Melissa Smith Email & Phone Number

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

I oversee a wide range of responsibilities encompassing sales, marketing, and communications. In 2022, I took charge of directing the clinic's rebranding project. I also play a pivotal role in conceptualising and executing website redesigns and new website creations, creating robust content strategies, curating social media content, managing SEO strategy, executing and managing Google ads, and spearheading the creation of sales, marketing and patient management automation systems to enhance the efficiency of our lead and patient management processes.

Melbourne, Australia

Using a combination of naturopathic nutrition and health coaching, I helped people in the UK, Australia, Canada and the US with a range of health conditions, from fatigue to digestive disturbances, brain fog, hormonal issues and weight loss challenges.In addition to 1:1 coaching, I delivered lunch and learn workplace wellness workshops and group programs to improve the health, well-being and performance of teams.

London, United Kingdom

While I was training as a nutritional therapist and naturopath, I continued to use my skills in brand strategy, marketing, design and project management to help small businesses and startups to create or grow their brands, as well as mentoring small business owners and helping them manage stress through lifestyle practices and coaching. Clients were Yogland, Optimum Insurance and health practitioners I had met through college and networking.

London, United Kingdom

As I began my studies in Nutrition and Naturopathic Medicine, I also engaged in part-time consulting on internal business issues and providing troubleshooting to the client service team on projects - from brand strategy to project methodologies at Bulletproof.

London, United Kingdom

I was hired to grow the packaging side of this business as the agency wanted to be seen as a key player in the FMCG industry. Starting out as an account director, I first worked with Kraft Foods on the Kenco coffee redesign. Through working with them, we ended up being Kraft's only strategic packaging design agency in the UK, knocking out a competitor and industry leader from their long held spot, eventually landing a place on the European roster. The agency was in its infancy when it came to managing large clients, so I implemented much of what I'd learned about running an agency to create more organisation and structure, to prime the agency for growth and make sure things ran smoothly. I was involved in all new business pitches plus developing and maintaining existing client relationships. I created and directed brand and packaging strategies across the majority of the agency's clients, while ensuring designs met the client's brief and delivered a world class standard of design. As we acquired new clients and doubled the team within 2 years, I was promoted to Client Services Director, where I managed a team of 12 client services staff across 15+ accounts. I led and directed the team to deliver world class service of strategy and design projects following the standards I'd created. My main role with clients at that stage was to nurture relationships and ensure they saw Bulletproof as a key strategic partner. I also led the pitch team, where in the final year I was there we had a 100% win rate (out of 14 pitches).During my tenure, Bulletproof rose to become one of the top 10 UK packaging design agencies in London. We created several successful packaging campaigns for the likes of GSK, Cadbury, Kraft, Sainsbury's, Heinz, Unilever, Cussons, Coca-Cola, Heineken, Espa and Bacardi.I left the agency after deciding to study nutrition and naturopathic medicine - a new career beckoned...

Melbourne, Australia

I took on a temporary role before moving to London, to help this start-up agency establish itself within the marketplace. One of the owners was a designer I had worked with at Blue Marlin, so she had called me in to help. I helped with the writing of credentials, new business initiatives and communications, pitching tenders and processes, writing brand strategies, client servicing and creation of agency processes.What I learned at Passport is that there are agencies who encourage you to have a work life balance - and where work can also be a lot of fun. I was able to bring my dog in to work as we worked across the road from the beach! This was were I got my first sense of what it would feel like if I could choose to work in a space I wanted. It didn't have to be just an office desk in a busy corporate district. If you create your own business you can create the work space you desire!

Melbourne, Australia

Blue Marlin is a strategic brand and packaging design agency founded in the UK that entered the Australian market a few years prior. They were raising the bar on strategy and design in the country, so i knew I wanted to be a part of their team and learn how the big UK agencies worked. During my time there I worked on the global redesign of Cadbury, the global redesign of Schweppes as well as managing and directing brands and accounts across both Melbourne and Sydney offices, including Unilever, Arnott's, PZ Cussons, Campbell's, General Mills, Ansell, Brown Brothers, Kraft Foods, Riviana Foods...to name a few!What I learned and loved most about my time at Blue Marlin was that they saw themselves as part of a client's long term strategy team. They thought beyond the current project they were working on with clients. They positioned themselves at the helm of new product development with each client, helping their clients see a bigger vision for their brand than perhaps they had seen themselves. This shift in perspective and position helped me learn more about the product creation and long term planning process a brand (and business) goes through. It made me more confident in my role as a senior account manager, and I was able to engage in high level discussions with marketing directors, research consultants and product development teams. I also garnered a wealth of knowledge on technical product design. As with my past roles, I performed so well that I worked across most accounts. I was also chosen as the Blue Marlin ambassador in the industry, so networking was also part of my job (which I loved). Because of this, I was asked to lecture year 2 design students at Swinburne University on branding and packaging design. I became involved in their curriculum by creating a packaging project and assessing each student's project work.Unfortunately, I hadn't learned my lesson from when I was at Cowan. My overworking led to burnout. So I left and moved to London.

