Tea with the Queen

What Taylor Swift taught me about business

Watch

Listen

I didn’t go to the Eras Tour expecting leadership lessons in business.

I took my 12-year-old daughter… and myself (another very proud Swiftie). I expected glitter, catchy songs, and the kind of joy you can’t manufacture.

What I didn’t expect was to walk out thinking: Oh. That’s what leadership looks like at scale.

Because yes, the concert was extraordinary. The production was jaw-dropping. Taylor was, well, Taylor.

But the thing that hit me first wasn’t even her. It was the crowd. Strangers swapping friendship bracelets. People helping each other find seats. A stadium full of kindness that somehow didn’t feel performative. It felt like a culture.

And then later, watching the documentary, I saw what was underneath the sparkle.

A disciplined leader. A clear operator. Someone who knows how to scale without losing herself. Someone who protects her energy while serving millions. Someone who can be kind and still have an iron-clad grip on her vision.

If you’ve ever wondered whether you can learn leadership lessons in business from pop culture, I’m here to tell you: you absolutely can.

Some of the best leadership lessons in business come from watching someone lead under pressure, at scale, with the whole world watching.

Here are five leadership lessons in business I took from watching Taylor Swift in action.

1. Protect your energy like it’s an asset

One of the most striking leadership lessons in business from the documentary was how she managed her energy.

Even while leading one of the biggest productions on the planet, she kept time alone sacred.

Not because she’s aloof, but because she’s strategic.She’s protecting her voice, her body, her nervous system. She’s protecting the thing the whole machine relies on: herself.

In business, we do the opposite. We overbook. We say yes to everything. We leave our calendar wide open like it’s a public park. And then we wonder why we’re exhausted, resentful, and snappy with the people we love.

Your energy is not a nice-to-have, it’s the asset.

So let me ask you a question (and yes, this is one of those leadership lessons in business that’s annoyingly simple):

Where are your energy leaks right now? Is it a draining client you’ve outgrown? An unresolved conversation you keep avoiding? A team member who has too much access to you? Leadership sometimes looks like closing the door. Not to shut people out, but to keep yourself in. To keep yourself healthy and on a trajectory of success.

2. Be the guide, not just the voice

Another one of the most useful leadership lessons in business was in the pre-show huddle.

Taylor doesn’t dominate. She facilitates. She creates space for other people to contribute. She lets the team hold the collective energy. That’s mature leadership. And it’s hard for founders, especially when you’re the face of the brand.

It can feel like you need to have all the answers. You need to be the one driving. The one speaking. The one carrying.

But if you’re the only one speaking in meetings, you’re not leading. You’re bottlenecking.

Try this instead. In your next meeting, ask better questions. Then stop talking. Let someone else step up. Let them own it. If you want practical leadership lessons in business, start there.

3. Kindness isn’t weakness. Marry it with strategy

This is one of those leadership lessons in business that women especially need to hear.

Taylor is kind.And she is also commercially sharp.Owning her masters. Controlling her narrative. Building a brand that can’t be diluted.These are not fluffy moves. They’re strategic. A lot of women in business feel like they have to choose.Be kind or be commercially smart.Be warm or be taken seriously. But you can be both.You can build community and still know your numbers.You can hold clients with care and still have boundaries.

You can lead with warmth and still make bold decisions. Kindness paired with clarity is powerful.

And yes, it’s one of the most underrated leadership lessons in business.

4. Curate your community

The people around Taylor aren’t random. They’re chosen. And this might be one of the most confronting leadership lessons in business if you’ve been letting your environment happen to you. Because so many business owners do.

They take on clients who don’t respect them. They keep collaborators who drain the culture. They stay in rooms where they have to shrink to fit. Not every person fits every space, and that’s okay.

But leadership means you curate your community on purpose. You protect the culture you’re trying to create. And sometimes that means making adjustments, even when it’s uncomfortable.

5. Scale without losing yourself

This might be the biggest of all the leadership lessons in business.

Taylor can stand in a stadium of thousands and still make it feel personal. That’s not an accident, but rather alignment.

As businesses grow, there’s a temptation to retreat behind systems.

To hide behind automation. To become so polished you lose the thing that made people trust you in the first place. Systems and structures matter.

