CUSTOMER FRAME

08/10/2026

I was watching a fantastic live session last week with Wendy Pavey and Juanita Wheeler.

I stumbled across it on LI at exactly the right time and, as a big believer in the universe bringing us what we need, I tuned in.

What struck me wasn’t just the generosity of these two fabulously successful women in giving their time, insights and expertise, but the golden nuggets I took away.

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1. Own your awesome.

If you genuinely believe what you do makes things better for your clients and helps them reach their goals faster, then by not sharing what you do, you’re depriving them of what you can do for them.

2. Create your community of impact + make the ask.

Surround yourself with the right people. Give back. Invest in those who invest in you. Ask for support. And never assume the answer is going to be no.

3. Curate everything + focus on the big things.

Identify which ideas are worthy of your time and energy, focus on those and say no to most everything else.

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Now, if you were in my head (don’t worry, it’s not that scary 😂) lately, you’d know how hard these things hit.

Because that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.

I believe the universe was sending this to me to make it loud and clear:
Be yourself.Surround yourself with the right people.Focus on the big stuff.And make the ask.

So stay tuned, friends.

Because that last one is coming.

I know what I do has real and lasting impact on my clients. They tell me so. I’ve seen it. I’ve experienced it.

I’ve been working hard to surround myself with awesome humans, and I’m so grateful for the people who have shown up around me.

I’m super focused on what comes next, and I’m relentless about pursuing it.

And now…

I’m into the ask phase.

Watch this space. 👀

07/10/2026

There’s a question I get asked a lot:
“So, what exactly do you do?”

It’s a fair question.

Because I don’t neatly fit into one of the usual boxes.

I’m not there to tell an organisation what strategy to implement, what system to buy or what problem to solve.

I’m there to ask a different question first:
Are we sure we’re solving the right problem?

Because organisations get very good at solving the problems they can see from the inside.

- The customer lens can reveal something different.
- An assumption that’s gone unchallenged.
- A strategy that makes sense on paper, but isn’t being translated consistently across the organisation.
- Teams working hard, but working from different views of the customer.
- A cultural issue that keeps people operating in silos — while customers experience the gaps between them.
- A problem that looks operational, but is actually a symptom of something much deeper.
- Or an opportunity that’s been sitting in plain sight because everyone has been looking at it from the same angle.

That’s the work I do.

I challenge the assumptions that quietly limit organisational performance - by looking through the customer lens.

Diagnose differently.
See differently.

Through the customer lens.

06/10/2026

“We don’t have any competitors.”

I’ve heard this before.

But this time, the client was actually right.

No one else sold their product. No one else produced it. No one else could offer a like-for-like alternative.

So how did we end up finding their competitors?
And why did it completely change the way they thought about their customers?

I’ve written about it in this week’s article.

The answer might make you rethink who you’re competing with.

Just because you’re the only one that sells your product, doesn’t mean you have no competitors. We worked with an organisation that sold a product no one else did.

01/10/2026

Everyone can be hitting their KPIs + the organisation can still be misaligned.

That's an uncomfortable thought.

Because good numbers can make it look like everything is working.

But performance inside each department doesn’t necessarily tell you what's happening between them.

And that's where some of the biggest gaps can sit.

The handover.
The decision.
The competing priority.

The thing that makes perfect sense to one part of the business but creates a problem somewhere else.

Everyone can be doing their job. Everyone can be busy. Everyone can be hitting their targets.

And a customer can still experience a business that feels fragmented.

So before asking:
“Who's not doing their job?”

Try asking:
“What's happening between the parts of the business?”

Because sometimes the problem isn't the performance of an individual team.

It's the way the teams are working together.

That's often where the interesting stuff starts.

30/09/2026

“Get everyone aligned.”

Sounds like a perfectly reasonable thing to say when teams aren't pulling in the same direction.

But here's the problem.

You can’t fix alignment until you understand what’s causing the misalignment.

Maybe people are working towards different outcomes.
Maybe the strategy means something different to different teams.
Maybe leadership made a decision, but it got stuck somewhere along the way.
Maybe the structure of the business is creating the disconnect.
Or maybe everyone is focused on doing their job well...
..but nobody is looking at the whole customer experience.

So we call another meeting.
Explain the strategy again.
Ask everyone to get on the same page.

And then wonder why nothing changes.

Because alignment isn't always a communication problem. Sometimes it's a business problem.

And that's why I think the better question isn't:
“How do we get everyone aligned?”

It's:
“Why aren't we?”

You don't know until you look.

👇 Swipe through.

29/09/2026

I waited 20 minutes for a coffee.
Then I bought a $120 jumper.

I hadn't planned to buy the jumper.
I didn't need the jumper.

