Brand + Business x Christine Moody*

I’ve been lucky enough to have an amazing career. I’ve worked across a huge cross-section of industry sectors with a diverse client base. My experience is backed up with formal post-graduate university studies (from design, to business, to advertising, to research, to applied law). Where some may see my experience and studies as too diverse, the pivots have been strategic and deliberate. Each one helps to keep me ahead of the pack and provides a realisation that continuous professional development is crucial to stay relevant—in business and in life!

Constant pivoting though can mean that you’re working in an unknown industry. You become the recipient of comments like, “You’re experience and work is amazing, but you don’t have experience in our industry”.

You’re work experience is amazing, but you don’t have experience in our industry.

Work experience in a particular industry isn’t just a graduate issue. It’s an ongoing issue for many of us throughout our working life.

When creating your personal brand, you need to be able to convince your potential client, employer et al, that your skills are transferable to any industry. It will never be an ‘exact match’ but by demonstrating how you moved from one particular sector to another and how you overcame the challenges goes a long way to securing the project or the job.

You can even turn a lack of experience in a specific industry to your advantage. When I was developing ‘The Wrap Dress’ concept, I didn’t have a fashion background, but I was hungry to learn. I approached the product development by asking lots of questions and listening—to everyone from manufacturers, to pattern makers, to fabric suppliers. I didn’t have any pre-conceived ideas or constraints around the fashion/garment industry, so I had the freedom of moving around and working out what was and wasn’t possible.

So when I’m approached by potential employees or suppliers, I seek to find out firstly their attitude and secondly, thirst for learning. I don’t expect anyone to know my business exactly, but I want someone who is willing to learn and is happy to do so.

Attitude trumps experience every time because you cannot teach attitude!

If you need to prove a point and you are up against “but you don’t have any experience”, ask for a small project to prove yourself. Use the project to demonstrate your unique value and your problem-solving ability. Ask for work experience (no matter what your age) as nothing beats on-the-job experience to showcase your skills (think ‘The Intern’ movie).

As an aside, I continue to be overwhelmed by the positive feedback coming in for my book—Designer Law School. Legal lessons for design entrepreneurs. Here is another comment that I wanted to share:

This is a book you should read before starting any new business.
Jan O’Connor, Cofounder, T2; and Director, Environa Studio

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*Christine Moody is one of Australia’s leading brand strategists and the founder brand management consultancy, Brand Audits. With more than 30 years’ professional experience, Christine has helped a diverse client base of local and international brands, including Gold Coast City Council, Hilton Hotels, and Wrigleys USA, to develop, protect and achieve brand differentiation. Her particular interest is personal brand audits to assist executives realise their full potential. She is also an author and a law student.

For more information: chris.moody@brandaudits.com.au or +61 419 888 468.

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About—Designer Law School. Legal lessons for design entrepreneurs
(Stockists Folio Books: Folio@FolioBooks.com.au; iBook store; and Amazon)

Christine Moody is one of Australia’s leading brand strategists. She is the founder of brand management consultancy, Brand Audits, and several successful start-up companies. Designer Law School is her latest venture.

This book is a cautionary tale for all designers, entrepreneurs, managers, and educators. With the wit and wisdom born of long experience (and some pretty hard knocks along the way), Christine encourages her fellow designers (and all designers, creatives, and entrepreneurs, for that matter) to respect and understand the legal issues that affect their daily business. In a series of practical ‘lessons’ full of ‘good-to-know’ tips and topics, the book alerts others to the risks of ‘doing business’ without a keen eye on the possible legal pitfalls along the way. At the same time, Christine engages the reader through her obvious care and concern for their challenges and encases her ‘lessons’ in the motivational framework of her personal struggle for justice and survival.

Photo credit: Matt Palmer—Photographer at BDO Brisbane offices.

Brand + Business x Christine Moody*

While interviewing lawyers for my book Designer Law School. Legal lessons for design entrepreneurs, I discovered that the best legal outcomes most often came down to four things.

They are, as outlined in ‘Lesson 3: Be a great lawyer’s client’:

1. It’s better to see a lawyer regarding a legal matter sooner rather than later.
2. Carefully read the documents the lawyer has prepared for you—even they can make mistake.
3. The better organised you are, the lower your legal fees will be.
4. There is no such thing as a ‘stupid question’; the more questions you ask, the better the outcome.

Now while these may seem like ‘common sense’, the lawyers I interviewed all experienced the same issues over again. They often felt they could get a better outcome if they were involved in a matter earlier; They were concerned by the number of times it appeared a client hadn’t read and understood a document; and they all expressed that keeping materials and documents in a logical filing system, would save time and therefore money.

