When people talk about branding, it's easy to think about logos, colours and marketing campaigns. But what if the real strength of your brand comes from something much closer to home? 

In this episode, Karen speaks with branding strategist and ModeMedia founder Chris Hekeik about what it takes to stand out in an increasingly noisy world. While the conversation begins with marketing and brand strategy, it quickly explores something every business owner should consider. Your employees play a significant role in shaping how customers experience your business, making culture and leadership just as important as your visual identity. 

If you've ever wondered why some businesses are remembered long after others are forgotten, this conversation offers a fresh perspective on how branding, employee experience and customer experience all work together.

Show Notes 

In this episode, Karen and Chris discuss: 

• Why businesses are competing against more noise than ever before and why clarity matters more than volume. 

• The biggest branding mistake many business owners make by trying to communicate too much instead of creating a clear and memorable message. 

• Why people buy emotion before they buy products, and how storytelling creates stronger connections than features and facts. 

• Why a brand is much more than a logo, with practical examples of how branding is experienced through customer service, leadership and everyday interactions. 

• The role employees play as custodians of your brand and why employer branding starts long before someone sees your marketing. 

• How founders can balance their own vision with creating a brand that genuinely connects with their audience. 

• The opportunities and challenges AI presents for branding, creativity and small business. 

• Chris' biggest lesson from more than 25 years in business and why caring about people has become the foundation of his success. 

Key Takeaways 

Your brand is experienced, not just seen 

Customers remember how your business made them feel far longer than they remember your logo, advertising or website. Every interaction contributes to your reputation. 

Employees bring your brand to life 

Your employer brand isn't created by marketing alone. The way your people communicate, solve problems and represent your business has a lasting impact on both customers and future employees. 

Clarity cuts through the noise 

In a world overflowing with information, businesses that communicate a simple, clear message are far more likely to be remembered than those trying to say everything at once. 

Culture and branding are closely connected 

The promises you make through your marketing need to be reflected in the experience employees and customers have every day. The strongest brands are built from the inside out. 

AI should enhance, not replace, human creativity 

Used well, AI can improve efficiency and help generate ideas, but authentic relationships, emotional connection and human experiences remain the things people remember most. 

Guest Information 

Chris Hekeik is the founder and CEO of ModeMedia, an Australian branding and creative agency that has helped businesses build memorable brands for more than 25 years. He is also a keynote speaker and brand strategist who works with organisations to create stronger connections between their brand, their people and their customers. Chris believes that great brands are built through clarity, emotion and memorable experiences rather than marketing alone. 

Learn more about Chris:

🌐 https://www.modemedia.com.au/ 

🌐 https://www.chrishekeik.com.au/ 

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In this episode of Find Grow Keep, Karen Kirton is joined by business growth strategist Nathan Baws for a conversation that starts with joint ventures and quickly expands into customer service, workplace culture, leadership and what really drives sustainable business growth. 

Nathan has built businesses across a wide range of industries and is passionate about helping business owners grow without simply spending more on marketing. Together, Karen and Nathan explore practical ways to build stronger relationships, create memorable customer experiences and think differently about where growth comes from. 

Whether you're leading a growing team or looking for new ways to grow your business, this episode is full of practical ideas you can apply straight away. 

In this episode you'll learn: 

• Why joint ventures can be a powerful business growth strategy 
• How to create partnerships where everyone benefits 
• Why customer service is often a reflection of workplace culture 
• The connection between employee engagement and customer experience 
• How to spend more time working on your business rather than just in it 
• Why finding people who love the work you don't can help your business grow 
• Simple leadership habits that keep teams connected and aligned  

Learn more about Amplify HR: https://www.amplifyhr.com.au 

Book a free discovery call: https://meetings.hubspot.com/ronita-fourie 

Connect with Nathan:  

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-baws/  

https://nathanbaws.com/  

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As businesses grow, the people side of the business often becomes more complex. Recruitment takes longer, onboarding becomes inconsistent, managers handle situations differently and founders find themselves answering the same questions over and over again. 

The challenge is not usually that people are doing the wrong thing. More often, the business has outgrown the informal processes that worked when the team was smaller. 