And, living in Brisbane, I probably won't get that much wear out of a thick olive-green jumper anyway. 😂

So why did I buy it?

Because I realised it wasn’t about the jumper. It was the community.

I'd watched people come and go from Wildflower. I'd seen the staff recognise customers. I'd noticed the people who clearly knew each other.

And then I saw a woman wearing a Wildflower jumper and asked her why she loved the place enough to wear their branded gear.

Her answer?

“It's my place to be. I feel like I belong here.”

That was the clincher.

And it got me thinking...

Some businesses would look at Wildflower and say:
“It's just a coffee shop.”

But is it?

What are your customers actually buying from you?

Because sometimes it's not the thing on the menu.

It's the feeling. The connection. The identity. The belonging.

And that's what makes people come back - and even take a little piece of your business home with them.

I've written about what Wildflower made me think about + the question I think businesses should be asking themselves.

👇 Read this week's newsletter.

I waited ages for a coffee. Then I bought a $120 jumper.

25/09/2026

Before you row harder

I've watched businesses respond to a lack of progress by adding more.

More people.
More meetings.
More training.
More systems.
More projects.
More accountability.
More pressure.

Because when something isn't working, the instinct is usually:

DO MORE.

But here's the problem.

You can make a boat move faster without getting it any closer to your destination.

In fact, you can have an entire organisation working incredibly hard...
..+ still be heading in the wrong direction.

That's the bit I think we don't talk about enough.

Because “everyone is busy” can create a very convincing illusion of progress.

The project launched.
The new person started.
The strategy was rolled out.
The meetings happened.
The money was spent.

Everyone was rowing.

But did the business actually get closer to where it was trying to go?

Before we ask people to work harder, move faster or do more...

I'd want to know whether we're actually heading in the right direction.

Because sometimes the problem isn't a lack of effort.

It's that we're putting more effort into the wrong thing.

24/09/2026

I’ve got a theory about why some businesses work incredibly hard + still struggle to get where they want to go.

It’s not always an effort problem.
It can be a direction problem.

I think about businesses like a fleet of boats.

There’s an island ahead - the strategy, the goals, the destination.

Every department has its own boat.

+ everyone is rowing.

But are they actually heading towards the same island?

Because you can have brilliant people.

Busy teams.
Good intentions.
Big budgets.
Lots of activity.

+ still have Marketing, Sales, Operations, HR, Finance, IT + Customer Service pulling in slightly different directions.

The CEO’s job shouldn’t be to spend their day jumping between boats checking whether everyone is rowing.

They should be looking ahead.
Checking the map.
Watching what’s changing around them.

+ making sure the whole fleet knows when the course needs to change.

So here's the question:

If you looked at your business from above today, would you see one fleet heading towards one destination - or a collection of boats doing their own thing?

Because sometimes you don't need everyone to row harder.

You need to understand why the fleet isn't moving in the same direction.

22/09/2026

“Let’s get everyone on the same page.”

How many times have you said that to your team?

It sounds like the right thing to do.
But I think we’re starting in the wrong place.

Before you tell people to get on the same page, ask why they’re not on the same page in the first place.

I have a favourite analogy for this. It involves boats + a whole lot of rowing. Bear with me.

Maybe Marketing is working to one priority.
Sales is working to another.
Operations is solving a different problem.
Customer Service is dealing with the consequences.

Everyone is doing exactly what they think they’re supposed to be doing.

That’s the interesting bit.

Because misalignment doesn’t always look like dysfunction.
Sometimes it looks like a very busy, very capable organisation.

Lots of activity.Lots of meetings.Lots of targets being hit.Lots of people working hard.

But from above?

The boats are going in different directions.

So before you ask:
“How do we get everyone rowing harder?”

Maybe the better question is:
“What have we actually asked everyone to row towards?”

Because sometimes people aren’t resisting the strategy.
They’re following a different version of it.

+ you can’t fix that by getting everyone in a room + calling it alignment.

You have to look at the whole fleet.

That’s what I’m exploring in this week’s newsletter:
Everyone is rowing. So why aren’t we getting there?

There’s something I see in businesses all the time. Everyone is busy.

17/09/2026

The person closest to the problem isn't always the problem.

I've seen businesses jump very quickly from:
“Something isn't working.”

to:
“Someone isn't doing their job.”

Sometimes that's true.

But before we decide that, I want to understand what’s going on around that person.

The expectations.
The processes.
The priorities.
The systems.
The support they've been given.

Because sometimes you change the person...
+ the problem follows them.

That's usually a pretty good clue that you might have been looking in the wrong place.

Before you replace someone, retrain them or put another manager over them, ask:
“What are we asking this person to work within?”

Because sometimes the problem isn't the person.
It's the environment we've put them in.