But they should support your voice, not replace it. The magic isn’t in the scale. It’s in staying true to who you are while you scale.

How to apply these leadership lessons in business this week

You don’t need a stadium tour to lead well.

You need intention.

Here are a few simple ways to apply these leadership lessons in business this week:

Audit your energy. Look at your calendar and identify one thing that drains you. Make one adjustment.
Facilitate, don’t dominate. In your next meeting, ask questions instead of giving answers.
Reinstate a boundary. Pick one boundary that has slipped and re-establish it clearly.
Curate your connections. Look at who is in your business orbit. Are they aligned with the culture you’re building?
Balance warmth with strategy. Check your numbers with the same care you give your community.

Because leadership isn’t about being the loudest. It’s about stewarding your energy, your people, and your vision with generosity and discipline.

So I’ll leave you with this. What type of leader are you becoming? Not just what are you building. Who are you becoming in the process? That’s the real work.

And speaking of curated spaces. If you want a room that feels like the best kind of crowd energy, but for business, I run an event called Business with the Queen. It’s a 90-minute networking event for women in business, from the comfort of your home.

Come in your pyjamas. Bring a cuppa. Meet women who are building remarkable businesses with heart and strategy.

Let’s build together.

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Business with the Queen

https://emmamcqueen.com.au/events/business-with-the-queen

Emma McQueen:

For a copy of Emma’s book, ‘Go-getter: Raise your mojo, shift your mindset and thrive’ – https://emmamcqueen.com.au/want-more/emmas-book/

