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Full Episode Transcription

Nicole Smith 0:02
Welcome to Take Control with Nicole. As business owners, we experienced firsthand the fine line between our personal and business life. During our conversations, we will look at simple hints and tips to create time, reduce, overwhelm, and help you to navigate through your journey to where you want to be. If you’re looking for smarter ways to work, and create space and time freedom in your day, then you’re in the right place. All right, let’s go.

Hello, Hello, and thank you for joining me for this fabulous episode of Take Control with Nicole. Today, I had the amazing Sarina Lowe here with me and we are going to be talking about powerful partnerships. Whoo, that sounds good. But firstly, I would love to introduce you to Sarina. Sarina of the Androsia Connection is a partnership specialist. She knows all the tips, tricks, and essentially of business partnerships, from smoothing out first date shooters to walking away confident in knowing you’ve both got something special. How nice. Hello, Serena, thanks so much for joining me.

Sarina Lowe 1:13
Thanks so much for having me to call. I’m so excited to be on your podcast.

Nicole Smith 1:19
I am so excited to have you here. Because partnerships is one of those things that we know that they’re out there, we know that it’s a thing, but being able to actually understand all the bits and pieces and what it actually means is going to be so exciting.

Sarina Lowe 1:34
Yeah, that’s what I love. I love the detail.

Nicole Smith 1:37
Yay Right! I want you to I’d love you to share about you with the community who you are where you’re from what your business what makes you smile.

Sarina Lowe 1:47
Perfect. So I am based in Melbourne, I grew up in Byron Bay, so that has a little bit of a colourful teenage years, which kind of gives me a bit of my personality, which I love. After Yeah, growing up in Byron, Northern New South Wales, I moved up to Brizzy straight after straight out of high school to go and do a double degree at the University of Queensland. So I studied two business degrees and majoring in advertising, marketing, public relations and events management. There’s a mouthful for you. But I always loved the idea of being an event management. And actually, when I was a teenager, I always wanted to work in the AFL. That was sort of my dream and why I went to uni, but I also love marketing and advertising. So I wanted to chalk that up with that background. When I finished university, I was planning to move to Melbourne, but wanted to go to Europe on a holiday gap year as we always do or get three months. And that three months ended up turning into six years living in London. And it was fantastic. I mean, Nicole, you and I spoken about how much we loved living in London. And it really was such a fun time in my 20s. And that’s where I started my career. So I started working with small businesses and startups in the client services area. I was in digital advertising and advertising technology for the time that I was over there. And really started learning and understanding, I suppose the detail behind businesses and how they worked. I worked through a few mergers and acquisitions, and in the startup world around that, you know, sourcing funding and that sort of stuff. So when I came back to Australia, I actually wanted to shift out of advertising technology, because that wasn’t my passion. And I want to move more into the creative marketing services. And of course, going back to my teenage dream of wanting to work in AFL, I set myself that goal. And when I came back to Australia, I was quite fortunate in having some really great networks that I connected with straightaway, that worked in the football landscape. And I just started learning as much as I could about working in football. And I learned quite quickly that I wanted to work in the commercial partnership space. So that’s in sponsorship essentially. And then I suppose the right place, right time and right skill set. Hopefully, I managed to get a role at Carlton football club in their commercial partnerships team and I worked there for three years and I absolutely loved it. It was you know, full on work working in footy working weekends working late nights, but so much fun and so creative and so interesting working with the array of partnerships that they have. When I finished at Carlton, I started my first business which was in social media management. And I did that for about 18 months and really enjoyed it but then an opportunity came out at RMIT University. And I worked there for a little while just pre COVID and absolutely loved it. I really liked working in the education space. So I worked as their sponsorship manager there and really worked on the sponsorship strategy and the partnerships that they have had, I suppose going deeper to make them really relate back to the objectives of the business and really make them work for the business. And then I finished up at RMIT. And I started this business, which is focused on partnerships and bringing partnerships to businesses of all sizes. And then currently, or Well, I’ve just taken on a contract at ESET, and Football Club, which I’m about to finish up. And that’s in the partnerships team as well. So I’ve been working with their amazing partnerships or their amazing sponsorships, too, and bringing them to life and really just finding out what the objectives what the reasons that they partner with acid and are, and making sure that they meet those objectives, essentially. So yeah, now I find myself in my business full time, and I’m loving it.

