Fifteen years ago today, Christy and I took a giant entrepreneurial leap, and launched our very own storytelling agency – The Splendid Word.
At the time, I had a three-year-old, a one-year-old and another little blessing on the way.
I was still working in politics then, but before that I’d spent years as a print and broadcast journalist…..chasing stories, deadlines and breaking news.
Journalism was my first real love, and while it taught me so much, over time I started feeling weighed down by the heaviness of it all. Day after day, the stories that led the bulletin were often the saddest ones. The most traumatic ones. The worst moments in people’s lives.
I knew I wanted to contribute to the world in a different way and to use my words for good. I wanted to write stories that connected people instead of dividing them. Stories that celebrated the good stuff and made people feel seen. Stories that brought warmth, hope and humanity into people’s lives. That made me feel something, and made others feel something too.
So while my little boys napped down the hallway, and Christy’s kids were at kinder and school, we started building that dream.
Back then, The Splendid Word existed in the cracks of early motherhood – in between naps, creche and kinder pick-ups and late at night in those strange blurry hours, where it feels like everyone in the world is asleep, except you.
We didn’t have an elaborate plan but we knew storytelling would be at the heart of it. We loved discovering who people were at their core, and the magic of taking the messy thoughts in someone’s head and turning them into stories that moved people.
And so that’s what we did.
And somehow, those early days of crafting splendid words in the middle of the night while the world (and my babies) slept turned into this.
Fifteen years.
Fifteen magical years of stories entrusted to us, of deep conversations, and of helping people find the words they couldn’t quite find themselves.
As any good writer knows, storytelling asks something of you. It asks you to pay attention, to listen, to feel deeply and to stay curious about people and the world around you. It asks you to look for meaning in ordinary moments and to care enough to keep searching, often painstakingly, for the right words.
Over the past 15 years, The Splendid Word has grown in ways I never imagined.
We’ve worked with more than 250 clients across Australia – from tourism, local government and health, to hospitality, agriculture, education, disability services and manufacturing.
We’ve written websites, magazines, articles, speeches, case studies, research papers, newsletters, books and thousands upon thousands of social media posts.
We’ve hosted our own podcast (and podcasts for others), launched our own live storytelling series, MCd events, facilitated panel conversations and interviewed some of the most ordinary, and extraordinary humans, all with their own beautifully unique and moving stories to share.
And woven through all of it have been the most incredible relationships. Some of our very first clients are still with us 15 years later.
That kind of trust is never lost on me. Nor are the people who have helped build this business alongside me.
Christy spent the first decade of TSW as my co-founder, business partner and work-wife, and even after stepping out of ownership five years ago, she’s still here beside me – still one of the most brilliant writers and humans I know.
And there’s Katie.
Katie started with us in 2017 and went full-time the following year. In that time she’s become so much more than an employee. She’s my creative partner, my sounding board, my closest collaborator and one of the biggest reasons this business has been able to grow the way it has. There is nobody I trust more deeply with our clients or our stories.
Our senior editor Kendra has been with us for a decade, our social media guru Fiona for nine years, and our queen storyteller Corinda for six. These deeply treasured humans have shaped The Splendid Word in their own beautiful ways and gifted me incredible loyalty and support. They are strong, intelligent, clever creatives and I thank my lucky stars each and every day to be surrounded by them.
Over the years we’ve had ten incredible women work as part of our team, including Sally, Kellie, Emma and Nicole. These talented storytellers have all been an important part of our TSW story and I love following where their creative journeys have taken them since.
There’s also my eldest son Dhara, our first and only male team member, who has cut his wordsmithing teeth with us during school holidays over the past couple of years, which has brought me the greatest joy.
As with any small business, there have been hard seasons too. There’s rarely a clean line between work and life, especially when the work is something you care so deeply about. There hasn’t been a holiday or break away in 15 years where my laptop hasn’t travelled with me. The hours can be relentlessly long, the deadlines are constant, there’s no paid sick-leave, annual leave or long-service leave, and there’s been way too many years of not paying myself super than I care to admit.
And the latest disruptor – AI.
Without question, it’s been the biggest shift our industry has faced in my working life.
For years now, the tech commentators have been predicting that businesses like mine wouldn’t survive this era. That human writers like us would become obsolete.
And while I’ve definitely seen a downturn across many areas of the industry, I’ve also seen people craving humanity more than ever.
Because while AI can spit out words, it can’t replace lived experience and human connection.
It can’t replace intuition or empathy, and it can’t replace the feeling of sitting across from someone in real life and truly hearing their story. Human stories matter my friends. And they always will.
Back when I started this business, it was only ever meant to be for the short-term, until the last of my three boys started school, and then I planned to return to the workforce and to a ‘real’ job. That day came 8 years ago, but by then The Splendid Word had become the real job.
Not just because it paid the bills, but because it had become such a huge part of who I am.
The fact that I get to spend my days doing the thing I was born to do really is a dream come true. Not everyone can say that about their work. And gosh it makes me proud. Proud to have built something meaningful in a community I love. Proud to work with clients who trust us with their stories. And proud to employ and work alongside such extraordinary humans.
To every client, collaborator, team member, friend and cheerleader who has been part of The Splendid Word story over the past 15 years, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
