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The "Level Up" with Duayne Pearce Podcast
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The "Level Up" with Duayne Pearce Podcast
Feng Shui - What Is It And How Can It Take Your Building Business To The Next Level.
#129 Discover how Feng Shui can positively influence your environment, wellbeing, and life experiences. Jane Langof shares practical insights and the transformative power of energy alignment in your living spaces.
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What is Feng Shui?
Speaker 2:So Feng Shui is the art of arranging your living and work spaces to create the optimal flow of energy. It's about your relationship with your environment and your surroundings and how the energy in your environment can affect you on a mental, physical and spiritual level.
Speaker 1:G'day guys. Welcome back to another episode of Level Up. We are back in the shed for another warm summer's day today, something a little bit out of the ordinary. It's midday here in southeast Queensland because we have a very special guest with us today that has flown up from Sydney just for the day to spend the afternoon with us, and we've actually done some really funky stuff before this recording.
Speaker 1:But before I get into who it is and what we're going to talk about, you would hear me on this podcast bang on all the time about if you want to have a successful business and be able to separate yourself from the rest.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter whether you're a trader, builder, whatever type of business you are. You need to be able to offer your clients value, and there is thousands of different types of clients in this world, and if you're not educating yourself, expanding your horizons, your mindset and all those types of things, you are really restricting the type of clients that you're attracting to your business. The guest we've got today is something that we've actually uh. Her specialty is something that we've actually had quite a few clients over the last 12 to 16 years reach out or mention during either during the design process or during the build. So when I ran into this person when I was speaking down in sydney recently, we connected well and I was being really excited about catching up today and we actually did. My wife and I did a session with her before recording this podcast. So huge, big warm welcome to Jane Langhoff.
Speaker 2:Langhoff, that's correct, yep.
Speaker 1:How are you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, really well thanks.
Speaker 1:It's great to be here, Dwayne. I look. Really appreciate you coming up here. So look guys, jane is an established author, just released this book this year. It's all about feng shui, so oh, did I say that wrong?
Speaker 2:Well, there are different ways of saying feng shui. So the way I say it is feng shui, but you can also say feng shui, feng shui, feng shui, feng shui, feng shui, feng shui, just not feng shui. But the way I like to remind people to say it in an easy way is feng shui. It's like it's a fun way, a fun way of working with Jane.
Speaker 1:Awesome, I love it. Look, before we lose you. You run away because you heard us talking about woo-woo stuff. Please hang around, because this conversation is going to cover a lot of ground and, like I said, we've had clients reach out and mention this throughout the years and in the last two hours, I've learnt so many things about this stuff that I can help guide my clients, and it's something Camille and I are interested in as well. But look, jane has this great new book, a Home Owner's Guide, to Abundance, so go and check it out. How do they get a hold of your book, jane?
Speaker 2:Through my website, which is fengshuaconceptscomau, but if you just Google Jane Feng Shui, you'll find me pretty easily.
Speaker 1:Excellent. So how I met Jane was what was it? September, Back in September, yeah, so a few months ago I got asked to speak at the Master Builders North Shore Division. It was a monthly thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a monthly divisional meeting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and after I spoke, there was a few people that come around and spoke to me and Jane was one of them. And yeah, we just connected and started talking about stuff and I think I overheard something you were talking about to somebody else and I'm like, hmm, that's very interesting.
Speaker 1:I've had quite a few clients mention that over the years, so maybe it's time I actually learn more about it yeah, fantastic and now you've flown up here today and we've done a session and, um, yeah, it's, it's, it's really opened my eyes to what it is. So, before we go into what we've done and what you do, what is fengui?
Speaker 2:So feng shui is the art of arranging your living and work spaces to create the optimal flow of energy. It's about your relationship with your environment and your surroundings and how the energy in your environment can affect you on a mental, physical and spiritual level. So feng shui has been around for thousands of years. Has originated in China. There are many myths and misconceptions about feng shui. Has been around for thousands of years. Has originated in China.
Speaker 2:There are many myths and misconceptions about feng shui, but essentially, you know, 5,000 years ago, whenever it was first developed, ancient Chinese masters discovered that different patterns of energy affected the human body and mind, and when people were aligned with positive energy, they experienced periods of good fortune, whereas if they're aligned with negative energy, they experienced misfortune or obstacles.
Speaker 2:And so these observations have developed into guidelines, rules, formulas and systems that determine what feng shui is today. There have also been a few sort of breakaway sort of schools of feng shui that have come out there. In the 70s feng shui was brought out to the west a very simplified version of feng shui that suggests that every home has a grid of energy. That's the same in whatever home you look at. So if you're interested in feng shui. You might have seen this around on the internet, but it's not real feng shui. You might have seen this around on the internet, but it's not real feng shui. So true feng shui is unique to each home, based on the orientation of the home, the floor plan, the occupants that live in the home and you know when the place was built.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I can contest all this because we, like I said, we just Jane flew up early this morning and my wife and I we sent Jane some. You sent through a form, we filled out some information and we sent you the house plans. So Jane did a bit of homework on it before she got here. So can you explain this? So for people that are listening it might be a bit difficult, but Jane turned up with this colouroded energy map overlaid over our house and it was done. There was one for the ground floor and one for the second level.
