Improving Your Business - Let’s Talk Business Webinar Series

From my many years as an executive, and now coaching leaders, I’ve found most of us want to know how to sustain ourselves successfully during the tough times. Ideally, we want to be serene, not scrambled. If we don’t take care of ourselves, we risk burning out, and we can’t support our families, our staff, or our businesses. 

In this hour together, I'll ask you what insights you feel are having an impact for you right now. I'll share how my clients maximise their momentum, my top tips for leaders to calm the chaos and exercises you can take away.

Speaker Bio

Maree McPherson is a leadership coach, facilitator and mentor with a track record of helping regional women and teams fall in love with their work and enjoy a lifestyle that creates latitude.

With more than 30 years of experience, Maree has worked with individual leaders and leadership teams within organisations to embrace lifelong learning and create a legacy. Her proven strategy revolves around helping these leaders thrive at work by teaching them how to deliver clarity that drives certainty.

In this overly visual world ‘everything’ about your business is saying ‘something’ about your business. So, is it saying the right thing? I’ll explore why your logo isn’t your brand, plus other rants about how branding could be your biggest secret weapon in business.

Speaker Bio

Originally from Morwell, John has worked as a designer since 2001 between Gippsland and Melbourne for clients and agencies across Australia. 

Having worked for brands such as Nike, Crown Casino, Discovery Channel and more, it is in Gippsland where John’s impact has been most profound; In 2010 he established The View From Here, where he and his team have designed over 100 visual identities for businesses and organisations. In 2013, John founded Made In Gippsland project to profile Gippsland’s high performing creative alumni, which was followed up in 2016 when he co-founded the highly regarded quarterly broadsheet ‘Gippslandia’ magazine. John is happily married and father to 4 gorgeous kids.

His area's of expertise include: brand strategy and brand development; creative direction; design direction an more. John holds an Honours Degree in Communication Design from Swinburne, formerly National School of Design (2004) where he later taught as a sessional lecturer. He has worked under four of Australia’s Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) members, including Ken Cato, David Pidgeon, Andrew Ashton and David Lancashire. His work has been recognised nationally and internationally.

Communication has never been more important than it is now as we navigate new ways of working and leading in an uncertain time.

But communication is hard, particularly under pressure and the ‘people bit’ is often the most challenging part of our job. 

Learn a step-by-step process to help you communicate effectively with colleagues, staff, customers and clients in this new environment.

In this one-hour live training, learn strategies to help you:

• Manage yourself under pressure.
• Defuse conflict.
• Inspire individuals and teams to action.
• Develop key messages that connect.  
• Lead your team through change and uncertainty.
• Deliver difficult messages.
• Communicate with warmth.

Speaker Bio

Leah Mether helps leaders master the 'soft skills' they need to get through hard times. 

She is a Gippsland-based trainer, speaker, facilitator, coach, and author of the book Soft is the New Hard: How to Communicate Effectively Under Pressure.

With a background in leadership, corporate communications, business and journalism, Leah works with leaders and teams to help them improve their communication, mindset and self-management.

This online interactive workshop explored the fundamentals of SEO and SEM and how it relates to your business in Gippsland. It covered how your business can be found on Google in Gippsland using plain easy-to-understand English without the tech jargon. The session discussed how you as a business can make cost effective choices for getting online and/or improving your current online presence.

The session was facilitated by Jim Radford, Company Director of Image Direct based in Traralgon a Google Adwords Certified Partner. Jim is also the Co-Founder of Dystech Australia a technical diagnostic solution company that is making a real difference to children living with Dyslexia and Dysgraphia.

Do you wonder if there is a better and more efficient way to operate your business? The likely answer is there will be.

In this current climate it is more important than ever to get process right to ensure your business has the best opportunity to be profitable.

In this online interactive session, Neil will unlock the A3 management process that you can apply to any business.

