Turning Setbacks Into Impact

I want to be able to lift more people up and to build that momentum and create that environment where everybody's lifting each other up, because that's how we build economies. That's how we build the wealth and prosperity that we need to support our families and our communities. So you know, if everybody lifted somebody else up, then we would all be in a better place. So that's where I'm headed. I want to help bring that to Papua New Guinea help Papua New Guineans engage with the world, and also help the world engage with Papua New Guinea because it's a beautiful and fascinating, wonderful place.

Welcome to the ReLaunch podcast, and let me tell you, when I woke up this morning, I was so excited because I knew who I was going to get to interview today to talk to, to expose all of you to her story, her journey. It's not just about local presence. It's about global. It's about international and we as human beings, all are going through major relaunches in our lives that directly impact us, that change everything for us, and sometimes it's the sliding glass door, sometimes it's one of those that builds up today on the relaunch podcast, we welcome Sharia Bowman, and she is an international development leader, transforming lives in no other place than Papa New Guinea, after years with the Australian Government, She now runs a social enterprise tackling the challenges of a nation with over 12 million people and fewer than 400 formal jobs, a life altering moment shifted her path, inspiring her mission to create lasting change. This is a powerful story that you are going to want to hear about resilience and purpose. Alright. Shot, this is this is so much fun for me, because I've had the privilege of being with you. We had this big event of working with you, of seeing just where you've come from, where you're going. I've had long conversations that I just it's incredible the woman you are and your relaunch journey. So I'd love to go back and ask you, what was the most impactful part, the most impactful relaunch to date that truly changed the direction of your life?

Thank you. Hilary, it's awesome to be on your show. I've been watching it and listening to it for a long time now, and so it's really exciting to be here and to be here from Papua New Guinea. Yeah, I live in Port Moresby, the nation's capital. It's a fascinating country. I came here for the first time in 2004 when I started on my journey with the Australian Government in development economics. And I come from an engineering background, so that was a bit of a shift for me. But my big relaunch, I guess when I arrived here, I wasn't sure how long I was going to be in Papua New Guinea it's it's fascinating, but it's incredibly difficult as well. It's a very challenging environment. And I love a challenge, but I also have young children, and you need to balance these things. And I fell in love with the place. I fell in love with with the excitement and the potential, that there's so much you can do here and so much that needs to be done here. And so I was thinking I was going to stay here. But then in mid 2019 I bought myself a shiny red pickup truck Hilux, because, you know, go needs a really fancy car. So I think it's so

funny that I think it's so funny that you bought a pickup truck, okay? And then you, and then she just to add to it, you bought a red pickup. That's right, it's so great when I heard it,

yeah, no, I decided that, you know, pickup trucks with a luxury car of Papua, New Guinea, we have a lot of potholes on our roads, so it's constantly off road driving. And so I bought this shiny red truck, and I brought it home, and I carefully parked it in my driveway. But I hadn't driven a manual or a stick shift car for about 10 years, and I kind of forgotten what to do. And so I'm I'm walking around at home, I'm wearing my skin tight Armani trousers and my high heels, and I turn around, and my beautiful shiny red car is starting to roll very slowly towards a retaining wall. And so my instinct was, I don't want any scratches on my shiny red car. So I stood in the middle of the driveway and tried to stop it and and tried to actually block, actually. Tried to stop the car. Yeah, I know 2000 kilos of that car. I thought I could stop it. And I really tried, and I pushed. You can't stop a rolling pickup truck. And at one point I'm pushing and pushing, and this voice in this side of my head says very clearly, if you don't get out of the way of this car, it's going to crush both your legs against that wall. You heard. And then this voice on the other side of my head said, No, don't stop. It's going to stop any minute. So I kept pushing, and lo and behold, it did break both my legs against the wall.

So you actually got you actually got pinned. You got pinned between the car and the wall?

Yeah, the car hit the wall. I was very fortunate. I had a really big bull bar on the front, and it held the car mostly off me. So the only damage I did is I broke both my tibia in a snap straight across. And so, my God, we got the car off me very quickly. I threw the key before

you, Shaw, before you keep moving. I mean, you're being crushed. And how did, how did you even get someone to help you? Well,

