Carlii Lyon, best known as being the former publicist to Miranda Kerr, is the founder of The Brand in You, a series of personal branding workshops designed to help women.
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1) To kick things off, could you tell us a little about your career background and current role?
I started in PR over 15 years ago, launched my own PR consultancy at the age of 22 and worked all over the world.
I specialised in individual branding and represented a whole host of remarkable people including a world leading supermodel (Miranda Kerr), New York Times bestselling authors and pioneers in the world of wellness.
After extended maternity leave I decided I wanted to do something new and found myself in a position where I could use all my professional experience to help individuals, entrepreneurs and executives with their personal branding. I launched The Brand in You and today I run workshops, consult with individuals and speak to the teams of iconic brands around the country.
2) What does a day in the life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?
My day starts at 6am with a walk with my Cavoodle Luigi. I love mornings and especially love watching and listening to all the bird life. To me my walk is my meditation and I genuinely cannot start the day without it.
I then get home to the craziness of two young boys who need to get to school. On the days I am not speaking, I work from home with back to back zoom sessions. My workday finishes at 2.30pm and after driving my kids around, cooking dinner and getting prepared for the next day, I am in bed at 9.00pm to read for a few hours.
3) Does your current role allow for flexible or remote working? If so, how does that fit into your life and routine?
I have worked for myself since the age of 22 and have always, bar a few years, worked from home. I love the fact I can move around and work wherever I go. We took our kids to Asia for almost 4 months a few years ago and I simply worked when required. It is liberating and I genuinely hope flexible and remote working does become the norm for those who thrive from it.
4) What does work-life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal?
For me there is no divide between work and life, I genuinely see everything I do as being part of my purpose and part of my life.
That means when I stop what is labelled as ‘work’ at 2.30pm, I don’t feel any guilt because I see my role being with the kids and everything that comes with it as part of my work too.
I am also a huge believer that my time spent being unproductive is when my best ideas come to me so if that is the truth, then doing nothing is work also!
5) In the past 12 months, have you started or stopped any routines or habits to change your life?
At 9pm I switch off my phone and I don’t look at it again until after I get home from my walk. I have also automated all my social media activity and am trying as best as possible to only be on social media once or twice a day at most (I don’t always succeed).
That has been one habit that has really made a difference. Also waking up every morning and letting the first thing that enters my mind when I put my feet on the ground be: “Today is going to be a great day.”
It is called the Maui Habit and I read it in Tiny Habits by Dr B.J. Fogg, it really stuck with me and it works!
6) Do you have any favourite books, podcasts or newsletters that you’d like to recommend?
I am a truly avid reader and have been known to prescribe books like a doctor would medication, some of my favourites are- Personality isn’t Permanent by Benjamin Hardy, In Praise of Wasting Time by Alan Lightman, The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer and Atomic Habits by James Clear. I honestly could go on and on!
7) Are there any products, gadgets or apps that you can’t live without?
Later for scheduling my social media posts really created the distance I needed and Booktopia, you can get any book from anywhere in the world irrespective of how old it is, it is a reader’s heaven.
8) If you could read an interview about work-life balance by anyone, who would that be?
Emma Isaacs, Founder of Business Chicks, I just don’t understand how someone can have 6 children and successfully run an international business. She is amazing.
9) Do you have any last thoughts on work, life or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?
I have always felt that balance is a feeling not a timetable, it is about feeling fulfilled and living a purposeful life. Sometimes that will mean days or even weeks of intense and all-consuming work, sometimes that is what offers that feeling of balance.
Then that might be followed by days or weeks of being totally unproductive. I think if we are able to tune into our own rhythm and flow that is where the magic is. It is a personal perspective not something that can or should be dictated by popular thought.
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