smarts, but I could only see the D word for death, you know, and I couldn't actually even comprehend that she could survive. And anyway, I'll try and keep this short because it's a very, very, very thorough story. Um, I, I tried to save her, like I'm the oldest in the family and I, I sort of went on this mission to save her life and you know I even employed a witch doctor and all sorts of things. But she came to I, we, we had a family holiday in Hawaii 20 years before this and you know the whole family agreed, we just love Hawaii. And I was going over with my partner and my sister said I want to come and we said are you okay? She said, yeah, I'm cured, I'm healed, you know everything else.
Kerryn:But she had a brain hemorrhage on the plane over, which we didn't know, that's what it was. When we got off she said, oh, I've got a headache. And then we were wandering around Waikiki and she was sort of stumbling and sick and vomiting and I kept saying you've got to go to a doctor, like this isn't right. And she kept saying no, no, I'm good, I'll be good. And about a week into it I absolutely cracked it and said that's it, I can't do this anymore. Yeah, you're going to the hospital. And so I took her to the hospital and she'd had a major brain bleed and I have no idea how she was even walking. She wasn't walking by this stage. She was just not in a good state but refusing to go to the hospital, anyway. So, and then they had to do life-saving surgery and they opened up her brain and said it's full of tumors and we'll have to close it back up and she'll die here. And so there was a lot of all my family flew over and had to make some really heartbreaking decisions, you know about how to deal with that. But finally, with the Australian Embassy on board, we got her back to Australia and she lived a couple more months but she did make it back to her hometown and you know that was all. She wanted to come back to Warragul, which is a little rural town in Victoria.
Kerryn:But after she died it was, um, you know, I guess back then I was actually I wasn't that young, I was 39 and I probably should have been a bit more grown up and a bit more mature, but I, I was still operating in that space of I've got to be tough, I've got to be strong. I can't show emotion. You know that's weakness and I'm the oldest in the family and when I look back now I just think, oh man, how I wish I knew what I knew now back then. And so I ended up quitting my job in the city and came back to work in a nursery and I thought a nursery over here is where we grow plants and not a baby nursery and I thought I'll just hide behind the plants. You know I can have my own little private little grief party and nobody will see me.
Kerryn:But that ended up disaster. That was disastrous. The owners of the nursery were absolute oh, just pricks, you know, yelling at everybody and I ended up locking the boss in the shed and you know, somebody let her out. You know I saw her. A few days later she was out.
Kerryn:See, the dogs love that story. They do, they love the story, and yeah, so that and just I'll let you ask some questions in a minute, but I'll just quickly, you know, say that I kind of felt lost and didn't really know. You know, I felt like a failure, to be honest, because as the older sister I'm supposed to save. Well, it's not the truth, but in my head, you know, I should have been able to save her. I didn't. I failed and the rest of the people in the town, our family's very well known in the town and people in the town, sort of. We had Real Life for Life coming to Warragul and that I don't know if you have it over there, but it's like an overnight event where you walk around round a track and raise money for the council, council and all that so it's coming to work your life.
Kerryn:We have that.
Kerryn:Yes, we sure do. Yeah, you do, yeah. So, uh, a few people in the town said to me, why don't you come and join the committee? And you know, I think they thought that was a great way for me to honor my sister, you know, to, to, to take part in something cancer related. And anyway, I took on multiple roles. I don't know why, but you know, I just took it all on not knowing what I was doing. And so there was entertainment coordinator very easy for me. Ceremony coordinator very easy. Activities all of these things I already knew back to front, but it was a massive success.
Kerryn:And I was on that stage on the last day and we were, you know, saying how much we'd raised. It was like I don't remember now, but something like 110,000 or something. It was the very first one. It was a really good fundraising thing and I was getting praise for doing good for others, you know, doing well. I didn't want the praise, but it was at that point that I realized I had the power.
Kerryn:You know, I had this incredible power within me to make a difference to other people's lives and I had not noticed that before. You know, I had not, other than, I guess, every time I was on stage and I was making people happy, but I was selfishly doing it for me more than them, you know. And when I realized, wow, look what I've done and look how many lives this has impacted and potentially, look how many lives this has saved, potentially, look how many lives this has saved it was a real turning point for me. So that was the turning point. It took me 11 years before I wrote my first book, 11 years of searching and seeking. And what is it I want to do? How do I help more people? You know, how do I get that feeling again?
Audra:So now I'll stop there so you can ask something, but that, that's basically the turning point so that way, it was 11 years from the time that your sister died to when that spark hit that you're like, oh, I think I know what I need to do now. Yeah, and it was, um, so that. So it was that 11 years of searching and being a little lost as to now what? Because your sister's life had that much of impact on you, of that loss, that that void that she had left in your family, especially you being the oldest you put all that responsibility on yourself of. I should have been able to fix this.
