Testimonial: Strategic Creative Support

How to Professionally Brand Yourself and Your Project

“Being new to the industry, I reached out to Cate and Perth Media for much needed advice on a television series I am developing. Cate is very calm, methodical and knowledgeable. I was able to leave my session with Cate, full of excitement and direction. Cate helped me understand and plan the steps required to move forward in pitching my project. She has been great in widening my circle of contacts and with ideas to promote and strengthen my project. Thank you Cate.”

- Todd Jackson

ADAPTERS: WA Retreat Restores You Close to Home with Perth Wellness Expert Amanda Hobley

Amanda Hobley

A group of professional women will be taking much-needed time to focus on restoring their mind and body at a superb retreat, close Perth, from March 20-22, 2020.

Wellness expert and Perth naturopath Amanda Hobley said: “In a modern world, it can be overwhelming and very stressful at times juggling a family and career.

Our retreats are designed to nurture women in beautiful Australian bush landscapes.

“This is our third WA retreat to this amazing location. Kangaroos, kookaburras, emus, cockatoos, ancient lemon scented eucalypt trees and brightly coloured wattles surround you.

“Often women are trained to use their intellectual or, some might say, rational mind and not to feel. I can help women connect with their feelings, intuition and emotional needs.

“This weekend is all about self love. There are no deadlines, no expectations, no judgement, and it is focused on accepting all aspects of ourselves including the emotions that we sometimes suppress.

“The retreat also gives you time and space to acknowledge and process emotions such as frustration and resentment. By dealing with and accepting emotions, sometimes physical tension, stress and pain can be alleviated.”

For the first time individual pamper packs, locally produced by Gwendy Lawrence at Purity Organics, will be given to participants. The catering on the retreat is also amazing.

Amanda Hobley, who qualified as a naturopath in 2004 with an Advanced Diploma of Naturopath (PANT), has worked with hundreds of women, supporting and empowering them to learn to become experts of themselves.

Focusing on women’s health, Amanda combines her own life experience with over 15 years of clinical experience and sees clients at her Highgate practice.

“I have a special interest in women who are in transitional periods, and working through stress while longing to feel connected, calm, and balanced,” she said. “There is great joy in watching these women regain their energy, motivation, and love for life.

Along with her private consultations, Amanda guides wellness retreats and journeys both locally (as in this event), and internationally, with trips planned to Kerala, India, in October and The Camino, Spain, in 2021.

She has a diverse range of additional complementary skills including Bodytalk, Reiki and Sound Healing. She conducts private consultations, group workshops, and online courses. 

The Rejuvenation Retreat is nestled in the Darling Ranges, Chittering Valley it is within an hour’s drive from Perth city and airport. 

Those attending often spend time bushwalking, as well as doing a variety of optional activities including artwork or creative play.

There are still two places available. To book, visit Amanda Hobley’s Website.

This article is one of many featured in 'Adapters', a series in WABN exclusively for Perth Media clients, profiling news of innovative small businesses, start-ups and not for profits.

ADAPTERS: Perth Feng Shui Expert - Michele Vos Castle - Teaches Self Awareness and How to Live on Bali Retreat in August

Complete Lifestyle Retreats - Michele Vos Castle

It sounds strange to say that a self-indulgent holiday can help you make big decisions, but that is exactly the advice Feng Shui expert, Michele Vos Castle gives to her clients. 

Ms Vos Castle finds that beyond the usual practices of Feng Shui, bringing clients onto a luxurious retreat brings them unparalleled clarity. She has been a Feng Shui consultant for more than 14 years and was trained by Master Raymond Lo, of Hong Kong, Joe Yap and Lillian Too at the Feng Shui Centre in Perth, Western Australia.

Clients often seek her advice at crossroads in their lives and Ms Vos Castle takes them in small groups and jets them to Bali for pampering and pleasurable pursuits which have inspired by a mix of Chinese astrology and Feng Shui. Her next special Bali retreat is planned for August, 2020.

“I do a lot of teaching in Perth but I’ve found a way of getting better results for my clients is to teach in retreat style,” Ms Vos Castle says.

“So, we go to Bali for five days, away from clients’ environments and families. The group can grasp my teachings and better understand themselves, which is empowering. People talk and bond, and I give them a reality check of how they can make the most of their characteristics and strengths.”

As a Feng Shui expert, she specialises in harmonising with the natural world and fuses those skills with Chinese astrology, to define individual personalities. Soon after touchdown in Bali, clients undergo analysis in which lifestyle and environment are dissected.