YouTube Channel

Read The Full Transcript

EXPAND TO READ

[00:00:00]
EMMA: Today we're talking about leadership, but not in the way you might expect. We're talking about it through the lens of a pop star. Yes, I went to the Taylor Swift concert. Yes, you can officially call me a swifty and yes, you can also call Evie my 12-year-old a Swifty. Oh, swifties. Yay. Yay. It was one of those moments where you look at your child and you think this is super special, especially when they're singing their heart out.
We were in this together. Dad made us bracelets. We had the hats on.
The concert was extraordinary, not just because of the music, not just because of the costumes. Not even just because of the scale of it. It was the energy. There was joy, there was kindness. There was this like collective sense of people wanting to do the right thing.
We had strangers swapping friendship bracelets, people helping each other find their seats. That kind of shared generosity. You don't always see in big crowds. And then [00:01:00] we watched the documentary because we are real swifties, and that's what you do. And that's where something really shifted for me behind the glitter and the stadium lights.
What I saw was discipline, boundaries, energy management, and leadership. And I thought, oh my goodness. There are business lessons here. There are business lessons here. Even if you're not swifty, you'll get it. I reckon I've got five for you. Lesson number one, protect your energy. Like it's the asset. One of the things that struck me most in the documentary was how Taylor, she spends much of her time alone on tour in the middle of one of the world's biggest productions.
She's not constantly surrounded by people. She's not endlessly accessible. She's not available to everyone all the time. She protects her voice, she protects her body, she protects her energy. And I thought about [00:02:00] how many business owners do the opposite. We overbook ourselves. So we can't even go to the bathroom.
We say yes to everything. We let anyone into our calendar, and we are constantly reacting. Then we wonder why we're so exhausted. Your energy is your asset, not your Instagram following, not your email list, not your revenue. Your energy. If your energy is off, everything is off. So let me ask you something.
Where are you leaking energy in your business right now? Is it a client that drains you? Is it a team member you've not had the hard conversation with? I know how those go. Is it constant access to your diary? Is it being available on every platform all the time? Leadership sometimes looks like closing the door.
Not because you are unfriendly, not because you're aloof, but because you understand [00:03:00] that you cannot perform at a high level if you are depleted. And if someone running a global stadium tour prioritizes solitude and recovery, I reckon we could give it a crack as well. You know, we are not that special.
Lesson two. You do not have to be the loudest voice in the room. Shock and surprise. I know there was a moment in the pre-show huddle. You expect the big motivational speech. You expect the star to stand in the middle and pump everyone up.
But she did not dominate. She facilitated, she asked questions. She created space. She allowed other people to speak. She let the dancers, the band, the team, hold the energy together. She was still absolutely the leader. There was no confusion about that, but she did not need to prove it by talking the most and that hit me because in business, especially when you are the face of the brand like me, [00:04:00] it can feel like you have to carry everything.
Like you have to have all the answers, like you have to set the tone, you have to be the one speaking. It's exhausting and mature leadership often. Looks like inviting other voices in letting your team step up, letting your community contribute, trusting that you do not have to hold it all. If you are constantly the only one talking in your meetings, what would it look like if you asked better questions instead?
If you are constantly the one solving every problem, what would it look like if you let someone else take ownership? Ooh, scary. I know sometimes growth is not about doing more. Sometimes it's about releasing control. That's especially for my A Types law. Lesson number three, be kind and be strategic. This was not accidental.
Taylor is kind. Taylor is generous, and [00:05:00] Taylor, she creates cultures. We've seen it, but she's also wildly strategic, rerecording her own albums, owning her masters, controlling her narrative. That's not fluffy, that is business acumen. And I think this is important for women in business. We often separate the two.
We think you can either be kind and community focused or strategic and commercially smart. Nah, you can be both. I'm both. Well, I like to think I'm both happy to feedback. You can create a beautiful room and still know your numbers. You can hold your clients with care and still have boundaries around payment terms.
You can lead with warmth and still make bold business decisions. Kindness ladies is not weakness. In fact, when paired with clarity, it is absolute power. So many lessons here. Lesson four, curate the room. Another thing I noticed was [00:06:00] who was around her? It wasn't chaotic, it wasn't random. It was very curated.
There were people who knew their role, people who were aligned, people who respected the mission, and that made me reflect on community and also business spaces. And I've gotta be honest, there was a season in my own business where my discernment had to go up. I realized that if I am the leader of a room, it is my responsibility to curate it well.
Not everyone is meant to be in every space, and that's not about exclusion, that's about leadership. Who is in your business world right now? Are they aligned? Do they lift the standard? Do they respect the culture that you're trying to build? If not, you don't need to burn it down. Please don't go and burn it down, but you may need to.
Tighten it up. Leadership is not about just about attracting people, [00:07:00] it's about choosing them. We want the right people around us. And lesson five. My favorite scale does not mean losing yourself. One of the most fascinating parts of watching someone at that level is seeing how personal she still is. It still feels intimate, even in a stadium of thousands, and that is so hard to do.
And as your business grows, there is a temptation to distance yourself, to automate everything, to hide behind systems to disappear. And systems are important as is structure. Both very important, but we do not want to lose the essence of you, your voice, your values, your way of doing things. The magic is not in the scale.
The magic is in the alignment.
So some practical takeaways from my raving about Taylor Swift. If you were to take a page out of her leadership style and [00:08:00] apply it to your business this week, what would that look like? I have five little tips that you can do. Number one, you need to audit your energy. Look at your diary for the next two weeks.
We've talked about this before. Circle what energizes you cross, what drains you make one adjustment. That's it. Number two, facilitate. Don't dominate In your next meeting, ask more questions than you answer oh and sit on your hands. Number three, strengthen your boundaries. Review one boundary that has slipped, reinstate it clearly and kindly.
Number four, curate your room. Think about the spaces you are building, who fits, who does not fit, and tweak accordingly. Number five, blend warmth with strategy. Look at your numbers this week. Look at your revenue, your pipeline, your proposals. Hold them with the same care. You hold your community.
You can be generous and you can be commercially smart.
You can be visible and still protect your energy, and you can be the [00:09:00] leader without being the loudest. I find that amazing. And maybe the real takeaway is this, leadership is not about performance. It's about stewardship of your energy, of your people, of your vision. And if a global pop icon can model boundaries and discipline and generosity and strategic thinking all at once, then we can absolutely bring a little slice of that into our own businesses.
So my final question for you is this. What kind of leader are you becoming? Not what are you building? Who are you becoming as you build it? That's the work. That's the work that counts.
Speaking of curating rooms, I have an event, it's called Business with the Queen. It is 90 minutes on Zoom, a networking event for women in business. You can come in your pajamas. We don't mind. You can join from all Over Australia, any place, we put a bit of content in [00:10:00] front of you, it means that you come in a little bit more relaxed and you've got something in common with the people in the rooms that we put you into. It's 90 minutes, it's 25 bucks. It's awesome. I'd love to see you in there.