Speaker 2:Yes, so what that is is, if you imagine your floor plan and a pie chart I guess over the top of it, with the various directions north, south, east and west, and the intermediate directions of north, east, south east and so forth, and each of those directions has a particular, the segments within the directions has a particular configuration of energy. That will tell someone like me, feng Shui master, how supportive that area of the home is for the occupants, so whether that is supportive for wealth, health, relationships and all that sort of thing. And so what we try and do is search for the really great energy zones, like the wealth sector. Everyone wants to know where the wealth sector is and where the best energy is for harmony, health and relationships. And then if you're designing a home, it's about putting those zones into spaces that can activate that positive energy where you can.
Speaker 1:Yeah, look, anyone that listens to the podcast all the time. I talk about wee-wee shit all the time now because I'm addicted to it, but what blows my mind is, the more that I do of it and the more I expand my mindset and the more I listen to every different person, their opinions and all those types of things, how much of it links together. Um, and look, so this, this is something that I, um, like my mum, used to talk about this stuff all the time and I didn't really like read books and things. I didn't really know much about it, but it was. It was enough to plant a seed and it's. It's definitely something that's made me think about parts of it over the years. Jane, you're not a numerologist. There's a numerology. Part of it isn't there?
Speaker 2:I'm not a numerology specialist. That's a separate sort of field to feng shui.
Speaker 1:But we have our last three houses we have selected because of the street address and so it was good to you backed it up like we live at number nine and that's a good number and the position of the house on the street, and like you don't want to live at the end of a cul-de-sac or a t intersection and those types of things. But after this session we've just done with jane, like we, our lives have changed dramatically. So we've been in this house for only just over four years, like four years and three months, and going through this energy map with Jane, our circumstances in this current house are far different to the previous occupants. And look, I don't know if it ties in or whatever, but we were explaining to Jane that the last people that lived here had some not so good circumstances. His wife passed away, he fell into a hole and financially couldn't get out of it and like that was the whole story behind us buying the house. We got a good deal and the bank was trying to take and all that type of stuff.
Speaker 1:But at the time, like when we knew all that, it didn't really like make any sense, but like I did have a bit of a worry that shit. Are we moving into a house that hasn't got good vibes and are we gonna take on this bad energy and all this type of stuff? And but it's. It's been the complete opposite. Um, and we've gone through the house. We've we've, internally, we've reconfigured it quite a bit, changed a lot of walls around, we've done all the floor coverings, all the bathrooms like repainted, like we've done a lot of renovations to the home, but we have changed the use of the areas. And I'm really ecstatic now, after going through it with you, because the way that we use the house now is actually like we haven't got a lot of improvement to make. Like the areas where we have the office like my office, for example is is where the wealth is yeah um, focused and, like our living room and the front entry is all perfect for wealth and happiness and stuff.
Speaker 1:And the reason I'm telling you all this background stuff is because everyone thinks that it's just hard work and, like I do, work my ass off. A lot of people can't keep up with how much I do and what I do. But the reason I'm giving you all this backstory before Jane tells what she does our life has changed dramatically since we've been in this house across the board, like family, situationwise and definitely financially, and so I contribute a lot of that to what you've just told us. With this energy map and how the house is, and I guess we'll get into it more Jane's given us some things we can improve on even more. So do you want to talk to us about how this sort of energy map stuff works?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So when I look at the energy map, it shows the configuration of energy that affects the different occupants in your home. So I would look at the energy at your front entrance and analyze that and see how that supports your wealth, because the front entrance is your gateway to wealth. So we want to know what the quality of energy is at the front entrance. Your bedroom is really important as well. We want to know what the quality of energy is there. Does it relate to illness, does it relate to conflict? And then what elements we can use to harmonize that energy.
Speaker 2:So when I talk about the elements, feng shui is part of Chinese metaphysics, which also includes acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine, and in Chinese metaphysics we're looking at the five elements of fire, earth, metal, water and wood, and each of those elements relates to a particular colour, shape and material.
Speaker 2:And so in the energy map we're looking at harmonising what's going on in that energy map with one of those five elements. So we're looking at it from an energetic perspective, but we're also looking at it from a physical layout perspective as well, because that's really important. So we want to make sure that the bed is in an area where the energy is most contained. That's like the wealth area of a room, which is the area that's diagonally opposite the door. We want to make sure that the front door has an open area where the energy can collect and be contained and then meander through the rest of the house rather than move too quickly in straight lines so is this something that people should be like after what we've just done with you now, like if we were to build a new house from scratch.
Speaker 1:It's something that we would get you involved with the design.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:To make sure that that energy flowed perfectly.
Speaker 2:The best time to work with a feng shui consultant or feng shui master is at the time when we're still dealing with lines on a page, when we're still dealing with concept plans, when we're still dealing with lines on a page, when we're still dealing with concept plans. Or you can even go one step prior to that and say well, which piece of land should I select or which property should I buy, if you've got a couple of different options to choose from? But the thing with feng shui is that it's so important to a lot of people in the community and, regardless of whether you say that you're a believer or not, it's going to have an impact when it comes time to sell your property. So you know, incorporating those, those principles at the start is a no-brainer, and a lot of people don't realize that that even if they're not Chinese or or of Asian background, that feng shui is relevant yeah, definitely so how?