I was fortunate. I was on our compound, so there were people all around me, and I was very lucky. We had nurses and the doctor and everybody was they live on our compound, so they were all nearby. So I got excellent treatment. But the weirdest part, I'd always wondered how much pain I could stand. I gave birth twice without painkillers, which is no big deal in Papua New Guinea, but it is in countries like Australia and or

or the United States. That's

right. I thought you're pretty good at paying I wonder how much pain I can stand. And I discovered I can stand a lot of pain because I was able to keep my wits about me, throw my keys to the nearest person, James and yo. James, get the car off me. He got the car off me. I fell to the ground because both my legs were broken and and I managed to chat and comfort my children, who saw it all unfortunately, and hug them and tell everybody everything was okay, until the ambulance came and I finally got some painkillers. But in the moment, everything was crystal clear. It so it was a really, it was incredibly I always say it's the worst thing that's ever happened to me, but the best thing that's ever happened to me. It was a transformative moment, because I found out a lot about myself and my resilience. Because nine weeks later, I walked onto the plane and came back to Papua, New Guinea. No way that. Yep, I was all, I gotta say, it's interesting,

because I've asked so many people throughout the years that I've been doing this, and the amounts of shows that I've done, you know, if you could go back and change things, would you? And it sounds like at this point you're like, hey, where my life is is exactly where I'm supposed to be from a transformation perspective. You talk about resilience. Okay, so you're now you got two broken legs. And let me tell you, everyone listening. I mean, shakaria is a mover and a shaker. This woman is not to be held down. So you're in the hospital, you're getting your legs, I assume, put into casts. And so what did you do?

Well, they put these flexible things on you now, rather than a solid cast. So every morning, I would haul myself off that bed onto the floor. I'd ordered a yoga mat, and I would get down and I would do yoga. And my my doctor would come in doing his rounds in the morning and just stare at me, saying, I've never seen anybody do yoga before. But I was so determined to keep as much strength in my body as I could, because I knew I needed it to go home. And by then, home was Papua New Guinea. Home was where my children were, and I all I knew was I had to get out of that hospital and get back to home and back to work and back to my life. And so I was really focused on it. And then my workplace refused to allow me to work, which I think was, in some ways the right thing to do normally, but that drove me up the wall. So I invented projects for myself, and that's when I started with walk ready, which is my company now, my social enterprise. That was, that was where the start of all that thinking happened was, well, tell

us. Tell us. Tell us about work. Ready? Tell us about what was the impetus that, like you're saying, that's where, that's where it all started. So

I knew that I was coming to the end of my time in the Australian Government. I'd been there 15 years. I intended to be there for maybe two or three. I'd gone in and out a little bit. But I started as an engineer, so I started running my own. Company being part of startups, I moved into government, and that was a great place to be when I had really young children, but I knew the time was coming to an end, and I figured out this was probably my last job with the Australian Government. And so I was, well, what do I do next? And if I had to name something that's kind of my life's work, it's labor mobility. I've been part of Australia's labor mobility programs with the Pacific since its inception, since before its inception, but it was still being kicked around as as the germ of an idea. And I've been part of it the entire way through, and I'm really proud of it. We have over 35,000 Pacific Islanders working in Australia every year now, since we started that program, that's incredible. That's just transforming lives. And that hit home to me, the way that you transform people's lives is you give them a job. You give them an opportunity for employment in a good job where they can earn good money and look after their family, and that's all everybody wants. So this was a way of creating jobs where there were none. You know, as you said at the beginning, we've got over 12 million people in Papua, New Guinea. We have 400,000 formal jobs. That's all so a formal job means you have a minimum wage. You're protected by good workplace conditions. It's a good job. When you're in the informal sector, then you've got no protections. You'll be paid badly, you'll be treated badly, you'll be sacked. You've got no maternal rights. You've got no rights to breaks and and being looked after properly. So formal sector jobs are really important, and they underpin our economy, and we kind of take them for granted, and and so when you come to a country like this and you see how hard people want to work, but how few opportunities they have, that really changes your thinking about the workplace and the privileges we've had growing up with access to good jobs, you know, which we're paid fairly for which We're treated correctly in and so that became my driver, was really just giving people opportunities that I had, to work internationally, to have good jobs at home to but as you see young people growing out without that hope and without that opportunity, that's that changes how they behave and how they live. You know, we need young people to have hope and ambition, and when there's nowhere to go, you lose that, and that's that's tragic. So the purpose of work ready is to help people get good jobs, and we do that with training, with education and with finding people opportunities overseas to get that international experience, to bring home and help build the economy here and create more jobs. So

this is really taking social enterprise, and it's, it's different than charity work. You're, you're trying to create, almost like a some type of like, are you going for specific types of jobs. Is it any type and trying to get them to be able to level up in Papua New Guinea? Or what exactly is the base, the foundation of when you're saying, hey, go, go get more additional education elsewhere, and come back to our country and help develop it even more.

