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My life is spent exploring innovative marketing ideas and real-life business stories from around the globe, then translating them into advice, strategies and tips for small and big biz owners. Read on for my blogs on how the everyday – travelling, adventures, new horizons – relates to contemporary business.
Be the winner: seven reasons your business will benefit from awards
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...
I’m obsessed! You should be too. Here’s why.
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....
How a great customer experience drives business growth
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...
The one unusual business metric I’m watching carefully
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,...
How to make women love your brand during a cost-of-living crisis
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....
Bad online review? Here’s what to do
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...
The Aussie brand taking it to the world with customer experience
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...
One business trip, seven travel tips
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...
Common mistakes business owners make when seeking PR
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...
How to fix the one thing all small biz struggles with
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...
Why partnerships and collaborations are fashionable right now
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...
How to get ahead now for next year
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...
My best 2024 business advice? Take a hike!
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....
IT’S CONFESSION TIME
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...
Why taking play seriously is a great business decision
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...
Why being a Super Consumer is as powerful as it sounds
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...
How research into Boomer sex changed everything for one
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...
why customer experience is your best biz weapon
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...
How and why to choose a Business Wingwoman
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...
What planning travel made me realise about business
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...
How to beat the hidden cost of business at its own game
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...
How to do the Three Capes hike and still be laughinG
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...
The unlikely thing you should be doing noW
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...
BRANDS, WHERE THE BLOODY HELL ARE YA?
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...
The good news insurance company you should know abouT
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...
WHAT THE OUTBACK TAUGHT ME ABOUT BUSINESS
(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,...
Why customer experience costs nothing but is priceless
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...
My Top 10 Trek TipS from LARAPINTA
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...
Day by day—how the Larapinta Trail unfolds
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...
Forget the scenery, here’s what I really found on the LarapintA
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...
Hell yeah, Helen: five things mum taught me about business and lifE
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...
Elvie shows us how to stand out from the crowd
Being different in life takes courage. From wearing something that takes confidence (anyone back into mini-skirts yet this winter? Terrifying but fun) to saying publicly that you support a certain viewpoint to deciding you’d rather go to Adelaide...
Ash Barty, my bush hike and you: the common thread
My first thought when Ash Barty suddenly retired wasn’t—as seemed to be the burning question—what’s next for this rockstar 25 year old. It was ‘huzzah, there is a serious professional who understands it’s all in the planning’. The world No 1’s...
The lie you’re telling yourself
Even though I was in my early thirties when I first fell pregnant—hardly a teenager—I had mixed emotions. I was ecstatic at the idea of being a mum, but I remember also thinking, ‘I am not ready for this’. I had a house, security, a job, savings,...
Why I really agreed to hike for a week in the DESERT
I’m not a runner. Yet this week I found myself at a local oval at 5.30am, puffing through laps with a running club. That same night I hit with some girlfriends and a coach at the tennis club. Now? I’m sore, I’m tired—and I’m excited. My new fitness...