The session covers the process and thinking of A3 Management and the tool you can apply to your business. The key learnings will be:

1. Learning a different way to solve problems more effectively
2. Writing A3’s
3. PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act)

A3 thinking is a management approach that turns day-to-day management into a learning practice for the whole organisation. A3 management creates a standard method for innovation, planning, problem resolution, and sharing knowledge. The approach centres organisational learning in the work itself.

Speaker Bio

Neil is a lean practitioner with an openness to learn new ways. Neil has learnt that there is a Lean lesson everywhere and that It takes courage and confidence to face the unknown.

Neil is an experienced executive manager with a business transformation, project management, engineering and change leadership background.

He has had 29 years of diverse experience in the power industry from craft apprenticeship through to executive leadership roles working in a global organisation in the UK, Europe, and Australia.

Neil co-founded In2 Project Management with his business partner Chris Allford in 2013 and today their mission is to inspire people to become lean thinkers and create more value for their organisation, customers, community, and personal development.

In2 Project Management have helped many local businesses improve and transition through their work with the Latrobe Valley Supply Chain Transition Program.

Most of us have heard of R U OK? Not many of us know what to say if the answer is “no”.

Learn simple tools to support your colleagues during these challenging and uncertain times. This webinar provides tips and resources to promote life changing conversations with your family, friends and colleagues, at home and in the workplace to encourage early intervention and help-seeking.

Become confident in starting a conversation that could save a life.

Social media marketing is full of jargon and confusing mixed messages. With most of the advice coming out of the US, it can be hard to apply to your local business. Mac&Ernie specialises in helping businesses in regional areas. They know how to make social media work for your business - in your local community and beyond and how to fit digital into your marketing mix - making sure you don’t put all your eggs into one basket.

In this free session, you will learn how to increase your business or brand’s visibility on social media with a number of tried and tested strategies including:

• ‘Push’ marketing - don’t sit back and wait for people to come to you
• Engagement strategies to connect and grow
• Being “found’ the science of search
• Working ‘with’ the newsfeed algorithms

Short Bio: 

Erika McInerney is the region’s foremost expert in using social media for business. She has a Bachelor degree in Media and Communications and a Masters in Marketing and 25 years’ experience working in advertising and marketing and more recently has helped more than a thousand people put social media to work for their business as the founder of Mac&Ernie Social Media Training.

LinkedIn can be a powerful tool for job seekers and employers but it is also a valuable source of information and connection for people in small business. In this webinar run by Erika from Mac&Ernie, learn how to use LinkedIn more effectively to promote yourself and your business.

Optimise your personal profile and create a company page to link your business with your employees and more. Look at how strategy in this channel can be shaped to match your business goals. Topics covered will include:

• engagement strategies
• how to write content, share content and how to contribute to the conversations
• creating greater visibility and developing yourself or your employees as thought leaders in your field
• the do’s and don’ts of LinkedIn, risk management and more

So, you’ve launched a new brand or been proudly trading for years, then all of a sudden you get a draw-dropping letter from a high-powered attorney saying that you’re mispresenting another’s brand or infringing their trade mark.  You’re told to change your name promptly or you’ll be sued.

This session will discuss the importance of intellectual property in your business and focus on the power of trade marks in protecting and growing your brand.

You have to be incredibly resilient to survive the entrepreneur/small business/founder path. You can learn all you want, have the best plan in place, have your budget lined up, and have done all the research in the world, but nothing except resilience can get you through the journey.



So many business and life factors can’t be predicted. No one knew that week three of The Grants Hub would see me sitting in a hospital beside my 11-day-old son waiting for his first open heart surgery. I had no idea how I was going to survive both the personal and business challenges in front of me.



Likewise, no one knew that bushfires, COVID, or your own personal crisis you’re facing right now were going to strike and have the deep and wide-reaching impacts they have.



You might have had no idea that 2020 was going to be the year that you would be on the cusp of taking the leap and starting your own thing.

In this session, I’ll share my story of launching and growing a business during crisis, along with key points I’ve learnt along the way that will be practical for businesses (both physical and online) at all stages.

