What keeps you motivated?

Many things keep me motivated – trends and fashions come and go so quickly and I love the thrill and excitement of fashion so this always keeps my mind active and motivates me more and more, I am addicted to Fashion.

What is your favourite way to unwind?

I love to unwind by hitting the gym and then having a sauna to relax after and I love having coffee and catch ups with my friends.

How do people find you?

People can find my blog or follow me via Westfield Garden City Facebook page and the Westfield website (Garden City – Fashion Blogs) or Candice Lee Styling

What have been your biggest challenges?

The biggest challenge so far was the Westfield Garden City, Stylist’s Apprentice competition. Being behind the camera was really hard for me at first because it’s something I have never done before and speaking in front of lots of people is also very hard for me but I am slowly learning to deal with my nerves.

What is your favourite brand?

I love lots of different labels but my favourite would have to be sass and bide and Wildfox Coture both very unique and high quality. I also love the stories behind the designers (Sass and Bide- Heidi Middleton & Sarah Jane Clark) (Wildfox Couture- Emily Faulstitch & Kimberly Gordon) on how they got to where they are now.

What is your biggest marketing success?

My biggest marketing success so far would have to be winning the Stylist’s Apprentice for Westfield and an internship with STYLE magazine. I started with Style magazine recently and helped on a photo shoot in Brisbane city which is very exciting, I have been at Westfield for over a month and I love every aspect. I love VM days (visual merchandising), working with Sara (the head stylist and her Style Team), pulling looks for various photo shoots and parades etc and I also love working with the marketing and events side of Westfield. My first official day I worked with the one and only GOK Wan, where he preformed five LIVE makeovers on stage and it was amazing to meet and work with him. I also worked with the events team where we had Johnny Ruffo perform his latest single live on stage and also had a brief interview with Johnny about his style and what was next for him. So I have been very busy!!

What do you know now that you wish you had knew when you were starting out?

There is nothing I would say I wish I could change or knew or have done better since entering the fashion world! Everything happens for a reason and I believe you learn the most from not being perfect. I am currently in the last six months of my studies which has been the best fun, my teachers have been amazing.

What is your proudest achievement so far?

My proudest achievement so far is the above – joining the Westfield Garden City Team and STYLE magazine.

The first package, which we are giving a month away for FREE on Facebook (enter HERE) is the Marketing Mentor package. This package is like the base level of what we can do for you – it is a great thing for small businesses who just want some guidance, ideas or just a bit of freshening up when it comes to your marketing.

After releasing the packages we have started working with Lavish Floral Design (winner of People’s Choice and Retail Award at the Lismore Business Awards this year – congrats Jessica!). Our first meeting with the business was to define the following:

• What are the goals and objectives of the business – short and long term?
• What do you want to learn from us?
• What do you have time to do?

We set a couple of goals in the first meeting and will nut out how to get to them in the second week as well as put measurement parameters in place so that we can work with Jess to monitor and track how things are going and tweak as needed.

If you are small business and there are many things you want to do (and you have many talents) a Marketing Mentor package is a great way to clarify your goals, let us guide you to reach them and of course, learn how to keep marketing your business once the package is done. If by then you’ve grown enough, you might want to look into our fabulous PR Mentoring package, Social Media package or the Marketing Manager package!

Head to the contact us page to request a PDF version of the packages booklet or you can see them all HERE.

Mel and Katie x

There is a national newsletter called the Volunteer Voice that goes out to Cancer Council offices Australia wide, and Cake Marketing and The Chubby Fashionista got featured for the Relay For Life photo shoot we did earlier this year!

Thanks once again to everyone who was involved – it was an amazing couple of days of shooting and a lot of fun to promote the cause in a different way.

Picture featured was taken by our very own Mel Carrero (aka The Chubby Fashionista) of Emily Patch in the Relay colours.

Mel talks about her brand love for one of Lismore’s biggest events, the Lismore Lantern Parade (on this Saturday night).

LOGO: Reminds me of the lanterns immediately. The orange and yellow tones are exactly the tones that the lanterns create on that magical evening! Logo created by Dogwhistle Creative. 

