Last month I was invited by Christie from Kids Business to attend a Bloggers Brunch she was hosting at Centennial Park. Now these brunches are a chance for brands and bloggers to interact on a face to face level but I specifically like attending to listen to the speakers Christie organises. They are smart women with incredibly insightful things to say.
At the latest brunch I was privileged to listen to Jane Copeland from Coping With Jane let us know that ‘our ship hasn’t sailed yet and it’s never too late to be what we want to be’.
Liz from the organisation Fitted For Work told stories of women who are disadvantaged, whether born into disadvantage or through circumstance, but are so desperate to gain employment just need a little help to look the part.
But probably the most inspirational of all was Ingrid Poulson. Now I instantly recognised Ingrid from her Byron Bay Ted X talk earlier this year. Her story is heartbreaking, her resolve is to be commended. She didn’t talk about any of the tragedies she’s endured but if you watch the youtube video below you’ll learn what Ingrid has had to endure.
Instead for her 5 minutes she just focussed on resilience. And her acronym for resilience is RISE.
Resolve – you are responsible for your reaction.
Identity – Are you are victim or a survivor? Are you adaptable?
Support – Accept support and pay support forward.
Everyday – Treat your body well; eat, sleep and exercise.
But like I said earlier these brunches are also all about the products. These are the ones I liked the most.
Mamee; they provided me with a large sampling of their snacks and while I foolishly thought that the following week’s schools snacks were taken care of, my kids thought otherwise. They devoured the lot over the weekend. So Mamee, you have the thumbs up from my kids.
Brauer; not that I have any use for baby products anymore, their new Paw Paw Lip Shimmer range is bloody brilliant. I love it.
And of course I couldn’t walk past K-Mart without asking them about the recent 4 Corners story investigating dodgy clothes factories in Bangladesh. When I asked how they handled the obvious backlash they would have received I was told that the CEO had about 150 letters and emails land on the desk and then proceeded to ring each person who wrote in to discuss their concerns. And if the person wasn’t available, the CEO left a mobile number to be able to be contacted directly.
Was that a public affairs win for K-Mart?