Kerryn:And shouldn't have put that. You know. Yeah, that's right. I think in that 11 years it kind of sounds like I was wandering around aimlessly. I wasn't, I was busy, but I couldn't put my finger on it, you know.
Kerryn:But one thing I did do is when I was 10, my dad was in the Lions Club and we took a bus full of people with disabilities down to a fun park in the city and I remember we stopped at a park and I was kicking a footy with a young guy with Down syndrome and I loved it. And this was when I was 10. I loved it and I always had in my mind I want to work with people with disabilities, but never did it, you know. Just life took me in other directions and probably I was just being too selfish to do it, to be honest. But then when all this happened and after I left the nursery, I just quit everything and thought you know what I'm going back to learn how to work with people with disabilities. So I did my certificate four in disability work and after the two years the teacher asked me do you want to come and teach with me? She said I'm really taken by the level of kindness that you're showing in the role plays and I think you'd be a great teacher. So I did, I started that. So I did, I started that. And then we her and I started um doing autism and behavior specialist work, you know, going into schools and training um, disability services and that kind of thing and I became a behavior specialist. And then I I left the teaching and went to do that in an, in a, an organization, department of human services you you'll have something similar to that over there and found that that was really not as much integrity in there as I thought there might be or hoped there might be, and so I ended up going out on my own.
Kerryn:But when I was in teaching and I would go to some of the schools, the teachers would say to me fix these kids, there's something really wrong with them. And I used to say the kids are not broken, the system's broken, we're getting it wrong. And Magnificent Kids, which is the first book I wrote when I was 50, so 11 years later is not about kids with autism, even though there are a couple of kids in there with autism. It was the fact that I started to get a bit peeved at. Why aren't we listening to kids.
Kerryn:I could hear kids having great ideas and they didn't have a lid, they didn't have this limiting belief system, you know, that says I can't do that, can't do that Like us adults we're professionals at that and I thought we're not listening. Kids, they've got some great ideas and so that was the spark that thought I'm going to do something about this. I'm actually going to showcase some of these kids. So I wrote the book and yeah, that's where I'm going to do something about this. I'm actually going to showcase some of these kids. So I wrote the book and, yeah, that's where I started.
Audra:Tell us a little bit about some of these kids that you highlighted in Magnificent Kids, because you shared with me a little bit about some of these kids and I was just amazed and in awe with what some of these kids have done that are quote, unquote, disabled, which they put me to shame and many of the adults that I know to shame, because these kids are quite accomplished and I don't care how you label them, these kids are amazing. So share with us what some of these kids have done.
Kerryn:Right? Well, first of all, I will say that the kids don't have disabilities, so these are just ordinary kids that are, you know, out there doing magnificent things. However, saying that, and I've got the book in front of me so that I can make sure that I actually tell you a few things but there is one boy in there who is in a wheelchair and I'm going to actually find it because I really so. He used to love Steve Irwin. Now, I don't know if you guys have heard you would have Crocodile. You know Steve Irwin, he'd chase crocodiles, yeah, yeah. And so he was in love with him, like he used to watch all his shows and everything else with him. He used to watch all his shows and everything else. Then he got stung in the heart with a stingray barb. Daniel went to his mum and said, distraught, who's going to save them? Now? She said I don't know. He's got cerebral palsy, he's in a wheelchair. He said I don't know, and he's got cerebral palsy, he's in a wheelchair. And he said, well, I'll have to. And his mum was like, okay, whatever you want to do. So the support was there. So that's Daniel Clark. So that's just one person. He ended up with his brother going to Borneo and Sumatra and all that and doing treks through the jungle. They've purchased so many acres of land for the orangutans and that kind of like. Some amazing, amazing work they've done, written a book and just great stuff. Oh, I've got this list. It's just amazing. Carter and Olivia Reese you know they were seven and eight and they started advocating for animals, wild animals, and they've been to Vietnam arguing with the government about rhino horns. They've sent boxes of hair and fingernails to the Chinese government saying this is what we stop poaching. Stop poaching rhino horn. This is what it's made of. If you want hair and fingernails, here's a box. They got arrested when they were 10 and 12 for protesting in Dallas about a black rhino auction. You know it's stuff that you and I would be too scared to do, like we won't come up with shit and we won't do that. And it's Jack.
