"Trust your gut."
Jane Morrell Tweet
Jane Morrell is the founder and CEO of Carer Solutions, Australia’s only service that enables people living with disability to directly employ people they already know as support workers. After forging a successful career in marketing and events, Jane’s passion to have a greater positive impact on society saw her launch Carer Solutions in 2011.
Working in the disability sector since 2010, Jane’s work brought her into contact with many families living with disability. Driven by an unwillingness to accept that these families had such a significant lack of options when it came to receiving support, Jane set about developing a better, fairer offer in Carer Solutions.
Carer Solutions’ Direct Employ service facilitates everything from payroll obligations to employer insurance and compliance, along with keeping employers up to date with NDIS changes and key information. Since inception, the organisation has positively impacted over 10,000 lives.
Upon starting Carer Solutions, she also presented a monthly talk show on ‘all things disability’ for 3CR Community Radio. Jane is an enthusiastic, passionate, and dedicated entrepreneur with a passion for solving seemingly unsolvable problems.
She has received multiple awards for her work, including Australia’s Top 100 Young Entrepreneurs 2019, and Australia’s Most Influential Women Entrepreneurs 2020 by The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.
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Table of Contents
If you were in an elevator with Warren Buffet, how would you describe your company, your services or products? What makes your company different from others? What is your company’s biggest strength?
Jane Morrell: Carer Solutions was born from my personal experience meeting countless frustrated and exhausted families across Australia who were facing a significant lack of options when it came to finding support workers.
Our organisation supports people living with disability to live self-determined lives by enabling them to employ a team of support workers that they already know and trust. In the background, we take care of all the complicated and time-consuming tasks, including compliance, insurance, and payroll obligations.
We’re different because we’re the only organisation in Australia who does this. When everyone said this was too hard to set up, I persevered and made it happen. Our biggest strength is that we’re human first. We listen, learn, and grow with our community and keep them at the heart of everything we do.
What advice do you wish you received when you started your business journey and what do you intend on improving in the next quarter?
Jane Morrell: Trust your gut.
Since the model I wanted to create was the first of its kind in Australia, I had a lot of people saying that it was too difficult to make happen, which caused some doubts.
As a result, I partnered with and invested in consultants, when it turns out I already knew most of the answers. Those answers came from the insights learned when sitting in people’s homes and listening to their stories and challenges.
For next quarter, my focus will be on fostering an organisational environment of being vulnerable, brave, and trying new things. Don’t be reckless but trust your gut and don’t fear failure.
Here is a two fold question: What is the book that influenced you the most and how? Please share some life lessons you learned. Now what book have you gifted the most and why?
Jane Morrell: ‘The Surrender Experiment’” by Michael A Singer. This was gifted to me by a lawyer after a particularly tricky period setting up Carer Solutions. The book inspires you while on a leap of faith to realise that you have all the answers within you.
Once you surrender to resistance, trust the universe, and go with your gut, things do fall into place. This book kept me focused on my end goal which was to create change and better outcomes for people living with disabilities and their families.
Now what book have I gifted the most and why? Well, the same book, because it made such a fundamental impact on how I approach things, and I hope it does the same for others.
Christopher Hitchens, an American journalist, is quoted as saying that “everyone has a book in them” Have you written a book? If so, please share with us details about it. If you haven’t, what book would you like to write and how would you like it to benefit the readers?
Jane Morrell: I haven’t…yet! As cliché as it sounds, I’d write a book focused on resilience when starting your own business venture. Carer Solutions has been eleven years in the making. At the start, people said it was too hard to make a reality and they were…nearly right.
A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into making this organisation work and there were times when challenges felt insurmountable. However, if you’re passionate about something, keep focused on your purpose and who you’re doing it all for.
I’d hope that sharing some of my challenges and advice on how I overcame them would be beneficial to readers.
2020, 2021, 2022 threw a lot of curve balls into businesses on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past years, how can businesses thrive in 2023? What lessons have you learned and what advice would you share?
Jane Morrell: Focus on people.
Be conscious of ‘the great resignation’ and implement new ways of working, such as working from home and greater flexibility. Understand and respect that people have a life and priorities outside of work.
Foster an environment where vulnerability is seen as a strength, where people feel safe to try new things and experiment without a fear of being reprimanded if it doesn’t work.
What does “success” in the year to come mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Jane Morrell: Our business success is measured by delivering life-changing services to people living with disabilities and their families. With a support worker shortage expected to double in the coming years, our vision is to unlock a new workforce and ensure people have access to trusted and reliable support.
One area of focus for us will be ‘thin markets’ – this includes regional communities where support is even further limited, as well as those with cultural and linguistic barriers.
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Jane Morrell for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Jane Morrell or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
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