Nicole Smith 5:48
Yay. I love that. And just popping back to the London thing. We actually worked out that we were there at the same time hanging out in the same places. Just didn’t realise that you’re probably standing right next to me with a cocktail in a bar. Crazy. How wonderful now, though, that we have connected and connection, I think, and those relationships and those networks that you form is such a big part of partnerships, isn’t it?

Sarina Lowe 6:22
Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And if you don’t think that’s what partnerships is, it’s about creating a network. It’s about creating a business spreadsheet, but at the end of the day, and really working together on those shared values, those shared objectives. And I think one of the great things about partnerships is finding things that you have in common. But yes, it is funny that when we found out that we were hanging out in some places like working in the same area of London, I mean, London is huge, like, how does that happen? But I love it. I think they’re the fun stories that help us connect with people and create those sorts of relationships as well.

Nicole Smith 7:02
That’s exactly right. And I love I love it when that we find those common denominators. So cool. So good. So good. So tell me, tell me all the things, the what the how the why, like, why should we consider partnerships as part of our business, you know, strategy, like, tell me all the things?

Sarina Lowe 7:21
Yeah, so I think I’m one of the places that I really like to start with partnerships is just that language around partnerships versus sponsorships. And because there’s lots of different areas of partnerships, right, lots of different business partnerships that you can talk about. When I referenced partnerships, I personally don’t love the term sponsorship, because I think that sponsorship has a connotation around it of being just like an exchange of money, and I’m taking your money and giving you you know, this service in return for your money, whereas partnership really takes it to the next level. And it takes it to a next level of being that relationship and working on it together and building it together. So the way I look at it is paid partnerships versus unpaid partnerships when we’re talking in that marketing partnership language. And we could talk about client partnerships and business partnerships. But if we go down that rabbit hole today, in a call, we’ll be talking for hours.

Nicole Smith 8:22
And we’ve given ourselves a time limit for both Sarita and I, when we get on calls, it’s hours and hours of conversation of going off talking of everything so yeah,

Sarina Lowe 8:36
gonna cap on point. Exactly. So I’m gonna stick to the marketing part. Um, so yeah, you have you paid versus unpaid and you paid is really it is a sponsorship, or what we traditionally know as a sponsorship, where there’s money exchange in return for what we call assets. And they’re essentially like a list of things that you have access to. And then you’ve got your unpaid partnerships, which are more like your collaborations or you’re working on a shared project together for for a shared outcome, essentially. So just clearing that up. No, I forgot what the next question was. Why should we be so yeah, so the why of partnerships is it really allows you to put your business in front of a new audience and connect with another business for shared values and outcomes. So I think one of the really interesting things with the wire around partnerships is really understanding what your business values are and what the business values of the other partnership are. So that you’re not just partnering with anyone but you’re partnering with organisations that actually can help you bring those values out. I think the other thing that is really important is that partnerships are part of your marketing strategy essentially at the end of the day, and they are just another channel they are just like your social media. They are another way of you actually getting that message out to a wider audience and being able to talk to more people about it. So yeah, that is also why

Nicole Smith 10:11
Absolutely makes sense. You know, I had the opportunity. Gosh, it must be about six months ago that I was approached by gig super to come and become one of their partners. And that was kind of the first introduction to this world. And I love it because I am I am such a supportive person, and really an advocate for things that and people and businesses that I really believe it. And you know, it’s just makes that takes that next level, doesn’t that Yeah, solidify that in a little bit. So, yeah, that for me, it was it was a little bit of a surprise. I was like, ah, I can you show me Yeah, you’re amazing.

Sarina Lowe 10:57
That’s the thing, right. And that partnership that you have with geek super allows you to show yourself to a whole heap of new, a whole new audience that you otherwise may not have access to. It’s the same I mean, it’s like me coming on your podcast, it gives me an opportunity to be seen by your audience, it gives you an opportunity to be seen by my audience in a way, that’s a smaller version of an unpaid partnership, really. And I think that that’s it’s about finding that common ground and finding the right partnerships for you or for your business. So that is actually aligned with your strategy. And that’s really important as well.

Nicole Smith 11:35
So do you think that it really does start with the business strategy?