As we get busier, and legal stuff becomes more complicated, we need to take an active interest in our legal matters.

We need to be a great lawyer’s client.

While the lawyer understands the law better than you, only you know what you want better than the lawyer.

Here is the checklist from the end of ‘Lesson 3’ on how to be a great client.

• Consult your lawyer sooner rather than later
• Proactively read, research, and understand your matter and all related documentation
• Understand how your lawyer likes to operate
• Thoroughly prepare briefs, agendas, questions, and paperwork for all meetings
• Follow up all meetings with the necessary emailing of meeting minutes, documentation, filing, diarising
• Show appreciation for your lawyer’s work
• Maintain currency in legal matters and knowledge as they apply to your business.

As an aside, I continue to be overwhelmed by the positive feedback coming in for my book. Here is one comment that I wanted to share:

What a practical book for people in business or wanting to be in business. You can’t beat practical experience and to be able to frame your personal learnings through authoring this book is a godsend to all who will have the privilege to read it.

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk, Brisbane City, Australia

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*Christine Moody is one of Australia’s leading brand strategists and the founder brand management consultancy, Brand Audits. With more than 30 years’ professional experience, Christine has helped a diverse client base of local and international brands, including Gold Coast City Council, Hilton Hotels, and Wrigleys USA, to develop, protect and achieve brand differentiation. Her particular interest is personal brand audits to assist executives realise their full potential. She is also an author and a law student.

For more information: chris.moody@brandaudits.com.au or +61 419 888 468. …………………………………………….

About—Designer Law School. Legal lessons for design entrepreneurs
(Stockists Folio Books: Folio@FolioBooks.com.au; iBook store; and Amazon)

Christine Moody is one of Australia’s leading brand strategists. She is the founder of brand management consultancy, Brand Audits, and several successful start-up companies. Designer Law School is her latest venture.

This book is a cautionary tale for all designers, entrepreneurs, managers, and educators. With the wit and wisdom born of long experience (and some pretty hard knocks along the way), Christine encourages her fellow designers (and all designers, creatives, and entrepreneurs, for that matter) to respect and understand the legal issues that affect their daily business. In a series of practical ‘lessons’ full of ‘good-to-know’ tips and topics, the book alerts others to the risks of ‘doing business’ without a keen eye on the possible legal pitfalls along the way. At the same time, Christine engages the reader through her obvious care and concern for their challenges and encases her ‘lessons’ in the motivational framework of her personal struggle for justice and survival.

Photo credit: Roy Lichtenstein ‘Drowning Girl’ 1963 (Chris Moody @ MOMA NYC 2015).

Brand + Business x Christine Moody*

While the inspiration and motivation for writing Designer Law School. Legal lessons for design entrepreneurs came from my personal story, it didn’t take me long to realise I wasn’t alone. It turns out that many other designers and entrepreneurs have had or are having the same issues with understanding the law. It was during the research phase of my book—the interviews with lawyers—that a pattern started to emerge.

The emerging data indicated that time and again most people (including designers and entrepreneurs) didn’t read their legal documents. They were anxious to sign the document and handed all responsibility over to the lawyer. But when the lawyers asked the clients simple questions about the document detail, it was clear that most didn’t understand what they were about to sign.

In “Lesson 4: Respect and Understand Your Contracts” and “Lesson 5: Respect and Deal with the Nitty Gritty”, I outline how to read and ‘mark up’ a document so you are prepared to meet with your lawyer. If you don’t understand the terms used in the document, look each of them up, and understand them in the context of the document.

Another important point is to remember what you want the document to do—what are you trying to achieve? For example, if it’s an employment contract, check that it includes all the items discussed with your employer. It’s important to get all the details right no matter what time pressures you’re under and know what you’re signing.

As an aside, I’ve been overwhelmed by the positive feedback coming in for my book. Here is one comment that I wanted to share:

All entrepreneurs have a list of things they wish they had known before starting a business. But what if you could learn them all in one place, sparing yourself endless hassle and confusion? This book lays out the steps you need to take to protect your interests and create a thriving, lucrative design practice.
Dorie Clark, author of Stand Out and Reinventing You; and Adjunct Professor, Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business

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*Christine Moody is one of Australia’s leading brand strategists and the founder brand management consultancy, Brand Audits. With more than 30 years’ professional experience, Christine has helped a diverse client base of local and international brands, including Gold Coast City Council, Hilton Hotels, and Wrigleys USA, to develop, protect and achieve brand differentiation. Her particular interest is personal brand audits to assist executives realise their full potential. She is also an author and a law student.

For more information: chris.moody@brandaudits.com.au or +61 419 888 468. …………………………………………….