Kerryn:Andraker is another one. He was 15 and his family friend died of pancreatic cancer and to get pancreatic tests. You know they're not very accurate, not always accurate. He had 100 knockbacks actually to where the 100th lab said to him yeah, you can come and have a play in here and see what you can work out. He developed a little test strip to test for pancreatic cancer and it was way, way, way more accurate than anything on the market and it costs like two cents for this strip and all these others cost a fortune, you know, and was almost prohibitive for a few people.
Kerryn:And the list goes on. Like it's just Jordan. Who else, well, I don't know. Jordan Shara she was just doing, you know, not just doing like collecting pills, because they were going into the rivers, you know, and had all these pill collection places. Dallas Jessop she was, you know, someone got raped at her college so she started up self-defense classes for women, you know, just yell fire, teaching women to just yell fire and scream, you know. And Avalon Tyson she was seven. She had a TV station, like I could just go on and on and on.
Kerryn:And there's just so many amazing kids in here, but all of them doing life world changing projects, you know, in before the age of 18, some of them seven and eight, and there's 23 of them that I've featured here. And there's thousands of kids in the world doing just sensational things. This was in 2014,. So they're all now young adults. You know, I still stay in touch with quite a lot of them. It made me realize that if I'm 50 and these kids are 7, 8, 9, 10, you know what could I have done? And it's not living a life of regret, but it's living a life of holy hell. You better get started, you better pull your finger out and do something.
Audra:So yeah, that's the story behind that and that led to One Planet Classroom. Yeah, what was the work that you did with One Planet Classroom?
Kerryn:Yeah. So I had a book launch and a guy in Africa saw the book, you know, saw a picture photo of me with a friend, a friend of his. He said how do I get my hands on a book? So I said I'll send one over to you. Then he said I want to start a magnificent class. And I said that's great. Why don't we get? Because he wanted to Skype. He said will you Skype with my class? Yeah, yeah, I'll do that. Then he said I said what about if I get one of the kids in the book to Skype with your class? That's even better, like they could talk to them. And he's like oh yeah, that's fantastic. Then I said and and your listeners won't know this about me, but they'll know it as soon as I say it and we'll, it'll may all make sense. I jump in without thinking just because that you know that's what you do and I always fail. I have so many failures under my belt. But I think it's wonderful. And I said well, why don't I get a class in Australia to Skype with your class? So you do this pen pal thing? This was was when Skype was really big but very unreliable. It was kind of like hit and miss, will it work?
Kerryn:And a few things transpired and I ended up in a few weeks having 45 schools in Africa registered to do this program and what I realised is I didn't have any laptops. I'm like, well, how are they going to do that? They're all saying, but we don't have laptops. I said, oh God. So I've put a call out on Facebook Does anyone have a laptop? I want to send it to Africa. Next thing I've got 30. So, like you know, three times 10. And I'm like, oh my God, what am I going to do with all these laptops? How, what am I going to do? So I go to the post office and they say it's going to cost you six hundred dollars to send them because of lithium batteries each. And I'm like hell, that's eighteen thousand dollars. I'm not going to be able to do that. Like now, I've got all these laptops. I don't want to do with them, but I. But I thought I'm going to start a business. I'll just start because I don't know what else to do. I'll just start One Planet Classrooms and figure it out.
Kerryn:Anyway, it took us months and months and months and months to send these laptops over to Uganda. They had to go through Kenya into Uganda. But I failed significantly because in all those months I never stopped to question the time zones, never stopped to think, hey, wait a minute, the kids in Africa are not in school at the same time as the kids in Australia. They're never going to work. And not only that, I sent laptops to a country where 95% of them don't even have power. So another disaster, you know it's kind of like. This is great. Well, what they could do, they could drive it down to the marketplace and trickle feed it. You know those pictures you see on the internet of a thousand plugs on wires just hanging off one telegraph pole. Do you know? You know that kind of power pole? So we'd just trickle feed all day. So they'd spend the whole day standing there watching, guarding their laptop. It wasn't going to work, but anyway, what we realized is if we put solar systems into the schools and they could charge their laptops and initially that was the idea.
Kerryn:But what ended up happening, which was just profound, was that primary school goes to P7, level seven, and then if you don't pass, you can't go to high school. Now, for the girls that's really significant, because if you don't pass P7, you're going to get married off and you might only be 10, 11, 12 and you are going to get married off because there's no other option for you. And we're not talking about kind marriages to a 15-year-old boy and, you know, like a nice little romance. It's not like that. It's really really awful to older men that are incredibly abusive. And so the girls are desperate to pass. So the solar system provided them the opportunity that they could stay asleep at the school for two or three weeks when exam time was happening and actually pass. So the solar systems were life-saving, and when I say life-saving I mean that the abuse often ends in murder and stuff like that.