How we met: I have to admit something… last year was my first Lantern Parade! How sad! I was always away or doing something when it was on. But I can tell you this: When I did go I was just as excited as the children I was watching it with!

Why we are still together: I think this is THE event of Lismore. We’re already cool, and everyone who lives in Lismore knows that, but some others might not. The Lantern Parade should also be known as: the outsiders introduction to Lismore’s coolness.

Favourite memory…

Last year, I turned up later than the billions of people and I parked in a spot that I thought was a spot.. turns out it was gate. The police called and I had to run from the park to my car and move it! Tragedy! But that was after I got to see all of the pretty lanterns.

Why do I love them overall?

The spirit that is on the streets during the Lantern Parade is unlike anything else I have ever seen. There’s a great, happy vibe, there’s lots of people around (over 20,000 people), it kind of feels like Christmas.

See you all this Saturday night!

The Stella Network presents Jodie Fox - Shoes of Prey/Sneaking Duck

The two events we have worked on are The Stella Network presents Jodie Fox of Shoes of Prey and Sneaking Duck and Mother’s Day in the Heart of Lismore – add to this the day to day paperwork, overflowing inbox of emails, and a phone that seems to never stop ringing…yes, major catch ups and no signs of it letting up anytime soon! Phew.

And while our heads are still spinning and we are also in post-event evaluation mode. This stage of the event management is crucial, especially if you are managing an event for the first time as often it isn’t until you put all your planning into practice that you learn the most, and hindsight is a wonderful thing!

Ultimately you are looking to determine if the event was a success, but what does a successful event mean to you? Be conscious that you can have a highly successful event in terms of attendance and PR exposure, which behind the scenes encountered significant IT issues that resulted in the budget being blown.

In an instance such as this your post-event evaluation is vital to determine how this risk (to the event and your bottom-line) could have been mitigated.

When assessing the level of success of an event I suggest breaking down your event into key areas of responsibility and under each of these jot down a myriad of subcategories that relate and rate them on a scale of 1-10 for the level of effectiveness/success:

Stakeholders : Sponsors | Guest speaker/s | Attendees | Suppliers

Venue: Transport | Entrance | Signage | Lighting | Sound | Amenities | Security | Weather | Décor

Logistics: Transport | Timing/Runsheet

Technology: IT | Sound | Lighting

Marketing: Marketing channels used | PR | Return on investment

Staffing: Review each role | Are there additional roles required

Finally, you may need to collect further data than what you have on hand which may require interviews or surveys with a sample of your guests or other stakeholders. I suggest you do this quite soon after the event so their minds are fresh about their experience. I find Survey Monkey (a free online survey tool) to be quite good in case you are looking for something to help you manage your data.

Best of luck with your next event, I have to head off and finalise our post-event surveys and schedule the debrief with the teams. I’ll keep you posted about their success.

Happy event planning!

Katie

Me and Katie with model Emily Patch for the Relay For Life photo shoot

I can’t believe how quickly time has passed and that it is a year since I started with Cake – to the day actually!

I read through my one-month anniversary blog and had a bit of a giggle because I was trying to dig up some dirt on my new boss (at the time) Katie O’Rourke. And unfortunately not much has changed since then, I have no dirt to report other than her coffee addiction and freak high heel wearing ability. How bloody sad!

Without being a suck up, it has been such a great year. I have worked with so many local companies, charities and organisations, met amazing people and learned so much on the way. I feel like I have gotten the variety in a job in a year that some others will only get over 20 years in a job. So much so, that when people ask me what I do at Cake ( no, it’s not marketing cakes, thank god, then I would have to change my fashion  blog’s name to The Obese Fashionista) I have to explain that well, we do everything!

Over the year we still meet each week at Republic of Coffee, have lunch meetings at La Baracca. And no it’s not all fun and games, there sometimes was late work, last minute work stress, juggling other jobs dilemmas, but through it all Katie kept her cool (how does she do it?). We have put together a photo shoot for Relay For Life, we have helped NORPA out with three of their most amazing productions, we have helped get an amazing guest speaker to Lismore for The Stella Network, finished off branding projects and many things along the way.

