Happy Wednesday, fine folk of the industry! Today, in our coverage of incredible Women in Media, we’re bringing you the founder & business principal of All About Eve, Linda McGregor, who shares some pearls of wisdom with us.
Describe your average day?
Get my daily exercise early by feeding & mucking out my horse and stables before work – good way to mentally plan the work-day too.
My days vary, especially if travelling interstate, but normally I’ll have a few client meets or calls across the day, built around chunks of “brain” time to work on the insight & strategy pieces that are our mainstay.
Afternoon, I tend to workshop on live projects with staff or work through my pile of the latest gender science articles and thought starters.
I’m a big believer in breaking patterns to create fresh thinking so I’ll often switch locations to work or break for lunch to go somewhere different to reset my brain.
What’s the most challenging thing about your job?
Continuing to keep it fresh to encourage clients to seek deeper insight of female motivations, rather than just conscious opinions, whilst constantly addressing the (mis) belief that “women just know women” and how to influence them.
And making sure we’re included early enough in a project to build in insights into both the conscious and sub-conscious female mind – that’s a few of the tricky parts of the job.
What drives you?
Being a catalyst – helping people to have “aha” moments then getting them join the dots to solve the problem themselves.
What’s the hardest brief you’ve ever received or hardest job to execute?
Recruiting women to male-dominated industries such as military, police etc. Also one of the most interesting as it required a lot of examination of the ‘why’ underpinning motivations and behaviours!
What’s your proudest professional moment?
Whenever I’m asked to be a mentor, especially to professional women. To be trusted to guide & inspire future leaders; I don’t think you can get a bigger compliment than that.
One thing no one knows about you?
I worked as a jackaroo mustering cattle in QLD.
What are advertising/marketing’s biggest challenges or threats?
Adapting to, embracing & keeping pace with digital impact, whilst remembering that it’s a means to an end, not the end in itself. We run the risk of being channel-obsessed and losing sight of why we’re so excited about digital – because it facilitates better communication and influence of our target audiences.
Sometimes brands get caught up in their own brilliance or try to be as disruptive or as clever as possible, forgetting that at the end of the day it’s about attracting and retaining customers and to do this they need to achieve a Perfect Fit between consumer needs and brand offering.
What do you think are the most exciting things in the marketing and creative world at the moment?
The endless possibilities and the amount of innovation thanks to technology. Also, finally, the recognition of female purchasing power and the need to understand how to influence it.
What would you like to do differently?
No matter how many tools or systems we have, the magic always comes from the people so I’d want to impact effectiveness there.
In an industry that can suffer from “boys club mentality”, I’d want to empower management to consciously change their culture and lead by example via programmes/training around Unconscious Behaviour & Bias.
Help people become aware of the mis-match between their talk and the actions to give them conscious control of it, aid better communication in the workplace.
Tea or coffee?
Hot chocolate.
Cats or dogs?
Cats, dogs and horses.
Guilty pleasure?
Days off to ride/work with my horse with no mobile calls allowed.
What’s your favourite TV programme?
Still… The West Wing.
What turns you on, emotionally, creatively, spirituality?
Watching people learn subconsciously.
What turns you off?
Wasted anything – resources, talent, opportunities, time.
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Equine-assisted leadership training.
What profession would you not like to do?
Anything that kept me in the dark – physically or mentally.
Have you ever felt like giving up?
Hell yes – but never for more than 24 hours.
What are the pearls of wisdom you know now, that you wish you knew when they were younger?
- Don’t let ever people tell you your business idea is too niche. If you’ve consciously combined facts and feelings, had a vision but also done your homework, anything is possible. Oh and it’s more possible with backing, so if you can get the right financial help, grab it
- Stop worrying about others stealing your ideas – rather be clear on what you offer that others don’t or can’t. Be generous with ideas as it will force you to come up with others (thanks Hugh Mackay for that one!)
- Whilst it’s your business/vision, surround yourself with people you trust, who inspire you to adapt and who give honest feedback, even when it’s bad. Listen to and learn from others – smarter, dumber, older, younger, human, and non-human – and from experiences.
- Trust your gut (you know the science why) but know when to push past your fears
- And lastly, if you’d be embarrassed to tell Mum you’d done something then don’t do it!
The Women in Media inaugural forum and awards ceremony will be held at Royal Randwick Racecourse on August 19. You can still get some of the remaining few tickets here.
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