Kerryn:But also another reason the girls weren't progressing or passing is because they're the ones that had to go fetch the water, and so they would have to go oh, you know miles with a big jerry can. Some of the kids were as young as three. You know like off fetching water from these dirty, stagnant ponds. You know that men were peeing in and animals were toileting in and just full of worms, just disgusting, and some of the kids were dying from that, drinking that sort of water as well. But the girls were doing this and while they were doing that, they couldn't stay in school, they couldn't be in school to learn, so they failed again. So there's a lot of barriers for girls and I'm going to be honest, I had a real white man's view before I started doing that.
Kerryn:It was kind of like the poor people in Africa and it's I don't know. I just had a really naive view of what might go on and pictures of Sudan, where you know where it's dry and there's no food, and I just thought the whole of Africa was like that and I don't know. I had this very naive view of just that one little thing I could do could save the world. And you know I soon got sat on my bum. You know that's not exactly right, and I soon learned about the girls' issues that I did not know about. Also, while girls have got their period, they can't be in school. So in some places they have to sit over a hole for a week and just out in the open, just sit in a bloody hole, and so while they go to get water along the way there's these men that are like boater drivers, so they're taxi drivers on motorbikes and they trade sex, you know, for sanitary items for the older girls, or they rape the younger ones, or they just rape anyone and it's kind of like, wow, you know, wow, this is just horrendous.
Kerryn:And so the solution to that was to start putting in water tanks into schools so that the girls didn't have to go and do that. And so we started putting in water tanks and water wells, connecting clean water to villages, that kind of stuff. It wasn't very expensive, you know, maybe $2,000 for each one. And you know there's not a water shortage in Uganda. This is where we do most of our work. It's not a water shortage, there's an infrastructure shortage. You know they're not able to catch the water. But um, yeah, and, and and we started doing a sponsorship program. So, uh, that that happened by Fluka, one of the one of the school heads of one of the schools said I photoed me, this little boy lying on the oval with a drink bottle, water bottle.
Kerryn:I said what's he doing? She said, oh, he's hanging around waiting for scraps. And I said what? I said, what do you mean? He's hanging around waiting for scraps. She's like well, you know, after we feed our kids, they hang around and they beg, you know, to see if there's any for them. I said, oh my God, this is terrible, you know. And she said he's gone now. And I said, oh, go and find him. I want to go and find him, see what he's doing.
Kerryn:Anyway, she found him in a church and what had happened was he came from up in the hills with a sister and a brother and a mother and a grandmother, but the husband, so his dad had gone off to look for work and the dad's brother came to the house and told the mother she had to marry him, and she said no, I'm not going to marry you, I'm married to your brother. And so then he arranged murderers came back to kill her, you know, a few days later, and she ran off with the youngest one, which was the kid his name's Grateful, his name is and they were hiding in a church down in the I don't know in the town, but hiding under the pews, under the seats in a church, and yeah. So I said, right, get that kid, put him in a school and I'm going to sponsor him, I'm going to make sure he's got an education. And so we did that. And the woman runs a school went up to the village and got all the women together and said no, we all stick together. You know the women don't let this happen to anybody else. Yeah, and so then we started the sponsorship program.
Kerryn:We had at our peak about 180 kids, boys and girls and, um, we, we transferred some to that school for another organization to manage and I've only just given it up. Last year I or this year, I decided I can't continue. It was eight years of it and for a number of reasons and health reasons sitting underneath there as well, there's only so much you can give until you're burnt out from compassion fatigue. And it was a hard decision and I had a lot of sleepless nights and a lot of guilt, a lot of conflict and everything else. But I've got to keep reminding myself that I did eight years of it and in that would have saved many lives and, you know, made a lot of change and sometimes you've got to be okay with letting things go, even if it hurts. So that's the story of One Planet Classrooms.
Audra:But you say it's a failure. I think that it was remarkable, even though it was not as you planned, even though that it started out as this great idea of I'll just teach my class in Australia to your class in Africa it became I'll get you power, I'll get you water, I'll protect the women in the villages and I'll make sure all the kids have education. That was amazing success. That was not a failure by a long shot. No.
Kerryn:I know, like I said, no, I always say that it was a failure to start with, and I always tell this story when I'm doing. Keynotes about failures are fantastic, because when we call them failures, but if we actually have a look, it's actually feedback. Failure is feedback. It gives us information to make other decisions and to do it differently. And so, no, I don't see it as failure, as in the end result, that's massive success. But if it wasn't a failure in the first place, I wouldn't have done this. And the other thing I want to say is, too, that often we have failures and we get ashamed of them. You know, we get embarrassed and we're, you know, and we feel like people are judging us and what have you? Oh, what an idiot, you failed. And we run with our tail between our legs and we do nothing. And I think there's a lot more power in standing up and saying, oh, my God, oh, I really screwed that up, but you know what? I can fix it and I can do it way better, and I think that's important.
