Wired for Wonder: Naomi Simson – It all began with Leadership
10 Sep 2013 by warrencammack, No Comments »
Naomi is the founder of redballoon, a company that sells “experiences”. She started the business with a desire for flexibility that would allow her to spend more time with her newborn. However due to the intensity of all new businesses she found herself working more than she had done before.
The most exciting part of her role is seeing some of her customers enjoy the experiences that her company sells. For his 84th birthday she arranged for her father to take a ride in a DC3 and relayed how he acted like a little boy when he found out what his present was!
Naomi talked about the challenges of her company in the beginning and in particular when she had to fire one of her staff who threatened to take half of the team with her if she left. Naomi called her bluff and found the staff member walking out along with another half a dozen people including her nanny!
Speaking on leadership Naomi said it’s all about the “Why” – it’s your job to unite people under a common vision. Management is all about nurturing and getting the best out of people. Using these two simple methods Naomi turned the company round from having 64% turnover to one of the top 10 Australian employers (according to BRW).
Naomi’s closing line was “Love what you do and you never have to work another day in your life” – very true!
She’s also put together an eBook called 5 thanks a day that you can download for free.