I guess with this post I want to say thank you to Katie for being a fabulous boss. She is more than willing to share her knowledge, always out helping people or giving advice to new starters, giving her time generously to two of our pro-bono clients and always thinking about where she will go next with her job and how that will benefit her clients, not herself. She is very inspiring!

For me, I have been waiting ever since my first month to spot Simon Baker again, grown from having help with clients to dealing with some clients all by myself, learned that you must always ask every question while you have someone on the phone, and following up is a necessity!

Stay tuned for some exciting things coming up with Cake, including The Stella Network presents Jodie Fox event that we have co-ordinated (buy tickets HERE) and some fabulous packages so people can see what we can do for your businesses!

We are very excited at Cake Marketing to be part of this special Lismore event, The Stella Network presents JODIE FOX from Shoes of Prey and Sneaking Duck.

Jodie Fox is now co-founder of and manages communications for Shoes of Prey and Sneaking Duck. Jodie went to school in Lismore and studied law and international business at Griffith University in QLD. After co-founding multi-million dollar global enterprise Shoes of Prey, an online custom design shoe company with Michael Knapp and Michael Fox in 2009, the team were joined by Mark Capps to co-found Sneaking Duck, a fashion glasses online store, in October 2011.

JODIE’S AWARDS

Hudson Private & Corporate Sector Award in the Telstra Businesswoman Awards 2011

Listed in Smart Company’s Hot 30 under 30

Features in Grazia, Cosmopolitan and Frankie Magazine

PURCHASE TICKETS BY CLICKING HERE!

Rhian Paton-Kelly

Rhian Paton-Kelly is the Regional Programs Coordinator in the Far North Coast office of Cancer Council NSW. She graduated mid way through 2010 with a bachelor in Public Health Nutrition from Griffith University Gold Coast. She began my career with Queensland Health in physical activity and nutrition promotion in the Gold Coast Population Health Unit. From there, she moved back to my home town of Byron Bay and the same time a position came up with Cancer Council NSW.

She has been in this role of RPC for over a year now, and works to the northern half of the far north coast of New South Wales coordinating projects in the areas of cancer support and information, cancer prevention as well as the Relay For Life events.

What keeps you motivated?

Working for a not for profit organisation means that we’re all very busy and I spend a lot of time on the road a lot out in the community which can be tiring. Being out in the community also means that I get to meet a lot of inspirational people. A cancer journey is a hard one and I get to hear a lot of people’s stories. These people remind me how beautiful human kind is as well as how lucky I am to have healthy friends and family .

What is my favourite way to unwind?

I’m lucky enough to live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Every day, I try to get down to the beach for a walk or a swim. I also try to get to as many pilates and dance classes as I can.

How do people find you?

The regional Cancer Council office is located in Alstonville. You can also find us at the Lismore & Villages Relay For Life on the 28^th and 29^th April. It’s a 2 day event that runs over night so we will be down there for 18hours!

What have been your biggest challenges?

Working for the Cancer Council, I always get asked about ‘where the money goes.’ There are so many services offered locally that people can access and a lot of people are unaware of these. They can find out about these from our Helpline, 13 11 20 or by calling the regional office. A lot of money goes to cancer research, locally we run clinical trials and there is a lot of research that is happening in Sydney that will be able to assist us regionally in cancer prevention and treatment.

What is your favourite brand and why?

As an organisation, Cancer Council NSW, we receive no government funding are completely funded by the community. Clothing, I could go on forever. I was a Sportsgirl for 5 years and I still love everything about that brand. This season I would have to say Maurie and Eve have out done themselves and Shakuhachi is always amazing!

What is your/ your work’s greatest marketing success?

Relay For Life is our trademark event. It’s a great fundraiser for the organisation but it’s more than that. If you haven’t been to one, you need to! You will spend the weekend smiling from ear to ear.

What do you know now that you wish you new in the past?

Every day I learn something from the amazing people I work with. Life is one big  learning curve.

What is your proudest achievement yet?

Every Relay For Life event is a proud moment. Its an event that everyone should experience.

For more information about Lismore and Villages Relay For Life, visit http://relay.cancercouncil.com.au/2012/lismore__villages_2012

In promotion for Relay For Life, Katie and Mel put together a fashion photo shoot using ribbon colours to create awareness. Because the concept was unique, it created PR.

