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People Doing Cool Stuff – Perth Happenings | Pieta Sharpe

I’m lucky enough to meet a lot of inspirational business people who are doing cool stuff!

You’ve probably heard of Perth Happenings. You either follow their Instagram, or have looked for stuff to do on their site – maybe even advertised your event there! But do you know the lovely face behind the brand?

Let’s get to know Pieta Sharpe a bit better, and in the process we’ll find out how Perth Happenings was born!

Tell us a bit about yourself and Perth Happenings!

I’m Pieta, 37 year old solo Mum of two sensational young men. I’m passionate about community building, people in general and creating a beautiful life for my family and those around me. I have spent way too much money at uni, am on the board of my old high school and I’m an ambassador for Youth Focus which I am so proud of.

Perth Happenings was created when we saw a gap in the ‘market’ per se. There are so many large scale event websites and social media that don’t really create a space or give any air time to smaller, local community events.

When building Perth Happenings we felt it was important to develop community pages to create that point of difference.

So we have 8 – North, south, east, west, central, freo, hills and out of town. You can head to that local community page and see events in the area, local blogs, local businesses and really get a feel for what is in your community or conversely try a NEW community.

Perth is very spread out and we tend to stay in our comfort zones and not travel out of our space. Having community pages means that if you feel like a weekend in the Hills and you live in Freo you can check it out and plan ahead.

We offer free online listings to almost any event in Perth and will often select random community events to provide free promotion and upgrades to. We also offer 50% off silver and gold packages to Not for Profit and local community organisations.

We will never be focussed on the large scale events and the multinational organisations and that means we won’t attract the bigger bucks but that is a-ok for us. Our audience are supportive of our dream of building an online community to keep the people of Perth engaged with each other and we showcase many events that others really don’t!

We have a TV show in the pipeline too so keep your eyes out for that!

 

Tell us about your journey, how did you get to this point?

I have a background in psychology, education and community services alongside currently completing my Master of Marketing and Innovation. All of my education is based on people – learning about them, engaging with them – I just love people.

Motivating and inspiring them and just helping us to be the best humans in the best society that we possibly can!

I feel Perth Happenings has allowed me to develop a platform to make a difference and I am looking forward to developing that.

 

What music/song have you got on high rotation right now?

I went to Falls Festival as a reviewer (terrible aspect of my business!) and I absolutely fell in love with Glass Animals and fell back in love with Peking Duck.

The two songs I don’t seem to be sick of are Life Itself (Glass Animals) and Let you down (Peking Duck).

I think I play them seven to ten times a day.

 

How do you stay motivated?

This may sound cliché but knowing my 13 and 10 year old sons are watching and learning from me at all times keeps me motivated. I want to show them you can achieve any dream you can think up be it in business, health or fitness either with a partner or be ok on your own.

 

 

I regularly go to F45 sessions and hope the dream of doing burpees and unassisted pullups is a reality soon too!

 

What/who inspires you?

Besides my boys, my group of friends inspires me every day. They are just some of the most amazing people you could meet.

Additionally, knowing that as an ambassador for Youth Focus, I may inspire and motivate a young person one day – that keeps me focussed on the prize.

If I can use my story to help others believe in themselves then there is no greater reason to do what I do.

 

How do you deal with impostor syndrome?

It’s a funny one this imposter syndrome theory.

I think with regards to Perth Happenings I don’t really have it. I have worked super hard to strategize and get to where we are. I have put in lots of love and time and am proud of my achievements. I think often we see those who say – yep I deserve this and I AM awesome as being conceited, so I wonder if we all actually do it because we feel we should or because we’re afraid of the ramifications of praising ourselves.

 

What’s your favorite place/way to relax?

I love the beach.  I adore just sitting there or walking and collecting shells.

I also enjoy music – listening, dancing, singing very badly, and yoga, F45 – plus I love just talking and engaging with my boys. It is simple but true.

 

If you hadn’t started your business what do you think you’d be doing right now?

Still working in Not for Profit organisations wondering how I can make more of a difference and be a little frustrated.

 

What’s been your most successful Social Media platform for your business? Do you think you’d be in the same place if it wasn’t for Social Media?

We are an online business so digital marketing strategy and social media are paramount for us. One important component of building the business has been that I have been very true to my audience.

Starting Perth Happenings our growth was slow because community isn’t as sexy as big bands and fancy restaurants. However once we got the momentum we’ve had a steady climb.

Constant reviewing and making changes has resulted in lowering our bounce rate of our website by providing more blogs and other events on the pages.

I altered our strategy in October and have seen a 72% increase in website traffic to date since November which I am of course VERY proud of.

I researched into my secondary market (24-34 year old women) and looked at what we could offer on our Facebook that would attract them and encourage engagement.

Knowing your audience is key!

 

Have you hit any huge problems that made you re-think your whole career? How did you get around it? What was your approach to solving the issue?

I rethought my whole career when working with underprivileged children and realising how under resourced and often poorly funded not for profit community groups are.

I couldn’t handle working with these kids and seeing that really what they, and their families needed was community engagement and feeling they were a part of something. Bigger picture, I am hoping to provide an online community as a conduit to that feeling real life connection.

Fingers crossed!

 

What is the hardest thing about your work?

