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Overview
From a very serious corporate career in marketing to creating a business based on fun RedBalloon, this is my journey. In this blog I share what it takes to be an entrepreneur and what I have learned - warts and all. I am also the author of 'I want what she is having' which chronicles the first five years of building of a fast growing business.
Very proud to be awarded National Telstra Business Womens Award for 2008 in the Nokia Innovation Catogory
RedBalloon Team Blog
Where I’m Speaking
My presentations to company events are not listed because those engagements are not open to the public. Contact Kate on +61 2 8755 0034 for more details on speaking.
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- on my way to Keri Keri, via Auckland Auckland, from Sydney Sydney about 1 day ago from web
- is amazed how many people are drinking alcohol at 8am in the morning in the airline lounge about 1 day ago from web
- It is not the storms you meet in life, but the way you set your sails... about 1 day ago from web
- Saw this at the gym this morning 'To make your dreams come true, first thing to do is wake up' about 1 day ago from web
- Doh - got the first call on my new iphone 4 - could not hear a thing... had forgotten to take of the plastic wrap. about 1 day ago from web
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Tag Archives: Business Growth
Coming up this week.
I had a great time at the Business Chicks lunch this week. The photo is of Janine Allis, myself, Kristina Karlson (Congratulations on her EY Entrepreneur of the Year Southern Region win) and Natalie Bloom – who popped in to support the conversation. One of the questions from the audience was on mentoring - and [...]
Posted in This Week Also tagged Business Leadership, Female Entrepreneur, Professional Speaker Leave a comment
Grow!
Each trimester at RedBalloon we galvanize the plan by announcing a theme. The theme is always based on what is the most critical thing for the business to achieve right now! Last trimester the whole company got behind a ‘Red Dawn’ theme. Everyone chipped in as we launched the new version of the website. Some [...]
Posted in best places to work Also tagged Business Leadership, Employee Engagement, Leadership, Work life balance Leave a comment
Where is Naomi… this week
Speaking with my new RedBalloon colleague Philippa Lowe this week, she has joined the business to support the communications efforts. She asked me the obvious question ”What do you do in a week?” I mentioned what I get up to and she responded “well if I’m interested in what you are doing other people might [...]
Posted in This Week Also tagged Business Leadership, Female Entrepreneur, Professional Speaker Leave a comment
One by One
One person at a time RedBalloon is changing gifting in Australia and New Zealand forever. It is a simple purpose that continues to drive me every day. I love knowing that people get to experience things that they have always wanted to do as a result of what our team does... and that a gift [...]
Posted in Interesting Numbers Also tagged Female Entrepreneur, Fun at work, Gift Experiences Leave a comment
Have Faith
I have trawled through online articles featuring best employers and companies with high engagement scores (I'm curious as to what others do of course) and I can’t help but notice the negative comments some attract along the lines of “it’s easy for you” from people all over the world. The truth is any organisation no [...]
A crystal ball would be helpful
Hindsight versus foresight: When people ask me ‘have I got any regrets’, or ‘what would you do differently?’ I answer philosophically – we made a few mistakes – some very expensive ones, but we still had to try them – they were all part of the learning to discover what next. Without failures, of course [...]
Posted in Lessons Learned Also tagged Business Leadership, Business Vision, Leadership, productivity 3 Comments
Curious about Strengths
Some years ago I had my Gallup Strengths done (see previous post) since then everyone who joins RedBalloon has also completed the review… it is fun and insightful and really helps us as a leadership team to understand how to best get our people in ‘flow’. It is not a recruitment tool.. because no strength [...]
Posted in Lessons Learned Also tagged Business Leadership, Employee Engagement, Female Entrepreneur, Managers at work, productivity 1 Comment
Excellent…
I’m very exciting that RedBalloon is recruiting for a new role, a Customer Excellence Manager. We see it as the next big step in our growth and innovation story. To put it in context; I’ve always used the title Chief Experience Officer (in part because of what we sell) but more so because ‘I’m accountable [...]
Posted in Input Please Also tagged Brand Marketing, Business Vision, Customer Excellence, Female Entrepreneur, Managers at work 7 Comments
Four things to stop doing
The hardest thing for a CEO to know is; which of the many things we do – are the ones that really, in the long run add no value to the business? Another words 'where am I wasting my time and energy?'. The challenge is how to identify what I should I stop doing? I [...]
Posted in Lessons Learned Also tagged Business Leadership, Business Vision, Female Entrepreneur, Leadership 1 Comment
Questions…