In our sixth Summer Series interview Juliet is talking with Darren Taylor, Managing Director at Taylor & Grace, one of Melbourne’s leading brand strategy firms which is on a mission to help all Australian businesses, regardless of size, stage, structure or sector to amplify their impact by leveraging their brand.

Darren is an award-winning brand strategist, keynote speaker, author of the book, Rebranding Branding, and an accomplished pianist and pipe organist. From social enterprises to global giants, Darren has helped hundreds of organisations to uncover what makes them remarkable and how to leverage their brand to amplify their impact.

With an education spanning engineering, marketing and musical theatre, Darren has a wide perspective and has held Director roles with Georges Mora Foundation, Chamber Music Australia and currently, Musica Viva Australia. In this interview he talks about a range of issues we need to think about with our branding including the importance of our values in developing our brand. We discuss the interconnectedness of values, brand and the ways we lead.

We would love to hear from you about how you have developed your brand and the elements you considered. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/

You can contact Darren for more information about branding at https://taylorandgrace.com.au/

You can also download a free copy of Darren’s book Rebranding Branding at https://taylorandgrace.com.au/free-ebook-the-promised-brand/

And if you would like to connect with us, including accessing free resources on this and other leadership challenges, you can do this at:

Juliet Robinson Big Goals

Kristy-Lee Billet People Powered Business

Today in the next of our Summer Series interviews, Kristy-Lee is talking with Nicole Turnbull from Neon Shed about Psychosocial Safety at work.

Nicole is the Founder and Chief Courage Officer at Neon Shed, which brings light to the dark sides of work.

She works with businesses to eliminate psychosocial hazards at work and ignite courage in leaders and teams by giving them the tools and options to know HOW to have a safe workplace.

Nicole has over 20 years experience in communications and 15 in the work health and safety industry. She has worked for both NSW safety regulators, the workers compensation insurer and the workers compensation independent review office.

Nicole has seen the damage poor communication and psychosocial hazards can do to individuals, teams and organisations.

Nicole is also the Winner of the 2023 Influential Businesswomen Awards for Most Empowering Founder (Australia) and the host of the Under the Rug at Work podcast.

If you’d like to connect with Nicole you can visit her website here: https://neonshed.com.au/

Or connect with her on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolesturnbull/

Throughout our discussion Nicole also mentioned a number of resources and websites you can visit to get more information on this important topic, access to all of these is here:

• Model Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work from Safe Work Australia (most states have their own as well)
• Positive duty information on the Australian Human Rights website
• Respect at Work website
• Psychosocial Safety Summit in Queensland this year

We would love to hear from you about how you ensure psychosocial safety within your team. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence

And if you would like to connect with us, including accessing free resources on this and other leadership challenges, you can do this at:

Kristy-Lee Billet People Powered Business

Juliet...

In this, the fourth in our Summer Series, Juliet is talking with Ed Ross, one of the Founders of Trade Mutt and This Is A Conversation Starter (TIACS).

In case you haven’t heard of them, Trade Mutt designs outlandish work shirts and other useful and colourful things for tradies and people on the land. Their products are designed to get people talking about mental health and to normalise these conversations. A proportion of every sale goes to funding psychologists at TIACS who are available to talk when these people are struggling.

The Trade Mutt business has gone from strength to strength and not long after our interview they signed off on a deal with Bunnings, which will raise their profile further.

In this interview Ed talks about the origins of the business and how it has evolved as demand for TIACS has grown. In building two very different enterprises alongside one another they struggled with a range of issues and Ed is very open in talking about how they have tackled these and grown both teams.

We would love to hear from you about how you have tackled rapid business growth and if you have a favourite Trade Mutt shirt or story. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/

And if you would like to connect with us, including accessing free resources on this and other leadership challenges, you can do this at:

Juliet Robinson Big Goals

Kristy-Lee Billet People Powered Business

Natalie MacDonald led the Victorian Country Fire Authority (CFA) through a period of dramatic change between 2021 and 2024 and in the third of our Summer Series interviews Juliet talked with Natalie prior to her retirement about some of these challenges and the opportunities they present for the CFA.

Prior to the CFA Natalie was Vice-President (Strategy & Development) at La Trobe University for eight years and was involved in developing the University’s strategy and the transformation of its campuses to create economic growth, community value and high-quality research, teaching and student life environments.

At the CFA Natalie led a make-dominated workforce that is spread across Victoria and is largely composed of local volunteers whose first loyalty is to their local crew, rather than a distant head office.

In this conversation Natalie talks about her focus on supporting local crews, building the CFA culture and embedding genuine, sustainable diversity within the workforce at CFA, which has enabled the organisation to come through a difficult time in good shape.

Natalie has served and is serving on a number of Commonwealth and State bodies and not-for-profit, education, superannuation and research Boards. She has a BA, MBA and MComm from The University of Queensland.

