About Sandy McDonald

More than 40 years ago, I began my business career as a graphic designer in my birthplace, Zimbabwe. In the mid 1980s, its unhappy history intervened and I left with my husband Roger, and our two small daughters to start life again in Australia.

Happy Mac’s

Designing and writing before personal computers became the norm was relatively simple. Things changed fast once we bought our first Apple Mac in 1987.

To leverage the change, we started a business called ArtWords. I was the art, Roger the words. Twenty two years later, we had a thriving marketing communication solutions destination for a range of SMEs and small corporates. Then life took a turn and things changed.

In 2008, I did what you are advised against when things are tough and you’re in the middle of a global financial crisis and started the charity Knit-a-square!  The story of this extraordinary adventure is in my 2014 TEDx talk.

Clarity, always.

In our marketing communications business, if we couldn’t get our clients clear on what they were positioning, why, and for whom, we failed. This became the single most important component of our work.

During the formative years of Knit-a-square, we learned that stories with a focused purpose touched lives everywhere. It was the stories that helped build a worldwide community of more than 20,000 people in 71 countries. Today it continues to grow and do this wonderful work of warming orphaned children in Southern Africa.

The online space proved a powerful tool to get the message across using purpose-driven stories. I wrote a book, Get It Right Online to detail the framework and the method.

It was the intersection of these experiences that proved invaluable in determining, why I do what I do and for for whom now and led to my next career, clarity and storytelling coaching and training.

Principles, the immutable laws

Principles inform the stories behind your work. These are the principles that govern everything I do in this work:

• Clarity —getting folk clear on purpose, principles, people, product, and positioning
• Curiosity—working with them in pursuit of their truth to develop their insights
• Coherence—helping them tell relevant stories logically and consistently

Changing Stories

I  believe that telling your stories coherently from clarity of purpose and principles acts as a conduit to curiosity and truth seeking, igniting the energy to enrich, transform and save lives.

This drives the work I do as founder of Small Acts Global the charity that was founded subsequent to Knit-a-square.

Latterly, I’ve understood that it is story itself that changes the narrative from despair to hope, ignorance to comprehension and apathy to positive action.

So today, I whisper founder’s stories to help them communicate the power of their humanity through their stories and effect the changes they most want to make.

I look forward to connecting with you to help you tell your story.  If you’d like to catch up, Let’s Talk.