Central Coast Community Meetup

You don't need to be an influencer to get your products into the right hands.

Lydia Kirkland is the Founder of GIMME, the Australian accessories brand whose products have been worn by the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Katy Perry, Whitney Port and Chrishell Stause.

At a time when many founders feel pressure to build a personal brand, Lydia has taken a different approach. Rather than becoming the face of the business, she's focused on creating products people love, building desirability, and getting them into the hands of the right people.

In this Digital Advisory, Lydia will share how she built celebrity traction, created word-of-mouth momentum, and turned a product brand into one people genuinely want to wear, share and talk about.

What's in store:

• How celebrity and influencer traction actually happens behind the scenes

• Building desirability and word-of-mouth without huge marketing budgets

• What makes a brand feel culturally relevant and globally appealing

• Creating "pull" around your brand instead of constantly pushing sales

• Leveraging moments of momentum to accelerate growth

You'll also have the opportunity to ask questions relating specifically to your business.

Date: Tues, 14 July
Time: 9:30am-10:15am
Location: Online

Come ready with questions relating specifically to your own business.

If you're looking to build a brand that attracts attention, creates demand and gets into the hands of the right people, this is a conversation you won't want to miss.

Join us for a hands-on workshop with Farhad Malegam, Founder of Zari AI, an Australian AI company and Anthropic partner.

This isn't another AI presentation- it's a practical working session where you'll build AI tools for your own business and leave with them ready to use.

Whether you're completely new to AI or you've experimented with it without seeing consistent results, you'll learn how to use Claude to save time, improve your content and automate repetitive tasks.

What you'll build:

• A simple prompting framework to get better results from Claude.
• A month's worth of social media content for your business.
• Your own AI assistant that drafts customer enquiries in your brand voice—ready to use long after the workshop.

You'll leave with practical tools you can implement immediately, not just ideas.

Please bring your laptop and create a free Claude account before the session.

Date: Tuesday, 21 July
Time: 9:00am – 11:00am
Location: Sydney CBD

Spaces are strictly limited to ensure a hands-on, interactive experience for every attendee. Secure your spot early to avoid missing out.

Most founders know what they're selling, but far fewer understand why people actually buy.

In this session, Rebecca Veksler, Founder of SoL Cups, Lumie Health and RLV Projects, will unpack the psychology behind purchasing decisions and the hidden drivers that influence customer behaviour.

Drawing on her experience building and scaling global consumer brands, Rebecca will share how trust is built, why people say yes (or no), and how founders can better connect with the customers they're trying to reach.

This session is designed to help founders better understand what drives demand, influence and purchasing decisions so they can market and sell more effectively.

Key Takeaways:

• The psychology behind purchasing decisions
• Why buying decisions are emotional first and rational second
• Why customers say yes, no, or not yet
• Understanding trust, loyalty and influence
• How to apply these insights to your marketing, sales and customer conversations

🗓️ Date: Wed, 22 July | ⏱️ Time: 9:30am-10:30am | 📍 Location: Online

Why you need it:

Many founders spend too much time focusing on their product and not enough time understanding their customer. This session will help you better understand what drives buying behaviour and how to create stronger demand for your business.

Join us for our next Ladies Supper Club with Crystal Bailey, Founder of Crystal Bailey Design, entrepreneur and property developer, for a conversation on building a business, brand and reputation that creates opportunities far beyond your current venture.

As founders, we spend so much time building our businesses that we often forget to build ourselves. Crystal has successfully built a personal brand alongside her business, creating opportunities across property, design and entrepreneurship, while staying true to the lifestyle and future she wanted to create.

What’s on the menu:

• Why every founder should be building a personal brand alongside their business

• Creating opportunities beyond your current venture

• Designing a life, career and business that evolves with you

• Building success without losing yourself in the process

Date:  Wed, 22 July

Time:  6pm-8:30pm

Location:  Fortuna Restaurant – 247 Victoria Street, Darlinghurst

Includes: 3 course meal, drinks & gift bag

Come for the conversation, stay for the connections, and spend the evening alongside other female founders and business owners.

Join us for a Brisbane CBD Community Meetup - a chance to connect with other local founders.

During this catch-up, we'll run a simple agenda designed to support each other with current business challenges, opportunities, and connections that may help move things forward.