About—Designer Law School. Legal lessons for design entrepreneurs
(Stockists Folio Books: Folio@FolioBooks.com.au; iBook store; and Amazon)

Brand + Business x Christine Moody*

A couple of weeks ago I launched my book, Designer Law School. Legal lessons for design entrepreneurs. It’s a book I started ‘on the side’ while completing my QUT Masters Thesis. I had set out to help designers and entrepreneurs to better understand the law and what lawyers do.

For the book, I interviewed lawyers face-to-face, asking each of them the same 10 questions, such as, “How do you find the right lawyer?” and “When do designers need to call a lawyer?”. The information gleaned from these interviews formed an important part of the book. So I was elated when the guests attending the book launch, many of whom were lawyers, expressed that my book would really help their clients.

What really struck me though is that the book—or more accurately the process of researching the book—revealed other potential benefits and opportunities for law firms not just their clients.

It revealed real opportunities for law firms to be innovative and gain a competitive edge, in an age when the practice of law is rapidly changing.

These opportunities start with ‘design thinking’.

You see, during the research and interview process, I spent a lot of time in law firm lobbies.

While waiting for each interviewee, I couldn’t help but look at each law firm from a design thinking perspective. I took the time to observe and note how I was greeted, what the background music was and what sort of design was utilised in the lobby space. I was adopting design thinking methodology and honing in on the ‘client experience’.

To understand design thinking methodology is to understand things from your client’s perspective

To understand design thinking methodology is to understand things from your client’s perspective. This understanding leads to revealing latent needs, as well as potential products and services, and different ways to deliver legal services. It leads to innovation.

Instead of sitting in the lobby checking my emails and social media posts, I sit and observe—no matter where I am. Whether it’s an airport, hotel, or sidewalk cafe, these spaces are perfect for observing trends and how people behave ‘in the wild’.

If you want to innovate, get out onto the streets, visit art galleries, sit in cafes, and just observe. Lawyers can do this by visiting clients’ premises and observing how they work and how they do things. I mean not just asking questions but keeping your eyes open to what is happening around you.

With the disruption of traditional law firms happening already, many lawyers are struggling to know what to do and how to innovate to stay relevant in today’s marketplace.

Employing design thinking methodologies in your organisation enables you to see opportunities that you never noticed or identified previously.

It not only gives structure to innovation but also ensures that the organisation is sustainable in the future.

It really can be as simple as having your eyes and ears wide open.

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*Christine Moody is one of Australia’s leading brand strategists and the founder brand management consultancy, Brand Audits. With more than 30 years’ professional experience, Christine has helped a diverse client base of local and international brands, including Gold Coast City Council, Hilton Hotels, and Wrigleys USA, to develop, protect and achieve brand differentiation. Her particular interest is personal brand audits to assist executives realise their full potential. She is also an author and a law student.

For more information: chris.moody@brandaudits.com.au or +61 419 888 468. …………………………………………….

About—Designer Law School. Legal lessons for design entrepreneurs
(Stockists Folio Books: Folio@FolioBooks.com.au; iBook store; and Amazon)

Brand + Business x Christine Moody*

This week I launched my first book (second if you count my Thesis!) and it was an amazing feeling. I must say interviewing lawyers, writing, preparing content, and working with my editor, designer, and printer was such a great experience—and a fun one.

What started as a ‘side project’ when finishing my Thesis (or distraction from writing the academic stuff!) turned into a ‘real life’ book! The best part of the journey was the launch event as I was able to look around at my family, friends, and colleagues and take it all in and be in the moment. It also gave me the opportunity to celebrate such an amazing milestone.

One thing that I suggest to anyone who wants to do something—anything—just do it, just start it, and do a little bit every day. And most importantly, enjoy it! That’s how I finished my Thesis (after six years) and my book, and anything else I turn my hand to (ballet, embroidery, surfing, law school)…Just do it! 

Here is cover blurb about the book:
Designer Law School: Legal lessons for design entrepreneurs

Christine Moody is one of Australia’s leading brand strategists. She is the founder of brand management consultancy, Brand Audits, and several successful start-up companies. Designer Law School is her latest venture. 

This book is a cautionary tale for all designers, entrepreneurs, managers, and educators. With the wit and wisdom born of long experience (and some pretty hard knocks along the way), Christine encourages her fellow designers (and all designers, creatives, and entrepreneurs, for that matter) to respect and understand the legal issues that affect their daily business. In a series of practical ‘lessons’ full of ‘good-to-know’ tips and topics, the book alerts others to the risks of ‘doing business’ without a keen eye on the possible legal pitfalls along the way. At the same time, Christine engages the reader through her obvious care and concern for their challenges and encases her ‘lessons’ in the motivational framework of her personal struggle for justice and survival. 

