Linda Johannesson
Linda Johannesson is a reformed corporate marketing executive and transplanted Canadian living in Australia and most recently, the CEO and Founder of The Growth Garden.
The Growth Garden is a strategic branding, marketing, messaging, and growth agency that helps ambitious service businesses to become the biggest and best version of themselves.
She tells us that, “We often start our work with clients by helping them by creating a compelling future vision for their business so that they can easily answer the question, “What exactly are we building here?”
Then, to borrow a Masterchef term, we help them ‘deconstruct’ this vision, and create the clear branding, goals, growth strategies, plans and priorities required to actually make it happen.
We’ve recently been offering a few niche services.
The latest one that’s getting lots of attention is Author Marketing Services…… It’s not the writing of the book that makes all the impact, it’s getting it in the right hands that does and that requires strategic and savvy marketing support!”
Tell us about your life before the venture/ leading up to your venture?
As I mentioned above, I’ve worked in various corporate roles in both Canada and Australia in Marketing and Communications. My career has been diverse and progressive, working my way from analyst roles to Leader and Director levels in various industries, including Finance, HR Consulting, Architecture and Engineering, News Distribution, Recruitment and Staffing, and for other Marketing agencies.
While I had often hopped back and forth between corporate roles and entrepreneurship, a few years back I knew that I was done with life as a corporate executive. I’d had enough with supporting others’ dreams, enough of having to go against my own intuition. Enough of not honouring my dreams.
I could no longer be beholden to someone else’s vision, agenda, needs and wants. I craved the independence and freedom to do the work I loved, to make the difference I wanted to make in the world, to work with interesting, innovative, ambitious people who have found their calling. I wanted to create my dream, the business I wanted to work in.
Some may see this as being selfish. Possibly. But I see it more as being self-fulfilling, being the change I wanted to see. That change was to apply everything I learned about growth from my time in the BIG corporations to the SME landscape so that SME companies could grow smarter, faster and more strategically.
This is why I created The Growth Garden.
Tell us something about your organization. What is it about and how is it helpful for people?
Clients benefit from working with The Growth Garden in a number of ways:
Clients get a broader business focus! I ask powerful questions so that business owners can better understand their business and broaden their business focus. We break down the microfocus and the status quo that can build up in a business over time.
They understand what will and won’t drive their growth. We begin with the end in mind. Strategic, structured, intentional efforts with how we work so clients can understand the direct link to what we are doing and why as well as the results these efforts will create. No smoke and mirrors here!
They get excited about their potential! By concentrating on the desired future vision for the business, owners see their business in expanded possibility and potential. This reignites their passion, increases their motivation, and amplifies desire to actually build it.
Our work improves strategic focus, while saving money, resources, and time. That same vision empowers clients to stop doing what is not working and not in keeping with their future goals, giving them clearer decision making filters and freeing up resources to be dedicated to accomplish only the key priorities.
What has been the response of the consumers towards your venture?
While I haven’t received any recent awards or accreditations, my venture has been received well by the clients I work with. To me, that is the most important measure of success.
I’ve had clients tell me things like, “I’ve never thought about my business this way. Now I get it!” and “You helped remind me of my why and I’m now more motivated than ever to grow into my vision. I needed that.” and. “Linda’s extensive corporate background enables her corporate insight to be repurposed and interpreted for a smaller but equally ambitious audience, which is a game-changer.”
How has your life changed because of your venture?
My life has become more of my own making, offering more freedom and flexibility, but it also requires more responsibility. As an entrepreneur, you are responsible for your success or lack of it. It’s up to you. And, it’s not for everyone!
But, everyday I am happy to ‘go to work’ and do what I love, have the flexibility to follow a new idea or opportunity, and hopefully I continue to make a difference for those entrepreneurs who are doing the same!
What are you working on right now?
While we are still providing our core services to mainly professional services clients, we’ve recently been offering a few niche service packages.
The latest one that’s getting lots of attention is Author Marketing Services for non-fiction authors…… So many professionals are embracing book authorship to make an impact. But, it’s not the writing of the book that makes all the impact, it’s getting it in the right hands that does and that requires strategic and savvy marketing!
In The Growth Garden, we help bestsellers bloom by offering emerging and existing non-fiction authors strategic marketing support so that they can achieve their book-related goals.
Details of this service can be found here: https://www.growthgarden.au/services/book-marketing
Give a motivational message for the audience/women who are reading this.
In your career, and in life, I urge you to embrace diversity – for that’s where all the growth is!! In your career that can mean embracing different roles, different industries, working with different sized companies, in different countries, at different stages of their growth, working for someone else or embracing entrepreneurship.
In your life it’s equally important to be exposed to new and different things – whether that’s diversity in food, people, culture, thoughts, religions, experiences, travel, areas of study, friendships, hobbies, etc. I truly believe that “Life is a blank canvas and we should splash all the colour on it we can!”
Get in touch with her:
Growth Garden Website https://www.growthgarden.au/
Linda’s LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindajohannesson/
Growth Garden Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thegrowthgardenau/
Growth Garden Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheGrowthGalAtTheGrowthGarden