Arabella Macpherson

Arabella Macpherson Leadership and Communication Expert
Helping leaders elevate their influence
through Charismatic Communication
Speaker | Facilitator | Coach | Author

At Resonate Communications Coaching, we believe in confident leadership through effective communication.

19/06/2026

This is my pre-session ritual.

Arrive early.
Test the tech.
Play Groove Armada.
Walk through the flow.
Review every name, face, and LinkedIn profile.
Reconnect with the challenges in the room.

Because preparation is not about control.

Things will always go wrong.
The tech may fail.
Someone may arrive early.
The room may not be set up.
The sound may decide to have a personality of its own.

But the point is to give yourself the best possible chance of being present, useful, and ready.

Your setup shapes your state.
And your state shapes the room.

Thanks, Groove Armada. Always.

17/06/2026

The fastest way to lose trust?

Try to look like everything is fine when it clearly is not.

People can sense incongruence.

They can feel when your words and your energy do not match.

That does not mean you need to be vulnerable with everyone all the time. But it does mean that the more real, honest and congruent you are, the easier it is for people to trust you.

Authenticity is not a performance.

It is alignment.

15/06/2026

A fight about the air conditioning is rarely about the air conditioning.

And resistance in a meeting is rarely about the first objection.

In Getting to Yes, Fisher and Ury call this the difference between positions and interests.

A position is what someone says they want.
An interest is why they want it.

Most people prepare their argument.

The best communicators prepare for the room.

They ask:

What does this audience care about?
What are they worried about?
What do they need to feel safe enough to say yes?

That is where influence begins.

Not with better talking points.

With better preparation.

Are you worried you'll be replaced by AI?If so, come to my keynote at the International Association of Business Communic...
12/06/2026

Are you worried you'll be replaced by AI?

If so, come to my keynote at the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) to hear about becoming:
'Irreplaceable in the Age of AI'.

We'll be looking at advanced influencing skills to make sure you're at the centre of the AI conversation.

Only hitch, it's in Toronto.

See you soon, Canada!

Learn more about the session here: https://lnkd.in/eduqX2Q5

11/06/2026

Want to get someone’s attention immediately?

Try this at the start of your next meeting.

Sit down and say: “I imagine someone in your role is probably dealing with…”

Then name their top three problems.
Not your agenda.
Not your priorities.
Theirs.

When you can articulate someone’s world before you ask for anything, they feel seen. They feel understood. And they are far more likely to listen.

It can feel almost disarming, because most people are used to being pitched to, not understood.

So here’s the challenge.

Before your next important conversation, work out the three problems that person is probably carrying into the room.

Then start there.

Their attention will shift immediately.

08/06/2026

What if your meetings aren’t really a productivity problem?

What if they’re an influence problem?

Most organisations try to fix meetings by making them shorter, faster, or fewer.

And yes, that helps.

But a shorter meeting that still goes nowhere has not solved anything.

The real shift happens before the meeting starts.

Before your next important meeting, don’t just prepare the agenda.

Prepare the people.

Ask:

Who is in the room?
What are they under pressure to solve?
What outcome would make their job easier?
Who needs to be aligned before the meeting even begins?

The people who consistently get buy-in aren’t always the best presenters.

They’re the best prepared.
Not on their slides.
On their people.

Because if you walk into a meeting without knowing what matters to the people across the table, a tighter agenda won’t save you.
You’ve just got less time to fail.

04/06/2026

The leaders trying hardest to make themselves “indispensable” may be the first to go.

If every decision has to run through you…
If every approval needs your sign-off…
If your value is built on being the bottleneck…

AI is not your biggest threat.

Your rigidity is.

The executives who will stay relevant are the ones asking:

“How do I replace myself using AI?”

Not because they want to disappear.

Because they understand that if AI can do part of their job, they can move to higher-value work.

Strategy. Creativity. Influence. Opportunity creation.

The future belongs to leaders who work with AI, not against it.

01/06/2026

Rage quitting is rarely just “someone snapping.”

It’s often the final sign that quieter attempts to be heard have failed.

By the time someone storms out, resigns publicly, or leaves with anger, the problem has usually been building for a long time.

Ignored feedback.
Disrespectful management.
Emotional exhaustion.
No safe way to speak up.
No belief anything will change.

The mistake leaders make is treating rage quitting as a personality issue.

“They were emotional.”
“They couldn’t handle feedback.”
“They were always dramatic.”

Maybe.

But if more than one person has left angry, it is time to look at the system.

Because rage quitting is a hard mirror.

It tells you where people no longer feel heard, respected, or safe.

The leadership move is not to close the file and move on.

It is to ask:

What did we miss?
What did they try to tell us before this?
Where are the patterns?
What would make people want to stay?

Exit interviews matter.
But proactive conversations matter even more.

Ask your people:

“If you were to quit, what would be the reason?”
“What would make you want to stay?”

The answers may be uncomfortable. But they may also save your culture.

30/05/2026

Working alongside someone who manipulates, undermines or constantly pulls the rug out from under you is exhausting.

And the hardest part is that you often start blaming yourself.

You think:

Maybe I need to be nicer.
Maybe I need to be more structured.
Maybe I need to explain myself better.
Maybe I need to be more fun.
Maybe I need to prove my values.

But sometimes, the issue is not your communication.

Sometimes, you are dealing with someone who is in distress, threatened, insecure or unwilling to engage in good faith.

That does not mean you are powerless.

It means you need stronger skills, better boundaries and support around you so you can stay steady, clear and grounded.

Because when this is happening every day, it takes a toll.

You cannot always leave the role.
They may not be going anywhere.
And pretending it is fine only makes it harder.

If you are dealing with this right now, I am really sorry. I have been there. It is not fun.

You do not have to handle it alone.

If you need support managing a difficult workplace relationship, reach out.

28/05/2026

If someone doesn’t trust you, the instinct is often to pull back.

Keep the conversation transactional.
Spend less time with them.
Avoid the awkwardness.

But trust rarely grows from distance.

If someone doesn’t trust you yet, the better move is to understand them more deeply.

How do they like to communicate?
What pressures are they under?
What matters to them right now?
What are they trying to protect?
What do they need to succeed?

Because when you understand someone properly, your communication shifts.

You stop leading with what you need.
You start speaking to what they care about.

That is where trust begins.

Not through clever persuasion.
Through attention.
Through curiosity.
Through making someone feel genuinely heard.

Trust is built when people feel you understand their world before asking them to step into yours.

Who is one person you need to understand better before you try to influence them?

Address

Suite 203, 2 York Street
Sydney, NSW
2000

Telephone

+61404167663

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