*Christine Moody is one of Australia’s leading brand strategists and the founder brand management consultancy, Brand Audits. With more than 30 years’ professional experience, Christine has helped a diverse client base of local and international brands, including Gold Coast City Council, Hilton Hotels, and Wrigleys USA, to develop, protect and achieve brand differentiation. Her particular interest is personal brand audits to assist executives realise their full potential. She is also an author and a law student.

For more information: chris.moody@brandaudits.com.au or +61 419 888 468.

Designer Law School: Legal lessons for design entrepreneurs
(Contact Folio Books: Folio@FolioBooks.com.au)

Brand + Business x Christine Moody*

Co-work spaces are a new trend emerging both in Australia and overseas.

I have been following this trend for a few years and subscribing to a few sites, but there is nothing like going to experience these co-work spaces. So last year, I spent more than a month running my business from a co-work space in New York.

It was fantastic to experience this new phenomenon first-hand. My verdict: co-work spaces give you a lot more than your standard office space.

…co-work spaces give you a lot more than your standard office space.

Before leaving for New York, I did the rounds of what was on offer in Brisbane. However, I wasn’t inspired. As a Designer, I am used to working in open plan, created spaces. Moving to another creative, open plan space didn’t offer me anything new. They all felt either too creative and not professional enough, or too professional and not creative enough. None of them had the energy or vibrancy I was hoping to find.

However, my New York experience sold co-work space to me completely.

Co-work spaces are meant to be bout working with a diverse group of people. They are also about getting to see how / why other people work. They create an environment where you can have discussions with people outside of your circle of colleagues: an unscheduled discussion or corridor meeting that can spark a new idea or add to an existing project. These unplanned discussions can even help establish collaboration on a future project.

Co-work spaces are about building a community and fostering a feeling of being part of something exciting. And most of all it is about being away from your ‘normal life’.

Co-work spaces are about building a community and fostering a feeling of being part of something exciting.

I tried to put my finger on why New York co-work spaces are so different. It is an exciting city (of course!). The co-work spaces had the energy and vibrancy of a creative community. The founders worked hard to create a space that inspired creativity and ensured that they get the right people on board.

The design of physical environment of a co-work space is so important. As I’ve already said, it needs to have the right balance between creative and professional. However, it also needs to be flexible enough to work for social events as well.

Here are four things my New York co-work trial revealed:

1. It’s not about selling ‘desk space’ or a place to go everyday. It is about building a community.
2. It’s crucial to have a mix of spaces on offer from noisy (where you can be on the phone anytime) spaces to private office space to take / make important phone calls and have meetings.
3. After-hours socials in the space build community and are even better when there are speakers. I went to as many of these as I could and learnt so much from a range of start-ups and VCs.
4. Getting the right space and the right building in the right suburb is crucial as the journey to your desk is just as important. That is, it has to be in a location that is surrounded by inspiring cafes, shops, and galleries—easy in New York!

While it might look like a room full of people seated at desks, the co-work space is a community and it is the feeling of being part of this community that makes it work. And it is this community that makes all the difference.

*Christine Moody is one of Australia’s leading brand strategists and the founder brand management consultancy, Brand Audits. With more than 30 years’ professional experience, Christine has helped a diverse client base of local and international brands, including Gold Coast City Council, Hilton Hotels, and Wrigleys USA, to develop, protect and achieve brand differentiation. Her particular interest is personal brand audits to assist executives realise their full potential.

For more information: chris.moody@brandaudits.com.au or +61 419 888 468.

Brand + Business x Christine Moody*

After more than 35 years in business, I understand the value of building brand trust. Trust builds strong brands and makes strong brands even stronger.

Building brand trust takes time and effort. It also means you need to understand your brand promise and consistently deliver on that promise.

The secret to building brand trust beyond social media hype

In today’s market, it’s very easy to create hype around your brand with the increase in ‘likes’ that social media can produce. However, trust takes a lot more (and longer) to establish than hype.

In a Harvard Business Review article, ‘The one thing you must get right when building a brand’, the author talks about the rise of ‘hype’ due to social media and they point out that: “Social media makes it more urgent than ever that companies get the basics right, developing and reliably delivering on a compelling brand promise.”

Social media makes it more urgent than ever that companies get the basics right…

The article continues to outline the analysis of the strategies and performance of a diverse range of companies suggests that great brands share four fundamental qualities:

• They offer and communicate a clear, relevant customer promise.
• They build trust by delivering on that promise.
• They drive the market by continually improvingthe promise.
• They seek further advantage by innovating beyond the familiar.

