Sara Sheehan welcomes Jocelyn Chong – Business Consultant, Corporate Trainer, and Professional Speaker – to the podcast to talk about Jocelyn’s work in coaching executives and business leaders in the power of money mindset, sales, leadership, and business development. Jocelyn shares her own personal journey through the financial world into a deeper realization of herself.
When Jocelyn talks about her career journey, it’s a story filled with milestones and financial success, but well into it she realized that something was missing. She took some time off to rest, reflect, and discover who she was. What she learned was that she needed alignment in her internal and external worlds. She built her consultancy business out of this realization.
In this episode, Sara Sheehan learns about Jocelyn’s coaching techniques and how she assists clients to achieve success in their business journeys. Jocelyn’s focus on the mindset of leadership and sales allows her to support her clients in understanding the positive side of what they do and how they can influence their clients for the better. The conversation invites us to think about more than just financial success but to examine what we truly want out of our work.
About Jocelyn Chong, MBA, GAICD:
With a solid background in banking and finance, Jocelyn brings a unique and fresh layer of expertise to the corporate training world. Her research and practical experience in the corporate world truly enhance her ability to guide clients toward success in both individual and organizational contexts.
Jocelyn specializes in helping entrepreneurs and executives realize the success they desire. They often encounter a common challenge – while exceptionally skilled in their respective fields, their leadership and sales strategies are often improvised. Lacking the necessary support and growth-oriented feedback, they struggle to cultivate the right mindset, expand their outreach, and sell purposefully.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Every talented and dedicated professional possesses something valuable and deserves to reach their full potential without the endless grind and desperate hustle. To address this, Jocelyn developed personalized offerings, including corporate training, private coaching and workshops, all based on her signature methodology. This method focuses on renewing mindset, self-leadership, magnetic selling, and embodiment.
Resources discussed in this episode:
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Contact Sara Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:
Contact Jocelyn Chong | CEO & Founder, Seed To Sequoia:
- Website: JocelynChong.com.au
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Transcript:
Sara Sheehan: [00:00:04] Hi there, I’m Sara Sheehan and welcome to my podcast, Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan. Today I’m talking with my friend Jocelyn Chong about her business, coaching executives and business leaders on the power of money mindset, sales leadership and business development. Jocelyn is a beautiful example of her own work in mastering her own mindset and helping others to do the same so that they can make their next big leap of growth in their business. If you would like to learn more after listening to today’s discussion, check out the show notes for a link to book a meeting with me or Jocelyn. So, Jocelyn, welcome. I’m so glad to have you here today. Tell me and our listeners a little bit about your back story that led to you starting your business. I know from our friendship that you were born in Malaysia and moved to Australia as a teen, but I would love to hear the story from you.
Jocelyn Chong: [00:01:22] Absolutely. Thank you so much, Sara, for inviting me to be part of this show and picking up from your point there, I was born and raised in Malaysia. I left home when I was 17 to pursue my tertiary education in Australia, and I graduated with accounting and finance so it was a natural step to move to accounting firms. So I work for Ernst & Young and at Ernst & Young I was discovering a lot of areas that I like and I don’t like, and I enjoyed what I did in accounting, and my client one day decided that they wanted to offer me a job in their company because I was helping them in a number of ways that made a huge difference on their business outcomes and results. So I accepted the role and relocated from South Australia to Victoria within four weeks. And in that four weeks, I’ve learned so much about transition and change management and adapting to a whole new city. I then work for that organization, which is a nationwide organization, it’s a private, family-owned business on recycling and waste management. Travel around the country, did their internal audits and learn a great deal but realize that I’ve always, always wanted to work for a bank. So I took the courage to leave accountancy and move into banking. I applied for the role for the second largest bank at the time in Australia, Westpac, and secured a position in retail banking.
Jocelyn Chong: [00:03:08] From there I learned all the banking systems, you know, customer journey. I was very, very clear with all the different products and services that would add value to the different markets or people that come my way. Because I excelled in the work that I did in retail banking, one of the senior managers, when they came into our area and started chatting to me about financial planning, investments and helping people in retirement planning, and I realized that was something that I wanted to pursue, but I didn’t know how to. And he mentored me for a few weeks and told me what course I could do in order to pursue financial planning. And I invested time over the weekend working full-time on Saturday and Sundays to study hard. And at that time, actually, I might add, I was working on a Saturday as well because I was working five and a half days a week. I wanted to actually work hard, save a deposit for my own home, and you can imagine how challenging it is if you are renting and you’re trying to save for a deposit for your own home, it’s one of the most challenging time because you want to go out. You’re young and there’s so many things that you could do, but yet, you know, you are so conscious about the financial component.