Sarina Lowe 11:41
Oh absolutely! And I mean, Nicole, being honest with you, I think one of the biggest challenges, not challenges. And maybe challenges that I’ve seen in the partnership space, and particularly in the sponsorship world, the paid partnership space, is that a lot of the time businesses partner with another business because they’ve got a you know, they know someone that’s involved in that business, or particularly in the football world, they love the football club, or they love whatever that organisation is, you know, be at NGV, be it, any sort of business, they partner with it, because they have a connection with the business. And a lot of the time, they don’t actually look at the strategy of the why why are they partnering together? What’s your business strategy. And the thing that is really important there is that partnerships tie into not just your marketing strategy, but your overall business strategy. And they give you the opportunity to really bring to life what your business strategy is, and what your core business values are. Because there’s so many interesting ways that you can partner to tell more about that. And something we were talking about just before we jumped on the podcast is one of the partnerships I work on with Arsenal Football Club is the exit and close partnership. And, you know, one of their strategies is they’re very involved in the indigenous space within Australia and Essendon football club happen to have a fantastic indigenous program and are affiliated with the long walk. So Coles supermarket partners Essendon Football Club to amplify that message more. And you know, that is that’s an unexpected partnership, but it’s because Coles know what their strategy is when they came to partner with Essendon. And they know why they’re partnering with Essendon. And and they know what they want to get out of it. To coming back to your question, because I always go all over the place. Yeah, exactly. That’s what I love about our conversation.

Nicole Smith 13:47
We go over there, and we’re like, oh, it’s gonna chat over here from up. We’re coming back below always.

Sarina Lowe 13:52
Yeah, cool. Yeah, exactly. So the first thing I say to my clients is, what is your business strategy? And what are your business values? And why are you looking at getting into partnerships? What do you want to do in the partnership space? And really, what story do you want to tell? Because that’s the other beautiful thing is about thing about partnerships as they allow you to tell a story if you do them in the right way.

Nicole Smith 14:16
Yeah, I love that. And that’s really key. I’d suggest, you know, when you’re thinking about that as a possible opportunity, and starting that hunt, like how do we actually go out and find the right people? Or is it that most of the time, they’re actually right in front of us? And maybe we hadn’t thought about it as an opportunity before?

Sarina Lowe 14:36
Yeah, I think and that’s one of the biggest questions I get asked is how do I even start in partnership? Like, where do I go with this? And I think it’s just about having a conversation. I mean, circling back to the strategy is definitely about understanding your strategy and your values and doing the brainstorming around who you want to partner with what businesses you want to partner with, really understanding their audience and why you want to partner with them, to promote yourself to their audience, but also to promote that partnership to your audience. And so it’s really important to do that work at the beginning, because otherwise, you are going to end up with a whole heap of partnerships that you kind of have to do that work. On the flip side, that makes it so a lot of the work that I do is like, Okay, this partnership is here. What are we going to do with it now? Cool, how does it tie back in with the strategy? And don’t get me wrong? It’s totally doable. The beauty of partnerships and businesses is there’s always a way of finding that connection if you just genuinely want to partner with that person or that business. But I think really, yeah, thinking about that, that brainstorming around, who do you want to partnership partner with who would be your ideal, so the audience’s that you want to talk to, and then looking at businesses that are in that space that can help you talk to that audience. And then like the how how do we get started is essentially just having a conversation and creating a business friendship. And I think it’s such a great analogy, because it’s, you know, I heard someone talking about partnerships, and that’s always stuck with me, but it’s kind of like a marriage, like you don’t want to, you don’t want to, you don’t want to go all in and marry them on the first date, you actually want to go along and create a relationship first. And I think that that is that has really stuck with me, that’s a really powerful way of saying it. And it is just about reaching out and having a conversation and talking about it. And then I think what comes after that, that’s really important to touch on is it’s about knowing what you have to offer, and what you want to get out of the partnership. So I suppose there’s two sides. And I might be kind of going away from the question a little bit here. But you know, you could be looking for partners to bring money or, or, you know, more people into your business, or you could be looking to partner with businesses, so to give them money. And I think it’s really about understanding what you have to offer. So if you’re either giving them money, or if you’re doing it as an unpaid partnership, what do you have that you can bring to the table that you can bring to the partnership and knowing what the value is so that when you have that conversation, you can exchange at the right level, you know, that so that the right, you know, assets exchange to each other? Or the right money is exchanged for one or the other