Relationship building. We have struggled to get the local councils on board with what we are trying to do which is frustrating and challenging considering they are the perfect partner for collaboration.

Finding the right people with the same vision is harder that I anticipated from a corporate level.

Otherwise it would be all the movie premieres and concerts I get to go to… tough!

How do you manage it all with such a busy schedule?

That is something I am working on!

I am focusing this year on quality. I want quality relationships with businesses and people I can trust and WANT to work with. I say yes to much too much and need to reign that in.

 

What’s next for you?

The Perth Happenings Youtube channel development and the Perth Happenings TV show.

Both coming soon to a screen near you!

 

How do we find and follow your cool story?

Facebook

Website

Instagram

 

So now you now more about the brains behind Perth Happenings!

I hope you’re enjoying this series of People Doing Cool Stuff, I’ve got loads more fun peeps to introduce you to, so make sure you stay tuned!

People Doing Cool Stuff – Chalk of the Town | Megan Manning

I’m lucky enough to meet a lot of people from all over the world who are doing cool stuff!

 

Having spent a lot of time working in pubs with prominent chalkboards like the Belgian Beer Cafe, The Greenwood and The Albion, I know how important it is to have them done professionally so they are neat, legible, and inviting. And I know it’s MUCH harder than it looks!

Let’s have a chat with Chalk Of The Town’s Megan Manning and find out how she does it!

Tell us a bit about yourself and your business – what is Chalk Of The Town all about?

I’m Meg and I run and operate Chalk of the Town signwriting.  What’s Chalk of the Town you ask? Well, I’m an artist and I work mainly with Chalkboards.

 

Tell us about your journey, how did you get to this point?

I started my little business when I lived in Europe and needed to start making some money. I have always been creative and good at art so when the opportunity to work closely with a local artist to learn my trade arose I jumped at the opportunity.

I trained alongside my mentor for 6 months in Spain before returning to Australia and starting up my little business here 2 years ago and haven’t looked back yet.

Have you ever seen one of those fancy colourful chalkboards in a pub or a restaurant and wondered how or who did that? Well that’s what I do. I’m the person they hire to create those masterpieces!

I also create beautiful signage for weddings, parties, events and businesses which is cool because I get to work with other businesses and wedding vendors on photoshoots and all sorts.

 

What music/song have you got on high rotation right now?

Well, It’s a pretty funny story. Most likely a ‘you have to be there kind of moment’ but, our kids LOVE Detroit Rock City from KISS so as we can imagine we have to play this every time we get in the car or are at home listening to music.

They all know the words (even the 2 and 3 year old) and jump around like crazy when it comes on. They are so cute!

 

How do you stay motivated?

Hmmm, this is a hard one because sometimes I do struggle to motivate myself BUT I Love what I do so I just remind myself of that and it kicks me up the butt on the days that I need it.

 

What/who inspires you?

This is so super soppy of me but I would have to say the person who does inspire me if my Husband to be. He is the most amazing person I have ever met and he inspires me to be the best person that I can be and to always work hard and to never give up.

 

How do you deal with impostor syndrome?

Well, I just remind myself that I AM good at what I do and how far I have become.

 

What’s your favorited place/way to relax?

My husband and I both work fulltime and we have 3 kids so we never really get to relax, because as you can imagine our life is pretty full on!

But when we do get a chance to have some ‘us time’ and relax our number 1 destination is Busselton, We often grab our snorkelling gear and go off snorkelling for the day. In this beautiful country it would be stupid not to, Right?

 

If you hadn’t started your business what do you think you’d be doing right now?

A long long time ago before I became a mum I actually studied Graphic Design at university (this also comes in very handy for my business now) so most likely I would be doing something creative anyway.

 

What’s been your most successful Social Media platform for your business? Do you think you’d be in the same place if it wasn’t for Social Media?

My Major Marketing Platform that I use is Facebook. About 99.9 % of my clientele has seen my work on Facebook or via word of mouth.

 

Have you hit any huge problems that made you re-think your whole career? How did you get around it? What was your approach to solving the issue?

Yes, but only with Bride funnily enough.

I recently took 6 months out because of some not very nice people. I won’t go into details but it was a very stressful time that was completely unnecessary.

Thankfully thought I fought back and came out even stronger and more determined than ever.

 

What is the hardest thing about your work?

I love my Job, I love the creativity and the freedom but sometimes you just meet people that have no idea about advertising, or don’t have a creative bone in there body and they are so adamant on an idea of what they want which is complete poo but they just won’t listen to your advice.

I find this hard because number 1 its my name on the artwork and number 2 it makes me cringe haha, but apart from that I am really luckily to be doing what I do.

 

How do you manage it all with such a busy schedule?

It’s taken me A long time to balance work with life but we are getting there. I am very strict about the hours that I work and where I work.

I have to work from home so I can take care of my children and I will not work after hours or at the weekend as that is family time. I have found balance and I manage to do all of my work and be a mum and wife at the same time. Its great.

 

What’s next for you?

I would like to teach some hand lettering courses to the general public so that could be something I look into this year.

We will see how we go.

 

How do we find and follow your cool story?

Facebook

Website

 

Make sure you stay tuned for more cool stories! And if you think you’re doing something cool – get in touch!