Speaker 1:and so one of the things Jane just did with in our house was, um, we actually went to all the room, the bedroom. So because, like, obviously, my wife and I have different energy and, like my, both my girls have different energy. So it was, um, can you just explain what it was? I can't remember. The orientation was because different people have different. Yes, what was the deal with that?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I analysed your birth dates and found what your favourable directions are. So what are the best directions that you should be aligned with when you sleep? So people generally have four favourable directions, so they might be south, east, northeast and so forth, and if your bed is aligned with those directions, then that's seen as a good thing from a feng shui point of view. You're aligned with that energy. But if you're not, then it's about well, how can you tap into that positive energy flow through other ways? Perhaps your desk can be orientated in such a way that you can face your favorable direction. So there's many different things to consider in feng shui. It's about where the best energy is in your room, the quality of energy in terms of that energy map that I talked about, the physical aspects of the space and where you should be locating your bed in relation to the door and the windows and you know, the light and the breezes and so forth, and also, looking at those, the aspects of the birthdates of the occupants.
Speaker 1:And look, so if you think this stuff's woo-woo, we walked into our bedroom and Jane pointed out that some of the colors that my wife has on the bed, on the cushions, are not ideal. And it really clicked for me because my wife only literally put these new pillowcases on two or three days ago and for the last two or three days I've had a terrible sleep, to a point where we just said this morning my wife said to me you're gonna have to do something about your sleep because you can't keep not sleeping. I'm not a good sleeper the best of times, but the last couple of nights have been shithouse yeah and straight away.
Speaker 1:Now I'm like well, it's that color.
Speaker 2:Like you, change the color that does change the energetic quality of the room and that that bedroom actually has this particular energy. And it relates to illness that we need the metal element to reduce and you have having those particular, that particular color, which is that that pinky sort of color, is the fire element which actually feeds that metal element and makes it stronger.
Speaker 1:So we want to reduce that and that's the last couple of nights I've just been fired up, Like I just haven't been able to calm down and go to sleep. So, yeah, look, I think this stuff's fantastic, Whether you're on board with it or not, I definitely think it's. You need to be looking into it, Because the other thing that I find amazing, like I said before, is it's all tying together. Like I went and saw Deb the color lady the other day. We did a session with her and quite a lot of points that she brought up, Camille and I you've brought up again with your expertise.
Speaker 1:So, obviously, like I am a definite believer now, that everything on this planet is energy and there is so much energy just floating around us, and that energy has a lot to do with the moods we're in, our personalities, how, how successful our days are, how well we sleep like, how good our relationships are, like it's it so, if you can, for me, if we can be learning more about all these I don't even know what to call them like, I just call it woo-woo stuff, but um. But for me, if we can be learning more about all these, I don't even know what to call them like, I just call it woo-woo stuff, but um. But for me, if we can learn more about it, like, why not give it a go?
Speaker 2:like absolutely what have you got to lose?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah because I definitely know that, since I've been giving it a go, my life is just getting better and better and better. Um, and for those that are worried about, or focusing on, the dollars in the bank account, my bank account is definitely growing and growing, and growing, like the more time I spend on understanding myself, yes, and how I work.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:The other thing that we just did with Jane. What was the MMFs?
Speaker 2:Oh, EMFs EMFs Electromagnetic fields.
Speaker 2:So, we went around with my meter emfs electromagnetic fields. So we went around with my uh, my meter that measures electron, electromagnetic fields, and went around to each of the rooms to see, uh, what the readings were in each of the bedrooms around the bed. Because your body is made up of mostly water and if you've got this interference from electromagnetic fields it can really upset and disrupt your health. So what we, what we found in your house was the EMFs were low around your beds, which is fantastic, but in the bedroom where your mother in law is going to move into, really high EMFs because the other side of the bed head wall has the meter box.
Speaker 1:So it's funny because, again, this is something that we're getting requested more and more from clients and I've heard a little bit about it but I wasn't. I've never actually used a meter to walk through a home and measure it and it was really interesting with Jane to walk through our house and place this meter on different surfaces and different walls and see the different types of readings and long story short. But my mother-in-law is actually moving in to live with us next week. I'll keep you updated on that one. But yeah, all the bedrooms in the house were fine until we went to. So the room that used to be in the past owners of the house used it as an office and Jane said there was a few things there that weren't quite right with the energy and stuff. And then we've said, oh, it's now going to be getting used as a bedroom, like we've renovated as a bedroom and that's where the bed's going to go. And, yeah, like it went through the roof yeah, the reading was so high.
Speaker 2:That is definitely not supportive for your health. Someone could really get sick there. So so the and the remedy for that is just putting the bed on the other side of the room yeah, and so we did.
Speaker 1:We, given that we found that out. Um, I grabbed the meter off jane and I went around all the walls in the room and literally four meters away on the other side of the room, like it was perfect. Yeah, literally nothing so.