Audra:I would agree. I would agree. So your next venture was Girls with Hammers. Tell us about Girls with Hammers. I mean, this is. I love this because it's. I know that the term is girls, but it's not just girls, it's women, and it's bringing women together to bring the best of everything out in each other and what's possible.
Kerryn:Absolutely, as I said before, I didn't even realize this girl issue happened in Africa, really naive life. But I started to really think about it and think, god, you know, and I was oblivious to the gender gap. I really was, because I'm a tomboy. I could have anything I want, anything that boys could do, I could do. You know, I never saw the gap Does that make sense? Because I was living proof that it didn't exist in my mind, you know. But I started to become really aware of it and thought, geez, this isn't good.
Kerryn:And I was sitting outside of a workwear shop so they sell tradie clothes and all that kind of stuff, flannelette shirts and I looked up and I thought, wow, I'm going to start something called Girls With Hammers, because I think girls should know that they can be whatever they want. And I was particularly aiming it at, you know, teenage girls. You know, like none of this taking photos of your boobs and sending them to boys and that kind of crap and living this sort of submissive stereotype that I've got to sexualize myself to be accepted. You know a lot of bullshit. So I was like I'm going to start something up and I'm going to tell girls they don't need to do this and everything else. So, nothing to do with hammers, nothing to do with woodwork, but it's metaphoric building stronger girls, stronger women. And so I kind of left it because I had enough on my plate.
Kerryn:But then I was at about a year later. I was at a International Women's Day event. There were cards on the table and I will stand up for women. I will stick up for women. I will do this. And I'm thinking, oh, in my mind they were a little insipid because I thought who's not doing this? Like, who's not speaking up anyway? But then I saw one that I loved and I've got it up on my wall. It says I will launch a purposeful, female focused initiative. I thought, oh, wow, there's a challenge. See, now this is this thing me jumping in again, didn't you know? No thought. So I got up on stage in front of 300 women waving this bloody card around you know, I'm going to do this. They're all cheering. I get down off the stage and thought, oh no, I've done it again. Now I've got to do something with this.
Kerryn:And so I came home and told my partner, who said well, why don't you just do Girls with Hammers? You've been talking about it and it's a perfect, perfect opportunity. I said, well, love, I'm doing it, you're doing it with me. So I decided to go and do a couple of schools talk about it. The girls in the schools were kind of like, oh my God, who's this old fart telling us not to take pictures of our boobs? You know, it's kind of like you know, again, another failure. This is perfect, you know, perfect failure because, no, that's not going to happen. The girls are not paying any attention to me because they know best and you know, they're teenagers after all, so they know more than me, lived a lot longer. So I was like, damn, I don't know what to do, you know. Then we're thinking we're going to do a tradie conference where all the girls could come and listen to trade speak. Women who are in trade electricians, builders be inspired to do that.
Kerryn:But then it ended up we had a conference with just and I'll say not just, but some wonderful speakers that were talking about empowerment messages, and we just put it out there. We just did the conference, opened it up, see who would come, but most of them were aged between 45 and 65. And there were a lot of outliers either side and we were like wow, wow, we didn't see this coming. What we realized? They were coming for connection. They were coming because they felt stuck. They were coming because they felt alone. They felt like they're the only ones going through something they didn't have the tools to get out of, you know, to make their life better, to flourish, what have you? No, I'm not saying they all had something wrong with their life, that's not what I'm saying at all. But every average woman, you know, is often thinking a lot of these things. You know, I'm this age and what have I done? Who am I? And it was hugely successful. So this year we've got one coming up in four weeks and it'll be our sixth. So six years of this.
Kerryn:And we have amazing speakers and there's prizes and there's music and there's, you know, lunch, and there's dancing and like it's a lot of connection, great stories, really impactful. We experience every emotion that a human being can possibly emotion, can possibly feel in one day. It's from laughing to crying, to howling, to squealing. It's a fabulous, fabulous day. And the girls, but we kept it.
Kerryn:You know there are some people who say women don't want to be known as girls and you know, my partner and I, both female, we don't care about being called girls, we love being called girls. You know, it always sort of ignites your childlike playfulness. You know, I think it's anyway, we're not going to change it for anybody, and but we also wanted the message to say to girls you know, you're a strong, you're a strong chick, whatever you are. I think if you're a girl, you're going to be a woman. You are a woman, you're female, you're bloody strong. You, if you're a girl, you're going to be a woman. You are a woman, you're female, you're bloody strong, you're a powerhouse. So live that powerhouse. So yeah, some people might say my message is incorrect, but whatever, it doesn't matter, we're doing great things.
