Ten years of Mac&Ernie - a celebration and a rare personal share

This week marks ten years of Mac&Ernie.

Saying that out loud feels significant. Ten years of building something, shaping it, refining it - delivering all the time.

Ten years of backing regional businesses and watching them grow through regular business rollercoasters, a pandemic, bushfires, floods and more. 

Ten years of contributing to business success. Not one business, not a hundred businesses, but through my coaching, workshops and webinars, I’ve worked with at least a couple of thousand businesses. That blows my mind.

Helping businesses to succeed isn’t just a personal yay for them, it’s contributing to something much bigger. It’s contributing to their immediate community in practical, emotional and financial ways. It’s contributing to the Australian economy in significant ways - now more than ever.

And yet, over the past twelve months, I found myself questioning whether I still wanted to be doing this at all.

It wasn’t a dramatic crisis. There was no big announcement brewing. It was more subtle than that. A slow undercurrent of doubt, a creeping away from the spotlight and a sense that maybe I was tired of marketing, definitely tired of social media and the quagmire it’s become.

Maybe I’d outgrown this work. Maybe it was time to head in a different direction After three decades in the industry, that seemed like a reasonable possibility.

But the more honest answer (the one that took longer to admit) was much simpler.

I wasn’t tired of the work.

I was tired.

Tired from running a full-time business. Tired from raising teenagers. Tired from community commitments and the invisible mental load that seems to expand with every year. Tired from the fog and unpredictability of peri-menopause that no one really explains to you while you’re trying to run a company and do life...

When you’re carrying that kind of fatigue, it’s very easy to mislabel it. Instead of asking “What do I need?” you start asking “Is this still right for me?”

So I did what I know how to do. I went into analysis mode.

I revisited my positioning. I rewrote website copy (multiple times). I experimented with new language and explored different angles. I asked myself whether Mac&Ernie needed to evolve into something sharper, more niche, more defined.

On paper, it all made sense. The language was tighter. The thinking was solid. But something felt off.

The further I pushed into that “new” version, the less connected I felt to the business I’d actually built. It started to feel like I was trying to improve something that wasn’t broken - just exhausted.

At the same time, there was another truth I couldn’t ignore.

I had been so immersed in client work that I’d neglected my own visibility. The strategy I build for others - the clarity, the structure, the consistency - wasn’t being applied with the same discipline to Mac&Ernie. 

Client results were strong. The work was meaningful, but I wasn’t building my audience steadily anymore. I wasn’t showing up with the same intent I encourage in the businesses I advise. I was working in the business constantly, and rarely stepping back to strengthen it.

If I’m honest, that pattern is familiar. I love developing strategy and content systems for other businesses. I love stepping into their operations, finding the gaps, building structure around what already exists. Doing that for myself has always felt less urgent. Easier to postpone and slightly uncomfortable.

It’s safer to be the person behind the strategy than the one putting herself forward.

But that tension caught up with me.

Because if I believe regional and small town businesses deserve clear positioning, consistent visibility and structured growth, then my own business deserves the same attention.

And underneath all the overthinking, one thing remained steady - the reason I started this business hasn’t changed.

From the beginning

I left agency life in Melbourne because we moved to Gippsland to raise our children. Once we got settled here, I saw how different the landscape is for regional operators. I saw capable, hardworking business owners trying to compete without the resources, numbers, networks or strategic support that city businesses take for granted.

Co-creating a farmers’ market deepened that understanding. I got really good at using social media back in those early days and I watched small producers and retailers thrive when they were given structure, visibility and collective support. I saw what happened when good marketing wasn’t about hype, but about connecting real businesses to real communities.

Mac&Ernie grew from that place.

It has always been about strengthening regional and small-town businesses so they can remain viable, profitable and visible in their own communities. Retailers on main streets. Tourism operators and accommodation providers. Professional services embedded in local networks. Producers, makers, service providers who employ locals and keep money circulating in their towns.

I’ve always supported community organisations that underpin these communities I work in - I see the people who find themselves in uncomfortable roles as ‘accidental marketers’ without the skills or confidence to achieve the goals set for them by funders and executives removed from the day-to-day.

Businesses often described as “small” are anything but insignificant. They create jobs, sponsor local clubs, activate empty shopfronts, and shape the identity of a place. When they are strong, communities are stronger.

That belief hasn’t shifted. If anything, it feels more urgent.

What has shifted is my willingness to treat my own business with the same strategic care I offer to others.

Head to Instagram for a visual trip down memory lane with me.

What does year ten look like?

You will see some changes - not in direction, but in clarity. Clearer language about who I work with and how I help.

More consistent insight into marketing systems that are realistic for regional, suburban and small town operators.

More visible support for businesses navigating tight margins, limited time and increasing competition.

Though it will remain part of my focus, you’ll see me treating social media with more circumspection.

My work remains what it has always been - auditing where customers and revenue are leaking, building marketing strategies around actual capacity, and creating structure so growth strengthens your life rather than consuming it.

The difference is that I’ll be applying that same structure to Mac&Ernie.

Ten years in business doesn’t require reinvention. It requires alignment.

This past year wasn’t a signal to change course. It was a reminder to return to what matters and to do it with better boundaries, clearer focus and a stronger presence.

I’m not stepping away from this work. I’m stepping into it properly.

If you read this far, thank you for your support and your trust in me. Please make sure you connect with me on social media. I would love to know if you’ve been battling with similar feelings about your business and how you overcome it.

💛 Erika