Sydney, Australia

After my performance at Cowan, I was awarded the role of setting up a sister agency to manage the ALDI Stores Australian launch in Sydney. I managed a team of 14 designers and finished artists to produce approximately 250 SKUs in a 3-month period... no mean feat! What did I learn? A few things, actually. Mostly about myself. I learned I had no boundaries. I sacrificed my health and myself to make sure I did the job well and didn't let anyone down, even if that meant working til 3am, surviving on photography samples (chocolate wafer biscuits) and working weekends. In actual fact, I let MYSELF down, as I couldn't stand up for myself and say 'no'. See, I had attached my worth to my work. When that happens, you become a 'yes' girl. This is what I'd done my whole career. I'd said yes to every opportunity as I thought it meant I was worth more if I accomplished more (which in the corporate world, it seems that way). One day, I finished raising the month's invoices at 11pm at night, and got excited as the bill tallied up to $697,000. Woo hoo! I was AWESOME! I had team members look at me in astonishment the following week. I had colleagues congratulate me. My boss praised me. My manager told me i'd broken a record for the most sales invoiced in a month for an account manager for any packaging agency in the whole of Australia. And I'd only just turned 22.... The next month, I was frustrated when I *only* billed $400k (still fantastic). I felt anxiety and self loathing. Colleagues were pulling me aside, telling me to slow down, that I was doing enough. To me? It wasn't enough. When you attach your worth to your successes, you're constantly trying to prove yourself by upping your game. Years later, I realised I believed I wasn't enough, which fuelled my workaholism. This is now what I teach entrepreneurs to recognise and break so they no longer attach their worth to their success. And they realise they ARE enough without having success to back it up.

Melbourne And Sydney

When you're thrown in the deep end, you either sink or swim. As I found out in this company, i'm a swimmer. I was my boss' protege who had more than 20 years experience in the FMCG industry, as a buyer at Woolworth's to running his own hugely successful agency (in the top 3 agencies in Australia at the time). In my first 6 months I learned in-store and buyer consumer behaviour, design and packaging strategy, how business relationships are formed and developed (key insight: relating to people on a HUMAN level, telling stories and analogies), how a studio is managed and more. I was quickly promoted from coordinator to manager with my own accounts to manage. I'm a fast thinker and worker, which meant I could handle a large workload of clients. As such I managed a large client base which grew over the years. Each project and client was different, which taught me how different clients (and brands) communicate. I worked with a large team of designers, finished artists and third party suppliers that I had to communicate to, direct, manage and negotiate with. I learned the value of listening and being a team player to get the best outcome. I managed clients across Melbourne and Sydney: Bonds Clothing, Lion Nathan (Hahn, Tooheys, Swan, Castlemaine), Simplot (Leggo, Birds Eye, Edgell), Nestle (Maggi), Lilburn Wines, Nestle Peters, Bonlac (Fonterra), Cussons, Tontine Bedding, McCormick Foods, Ballantyne Confectionery, MAB Corporation (Newquay docklands development).One of the biggest insights I carried with me through all my future jobs was that the power of stories can help connect, persuade and inspire. Whether that's with a client, a colleague or a consumer - we all love stories. No one likes being told what to do directly, yet tell a story that shows a perspective we can connect with and be inspired by, then we're more empowered to buy/act. Business is about connection. People buy people. This is one of the reasons I love speaking.

Melbourne, Australia

This multi-tasked role involved working in different departments across the business - from interior design to graphic design, accounts and finance. This gave me a well-rounded understanding of how a world class agency operates. Hard work and initiative won me a role of managing all the Asia Pacific business through the Melbourne studio, working on clients such as Raffles Hotel (China), Warner Lambert, Poppy King, Arnott's Biscuits, Henry Jones Foods and Qantas. This wealth of experience helped me be more organised by being goal and results focused and helped me to start to develop my communication, negotiation and listening skills. The female CEO cried when she had to make me redundant after the Asia financial crisis resulted in the business losing some major business. She said that she saw herself in me, and that one day very soon i'd be sitting where she was, achieving that role much younger than most would do, and that she was sad that she wouldn't be around to see it. She also said that being a woman at the top could be lonely and challenging, so to take care of myself first and foremost - and get a good group of supportive peers. That moment and her message stuck with me throughout my career.

Nutritional Therapy And Naturopathy, Naturopathic Medicine/Naturopathy/Nutrition

Naturopathy diploma completed March 2012. Naturopathy is a holistic healthcare philosophy and approach that focuses on disease prevention.

Certification In Transformational Nutrition Coaching, Psychology, Spirituality, Coaching And Transformation

This groundbreaking coaching course teaches eating psychology, the psychology of habits and other psychology concepts, spirituality.