This is known as BaZi profiling, or Four Pillars of Destiny. Self-indulgence is never far away in either of the group’s two venues – a boutique hotel in Seminyak and a private villa in Ubud.

“Their stay must be private, indulgent and intimate,” Ms Vos Castle says. “There must be a safe environment for people to understand themselves and heal.”

Reflexology, massage, breath work and meditation in a tropical paradise are allied to a cultural day out that may include sound healing at the Pyramids of Chi and a water purification ceremony. “There are also lots of exciting restaurants and things to do, including French cooking classes.

”Alcohol is permitted. “This is not a health retreat, and you don’t have to be healthy to join in. But neither do we drink all night and overdo it,” Ms Vos Castle says. The vibe is fun and indulgent.

A golden rule is for single-sex groupings only, because the exchange of information is frank. Those dynamics are difficult to create in the presence of the opposite sex.

Her first male-only group flies to Bali in 2021. “A lot of men, just like women, need to relax and connect with themselves in a safe environment,” Ms Vos Castle says.

She hits another milestone in September when she goes to Bali with staff in one company to teach them how to bond.

“Nearly everybody who’s been on one of my retreats says it’s amazing…they go home with tools to help themselves through the rest of their lives.”

She makes a point of targeting ordinary folk, not only people in influential positions. There are even payment plans for affordability.

“We’re so busy surviving in this day and age that we don’t realise we’re not actually living. Yet, everybody is special and unique in their own way,” she says.

When people are asked about happiness after one of her retreats, they seldom describe material assets.

“They enjoy the sanctuary and the friendships they form. They like the indulgence and the peace and the fact that they’re being totally looked after. They can surrender and be themselves.”

If you are interested in finding out more, you can contact Michele at the details below.

Go to: https://www.facebook.com/completelifestyleretreats

Email: michele@completefengshui.com

Phone: 0421 116 799

This article is one of many featured in 'Adapters', a series in WABN exclusively for Perth Media clients, profiling news of innovative small businesses, start-ups and not for profits.

Media Monitoring: Perth Media's Top 5 Recent PR Results

Perth Media continues to log excellent results. Our top five recent include three ASX-listed clients as well as two of Perth Media’s Adapters clients: one utilising our Written Adapters service and the other advertising her brand through our first ever Adapters Film.

 1. Australian Mining Review’s ‘In the Spotlight’ series focused on Renascor Resources Managing Director, David Christensen.

 2. Prestigious global financial publication Acuris/Mergermarket featured Bryah Resources after an interview at Diggers & Dealers last month: ‘Bryah Resources could seek further JV opportunities as manganese strategy advances.’

 3. Adapters Film is up and running. Here is the first: Marina’s Ambrosia short film.

 4. Several clients appeared in Stockhead, including Australian Vanadium Limited, on lower vanadium prices prompting new Vanadium Redox Flow Battery (VRFB) developments.

 5. Through our Written Adapters product, Raj Singh of RealIQ outlined his novel co-living accommodation developments in India.

- Janine Taylor, Consultant, Perth Media

Adapters: Third Perth Festival of Healing to Promote Alternative Treatments for Wellbeing on May 26

Ann Joel and Michele Vos Castle

Wellbeing experts, Ann Joel and Michele Vos Castle, will hold the third Perth Festival of Healing this weekend in which psychic and spiritual healers, sound and colour therapists and energy healers of various disciplines take centre stage.

A free-to-enter festival, it will showcase various alternative methods of addressing illness. For those attending, the event will be an introduction to new ways to treat bothersome ailments and bring comfort in the face of terminal disease.

It is the third festival that Michele Vos Castle (of Complete Feng Shui), a Feng Shui Master and past owner of a wellness centre, has organised with Ann Joel, an international healing medium. Thousands of people flocked to their popular first two offerings held last year.

Independently, the two women had reached one conclusion – small business owners in Perth’s alternative healing industry lacked funds or expertise to market their skills.

Without a showcase, the public were ignorant of available treatments, known as modalities. And so, the idea of a festival of healing was borne, to help businesses and educate the public.

“Over 2000 people came through the door at our first festival in City West Function Centre in March last year,” Ms Vos Castle said.

Some weeks later, she was in conversation with a woman who recalled the 'amazing' festival, unaware that Ms Vos Castle was an instigator. The episode showed the festival was a winner.

It was no surprise when the second festival repeated success of the first, leading to this third event.

Ms Vos Castle recognised the need for a festival when running her wellness centre. Adept at networking, she has been a strong advocate for small business and organised small healing fairs before launch of the festival.

