Jen Geale

Jen Geale is co-founder and General Manager of MTB Direct, Australia’s largest retailer of parts, clothing and accessories for mountain biking. The business has been consistently recognised for its rapid and sustained growth, as well as successful marketing and customer service initiatives, through programs such as the Telstra Business Awards, Deloitte Tech Fast 50 and AFR Fast 100. Jen was recognised as one of the Top 50 People in E-commerce in Australia in 2018 and 2019, and regularly shares insights from her experiences in keynotes, panels and workshops around Australia and the USA. The online business is entirely remote, with Jen based on the Gold Coast and all customer service, marketing, administrative and tech team members working from home across Australia and the world. Jen currently serves as Vice President of the Board of Directors of Retail ROI Australia, an organisation enabling the Australian retail community to support the work of various grassroots organisations improving the lives of children and orphans around the world.

Speaking topics

Remote working

“I love commuting”, said no-one ever. Longer commutes drive employee dissatisfaction, have negative environmental and social consequences, and can put a massive handbrake on growing and established organisations alike. What if there was a better way? What if you could have an amazing team of highly engaged, talented, hard-working people who achieved amazing things from the comfort of their own home? You can! Let me show you the what, why and how of remote working for modern organisations.

[Keynote or workshop] 

Success - my standards or yours?

We live in a world saturated with examples of success - between insta-perfect lives and a self-help movement that has been telling us for years that we can do whatever we want to, if we just try/believe/go for it. Yet we also live in a culture that is torn between celebrating success, and cutting it down, and many of us feel pressure - conscious or not - to meet some other metric of success other than our own.

Where do ideas of success come from anyway? What is a “successful” life? Is it sustainable to shun the expectations of others in order to “live your truth”, or are social expectations and pressures a reality of living in society with others?

As an entrepreneur seeming to carve out my own path, but grappling day-to-day with life’s expectations, I draw on my experiences and significant research across a variety of disciplines to explore the notion of success across time and place, and help my audience decide how to grapple with this slippery - but significant - idea in their own lives and workplaces.

[Keynote]

Making the most of your conference experience

Another conference - you know the drill.

Or do you?

What are the odds that this event will be just like the myriad before? Attendees go back to the office, full of ideas and buzzing with excitement and potential, only to encounter the usual barrage of “things” that prevent execution - emails piling up, urgent meetings, issues that require their attention, a team unable to embrace innovative ideas.

Don’t let your event be just another check box for your attendees - let’s make sure they walk away fired up and equipped to take action! This keynote is full of field-tested methods to ensure attendees get value out of your event.

[Keynote or suitable to be broken into segments as part of engagement as MC]

Bricks to clicks

Ecommerce is here, and it’s here to stay. We made the decision to jump on board 8 years ago and we haven’t looked back. Let’s explore some of the lessons learned, challenges faced, and a few hints to help businesses decide how to best tackle the world of online retail.

[Keynote or workshop]