That's right. You know, charity can only go so far. Charity, fundamentally, is about giving people stuff, and a lot of people that that's really important, but it can only it's a band aid. It only temporarily resolves an issue. If you want long term change, you need to give people ways to build their livelihoods. And fundamentally, that's about jobs. Most people don't want to be entrepreneurs. Most people don't want to sell things in markets. They want a good job that they can contribute to and go to work every day, just like we do. But you do those other things when you've got no choice. So for me, it's about giving people choices. Not everybody needs to go overseas and work, and we need people to be working in the markets, but I want people to have a choice in what they do and not be forced into things because they've got no other options. So that's what it's all about. It's about creating opportunities that people can can take or or not, depending on how they want to live their lives. And we have those opportunities people here, they don't. So for me, it's about creating those opportunities. The best thing we can do to help people in developing countries is to give them jobs and opportunities for good jobs and make just any jobs but good jobs,

yeah, and make them feel important, and make them feel like they matter. I think that's so important. How long do you feel it takes to have an impact where you actually are seeing the impact in the country?

The beauty of the labor mobility program is you get instant impact. At when people get overseas and they start working, and they start sending their money home, their family and their community, their lives improve because you're getting money into a community that didn't have any. So people are building houses. They're putting in water supplies, power supplies. They're getting their kids through schooling. They're paying school fees. It is immeasurable in how much better it can make people's lives very quickly. So that's the beauty of overseas work. And we know that every migrant community that goes through our countries creates that prosperity and that better life for their children back at home. So that one is is a quick win, and that's why I think labor mobility is so important. But the long term win is building those industries back in Papua New Guinea. So one thing we do is we do a butchery training program with our butchery up in medang on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. We train about 25 young men every quarter, and we send them to work in Australia, in the abattoirs. Now they are men, because the abattoirs are mostly male. They don't take many women, so I'm still looking for opportunities for women. But the men go down to Australia and they work in the abattoirs. They earn a really good income, and they're sending money home. But the beauty of it is, when they come back, they upskill our industry in Papua New Guinea we need more butchers desperately. We need more abattoirs, and we need more skilled abattoir workers, because it is a high skill role, and so we're building that group of competence to come back and start their own butcheries and start their own abattoirs, even if they're just at the village level. That's creating a business for them and for their families and that will sustain them in the long term. So that's what it's all about.

I have a lot of listeners that are in the US and globally, and I'd love to have a really frank conversation with you, because there are a tremendous amount of entrepreneurs, people that are trying to make new choices and and go do different things, people that are trying to make an impact. You know, their legacy, what they want to be doing. You literally left Australia and went to Papua, New Guinea. What was the impetus of going there, and then I really want to, I really want people to hear how you decided to make the change. Because I think people are really on the fence right now trying to know, when is it right to actually do something different to take that step. So first and foremost, why did you get to Papua New Guinea? And then, literally, how can people learn from what you've done to actually do that hard first step?

So I came up with the Australian government as a diplomat. So that was, that was how I got here. But why I got here Papua, New Guinea is really the epicenter of development challenges. We have a very large population. We have very few jobs. Most of the population is unbanked. They don't have safe water to drink. They don't have access to health care centers. They have very poor schooling. They have bad health outcomes. So if you want to look at a challenging environment for a development professional, this is it. And so I came up here. I've been coming up and down to pap New Guinea for years. I've worked with Papua New Guineans. Love working with Papua New Guineans. And so I came up wondering how I could bring meaning to my my career, but also how I could give back and that that's really always been the focus of my work. I wouldn't be in development economics if it wasn't about giving back to community. And I felt by the end of my three years with the Australian Government that this is where I could really give back. And after the car accident, it was that sliding door moment. All I could think of was getting back to Papua New Guinea. All I could think of was getting on with my life in Papua New Guinea. The decision to stay had had crystallized in my brain, and it was never coming out. And so I started preparing for that transition. And so I came back in September. July. No, yeah, July. I came back in and I left the Australian Government in April the following year, and I've been here for five years since. So I'm now well embedded in the community. I love it here, but more importantly, the things I do every day make things. Make change here in Papua, New Guinea whether it's working on policy or working on business development or working on my projects in medang, everything contributes to the community. And when I see people thriving overseas in new jobs and new lives and thriving here at home in the same way that. What gets me out of bed in the morning? So I do love it.

