Heart And Hustle: How To Thrive In A Crisis Margot Faraci

When everyone’s working from home, who needs clothes for events and work?   Australian fashion royalty GINGER & SMART faced a crisis this year as it’s reason for existence, well, ceased to exist!  So what did owner Alexandra Smart do?  What all great business owners know is necessary: she let go of the past and adapted accordingly, creating a new offering for working from home, doubling-down on digital and noticing that her long-running sustainability work was now being valued by customers.  She says terror of those early days was quickly replaced with opportunity and she took the lessons learned by bringing in an equity partner to transform the business. 

To find out more, and to hear why we shouldn’t drop our dress standards when on Zoom, listen to this next episode of Heart & Hustle.

 
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Author, journalist, speaker and all-round media personality Felicity Harley barely knew how prescient she was with the release of her book, Balance Is BS.  It was released in April, just as its theme of overwhelm was playing out right across the globe. For many, she says, lockdown brought a sense of release from the rush of life, but for others it created more worry and work.   For Felicity, this year has been a time of wrestling with her own ambition and family commitments, with husband and Sydney Swans CEO Tom Harley completely consumed by the challenges in his work. She says “it’s hard to take on more at home when you’re ambitious in your career” and she speaks frankly about what that has meant to her, in this latest episode of Heart & Hustle. 
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He’s calling the death of organisational hierarchy and he says that being innovative has nothing to do with having innovative ideas.  Paul Scott, transformation expert and author, has advised governments and corporates all around the world and has been frustrated by the lack of understanding of what true innovation is.  Happily, he believes that a crisis drives innovation and he brings a lifetime of experience as his evidence base.  He says “we resist change on a fundamental level because many of us have a low tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty.”  So in a crisis can our attitude to change, well change?   To find out, listen to this next episode of Heart & Hustle.
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Self-disruption might be the mother of business success in times of crisis. CEO of professional women’s network, Future Women, Helen McCabe is an expert in self-disruption.  And thank goodness: when it turned out this year that networking was no longer a thing, she knew it could be her ruin.   But her leadership muscle memory stepped in, and once again she prevailed.  The key, she says – and we can’t hear this enough – is listening to clients and never thinking you know better than them.  She learned that as Editor-In-Chief of Australian Women’s Weekly where she undertook a profitable overhaul and created controversy with Prime Ministers, brought Oprah and Prince Charles to the interview table and trusted herself to deliver an important product to 2.5 million Australians every month. 

To learn more about Helen’s advice on leading through crisis, listen to this episode of Heart & Hustle.
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Passionate hospitality duo Hamish Watts and Ben Carroll from Applejack have always thrived on challenging the status quo.

But what happens when a pandemic turns the status quo on its head?

These two leaders thrived by making some tough calls including rejecting the trend towards take-away meals from their venues, getting creative about staff engagement and motivation (including introducing a new staff benefits package) and a decision for complete transparency with the team about the real state of business finances. 

The result? Renewed purpose, gratitude and even business growth - acquiring one of Sydney's most renowned pubs in the middle of an industry lock-down. 

To find out more, listen in to this episode of Heart and Hustle.
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A pandemic is the least of the crises Dave Berkelouw’s business has seen throughout the years. 

The Australian version of Berkelouw Books was born in a crisis, post War World II and with Dave’s European family seeking refuge in Australia.  They turned to what they knew: they sold books.

Since then,  Berkelouw Books has faced continuous crises – the rise of eBooks, Amazon and the famous government proclamation that “in five years time, most bookstores will be shut.”  By the time the pandemic came along, thriving in a crisis was in Dave’s blood. They stayed open, unprofitably and almost laughably.  Ultimately, that paid off as books emerged in 2020 as a predominant force in our need for escapism. 

So what’s the secret to the continual rise of Australia’s largest independent bookseller, against all odds?  Listen to find out in this episode of Heart & Hustle.
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