Case study: Website designer Simon Kelly
I first met Simon Kelly when he spoke at the Sydney WordCamp conference in 2017. Owner of Renegade Empire, Simon is a highly regarded website designer, funnel specialist and systems expert who’s coached other web...
Netiquette: pitching
I walked straight into a guy wearing an official-looking lanyard in a coworking office I was visiting. He appeared to be touring another woman around the place. Maybe I assumed I needed to speak with him, or maybe he...
Best tech tools for small business
In the olden days, circa 2008, I used to use a WYSIWYG editor to create client e-news. (WYSIWYG, pronounced "wizzy-wig", stands for 'what you see is what you get'.) After a while, I'd accumulated experience in every...
Business coaching only works under these two conditions
Business coaching isn’t magic though the results can make it feel so. One client had one session with me where we reviewed her offerings, sketched out a new approach to her strategy work, and priced it. She had an...
New online business models to sell services online
One of the perks of my job is lifting the lid on other people’s businesses. As a business coach and trainer, I have a front-row seat to the evolution of online business models as well as business services that are...
On getting the dance floor started
In the summer of 1969, tens of thousands of people swayed, jived, bopped and shimmied to the likes of Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson, Stevie Wonder, BB King, The 5th Dimension, Marvis Staples, Sly and the Family Stone,...
Five effective, tech-free ways to grow your business
Like the seasons, I expand and contract. During social seasons, I’m reaching out to others, keen to talk, pitching myself, and saying ‘yes’ a lot. I’m good fun during these times.And then the contraction: my calendar...
Marketing versus growth
A silver lining in the madness of the Covid pandemic was colossal growth for certain businesses. From children's education to home repairs, business education to website design, some small businesses in some sectors...
Start a business, save the world
Circa 2005, I boxed up the leftovers from one of my client’s corporate lunch events and dropped it off at an industrial estate near Sydney Airport. Oz Harvest was in its nascency, having started in 2004 by Ronni Kahn,...
Zen and the art of coaching
“The only Zen you can find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there” (Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance). Coaching is a lot of “not this” and “not that”, much like zen. It can be...
With online courses, begin at the end
Jane Doe decides to create an online course. She’s seen online courses promising everything from how to grow beautiful orchids, to how to home-school effectively, make your own pickles, or learn business bookkeeping,...
The ego and marketing
For seven years, I marketed my marketing services without using the word ‘marketing’. My audience hated that word. Instead, I talked around the topic, using words such as “communicating” and phrases like “giving...