In this episode, Karen explores how to identify the people processes that may be creating friction in your business and where to focus first. Rather than jumping straight to automation or new technology, she discusses the foundations that help growing businesses create consistency, improve employee experience and reduce unnecessary complexity. 

In this episode, you will learn: 

→ Why growth often exposes weaknesses in recruitment, onboarding and performance management processes 

→ How relying on memory, goodwill and founder involvement can create bottlenecks 

→ Why reactive recruitment can lead to costly hiring mistakes 

→ The role onboarding plays in retention, engagement and productivity 

→ What Gallup's research tells us about the impact managers have on employee engagement 

→ How simple performance management rhythms can create better conversations and clearer expectations 

→ Why compliance processes often become vulnerable as businesses grow 

→ A practical question every business owner should ask to identify process risks and opportunities 

If your business is growing and things feel more complicated than they used to, this episode will help you identify where better people processes can make growth easier. 

Visit https://www.amplifyhr.com.au for more resources and practical HR support. 

Make sure to subscribe to stay updated with new releases every second Monday! 

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Download our free guide, “Getting Stuff Done Through Your People,” giving you the tools to build a culture where people take ownership, goals get achieved, and results follow.

https://www.amplifyhr.com.au/downloadable/getting-stuff-done-through-your-people/ 

Many leaders think cyber security is something their IT provider looks after. But what if your biggest cyber risk isn't your technology at all? 

In this episode, Karen Kirton is joined by cyber security specialist Fraser Jack to explore why cyber security is really a people issue. Together, they discuss how leadership, workplace culture and human behaviour all play a critical role in protecting your business from cyber threats. 

In today's episode, you'll learn about: 

• Why cyber security isn't just an IT responsibility and why business leaders need to be involved. 
• How cyber criminals use human psychology, including urgency, fear and trust, to trick even smart, capable employees. 
• The small pieces of information businesses unknowingly share that can increase cyber risk. 
• The additional considerations when your team works remotely, offshore or in hybrid environments. 
• Why creating a workplace culture where employees feel safe to report mistakes can significantly reduce the impact of a cyber incident. 
• The importance of having an incident response plan and practising cyber drills before something goes wrong. 
• Practical steps directors and business owners can take to better understand and manage cyber risk. 

If you're a business owner or leader who thinks cyber security starts and ends with technology, this conversation will give you a fresh perspective and some practical ideas you can implement straight away. 

Make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode of Find Grow Keep, with new episodes released every Monday. 

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Most business owners expect growth to make things easier. 

More revenue. More people. More opportunities. 

So why does it often feel like the opposite happens? 

In this episode Karen explores why scaling a business can feel much harder than starting one, and why the biggest challenges are often not financial or operational, but people related. 

Karen shares the common patterns she sees in growing businesses, including unclear roles, inconsistent onboarding, accountability issues, manager capability gaps, decision making bottlenecks and founders becoming stuck in the middle of everything. 

Drawing on current Australian business data and real world examples, she explains why the informal ways of working that helped a business succeed in the early days often stop working as teams grow. 

In this episode you'll learn: 

• Why growth can create complexity rather than freedom 
• The people foundations that growing businesses need 
• How role clarity impacts accountability and ownership 
• Why manager capability can become a growth handbrake 
• What founders need to let go of as their business grows 
• How to identify whether your business has outgrown its current people practices 

If your business is growing and things are starting to feel messier than they used to, this episode will help you understand why and where to focus first. 

Make sure to subscribe to stay updated with new releases every second Monday!
 
Visit amplifyhr.com.au for more insights and resources.  

Send us Fan Mail

Download our free guide, “Getting Stuff Done Through Your People,” giving you the tools to build a culture where people take ownership, goals get achieved, and results follow.

https://www.amplifyhr.com.au/downloadable/getting-stuff-done-through-your-people/ 

Most business owners would say culture is important. 

But when something feels off in the business, it can be difficult to know whether you're dealing with a culture issue, a leadership issue, or simply a performance problem. 

In this episode, Karen Kirton explores the real difference between a toxic workplace culture and a high-performance culture, and why the warning signs of a toxic culture are often much quieter than people expect. 

