FlashCast By PDB, With Phil Di Bella

Hi, this is Phil Di Bella and you're listening to FlashCast by PDB and in the great spirits of what Goes around, comes around. I get to interview Gianna today, so you get to hear me, ask her questions, and again, unscripted a quick fire and uh, you'll get nothing but raw answers. I'm. Hopefully, you take something strong away from it.

So without further ado, introducing the wonderful Gianna Di Bella. Thanks for being here and, um, agreeing to this. Who knows what may come? Thanks for having me.

So, best fire off, simple one. We'll set the pace. Tell me the most defining, turning moment of your life that first comes to.

Oh gosh. That's first thing coming from difficult, uh, having, uh, being in the hospital and um, and laying my eyes on Annika for the first time.

It was a moment of pure happiness, pure love, and it was almost like I was coming home. It was a thing that I was always meant to do.

what's been the most difficult thing in your life to date? Again, the first thing that comes to mind,

I think that, um, a lot of viewers may not know this, but there was a time where the pressure of the business caused a lot of marital issues with us.

And, uh, You know, navigating that and finding our way back to each other was both difficult at the time, but in reflection was probably one of the defining moments of us as a couple in, um, having a family, but also as a, as a business couple.

Hmm. So of course, yeah, as pressures obviously happen and all the rest of it, and one thing I think that's great about you and I is that we always keep it, um, honest, real, and authentic.

It's a value that we both hold dear to our hearts, um, and something for people to take away. And obviously, communication was key. So tell me what, um, you think your best strength is.

I think my best strength is to listen and, you know, everyone says, oh, you know, to be a great communicator, you need to listen, but to listen with all your five senses is actually a real, uh, a real skill that you develop over time.

And I think I practice that every day with the coaching being present, truly present with someone. And understanding in a really raw way what they're going through and how they want to be best helped. I think that would be my greatest skill and my greatest

strength. So obviously with every strength, there are also weaknesses.

Tell me what would be your biggest weakness?

My biggest weakness is my perfectionism. So all my life I've been really self-critical and I think that's actually held me back from doing a lot of things and achieving things that I might have achieved. Earlier in life, but it's taken the emotional and mental maturity of living life that's helped me come to realize how it's fruitless being such a perfectionist.

It's pointless actually, and it's just easier and better just to have a go and get it wrong and learn from that. Otherwise, it isn't learning and we're not growing.

So on that what, you know, listeners that'd be listening to this, that would suffer the same thing of being perfectionists. Um, what would be say two or three tips that you would give them that would help them, um, based on your experience to turn that negativity around of being so self-critical?

So I did some coaching with a, uh, psychologist and, oh, I've done psychology, so I know this. And he told me about the A, B, C, D model. And so, uh, I know this is, uh, a flashcard, so we don't have time to go into it, but A is the activating event. B is the belief, C is the consequence, and D is the dispute. So anytime I came up with a negative self, uh, limiting.

I thought I would, uh, analyze that thought by going through that A, B, c, D model. And it helped me come to understand my habitual patterns of thinking and what I needed to actually change. And as a result, I think I've been, um, I developed which. Um, unconditional self-acceptance and I work a lot with the clients that I have doing the same thing cuz a lot of us do suffer from not being enough and feeling that that is not available to us.

So there's just one method that I've used in the past. It's really helped me and it's helped a lot of other people really develop and grow and get beyond themselves and what their limiting beliefs are about.

There are some really great tips there and obviously, there are many ways to do it and everyone has to find their own, uh, way through and navigate.

But that a, b, c, D model might be something that would help listeners cuz I think, um, it's quite prevalent where we all don't believe that we're enough or we lack purpose and, and don't understand where we are and, and get quite negative on ourselves, which can quite often give us a spiral downwards. So, um, you know, we all wanna feel at our best and that's normally when we have a very strong purpose, um, and belief and belonging in this world.

Tell. Gianna, if I gave you a blank piece of paper and I said to you that you could be professionally, anybody you want, you could do any dream job in the world, what would it be if I said to you, write your own script.

I think I'm actually doing that because I really enjoy one-on-one individual coaching with people, and I enjoy the one-on-one versus the team, like the bigger one too many because I feel one-on-one, I can have a profound impact on helping people achieve the thing that they most want to achieve.

And so I am, I'm. And I love it. And the thing I love most about it is just empowering people's potential in a way that they never even thought was

possible. Yeah, it's, it's, I've seen some of the work you've done and obviously here's some of the feedback and people love it. And your whole thing is about taking what's out of focus and bringing it into focus, which I think is so powerful.

Uh, cuz you navigate people's mindsets rather than sit there and try and tell them what to do. You help them, you know, navigate what they, what's out of focus into focus, which I think is quite a big difference to your traditional everyday coaching that most people. Tell me what, how would you define your most irritating habit?

The thing you love about yourself, you hate about yourself? So, uh, the perfectionism that I mentioned earlier has helped me, uh, really seek and explore and discover myself and be very self-aware. Uh, but at the same time, Also held me back. So I think having, uh, a mature approach to that way of looking at myself has probably tipped it from being a shadow, uh, shadow strength, if you will, to, uh, our more empowering strength.

Tell me what's the hardest thing about being a.

Oh my gosh, I'm going through this now because our daughter is 11 and our son is nine. So our daughter is very strong-willed, which absolutely I want a strong-willed daughter. Uh, but she's going through that period where she be all and end all is her friends and she's very self-centred.

So, , you know, reminding her and encouraging her to see her life through her values and connecting in with that versus her friends and what's popular and uh, what's. You know, exciting in the moment, um, is something that I do struggle with, uh, because I wanna be that mom that gets her to think, not that mom that tells her what to do or how to be.

And on the flip side of that, we've got a nine-year-old who is a very sensitive soul. So building his re. And the approach that I take in doing that is always a bit of a challenge cuz I'm always exploring and uh, moving the Rubik's cube around to ensure that he has that growth mindset. .

Yeah. And can I tell you about, you do a great job and, um, obviously we, we always say that for us, you know, kids is a journey and that we spend a lot of time with them and talking to them and they spend a lot of time with us, which is, um, hopefully, because at the end of it, all we can do is the best that we can.

And, um, hopefully, they grow up to be the best versions of themselves, but we want to give them every chance to be able to achieve that. So, in closing, Tell me, G, what's the one thing that you wish you could change in the world today?

I think I would like to increase everyone's conversational intelligence.

And why? Because conversational intelligence is all about, cultures are built on, uh, relationships. Relationships are built on conversations. So if we can lift the conversational intelligence of individuals in, in work, in homes, we'll be a lot more successful as a community as a whole.

Wow. What a great answer.

It's been an honour. You've been listening to FlashCast by PDB, and I've had the pleasure of interviewing Gianna Di Bella. Until next time, be the best you can be.