Jocelyn Chong: [00:04:40] And so I went through that journey, and I very much appreciated that I was able to save enough deposit to buy my own place. And I also pursued the financial planning career after I completed and certified myself with all the necessary certifications for financial planning in Australia. From there, I had 15 plus year career in financial planning, moved up into leadership and move up into national projects, work alongside very senior leaders like CEOs, board management, and different departments as well, different department heads. And then later with the Australian regulator, our Australian Tax Office, as our stakeholder, to implement a number of mega huge projects that roll out over time. I was also involved in a lot of national projects on digitization and change management. And I learn a great deal. But equally, when I was learning a great deal, I was losing myself in the world of chasing after the next role, chasing after that shiny object, you know? I was at one point in one season in my life that I was dressing, every part of me was wearing somewhat a brand because I allow my identity to be connected to, you know, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, driving a BMW, you know, just…
Sara Sheehan: [00:06:05] Sure.
Jocelyn Chong: [00:06:06] Those high life. But I was so far away from the truth of who I am, my authentic self. And I didn’t know any different. And looking back at it now, I realized how limiting that was because I was sold the idea by media, by publications, by the way the society associates success with is with all those brands, all those achievements, external stuff that you do, the travels that you go to.
Jocelyn Chong: [00:06:40] But I was losing the true Jocelyn in me, and I started to realize around the age of 38 that there was something more, that working 60 hours a week earning great income isn’t exciting anymore. I know that there’s something more, but I couldn’t quite pinpoint what exactly was that. I was continuously searching, looking for it, and I didn’t have really associated with good connections, friends outside of work, because my role was banking and finance. I was surrounded by people in banking and finance. I was making friends with in the organization, and I had very few friends outside of finance industry. And one day I came across a book by Tara Mohr called Playing Big, and I could not put that book down. And I was reading that book within a day. And I realized something that was really speaking to me. She was, almost every page was reading my thoughts and asking me to break away from all this environment that was so limiting, but yet do the world, its achievement to the world, it’s something that you want to excel for. And the work that she talked about was…
Sara Sheehan: [00:08:08] What was the title of that book?
Jocelyn Chong: [00:08:10] Playing Big by Tara Mohr.
Sara Sheehan: [00:08:12] Playing big.
Jocelyn Chong: [00:08:12] Playing Big by Tara Mohr.
Sara Sheehan: [00:08:14] Thank you so much.
Jocelyn Chong: [00:08:16] Yes. And that was one of the first few books that I read that was non-finance related. And it was very much about seeking your own soul’s calling, seeking your burning desire. Because in finance and in banking, you always want to achieve the company’s goals, the company’s vision, the company’s expectation, and pleasing your leaders because you want to get plum assignments. And so I did that because I thought that was the way, that was the way to navigate through office politics. But then that was also not aligned with my true core values that I had always wanted to embrace in my life. I felt there was such a distance in me. There was a tug of war with my external self and my internal self. Fast forward to 2019, we had a Royal Commission for Banking and Finance in Australia, and that was wrapped up with 73 recommendations in February 2019. And at the time, the organization that I was working with decided to spin off their entire investment financial planning arm. And once they announced that in March 2019, we made the entire division, thousands of people, redundant by 1st of July 2019. Now I was making different job families redundant because I was a senior leader. So my role was to help people work through that, and there were so many job families that was under my responsibility.
Jocelyn Chong: [00:09:54] But equally, my manager was making me redundant too, because it was trickled down that way. So I was trying to hold space for my direct reports and people around us and trying to make things work as best as we can for our clients, because we need to transition all our clients out into other organizations so that other people, other financial advisors, can help them. So I suppress my emotions to process that pain. After I was made redundant the second week of July, I had time to myself. I started then to work through and process the grief of being made redundant. I never knew the significance about that until I went through that, because I’m always the one that, you know, I did many rounds of redundancies over my career in the last 23 years. Because you hire, you fire, and you train your on board. And so that was something that you do, even though it’s a very painful process. But you also need to meet your business results. That hit me. And I started to realize that at that point in time I needed to pause and not work for a couple of months just to recollect myself, because I was so immersed in the corporate career that I was selling my soul to the devil, so called.