Nicole Smith 17:38
exchange? Isn’t it that Yeah, exactly. Matching? And I yeah, and you know, when you’re starting your business, you kind of know, you know what you’re good at? But yeah, I don’t always really believe that it’s that valuable that someone else would see valuable. Like, I get shocked and surprised quite often when people say things are like, Oh, that’s fine. You know, like, but it’s about stepping in, isn’t it? And go Yeah, I know that this is really valuable when I know that I can bring this to the table. And I know that you offer this and I know my audience really benefit from this. And I know your audience is really going to benefit from this. So let’s work together and and create wonderful, fabulous things in the world.

Sarina Lowe 18:25
Yeah. And that’s it. And that’s what it becomes is that once you’ve had those initial conversations, and you have that chat of, I see a synergy here. I would love to partner with your business, it’s about finding, okay, well, how are we going to do it? And are we both happy with that? And the other thing is always, you know, depending if it’s money exchange, always having contracts in place is another thing that I would really strongly suggest. And even if it’s just an asset exchange, I think it’s important so that you know, and, you know, Nicole, you and I have spoken about this before, so that you know what you’re getting out of that partnership. So you know what you’ve agreed to, and that’s really important as well.

Nicole Smith 19:06
Something that I’m early on it kind of I had never really thought as a service service based business that you could go in to partnerships, I always kind of thought like it was you know, product based businesses doing alignment, you know, joint venture do that. Whereas it’s really in the last year is opened my eyes up to the possibilities that are out there.

Sarina Lowe 19:29
Oh, absolutely. And it’s because it’s telling more about what your business is, what your business values are. And there’s so much that you have to offer, you know, especially for someone like you and a lot of other small business owners. If you’ve got a podcast you’ve got that if you’ve got a great social media audience, you’ve got that at the end of the day. If you’re a service based business, you are a specialist in your area, you are a thought leader in your area and that is value to other business valuable to other businesses. And it’s really important. I think the whole world of partnerships really asks you to be quite clear on what value you can provide. And, and bringing that to the table essentially. Yeah.

Nicole Smith 20:15
It is really like looking in and owning, isn’t it? Yeah, just. Yeah, absolutely. So you alluded just before and you’re talking about, you know, the coal, their sudden partnership, that it was an unexpected partnership. I thought that’s quite interesting. language, Kathy with. Yeah, love. Um, so how do you see like those had those unexpected things? Like, how do they eventuate? Is it again, it’s probably just coming back to strategy.

Sarina Lowe 20:49
You may say it over and over again. It goes back to the strategy, it comes back to the objectives. But I think for me, there is such a power in unexpected partnerships, because people quite often in the work that I do. People ask me, Why are you like, Why are these two businesses partnering together? And it is really about telling that untold story. So when I tell people that coles are the biggest employer of indigenous people within Australia, I usually get a very shocked look. And they’re like, I had no idea of that. And it’s like, Yeah, well, my job as part of their partnership with Essendon is to bring that to life a lot more is to align them in that space, because that is something that is really important to their business. And because of coming back to the power of unexpected partnerships, it makes us listen more like it makes us sit up and go, what what’s going on there? I want to know more about that. And it then loops in with I think, and maybe something we haven’t touched on yesterday is really important. That is how you actually tell the story of the partnership. So how you actually amplify that, and get it out there. And it would be very easy for stakeholders to sit behind the scenes, but my role is to work with the football club to find the ways that Coles can partner and amplify that message amplify that storytelling across both the Essendon channels, and the Coles channels and get more people or show that to more people in both of our audiences. So people can sit up and go, Wow, what’s going on over there? You know, we have another story, don’t we? Exactly. Yeah.

Nicole Smith 22:39
I think, you know, as I’ve learned more and more about marketing, and and all of that, it’s that storytelling element has become really clear as it’s the best way. Isn’t it really?

