Birdsnest Australia: How CEO Jane Cay recovered from ‘breaking point’

After a decade running one of Australia’s biggest fashion success stories, Jane Cay realised she had a problem affecting her business.

Aussie businesswoman Jane Cay looked like she had it all in 2014. She had successfully transformed a small women’s clothing store on her home town’s main street into a multimillion-dollar business with more than 80 staff.

But the stresses of running her fashion company Birdsnest, based in the NSW town of Cooma, had pushed her to ”breaking point”.

“I wondered whether I was the right person to be running this organisation,” she told news.com.au.

Under the advice of a coach, she asked her staff to tell her what type of leader she was and one piece of feedback stood out.

“We did this feedback process and they said that when you’re stressed, it’s no fun for anyone,” says Ms Cay.

“I had to become aware of what stress was doing to me and how that was affecting people.”

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Jane Cay had been running Birdsnest for a near decade, when she feared the business was outgrowing her ability to lead. Picture: Supplied.

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That’s when she began to investigate mindfulness. Initially a sceptic – “I was like that’s for hippies,” she notes – she says the practice gave her greater awareness during the moments when she felt like she was “about to tip over”.

“If I feel myself going into that state where I’m overreacting to something that potentially isn’t that big, I ask myself: Have I had enough sleep? Am I walking?,” she adds. “If I’m catastrophising about things, I generally have a sleep and tackle it in the morning.”

“Our whole world and perceptions are in our minds, and it’s so important to spend some time actually training, quietening and strengthening our minds.”

Ms Cay is one of six speakers at the inaugural VOGUE CODES Country on May 26, highlighting the business journeys and challenges of rural and regional entrepreneurs. Since creating the shopfront in 2004, Birdsnest has grown to be a major player in Australia’s e-commerce scene, and continues to operate from a 6700-strong town of Cooma in New South Wale’s Snowy Mountains area.

Today, it employs nearly 150 people from sales assistants, to designers and software engineers, however Ms Cay says prioritising her sleep has made the “biggest difference” to her mood and ability to lead.

“I just thought that being busy and getting no sleep was just part of it all,” she says.

“There are times when you just have to get through it but it’s just not doing it night after night after night.

“Really doing that recovery as quickly as you can and heightening my awareness that I 100 per cent won’t be at my best and bringing that awareness into my conversations (has helped too).”

Although Ms Cay tries to get a nightly goal of at least seven hours, she notices the biggest difference after eight hours of sleep.

“I can occasionally get an eight and then I’m such a nice person,” she says. “I’m so cool about everything, nothing is a problem and I can cope with anything.”

“My job is to make sure than everyone has the tools and resources to do their job, I’m a coach and you need your coach to be calm and collected.”

Birdsnest's Cooma shopfront is still a local favourite on the town’s high-street. Picture: Supplied.

Her change in mindset was so transformative she took her leanings into the office. As part of the induction process at Birdsnest, all employees undertake a daylong mindfulness workshop and they also hold a daily mindfulness meditation.

“Every day we ring the bell and you can join in on a mindful meditation. The whole business doesn’t go but when you have a few people who’ve just sat in a rainforest and something bad happens, they’re usually in a calmer frame of mind to deal with,” she says.

“It just teaches you to go back to the basics and it’s comforting to know that we are not our thoughts and not all our thoughts are necessarily real.”

Looking back at her 17-year stint with Birdsnest, Ms Cay says it's the award-winning culture that she’s most proud of. The company was dubbed the fourth best place to work in Australia at the BRW Great Places to Work Awards in 2017 and Ms Cay says her team have managed to make the “impossible possible”.

“We can have this great life and live in the slow lane but work in the fast lane,” she says. “Less than 10 per cent of our team have a tertiary education, yet together they’ve won innovation and customer service awards.”

“They’re proof of what is possible when a community of people work together and I just feel really proud of that.”

For more information on VOGUE CODES 2021, you can visit their website here