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Emma McQueen

Action Station

Rollover, NOT refund!

| Action Station, All Posts

I, like many of you, have been impacted by the not-so-friendly virus that is COVID-19.

I have been working with clients to help them pivot (ever seen that Friends episode where Ross tries to squeeze the mattress around the corner? Do yourself a favour and watch it!), pull things online, and work out what clients and customers need in this time.

There is so much negative news, people cannot stop talking about coronavirus, and we are living in fear (with not-so-clear direction from Scotty, I might add).

It’s times like these we need to face outwards and work out what service looks like for you and your business. Who can you serve at this time? What value can you add to current clients without the icky sell?

As you know, a lot of the work I do is face to face: Lunch with the Queen, Thriving Women workshops, and coaching. The whole kit and kaboodle. We have now moved most things online.

I recently had an interesting conversation with Bel Temby from Digital Services Lab, and we spoke about the idea of offering a rollover rather than a refund. What does that mean? Well, we are all small businesses, so let me tell you what I did for Lunch with the Queen.

Scheduled for April 23rd, our sold-out Lunch with the Queen now can’t go ahead, as restaurants are all closed due to COVID-19. So, I rang everyone (yes, I actually picked up the phone!) and offered them a rollover to a yet-to-be-determined date OR a refund and a Zoom call with all 16 guests, who could BYO lunch.

The result? Some fantastic conversations with awesome women, some of whom I am yet to meet, who profusely thanked me for picking up the phone to check in and explain the situation. Almost everyone chose the rollover and everyone is still meeting on Zoom because they want to connect, especially now!

People want to help. They want the chance to support others in business. I also want to continue to serve, and this seemed like the right choice for right now.

What about you? Do you need to offer your clients a rollover?

Feel free to get in touch with me here

I’m Emma, and I’m a business and executive coach who believes wholeheartedly in the potential of women. My coaching philosophy is simple- taking action leads to results- and I love working with women in business and in corporate roles to take their passion and drive and transform their professional and personal lives.

Be enthusiastic, optimistic and energetic, every day.

“I just need more time.” Or do you?

| Action Station, All Posts, Challenges for Women

What do Jacinda Ardern, Greta Thunberg and Beyoncé all have in common? No, it’s not fame or headlines. They each have 86,400 seconds in a day to make it count!

And so do you.

“I wish there were more hours in the day…”

We’ve all said this. I know I’ve mumbled it! How many times have you heard others say it?

In our society, we constantly hear references to time running out, lack of time, having no time, we’ve got too much to do and not enough time, if only there were more hours in the day… I’m guilty of saying these things, as well.

It reminds me of the great quote from Margaret Atwood in her book, The Handmaid’s Tale:

“But that’s where I am. There’s no escaping it. Time’s a trap, I’m caught in it.”

Can you relate? When we feel caught in this trap called time, we feel crappy. It steals our happiness. And we wish we had more time so we could get everything done.

We’re “time poor”

One of my clients, Layla, never seemed to have enough time. She was a classic example of what we consider “time poor”: always busy, always working, with little time for herself.

Layla was not alone. As a female leadership coach, one of the things I commonly hear from women, especially those juggling a business and family, is that there’s just not enough time.


But is that true?

Do we really not have enough time? Or is it that we don’t use our time effectively? Do we focus on the wrong things at the wrong times?


According to Forbes, time is our most valuable commodity. Research shows that “time stress” is linked with reduced wellbeing, decreased happiness and increased levels of anxiety and insomnia.

So, the question is, how do we value our time? Just how precious is it to us? And what’s a smart way to use it?

The fact is, there is no more time

Imagine, if you will, an hourglass. It holds 24 hours. We all have the same sized hourglass, so everything we do must fit inside it.


This presents you with a wonderful opportunity! How you spend your 24 hours is entirely your choice! Your 24 hours is time for you to nourish yourself. It’s time to sleep well and be fit for each day. It’s time to spend with the people closest to you. It’s time to do the work you love and make the difference you were born to make.