Speaker 2:So the moral of that story is know what's on the other side of your bedhead wall and if you're having trouble sleeping or you've got some health issues and you've got your meter box there, move the bed. Well, move the bed if you've got the meter box on the other side of the wall anyway.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and Jane was telling a story about how even in her own house there was a copper pipe. Do you want to tell us about that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so when I was living in Melbourne for some time, we had a home that had very high electromagnetic fields and the previous occupants told me how people had trouble sleeping, especially their son and I had my meter, emf meter and I was measuring in the master bedroom, where I was, there were very high EMFs but no meter box. On the other side of the wall and along the floor as well really high EMFs throughout. One of that you know the previous occupant's bedroom and what we discovered was that the EMFs were actually conducted through the copper pipe that was on the other side of our bedhead wall and that was coming from the street and from the actual water meter, from the street or one of those meters anyway. And then what we ended up doing was getting calling in the plumber to cut the copper pipe, to replace it with PVC, and then the EMF readings came completely down.
Speaker 1:So just a section. You just took a section of the pipe out to stop the.
Speaker 2:Stop the conduction of whatever was coming through from the street through that copper pipe. It was bizarre.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it makes sense. Yeah, a lot of mandals are conductive, but it makes sense. Yeah, like, yeah, a lot of metals are conductive, so it makes sense. And you never know, we've definitely had situations on projects where doing a renovation and the existing house or a previous electrician's done some dodgy work and you've literally got life current going into ground, like from all types of things that you can never think of.
Speaker 2:So that's obviously going to be tracking through and conducting around other metals yeah, and those people were living in that house for, you know, 20 years or so, and if they would have known about this, they could have saved themselves a lot of issue yeah yeah, so on that emf stuff, like we've recently competed, completed a project for ourselves where it got brought to my attention by one of our past clients.
Speaker 1:I'd never heard of it before and one of our past clients started talking about it, asked if we would work with her to help reduce it.
Speaker 1:And that's my first sort of I guess exposure exposure to it and so on that particular job, she'd done a lot of study on it and so we placed, like all the Wi-Fi in the center of a home in an isolated cupboard. We ran a mains cable to there, like we put a isolator switch so literally when she went to bed of a night she could walk to the cupboard, turn the switch and cut power off. Look at the time I thought, man, like this, this, they've gone a bit overboard here like is this stuff really real? And then, yeah, after learning more from her about it, like I said, we just finished a well, not far off, finished a um a project for ourselves and we actually did design the wet areas and where the cables and where the copper pipe work went away from sleeping and living areas and so we kept it all sort of centralized to one area because we didn't want to have it behind beds and those types of things.
Speaker 1:So fantastic, that's so good yeah, like this is all stuff that, like you just don't know about. Yeah, but it's definitely affecting our health and our sleeping patterns and all those types of things. So what are some of the other benefits? And I'm really glad we did this session first, because it's given me some ammunition to have this conversation but one of the other things you picked up in our house, or you asked a question about, was the position of the oven. Can you explain that to us a bit more?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So when we look at the energy map of a home, the major features like major water features and fire features have a big influence on the energy, because water especially amplifies positive or negative energy, regardless of that quality. So water really activates the energy in a space, so we need to make sure that it's in a good spot, and the same goes with fire as well. So fire is a very active element that charges up the energy in a space. So there are these certain fire formulas from a feng shui perspective that govern how supportive its placement is for the occupants. And with the placement of your stove and oven it was in a really good spot. That is actually ideal for CEOs who can handle high power sort of positions, but it's not good for people who can't handle those positions in their job this typical worker because it might be too much. And so we look at where these fire features are located and then figure out what to do to best support the occupants who are living there.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So if things like that come up, obviously not everyone's going to go and tear the house apart and rebuild. No, what's some things you can do to help with these situations if they're not ideal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so if that stove of yours was in a particularly challenging location and there's nothing you could do about it, I would look at the position of the stove then compare that with the midpoint of the home and then have a water element in between so that could be something like a uh, like a tank for drinking, you know, one of those water purifier type things. Uh, it could even. You could even go as simple as hanging a charcoal or black coloured tea towel from the oven door, like there are certain remedies that you can use that really help to reduce that energetic quality.
Speaker 1:You mentioned several times, while we were going through our home plants and then like different types of plants, like whether they're planted in soil or whether they're something that's growing in a in water pot full of water yeah, so you, you.
Speaker 2:There are certain energy configurations that require the water, the element of water, or still water, not active water features, and that is where you'd have something like a vase of water that has some a living plant in it, like lucky bamboo, if you've seen that I'd love to get some of that or any plant that can live in water. It might be pothos or devil's ivy yeah yeah, and, and then that helps to. That helps to regulate that energy as well. Yeah, so, and then, and then that helps to regulate that energy as well. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then plants in general are great to have in a home, but there are certain places that will benefit from the addition of plants. Yeah. But in general, we want to be connected to nature, so it's good to have them in there, regardless of its placement.
Speaker 1:I think it's unreal that so much of this woo-woo stuff, that's it. It literally just comes back to nature, like getting back to natural products, surrounding yourself with natural like water, stone, wood, fire. Yeah, I just feel that so many issues that we have in the world these days could be fixed so easily if people just went back to basics.