Audra:That's all that matters. It also allows the invitation for the younger generation to, when they feel the inclination that they want to join you, they can, that they won't feel intimidated, that they'll be surrounded by a bunch of old ladies which, quite honestly, as you get older, you get a lot more fun. Yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely. I'm here to tell you that as you get older, you become way more fun than when you were younger, because you no longer care what anybody else thinks. It's when you suddenly start to really understand who you are, because you've raised your children. If you've had children, you've raised your children. They're already out of the house. You've built a career. Maybe you're building a second career, but you are suddenly now no longer asking permission as to who you have to be, who you want or who you think you should be. Now you're becoming who you really are, and so there's no, there's no one cares anymore. No one cares what anybody else thinks, and that's when the fun begins. Absolutely, the younger generation may come in and go. These women are a lot of fun.
Kerryn:Oh, absolutely, and we do. We also have youth tickets. So you know, like 13 to 17-year-olds, and we do get youth come in. It's changed actually. We've had stories come back that the stories have changed their lives. You know, one girl was 13 and gay, but still in the cupboard, you know, and really sort of keeping it quiet. Only her mum knew. One of our speakers talked about, you know, being the first declared gay female footballer in our AFL footy league and you know, it was this real role model moment for this girl. And then she said I don't care anymore, I'm going to tell people now and I don't care. And she said I'm going to be who I am. And this was a 13-year-old and it just changed everything. She was thinking she hated herself, she was thinking that she didn't know whether she wanted to live that sort of stuff, and this one speaker just turned her around completely. So that's powerful, really powerful.
Audra:Yeah, when you are in a room full of people women, especially when you become part of a community and you're embraced, you get welcomed to be whoever you are. Yeah, and she finally felt permission to be who she was and bravery to be who she was, who she truly authentically was, which is magic, really magic, yeah, and in that room you're 100% right, there is no age Like.
Kerryn:In that room, everyone's just everyone. We're just, you know, it's just everyone, loves everyone and it's just wow, wow. I couldn't be happier.
Audra:I invite you to have this kind of event on this side of the pond Well we would love to.
Kerryn:That might be fun.
Audra:We would love to. We would love to. That might be fun. Come to this side of the planet and have some fun over here on this side. Well, we will.
Kerryn:If we can find people to help us.
Audra:yes, Well, I throw out the challenge. I just might, I just might and I throw out that challenge because we, the audience is a remarkable audience. I have been very lucky and very fortunate that this is a very special audience and they've been incredible to me. So I'm throwing out the, the, the offer, the challenge and the request and the request help us bring this type of event on US soil. Help us out, let's figure this out to bring this here, because I don't think that there's enough of these types of events here to help support each other. So let's figure it out, let's do that. Let's figure it out and figure out how to bring it here.
Audra:Fantastic from Karen's life-changing event of I'm out of control. I couldn't fix this. She dedicated her entire life to what can I fix? Who can I help? That's an amazing thing. That's an incredible thing. And, as before, we got on air what I mentioned to her if we all did something, that was a positive thing and it doesn't have to be what Karen did, which is she's literally trying to change the world in whatever way, shape or form she can but if we all just put something positive out into the world every single day, can you imagine what the world would be like. It would certainly be a whole lot less stressful. I tell you that much.
Kerryn:Absolutely, and kind Wow.
Audra:I know An amazing feat what you have done. I mean, you've culminated your entire experience to throwing that very gauntlet out by your last book, with writing Get Off the Bench. You challenged everybody by the very same thing, by telling everybody to do that. Tell everybody about your latest book, get Off the Bench.
Kerryn:Well, it's not my latest. Actually, I've also put out a gratitude journal called 100 Days of Gratitude.
Audra:Oh, that's right. That's right. I misspoke, but yes, tell us about it, then we'll talk about the gratitude journal.
Kerryn:That's right, get off the bench. Yeah, it's funny. Because of all the things I was doing, I started to get asked to speak at conferences and that kind of thing, and one, a local one, a friend of mine was running and he said do you want to run a workshop? I'm like, yeah, what on? He said helping people to kickstart projects. And I said, oh, why are you asking me to do that? And he said are you kidding, are you joking? I thought, oh, yeah, that's fair.
Kerryn:So I did this workshop. It was only for an hour, but as I was running it, people would ask questions and I'd say, oh, we haven't got time. We haven't got time, oh no, I wish we had more time. Oh, we need to cover. Oh no, we need to cover that. And I just couldn't get enough into this hour. And now, if I run it as a workshop, it's a three to four hour workshop. It's intense. And I said to them give me your email. Now, this was not a marketing ploy, but I said give me an email and I'll go home and I'll make up a PDF with a bit more stuff on it.
