More than 50 women packed a room at the Bellevue in Lakes Entrance last week for Margie Warrell’s Live Brave Day, with nearly half travelling from well outside the region, including Melbourne, Geelong and Wangaratta, and one woman even travelling from Japan, where she is currently working.
Margie (formerly Margie Kleinitz), a bestselling author, executive coach and international speaker who grew up on a dairy farm in Nungurner, said she was “delighted, and frankly rather surprised” by how far people had come for the seminar.
The group spanned doctors, dairy farmers, executives, teachers, celebrants and shop owners, all there, she said, “ready to look inward at where their fears are shortchanging their futures”.
Warrell, who now lives in Virginia, just outside Washington, DC, works largely with senior leaders and sits on numerous boards to strengthen leadership globally.
She said no other place she has lived around the world has ever felt like home the way the Gippsland Lakes do, and that reconnecting with local women was particularly meaningful given how tough recent years have been for many of them.
“We danced. We laughed. We cried. And we had the authentic conversations we so often avoid,” Warrell wrote afterward on her public Facebook page.
“We also forgave the younger version of ourselves that couldn’t have known what we have since learned… and got clear about the decision we need to make now that our future self will thank us for.”
Warrell, who holds a PhD in human development and has worked with many trailblazing leaders including Richard Branson, Bill Marriott and Steve Forbes, said her own research keeps pointing to the same finding: the biggest barrier to a better life is rarely our circumstances, it’s the mindset we bring to them.
She often tells the story of learning to ride as a girl on her father’s dairy farm, on a horse the family had won in a raffle. It taught her a principle she has carried ever since: growth and comfort cannot ride the same horse.
She said the day was built around that idea, helping women see that who they are is not the doubts they carry about themselves, and encouraging them to reclaim their agency to make changes rather than let self-doubt keep them from pursuing meaningful goals in all areas of their life.
Attendees echoed that sentiment.
“Thank you for your courage to bring this to East Gippsland, Margie,” wrote Ainsleigh Whelan.
“Feeling grateful to have had the opportunity to share the day with you and a room full of amazingly strong women.”
Sue Smyth, who attended with her daughter Serrin — who travelled from Japan for the event — said: “We thoroughly enjoyed our day with you and a room full of wonderful and strong ladies. We are still talking about the day and what we achieved from it.”
“What a fabulous day, I loved, loved, loved it all,” wrote Patrina Reeves, while Eily May called it “an amazing day shared with a lot of wonderful women”.
East Gippsland Shire mayor, Cr Jodie Ashworth, also praised the event.
“Huge thanks to Margie Warrell for bringing her Live Brave Day to Lakes Entrance. It was an inspiring day and a wonderful opportunity to connect with fabulous women who live locally and those who travelled to East Gippsland for this special event,” she said.
Those in attedance enjoyed a complementary glass of champagne at the conclusion of the event thanks to caterers, Albert and Co.
If you’d like to stay up to date on future events, you can follow Margie on Facebook and Instagram, or sign up for her newsletter at MargieWarrell.com.