Date: Tues, 28 July

Time: 9:00am-10:30am

Location: CUB (Brisbane CBD)

Please RSVP so we know to expect you.

Some entrepreneurs build companies. Others build brands people genuinely connect with.

Briella Brown has spent the past decade building and scaling consumer brands, developing a deep understanding of what drives customer loyalty, advocacy and growth.

Now, as Co-Founder of Biolae, she's helping reshape women's healthcare for a new generation. By combining clinically backed products with culturally relevant storytelling, Biolae has quickly become one of Australia's most talked-about women's health brands, attracting support from figures including Pip Edwards and Amy Gerard.

In this Digital Advisory, Briella will share how modern brands earn attention, build trust and turn customers into advocates through storytelling, community and word-of-mouth growth.

Whats in store:

• The importance of storytelling over product features
• Strategies for creating repeat customers in competitive industries
• Building cultural relevance for your brand
• Understanding what drives people to organically share or talk about a business
• Creating emotional connection that turns customers into advocates
• Building momentum without relying solely on paid marketing

You’ll also have the chance to ask questions relating specifically to your business.

Date:  Tues, 28 July

Time:  9:30am-10:15am

Location: Online

If you're looking to build a brand that people remember, recommend and return to, this is a conversation you won't want to miss.

The strongest brands don't just attract customers - they create advocates.

In this session, Rebecca Veksler, Founder of SoL Cups, Lumie Health and RLV Projects, will break down what makes brands desirable, memorable and worth talking about. From perceived value and pricing psychology to social proof and word-of-mouth, Rebecca will share the principles behind building brands that customers genuinely connect with and recommend.

Drawing on her experience building one of the world's leading reusable cup brands, Rebecca will share practical lessons founders can apply regardless of industry.

Key Takeaways:

• Creating demand in crowded markets
• Perceived value, desirability and the psychology of pricing
• How social proof and word-of-mouth actually work
• Building brands people want to be associated with
• Turning attention into long-term customer relationships

🗓️ Date: Wed, 29 July | ⏱️ Time: 9:30am-10:30am | 📍 Location: Online

Why you need it:

Great products don't automatically create great brands. This session will help you understand why some businesses generate loyalty, referrals and momentum, while others rely on constant marketing spend to grow.

Join us for an exclusive Digital Advisory with Jordan Mylius, Founder of Hairification and former Commercial Director at Bondi Sands, where he helped scale one of Australia's most successful global consumer brands.

Before Hairification even had a finished product, Jordan had already secured a major retail customer. In this session, he'll share how founders can create momentum before everything is perfect, back themselves earlier, and apply the lessons he learned building a global brand.

What's in store:

• Selling your vision before you have a finished product.
• Building confidence while you're still figuring things out.
• Lessons from scaling Bondi Sands into a global brand.
• Creating systems and momentum that support long-term growth.
• Why waiting until you're "ready" can hold your business back.

Date: Tuesday, 4 August
Time: 9:30am – 10:15am
Location: Online

Whether you're building your first business or preparing to scale, you'll leave with practical insights to help you think bigger, move faster and create opportunities before everyone else sees them.

Join us for an exclusive Fireside Chat with Gabrielle Requena, founder of Wrinkles Schminkles.

After bootstrapping the business from a simple idea into a global brand sold in 22 markets, Gabrielle successfully exited the company. She now helps founders build stronger businesses, create long-term value and prepare for a successful exit through The Exit Files.

In this session, Gabrielle will share the lessons behind building and selling one of Australia's best-known beauty brands, including:

• Building a business buyers want.
• What creates traction in the early stages.
• The biggest scaling mistakes founders make.
• The decisions that increase business value over time.
• Preparing for a successful exit from day one.

Date: Wednesday, 5 August

Time: 5:00pm–7:00pm

Location: Sydney CBD

Whether you're just starting out or scaling an established business, you'll leave with practical insights into building a stronger, more valuable company.

Most founders know they should be building a personal brand, but struggle with where to start, what to say, and how to make it actually bring in the right opportunities rather than just generating noise.

Join Brad Grossett, Founder of Clipstart, with over 8 years building brand ecosystems across founders, business leaders and global brands including Aaron Sansoni, Tim Storey, Rod Drury, LSKD, EHPlabs and Industrie, creating the kind of authority that makes founders, leaders and brands the obvious choice in their market.

