All Posts

I still remember the look on his face. A local hardware store owner — sleeves rolled up, dust on his boots, the kind of bloke who’d built half the suburb with his own hands — stood in front of me, proudly holding a brand‑new power drill like it was Excalibur. “Look at this beauty,” he said. “Brushless motor. High torque. Lightweight. Lithium battery. Customers are gonna love it.” He was glowing. The drill hummed. And yet… something felt off. A woman nearby was browsing the sa

A story about the #1 concern SMEs have right now: becoming invisible. There’s a moment every small business owner eventually faces. It usually happens late at night, after posting something heartfelt, clever, or downright brilliant on social media… only to watch it sink faster than a lead balloon in a bathtub. One café owner described it perfectly: “It feels like I’m shouting my daily specials into a shopping mall food court at lunchtime.” And honestly, she’s not wrong. Socia

Somewhere along the way, merchandising slipped out of the marketing vocabulary. Everyone’s busy talking about social media, SEO, funnels, ads, AI… but one of the most powerful sales tools is the one many business owners overlook. And yet, customers respond to merchandising every single day. Merchandising isn’t about making things “look nice.” It’s the art of presenting what you sell in a way that makes people want to buy — through visibility, clarity, convenience and emotiona

Once upon a time (because all good business lessons should start like a bedtime story) there was a company with a brand so shiny it practically glowed in the dark. Billboards beamed. Celebrities smiled. Ads whispered sweet nothings like “innovation,” “excellence,” and “we care deeply about our customers.” And customers believed it. In fact, as one study put it, 84% of people formed a positive impression based solely on advertising. But then… the sales rep arrived. And suddenl

If you ever find yourself in a kitchen with a Brit and an Australian, whatever you do, don't mention the "black stuff". You might think you’re just talking about a savory spread for your toast, but you're actually stepping into a century-old theatre of war. On one side, you have the British contingent, armed with jars of Marmite, a "dramatic monologue" of a spread that has been dividing households since 1902. On the other, the "True Blue" Australians clutching their Vegemite,

Corporal Leslie "Bull" Allen was the Australian stretcher-bearer who famously rescued American soldiers during World War II. At the Battle of Mount Tambu in New Guinea in July 1943, Allen, at age 26, single-handedly carried 12 to 18 wounded American soldiers to safety under heavy machine-gun and sniper fire. He was awarded the Silver Star by the USA. I n the early hours of 7 December 1941, the world changed with the roar of Japanese aircraft over Pearl Harbour. Australia wat

Back in the mid‑2000s, the internet had a reigning monarch—and it wasn’t Google, and it definitely wasn’t Facebook. It was MySpace. If you were online in 2006, you remember the chaos and charm: glitter backgrounds, auto‑playing music, and profile pages that looked like a teenager had been handed the keys to a nuclear‑powered art studio. And for a while, it worked. MySpace was the place to be. Then, almost overnight, the crown slipped. And Facebook—quiet, clean, and wearing a

Many entrepreneurs operate under an "invisible ceiling" of business growth. They spend years perfecting their craft, only to stall when it comes to the one lever that dictates their survival: pricing. Instead of making strategic decisions, most business owners resort to "mechanical thinking," ballparking their fees or simply matching the competition. This approach isn't just unscientific; it’s a form of "price incest" where everyone copies everyone else until the entire indus

The foothills west of Coffs Harbour have a way of making you slow down. The roads narrow, the gum trees lean in, and the air smells faintly of woodsmoke and old stories. It was on one of those winding roads—decades ago, early in my business life—that I learned a marketing lesson so sharp it still cuts through my thinking today. The Visit That Changed Everything I was selling Solahart solar hot water systems back then. In those days, Solahart was the heavyweight champion of th

A friend of mine—let’s call him Terry—recently confessed that he had “double vision.” Naturally, I suggested an optometrist. He waved me off. “No, no,” he said. “Not that kind. I mean I’ve got a personal vision and a business vision… and they don’t talk to each other.” Ah. That kind of double vision. The entrepreneurial variety. Much more common, far less diagnosed. Terry’s Two Visions Terry’s personal vision was glorious. It involved long lunches, short workweeks, and a li