Rather than obvious conflict or bullying, toxic cultures often show up through poor communication, disengagement, managers avoiding difficult conversations, inconsistent leadership, and good employees quietly leaving. 

Karen also discusses what genuinely high-performing cultures look like, the role leaders play in shaping culture every day, and how HR processes such as recruitment, onboarding, performance management and communication can either strengthen or weaken your workplace culture. 

You'll also hear why culture is increasingly being linked to psychosocial risks and work health and safety obligations, making it more important than ever for business owners and leaders to be intentional about the environment they create. 

In this episode: 

• What toxic workplace culture actually looks like  
• Common signs your culture may be holding your business back  
• Why culture problems often develop gradually  
• The difference between accountability and blame  
• What defines a high-performance culture  
• How leadership behaviours shape culture  
• The connection between culture and psychosocial risks  
• Practical steps to improve workplace culture 

Make sure to subscribe to stay updated with new releases every second Monday!
 
Visit amplifyhr.com.au for more insights and resources. 

Send us Fan Mail

Download our free guide, “Getting Stuff Done Through Your People,” giving you the tools to build a culture where people take ownership, goals get achieved, and results follow.

https://www.amplifyhr.com.au/downloadable/getting-stuff-done-through-your-people/ 

Business performance is not just about revenue, profit or growth targets. The businesses that perform well over time usually have stronger leadership, clearer accountability, better systems and healthier cultures underneath the numbers. 

In this episode, Karen Kirton speaks with Farid Zaki from ATP Accounting about what really helps small and medium sized businesses grow in a more steady and sustainable way. 

Farid has been running his own business for almost 30 years, and as an accountant, he has seen what can quietly strengthen a business, as well as what can hold it back. Together, Karen and Farid talk about vision, cash flow, role clarity, systems, delegation, team culture and why business owners need to look beyond revenue if they want to understand how their business is really performing. 

In today’s episode, you will learn about: 

• Why business performance is about more than revenue, profit and growth targets. 
• The leadership, accountability and culture foundations that support strong business performance. 
• Why a 10 year plan may not work in the same way anymore, and why business owners need to keep adapting. 
• How sharing the right financial targets with your team can help them make better decisions. 
• Why revenue is not the same as profit, especially when discounting starts eating into your margins. 
• How repeatable systems and clear role clarity help business owners stop being the bottleneck. 
• Why a business can look good on paper but still have hidden issues with cash flow, leadership or team dynamics. 
• What business owners should review before the new financial year, including structure, pricing, costs, subscriptions and cash flow. 
• Why there is no such thing as a perfect business, and why that is actually a helpful reminder. 
• The importance of pausing to celebrate how far you have come as a business owner. 

If your business looks fine on paper but feels harder than it should behind the scenes, this episode is a helpful reminder to look at the people, systems and numbers that sit underneath sustainable business growth. 

Make sure to subscribe to stay updated with new releases on Mondays! 

Visit https://www.amplifyhr.com.au for more insights and resources. 

Connect with Farid Zaki on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/faridzaki/ or visit ATP Accounting at https://atpaccounting.com.au 

Send us Fan Mail

Download our free guide, “Getting Stuff Done Through Your People,” giving you the tools to build a culture where people take ownership, goals get achieved, and results follow.

https://www.amplifyhr.com.au/downloadable/getting-stuff-done-through-your-people/ 

When team performance drops, it can be tempting to look straight at the individual and assume they are the problem. But in a growing business, performance issues are often a sign that something else is getting in the way, such as unclear priorities, a lack of management rhythm, messy workflows, workload pressure, or accountability being discussed before the foundations are in place. 

In this episode, Karen talks through the order she would generally look at when team performance is not where it needs to be, so you can work out what to fix first without trying to solve everything at once. 

In today’s episode, you will learn about: 

• Why team performance issues are not always individual performance issues 
• Why clarity around roles, priorities and expectations should usually come first 
• How managers can create a simple rhythm for performance conversations 
• Why regular one on one conversations make feedback easier and more useful 
• How messy workflows, rework and unclear approvals can make a good team look like an underperforming team 
• Why accountability only works when expectations are clear, managers follow through and the workload is realistic enough for people to succeed 
• The difference between pressure and accountability, and why that matters for small and medium sized businesses 

This episode is especially useful if your team is working hard, but performance still feels harder than it should. It will help you step back, look at the foundations, and choose a practical place to start. 

