Our Industry Profile takes a look at some of the professionals working across the advertising, adtech, marketing and media sector in Australia. It aims to shed light on the varying roles and companies across the buzzing industry.
Sarah O’Carroll: editor-in-chief at Forbes Australia
Time in current role:
One year and 11 days
How would you describe what the company does?
Forbes Australia is a platform for ideas that create change. From the established grandees to the up-and-coming entrepreneurs, innovators and change makers, Forbes tells these stories of success. Stories of ambition, bravery, innovation and drive. Stories of progressive thinkers and people striving to make an impact on the world. Our mission is to inspire these conversations by connecting and championing these leaders.
We are also contributing to cultivate a highly influential new business community through our in-person events; Forbes Women’s Summit, Future of Wealth Summit, Business Summit, 30 under 30, Forbes Club and Forbes Academies. Each one is an ambitious, engaged community of businesspeople energised by conversations that lead to meaningful change.
What do I do day to day?
It depends on what day you catch me! Every day is different: it can be leading, strategising, brainstorming, thinking, researching and planning, to listening, interviewing, presenting, editing, writing. Decisions, though, that’s an everyday thing. And most days, importantly, I manage to get a laugh in.
Define your job in one word:
That’s a tough one. I’ll go with co-creation. I love to collaborate and co-create with truly talented people. As a leader at Forbes, I do my best to create an environment for our team to thrive and come together, to create experiences for our community and to create a space for entrepreneurs, business leaders and change agents to share their stories and ideas.
I got into my industry because:
I’m a very curious person. I love people, I love business and I love informing people. Journalism was a great fit, and Forbes was the perfect fit.
What’s the biggest industry wide challenge you’d like to see tackled?
Trust. Changing audiences and how they consume content. Lack of trust in media, misinformation – and with the AI revolution this only stands to be more of a challenge.
Previous companies:
Before Forbes I was editor-in-chief of Yahoo Finance. Prior to that it was a mixed bag: worked for myself doing content strategy for several corporates, Business Editor at news.com.au, Head of Content Partnerships for Private Media, Magazine Editor at Lexis Nexis, reporter with the Drogheda Independent.
Who has been a great mentor to you?
As anyone who knows me knows, I'm the best at calling on a close-knit group of advisors and mentors for advice. I’m very lucky to be surrounded by a diverse group of friends, family and colleagues from previous jobs who are brilliant and intelligent and who I learn from every day. I'd have to call out my auntie Mags though; I hit her up daily for her thoughts and advice.
Words of advice:
Have fun and stay well connected with your favourite people who lift you up. They know you better than anyone, so when you doubt yourself or go off course, they’ll keep you on the straight and narrow. Also, I’m going to borrow from Wendy McCarthy’s advice recently at the Forbes Women’s Summit – if someone tells you “You can do it”, the chances are you can.
If I wasn’t doing this for a living:
If I go back to my diary from when I was 11, I wanted to be an actor, a TV presenter or a lawyer. Bit of a diverse set of jobs there! I tried running my own business for a while and truly admire every person who sticks with it. The other thing I’m hugely interested in is psychology – what drives, inspires and motivates people – so maybe something in that field.
My philosophy is:
Always be curious.
Subscriptions:
Personally, I pay for The Economist, the Financial Times, The Browser (a little-known, delightful publication) and the Harvard Business Review. I use other people’s subscriptions (should I say that? ha) to the NY Times, the UK Telegraph, the AFR. I'd like to subscribe to The Atlantic, just haven't done it yet. In terms of streaming and others: Spotify, Netflix, Binge, Stan; I need to review these. Also, a yoga app and a meditation app.
In five years' time:
Be healthy, fit, happy and having fun. And for Forbes Australia to be serving our readers and customers to the point where they feel inspired, informed, connected and ultimately belong to the community we are serving.
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