Speaker 2:Yeah, people just need to connect to nature. Even doing simple things like walking barefoot on the beach or in your backyard on the grass or in a park has such a great influence.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So, jane, how are you seeing people do this like, is it something that, like I guess it's your business, so obviously there's enough people out there asking for this sort of thing? Yeah, but are you, is it more just the general homeowner, or do you have builders that you work with? Yeah, so I do actually have builders that you work with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I do actually have builders that work. I have builder clients who who ask me to do feng shui in their own homes. But I also work with people with homeowners. I specialize in those who are building and renovating, because that's where you can get your biggest bang for your buck working with someone like me where you can, where you can really make the most difference. But I also work with people who've got an existing home and they can't move doors or staircases or whatever, and it is what it is and it's just about maximising the energy flow of what you've got. But apart from homeowners, I also work with business owners. I work with people who are designing office refurbs, casinos, people in the club industry, where they're looking to create a place that feels like a lucky space to be for feng shui conscious customers. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and when I talk about people who are feng shui conscious, you know the obvious is that we're talking about Asian clients or Asian buyers. But aside from that, the wellness industry is booming and there are so many more people who are non-Asian that are really interested in feng shui, just to bring that abundance and health and vitality to their own homes, for their own families.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's fantastic. So one of the comments Jane made while going through our home we've got a huge two-storestory void area when you enter our home that we've done pretty major modifications to since we moved in and Jane pointed out that what we've done is perfect. It's actually encapsulating the wealth and the energy that's coming into the home. But she pointed out, my wife chose these, these like we got them because we just love the timber, these big wooden, uh, handcrafted chandelier things. And jane said, oh, you wouldn't have that if you were in a casino no, because they look like traps.
Speaker 2:So we don't want anything. So the symbolism of items is really important, especially when you're dealing with a commercial, a commercial place. Not that it's necessarily going to be bad juju from a feng shui perspective, but because these things are tied up with asian superstitions and chinese superstitions and it kind of goes a little hand in hand because of the cultural origins of feng shui. So it's really important that we make sure that there's nothing that looks like it's going to kill you, that it's going to trap you or that it's going to hurt you.
Speaker 2:So if someone, if the feng shui is right in your home, ultimately it should feel really comfortable it should feel really comfortable and it should be just supportive supportive for your, for you to operate at your highest level yeah, because I feel like I'm actually sitting here thinking because, like we literally finished the session with jane and then come straight down to do this podcast.
Speaker 1:But while you're talking, I'm sitting here thinking like I would love to do that energy map over some of our past properties because, um, we've had home offices several times over the years and like one of our home offices, like camille and I just could not stand it, like we just hated being in there.
Speaker 1:It just it. Yeah, I don't know, I can't even explain it, but like this office here, we like we love it, like we actually spend a lot of time in there, so much so that quite often, like our kids will come and sit in the office and do their homework, and like we have really good conversations in there. And it was funny, like you pointed out on your energy map, that, like my office is, is really good wealth and, um, you've rattled off lots of words, but, yeah, and then even where camille sits in is a really good admin and hr position that's right, because where she sat is has the best energy for harmony, health and relationships, so that's a good space to to be doing negotiations or talking staff issues, dealing with problems with, um, you know, within the company or within the family even.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so that's where we actually hold our team meetings and literally last Friday we had a team training event with the leadership team because we've got some issues and it was at that position. But other areas of the house, like this house, just feels so comfortable. Yeah. And, like we did, we sort of just felt that it's good, it's got good orientation, it's been well designed, it's got a lot of good airflow. Yes, but obviously it ties in a lot with that's also important from a feng shui perspective.
Speaker 2:So feng shui and great design should go hand in hand yeah unfortunately, um, our industry has got a bad name because sometimes things go wrong and sometimes I will meet an architect where they've said oh, I worked with a feng shui person before and we had to put the pool in this strange location and no one was happy with it at the end. So I want to make sure that you're considering the design aspects and, yes, having a background in design always must you know, the physical aspects of a home are so important. Even take precedence to that, to that energy map. But yeah, good design and feng shui should go hand in hand. So if you ever see something that does not make sense from a feng shui perspective or from a design perspective, then it should be raising alarm bells so we don't want to feel some people think that feng shui is about filling your home with tacky ornaments or golden money toads and things like that, turning a place into a chinese restaurant. But no, it's. It's not about that.
Speaker 1:It's just getting the energy flow right I just think it's so important, like I like we're very heavily involved in the design stage now through our PAC process and quite often I'll be sitting at meetings and just thinking to myself, like why are you pushing the client to do that? Like I feel like it's like everything in the world these days, but with design and architecture it's all about what other people are going to think, and I think we get caught up and we actually we live our lives like it.
Speaker 1:I hope you don't mind my swearing, but like, who gives a fuck what other people think? Like, if it's your house, like, this does frustrate me with design as an architect. So you're supposed to be designing spaces to suit the client you're working for and I feel a lot of the time, or some of the time, it's more over. I'm not sure how to word this, but it's. It's more about the. I don't know if perception is the right word. It's more about the. I don't know if perception is the right word. It's more about the perception that.
Speaker 2:What will people think?
Speaker 1:The rest of the industry is going to think when they see a finished photo on. Instagram over how well that space is going to work for a client.
