OCTOBER’S Swan Chamber Hour of Power featured talks from ROAR Inc founder and head coach Kate Kendrick and Johnson Property Corporation principal Corina Johnson, where themes of resilience and community building emerged.

Ms Kendrick shared her journey as an athlete with Olympic aspirations, before injury changed her trajectory and led her to develop ROAR Inc.

She trained in the 400m race and was on the cusp of qualifying for the Sydney 2000 Olympics before her foot gave out from training on a stress fracture for months.

She then stopped athletics for a period of time before coming across a news story about the leading death of young Australians being suicides, which compelled her to study and change that.

Ms Kendrick then met her husband who held a project management position which allowed her to coach as a side job, until he experienced a ‘catastrophic’ brain aneurysm.

“I freaked out and thought, ‘What if he’s disabled, what if he’s blind, what if he could never talk again or remember who we were, and obviously what if he doesn’t make it?’” Ms Kendrick said.

“Then I remembered my training.

“You don’t run a 400m by stopping at the 350m mark — this is the last 50m, so my focus just had to be on that.

“He had nine strokes during surgery and three of those in the executive function department of his brain so he couldn’t manage projects anymore, so suddenly it was on me.

“That was the birth of the ROAR project.

“I had a lived experience of trauma and trying and failing, and trying again, and if I can teach young people that there is something inside them that can overcome anything, and I can show them how to do it with training, and mindset, and acts of kindness then maybe we’ll save a life.

“Maybe they’ll pass it on their kids, and that’s my story.”

Ms Johnson then followed on and shared her story of working as a property developer and the influences and motivations that built her resilience.

“My father initially was a chartered accountant before finding out in his late 20s that he was going blind from a rare eye disease, so he pivoted career and went into property,” she said.

“I’m one of three children and I grew up in a home where business was discussed over the dinner table.

“I spent a lot of time with my father who was very hands on, who had a great love of property and taught me from a very young age that there’s no such word as ‘can’t’, and it became our life motto.”

Ms Johnson said she had to contend with a property industry that was very male-dominated at the time, but that also allowed a space for her to define her own strengths of negotiation and mediation.

“My business essentials for our business were the same for any small business: always do your research, keep a close eye on the details, you need to be highly organised, give great service all the time, respond promptly to all your enquiries, build bridges, work hard, and put a smile on your face no matter what yesterday did or did not bring,” she said.

“Don’t let failure define you, we’ll all fail from time to time, and if you make a mistake own it.

“You need to be genuinely interested in other people’s lives, give back to your community, and help to articulate for those who can’t articulate for themselves.

“Remember, integrity is everything and everything should be relationship driven.

“Know your value, be prepared to be brave, stay humble, and you can’t please all people all the time, as much as you might try.