If I could speak to my younger self about starting her career, I would tell her to do less, trust herself more and stop trying to live every chapter at once, writes Hermione Olivia.
When I think about my younger self, I remember a girl in a hurry. At my school graduation there was the dux, and then there was me, collecting the award for effort. I decided early that if I was never going to be the smartest person in the room, I would be the hardest working. I studied a business degree in the evenings while working full time, then built a career in Sydney, moved to London and started businesses of my own.
The first thing I would tell her is simple: there is time. Ambition is a wonderful thing, but it is not all urgent.
I would tell her to do less, and to do it really well.
At 32, I was living on Portobello Road and running a brand consultancy, a jewellery label and a rosé brand at the same time. One of my closest friends told me, “I’ve never known anyone to work so hard, but not so smart.” She was right. Three businesses meant three sets of half-finished priorities, and none of them got the best of me.
When lockdown emptied my diary, I audited my life the way I would audit a business. Within six months I had taken on a single role, as UK and EU CEO of a fast-growing wellness brand. Over the next four years I built a team of 10, launched across the UK and then into Europe via the Netherlands, and took the brand into retailers including Boots, Selfridges, WHSmith and Harrods Pharmacy. One business and one set of priorities achieved more than three ever had. Focus did that, not hours.
I would tell her to ask for more than feels comfortable.
When I negotiated that CEO role, I was so grateful to be offered it that I had a number in mind that undervalued what I was bringing. My brother heard it and told me to double it. I did, and I got it. I still think about how close I came to leaving half my value on the table, simply because asking felt uncomfortable. Working hard does not mean somebody else will automatically recognise or reward your contribution. Being grateful for an opportunity does not require you to undervalue yourself within it.
I would also warn her that hard work has a ceiling, and her body would find it before she did.
Burnout knocked me down more than once. The last time, I was leading that business with young children at home. I woke up more tired than when I went to bed. Small bugs that would affect someone else for a day knocked me out for a week. I would open my laptop and not know where to start. My answer had always been to work harder, but burnout cannot be outworked.
So I changed the structure, not just the effort. I stepped down as CEO to build CEO YOURSELF and be a more present mother. Today I protect 6am to 9am and most evenings from 5pm for my family, keep Fridays free and save my mornings for the work that needs the best of my brain. I stopped giving every task 150 per cent. Sometimes 80 per cent is not merely enough; it is better.
Most of all, I would tell her that she is capable of far more than she knows. There will be closed doors she interprets as evidence that she is not ready. But a closed door is not always a verdict. Sometimes it is simply a redirect.
I would tell her to look up occasionally, and to celebrate what is happening before rushing to what comes next.
There is always a bigger number or a higher title waiting. But if you are endlessly preparing for the future, you can miss the life unfolding in front of you.
So I would tell her to keep her ambition, her courage and her enormous dreams. I would simply ask her to stop rushing. Do less. Do it exceptionally well. Know your value. Protect your time. And trust that it is all going to work out, differently in places, but better than she can possibly imagine.
Hermione Olivia is an Australian entrepreneur with nearly 18 years’ experience across brand strategy, business growth and leadership. A former UK and European CEO, she is the founder of personal leadership platform CEO YOURSELF and Managing Director of Untold Mould.
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