The key is to know your priorities

The most successful women in business and leadership ruthlessly prioritise. They know how to balance the important and the urgent. And when they don’t, they have someone in their corner to gently – and sometimes loudly! – keep them on track.


You see, using your time well has nothing to do with how much of it you have. It’s about the choices you make and how you prioritise.

“Time is a gift, given to you, given to give you the time you need, the time you need to have the time of your life.”

– Norton Juster

Urgent vs non-urgent

Our progress with an important task is easily derailed by the “urgent” – things that require our IMMEDIATE attention. These things are usually not important, yet they steal our attention away from what we should be doing at that moment.

The urgent shouts, “NOW! I need your attention NOW!” It puts us in reactive mode, which is really unhelpful.

Important tasks, on the other hand, contribute to our long-term mission. They bring our purpose, values and goals to life. Sometimes, important tasks are urgent, but typically they’re not.


The Eisenhower Matrix is a useful tool that can help you prioritise tasks by urgency. It identifies:

  • The urgent and important
  • The less urgent and important
  • The urgent and less important
  • The less urgent and less important

Prioritising tasks this way means you can decide what you should:

  • Do first
  • Schedule
  • Delegate
  • Don’t do

Let’s go back to Layla…

Layla continued to show up to our coaching sessions, telling me she couldn’t get all her tasks done because she didn’t have enough time. So, I asked her to make a list of all the tasks she was doing. We then identified the tasks that were urgent but not important, and the things that were important but not urgent.

What we discovered was that Layla really enjoyed networking and building relationships. This was great from a business development perspective, but it meant a lot of her important work was not getting done. Because it wasn’t in her diary, it didn’t take precedence.

So, we worked on Layla’s calendar. We scheduled time for the important things, so they didn’t become urgent things, and we scheduled time for the less-important (but enjoyable) things, such as Layla’s networking events.

One important task Layla struggled with was writing content. She procrastinated on it so much that I issued her a challenge. She was not allowed to attend her coveted networking events for a week if she hadn’t written her content!

What do you think happened? That’s right, she did not like the thought of no networking, so she got onto her content immediately! Suddenly, there was time to write. There was also time to get her calendar sorted, time for all the things she did not think were possible. And there was time for her networking events!

Was it easy? No! Nothing worth it is. Did having a plan make Layla happier? You betcha!  

By becoming clear on her non-negotiable tasks, Layla could plan, prioritise and value her time, and she was loving life again.

I’m Emma, and I’m a business and executive coach who believes wholeheartedly in the potential of women. My coaching philosophy is simple- taking action leads to results- and I love working with women in business and in corporate roles to take their passion and drive and transform their professional and personal lives.

Be enthusiastic, optimistic and energetic, every day.

Em x

New Year’s resolutions are a load of BS

| Action Station, Goals

At our Thriving Women’s retreat in November last year, we agreed we would run the Mother’s Day Classic together in May. That’s either a 5km or 10km run. We had a few runners in the group who offered to put together training plans for those of us who hadn’t run before and needed to be race ready (aren’t we lucky!).

I received the plan and it looked doable. The training weeks were mapped out for us, starting in February and finishing on race day in May. The interesting thing for me was the plan didn’t tell us to run a certain number of kilometres, just a certain amount of time. So, instead of running for 1km, it said to run for one minute, then walk for four minutes, and so on.

I’m guessing by the end of it, I will be able to run 10km!

At the time I received my training plan, I was already thinking about my goals for 2020 – both personally and professionally.

I’ve read that the failure rate of New Year’s resolutions is about 80%. So, as I was thinking about what I wanted to achieve in 2020, I decided to start training for the Mother’s Day Classic before the end of 2019.

I started week one in the middle of December. I decided I would do week one twice and the final week twice, too, to bring me up to May. It’s going well and I feel like I have “flipped the system”. Or maybe I have just created the useful belief that starting a New Year’s resolution before the start of the New Year will give it more “stickiness”.

