Star-CaT by Corina Goetz

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Star-CaT by Corina Goetz Better relationships lead to better pipelines, more revenue and more business.

Our goal, our passion, is to help companies and professionals take away their anxiety when they first start doing business in the Middle East and clear up stereotypes.

02/10/2026

The instinct to “wait and see” has cost more Western firms more Gulf opportunities than any mistake made in the room.

Deficit headlines are about to trigger it again. The ones who understand how Saudi actually invests will be having very different conversations by spring.

More in The Gulf Desk — comment ‘desk’ to subscribe

01/10/2026

We treat composure like a nice-to-have. A personality trait. Something some people are just born with.

In my work, it is the whole game.

Yesterday handed me a morning designed to rattle me before an important lecture. And I noticed something I have noticed a hundred times in the Gulf — the moment things go sideways is the moment people are reading you most closely.

Not when everything is going to plan. Anyone is impressive then.

When the car doesn’t come, the deal stalls, the timeline slips — that is when they find out who you actually are.

The Gulf rewards the ones who stay steady. Who don’t panic, don’t rush, don’t let the stress leak into the room.

It is the quietest skill in business. It is also one of the most valuable.

More on how you can build trust in the region will be delivered every Monday if you sign up to the GULF DESK - comment ‘desk’ to subscribe.

30/09/2026

So often we think what we can sell to Saudi Clients.

The ones who succeed think about what they can honour.

I did a video this week about Nujuma, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve because they have done something I wish more brands understood.

They did not land in the Kingdom and simply open for business.

They partnered with local Saudi artisans and built the culture into the product itself.

This is not a marketing tactic. It is what Saudi culture is.

Saudi does not want to be treated as an audience.

Yes brands want to capture a large, young and wealthy market.

So they lead with the brand and use the culture as decoration — a pattern here, a nod to heritage there, a campaign timed to a national day.

Saudis see through it in seconds.

Because there is a world of difference between a brand that has come to take, and one that has come to contribute.

Between borrowing a culture for a launch, and genuinely building alongside the people who own it.

The brands that last in the Gulf are rarely the ones with the biggest budgets.

They are the ones who arrived with respect, partnered properly, and earned the right to belong before they ever asked anyone to buy.

If you want to bring your brand to Saudi Arabia, do not start with your product.

Start with the culture.
It is the thing that will make or break everything that follows.

These are some of the Insights I share every Monday in The Gulf Desk.
Comment ‘desk’ to get it.

29/09/2026

Make time for all. ❤️

29/09/2026

He was one of the sharpest businessmen I have worked with. And in the middle of a deal, he waved his hand at the numbers and said the money wasn’t the point.

For years I have watched Western executives misread that completely.

They see negotiation as something to survive. Get to the number, shake hands, move on. The quicker the better.

But in the Gulf, the back and forth isn’t friction getting in the way of the relationship. It is the relationship. It is how respect is shown, how trust is tested, how two people decide whether they actually want to work together.

Rush it, and you don’t look efficient. You look like someone who didn’t want to spend time with them.

The deal was never only about the money. It rarely is.

Learn to enjoy the game, and the Gulf will enjoy doing business with you 🤍

I unpack this kind of thing every week in The Gulf Desk - comment ‘desk’ to subscribe.

28/09/2026

Think about your last Gulf meeting.

You can name the person you went to see.

Can you name everyone else who was there?

The one beside the principal. The one who asked a single question. The younger attendee who never handed you a card.

Your team has a record of who talked. Not of who was in the room.

And someone in that room was almost certainly asked afterwards what they thought of you.

Comment ‚DESK‘ to get the link.

27/09/2026

So many people ask me what is Saudi like.

Well there is no better way to experience this than Saudi National Day. 🇸🇦

🇸🇦 A Saudi ambassador on the dance floor.
🇸🇦 Saudi Tiramisu
🇸🇦 Saudi Coffee

And it is always such a privilege to be invited to the Saudi Embassy’s National Day Reception.