Speaker 2:Yeah, does that make sense? Absolutely? Quite often you see places that are built that are just, uh, you know, a monument to the architect who's built it's a good word, yeah, yeah and um no, it needs to suit the people who are living in the space and and fulfill their needs.
Speaker 2:And that's what I loved about the architect that I worked with when I, when I did a major renovation in my own home they they were. I'd seen. I'd had meetings with other architects and I always came back to this particular one that I'd worked with, he. They engaged me for a feng shui project and I saw how they dealt with the client and how it was all about the client and saving them money and making sure that their needs were met, making sure that the light, the light and the natural you know, the air and the light came through the home really well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, that's a good segue. Let's jump into that, because I really want to talk about your building experience. Yeah, so can you talk us through the journey and what happened?
Speaker 2:My building experience was probably the highlight of my life.
Speaker 1:I'm going to cut you off for a minute, so before Jane goes any further.
Speaker 2:the reason I want her to tell this story is because I think it will help educate a lot of builders and tradies about what you can do better in your business yeah, so we we, we lived in Victoria for a while, bought and sold there and then came back to Sydney where which is where I'm from and looked for a home that I wanted to. I wanted to use my feng shui skills on it and to use it as a bit of a showcase for my business, and so I found this. We found this lovely old 1950s double brick thing that was like built like Alcatraz, and I could see the vision for turning it into something really beautiful. And so I worked with some architects Mark Hurcombe design practice in North Sydney and created this lovely soft deco sort of look with the house. And we had these builders who were referred to by some friends of ours Irvine's Building and I just loved them. They were so fun to work with.
Speaker 2:My experience with building, I just loved it. Every day I was out on site. I don't know if that was a legal thing or not, but I was out on site Towards the end. I was sitting with them during smoko and having my lunch and just got along so well with all of the tradies and the subbies and it was just great. It was such a fun experience.
Speaker 1:So what do you put that down to?
Speaker 2:They were really good at what they did excellent craftsmen. My builder, jason, was just all over everything and made sure that everything was as it should be. There was none of this cutting corners crap communication communication was really good, so I knew what was going on with at every step of the process. Uh, the, the subbies that were hired were great as well, like really good, really good at what they did. Our, our um renderers were like they were.
Speaker 2:They were like craftsmen was artists or like sculptors, I don't know they they just the way they did their work was so good. So we just had top quality trades and so it was the communication. It was their pride in the workmanship and I think our place was just built with a lot of love and I think it really shows in the result so that's they got along well as well yeah yeah, everybody got along really good
Speaker 2:the culture was really good. So the builder, my builder, jason Bennett, he didn't yell at the tradies. You know, if there was ever an issue which hardly there ever was it was just everything was just resolved and move on.
Speaker 1:Move on to the next thing so for you that's all about energy and and spaces and your environment and stuff like that would have been very comforting because you didn't have any bad energy getting brought into your home no that you were going to live in no, as I said, it was built with love.
Speaker 2:It's like when you cook with love.
Speaker 1:It's very different to when you're just slapping, getting food that's been slapped together from down the road yeah versus having a lovely home-cooked meal so I thought of it like that yeah so I think that makes a difference to. I feel like the walls were constructed with a lot of good energy yeah, yeah, it makes sense, doesn't it like, when you think about that everything on the planet is energy.
Speaker 2:Like it's.
Speaker 1:I find that a lot of people like because a lot of people don't understand construction and the costs involved and how it operates, and even what a builder really is and does like. It's easy Like a plumber, people know what a plumber does. Electrician, they know what they do like there's a lot of people out there that don't actually know what a builder's role is. But quite often the whole process like the bad energy starts from the design stage, where people aren't listening, there's not a lot of communication, communication isn't, communication isn't accurate and things are getting put on paper that may not suit the client's requirements, but nine times out of ten definitely doesn't suit their budget. And so right from that point, when they have to start making changes and pulling things back, that bad energy starts.
Speaker 1:And it really disappoints me like you hear so many stories like I'm the same as you, like I think building should be a incredible experience, like we go out of our way to make sure our clients have the best experience they can. But it breaks my heart when you hear clients tell these stories that they literally like they need somewhere to live, they need a new home, they need a renovation, but their passion and their energy and everything just gets slowly destroyed to a point where, once the job's finished, they actually can't have that excitement and that good feeling. And like I feel bad because I had clients like that, like back in the day when I was running a shit show, like there was a lot of jobs that I just could not wait to get paid, hand over the keys and get out of there. Yeah, because the relationship was ruined, the energy was bad, there was a lot of negativity.
Speaker 1:And I think back now I think, well, that was terrible, because right from day dot, those clients moved into those homes without having a great experience yeah whereas nowadays, like our clients are in tears and we're all hugging, and even we get phone calls months after we finish, we go on holidays with our clients like that's so nice it's a different energy. We got one client at the moment. I had a site meeting this morning. Every single thursday she brings um like anything like for the team. So like today it was croissants and chocolates.
