Episode 66: Developing Property and Self with Liberte Alexandria Guthrie

I'm Shivani Gupta, and welcome to the Ask Shivani podcast. I believe that one of the best presents that you can give yourself is time to be able to sit down and ask yourself some questions. I believe that the quality of the question that you ask yourself will determine the quality of your life.

Shivani Gupta

Good morning, and welcome to the AskShivani podcast. I am so excited about having Liberte Guthrie on my podcast today as our guest, let me tell you a little bit about Liberte, she’s certainly a very impressive woman. And I've had the opportunity to meet her through my local EO Entrepreneurs Organization network as well. But she, you know, when I read her profile, she talks about the when ambitious and how ambitious is not always a bad word. And she's got this ambitious spirit in terms of what she does. She's a property developer, she loves everything propery related. So, I'm sure that she'll speak a bit about that. But whether it's investing and design and developing joint ventures, renovating, and creative property ventures, I had the opportunity to catch up with Liberte on International Women's Day. And she was telling me about some of the projects that she's working on, and just how innovative some of that property space now is in terms of what she's able to do. She's also had a lot of accolades and achievements. She's got a great team around her, she was a finalist in two categories, including the exceptional young woman in industry and exceptional business development professionals in HIA. And she is an avid learner. And again, the CV is long, I could keep going on all day. But welcome, Liberte.

Liberte Alexandria Guthrie

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. And thanks for taking your time to talk with me.

Shivani Gupta

Oh, it's so great. So, I've read a little bit of your CV here, Liberte, but tell us a little bit about your, you know, I guess those major terms that have been like, sometimes those major turns are really positive. And sometimes they're horrible, you know, in your personal business journey. So, I'm always fascinated by that. Tell me a little bit about the three five key terms that might have happened to a lot of people, but for you, we're really turning moments in terms of what you do.

Liberte Alexandria Guthrie

Yeah, definitely, um, I, I had, I had some challenges when I was younger, which looking back of I'm really grateful for because it's shaped my decisions about how I live my life now. But I grew up with a beautiful mom, who was really loving and kind. But unfortunately, my father was quite an aggressive Angry Men. And so, it was quite abusive when I was growing up. And that led me to try to move out of home multiple times. But, you know, unfortunately, the system that we live in, it doesn't really have good support systems in place. So often, I'd run out of money and come back. But I eventually got out when I was, I think I just turned 16, or just under 16. And I found an ad in a newspaper for a room to rent, there was no internet as an option to find kind of accommodation option. So, I found a room to rent and I moved out, which was such a highlight, I just felt so much freedom. And just it was just amazing to feel, you know, safe, and then I could make choices that work for me. But it also was a real turning point for me to understand that. If I didn't work, or I didn't earn money, I couldn't pay the bills, you know, there was no there was no options for me to be able to get any form of money other than other than working so that I think really instilled in me, the need the need to be really accountable, the need to be really mature or the need to be responsible. And I think that kind of became the norm really young for me to work really hard. So that you know, now it's great, because my I guess my normality may be different for some other people. And I just feel that that's kind of very ingrained with me. So that happened. And I'm also very dyslexic, so it wasn't identified until I got to high school that I had the learning the reading abilities, the seven-year-old in high school. So that was a bit of a difficult situation for me to overcome. And it was real pushback back then. I don't know what the school systems like now, but back then it was take your child out of school, put them in a tray, they're not going to last. It's not it's not it's not for them. But my mom kind of said to me, well, what do you want to do? And I thought, you know, like, I want to give it a go. And so, we negotiated that I would work in terms of using that towards my schooling, which was really unheard of back then. And I was able to get through and then I went on to do a degree which was like, such a huge accomplishment for me to know that, that I was able to accomplish that. So that was that was exciting. I think they're kind of like the big things.

Shivani Gupta

They're big. I mean, you know, I'm just thinking out loud here Liberte, that I have a 13-and-a-half-year-old daughter. And so I kind of imagined that in two and a bit years while she's still at school. You know, going through what you've gone through, but it almost sounds like, you know, as you said, that was such a highlight when you found that place, whereas most of us, particularly as I'm thinking in my head, as a parent going, Oh, my God, like, how can somebody who's still so young be able to make those decisions around? And this probably leads a sense of like, you know, mean, to my next question, like, I'm always interested, when challenges come your way, you know, how do you deal with it, obviously, you've talked about being dyslexic at school. And I know, we've only talked about that in a couple of moments. But that's quite a few years of enduring, all of that for you. Obviously, sort of them, you know, the abuse that happened around your dad in the in the home. And, you know, having to learn to live by yourself having to fend for yourself. So, when you have challenges coming, and even now, as a property developer, you'd have different things that happen in business, different things have happened in personal life. Some people have like a process, or they have the way that they break it down. Like, is there a way that you attack challenges when they come your way? Whether they're small, or some of the big stuff that you've talked about? Like, how do you how do you go about doing that?