The warmth, the celebration, the sheer pride in the room. And yes, watching the ambassador dance with such joy in front of his guests was a highlight.

Give me that over another stiff networking evening any day.

If you want to do business in Saudi Arabia, you need to be interested in what matters to Saudis.
This very much includes their pride in their country, their heritage and where they are heading.

You cannot get excited about the commercial opportunities and then look faintly embarrassed by the enthusiasm of the people creating them.

Well, you can.
But good luck building a meaningful relationship that way.

For me, these invitations are such a highlight.

I love having the chance to celebrate with people, learn more and experience the moments you will never fully understand from a market report.

You can spend weeks polishing your pitch.
Please spend some of that time understanding the people you hope to work with.

So today I am taking you inside what the National Day means in the Middle East Sunday Pages: comment ‘Sunday’ to read the full edition

And the video gives you a little insight how incredible this reception was.

A huge thank you to HRH Prince Abdullah bin Khalid bin Sultan and his exceptional team for having me.

26/09/2026

I didn’t know who he was.

He already knew who I was.

The other day, I was in a hotel when someone recognised me.

“Are you Corina? I follow your posts on LinkedIn.”

He told me he’d been reading my content and finding it really useful.

Then I discovered what he does.

Head of Private Wealth.

And I thought: this is exactly why I keep telling people to stop treating LinkedIn like an online CV.

You have absolutely no idea who is quietly reading your content.

Not everyone likes.

Not everyone comments.

Not everyone sends you a DM.

Some people simply read.

Week after week, they start to understand what you know.

They see how you think.

They begin to associate you with a particular problem.

And then one day, you walk into a room and discover that the relationship has already started.

Before you’ve even met.

That is what good LinkedIn content can do.

It builds familiarity.

It builds authority.

And it puts you in rooms you don’t even know you’re entering yet.

If you’re trying to win business in the Gulf, this matters even more.

Because your prospective clients, partners and decision-makers can research you long before you ever sit across the table from them.

The question isn’t whether you’re on LinkedIn.

It’s what they think they know about you when they find you.

This is one of the things we’re working on in my Gulf Unlock Masterclass on 4 November: how to identify the right Gulf prospects, use LinkedIn strategically and start building visibility before you need the relationship.

Because your next opportunity may already be watching.

You just don’t know their name yet.

Comment ‚unlock‘ to join my MasterClass in November

25/09/2026

What does a young girl see when she watches a woman like Sheikha Hind walk into rooms like these?

Probably something very different from what we see.

We see an official visit.

A meeting.

A conversation about female athletes and opportunity.

She may see:
“Someone like me can be there.”

That matters.

Because empowering women and girls isn’t only about creating programmes, funding initiatives or opening doors.

Sometimes it starts much earlier.

With making a possibility visible.

And this is one of the changes across the Gulf that I think deserves far more attention.

We talk endlessly about the region’s physical transformation.

The buildings. The investment. The mega-events.

But transformation also happens when the next generation grows up with a completely different picture of what is possible for them.

A girl doesn’t need to become Sheikha Hind.

But seeing her may change what that girl believes she can become.

And that can be extraordinarily powerful.

24/09/2026

Walk into almost any luxury hotel and the product is flawless.

The bed is perfect. The lobby is beautiful. The breakfast could win awards. Someone spent a fortune getting every detail right.

And then a guest says something — a small thing, a real thing — and the team doesn’t actually hear it.

That is the gap nobody wants to talk about.

Because the product is the easy part. You can buy marble. You can buy thread count. You can buy a chef.

What you cannot buy off a shelf is a team that listens — really listens — to what a guest is telling them, often without words.

I spent years in high-end London hospitality before I ever advised anyone. The properties that stood apart were never the ones with the best product. They were the ones where the team heard what the guest hadn’t said out loud yet.

The product gets them through the door. Being heard is what makes them come back — and tell everyone.

If your team has the product but keeps missing the guest, that is fixable. It is exactly the work I do.

Follow me for the truth about service most brands are too polite to say — and if you want your team to actually listen, book a consultation with me.

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