We would love to hear from you about how you tackle building the culture of your business and motivating your people. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/

And if you would like to connect with us, including accessing free resources on this and other leadership challenges, you can do this at:

Juliet Robinson Big Goals

Kristy-Lee Billet People Powered Business

Today in the second of our Summer Series interviews, Kristy-Lee is talking with Mel Rosenthal of 52 Conversations on having the important conversations that matter.

Mel is a Professional Certified Coach, accredited by the International Coaching Federation and an Australian Institute of Company Directors graduate (GAICD).  She holds a Bachelor of Commerce (First Class Honours) from the University of Western Australia and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Mel works with Founders and Leaders to drive growth for companies and the people in them.

She has been trusted by the leadership of companies including Who Gives A Crap, Minor Figures, Keep Cup, StartUp Victoria, QBE, Tyro, Champion Life, Thoughtworks, The Australian Centre for Social Innovation, Inventium, Advisian, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Swinburne University, Alinta Energy, ME Bank, Visy and Medtronic.

Mel is also the creator of 52 conversations – a card game to create conversations that matter – and that’s what our conversation focused on today. Mel shares some stunning statistics that reflect the real costs and risks of not having important conversations with our teams, and shares her insights into how leaders can have more effective and impactful conversations.

To leave more about the 52 Conversations Card Game, simply head to this site:
https://www.52conversations.com/

To learn more about Mel, the work she does and how you can connect with her, head to this website:

https://melissajrosenthal.com/

Or you can connect on LinkedIn here:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosenthalmelissa/

We would love to hear from you about tackling important conversations in your business. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/

And if you would like to connect with us, including accessing free resources on this and other leadership challenges, you can do this at:

Kristy-Lee Billet People Powered Business

Juliet Robinson Big Goals

Today in the first of our Summer Series interviews, Juliet is talking with Di Geddes, the Founder and Managing Director of Exceptional Care For You.

In 2021 Di created a business where she was determined that her values would shine through in everything she and her team do. Explosive growth over the past few years has been driven solely by word of mouth as she and her team put these values into action to demonstrate compassion and joy.

As a Registered Nurse with nearly 40 years of nursing experience in acute, community, corporate and aged care, Di was ideally placed to establish a business as a disability community care provider. She is working to change the way disability care is delivered by creating an incredibly supportive workplace for carers, and ensuring clients are at the centre of everything she and her team do.

In this interview Juliet and Di talk about the value of values (see what we did there ) and how the way our staff be have to demonstrate those values naturally flows through to the care they provide to clients. Di is passionate about demonstrating that it’s never too late to achieve your dreams and live and work to your values.

As we talk more about the importance of values in defining how we stand out in a crowded marketplace, Di is a great example of how this can work in practice.

We would love to hear from you about whether your values play an important role in how your team delivers. You can share your experiences and ask questions at

https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/

And if you would like to connect with us, including accessing free resources on this and other leadership challenges, you can do this at:

Kristy-Lee Billet People Powered Business

Juliet Robinson Big Goals

You can contact Di at www.exceptionalcareforyou.com

Today on the Grow Your Influence Podcast Juliet and Kristy-Lee are discussing the importance of effective induction and onboarding programs.

So often when we have a new team member joining us, we do the bare minimum. Point them to their desk and set them to work. Or worse, as we share, we’ve both seen examples where desks and computers were not even set up for new starters and they had to do it themselves!

The truth is, an effective onboarding program is a key retention strategy, it’s one of the most effective things we can do to get our new team member settled in, across their role, and contributing to the team.

In this episode we discuss some of the key strategies and practical elements to effective and high quality induction and onboarding programs.

We would love to hear from you and learn about how you induct and onboard staff in your business. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/

And if you would like to connect with us, including accessing free resources on this and other leadership challenges, you can do this at:

Kristy-Lee Billet People Powered Business

Juliet Robinson Big Goals

Today on the Grow Your Influence Podcast Juliet and Kristy-Lee are discussing how leaders and managers can help set young people up for success in their first job.

Do you remember when your secured your first ‘real’ job?You may have completed your studies, sat through interviews and assessments, and finally received an offer for your dream job. Or maybe you weren’t sure where your career was headed, but got a job offer and decided to take the plunge and say yes.

How did you feel? Nervous? Excited? Uncertain? Probably a mix of all the emotions.

Your first job is a big deal, even more so if it’s something you’ve been searching and studying for.

Problem is, it’s been a while since most of us leaders have been in this position, and we may have forgotten just how nerve wracking it can be. We may have also forgotten that as a young person we didn’t know what to do, what to wear, where to go and what to expect when we started.

In this episode, we discuss some practical steps any leader can take to help set their new, young employee up for success with the business.

From having a great pre commencement communication strategy, to engaging them in how to prepare and what to expect, there is so much we can do to support young people joining our teams.

We would love to hear from you and learn about how you help new people who are starting with you in their first job. You can share your experiences and ask questions at https://www.facebook.com/growyourinfluence/

And if you would like to connect with us, including accessing free resources on this and other leadership challenges, you can do this at:

Kristy-Lee Billet People Powered Business

Juliet Robinson Big Goals