In this session, Brad shares the framework his team uses before a single piece of content is created. You’ll get clear on what you want to be known for, who you want to be known by, and what already makes you credible so that when you do show up, it lands with the right people.

Date: Thursday, 6 August Time: 9:30am – 10:30am (AEST) Location: Online

You’ll learn:

• How to define what you want to be known for and who you want to be known by
• What genuinely sets you apart and how to communicate it clearly
• How to identify the proof and credibility you already have but aren’t making visible
• Why most founders who are posting still aren’t seeing results, and what’s missing
• The framework Brad uses with every client: Clarity, Credibility and Content
• One practical action to take in the seven days before Part 2

Whether you’re building from scratch or already showing up and not seeing the results you want, you’ll leave with clarity on what to focus on first.

Join us for a Digital Advisory with Hayley Westoby, Founder of Gambit Collective and Spicy Boi Condiments – she also hosts Top of Mind podcast, and Date Night – an intimate dinner series for female founders. 

Hayley Westoby’s entire business is inbound - no paid ads, no cold outreach, no luck. 

As the founder of pay-as-you-go marketing agency Gambit Collective, she's spent years helping founders, service providers and growing businesses across Australia become the name their ideal clients already know before they ever reach out.

Her clients include TikTok Australia, CommBank, Unilever as well as hundreds of small businesses and start-ups. Her frameworks have helped founders at every stage go from well-kept secret to well-known expert - and turn that visibility into a real pipeline of leads.

Hayley's belief is simple: it's no longer what you know, or who you know. It's who knows you.

In this session, she'll show you exactly how to make that shift.

Whats in store:

• From invisible to obvious: how to position yourself as the only choice in your market
• The authority gap: why most founders are respected but not yet known, and how to close it
• Content as business development: using what you already know to attract clients before the sales conversation starts
• Visibility without budget: the speaking, media and content strategy that builds reputation over time
• Staying top of mind with the people who refer, recommend and open doors

Date: Tues, 11 Aug

Time: 9:30am-10:15am

Location: Online

Founders and service-based business owners who are good at what they do - and ready to become known for it.

Join us for our next BOA Sydney Founder Mixer.

A relaxed evening designed to help you meet other founders through curated small-group conversations, followed by open networking.

Date: Wed, 12 Aug
Location: Melbourne CBD

• 5:00pm | Arrival & networking
• 5:25pm | Curated founder conversations
• 6:40pm | Open networking
• 7:00pm | Wrap

Please arrive by 5:25pm to take part in the group conversations.

Understanding the problem is the first step. The second is knowing exactly how to fix it.

Join Brad Grossett, Founder of Clipstart, with over 8 years building brand ecosystems across founders, business leaders and global brands including Aaron Sansoni, Tim Storey, Rod Drury, LSKD, EHPlabs and Industrie, creating the kind of authority that makes founders, leaders and brands the obvious choice in their market.

In Part Two, Brad takes you through the practical system his team uses with every client: a 90-day framework for moving from under-recognised to obvious choice. This isn’t about posting more or finding better hooks. It’s about building the clarity and credibility infrastructure that makes content actually work, and doing it in a way that’s sustainable alongside running a real business.

You’ll also explore why authority building has become a necessary part of business strategy, not a nice-to-have, and what that means for founders who want to stay ahead.

Date: Thursday, 13 August Time: 9:30am – 10:30am (AEST) Location: Online

You’ll learn:

• How to lock in positioning that makes you immediately recognisable to the right people
• What credibility infrastructure is and how to make yours visible
• Why AI is changing how buyers find and choose who to work with, and what to do about it
• How to build a 90-day plan that moves you from invisible to in-demand
• What content actually looks like when clarity and credibility are underneath it
• The one commitment to make before you leave that will define the next 90 days

You’ll leave with a practical 90-day framework, a clear sense of what to prioritise first, and the tools to start building authority that compounds over time.

Join us for our next BOA Melbourne Founder Mixer.

A relaxed evening designed to help you meet other founders through curated small-group conversations, followed by open networking.

Date: Thur, 27 Aug
Location: Melbourne CBD

• 5:00pm | Arrival & networking
• 5:25pm | Curated founder conversations
• 6:40pm | Open networking
• 7:00pm | Wrap

Please arrive by 5:25pm to take part in the group conversations.