Episode 57: Cal Stephens founder of Edna's Life Skills: supporting people with abilities, Noosa Queensland

Today’s guest is Cal Stephens, who lives close by to me at Sunrise Beach, in Noosa, Queensland. Cal and I found ourselves on a road trip to the Gold Coast a month back. A mutual friend invited us to join the audience of a new TV show. I offered to drive. I picked up our friend Nikki, and then talked and navigated our way to find Cal at a bus stop in southern Brisbane. Cal hopped into my back seat, started talking and the conversation flowed all the way to the Gold Coast and all the way back again. To say it was an inspiring, energising and thought-provoking kind of day would be an understatement! I just had to keep remembering to keep my eyes on the road! At the beginning of Covid times, Cal left behind her career as a financial advisor and established a business that is quite unique in its model and in the service it delivers. The service Cal began with was teaching young people financial literacy through cooking. It's since evolved, in a very short space of time, to bring Edna's Life Skills to a growing clientele, and doing so only through word-of-mouth referrals. Cal's services are delivered most often under the NDIS program.  Edna's Life Skills now incorporate financial literacy, domestic management, domestic science and social skills development. Edna's Life Skills is a business that is about setting up young people for independence with the side-effect of growing their confidence 100-fold. It’s about caring, and skills development and it touches the lives of more than just the young people that Cal and her team of life skill coaches and mentors serve. Who is Edna? Edna was Cal's mum. Today we’re going to talk about Edna, Cal, where the business idea came about, the hurdles and where to from here. Enjoy! ________________________________ Listeners, the transcript of our conversation will be shared on my website within the coming days if you are a person who likes to read articles as well as listen to podcasts: Click here to go to Articles. I am forever thankful for my beautiful guests for allowing me to understand them more and to share their stories. In prep for today’s session, it had an added benefit of letting Cal’s next steps float to the surface to work on: her Why and making that shift from, what I call worker bee to queen bee. Maybe you’ve found yourself in that space and are trying to figure your way through that maze too? If you would like to join me as a guest to talk about your magnificent vision or how you're changing lives, please reach out and chat!  If you’re baulking at the idea of having a magnificent vision, just know that it comes from inside of you, it's already there! So it’s just about facilitating getting your thoughts out onto paper. I look at my one-page vision at least every Monday in my prep for the week, and sometimes I go back to it to put myself back on track. They’re not just magnificent, they have energy when you might not, so please don’t hesitate to reach out and I can guide you through the process of documenting your magnificent vision and the first few steps to take towards making it become your reality. Trust that you are blessed, even when you forget that you are blessed. Take care of yourself, Susan Dunlop You can contact me via email or book a time for us to Zoom and chat anytime. Website: https://www.susandunlop.com.au You'll also find me on LinkedIn, however, I'm not on Facebook or Instagram.