Sarina Lowe 22:51
Absolutely, absolutely. And it’s just really incredible how you can tell a story. You know, like, I think I’ve had a lot of experience of that recently went over my career, but particularly recently with trying to, you know, I think it would be so easy. And I keep referencing back to the so called partnership and so many examples of unexpected partnerships. But you know, to keep on that track, is, it would be very easy to do all of this behind the scenes, it would be very easy. You know, I was at Coles just the other day. And we did what we call a little long walk to finish off naidoc week, and that is part of the long walk organisation. But it’s through the partnership with Essendon. And the long walk is an a not for profit organisation that’s raising money for indigenous rights within Australia, essentially. And it would be very easy to not tell anyone about the long walk and to just leave it and we did that for the staff. But then the level up is when we actually go and we take the photos, and we take the videos, and we do the creation and we do the storytelling, and then we amplify it everywhere that we can. And it works back in as it works back into that employer branding space as well. So it gives people that work as Coles or people that work at Essendon. And all along walk an opportunity to see that, wow, this is really cool, what’s going on with that partnership. And I’m really proud to be involved and to be working for this organisation. But it also gives all the audiences a chance to go, what’s going on over there. But if we don’t tell the story, if we don’t amplify that only the people that are at the event are going to see it or only the people that are involved are going to see it you know, that’s when I get really excited about partnerships. So I start talking storytelling and marketing.

Nicole Smith 24:43
I think it’s just it’s amazing though, isn’t it? Because it’s the same with you know, our business marketing. When we do fabulous things and we hide them away. No one’s gonna know about no obviously makes sense but like you Be proud of Yeah, you achieve in your business like any step forward any step anywhere is such a thing to be celebrated in the business space, like you have just achieved something big, small, if you’ve had a learning whatever it is, like celebrate that you’ve made that step.

Sarina Lowe 25:19
Yeah, absolutely. Exactly. And that’s something I think, Nicole, you and I do quite well, and we really celebrate our wins. And we tell it to our business network, right. And it’s so important to, I know, I’ve gone through periods where I don’t focus on my wins so much, and it’s just go go go, so much to do. But when I do come back and celebrate the wins, and when you share that with other people, it makes such a huge difference to how you feel in your day to day life. And in your business life, you know, and then people know what you’re doing as well, like Otherwise, how are they going to work with you if they don’t know what you’re doing?

Nicole Smith 25:56
And you don’t realise who’s watching you either. Bit stalkerish social media you don’t know who is watching, but you don’t see them always liking or commenting or liking your views in your Insta stories that Yeah, might keep an eye on every day.

Sarina Lowe 26:18
And that all comes back to that storytelling in marketing at the end of the day is people want to know part of your story. You know, it’s the same in the partnerships. Well, there’s so many people watching the amount of people that have come up to me within knowing that I work on the Essendon cause partnership. And it’s not just the indigenous space, they’re also in the women’s space. That’s part of the reason they partner with Essendon. The amount of people that have come up to me and going, Oh, my gosh, I feel so much better about shopping at Coels now. Because they’ve partnered with this, this, this and this. And it’s like, Yeah, I know, because that’s part of their value is you know, I mean, it does have that effect on people right at the end of the day. And I think that that’s really important about storytelling allows you to connect, you know, it’s the same. How long did we know each other before we knew that we’ve been hanging out in the same places in London, and we started telling those stories. And we’re like, oh, my God, we need to do more business together.

Nicole Smith 27:12
Exactly, exactly. And it’s just such an instant. Ah, yeah, cool. I get it. Like, you’re my person. Yeah. Like, yeah, yeah, I’m doing the things I want to do.

Sarina Lowe 27:23
Yeah. And that’s, I think, a really important thing to bring back to partnerships as well. And I don’t think I touched on this earlier, but really be making sure that you have a good relationship with the business and the people that you’re partnering with, because the people are such a huge part of it. And they are your biggest advocates within the organization’s so you need to have a great relationship with them in order to create an amazing partnership. And that’s really important, you know, having that connection.

Nicole Smith 27:56
Yeah, everything comes back to it, doesn’t it? It does absolutely. See my business. Absolutely, you know, be a good human genuinely connect people and with people. It’s just such a wonderful experience. So hey, they’re just interrupting this episode to let you know all about our exciting new membership. The doors to the take control with Nicole members lounge and now open, and we are ready to welcome you to take your share as one of our fabulous foundation members. The members lounge provides a safe space to learn and implement productivity and organisational techniques for creative small business owners. We offer a unique approach to breathe is in your everyday by customising strong foundations that save time, money and sanity. how fabulous when you are able to confidently stride down ag street? Would you walk through door A or B? pop over to https/academy.theartisans.com.au/members-lounge to join us in the members lounge. I look forward to welcoming you very soon. See you later. Bye. I just want to end off with thinking a little bit outside of the box. I know that this is your your space. You love this. Yeah. So how do you how do you think outside the box in the partnership space? like where do I start imagining that?