Speaker 1:Like every week, she brings food for the whole team, whoever's on site, like painters, renderers, electricians, like amazing so I'm really proud of those connections and those relationships and that's why I really how how I started this podcast. I think builders need to or tradies, people in this industry need to think outside the box and stop being just a tradie or just a builder.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like talk to people like yourself, learn more, like expand your horizons, learn more about different things, because, but from what I've learned from you today, next time a client asked me about better, I'm gonna be able to say, oh, hey, get in contact with Jane and discuss this, so she'll talk to you about this, this and this. And yeah, or, if they're like, with a little bit of knowledge that I've gained from today, when I'm sitting in a design meeting, I'll be oh, shouldn't put your bed, obviously, like straight off, so you your doorway, because it makes a difference. Yep, so good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I really think it's great what you're doing and I hope more people reach out to you, but do you still speak to your builder after that?
Speaker 2:Well, it's been a few years now since then, but we still sort of are on the social networks, you know on.
Speaker 2:Instagram and Facebook and that sort of thing, yeah. But yeah, you know, I was really sad when the whole building experience wrapped up, I was like, oh, these were my little friends that I used to love chatting with, with and and now and. But then it was just a new phase of my life and then it just became me focused on my, on my business, after my beautiful feng shui house was built. So then it was about tapping into the energy of the home and really making it work for me and my family which is what we did, went on you.
Speaker 1:You enjoyed it so much that you then thought about getting involved more. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:so I loved it that much that I thought you know what I want to help people build their home so I can deal with these tradies on a daily basis. And so what I did was I went to think about, well, where can I study project management and get some sort of qualification? And I came across Master Builders Association and I thought this is a great idea. I think I'm going to do this. So I went and enrolled for their project management diploma and I found out from there that there were these divisional meetings with the local master builders and I thought you know what? I'm just going to show up one day. And it was really intimidating.
Speaker 2:I showed up at one of these meetings in Sydney and I knew, no, no one. I just rocked up there by myself and there was a room full of I don't know 50 builders or something they're all having chats with amongst each other, and there was this one table that had no one there and I thought, okay, well, I think I'm going to go and sit over here by myself and hope somebody comes and talks to me. And then soon after, one of the builders from the Manly Warringah Division who's a past president there, sean Coddington, came and sat next to me and he was so welcoming and friendly and really nice. And then the others I discovered I was on the Manly Warringah table. Then the others from the division came up and started talking to me and then I realised wow, this is a great community. And they invited me to the Manly Warringah MBA sort of divisional meeting. So I started going to that one. I just really loved their vibe. But where do we? I digressed there.
Speaker 1:We're talking about. You got into project management.
Speaker 2:I got into project management, yes. So then I was continuing to do this project management course and found that it was. I think I did about a year of it and it was really hard going for me because I wasn't from the building industry and so I didn't have access to some of the policies and things that they were requiring for as the deliverables for this course. And then I realised that it was actually taking me away from my purpose, which was about helping people create abundant spaces. So I just I was at a position where I discovered you know what this isn't right for me and I felt really bad. I was actually in tears.
Speaker 2:I was talking to one of my friends who's a neuroscience coach and I was saying, you know, and? And she said to me Jane, what is your actual purpose and why are you doing this project management? Is it actually guiding you more towards your purpose or is it taking you away? And then I discovered no, it's actually taking me away and I think I really need to pull the pin and, um, after a lot of soul searching, I did, because I don't like quitting um, I pulled the pin and then I still kept going to those MBA meetings and I loved it and it's been great. That's where we met.
Speaker 2:That's right and I've been doing that ever since, for the last few years, and it's been so good because I've met some really great quality builders and I've even collaborated with some builders when I had my book launch. So Pament Projects in the eastern suburbs in Rose Bay had the opening of their showroom and we did a collaboration. So the opening of their showroom and my book launch was the same party and it was just so good and it's just wonderful to be part of that community.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's bloody fantastic. So your experience going through a build and renovate yourself, part of that community yeah, that's bloody fantastic. So like that would uh, like your experience going through a build and renovate yourself and then even the 12 months that you did on the project management course, like that would have added a lot of value now to what you do with your clients because you understand the build process a lot more absolutely.
Speaker 2:That really opened my eyes then to the whole project management process and what you need to go through to have a really efficient build. And then when I was talking to these guys from the MBA the Sean Coddingtons of the world and John Oxleys and that sort of you know those sorts of caliber of builders then I was saying, well, what do these guys do in their business? And they're all over it with their systems and processes.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I really, really enjoy it and love it. But before we start to wrap it up back to the feng shui, I guess what's a couple of things that you can give just the general people that are listening some tips on.
Speaker 2:Okay. So when you're designing your home, try not to have your front door in direct alignment with your back door, because what that means is that money's coming in and the energy's not being contained and therefore it's just leaking out again. So feng shui is about energy containment. We want the energy to meander through the property rather than move too quickly through straight lines. So we don't want the front and back door to be aligned. We also don't want the front door to be in direct alignment with the stairs, because again that's like the energy rushing out of the property. So try and avoid those two things, because if you get those two things wrong in the design process, it's very hard to fix, obviously.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm glad you've told me that or impossible. That's the next state. Our second stage of renovations, that was we were going to move the stairwell and the stairwell would have finished straight in front of the front door.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so we want to avoid the front door and the back door being in direct alignment. If your place is like that, though it's not the end of the world, it doesn't mean you're going to die or you're going to be struck by lightning. We need to then make sure that the energy can be circulated and slowed down. So it might be, you know, if your front door is in direct alignment with your back door, slowing that energy down maybe through artwork, through some furniture, placement, plants, that sort of thing. But for more in-depth detail on that, have a look at my book, because it's all in there.