These qualities reflect a company that knows and understands its brand fundamentals.

Build trust through your brand fundamentals

Your business may be an instant success on social media, have rolled out the red carpet and operate from an architecturally designed office space, but this won’t build client trust. Instead, you need to go back to basics and get your brand fundamentals right:

1. Understand the history of the brand and the values that lie behind the brand.

2. Understand the purpose of the brand and make sure that everyone in the organisation also understands the purpose.

3. Develop your brand promise—this what you are going to deliver on and the basis for building your brand trust.

4. Ensure every customer touch-point reflects and reinforces your brand as well as provides an experience that builds trust. That is, from the way a visitor is greeted to how easy the website is to navigate.

Two lessons I’ve learnt

Building trust takes time and once won, you need to work on maintaining trust. Every day, I still work on building trust with my clients as well as my family and friends.

The second important thing I have learnt about building trust is that: it isn’t what I know, but what I say and do. That is, trust is doing what you say you are going to do: always deliver on your brand promise.

How does your brand build trust with your customers?

*Christine Moody is one of Australia’s leading brand strategists and the founder brand management consultancy, Brand Audits. With more than 30 years’ professional experience, Christine has helped a diverse client base of local and international brands, including Gold Coast City Council, Hilton Hotels, and Wrigleys USA, to develop, protect and achieve brand differentiation. Her particular interest is personal brand audits to assist executives realise their full potential.

For more information: chris.moody@brandaudits.com.au or +61 419 888 468.

Brand + Business x Christine Moody*

Watching the Netflix produced Chef’s Table, I’m impressed by the lessons this show has for leaders and for their brands.

Chef’s Table is an acclaimed documentary series, which is in its second season. Both Season 1 and Season 2 feature some of the world’s most renowned chefs, with each episode focusing on a single chef who has created a piece of culinary heaven—often in an out-of-the-way and unexpected, but very beautiful place.

In this original docu-series, find out what’s inside the kitchens and minds of the international culinary stars who are redefining gourmet food.

The show takes us inside the kitchens and the minds of these culinary stars who are redefining gourmet food. We learn their unique personality traits, talents, and passions and are also given a glimpse into their personal lives.

Chefs featured include, Australia’s Ben Shewry (Attica Restaurant in Melbourne) and Masterchef Australia‘s Matt Preston, Magnus Nilsson (Fäviken, Järpen Sweden), Francis Mallmann (El Restaurante, Patagonia Sur, Buenos Aires, Argentina), Niki Nakayama (N/Naka Restaurant, Los Angeles, California, USA), Dan Barber (Blue Hill Restaurant, Stone Barns and New York City, USA) and Massimo Bottura (Osteria Francescana, Modena, Italy).

As well as being beautifully shot—with great music and of course mouthwatering food—the series creates drama by detailing the behind-the-scenes struggles of each hero chef. In doing so, the show reveals the chef’s distinctive leadership story.

Each and every one of the chefs featured in Chef’s Table was creating amazing food when they decided to open a restaurant. They all thought they would be successful from day one—or at least have a few customers. However, they all struggled and came close to throwing in the tea towel and closing the restaurant door.

Inspiringly, despite their restaurant ventures floundering, not one of the chefs gives up or looses faith in their food or themselves. Instead, they go back to their culinary roots for inspiration to pivot their offerings. They talk to regional farmers and suppliers, get out into the streets and taste the local cuisine and learn from local cooks as well as chefs in top restaurants. In the process, they find their own voice in the culinary world.

They refuse to compromise on their values or their food beliefs, but they make it out the other end. Through persistence and resilience, they all find success eventually.

It’s not just about the food, it’s not just about the restaurant, it’s about something more…

Chef’s Table isn’t just about the food, it’s not just about the restaurant, it’s about something more…this series has it all. For me, the best part of this show is the lessons that can translate into leadership lessons:

1. Believe in yourself and do not compromise on quality
2. Keep going and pivoting to bring great products to market
3. It takes only one happy customer to make it
4. The struggle is part of the journey—enjoy the process
5. Keep making great stuff
6. Innovation is the key motivator
7. Get out and see what is happening in your community
8. Stand out for all the right reasons!

Watch the series and let me know what other leadership lessons you can identify with.

*Christine Moody is one of Australia’s leading brand strategists and the founder brand management consultancy, Brand Audits. With more than 30 years’ professional experience, Christine has helped a diverse client base of local and international brands, including Gold Coast City Council, Hilton Hotels, and Wrigleys USA, to develop, protect and achieve brand differentiation. Her particular interest is personal brand audits to assist executives realise their full potential.