Jocelyn Chong: [00:11:32] And I realized that I need to take control back and reflect. What would I want to do for the next chapter of my career? I’ve done over two decades of, um, corporate career at that point in time, significant amount of experience. I have an MBA. I work at senior level, but yet deep down in my soul there was a gap, there was a missing gap, and I took three months to chill, to sleep, to give myself the permission to reflect and discover more of who I am. The true Jocelyn that was so far away because I was so immersed in the world of working and chasing after the next big role. And, you know, running things and being busy was the way of life. But I needed to pull back and calm my nerves and really rest. And that was when I received my true understanding of there was something more that I need to close that gap, and I need to bring alignment in my internal world and my external world. That work took months, took years, and still working on it because, you know, inner work is something that we continue to do. We continue to improve. We continue to grow.
Sara Sheehan: [00:13:05] It’s absolutely a daily, it’s a daily test and a daily agenda item for me, for sure. So that daily inner work and mindset work, it is so important. To make sure that you’re literally pulling the weeds out of your mind and not letting them take root. Exactly.
Jocelyn Chong: [00:13:29] Exactly. And so I invest that time working through it. But also I had this desire that I wanted to set up my own consulting practice. I thought that I would buy a book and set up my own financial planning practice, and I explored that opportunity, but didn’t feel that that was aligned with my soul’s calling. And 2021, I decided to set up my own consulting practice, and that was how I work for myself now today, and partner with a lot of like-minded professionals. And that’s a short version of my story over the last, you know, 12, 15 minutes or so.
Sara Sheehan: [00:14:13] That is a wonderful version of your story. And so let’s talk about your business itself, and let’s talk about what you do and how you work with clients. I framed it up at the beginning of our discussion, but I would really love to hear your version of how you’re working with clients.
Jocelyn Chong: [00:14:31] Absolutely.
Sara Sheehan: [00:14:32] I characterized it as money mindset, sales leadership, and business development, and I’m aware of some work that you do in communications with clients. But please tell our listeners what you do in your business with Seed to Sequoia.
Jocelyn Chong: [00:14:52] Yes. So I focus on leadership, sales, and mindset. I found that the sales part was a core component of majority of my career, and I love sales. I have never seen sales any different apart from serving someone else, and that I can help them achieve their highest level of results. So I see sales from that perspective, and I was very privileged to work alongside a lot of people who see sales from a very positive perspective. But I also come across a lot of people who had bad experiences or never understood the true meaning of sales. And so my role today is to coach them, support them, help them understand that sales is really just helping someone get a better result. And leadership was–
Sara Sheehan: [00:15:46] Absolutely.
Jocelyn Chong: [00:15:47] — what I focused on for decades of my life, I’ve always placed in a position of leadership, whether it’s a volunteering capacity at church or at school, sports club, you know, art club or Toastmasters, or in any different organization that was part of, you know, both paid and non-paid. And so I integrated both because leadership needs to come from within, and it needs to be something that you want to lead yourself first, then you can lead others. So self leadership is the foundation of what you want to do for you, that you can trust that that process works for you. Then it is the next step to serve others with your leadership skills. So I integrate that. And mindset is just very fundamental in everything that I do because it is our thoughts that creates our feelings, our feelings create our actions, and our actions create our results. And so I use that framework around how we can take control of our thoughts, because that is the one thing that we have, the power of choice and the power of control over ourselves. We can’t be responsible about other people’s, you know, actions or thoughts, but we can influence them. But what we can do for ourselves is really the area that we can control our thoughts and the intention that we can set up for ourselves. And so my practice focuses on that. And what sets my consulting practice apart from others is that, you know, I’ve got those unique experiences, and I integrate very practical, um, elements to my coaching component and my consulting component, because I want to bring that practicality to marry alongside with the concepts that I teach because I think it’s the practical element, the human element, that people really engage and they get it. And so that is how my practice works.
Sara Sheehan: [00:17:53] Excellent. And so do you have any clients that are excellent case studies representing the results that you bring in working with a client that you could share with us?
Jocelyn Chong: [00:18:08] Absolutely. So let me share one of my clients who had 11 years in corporate finance. And what happened was in the last, last year, at the time where she stepped into the role, she knew roughly her three year plan. She knew roughly what her financial goals for her business were. And at the time, she was seated around about $38,000 in cash in her business account, she came to me, she note that there were certain gaps in her business that she needed support. And we did a full analysis. From that analysis, I then prioritize which area was really important for her to focus her time, her energy and her resources. And we did that work for over five months, and by the end of December, where we reviewed that before we head off away for holidays, she made $240,000.
Sara Sheehan: [00:19:16] Wow.