But you really took, you took a massive step and left, kind of the luxuries of what you had moved to where you are. And again, it's, it's that, how did you do it? As an entrepreneur, you're constantly looking at, am I making the right choice, the decisions you talk about resilience earlier. What do you think are like? How did you Was there a process that you took in recognizing that now's the time I need to do this. I know you had that, that terrible experience where you get your legs broken and you're like, oh my gosh, I need to do something different. But for those that don't want to have their legs broken and just want to, they want to know, like, what is it? What's a different way? SHA that I can actually decide, like, I think it's time to make a change. I think it's time to launch a new product. I think it's time to bring on a partner. What? What do you say to people like that?

I move very instinctively. I think I look and I research and I think, but I also think, you know, our brains consolidate all of this. And you know, you you might not be able to point your finger at exactly what it is, or you could make up a whole heap of reasons and logic for it, but you know, deep inside you what you need to do. And I think when you honor that, that's when you make the best decisions and the best choices. I think if you're overthinking things, that says it's not quite right. So for me, I think the trauma after the accident, because, you know, I'm not going to pretend it was all fantastic. I had a very hard run, particularly for the first 18 months after the accident, that, at the time, I don't think I took enough notice of. But in retrospect, that wasn't a great time, but I knew through all of it that this is what I wanted to do. And I tried, you know, I'm a consultant, so I tried a few different organizations and ways of doing things, and I looked at a few different options, but I feel like now, after five years, I know where I am, I know what my path is, and I know where I'm going for the next 10 years, but I think that's right, when you jump out of something that is secure. And keep in mind, I did this in 2020 I quit my job, moved to a new country, or permanently with my two young children. I got a divorce. I did all of that just as COVID. We haven't even

talked about that relationship. Change there too. Just yet another, another relaunch.

Yes, everything changed, that's what I mean. It was the best time. It was the worst time everything changed, because I didn't have anything in me to give to other people for a while, all I could manage was my children and myself. And so everything changed, and it was a difficult time, but you know, you keep going, and you can see, you can feel where you need to be, and it's a matter of progressing towards it. So what I'm doing now is quite different from what I did in that first 12 or 18 months after I left the Australian Government, but I'm I found my way into the right space. I mean, after I left government, I went worked for the treasurer of Papua New Guinea. I helped him set up our labor mobility unit, which coordinates all the labor mobility programs. So that was another really rewarding thing to be doing. But what really excites me now is being able to work in that space where we're building opportunities for people through that study, that migration, that circular economy of bringing those skills back. So the things I'm looking at now are looking at, well, how do we make those industries work in Papua, New Guinea and I work very much in a policy space, so I marry the practical training with the policy frameworks. And I'm fortunate that in my job, I'm able to work across both spaces. So so I really enjoy that blend. One

thing I want to reiterate that you said is overthinking. Says it's not quite right. I often talk about the the highest self in three HQ, the headquarters of you and the head, the heart, the highest self, and that's where your wise woman is. That's where your intuition and that's where either you have that sense of knowing feeling, you know, gut reaction. And I really like overthinking, says it's not quite right, because too many people can sell themselves into something. And that is exactly what you're doing, selling into it. And what you are experiencing is you just had that intuitive hit that now's the time I need to do this. And you didn't allow yourself to go there and say, well. Here's all the things. I've got little kids. I'm going through divorce. It would be much easier if dot, dot, dot. You were like, No, that's right, I'm going for it, I'm going for it. I'm doing it. And if you over thought it, you may not be in Papua, New Guinea right now. So let's talk. Let's talk about what the future for you, it's because you've said like you're making such massive change, the legacy is there. But where do you see yourself? Do you see yourself staying there? Do you see yourself going other places? How old are your children now? So many, so many things to be thinking about.

Yeah, my children. My youngest is still with me. I've got him for another 12 months, and then he goes back to boarding school in Australia. My daughter's already there. They're in a fabulous school, so it's wonderful. And they're surrounded by children who are like them. They've got parents who are working internationally and and so it's a really great environment for the kids. So I'm very happy with with that those choices and those outcomes, when dash goes, I'll probably relocate permanently to medang as my base, but I will always be back and forth to port Mosby, because this is the big capital. You know, moving them down is a bit like moving up the coast, and you're always coming back to LA. So what we're doing at the moment is building business up there. I'm starting a innovation center up in midang, mid next year, we're hoping to get our physical premises in place, and we're going to use that as the launch pad for people to do business, to create businesses, to learn and to educate both the young people and the older women than men who are still in business doing small business. I spent some time just after a conference. I spent time in Washington, DC at DC startup and innovation week, and that was fascinating. I really enjoyed that, and I learned a lot about the startup ecosystem and the supportive culture that the US is so good at for its entrepreneurs, we need that in Papua New Guinea, so that's probably my mission for the next 10 years, is to help build out that ecosystem here, so that we get that culture of supporting young people with big ideas to be successful, and can scaffold in that the frameworks that they need to succeed. You know that they just need opportunities, and it's so hard to get them. So again, it's all about creating opportunities. And

so you're going to be putting together almost an entrepreneurship type of program. And how do you envision doing that? Like, if people are listening right now and they're saying, I need that. I need an entrepreneur type of program, you know, how do you begin to put something like that together?

