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Let’s be honest—we live in a world with precious few surprises these days. Where surprise and delight is a dying art. We find out the sex of babies months before they’re born, tell friends the names we’ve picked out. We Google restaurant menus...

As small business owners, there are countless things which keep us up at night. Wanting to support ourselves and our families. Worrying about marketing strategies, attracting customers, rising prices and reliable staff. Since I launched my first...

One thing I always include when I’m updating my bio or About page is that I’m a five-time B&T Women in Media finalist. Not just because I feel proud of the work that went into that recognition but because I know that every business benefits...

Whitney Wolfe Herd turned Bumble into a multi-billion-dollar company by being obsessed with transforming the way people date. Melanie Perkins revolutionized graphic design by launching Canva. These aren’t just stories of entrepreneurial success....

Coming into spring, I needed to reset and replenish my creative batteries. But I also had a mission to complete: to research whether a great customer experience still drives business growth at a time when digital tools are transforming the...

Having just clocked up another birthday, there’s one unusual business metric I’m increasingly watching very carefully—sleep. If you’ve ever experienced disrupted sleep (hello, parents) and the chaos it can cause in how you feel emotionally,...

On any given day women run the consumer world, according to Forbes. Their spending power means they make 85% of global purchases. So knowing how to market to women and particularly mums during a cost-of-living crisis is vital for businesses now....

Most of us have been there. Checking our business’ Google or Facebook reviews when we find an absolute stinker that talks about bad service, a terrible experience, a poor quality product, huge disappointment. Yeah, it’s gutting. Very hard to read...

When my friend Ros raved about her new July luggage, I listened. A senior executive and mum of two, Ros is an early adopter of anything in the fashion, homewares and apparel categories and has a keen nose for a great customer experience. She...

Anyone who travels a bit knows how much it teaches you, from strategies about upgrades and how to handle jet lag and where to eat. One of my longstanding top tips is to put away your phone, forget Google maps and walk two blocks back from the main...

There are four common mistakes business owners make when seeking PR, according to Candice Gersun, the director and co-founder of Sydney business Reconnect PR. She should know. Candice has over two decades of PR experience. With the mission of...

Along with walking uphill for hours with a backpack, what I’m obsessed with is market research. In life and work, I’m data informed. I do deep dive research on new cars, holiday destinations, skincare, movie choices, you name it. I have a business...

A couple of years ago I worked with a new client on partnerships. Clarissa Rayward, a lawyer who has one business called Business Family Law Centre, and another called Happy Lawyer, Happy Life. It’s a collection of more than 150 lawyers from across...

Not sure where you’re at, but it seems about six weeks ago that it was New Year’s Eve and 2023 was all shiny and fresh. Now we’ve seen off winter, there are mince pies on supermarket shelves - I know - and people are locking in summer holiday...

The best business advice I have for anyone wanting to get clear on goals and how to action them? Take a hike. Hiking has become my go-to when I need to plan. There’s something about being outside, disconnected, isolated that triggers creativity....

Confession time: one of my driving life and work goals is to communicate clearly. Saying what I mean is important (as is meaning what I say.) Honesty and clarity have gotten me far, even when I’ve known that sometimes my feedback and thoughts are...

Last year I did something which seemed so whacky at the time as to be almost happening to someone else. It brought together my fears, anxieties, my need to research and prepare heavily, some shopping for weird stuff, self-doubt, travel and...

July brings not just a new financial year for me but a new trip around the sun. I’m turning 52 and among my gifts in 2023 is the knowledge I’m firmly part of the global force that marketers and media have dubbed the ‘Super Consumer’.  Yep, far from...

Becoming single for the first time in 23 years triggered a life makeover for me in 2021. I moved house, swapped out my signature ‘50s floral dresses for tailoring and pantsuits, tried to overcome my aversion to cooking (cheese boards are putty in...

By our second lap around The Tan walking track in Melbourne, a girlfriend and I had covered off relationships, kids and health and were on to our favourite shared topic—travel. I’m off to Europe soon and my friend mentioned her dad is too, flying...

My career has seen me do a ton of stuff I’ve loved. Running my own businesses, writing books, speaking on global stages, leading $140 million business. But my latest obsession—I really want to call it that—is being a Business Wingwoman. It’s not...

During our marriage, my ex-husband always took charge of the travel plans (and hosting our dinner parties. The man was a natural.) I just had to rock up with my passport and bag. Now that I’m single, the travel plans are my remit and I’m planning...

At my age and level of experience—so far my fifties have been about being bashed up by life and having a really interesting time discovering resilience and gin—I know it’s normal to feel down sometimes. Poor mental health is part of normal mental...

  After I did the Larapinta hike earlier in 2022, everyone wanted to know the blow by blow of how each day panned out. Seems like so many people are abandoning classic ‘luxury’ holidays in private villas for the adventure of travelling the...

When my kids were small, I loved my life. Loved being a hands-on mum. Loved creating and running successful businesses amid the school drop offs and the organised chaos. Loved building a family, with all its traditions and tedium and small...

Noosa, you were fantastic. Weather that saw me up at 6am and in the ocean just after the first beach coffee of the day. Fun outdoor dining with fresh seafood and cocktails that made me feel 20 again. It felt like not just summer but other cool life...

I have a friend whose husband works in insurance. He’s an expert, the guy you want to call before you take out holiday insurance or decide on a home and contents policy. It’s just that most people don’t know about his day job—insurance gets such a...

(Picture credit: Tegan Paisley) Before I walked the Larapinta Trail I thought a lot about what hiking for six days on a route classified for hard core experts would give an inexperienced and not particularly fit suburban mum. Blisters, sure. Tears,...

The morning after we arrived back in Alice Springs after finishing the Larapinta Trail walk in May, I headed straight into town and into Outbush in the Todd Mall. Opened in 1986, the locally owned business stocks everything you need and then some...

Since it opened in 2002, the Larapinta Trail in Central Australia has morphed from a favourite local walk to a world famous trek with up to 5000 walkers each year. Now that I’m one of them, I’m being asked a lot if I would recommend it...

The growing popularity of the Larapinta Trail lulls people into a sense of false security—gee, if Felicity from publicity is doing it, it can’t be that hard. Trust me, capturing global attention doesn’t mean the trail is getting any easier! The...

After a few slow glimmerings that turned into a thick orange band around the horizon, the sun came up fast at Mt Sonder. That I was on top of a mountain in the heart of Australia to see it happen on a May weekday was a high point in my life. I...

  Everyone thinks their mum is the best. There’s a good chance my mum Helen really is though—a single mum in the 1970s, she was always fun and resourceful and hell bent on raising independent kids prepared for the world.  She informed and...