Four hours after being made redundant Kim McGuinness decided she would never work for anyone else again. She would start her own business.
Fifteen years later and with a glass of champagne in hand, she gave herself 12 months to exit Network Central, the networking and events business she established for “women like her”.
And two days out from Network Central’s sixteenth birthday she’ll do just that, after running a final event with Geraldine Doogue in Sydney tomorrow (Wednesday), Women’s Agenda will officially take over the membership organisation.
McGuinness has created her career by voicing her intentions along the way. Once it’s out there, she says, things will conspire to make it happen.
“As soon as I set that intention that I was going to open a business in a year, everything just changed. I was committed,” she says. “And I set a intention again when I decided it was time to move on and do something else.”
A former accountant whose creative brain meant she was never entirely suited to numbers alone, McGuinness has exploited a talent for building communities in order to give people the support and networks they need to learn and grow.
“I’ve been building communities since I was five years old, that’s what my mother will tell you,” she says. That skill originally helped form the basis of a marketing career, when she left Australia at age 26 and landed a temp job in a major marketing firm in London.
Despite being in an accountancy role, she put her hand up to get more involved. She volunteered to run focus groups and assist with the qualitative research where she says she became fascinated by what drove people to think certain ways.
Returning to Australia two years later, she took her new marketing mindset into a coordinator role with the then Business Sydney Newspaper, where she built an events department and created new ways to connect the business community.
“I really got into that business, I treated in like my own,” she says on the four years she spent there. “We had all these readers and my job was to pull them together. I really enjoyed getting to know these people. I was researching everything that made them tick, every chance I had I was speaking with business owners.”
But one day she showed up to learn the company had ben placed into receivership and she’d lost her job. While she decided she’d never work for anyone else, she made one exception on the drive home when a sponsor of a major conference she’d created called to offer a job.
“I said, ‘that’d be fun but I’m starting my own business and can only give you a year’.” she says. “That was four hours after I’d been told Business Sydney was closing and we no longer had jobs. I started there [with ABL, what’s now known as the NSW Business Chamber, where she managed the Business Briefings and Events team] a week later, but made sure everyone knew I’d be leaving within a year.”
McGuinness still didn’t know what her business would be; just that it would be her own. The idea came to her while working with ABL, where she realised that despite the many networking and events based organisations out there for business owners, there was nothing for corporate women.
“It was my mum’s suggestion,” she says. “She was a CFO for a pharmaceutical company and I told her I needed somebody to talk to, that I needed to learn from other women. She said, ‘well why don’t you build one of your communities and ask some other people?’”
McGuinness negotiated her first sponsor in February 1999 and has since created and run more than 400 events for Network Central, meeting and connecting thousands of women in the process. She shared a glass of champagne with her husband after celebrating the business’ 15th anniversary last year where she stated her next intention: to exit the business within 12 months.
McGuinness will continue running the mentoring program she established as part of Network Central nine years ago, under the new business name Mentor Central. “The mentoring program always inspires me. You watch them [the mentors and mentees she matches] learn. You watch them grow, get more confidence, walk taller. You get to see somebody change their behaviour and their energy.”
But she too is still learning and evolving, and will soon complete a Diploma of Nutritional Therapy, with plans to launch a new career in health. Her interest in food and nutrition developed after watching her son’s immunity system deteriorate following a number of surgeries. She read The Brain that Changes Itself by Norman Doidge in a hospital waiting room. The penny dropped and McGuinness developed a new intention: to learn as much as she could about the link between nutrition and the brain — and to share the knowledge with others.
When we speak, she’s just finished a career talk at the high school she attended, putting her in an excellent position to answer what advice she would have for herself if she was starting out again. “Look after yourself,” she says. That’s your brain, your body and your mind. Find mentors, and always state your intentions.
Born. Sydney, to Danish and Scottish parents
Raised. Sydney
Wellbeing. I’m still learning. I never used to take care of myself, I was always a self-confessed workaholic. Having children grounds you. My wellbeing is now usually a daily walk with my dog. It’s my time out.
How do you stay informed. I skim over two newspapers, picking out the stories that interest me and follow a number of online publications (including Women’s Agenda!). I also follow some key people on social media and read a stack of books. My studies usually take priority and are always fascinating in their own right. In addition my husband is a wealth of information and an avid online reader so we quite often have some interesting discussions!
Advice to your 18-year-old self. Look after yourself. Take time out so your brain can think, and look after both your body and your brain. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Seek out mentors, and learn from them. Everyone you meet can teach something to you of offer you something to learn from. Remember, we’re all the same, don’t ever feel inferior to anyone.
Kim McGuinness’ story is the latest of our 100 Stories Project, in which we’re asking women about a turning point that’s shifted her leadership career. Telling 100 stories from January 1 2015, the project showcases the diverse range of leadership careers available, as well as some of the brilliant achievements and fascinating career paths of women. It also demonstrates how planned and unexpected forks in the road can take you places you never thought possible.
Got an idea? Get in contact. Check out more on our 100 Stories Project here.
Other women featured in this series include:
Angela Ferguson: The woman designing the future of work (Google included)
Jo-Ann Hicks: eBay’s leading woman on the risks that made her digital career
Annabelle Daniel: ‘I’m the unlikely combination of CEO and single parent
Sarah Liu: Multiple job titles and variety: Life as a ‘slashie’
Lindy Stephens: When the power shifts, women should make the most of it
Kate Morris: Why I gave up law to become an online entrepreneur
Jacque Comery: Leading a team of 12 on an Antarctic base