Speaker 2:In terms of a bedroom, as you mentioned before, we don't want to have the front door, the bedroom door, in direct alignment with the bed. That's called the coffin position, which sounds very scary. It doesn't mean that you're necessarily going to die. Sounds very scary, doesn't mean that you're necessarily going to die. But we want to make sure that the bed is in the space that's diagonally opposite the door, because a space that's diagonally opposite a door in a room is known as the wealth corner of the room. It's where the energy is most assembled and contained, and this is where you want to place your study desk or your bed or your the lounge, so we want to make the most of that.
Speaker 2:Uh yeah, and then with the, with the bedroom also. Let's. The bedroom is the most important space in the home because that's where you're absorbing all the energy around you for majority of the time while you're in the home. A third of your life is spent in bed, so things like not having the en suite opening up into the bedroom is one of those things. So there's this big trend towards having these resort style rooms where you've got the en suite open into the bedroom. So we want to be able to enclose that, have that separation, because we don't want to mix up dirty bathroom energy with the nurturing, relax you know, relaxing energy that should be in a bedroom yeah so it's very interesting bathroom.
Speaker 1:Energy is dirty, dirty baby we want to keep it separate I'm was looking through your book here. I was trying to find what we're talking about before, but um, I just come across your um feng shui method by jane langoff yeah, yeah that, like I'll show you before you go up in my office um my training, business, live, life build. We have just created um a success like the nine. Nine points to the success and what success looks like yep um, and it looks identical to that.
Speaker 1:Wow, so hopefully that means we got good feng shui. But, um, I was just trying to find what we talked about just before we come down here. Um, I can't find it, but it was about the armchair, like, like it should surround your house like a lounge chair.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we also look at the landform surrounding your home. So ideally, you want to have that. You want to have solid, well, like this, actual. This structure that you've got here in your podcast studio is a perfect example of it. You've got the support from behind. So in a, in a home, you want to have tall trees or hedges or something at the back to protect, to hold in that energy from the, from the back. You want to have the the sides of the home, having some trees or some sort of protective structures on each side of the home. So it's kind of like an armchair type scenario, yeah, where you're protected at the back because that gives you uh, that gives you a security feeling of security and protection. And that's the case with placement of furniture as well. You want to have your big pieces of furniture placed against solid walls, things like your bed, your sofa, where you can, rather than floating in the middle of a space.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, jane, it's getting bloody hot in here, so we'll get out of here. Look, I really appreciate you jumping on the plane, coming up to have a chat and look for everybody listening. I really hope you've made it this far. You haven't zoned out because, look, this is all important stuff and look, don't just take my word for it. Like, try some of this stuff out. I am a big believer. I do think that when you, when you get more connected with your true self, with your natural environment, um, it helps across the board with your relationships with your wife, your kids, your family, um definitely helps your business and all those types of things. So, um, do you want any? Have you got to add any more, jane, before we get out of?
Speaker 2:here. I just think that feng shui is something that people really need to know about, because it it's something that affects property value at the end of the day. Because you want, though, you want people who are interested in feng shui to show up at your auction when it's time to sell. So if you want to tick all those boxes when you're designing and building a home like the sustainability, you want something that's beautiful, you know you want it to have all of the luxury sort of mod cons. Think about feng shui as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's funny you say that because we my wife and I we do the odd development for ourselves. We don't really talk about it that much, but one of our more recent ones was some townhomes and we sold that off market. We got spoken to by a buyer's agent and they asked us if we'd had that was one of their tick-flick boxes, like have you had a feng shui expert involved in this project? Wow.
Speaker 1:So it's out there like people are sure definitely wanting and thinking about this stuff yeah so, jane, uh, just for the people that are listening, where can they reach out and find you?
Speaker 2:so the best place to find me is through my website, which is fengshuiconceptscomau, or they can find me on instagram. I'm very active there. At feng shui concepts is my handle, and if that's all too hard, just google jane feng shui and I will pop up everywhere awesome and uh, go and grab a copy of your book my book feng shui a homeowner's guide to abundance. It's available online through my website, and also at booksellers and the library too.
Speaker 1:It's there as well awesome look as always, guys. Thanks very much for listening. Please like, share, subscribe. We want to continue to make this australia's number one construction podcast. Yeah, look forward to seeing you on the next one. Please reach out if you want to hear something on this podcast, you want us to talk about a particular product, product, or even if you want to know something about business or whatever, or you want to reach out to one of our guests, let us know, because we're here to help. Look forward to seeing you on the next one. Are you ready to build smarter, live better?
Speaker 2:and enjoy life. Then head over to livelikebuildcom forward slash elevate to get started.
Speaker 1:Everything discussed during the Level Up podcast with me, dwayne Pearce, is based solely on my own personal experiences and those experiences of my guests. The information, opinions and recommendations presented in this podcast are for general information only, and any reliance on the information provided in this podcast is done at your own risk. We recommend that you obtain your own professional advice in respect to the topics discussed during this podcast.