I guess what I’m trying to say (holiday brain is clearly still with me!) is that even if you don’t have a plan for 2020 yet, you can create one at any time. Sometimes, doing some activity in the right direction is a good start.

Don’t wait for a new year, a new week, a new month to get started. It’s a load of bollocks that you need to wait. Get cracking now!

And if you’d like to share with me your plans and goals for the year ahead, please do. Email me at emma@emmamcqueen.com.au

Managing your mojo

| Action Station, Challenges for Women, Mindset Tips

Managing your mojo. What does that mean?

The Oxford Dictionary defines “mojo” as “influence, especially magic power.” There certainly is something captivating about the word, isn’t there?

I believe mojo is about energy. We all have a unique energy that drives us, keeps us going when times get tough, and inspires and influences others.

But we can’t just sit back and expect our mojo to always be there. We need to work on it, cultivate it and manage it so that we can thrive in our personal and professional lives.

What if your mojo’s missing?

Without mojo, we can’t be the best versions of ourselves. We feel flat, uninspired and overwhelmed. We are unable to step into our potential, and we can’t get done what needs to get done to reach our goals – or we get it done, but it’s a frustrating, slow process, and we feel impatient.

Have you ever felt this way? Sometimes, we snap out of it – but more often than not, it takes a conscious effort to get our mojo back.

How to get back – and keep – your mojo

Melissa is like an Energizer Bunny. She works full-time in a high senior role in a corporate organisation. She also has two small children, and her husband runs his own business.

Like most of us, Melissa is busy, busy, busy! And she knows that to keep her mojo up and useful to her, she needs to have enough energy throughout the day.

How does Melissa maintain her energy and mojo? She carves out time three days a week to go for a run.

How simple is that?! By creating this time for herself, Melissa gets fresh air, feels her heart pumping, clears her mind and feels re-energised. All this combines to top up her mojo.

Now, you might baulk at the thought of running, but you can manage your mojo in many other ways. Here are just a few examples:

  • Meditate
  • Go for a walk, bike ride, or to the gym
  • Spend time with friends
  • Enjoy quality time with your partner
  • Volunteer

These activities are important, and you need to stick to them. Schedule them in your diary as you would an appointment, and don’t cancel on yourself!

What other activities can you think of that could help you reclaim your mojo?

It’s up to you…

If you don’t manage your mojo, then you won’t have any energy left. You need to make sure you’ve got enough energy to get you through the day and your busy life. You need mojo to meet the demands on you as a professional and as a family person – and to enjoy life!

So, what are you doing to manage your mojo?

I’m Emma, and I’m a business and executive coach who believes wholeheartedly in the potential of women. My coaching philosophy is simple- taking action leads to results- and I love working with women in business and in corporate roles to take their passion and drive and transform their professional and personal lives.

Be enthusiastic, optimistic and energetic, every day.

Em x

Consistency builds credibility – well, I thought it did!

| Action Station

I get asked for advice or to speak reasonably regularly and one of the things that I get asked often is how do I find the time to write in a disciplined way. Writing was not always a priority for me, but I do have the gift of discipline, and I believe that consistency in everything you do enables credibility.

Consistency doesn’t just happen

In fact, you need to sit down and do some conscious planning. Consistency could be anything from having a follow-up plan to calling people instead of emailing them to having consistent templates to writing regularly.

Eric Holtzclaw wrote about five reasons to be consistent. He believes that consistency allows for measurement; accountability; is an opportunity to establish your reputation; ensures you stay relevant; and maintains your message, and I don’t disagree. Read the his article here.

When you are not consistent, people will not trust you

They will not want to work with you. When you are not consistent people, don’t know what to expect of you. Here are four things you can do to become consistent:

Non-negotiables

Choose the things that are not negotiable from a consistency perspective, for me, it’s paying attention to the numbers, performing regular business development, writing each week and professional respectful follow up through the phone (versus email).

