What has been your business/work highlight of 2024 so far?

Who is your business hero and why?

My business hero is Samantha Middlebrook from Upland. She is the smartest and hardest-working person I have had the privilege of working with. She dispels the myth of working smarter, not harder because after seeing her in action, I am convinced that you have to do both. Harder does not mean working longer; instead working passionately, flexibly and purposely. Her ability to juggle being a mum, a thought leader, a manager, a strategist, a marketer, a director and an employee cheerleader is unparalleled.

What’s the biggest business mistake you’ve made and what did you learn from it?

Executing my vision without compromise. I remember creating a never-before-seen 360-degree voice-of-customer program at one of Australia’s largest retirement funds. I had a vision of what it would look like and be capable of. It was an incredible project that was delivered in spades; however, when I looked back over the project, I saw a trail of burnt-out people in my wake. I learned that a successfully executed vision needs you to bring people on the journey that you have been on in your mind. Not everybody will work with the same level of passion, vision and execution expectations. Everybody works differently and embracing that not only brings greater thought diversity, it also means you garner better internal engagement as well as having people still standing at the finish line.

What’s the most inspirational book you’ve ever read and why?

Hands down it is “Rare Breed” by Sunny Bonnell and Ashleigh Hansberger. It looks at the other side of the coin when it comes to our personality traits. Characteristics that for many of us, were frowned upon in corporate environments, attributes like rebelliousness, audacity and being hot-blooded. It explores the power and positivity that can come from them when harnessed in the right way. As someone who is rebellious in thought and audacious in execution, this book taught me how to harness the best bits while guarding against the dark side of them. It also helped me think about how to embrace traits that others have that I had not considered previously and how they can be a person’s superpower and add diversity of thought.

What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role in 2024?

For me, it’s about cutting through. AI has meant it’s a lot easier to create content however, this has also meant a lot of people are moving away from content that can be easily created by GenAI, in particular written articles. This is in part, because people are less interested in what AI has to say about something and also because they are not seeing articles in their feeds as often. Algorithms have been adjusted for the influx of AI-generated written content, which means my personally written articles are not seen as often in people’s feeds. Sadly, the time and effort to write thought leadership articles is not worth the reward (other than the personal satisfaction). This has meant having to come up with quality content that is impactful but is easy enough to produce that it does not get in the way of the day job or family time.

What technology will have the greatest impact on your business this year and why?

I really don’t want to say GenAI. The rebel in me wants to say anything other than AI just to be different, but the reality is that it probably will be. Every day the programs I use to create content are introducing new GenAI capability that really does help me be more efficient and unique. For example, I use Canva a lot, and I can now create unique images that nobody else will have in their designs, thanks to GenAI. That said, I still refuse to use it for writing. I don’t want the shortcut. Thinking for yourself with unique thoughts will be the currency of the future, so I don’t want to compromise mine today.