Most festivalgoers want to address personal misfortunes, ailments and illnesses of varying degrees of seriousness. Others seek knowledge about achieving peace and happiness. Both groups are exposed only to Western Australian healers and products.

For Ann Joel, who organises the festival with Ms Vos Castle, the event gives meaning to her remarkable journey of self-discovery that took her around the world.

Domiciled in Perth from 14, the young woman was forging a career in public relations when, in 1978, she was in a car crash that left her in a neck brace with a paralysed left arm.

She continues: “When the doctor said after a year that they could do no more for me, and I was still in a neck brace, I was taken to a spiritual healer in Perth who I saw every week for two years.”

When improvements arrived slowly, she quickly rebooted her PR career, rising to Myer divisional manager and an executive in Dallas Dempster’s Burswood casino project and other high-profile posts.

She built a PR firm with nine staff but burnt out by 1993 and moved to Sydney, seeking greater tolerance of spiritual healing. There she met an indigenous healer who profoundly affected her.

Soon she opened a spiritual energy clinic and in New York she was ordained an interfaith minister. She worked in China, the US, Canada and the UK.

Three years ago, she relocated to Perth to be with family and built a nationwide clientele as a non-religious spiritual healer. The festival is a pet project. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do since returning to Perth.”

This year’s event offers more space than before and it is tipped to be the biggest festival yet.

The Perth Festival of Healing will be at the Cannington Exhibition Centre and Showgrounds on the corner of Albany Highway and Station Street, Cannington on Sunday 26 May 2019.

This article is one of many which have featured in 'Adapters', a series exclusively for Perth Media clients, profiling news of innovative small businesses, startups and not-for-profits in WA Business News.

Adapters: Balcatta Panel & Paint on Fixing Hi-tech Cars and Car Craft Crash-repair Quality

Andrew Jaques inspects a quality repair.

A Perth panelbeater has found that life-saving technology featured in modern cars and SUVs can greatly increase the cost of repairing these vehicles to manufacturers’ standards.

Andrew Jaques, owner of Balcatta Panel and Paint, says modern cars act like computers on four wheels and keep drivers and passengers safe with advanced sensor technology.

But a bingle in a vehicle with hi-tech safety features can cost much more to fix than a minor collision in a car not so well equipped.

“For example, blind-spot sensors fitted behind bumpers of new cars are actually a little radar,” Mr Jaques said. “As soon as you replace one you have to have the car recalibrated by the dealer.”

Recalibration increases the repair bill. He said replacing a sensor on a Kia Stinger, a luxury sports sedan that starts at $52,000, was costly.

“You think, Kia – inexpensive brand, but the sensor is $1700 plus GST,” he said. “After that we have to bring it to the Kia dealer to have it recalibrated, so you’re talking about more than $2000.”

Reversal into a roadside pole can incur a new sensor. “And that amount doesn’t include the cost of the bumper and paintwork repairs,” he said. “We always try to offer competitive pricing for private repairs, but we highly recommend getting insurance that will cover these types of expenses.”

Mr Jaques is an exemplar in the car repair business, after buying into it six years ago. His background in aviation led him to focus on high quality work that he insists on overseeing personally.

“The owner of the business has skin in the game,” Mr Jaques said. That approach helps safeguard the business in an evolving marketplace. “There’s always room for us as a niche repairer.”

Balcatta Panel and Paint is in the nationwide Car Craft crash-repair network that originated in WA in 1987 to improve industry standards. Mr Jaques and staff undergo tutorials to maintain quality.

He arrived from his native Sweden 30 years ago, having started working life as a pastry cook and chef who owned an American-made V8 Valiant at 16 when still too young for a driving licence.

In Perth he indulges a lifelong passion for cars from a spick and span workshop in Balcatta’s business community. “Our team is highly qualified, and we deal with local customers and businesses. We love to help getting fleet cars back on the road, and we offer priority services for local businesses.”

Away from work, it’s more cars. Mr Jaques is a member of the American Car Club of WA. “It’s a great way to connect to other passionate car lovers and sometimes I even bring the family along,” he said. For more information please visit www.balcattapanelandpaint.com.au.

Adapters: Journeys of the Spirit's April Bhutan Tour Will Help Business People to be Happier

Owner of Perth-based Journeys of the Spirit, Julie Baker, Runs Extraordinary Tours

Perth entrepreneur Julie Baker is tapping into demand from a growing number of people who are seeking relief from stress.

Her WA company, Journeys of the Spirit, guides business owners and professionals on two-week sojourns of self-discovery in mystical locations that include Bhutan, Land of the Thunder Dragon.