Sarina Lowe 29:34
Yeah. So one of the things I always do with my clients when I first start working with them, and when I’m working on their partnerships is do that sort of workshop session around thinking outside the box. And I mean, it’s interesting, looking at that language, but it’s really about creative thinking. And it’s really about it kind of comes back to what I was talking about before and how do we do partnerships and that creative thinking is putting it everything down in a brainstorming storm. And Nicole, you know, I love mind maps. So you can imagine, there’s a whiteboard, there’s like I was doing a workshop a little while ago, and they had whiteboard walls, and I got so excited, it was amazing I was. And you can imagine I got up there with the whiteboard marker. And I did this big mind map, and I just was loving it. But anyway, back to the creative thinking, what we do in that session, and this is what I do with all of my clients when we’re first starting in that planning, and Okay, so looking at not forget about the partnership, per se, but let’s look back to the business. Let’s look back to the business strategy. What are all the things that are important to the business? What are all the values of the business? And then how can we really creatively think about some interesting things that we can do? And we can amplify? And if you’ve already got the partnership, so a lot of what I work on, is when the partnership is already established? So I’m sort of post sales services, the partnerships already established. So looking at Okay, well, what are the key objectives of your business in the next 12 months? And what can we do that’s really created? What do we have access to as the partner, like as the, I suppose, when we’re talking sponsorship as the rights holder, so to speak, which is what they term the person, the organisation getting the money? It’s like, what do we have within our channels that can help the client, the person who’s giving the money to really get creative with what they’re doing? And I think, you know, some of those things are like, a lot of the partners I work with, I talk to them about, well, what if they are, you know, they don’t necessarily think about the partnership is being another arm of their marketing. And I think, you know, when we’re talking pure marketing, pure advertising, they’ve got all these advertising campaigns in market, but they’re not thinking outside the box or thinking creatively about how they can use the channels that the partner has. So I’m talking, you know, using Essendon as example, how they can use the channels that Essendon have to really amplify that message to the database, you know, and then they do that I work with them to do that they amplify the message, and all of a sudden, their return on investment goes up so much, because they’re actually creatively thinking about it, and going, oh, wow, this is just another marketing channel that I can use. And I think the other thing about thinking outside the box, and I had so much fun doing a workshop recently with an organisation that have lots of partnerships, and they’re really working on Okay, well, what is our partnership strategy? And how does this tie in with everything we’re doing for business? And I just started asking them the questions of what do you value in your business? And what’s really important? What charities are you aligned with? And are you telling anything to your audience about those charities? And quite often, the answer is no, oh, we just do this, this, this and this. And it’s like, well, hang on a minute. Like, why are you not amplifying that? Why are you not using your partner channels to talk about that, or, if you’re rejigging your strategy? Why are you not going out? going? Okay, I have a strategy, I have a real focus on, you know, one of my partners has an affiliation with Ronald McDonald House. Okay, so how can we amplify that? How do we get that message out there? How can we use what you have access to as part of your partnership, to really create an incredible experience for these people? And then tell that story to an audience?

Nicole Smith 33:38
You know, they’re the good, the good news stories, right? I feel like, Yeah, all of my corporate land space, I was always on the charity committee. Yeah, I suppose. And Ronald McDonald House was actually my charity, when I managed that, you know, I helped with that. And, and it was as an employee at that working for that business having that opportunity to actually be actually involved. Yeah, but I remember those days, so so well, yeah, it was such an opportunity that, you know, a company I worked for, allow this staff time to accept and support an area that they wanted to. And that is such a powerful thing. Yeah.