Liberte Alexandria Guthrie

Yeah, you know, there's, there's really good things that are really positive with how I've learned to handle challenge. And then there is some also some side effects. So, the positives I find is that I expect problems like I don't expect things to be easy. And it's really been a blessing for me of being dyslexic having to fend for myself really young. You know, like, I just say that with everything that there is going to be challenged. And that for me, it's just like, it's part of the journey. And I don't, I'm not surprised by it, I don't, I don't stress out over it. It's more just, it's more to say I'm prepared for it. So that's great, because I really find that and, and the way that I handle it is I just take action, I'm a real action person. So I have a problem. And I will just throw myself into a lot prioritize it, I will give it huge amount of action. The flip side of that consequences are is sometimes it is all action, I can work to extremes I can work to really late if I've got a problem, it prioritizes over everything. So, it's a blessing, the fact that, you know, I throw myself in there, don't hesitate to jump in all in, I'm optimistic that we can work through it that it's resort, like you can be resourceful and everything can be overcome. But the flip side is, is that it can be extreme at times with big problems.

Shivani Gupta

Yeah, it's interesting isn't that a lot of people look at procrastination as an issue. Well, you know, because I procrastinate, that becomes an issue. What you're saying is, look, I'm really action oriented. But that can sometimes be a bit of an issue as well.

Liberte Alexandria Guthrie

Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, there's so much encouragement to get out there and just do it, which is great. But also, I think we can also forget about the mental health behind it. And also forget about self-care, and that all can really go out the window. If you're just doing.

Shivani Gupta

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. What about so you've been property developing? You're in a partnership and in your personal life? What about future? What does the future hold? So, whether some people look at five-year aspirations, 10 years, sometimes people look longer or shorter? What are some of the things you go, I really want to achieve that or do that? Tell me Tell us about some of those in terms of what the future holds and what you would like to do?

Liberte Alexandria Guthrie

Yeah, sure. Um, you know, it's not like a lot for me, I love like being challenged. I love throwing myself into things. I love learning, like I really enjoy, you know, just finding out about other people finding out about what other people have done. Yeah, I'm really, I really just enjoying challenging myself and progressing and learning. And I also absolutely love property. So, I think it's always gonna be in and around property. I also feel really privileged. I feel like I have, you know, I'm really blessed. I have a fantastic partner. I have fantastic friends, I live a really, you know, a life that I'm really I love and I'm really grateful for. So, for me to be able to contribute and give back is really important. You know, to support other women in business to contribute where possible with charities, I really love that my dream long term would be to be able to create my businesses to position where they are providing me enough passive income that I can live my comfortable life, my dream life, but then also be able to contribute my time fully to helping other people create the same that will be my ultimate.

Shivani Gupta

Yeah, that's, that's incredible. And just having that sort of longer-term, longer-term vision about it. I find it fascinating, you know, speaking to you and guess in terms of you develop this property, but you've developed so much of who you are and learning and, you know, in conjunction with that, the more you learn, the more you grow, but also then your businesses grow around that to. Liberte, one of the things that I'm always fascinated about is people's own wellness, like you do, and particularly when you're solving problems. And I'd imagine a couple of other people that I know in property development, it's a fairly stressful full-on timeframes and strategies, and something always happens at the last minute. So, when you're balancing all the different projects and partnerships and everything else that you're trying to do around charity as well, what are some of the things that you do for your own wellness? Like, do you have rituals that you do daily or weekly? Or sometimes people go away annually? Like, how do you stay and manage your wellness around what you do?

Liberte Alexandria Guthrie

Yeah, definitely, like, I so believe in that, you know, our body is our temple. And you know, what we feel internally and how we treat ourselves internally, whether that's nutrition, our mental health, you know, is a reflection of what we experienced externally. And that one of my biggest values is, is health and nutrition. And my mom really drilled this into me, we're used to, she used to drive around with chickpeas soaking in the car, so she could blend them up and make us homeless on the go. Like, you know, we thought that ice cream until we were about 10, was mashed up banana with coconut yogurt and sunflower seeds on top, we had no idea that that was an ice cream, and we loved it, we didn't know any different. So, I'm really grateful for that I, I am vegan, I'm plant based. I eat predominantly home cooked food. And I really find that cooking is a bit of a form of active meditation. For me. I really love just cooking and cooking for others. And I'm really passionate about eating a really healthy diet. I think that's been really great for me to be able to have heaps of energy to be able to do long days and to really sustained myself through, you know, whatever challenge that I've got going on. So, I love good food. And I’m also really into being active, I like to challenge myself and sign up for triathlons or trying to fit sign up for different challenges. So, I enjoy that too. I find that I do struggle with some of the less active self-care and well wellness, such as, like meditation, yoga, those slower things, I do really struggle. And that's a journey that I'm working on now. But I also love being creative, you know, just doing a pottery class with a friends or going for a walk. I do have a morning ritual that I do where I read books, listen to podcasts, I journal, I really just try to try to incorporate some of those slower activities because it's so opposite to how I live most my days. And it's something that I really need to focus on prioritizing where nutrition and exercise is much more natural for me to just jump in and do it.