Every town has that café—the one with the mismatched chairs, the barista who looks like he was born steaming milk, and the chalkboard menu that changes depending on who wrote it that morning. In our town, that café was run by a lovely bloke named Graham. Now, Graham made a muffin that could bring a grown adult to tears. Blueberry, white chocolate, still warm in the middle. People would walk past three other cafés just to get one. They were that good. But one Tuesday morning,

I’ve been amused lately by how easily a story can sweep through society like a rumour in a Chinese Whisper factory. Not because people are silly — far from it — but because humans are basically walking story‑magnets. If a tale has just the right emotional charge, we stick to it like Velcro. And this is where the great double‑act begins: Disinformation and misinformation — the Laurel and Hardy of modern chaos. Disinformation always takes the stage first. It’s the mastermind, t

Scroll long enough and you’ll see it: headlines engineered for outrage, posts crafted for instant agreement, and opinions packaged so neatly they feel like facts. In a world where information moves faster than reflection, critical thinking isn’t just under pressure — it’s quietly eroding. And the culprit isn’t just “the media.” It’s the way modern media interacts with our brains. 📺 The Comfort of Confirmation Social and broadcast media thrive on one thing: engagement. And n

As the year wraps up, picture the past twelve months as a case file on the desk — nothing dramatic, just a folder full of clues, a few wins, a couple of “learning experiences,” and at least one moment where you wonder, “How did that end up in here?” Christmas is the perfect time to flip through it. Not to judge yourself — just to quietly admit which decisions were brilliant… and which ones were made before coffee. A few things worth noticing: • What actually worke

Picture this: a cereal company staring down the barrel of “ho‑hum.” Shreddies had been around forever in Canada—square, safe, and about as exciting as watching paint dry on a beige wall. Then someone had a gloriously silly idea: what if we just… rotate them? And thus, Diamond Shreddies were born. Same cereal. Same taste. Same crunch. The only thing they changed was the packaging and the story wrapped around it. But now they were diamonds, baby! Suddenly, consumers swore they

When you hear the word warranty, what comes to mind? For some executives, it’s a line item on the balance sheet—a cost to be minimised. For others, especially in sales and marketing, it’s a powerful differentiator, a promise that reassures customers and signals confidence in the product. This tension—between warranty as a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and warranty as a financial liability—is one of the most under-discussed friction points inside many companies. The CFO vs.

In business, too many people treat the sale as the finish line . In reality, it’s only the starting point of a much longer journey—the relationship with your customer. One of the best examples of this comes from Joe Girard, recognised by the Guinness World Records as the World’s Greatest Salesman. Girard sold more cars than anyone else in history, but his secret wasn’t flashy pitches or one-off deals. His genius was in what he did after the sale. Joe Girard: CRM Before It Had

Whether you're selling enterprise software or handmade candles, the moment a customer asks, “Can you do better on price?” is a strategic crossroads. If your team isn’t trained to handle it, they’ll likely cave—and your brand risks being seen as a commodity. 🧠 What That Question Really Means In both B2B and B2C, a discount request often signals uncertainty—not just about price, but about value. • In B2B, it may reflect budget constraints, internal pressure, or a l

Corporate culture isn’t just a buzzword —it’s the invisible engine that drives your business forward or drags it down. Whether you're leading a startup or steering a seasoned enterprise, the culture you cultivate will shape everything from employee morale to customer perception. And here’s the kicker: if you don’t design your desired culture early, you’ll inherit one by default—and it might be toxic. 🧭 It Starts with Values Culture begins with values. Not the ones framed on

Everywhere you look, someone’s saying marketing has changed . They’ll tell you it’s all about social media now, or AI, or data-driven personalisation. There’s some truth in that — but only on the surface. The truth is, the fundamentals of marketing haven’t changed at all. What’s changed is how we communicate and the tools we use to do it. The foundations of marketing are the same today as they were fifty years ago: Understand your customer. Identify what they truly need or w