Sarina Lowe 34:21
Huge. Yeah. And that’s a perfect example of a business partnership, a charity partnership, that wouldn’t be an exchange of money, per se, like it’s not a sponsorship, but it’s a business partnership. So it’s a value exchange. And you know, what that does for you and you can hear it in your voice is it ties back into employer branding, right, like it ties back into part of the reason you love working for that organisation? So one of my partners that I work with amart furniture, I talked to them at the start of the year and there they have the same thing. They have partnership with Ronald McDonald House. They do it because from an employer branding point of view, it’s amazing but also So just because they love it because they love the charity, and they’ve got I think they’re they’ve got sort of personal affiliations with it. And, you know, they just love it, essentially. And, and so I said to the wall, why are we not doing something there? Why are we not doing like your partner with Essendon Football Club, like, there’s incredible things that you could do here, think about the amazing experience that you could create for, for children or for families that are there. So we did, we created an incredible match week experience. And we had two families that came in, we had players go out to run on mcdonald house, they got to visit them, the families came into the football club, and then the families came along to the game, they got to toss the coin and before the game, and then they got to have an incredible game day experience sitting in a corporate box, and they got to meet some past players. And then we filmed it all. And we amplified that across the channels. And you know what the reaction internally for them for their employees, they just loved it, it made them so proud to work at that organisation. And then what that does amongst Essendon’s, you know, Essendon’s audience is that it creates that brand affinity, it creates that grand affiliation. And people go Oh, actually, that friends doing something cool like that brands doing something really good. And I’m more inclined to work with them or to shop with them, because they’re doing amazing things. And they’re like, yeah they care, that’s exactly it. And look, at the end of the day, like I don’t want people listening to the podcast to think that they’re just doing it for marketing, because that’s not it at all. They’re not doing it. The intention at the end of the day, is not for marketing purpose. But what I come along and do is go well, let’s tell your story. Let’s give that experience, give that amazing experience to more people and tell more about what you’re doing. because like you said, Nicole, you’re doing all these amazing things behind the scenes. That’s part of your value. That’s why your business value that makes you who you are, it makes your business who it is. And yeah, storytell, tell people about it. I love it.

Nicole Smith 37:12
Do you know what you do, which you probably know that walking about just before we hit go on the poddy, about when you’re in your business, sometimes you can’t see the things that are right in front of your face, you need someone to come? And I’ve had it actually second time I had this conversation today. You need someone to come and just go, Hey, have a look at this right here? Or have you got this this way? Or let’s look at things in a different light. Yeah, all of a sudden, all these things start to pop up and your brain starts to work in a different way. You know, I’m starting to go through this now with I spoke about Chloe coming on as my OBM and my brain do these crazy. It’s always been there. Yeah. It’s like opening up the world, the new possibilities and all the things and it’s just so good.

Sarina Lowe 38:06
It’s so good. And that’s it’s really I’ve actually said we’re chatting about it before. And it’s really funny because I think we’re so in our business. We’re so in our world all the time. And until you have someone external come in and show you just go Oh, why are you not doing that? Or did you think about doing that? Or you could do this? And that’s the creative thinking, right? That’s the thinking outside the box. And I think it’s really powerful to do that. One of my friends actually former client, now very good friend, is she use an analogy, analogy metaphor, Kathy would correct me on that. She said, you know, you’ve got everyone’s swimming laps to the pool. And then we swim across the pool. And I was like, that’s really great. I love it. Right? Like it gives you a visual of you have someone that comes in that can swim across the pool. And that can make you see more of what you can do that might be in the next lane, you know, and that is that creative thinking side of things. And I love it. I just love it. I get Yeah, that’s what makes that

Nicole Smith 39:13
That’s a perfect thing to conclude the conversation really like that is amazing that he’s such. Yep. So swim across the pool. Yeah, there you go. That’s amazing. Oh, sorry, much. Oh, before we wrap up, you know what’s happening now? Put out three special questions that I asked everybody who comes to join me. Are you ready? Yes.

Sarina Lowe 39:37
I’ve been practising. Every time I listened to your podcast, what would I answer today? I love that change every time it changes. Oh, answer that.

Nicole Smith 39:52
Okay, you ready? Yes. What is your go to app that creates ease in your day?

Sarina Lowe 39:58
Oh my gosh, in Nicole like You know, the answer is click up. I love it. And you introduced me to it. And I’m only using right now about 5% of how good it is. And so excited to be in your members lounge to learn how to use 100% of how good it is. But I love it. I just think it’s something I you know, I reached out to you, what, 12 months ago and I said, Oh, I don’t know what to use. I didn’t really like the layout of Trello I really wanted something that was a list that could be put into a calendar or a Gantt chart, because I like visual. I’m very visual. I like seeing things in different ways. And you introduced me to click up and that’s it. I just I love it. It is prior to that it was probably like the office suite or something like that. And don’t get me wrong. I still love Excel. But now my click up fan girl so you know, Excel is pretty powerful.