If you need support to work through team performance, clarity, management rhythm or accountability in your business, HR consultants like Amplify HR can help. 

Visit Amplify HR for more insights and resources:
https://www.amplifyhr.com.au 

Make sure to subscribe to stay updated with new releases every second Monday! 

Send us Fan Mail

Download our free guide, “Getting Stuff Done Through Your People,” giving you the tools to build a culture where people take ownership, goals get achieved, and results follow.

https://www.amplifyhr.com.au/downloadable/getting-stuff-done-through-your-people/ 

When team performance drops, it is easy to assume the issue sits with one person. 

Maybe someone is not motivated enough, not engaged enough, or not taking enough responsibility. And sometimes that might be part of the story. But in growing businesses, poor performance is often telling you something bigger. 

In this episode, Karen explores what team performance issues can reveal about the business underneath. Before you jump straight into performance management or putting more pressure on the team, it is worth asking whether the issue is really about the individual, or whether it is pointing to role confusion, unclear priorities, manager capability gaps, workload pressure, founder bottlenecks, or culture and communication issues. 

This is the diagnosis episode. It will help you pause, read the pattern, and understand what your team’s performance might be showing you about the way your business is currently operating. 

In today’s episode, you’ll learn about: 

• Why performance issues are not always individual issues 
• How unclear roles and responsibilities can show up as poor performance 
• Why founder bottlenecks slow decisions and reduce ownership 
• How manager capability affects feedback, accountability and team standards 
• Why overload can look like underperformance  
• What culture and communication might be hiding when issues stay quiet for too long 
• The questions to ask before deciding whether it is a people issue or a business issue 

If you run a growing business and you can see that performance feels off, but you are not sure what it means, this episode will help you think more clearly about what your team’s performance is really telling you. 

Free tools and guides: https://www.amplifyhr.com.au/free-tools-and-guides/ 

Visit Amplify HR: https://www.amplifyhr.com.au 

Make sure to subscribe to stay updated with new releases on Mondays!
 
Visit https://www.amplifyhr.com.au/ for more insights and resources. 

Send us Fan Mail

Download our free guide, “Getting Stuff Done Through Your People,” giving you the tools to build a culture where people take ownership, goals get achieved, and results follow.

https://www.amplifyhr.com.au/downloadable/getting-stuff-done-through-your-people/ 

Karen speaks with Carolina Montanez from Plane 2 Sea about 15 years in business, building a strong team culture and learning how to lead people through growth, pressure and change. 

Carolina’s business story started when she and three colleagues lost their jobs and decided to create their own opportunity. Fifteen years later, Plane 2 Sea has grown into a business built on simplicity, trust, communication and a deep commitment to looking after clients and team members. 

In this episode, we talk about: 

→ How Plane 2 Sea started with four women who wanted to keep working together 
→ Why simplicity matters as a business grows 
→ How Carolina has built and protected a strong workplace culture over time 
→ Why communication is central to the client and employee experience 
→ How to empower employees to make decisions without micromanaging 
→ What stress reveals about your workplace culture 
→ Why managing people is often one of the biggest learning curves in business 

This conversation is a great reminder that the people side of business is not separate from growth. It is part of what makes sustainable growth possible. 

At Amplify HR, we support small and medium sized businesses with practical HR support services that help you find, grow and keep great people. 

Book a free discovery call here:
https://meetings.hubspot.com/ronita-fourie 

Connect with Amplify HR:
https://www.amplifyhr.com.au 

Connect with Carolina and the team at Plane 2 Sea: 

www.plane2sea.com.au 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolina-montanez-59a31265/  

Make sure to subscribe to stay updated with new releases on Mondays! 

Send us Fan Mail

Download our free guide, “Getting Stuff Done Through Your People,” giving you the tools to build a culture where people take ownership, goals get achieved, and results follow.

https://www.amplifyhr.com.au/downloadable/getting-stuff-done-through-your-people/