Shivani Gupta

Yeah, I love the way you said that. I'm really good at the fast active stuff. Yeah, learn to get better at the other stuff. I just love the fact that your mom's like, yes, you know, I got coconut ice cream and you know all these other really super healthy things. So, she's plants plant based as well. So, did you grow up plant based and that's something you've adopted?

Liberte Alexandria Guthrie

No, I didn't wait. We actually grew up where we ate. Well, I didn't but my family ate a small amount of chicken and fish. I refuse to as a kid and my mom just let me, she said Luna, that's fine. You eat what you'd like to eat. But it was it was you can't not eat any vegetables. So, if we didn't like some mum would put in every single dish until we liked it. It just wasn't an option. You ate every vegetable, but I could choose not to eat. So, I never I was always a vegetarian. My whole life and then about six years ago, I just removed I used to eat eggs and cheese and I just removed both of those. I just I just didn't find work for me. And obviously I think that everyone should eat what works for them. But for me, that's just how it works. And yeah, I was really blessed like mom's depth of knowledge around nutrition was incredible. Like we never went, we never had fast food. I never went to McDonald's. I think the first time I went to McDonald's was when I was 17, I got a water like we just didn't, it just wasn't a part of our life.

Shivani Gupta

Yeah, I'm really fascinated because my daughter's decided yesterday, she's going to do plant based for two weeks. Yeah, wow. She let me know about a week ago saying I'm thinking about and then on Saturday, she said, look, I want to start up for two weeks. And then interestingly, we went out with some friends last night, and we never go out to the pub to eat. Yeah, but these friends of ours regularly go. And they've invited us before and we haven't been able to go. So, we went last night. And like, she hardly touched food. She's like, it's just all processed, or just out of jars, and we tend to cook a fair bit at home. So, it was it's been really interesting. So, I'm also fascinated about where she's driving a lot of that not us a bit like, bit like yourself, Liberte and just honoring her and saying, okay, great, you know, try that. And she's gonna do a two-week trial, and then just see whether she wants to introduce some other things or whether she loves it and continue with us. Yeah, awesome.

Liberte Alexandria Guthrie

Yeah. And it's, I think the hardest part is there's a lot more effort, it is a lot more effort to make food flavorsome it's a lot more effort to make it, you know, filling you need to eat a lot more, I always complain that when I'm out, I feel like I'm being fed. Like my model, I get like this small little portion and I’ve left always hungry. So yeah, I mean, I eat like, a lot of food. You know, in our household, we probably eat enough before, and there's two of us, but it's, you know, it's predominantly just vegetables.

Shivani Gupta

Yeah, yeah. And just having all of that there, that's awesome and Liberte, like going into the future. And you know, other things that you want to do. And the vision that you've got is amazing. So, you know, people want to follow you and they say, hey, I want to kind of know what this woman Liberte got Guthrie's doing, what's the best place for them to find out about your projects, about the work that you're doing and other things that are happening? So, where they can follow you?

Liberte Alexandria Guthrie

I'm a little recluse, you know, like, I am happy to, like, perform in the shadows. Um, so I don't I my amazing marketing assistant, will promote and, and encourage me to do that. But because we don't necessarily sell, we don't have customers. And we sell just directly to the public through external platforms. We, we're pretty fortunate that we don't necessarily need to have a huge public image. But I am 100% always on board with supporting anybody who wants any support in property in business, anything that I can help. So, I'm happy for you to provide even my LinkedIn details and they can reach out to me directly. But yeah, look, I absolutely love the property industry. And I cannot encourage enough people to get into it. I think there's huge opportunity. It's great. It's got amazing challenges. It's awesome for creativity, you know, it's a, it's amazing industry that I feel is really rewarding. And I would love, love anybody who wants to go down that pathway to reach out if they need any support.

Shivani Gupta

That's amazing, Liberte. Thank you. It's been such a pleasure having you on today. And thanks for taking the time out of all the projects you've got.

Liberte Alexandria Guthrie

Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

Shivani Gupta

I'm Shivani Gupta. And you've been listening to the Ask Shivani podcast where I'd like to ask some questions. Thank you so much for listening. Please follow Ask Shivani on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. And if you haven't done so, please go to the Apple podcasts and subscribe rate and review this podcast. It would mean a lot. Thank you.