I do love it.

Nicole Smith 40:53
It’s not a click up. So yes, click Make a little sticker on Instagram. Like click up the calls. Click Yes. I love it like Louis for something. I love that. Okay, are you and I think Are you an online or paper to do list?

Sarina Lowe 41:12
Okay, so I am both. And this is the one that changes every time you ask this question. I’m like, What am I today? I love online. And I particularly you know, I really love using click up for all of my to do lists, I actually really love using OneNote to take all of my notes. Yeah, so good. And I really love that. And I use my emails probably way too much, but I love it. And that’s how I organise myself. But I do love the online because you can take it anywhere with you. And when I’ve got time, and I’m really organised, I have everything online. But when I’m in those busy periods, and there’s a lot going on, I am very much a paper person. And I think I still really love the visual of the paper. I love writing it down, I find it a little bit quicker. When I’m online, I like to play around with it a lot more. So I just love the speed of writing it down and just crossing it off. But if it’s not on the list that doesn’t get done. Danger

Nicole Smith 42:12
It’s not on the list. It’s not in the diary. It’s not in the calendar. That simplicity of a paper list with it literally like write it down ticket across it. What is it kinesthetic? Kind of Yeah. Yeah, the feel of it? Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. No, I love that. Yeah. So what would you do if you created more space in your world? Oh, I haven’t practised this question. That’s okay, it’s on the fly.

Sarina Lowe 42:43
What would I do if I created more space in my world? I think it would be honest, I just love connecting people’s with people. So I would continue to connect with more of the right people making more space to have more time more, you know, coffees or lunches or zoom conversations, I think that that is what you know, I’m finishing up my contract at Essendon and then I’m going back into my business full time. And that’s what I’m most excited about is being able to connect with people and, and create those networks. And that’s what space and time means for me, whether it’s in the business world or my personal life. Yeah, that’s what, maybe go on more holidays as well.

Nicole Smith 43:28
That sounds like when the borders allow us to. Exactly. We’ll be fine. We’ll be fine. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. That was a fabulous conversation. I it is, you know, we did call this powerful partnerships. It’s so so key. If that is something that is in alignment with your business strategy and your objectives. Having that out the box thinking, as you say, is just going to be so it’s so powerful. I see it firsthand, but also see it over the place. So everyone listening, you really need Sarina or in your world, like she genuinely is a connector. She just loves the people that she connects with. And honestly, it’s just, you know, creating that shared moment between the heart of a business and your people is something that I think he needed that little bit of support with sometimes just being able to highlight those things that are just outside your visual range. She sees them brings them into vision and makes it happen. Yay!

Sarina Lowe 44:43
Oh, thank you so much for having me on your podcast, Nicole. I’ve loved this conversation. So good to always love chatting. Of course.

Nicole Smith 44:53
Yeah. Now tell us where can we where can we find you?

Sarina Lowe 44:57
So yeah, I’m on all the socials. That link In Facebook and Instagram, mostly hanging out on Instagram at theandrosiaconnection. So that is ANDROSIA and or you can just look up my name Sarina Lowe, and you’ll find me on there.

Nicole Smith 45:14
Fabulous. And as always, all the things will be in the show notes. So pop on over there and go and say hello to Serena, because you will not regret it. Do that. Awesome. Well, thank you so much again, for joining me. Thank you so much, Nicole, and I’ll be seeing you at chat soon. Cheers in a few minutes anyway. Oh, my gosh, half an hour. Gotta go get ready. Well, everybody, thank you so much for joining us this week. Have a fabulous rest of your day and enjoy creating space and time freedom by now. Well, there we go. Thank you so much for joining me today. It’s been such a pleasure having you on board. Have we connected on social shares? If not, please come on over. Say hi, I’m on all the platforms at the artisan solutions. So I’d really look forward to seeing you over there. And if you enjoyed today’s episode, don’t forget to tag me and I would love it if you could leave review. And of course share this with others so others can come and join us next time. All right, then everyone have a fabulous rest of the week and until next time. See you then