Mastermind Consulting turns five!

My humble little business has reached a significant milestone this month – Mastermind Consulting is now five years old. Yes, it’s been that long, and there’s reason to celebrate as the journey has been exhilarating, to say the least.

From as early as I can remember, I held grand career aspirations – at high school I wanted to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Australia (not just a lawyer). For a while I had my heart set on being Australia’s first female Prime Minister and then when I started my career in the world of Financial Services at BT Funds Management and Macquarie Bank, success was defined by seniority of roles. I scored a spot in a prestigious graduate program having received first class honours at university, and even after shifting from financial services to the wine industry, the marketing director role was firmly a career aspiration.

Like many women on steep career trajectories, my world changed radically when I fell pregnant with my first child (and much sooner than I expected once we started trying!). Then at four months pregnant, I was made redundant deciding not to make the move to Melbourne with the Foster’s marketing team. I LOVED my brands, and successfully moving my career from finance to the wine industry had taken so long to achieve, so leaving the corporate world behind not an option i’d ever really considered. With no idea about what the future held, I ventured into the world of motherhood.

Owning my own business was never on my radar but the demand was there to help wineries with marketing and offer strategic advice (which i love doing most). I’ve never been good at not working, so with the support of my family I began to work part-time (often while my newborn daughter was sleeping) and before you knew it, in 2008 Mastermind Consulting was born.

The vision for Mastermind Consulting was simple – to help wineries connect with their customers through innovative marketing. It’s been a real privilege to be able to work with so many brands on campaigns that have ranged from new product development, strategy development, innovation, web launches and more recently helping with strategy, training and execution to help demystify social media and make plans that connect with consumers.

SOME PROUD ACHIEVEMENTS:

• I’ve loved being able to spread the word about social media and help businesses understand more about these platforms and how to use in their business. I’ve done countless training sessions, conference presentations (like at Wine Outlook Conference, Coonawarra Regional Winemakers) and organised tours like Wine Communicator’s of Australia social media tour with Rick Bakas in 2012. I still get a real buzz out of every training session I hold and love working with the participants to help them think about how new media can be incorporated into their marketing plans.
• Helping brands like Best’s Great Western and Scarborough Wine Co rebrand and re-position their business – in many cases using social media to tell stories about smaller brands with amazing stories and heritage.
• Relaunching packaging for Omrah Wines - with a fresh new look and communications platform.
• Collaborating with wineries across the world on initiatives like Rose Revolution, Chardonnay Day or Cabernet Day.
• Developing Wine Communicators of Australia National strategy to help improve quality and access of wine communication.
• Successfully applying learnings from wine industry across to food industry for launches of restaurants like CHISWICK Sydney.
• Being selected on WFA Future Leaders program in 2012 – the most inspiring week of my life with some life-long friendships formed.
• Keeping all of this going whilst caring for 2 little kids and for a while during this period, also helping care for my late father who had cancer…

Like any business, we’ve evolved and changed over time, and I have a great team of partners (many of whom are also mums) who help me push the boundaries and create great work for our clients.

There’s still the daily challenge of juggling young children (I have a three-year-old at home and a daughter in Kindergarten with school hours to contend with) while running a business part time. I love being around for the children whilst they are young, but time is my constant enemy and I am the first to admit it’s often a juggle and some days i just run on adrenalin and minimal sleep.

But it won’t be like this forever and nothing has been as rewarding as being able to nurture my two little people, and help them make their mark on the world as confident individuals, while being able to do what I love professionally with brands that I am so passionate about.

Importantly, the world of social media has certainly kept me in touch, and on many occasions sane, when toddler tantrums or parenting challenges seem harder to deal with than any multi-million-dollar negotiation. You may be reading this via a twitter link, or a facebook post and not realise how much I have appreciated your conversations over the past few years. Social media has allowed me to make great friends and interact with amazing people. Don’t ever believe that social media connections are not real or valid because they’re as meaningful as you make them and i’ve got some fabulous friends as a result!

A SHOUT OUT OF THANKS

There are too many people who have contributed to Mastermind’s amazing journey to name you all, but a few deserve special mention on such a milestone.

It’s been a privilege to have worked with so many great clients either on projects or longer term: De Bortoli, McWilliam’s, Taylor’s, Australian Vintage, Best’s Great Western, Scarborough Wine Co, ARIA Sydney, CHISWICK, Jonah’s Restaurant and Boutique Hotel, Wine Communicators of Australia, Plantagenet Wines, Wild Oats, Zema Estate, Belaroma Coffee, Brown Hill Estate, Casella Wines and many more beautiful brands that I’ve come to know through initiatives like Chardonnay Day and Rosé Revolution. Thanks for your patience and allowing me to work on your business as if it were my own.