Allocate time

Everything in business takes time, doesn’t it? I can guarantee that if it is not in the calendar, it will not happen, so I allocate the time I think it will take and I put it in the diary, it’s probably the next step that is the most important…

Keep the appointment with yourself

How often do we forgo that time with ourselves because something “urgent” or “more important” has come up. It can be hard to keep that appointment with yourself, but well worth it.

Do the work

Doing the work will ensure that you set yourself up for success in the long term. Depending on how you like to work, it will depend on how much you can achieve. I like to work to the Pomodoro technique (25-minute chunks) because I want to review my work to ensure I am happy with it before continuing. 

What about you? Have you tried to be consistent and had success? Why has that been? Or are you one of many who needs a little more help? If you haven’t tried it, pick something small and use the points above to achieve consistency, and let me know how you go!

I’m Emma, and I’m a business and executive coach who believes wholeheartedly in the potential of women. My coaching philosophy is simple- taking action leads to results- and I love working with women in business and in corporate roles to take their passion and drive and transform their professional and personal lives.

Be enthusiastic, optimistic and energetic, every day.

Em x

Switching off – the ultimate challenge

| Action Station, Emma being Emma

Recently, as you may know, I was in Perth. I was testing my new white paper out to see if it resonated with the women around the table, and we were talking about my three-week vacation that is coming up. I was asked if I would be working and I told the table that I was currently negotiating with my husband as to how many hours I could work, being in small business, it doesn’t stop. Do you know what I love about the women I work alongside? If I say something that doesn’t make sense, they challenge me, and one of the women at the table asked me why I couldn’t switch off totally, this is a woman who has her own multi-million dollar business, has a number of staff, and as she told me, she thought she couldn’t have a holiday either, until really recently which she just needed to switch off.

Truth bomb: no one is going to miss me, and I can switch off.

The story I was telling myself is that I couldn’t take a break, the wheels needed to keep turning, but it was bollocks! I have two competent women who work with me and can hold down the fort, and I went into my own biz to design the life I want, why can’t I take some time off? What’s the point if you can’t do this kind of stuff!

Here’s what’s going to happen if I don’t do this:

I won’t be allowing myself a proper break, which I will then feel resentful about, even though I would have done it to myself.

I wouldn’t be walking the talk of women taking care of themselves and switching off, and finally but really should be first, my family are going to be very grumpy with me!!!

So, here’s my plan:

  1. Work out what needs to continue
  2. Put the out of office on
  3. Talk to the team about what they need
  4. Have a re-entry plan

Here it is in a little more thought and detail:

  1. Work out what needs to continue and ask for help, for instance, the weekly treat I send out to my subscribers, we mapped out who could contribute from a guest perspective, and this also means further amplification of other voices, which I love! It also means the lovely Jess will be taking over and giving us a look at life at Team McQueen.
  2. I would love to write a creative out of office that sends the message that I am on holidays without guilt and having a bluddy ace time! Watch this space…
  3. Talk to the team about how and if they can contact me. Shiz can go wrong, right? I know that either Serena or Jess can manage anything that gets thrown at them, I also know that they have each other’s backs, so we will dial up their meetings together (they live in different states) to ensure they feel fully supported. 
  4. Have a re-entry plan. We all know how much it sucks when you come back from holidays, and there are a ton of things that need to be sorted through. Mentally preparing for this will be necessary and being gentle on myself as I do this will be essential. 

So, here’s to switching off, with permission from myself, asking and receiving help from others and having some awesome guest contributors along the way. What about you? Do you get to switch off? How do you manage it?

I’m Emma, and I’m a business and executive coach who believes wholeheartedly in the potential of women. My coaching philosophy is simple- taking action leads to results- and I love working with women in business and in corporate roles to take their passion and drive and transform their professional and personal lives.

Be enthusiastic, optimistic and energetic, every day.

Em x