She hit on the wellness formula by packaging her two passions – spiritual health and wellbeing, and travel. These she markets in journeys and retreats aimed at rebalancing stressed individuals.

“I am a business person,” Ms Baker says. “I love business, I love creating businesses and I love creating different business models.”

Stressed souls experience spiritual awakenings in Bhutan, Spain, Italy, India, Japan, Scandinavia, Peru, France, Hawaii or some other destination.

Ms Baker describes her ideal client as a successful person who is still not feeling happy. “They realise their version of success doesn’t necessarily make them happy,” she says.

It took her more than three decades and three travel-related businesses to produce Journeys of the Spirit, motivated in part by a devastating childhood experience at 15.

“My mum was misdiagnosed with menopause at 48 and had a mental breakdown,” Ms Baker says. The teenager stopped eating meat and gained a juvenile understanding of there being more to life.

It helps explain her captivation with Bhutan, a Buddhist kingdom the size and population of Tasmania landlocked in the Himalayas between superpowers China and India.

“Bhutan is the only place in the world that is 100 per cent certified organic,” Ms Baker says. “And wealth is not measured by GDP – it’s measured by Gross National Happiness.”

The scenery is an awe-inspiring panorama of rivers, mountains and verdant slopes. Journeyers, as Ms Baker calls them, are housed in three to four-star accommodation with private bathrooms.

They are immersed in Bhutanese community life, consuming some of the freshest produce on Earth and seeing how simple living and family values are central to happiness.

The experience aims to redefine their understanding of success.

One journey follows the trail of 8th century Indian sage, Guru Rinpoche, who brought Buddhism to Bhutan. It ends at breathtaking Paro Taktsang monastery, perched perilously on a cliffside.

Guides are all business owners. Prospective journeyers must first discuss their expectations, and are supported in their physical, emotional and mental preparations.

Ms Baker is proud of one seasoned traveller who had owned several businesses before going on one of her journeys to Bhutan. He said afterwards: “I learned to measure success in a different way.”

The next Bhutan journey runs from April 15 to 28. For more info go to: Journeys of the Spirit website.

Adapters: Perth Complete Feng Shui Master Tells How Houses Win and Lose Money

Complete Feng Shui's Michele Vos Castle

People buying new homes in Perth’s sprawling outer suburbs may be putting their relationships, health and wealth at risk, according to businesswoman Michele Vos Castle.

“The newer the home and the further the suburb is in distance from the City of Perth, the weaker the luck seems to be from a relationship,  health and cashflow point of view,” she says.

Ms Vos Castle is a Master of Feng Shui, the art of harmonising buildings with environment and natural elements. Her business, Complete Feng Shui, fuses that knowledge with Chinese astrology.

Many new homes in Perth are long and thin with rear laneways and small front yards, she says. Such properties have trouble capturing and holding Feng Shui energy.

“If a home cannot capture and hold its energy then it can’t tap into its health or relationship luck and it also can’t hold its money luck,” she says. Those homeowners must work harder to make money and hold relationships.

Better home design and town planning fixes the problem, she says. People building a new home should consult Feng Shui when the block is still bare.

Ms Vos Castle advises corporate clients on locations for business premises and how to create and improve existing environments, which includes designs for business cards.

Residential clients learn how to create harmonious homes and improve the chances of selling them. Behavioural issues in children are addressed as well as clients’ health, wealth and happiness.

Ms Vos Castle talks from experience. Years ago, she hired a consultant “to Feng Shui” her then home as well as her dream house under construction.

Happiness was abundant in her old home but her marriage failed in the luxurious new one. She intensified her interest in Feng Shui by studying under several Masters and travelling overseas.

Fifteen years ago, she combined her newfound knowledge with pre-existing studies on interior design to launch a career teaching and advising on Feng Shui, Chinese astrology and metaphysics.

“My style is to simplify it and deal with what actions people really need to take and what they really need not worry about,” she said.

Four times a year Ms Vos Castle takes clients to Bali for five-day retreats on Feng Shui basics. “I find it’s more powerful if you take people away – there are no interruptions,” she says.

Feng Shui is a mathematical art about colour and placement, she says. “Whether you believe in it or not, you are still affected by it.”

www.completefengshui.com

Adapters: Perth Business Captivate Connect Keeps Customers Calling Globally

Captivate Connect Mark Horwood

Perth-based company has revolutionised the dreaded 'on hold' experience by developing new technology that transforms call wait times into payday time.

Mark Horwood, chief executive officer of Captivate Connect, compares being on hold as akin to waiting for luggage at an airport. “There’s nothing you can do but stand and wait.”