Jocelyn Chong: [00:19:16] Now how she did that? It was her willingness to be coachable. It was her willingness to test and learn different strategies that we put in place and refine them every single week, and she was very open to feedback, and we had focused on three simple things every single time, rather than focusing on so many things because you don’t have the capacity and we can get distracted all the time. We focus on what she is really good in, and we narrowed down her niche market as well, so that she is very focused on just speaking to that profile of clients every single time she meets people at networking events, she goes to different industry functions. She connects with those clients in that category when she asks for an introduction.
Jocelyn Chong: [00:20:22] And so because she focused her time and energy and we actually monitor every week her progress and we talk about what she did really well, we celebrated every single progress and milestone. And then we talk about what’s the 1 or 2 things that we could tweak and apply them differently the following week. And so those are really the small part. And then behind that and underneath that, we dealt with a lot of mindset areas that will come up with different scenarios and how to manage. You know, I call them high value energy and low value energy. And when she hits low value energy, what are the steps and the tools that she is equipped to take herself back to high value energy? And so we work through that. And now she’s armed with tools. It’s more of arming herself with tools and strategies so that she knows how to recognize it, and then how to apply which tool and strategy to take her out from those times where it’s challenging, those times that she needs to push through the barriers, those times that she needs to overcome that obstacle. So those were the, you know, work that we did over the last five months plus. And that’s a great, great testimonial. So yeah.
Sara Sheehan: [00:21:47] That’s a fantastic case study. Fantastic case study for sure. Absolutely fantastic. Did you have another one that might be different in what the client’s struggle was, but one that really shows results through coaching?
Jocelyn Chong: [00:22:09] Yeah. So let me give you another lady. And this is quite a good one because this lady is a very ambitiousness. So she works with infectious disease, so infectious disease throughout Covid, Covid is one of those categories. And she wanted to be a lecturer, so she did her Master’s. She worked in a very intense medical environment in the Covid space, and we had coaching around how she can transition herself to be a lecturer. So within four months, she managed to secure a job and to onboard herself with a new role, with a new identity. Because working in the medical field is very different than teaching, it’s a very different skill set, where–
Sara Sheehan: [00:23:06] For sure.
Jocelyn Chong: [00:23:07] — her gap was actually speaking to crowds because she was very nervous. She’s got all the knowledge, but the words, the information coming through was quite challenging because she did not articulate that. And also she came from another country, so English was not her first language. And when you educate, you know, students that come from different cultural backgrounds and how you, you know, communicate and how you calm the class, I remembered couple of challenges was how to help her students work alongside with each other, and how to address behaviors that are destructive in her classroom. She also needed to really practice her speaking skills with me, so that it’s not the first time that she delivered a presentation in an event or a class. So we did a lot of–
Sara Sheehan: [00:24:07] That’s amazing. Yeah.
Jocelyn Chong: [00:24:09] — role play. We did a lot of presentations so that she had a lot of fallback and she could get feedback from me, and we could really massage the way she showed up, the way she presented, and the way she also use her body. I mean did you know that, you know, 93% of communication is nonverbal, which means, you know, for her to know how to use her body to communicate as well, not just the words. And so she would have all this written, you know, presentations, but is to help her speak and navigate through the class and help her students, you know, collaborate with her and engage with her, participate in the classroom, so that everyone is getting value and optimized, you know, the time in the classrooms for different experiments as well. So it was all these little areas, but the part that stood out for her was she was able to speak to someone like me, that she can practice and feel comfortable so that when she show up to her group, she already built that muscle of confidence. And I think as a coach, as a mentor, as a guide, that was, you know, something that made a huge difference for her because I was able to just give her that understanding, coming from my own experience, coming from my own background, having, you know, so much fear and nervousness and afraid of how people would judge me when I’m speaking in English wasn’t my first language, coming into Australia, I was able to share those learnings with her, how I overcome those fears and all the limiting thoughts. And that’s significantly helped her so much. And she enjoyed her job. She got a lot of praise report from her students by the end of the semester, and they gave her more subjects to cover the following semester.
Sara Sheehan: [00:26:12] Interesting. That’s a great case study. And a great success story at that. Are there any programs that you’re currently about to launch where you’re in the planning phase? And seeking, for instance, participants for a cohort?
Jocelyn Chong: [00:26:33] Yes. If you go to my website, there will always be something that’s coming up the following month. So you can, you know, follow up with what’s coming up. And joining my email list allows you to get a lot of helpful and useful tips as well, because my intention for sharing through email is to share 1 or 2 things that I have learned, my stories, my lessons, my mistakes, and that, you know, my audience can collapse time and learn from me so that you do not have to make those mistakes. And I have done the work. I’ve done the research for 40 years, so you can learn and get that insight. So that’s a couple of avenues that you can tap into, free resources that I have created. And there are paid programs that I offer as well. So plenty that you can explore as someone who wants to check out, you know, my work in Australia.
