Educated, Competent and Capable - finally...

In August 2020 I opened a can of worms that would see me juggling study, a full time business, motherhood/taxi and being a wife for the next 20 months.

The story goes: - Once COVID arrived clients became a little less inclined to spend their money on marketing and they laid a little lower, as a whole new bunch of “unplanned challenges arose” - it was a little unnerving.

I knew that I needed to meet this challenge in the only way I know how - head on, quickly and with the full force of my attention.

Something needed to change and that and that change was me. I had been evolving over the years and now was the perfect time to solidify my metamorphosis.

There is always a silver lining to adversity and so this “unplanned downtime” was not going to stop me, it was going to fuel me. Opportunity became the new game and taking advantage of it, my mission.

So instead of curling into a ball or throwing in the towel, in true Angie fashion I hit the challenge head on and took charge.

From a personal growth perspective, it started with the thought that I’d like to learn more about my garden. I had a big veggie patch that needed planting out. I thought now that I have the time, it’d be good to work out what works, where and when, what soil I need, what plants work best in shade, sun etc. An ad in a gardening magazine led me to a science of gardening course that the University of Tasmania was offering. The great thing was that this course was being fully subsidised by the government. I signed up, then they offered for me to do the entire Diploma of Sustainable Living. I was in. Now I’d signed up for a year long course that would essentially feed my soul but chew up my night-time hours (sorry husband). I loved this course, it was so interesting and it opened a doorway into gaining a better understanding of how we live, how we design our spaces, what we need to sustain food cycles, our biodiversity, waste and how we fail to manage it well enough, the circular economy and how we can design out waste and how we can all adhere to the 17 SDG’s set by the UN. I even did a few offshoot courses around these subjects as I got so into the subject.

So I not only planted my veggie patch with a yield that surpassed my expectations (so many pumpkins, zucchinis, tomatoes, radish, carrots), but I embarked upon a learning journey that now allows me to have informed discussions with clients about what their waste management plan is, how they might contribute towards Australia’s SDG 2030 targets and how they can improve their capabilities whilst minimising their inefficiencies by decreasing time and material waste. Personally my heart sang for this course, professionally it gave me another string to my bow.

But I knew I still needed to set myself up for a more interesting professional future that meant that when I’m 60 I’m not still re writing peoples web copy and developing capability statements.

I knew I needed to reinvent my profile. A while ago I had started to have discussions about what the next 10 years might look like for me. After 15 years of running my marketing consultancy I knew I was more than a marketing person. Experience has given me a more holistic insight into the inner workings of a manufacturing company and harbouring this information seems wasted. I knew I needed to evolve my profile in a more “strategic” direction.

The initial conversations with clients and asking the hard questions has always been my utmost favourite thing to do and so evolving into more of an advisor appealed to me. It was time to shed the skin of “just a marketing girl” to “business advisor into the manufacturing industry”. So how would I make this transformation?

I’d been doing some research into boards, project boards and how I might elevate my position, my offer and up skill myself at the same time.

At the time the government were offering grants to help upskill businesses. I applied and secured a grant that would pave the way for my professional education. Im so grateful.

My research led me to “The Advisory Board Centre”. I applied to become an approved advisor, it was a fairly straightforward process to show that I had the goods to deserve this title and I now display the badge with pride. My respect for this organisation led me to then invest some of my grant funds in the certified chair course. This was a fabulous 5 day zoom course which has helped me to be prepared to be even more useful in a board setting. Giving me the confidence to set up boards with their board starter program and have robust conversations that set key directions for growth and risk aversion.

After completing this course I started to apply for boards roles, mostly in an advisory capacity. I completed a couple of short projects for NFP organisation’s but didn’t seem to be getting anywhere with securing any interest in an advisory position. Being 45 (at the time, female and without a corporate background or a string of pearls) I needed to increase my worth and my knowledge even further. So I signed up to do the Institute of Company Directors course with AICD which used up the rest of my grant funding. Money well spent I believe.

Now this course was cumbersome, boring in some parts, interesting others but laborious and hard. Not having a legal, financial or risk background I struggled. Also being a creative person this course did not cater for utilising the right side of the brain at all. We’re talking two big thick binders of 1800+ pages of documents that look & read like legislation. Not a chart, colour or infographic in sight!! I found this particularly hard going to digest. After I completed it, almost within minutes I had updated my LinkedIn profile to showcase that I had completed this mammoth effort. (Remember I’m still doing the sustainable diploma at the same time and had just done the certified chair course). My brain was full.

I had put all networking on hold whilst I completed the AICD course so I had the time to devote to it, so as I graduated I went out to a great event where I met a chap who worked with DESBT. A few weeks after, we met for a coffee to see where our synergies were. Then a few days later he emailed me with some news. The Sunshine Coast TAFE had a mentoring position available for someone who was an industry expert in small business. As an experienced facilitator, mentor with the mentoring for growth initiative and a huge passion for helping small business to grow I was a good fit. As I had done the certified chair course and the AICD course it made me even more attractive to the role. Great! It was paying off…

He made the introductions and I spoke to the TAFE team and they were keen to get me on board. One small hurdle was that I needed to have a training and assessment qualification (TAE40116) and they needed me to complete the small business management course that I would be delivering. So like a bull in a china shop I threw myself into another course, this would be the 4th major course inside 14 months. (Sorry husband). Little did I know what this training and assessment course was like, it was a massive undertaking and one I was not prepared for. Time to grit my teeth, pull up my girl girl britches and dig in.

The end result of being an industry mentor & facilitator is exactly what I’d like, so the desire to complete was huge. The TAFE small business course was great, simple and actually helped me to plan for my own future. Now I could see that the TAFE mentoring role was a good stream of income that dovetails nicely with client work, board roles and speaking gigs. I was happy to proceed.

The hurdle was bigger than I imagined. In all of my years of education I have never ever come across a course that was so utterly dull and poorly constructed. Filling in lengthy word documents and making pointless videos took up my time and essentially made me angry with its endless scrolling. It appears that all vocational trainers are dragged through this dreadful process, being subjected to absorb the hideousness of training.gov.au and watching mind numbingly dull videos. Far out. Now remember that I had just completed a number of courses that were far superior, with online portals and content that was both technical and involved yet displayed in an easy to digest format, so doing this made me visibly see how bad this course was and how good it could be in stark contrast. I would like to propose that ASQA re invent this wretched course ASAP.

So I am pleased to finally and proudly announce that this week marks the end of my rather lengthy educational journey. As I open the email to the sea of green ticks a wave of “thank god” washes over me.

It literally feels like I have done as much work as you would do to acquire a degree. To say I’m glad it’s done would be an understatement…

Now I’m up-skilled and ready to take on the next chapter of my life as a trainer, facilitator, speaker, board advisor with sustainability and manufacturing understanding and all round useful human. I’ve got the tickets, I’ve earned my stripes, now I proudly strut my stuff and I emerge triumphant.

Last but not least, to Kev and my two beautiful boys, thank you for your patience whilst I navigated this path. It has been a challenge but now I can confidently say that for the rest of my life I’ll be paid what I deserve, I’ll be working on interesting projects and be happier knowing that I’m enough and you will all reap the rewards of this new journey.

The best is yet to come!

Angie Hammond

• GAICD
• Dip sustainable living
• Certified Chair and Approved Advisor
• Cert IV Small Business Management
• Trainer & Assessor (TAE40116)

And that’ll do!

PS: late news just in - I just landed my first Mentoring Role with Think RAPT, today is a good day. The Boomtown Rats were wrong - Mondays are awesome! Can't wait to get stuck into this project.

Cheers to that!