His company, now run from modest offices in Burswood, stunned the corporate world in 2002 by offering daily news, sport and weather information to callers on hold.

“Commercially, it was very successful for us. The technology was internet-based to help accommodate the immediacy of updating the daily news and sport,” Mr Horwood said.

Captivate Connect is now inspired by internet multimedia technology and once again is refining the “on hold” experience; this time for mutual enrichment of callers and businesses.

The company sponsored a website called Horrible on Hold to determine exactly what people disliked about waiting on hold. There was an overwhelming response that it’s generic, repetitive and boring.

“This wasn’t anything new to me,” Mr Horwood said, “but how can we play audio everyone will be happy with? We give them the choice.”

Music not your thing? Perhaps a quiz or a podcast may be more up your alley. Globally, this interactive-on-hold has never been done before and there’s no-one else who can do it, he says.

Callers become immersed in the business, causing these callers to become loyal brand ambassadors, relaying their experiences to friends and associates – in turn, boosting sales.

“The only way to win word-of-mouth referrals is by delivering an experience that exceeds expectations,” Mr Horwood says.

Interactive-on-hold collects caller data. A caller being directed to the sales department can be offered a brochure on any new/best-selling products. The Caller opts to receive the brochure by entering their number, it is then sent via text and, in return, the sales team effectively gathers the caller’s details to follow-up.

After two minutes, callers are invited to leave their name, number and reason for calling to receive a call back. This costs as little as $1. Mr Horwood believes businesses employing more than 20 people would readily pay $1 to retain a customer.

Statistics suggest that, within five years, 68% of all business transactions will involve the human voice – down from today’s 72% – but the importance of these transactions will become more valuable.

“Fax is virtually redundant, snail mail doesn’t work, and trying to get anybody to respond to emails is like pulling teeth, which is why we’re seeing a shift back to phones,” Mr Horwood says.

Visit www.captivateconnect.com to find out more.

This column is part of the Adapters series produced by Perth Media. It profiles Perth Media small business and not-for-profit clients exclusively.

Adapters: Perth Naturopath Amanda Hobley's Retreats Help Lead Business People to Better Health

Perth naturopath Amanda Hobley

Perth naturopath Amanda Hobley is leading business people to better mental and physical health through personally-guided retreats to Kerala in India and, locally, to Chittering, north of Perth, at two upcoming exceptional retreats.

Mrs Hobley’s next Indian retreat, a revitalising two-week health trip to an Ayurvedan resort in  Kerala, runs from August 10-24, 2019, while the Chittering Spirit of the Land retreat is next month, May 17-19, 2019.

In India, the party will eat vegetarian food in a lush paradise and receive Indian herbalist consultations and various relaxation treatments. She also guides weekend retreats closer to home in Chittering where clients can relax in a beautiful Australian bush setting.

“It’s about getting out of routine and into the rhythm of nature,” Ms Hobley says.

“In our culture, success means working extremely hard, often in environments that are quite toxic, so people can be going to work and experiencing huge amounts of stress. For example, they may feel like they’re being chased by a lion every day and this will trigger a massive stress response that is hugely detrimental. However, immersing yourself in nature can rebalance your emotions and be enormously beneficial.”

In her popular clinic, she has helped dozens of Perth clients, over the past decade, recognise that stresses as well as old traumas or belief systems maybe be adversely affecting their current health and wellbeing.

Mrs Hobley is also an expert in BodyTalk therapy. For this, muscles are posed a series of painless yes/no prompts and the response is gauged to determine bodily imbalances. She then taps the subject’s head, chest or navel to stimulate or accelerate its natural ability to balance itself.

“My passion is to help people who are very stressed understand that their stress is impacting on their physical, emotional and mental health,” Ms Hobley says. Among many aims, she focuses on improving their energy, clarity and stamina as well as helping clients feel calmer and uplifted.

“There are so many beautiful herbs and nutrients that help support your ability to cope with stress by giving you energy and stamina,” she says. “Many herbs calm the nervous system, so really do bring down anxiety.”

Amanda has been inspired by her personal experience, and the women she works with, to create a four-week online course to reduce the triggers of stress and increase ways to care, love and nurture yourself. Amanda will support you every step of the way and share new meditations and techniques that are simple and effective, creating a new way of responding to the stresses in your life. 

She is also an expert in iridology.

Amanda Hobley Reconnect & Restore

This article is one of many featured in 'Adapters', a series in WABN exclusively for Perth Media clients, profiling news of innovative small businesses, start-ups and not for profits.