So we've got some great support networks that are down in Port Moresby, but they need to come out to the rest of the country. So Port Moresby is a big city. We've got maybe a million people, but that means there's 11 million people everywhere else, and that everywhere else is very remote. So it's about bringing some of the opportunities and the skills from people that we already have out to those regional areas, which is expensive, but if we create the right supportive environment, and if I can crowd in support from development partners and from businesses, we can bring that up. But I also want to bring the international experience. There's so much we can learn online now. Podcasts are like yours. Are just the beginning of it, right? We don't have the facilities up there. I want to set up a center where we can do podcasts, where we can do online courses, so people who don't have access to the internet at home can come into the center and they can learn simple things that we just don't have. So that's the vision, when people can experience these sorts of things, you know, online, that changes how they think and see the world.

Oh, so as we wrap up and you think about something I used to ask often is definition of a powerhouse of possibility, which you really are? What would you how would you describe that in the way that you're looking at what you have accomplished?

I think what I want to accomplish is I want to to support other people's success. I think, you know, one thing that you and Tory Archbold, who were co hosting the event in LA, the thing that you two talk about is lifting other people up, and that's what I want to do. That's my purpose in life. You know, it's

got chills, because you totally you. I mean, I literally chills from my head to my toe, because you're doing it in such a massive way

that I want to expand it. I want to be able to lift more people up and to build that momentum and create that environment where everybody's lifting each other up, because that's how we build economies. That's how we build. Of the wealth and prosperity that we need to support our families and our communities. So, you know, if everybody lifted somebody else up, then we would all be in a better place. So that's where I'm headed. I want to help bring that to Papua New Guinea help Papua New Guineans engage with the world, and also help the world engage with Papua New Guinea because it's a beautiful and fascinating, wonderful place. Well, that's

an interesting last bit. You want people to engage with Papua New Guinea. What would that dream look like to you?

Well, tourism is obviously the thing that would be wonderful, but we're a we're a high cost environment, and we're difficult to get to. So the tourism is for the the more fearless and adventurous traveler. But we do need more tourism, but we need more business. I'd like to see more businesses engage here. There's we are a developing country, but we're actually quite a wealthy one. It's just the wealth is not going to the places it's needed most. And if we can create a business and employment environment that will change. And so I'd love to see more businesses, and particularly more social enterprises, and more not for profits, get involved in Papua New Guinea so that that's a dream, and that's something I try to do as well. Dr

chakria, how do we get in touch with you? How can people like help you in what you're doing from afar, from local what like? What's the best way to connect?

I'm on LinkedIn. I'm very easy to find. All you have to do is remember how to spell my name,

I that's why I love just calling you a shot. I mean, that is like,

Yeah, I'm all over the internet. I think I was the first SHA Korea on the planet, on the internet, because I was a software engineer. So if you can spell my name, which is C, H, A, K, R, i, y, a, Bowman, B, O, W, M, a, n, you will find me. I'm on LinkedIn, I'm on Facebook, I'm on blue sky. I'm getting more involved in tick tock. So I'm reaching out to all the platforms to both bring Papua New Guinea to the world, but also to see who we can crowd in. And if you're interested in Papua New Guinea if you'd like to hire a Papua New Guinean, or you'd like to come to Papua New Guinea just get in touch, because I'm more than happy to help. And I always respond,

you are incredible. Thank you for being on the show. Everybody will have it in the show notes. But what I ask of all of you is, how can you be a little bit more like Shaw? How can you take what you're going through right now and stop overthinking, stop ending the discussion before you've actually done something? Because you talk about remaining stuck. That's how you remain stuck. You gotta move. You gotta have those micro pops. So I would love to hear. And when we put this out the comments, please let us know. What are you going to be pushing yourself through right now, next 90 days, this is what you're going to be doing. And let us know, okay, because this is again you've got to be thinking, how does this episode relate to you. What can you take away? So at this point, as I always say, live now, love now and stop overthinking and relaunch now. We'll be back next week. Thanks everyone. You.