Thanks to my business support network, staff and partners – particularly Helen Kruger, Liz O’Connell, Lee Gray, Sophie Knox, Tom Williamson, Shine Media, and Otherside Productions.

To my Family –  Kate and James – you’ve changed my world and given me perspective on what’s important in life – a lesson that I could never have learnt without you.

I could not do this without my Mum and mother-in-law, who both step in to help on so many occasions when I have work travel or commitments. And to my rock and husband Mark Barry – this could not happen without you. You’re an amazing man with great patience, allowing me to pursue my dreams. Thank you!

SO WHAT’S THE MORAL TO THE STORY?

There is a moral to this story (in my usual long-winded way) and it’s not to be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and try something new. Life’s what you make of it and it’s doesn’t always follow the path you plotted out years ago.

Success may look different to how you traditionally define it. This could mean challenging conventional work models, changing your own definition of success and pursuing your dreams to do a job that you love, every day. I didn’t make it as Australia’s first female prime minister but I’m just as happy growing the Mastermind business, doing what I love with people and brands that i love and I respect.

Here’s to the next chapters in the Mastermind story.

Cheers,
Trish x x x

Decoding facebook’s Promotional Guidelines

We’ve all seen brands on facebook make claims on their pages “first five people to comment will win a free bottle of wine” or “share this photo to win.’

Promotions on facebook are a great way of building engagement with fans and growing the number of people in your community.  However, for many page administrators it’s also a source of confusion. Many of the competitions and giveaways being run contravene the facebook promotional guidelines, and by breaking them, you’re running the risk that your promotion or even your page can be shut down.

Whilst it’s tempting to test the boundaries, I believe that the risks are not worth the consequences and there are some simple steps you can take to make sure you comply. Take the time to think through the promotion, make it more than just a post for a day and integrate it into your marketing strategy to achieve the best results.

The full link to the facebook guidelines gives you the rundown and you should revisit it often as facebook is known to change the rules.

I’ll attempt to give you the core things to think about when running a competition below:

1)    What’s considered a promotion?

If you’re going to pick a winner – then it’s considered a promotion. This means any contest, competition or sweepstakes offer

2)    Where can you run your promotion?

The guidelines state that competitions must be administered within apps  on facebook.com either on a canvas page or on a custom tab. This means you can POST about the promotion on the wall, but the competition must be hosted on a separate tab. You cannot run a give away by hosting on the wall and conditioning people to like or share a post to WIN.

3)    What about using facebook functionality to enter?

You must not use a “like” to enter as a voting mechanism for the promotion.  Some app’s on the pages can “like gate” the competition so that you need to be a fan of the page to enter (a good way of still building a community), but this is not about liking a post to be eligible to win.

4)    What does facebook require you to do before running the competition?

Facebook requires each entrant to release it from obligations and for the organization conducting the promotion to state that the promotion is not in any way sponsored, endorsed or administered by the social network. They must appear on the canvas pages or page tabs.

Facebook wants to reduce its liability and make sure it’s in no way connected with the promotion.

Many of the custom apps automatically post this on the bottom of the custom page “This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered or associated with Facebook. You understand that you are providing your information to XXXX and not to facebook. The information you provide will only be used for the XXX and will use the information provided in accordance with its privacy policy.”

5)    How can I select a winner?

You can’t randomly select a fan and award them a prize. As the guidelines note “the act of liking a page or checking into a place cannot automatically register or enter a promotion participant.”

You’ll need to specify how you’ll choose a winner in the terms and conditions of the promotion (that’s right you will need to write some terms and conditions so that people know what the rules are).

When a winner is selected, you must notify them via email, postal address, mobile number etc rather than just positing the winner’s details on the wall.

6)    What are some apps I can use to run promotions on my page within the guidelines?

New apps are being built all the time to help companies run promotions on facebook. Many developers will also build custom pages that you can host on too.  Think about what your competition is designed for and then take a look at some of the apps to work out which one best meets your objectives. Some of the apps you may want to consider are:

• Wildfire. 
• NorthSocial.
• Strutta.
• Fan Appz 
• Bulb Storm
• Offer Pop
• Promo Box
• Buddy Media
• Tab Site

What else do I need to know:

Whilst there are guidelines for facebook, there’s also an obligation in many cases in Australia to obtain a permit to conduct the competition. Rules vary depending on the state that it’s being held in and the value of the prize, but you should contact your local office (NSW and ACT do require permits in many cases). Don’t forget if it’s a national promotion, you’ll need permits in each state.

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