The sales manager is arguably one of the most important people in any office. Often when you are a smaller business, the entrepreneur or CEO doubles as a sales manager, and this can get a company so far, but not all the way.

Over the past 16 years, I have worked with more than 300 companies, and over that time there have been a number of things that I have learned simply by listening and observing.

A woman whom I know name called another woman that she doesn't really know a "gold digger" to me this week. I was mortified. Not only was she completely wrong, and she knew it, she was acting out against another woman due to her own personal insecurities and trying to influence another. On top of this, the person she name called is a highly successful business woman who is 100 percent self made and never taken a penny from any male. She lives a highly luxurious life on her own dime and everyone knows it.

In two weeks, I am travelling to Europe for 14 days of work and a little pleasure. I will be writing stories for Marketing Eye, speaking with potential alliance partners and clients. I will also be interviewing people for speaking opportunities at a conference.

It's a dangerous position that we all have been in, and you would think that we would learn our lesson but many, like myself, find ourselves prey to being caught in the middle.

Somehow we got through the end of financial year in Australia. There's a lot to be done to make sure that everything is in order; every box ticked, every invoice accounted for.

My team made that deadline and for that I am thankful. No late nights, just a lot to be considered. My headspace over the past 2 weeks feels like there is so much in there, that it is impossible to take in any more.

I am in strategy phase. What's next? Where to from here? Who is doing what? What does the next 5 years look like? What does the next 10 years look like? 

Then of course, what about me? What is going to make my life more fulfilling in the next 5 years? Next 10 years?

It was enough to make me burst into tears.

LinkedIn has many benefits; you can showcase your whole work history on one platform and share with the world; you get job offers regularly if you have bothered to fill in your profile properly; you can connect with people you would not ordinarily have access to; and you can find the right person in the right position to pitch yourself to to get a job or to sell a product or service.

It's invaluable. No-one can argue that.

It's been a rollercoaster of a ride the past 18 months. We've expanded successfully into the US market and built a profitable operation, hired a leadership team to take our business into the future, launched a magazine and built some technology. We have also started our rollout of licensing our brand to other successful marketers to expand our global footprint.

It was a small project that I knew the result of even before it started. It had something to do with our company so it was experimental in every sense of the word. But I knew deep down it would fail, and I knew why.

Normally, I would be the first to say "that won't work". However, this wasn't the time. It was a small project and it wouldn't harm anyone by being a failure. Instead, it would be a lesson learned and I was willing to pay the price.

Unfortunately, most entrepreneurs have experienced a toxic employee. They are the one's whose glass is half empty. They constantly complain, nitpick, bitch, gossip and in general have an underlying mean spirit.