Date: August 2016

It's 2 a.m. in the morning. I lay awake having just flown in the day before from Los Angeles. My eye's are sore, and somewhat tired, but my mind is wide awake. I can't seem to get back to sleep. I get up and get a drink from the fridge.

When you are looking forward to the next year like I am, you can't help but think what is it that is going to make the next 12 months of your life more extraordinary and memorable then the last.

With so many things going on in the world; political elections, earthquakes, terrorist attacks - it's quite easy to get caught up in what is going wrong with the world instead of what is going right.

Every year, I share my thoughts about getting a year older and how it feels to hit another milestone.

This year, is not too indifferent to the past except I am in a very good space right now and am incredibly positive about what the future holds.

Have you ever wondered what it is like getting to first base, ready for the second base but never quite making the home run you hoped for? 

As a female entrepreneur, I have big goals, and my dreams are not only something I think about often, I have carefully strategised the execution of a plan to achieve each and every dream I have had for myself.

It's not by accident that creative marketers are paid more money, are in greater demand and hold the key to a successful marketing campaign. 

Some are born that way and can come up with a creative campaign on the way to work, other's like to spend their time being inspired by the environment in which they live in, and of course, the one's who are time poor and like to surf the net, find the internet a great source for inspiration.

I personally like a combination of both and collaborative creative ideas always seem to draw the best inspiration from each of the different sources.

If you are looking for inspiration online, here is where I like to go:

1. Behance:
This is a designers go to point for inspiration. Mostly the designs are clean and creative, and they cross many industry sectors allowing for creatives to be inspired by variety and relevancy which is very important.

2. Creative Boom:
There is a cross section of creativity on this site. It is inspiring and pushes boundaries while staying sometimes within the lines. 

Last week was mammoth. I spent 4 days on a speaking tour of the Fraser Coast, promoting Marketing Eye's not-for-profit, The World Incubator, and innovation as a whole.

There are many lessons to learn when talking to crowds, and the first is to adapt to the crowd you are talking to. 

We are quite the fancy pants of marketing of late and have delivered a business and marketing plan for our own company that is one of the best I have ever seen. We haven't focused on our old-style corporate internal document, but instead, a fully engaging interactive and KPI orientated presentation that has inspired our team to do more, be more and conquer quite a few goals.

Finally, I have a printed copy of the 2016/17 Global Marketing Strategy for Marketing Eye and it is being developed out to the point where every single item in the marketing strategy is given to a person who is responsible for outcomes. 

It's particularly exciting given that usually we only share part of the plan, but this year, we decided to share it all - along with our profit sharing strategy for employees. It's time for many of our younger team members to start investing in houses or apartments, and they cannot do that without getting some real money behind them.