Because I know one thing for sure: there is no perfect time to start. There is no perfect moment to launch. Sometimes, you just have to start. Then keep going.

Most of us, from time to time, have some self-defeating thoughts, emotions and actions. It’s referred to as the cognitive triad, where you repeatedly emphasize:

• negative view of yourself
• negative view of the world and its limits for you
• negative view of the future opportunities you have

What kinds of feelings stop us? Is it always conscious? Is it sometimes so deep we are not even aware? We've all heard of Unconscious Bias? Well, what about the Unconscious Biases we hold towards ourselves?

The good news is that you CAN change that cognitive triad to a more positive view. In this webinar we will unpack these biases and learn practical and proactive techniques to ban them.

New business is exciting, but it’s also a little daunting, we understand that. 

With the right mindset and the right approach to your business you can remove some of the obstacles we all face when starting a new business.

This session will cover your business start-up including getting the ideal clients, the processes and a few key areas to get you thinking about long term business success.

So yes business is exciting, now let’s remove the daunting.

Grant funding can be a daunting prospect for many people, businesses and not for profit organisations.

• Where do I find opportunities?
• How do I decipher the guidelines?
• How do I know if I am eligible?
• Should I send out lots of applications?

In this session I will share the knowledge that has been gained, some direction about exploring grant opportunities that you may be eligible for and provide an overview on how to apply.

Join Rob as he presents ‘Introduction to Small Business and the Law’.

If you’re about to start a new business, let Rob equip you with an all-important legal perspective.

You’ll find out about the different kinds of business structures, so you can pick the right one for you, as well as learning how to manage that structure.

You’ll also gain an understanding of the Australian Consumer Law and how to make it work to your advantage.

Ryan started his career at Telstra over fifteen years ago, where he moved quickly into the field of supporting small businesses. He has been part of the team at Telstra Business Technology Centre Victoria East as General Manager for four years, collaborating with businesses and clients to drive connectivity in the Gippsland region.

Having worked within Telstra specialising in supporting small businesses for over a decade, Ryan is passionate about helping local businesses grow. He and his team of Business Technology Advisors take a consultative approach to identify tailored technology solutions that drive efficiency and create opportunity for Gippsland businesses.

After experiencing first hand the effects of cyber crime on local business, Ryan understands the importance of taking cyber security seriously. Join Ryan to learn about common cyber attacks, as well as practical steps you can take to start protecting your business today.

This webinar will cover the roles that an accountant and bookkeeper can play in your business, how you can achieve efficiencies by utilising these professionals in the right way. It will cover GST and how this works for your business.

There will also be a chance for Q&A with Liz. You will learn insights and tips of how to get the best out of your accountant and bookkeeping services and how to stay on top of your finances. This webinar is all about developing your confidence and improving your financial capability.

3 steps to regaining your energy, ditching the stress and feeling your best.

How simple nutrition changes can

• Influence your focus
• Improve creativity
• Increase productivity
• Regain your energy
• Feel less stressed

Content marketing is now a business strategy. If you don't utilise content marketing in your business, you are missing out on an audience who is ready for you! Let me show you how the power of content creation can change your business.

In this webinar we discuss:

• How to use the right content platforms for your business 
• What type of content should you create in your business 
• How to formulate and implement a content marketing strategy 
• How to create content with little time and resources 
• The tools to stay consistent and build a community from content marketing 

This webinar presented by Liz Fleming The Efficiency Coach will discuss the key points to consider when you are creating your side hustle. We all want to be successful, and it's all about being prepared and being smart with your time, money and resources.

This webinar will cover the following topics and exercises for you to complete in relation to creating your successful side hustle:

• What is considered to be a side hustle
• Brainstorming ideas of what you're going to sell
• What skills do you have for your side hustle
• Is there a market for your side hustle
• Finances and how to invest wisely in your side hustle
• Who can help you with your side hustle