Kerryn:So I came home and well, not that day, the next day or whatever I started writing stuff and typing stuff up and next thing I know I've got that many pages of stuff and I'm like oh my God. And I said I should just turn this into a book. And I was kind of joking with myself. And then I went, actually, why don't I do this? I know how to publish one already done one, and so why don't I just wrap it up and put a cover on it and make it a book? And so I had that book put together in four to six weeks, something like that, and I sent it to all those people.
Kerryn:But if I look back at it now I think, oh, I probably should have said this instead of that. You know, I probably should have added this. You know, if I were to go back I would amend it and build it and that kind of stuff. But then I think, and every now and then that gets to me. But then I think, and every now and then that gets to me, but then I think, no, I'm not going to, because there's so many people who have said to me that book changed my life. I could hear your voice telling me do this, do that, do that. You know, this is how you've got to do it and so many people have kickstarted their project because of that book, so I'm not going to change it. You know, I don't want to wreck that kind of raw I don't know what word I'm looking for, but just that rawness about it. You know, it's just raw, it's basic, it's easy, yeah, so there you go.
Audra:So then suddenly I had two. I mean that is a book that you could use to kickstart anything. It's not necessarily just a project, it could be kickstart. Maybe someone wants to start a business, maybe somebody wants to kickstart something they've always wanted to do. I mean, you wrote it in such a way that is there to encourage them to literally get off the bench of whatever sidelines they've been sitting on, that they just need the encouragement to go and get it done.
Kerryn:Yeah, and just to understand that it's. Take that first step. Just take that first step and you never know where to lead and I'm big on that. You don't ever have to plan. I don't have a plan for anything, as you can probably tell, and it always turns out. I always have a vision and I don't know what the steps are, but I know the first one, I know what I can do today, and then always the next paver appears and you just step on it. Then the next one will appear and you just step on it and you just keep going and readjusting and realigning it. You know what. You eventually get there. So yeah's what that? Yeah, that book, very helpful.
Audra:And then your last book is your gratitude journal, and I'm assuming that you wrote this as a way for you to collect your thoughts and have other people collect their thoughts. To, yeah, to not focus on the negative, because it's so easy to live in the darkness because, quite frankly, it's easier there. It takes more effort to focus on the positive because sometimes the negative is more abundant. So the Gratitude Journal what inspired you to put this together?
Kerryn:Now I'm glad you said put this together, because it's not written, it's not an authorship, it's just 100 pages all the same. You just repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. And I run a program called Confident Leaders Program where it goes for six months and I get leaders in you know newish leaders in and you know I build their confidence essentially. But I was always having self-care at the end and we were talking about different ways to self-care and I thought this year I thought I'm going to try something different, because it's kind of too late by the time we get there, you know, and it's a bit dumb to just throw it in at the front and it didn't quite fit. So I thought I'm going to make this journal up, I'm just going to give it to them all and I'm going to say so it goes for six months, so, whatever, I can't even figure out my days, but anyway, that's 30, whatever, that is 180 days, Anyway, whatever, there's at least 100 days in there, even if you miss some, you know, in this six months. So I thought, right, I'm going to give everybody a journal and I'm just going to say this is going to be our self-care practice and we're going to start from there and basically it's kind of like three good things that happened today, three things I love, three things that I did for others today, three ways I took care of myself. How did I take care of myself today? You know that kind of stuff. And it's not to be, it's not to perpetuate toxic positivity, you know, and making bullshit up. I don't agree with that. But what it's for is to say, well, we all have crap days and that's the way life is and that's okay. But can we find some good stuff in amongst all the crap? And the more you do this journal, the more you do these practices of gratitude. It doesn't make your life better. There's stuff still there, but it makes your muscle quicker. It's a much faster response to correct it.
Kerryn:So, oh man, I'm having a crappy day. Oh, you know what? Look at that lemon tree. Isn't it lovely? At least I've got that. That's a really nice thing to look at. How wonderful. Here I am bitching about stuff and I've got this beautiful lemon tree looking at me. So it's just kind of. It makes it faster to see good. So that's my hope anyway. So we'll see, We'll see. By the end of the program I'm finishing up, one in September and one in October. So we'll see. I think it's good. Everyone's told me that's great.
Audra:Well, I mean, it's better than the alternative. Honestly, I mean, being mired in the muck is, like I said, is easier to do, but the consequences of that are certainly dire. Absolutely so doing that. I'll be interested to hear what the results are that you've started with this. I'll be very curious to hear what your class says at the end of this, since this is the first time you've done it. I'll be very curious to see what they say. I'll bet you the results will be very positive and I'll bet you that this will probably be the best program that you've done, because of this journal.
