Date: September 2017 - Page 2

It takes a team to build a business, and one bad egg can spoil the broth. If you have been in business for some time, like myself, this will ring true. While we read so many blogs and stories about how leadership determines culture, I beg to differ. In fact, I think leadership has little impact on culture, but people do.

Yesterday was a eye-opener for me. I saw an international team collaborated to make sure that their boss (aka me), knew how much they meant to each and every one of them. They went over and above, with every single person contributing in one way or another.

This morning, I decided to have breakfast at my favourite cafe, Hobba Prahran before heading to the office. I sat at Hobba with a big smile on my face. I have spent the past month with my teams in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Atlanta and it has been amazing.

The energy in each office, stand up meetings, pride in their work, on-boarding of clients and in general, their 'nice-ness' is beyond anything you would ever expect in an office environment.

I had a particularly stressful period of time. Hackers had attacked our business and we were leaking cash like no tomorrow. I handled it great for the first three days, then I fell apart. I felt like it was all too much. My life is full and to add that type of stress to my life, I felt overwhelmed. It was certainly challenging.

My team could see that I was stressed, and on my last day in the Melbourne office prior to heading to the US, the team wanted to celebrate my birthday. I asked them if they would mind if we didn't celebrate my birthday and celebrated just Christina's instead.

What makes our agency special? It's a question that I am asked frequently, and it always makes me think "what is it that is our secret sauce?". What makes us different from the marketing company down the road?