Working for a charity can be hard. There are board meetings, committees, and a lot of people working together in their spare time to get something going.

I have had a little bit of experience as media liaison and PR for a couple of not-for-profit groups and charities, and there is lots to know when it comes to dealing with media and getting the best you can out of your group to promote your organisation or event.

1. For the media, always have the same point of contact. Whether it be for an event, or just setting up the organisation, the more consistent the message, and the better the media liaison/spokesperson is across everything media and PR, the more smoothly things will flow. Not only that, the media will get to know the one person rather than having to deal with many.
2. Put together a marketing plan. Yes it might seem strange for a not for profit to do full marketing plans like a business would, but a charity or organisation can be treated like a business. You most probably aren’t paying for advertising, but getting a calendar together of when releases will go out, when photo ops are and when you expect articles/interviews to be printed or go on air is great for everyone to be aware of what is happening and keep things on track.
3. For print, make sure your media release is clear and concise. Have all details about an event clear, with a photo opportunity available. You can send a photo (make it a good one!) as well, but in general most newspapers like to take their own if they can make it.
4. For television or radio media, you might have to be flexible with times. Television crews don’t come to things that are later in the day because of their deadlines, and radio might have a certain segment they want for your event/organisation. Be accommodating as they are giving you free PR.
5. Create a great photo op. Make the photo op fun; really stand out and very much obvious in relating to the event or organisation. For example, for the Lismore and Villages Relay For Life, wearing purple or yellow in the photo would be a great way to grab attention and make it obvious what the event was about, and also stick to the branding.
6. Find the human-interest angle. Why was this organisation formed? What is the event for? More than likely it is to help someone. Maybe you can work out an interview with someone who is helped, or will be helped by your organisation. They are the backbone of the organisation’s existence and they are who the media and community want to hear about.
7. Follow up! When you call, or send a media release, follow up with the people you sent it to. The best way to get in is to do a little hussling.
8. Social media. Social media is a great way to keep supporters aware during down times for the organisation or charity, and also a great way to engage and promote. This should also be a job that is assigned to a couple of people, and guidelines should be drawn up for how to use the page.
9. Don’t be afraid to call in a favour. Know someone that can help you announce the event at a bigger event? Know someone who could possibly sponsor? Well ask them for help! Businesses aligning themselves with charity is great for them so they are probably more than willing to help you out.
10. Finally, keep it simple! If everyone has the same end result and a clear objective, the powers combined will create a great event or purpose for the organisation – concentrating on different agendas won’t be as effective.

LOGO:

Karen Walker’s logos are all simply her name, and each facet of her brand has a changing element. The current eyewear logo is just her name but in the past has been as pictured, with a cute illustration and the word eyewear added, but always simple and clean.

HOW WE MET:

Karen Walker has expanded into several brands

I believe the first pair I ever saw was in Frankie magazine, in an advert. I was in love with every pair. Then someone came into my work when I was in retail wearing a pair, I said I love your sunnies. She said they are Karen Walker. For me, once I see it twice and love it, that’s it, it’s an obsession and I will keep recognising every pair that is hers.

WHY WE ARE STILL TOGETHER
Well, to be honest, we have never BEEN together. I look at her website, lust over them in stores, but never have actually bought a pair. I have several on my watch list on eBay at all times, but budget has not allowed for them just yet. Soon my pretties, soon. And once we get together, I know there will be no turning back.

FAVOURITE MEMORY

When the last collection came out – the cream sunnies with orange styled on white haired people. LOVED that campaign and always love every shot for the sunnies. So sleek, styled well and really different.

WHY DO I LOVE THEM OVERALL?

Images from the latest KW lookbook - I think the styling is fun!

The Karen Walker brand is gorgeous, the clothes are amazing, the jewellery line is kooky cool, the paints (for the home) are gorgeous, but the sunnies is where it begins and ends for me! I think I love them overall because, although I haven’t afforded a pair myself yet, they are one of those affordable luxuries, something people lust after but aren’t too unobtainable at the same time! Oh and she’s from NZ and I love kiwis.