Kerryn:Thank you, and I bet also that the results will be invisible, and this is another thing. That I think, though, is because it's so subtle, sneaking up on you. It's not a big profound da-da moment, it's kind of like a daily kind of subtle, subtle movement, you know, and I wonder, I'm curious as to whether they'll see the change. I'm seeing the change in all of them, like I'm seeing this incredible difference in all of the people in the program, but I'm not going to say that's due to the book, it's due to the program, but I'm sure the book's helping.
Audra:What I am so marveled at is that, once you had that light bulb moment, you have not wasted a minute, not one second of your time, your energy, your thoughts, not one thing. And you just keep looking for areas of okay, where can I go next, where can I help next, where else is there a gap that I can fill? And you don't even. What I think is remarkable and also makes me smile, because it is kind of it is kind of funny you don't even have a clue what you're doing. Half the time you just raise your hand and go, I'll do it, I'll go, I just I'll figure it out when I get there.
Audra:That is the best part of this is that you don't. You're like I'll figure it out, I don't know, but you somehow make it all work. All you are doing is raising your hand and you're like I see a gap, I'll figure it out, I'll fill it. And that's amazing. You've figured out that time is short. It's the only thing we can't make more of and it's super precious, and you've just been using every single moment of it that you have to make introduced, because it's something that has been plaguing me. I think when you hit your mid-50s, that clock starts to gong in your head and go oh, I've got less time in front of me than I have behind me and I've got to figure this out. So I'm really appreciative that you and I were introduced, because I have found you fascinating and, quite honestly, very encouraging and inspiring and make me want to figure out what other stuff, what other gaps can I fill, even if I have no idea what I'm doing.
Kerryn:Don't burn yourself out, though.
Audra:Karen, you have been a delight being here. I want to make sure that the audience knows where they can reach you and find out more about you If they want to find out more about your, your books, your speaking, and where they can find out more about your books, your speaking and where they can find out more about your foundation.
Kerryn:I think the best place is my website. So, karenvaughancom, as simple as that. K-e-r-r-y-n. Yes, yes, you do that. Save me, I feel like I'm on the phone to the bank. Yes, yeah, I'll make sure that to the bank?
Audra:Yes, yeah, I'll make sure that's in the show notes and for those of you who've been listening for a while, you know that this is my favorite part of the show, where I get to shut up and stop asking questions and Karen gets to have an intimate moment directly with the audience that you can leave them something inspiring, just a thought that they can take with them throughout their day for a moment that they can. Just you can leave them with something of inspiration that they can just sit with, for a moment that they can contemplate. So the mic is yours.
Kerryn:Right, well, now have we got three hours? No, there's so many things I could say, but look honestly, I just want to keep it simple. You know life is too short and you know I have lost someone. I'm sure many listeners have lost someone special. We don't know what's around the corner. You know we're living in a world that is it's chaotic and it's turmoil and bad's winning over good and all that kind of stuff. And you know what? We're really great people. Most of the people on this planet are really good people, and if we just back ourselves and if we just step into who we are, what a difference we could make.
Kerryn:And don't waste any time. We're wasting all this time like putting a lid on our jar thinking that we're not good enough, thinking that we don't waste any time. We're wasting all this time like putting a lid on our jar, thinking that we're not good enough, thinking that we don't have the capacity. Who am I to do this? You know, and we're all magnificent, unique, incredible human beings, you know that have just got so much potential and so much capacity.
Kerryn:And I'm not saying go try and save the world, because none of us can save the world, but if we just believe we can do more than we are doing, and that doesn't mean go out and spend more of your time, but just show up as you. If you show up as you and take off the mask, forget the crap you know like, forget the trying to fulfill other people's expectations and what I should be, what I shouldn't be. Just be so proud to be you and step into who that really is and just give the world you, and if you do that, you'll use your time more wisely and you will change the world just by being you, because you're giving other people permission to be them.
Kerryn:Such an important thing, so I think that's enough. That's all Be you. Life's too short. Get the hell that. Lid off your jar and get into it. Just live life to the absolute fullest.
Audra:I think that is the greatest advice I have heard in a week, in a week. Thank you, in a week, in a week at least. Karen, thank you so much for spending this hour with me and with my audience. I have enjoyed every minute of it. Thank you so much for being here, and, for those of you that love podcasts, make sure you check out Karen's podcast too, because she also has an amazing podcast, so go check that out, karen. Thank you again for being here. I so appreciated it so much, and I want to thank all of you for listening, and we'll see you again next time.