Sara Sheehan: [00:28:15] Outstanding, Jocelyn. And so one thing that I’ve always known about you is that you always seem to be writing or speaking, and I was just wondering what you might be working on right now. I’ve known you to participate in many multi-author books and writing lots of articles, but what are you up to right now that’s interesting and exciting?
Jocelyn Chong: [00:28:43] My year of 2024 is to really immerse myself in actually experimenting a lot of AI resources. So that’s my focus this year in one of my business vision boards. And yesterday I was speaking in one of, one of the events that held every quarter, and we were talking about Pivot and Prosper for 2024. So I’m always passionate about how we can pivot to the next level. There’s, you know, this saying that I’ve always, always repeat to my audience is that, you know, don’t work any harder, that you’re not getting the results that you’re looking for, but work smarter. What are the ways that you can work smarter in order to get easier and better results? Because working harder can get you tired, exhausted, frustrated, disappointed. And so what are the ways that you can renew your mind? Either, you know, join a conference, you know, listen to a podcast, go out and meet people that you’ve never met before. And most recently, in the last two months, I had taken the time to actually remove myself, number one, from a lot of Facebook groups that I thought wasn’t in alignment with where I want to move forward in 2024.
Jocelyn Chong: [00:30:11] The second thing was I also cleaned up my LinkedIn connections. You know, there were connections I connected for many years, but there was nothing there. And we were moving in different directions. So I also removed them. Likewise for Facebook as well, so that I can welcome and create space for new opportunities, you know, new people to come into my environment because for me, I genuinely want to create and build connections with people that we could be long, creating long and lasting friendships and supporting each other throughout the journey. And it’s okay to, you know, separate yourself from people who may not want to come on a journey because it’s okay. You know, there’s different people that comes across, you know, our path at different seasons, different times of our lives. So I always see that, you know, if I could only have, you know, a couple of thousand people on my Facebook group, I want to make sure that whatever content that I put out there is going to be a blessing for them.
Sara Sheehan: [00:31:14] Absolutely.
Jocelyn Chong: [00:31:15] I like to always think when I do this in my morning ritual, and I pray and like God, you know, may my content today serves as an answered prayer for someone’s prayer.
Sara Sheehan: [00:31:26] There you go, I love that. Let’s be, let our content be a blessing to others in every way.
Jocelyn Chong: [00:31:32] Yes. So, yeah.
Sara Sheehan: [00:31:36] Excellent.
Jocelyn Chong: [00:31:36] I hope that, you know, our audience are inspired one way or another because, you know, we have to pivot. We have to find new ways of doing things better and faster and be so open to explore them.
Sara Sheehan: [00:31:51] Absolutely. And so, Jocelyn, can you give input or guidance on how our listeners can find you? What’s the best way for them to find you? Is it through your LinkedIn profile? Is it through your website by chance?
Jocelyn Chong: [00:32:07] Absolutely. Linkedin is a great way to find me. Um, it’s Jocelyn Chong, so I can get the LinkedIn link on the show notes as well because I’m active there. And if you send me a note and say, you know what, Transformational Thinkers podcast, I know that you’ve listened to that podcast and let’s get connected because I want to support you in any way I can, whether I can share resource, make a recommendation, introduce you to people in my network. And so let’s build that. Let’s build that kind of collaboration with Sara and, of course, you, my listeners for this episode.
Sara Sheehan: [00:32:53] Excellent. Well, Jocelyn, I can’t thank you enough for taking time out of your busy schedule to come on to my podcast and share your message. I know there are a ton of people out there that need to improve their business results in selling and work on their mindset on a daily basis. There are truly an unlimited number of clients out there that need to know you, and I feel very strongly about that. So I really appreciate your time today.
Sara Sheehan: [00:32:56] Thank you so much for tuning in to Episode Nine, Achieving Your Business Potential with Jocelyn Chong. The three takeaways from today’s session include, One) Recognizing your pivot moments. Embrace the points in your career that call for self-reflection and change. Number two) Bridge the gap. Align personal growth with professional development for holistic success. And three) Connect and collaborate. Expand your network intentionally and join me and Jocelyn in our mission to transform lives. I hope you found the conversation in this episode enlightening, and I hope that you take on a growth mindset in your own career and life. As always, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so you never miss an episode.
