As a small business owner myself, I am always looking for ways to improve what we do. It's a constant struggle to not only be ahead of the times when it comes to professional services delivery, but also to pioneer the future.

If you have read this blog for a while, you may have realised that I am a country girl. I grew up in rural North Queensland in a small township called Charters Towers, just over an hour west of Townsville. It seems like a million years ago now, as I have been living in big cities for the past 20 years or so. I currently reside mostly in Melbourne and from there I have built a multi million dollar international business. What I have realised about business is that the  more mature my business becomes, the more flexible I am with where I work from. It certainly has got me thinking about where in the world people can build successful businesses from and what are the hurdles that they must overcome if they are not located in a major city.

I've always been aware that I have all the things in life that are necessary to become successful; mentors, learning and development, financial stability, and a community... and the right mindset. But it wasn't always that way, and the first thing that you need to know about being successful is that you have to have the right mindset and belief that anything is possible. It takes so many parts to be successful, but I guess for most of us, it just starts with a dream.

The choice to do an internship or not is really up the to the individual in Australia. In Europe and most of the US, it is compulsory.

There have always been these war stories of how interns have had to do the lamest of tasks; dropping off drycleaning, cleaning the kitchen, filing for days on end. But it's not all war stories and I can assure you that our interns at Marketing Eye do not have to do that at all.

A lot of clients ask me about “Marketing Automation” because they’ve heard the buzzword and wonder if it’s something they should be doing.... and as with everything in technology nowadays it can be hard to keep up (especially if you’re a small business and marketing is not your area of expertise).

Marketing Automation is used extensively in the US retail market, but in Australia we are a little way behind. There is so much more that marketers could be doing with the technology - and early adopters in Australia will be streets ahead of the competition.

I am completely and utterly commitment phobic on every topic. I won't lie.

So, in lieu of my new years' resolutions I bought a house. I have looked around for the dream house for some time and couldn't find it. Quite frankly, I just didn't like other's people's designs or renovations.

In two days, I will be 42 years old. I write that with a huge smile on my face. I have in the past 12 months had the hardest 12 months of my life from an emotional perspective, but more recently, strangely, the best. As I get older, I keep learning so much about myself and others and I know how enriching that is. Getting older is exciting and allows me to grow in ways I never thought possible. 

When you are navigating life by yourself, it is hard to know whether you are doing the right or the wrong thing. The decisions you make in some way seem less important because all the mission critical one's were made earlier on, yet some are defined more by time. Finally I have hit that mid point in my life and it would be ignorant not to reflect and appreciate the good and learn from the bad. At least that's how I see it.

So many of my friends hit their 40's and have had mid life crisis; divorced or have done something crazy that I am sure one day they will regret. I was a little different. I went within myself and was probably a tad hard on myself and what I had achieved to date, and started this path which I have since gotten off, that was not going to make me happy long-term.

I won't deny that I am my own biggest critic, but mostly what I have learned is that I have grown in ways that make me extremely proud of the person I have become. Not the business woman that the world sees, or those so-called successes, but the person within. I am sure that sounds wrong when someone else reads this, but by saying it out loud, I am revealing who I am today.

Marketing Manager Melbourne 

·      St Kilda Road location

·      Fun collaborative work environment

·      Consulting position

The challenges of running a professional services firm are many. What most of my counterparts would say is that it's people that determine whether you are successful or not - and this is correct.

There are many challenges running an international marketing agency. The first being the tyranny of distance, with travel being instrumental in providing real life face-time in front of staff and clients. The second, the fact that many marketers struggle to be abreast of the latest in marketing techniques and technologies.

We have built a business on education and the training of marketers through on-the-job experiences. When someone has worked for a year at Marketing Eye, they are equipped to do any marketing job. It's something we pride ourselves on and has set us apart from the rest of the pack of small to medium sized business marketers.

When a marketing manager starts at Marketing Eye, they often feel overwhelmed. They need to learn fast and efficiently, and face-time with clients is always within weeks of starting through meetings and online communications, which require them to know everything there is to know about the client and exactly what the clients marketing expectations are.

Every now and again I have to take stock and start all over again. It's not necessarily because I have gotten something wrong. Instead, it's usually because I travel so much and am exposed to some of the most brilliant minds in business, who kindly share their thoughts and philosophies with me, that somewhere along the line, I become inspired or a thought makes more sense than the original plan.

A catalyst for change is the inate desire to be better. To do things in a way that transcends what may be normally expected, and sets in motion a purposeful action leading to an end goal.