New members and friends always welcome - see www.gerringongrotary.com.au or contact [email protected].

Gerringong Rotary continued to be busy through November and December with our visiting speakers and running our regular markets and barbecue in the Old School Park.

The year finished in festive style with the barbecue at the Gerringong Christmas Parade. One of the highlights of the last quarter of 2024 was welcoming Kirsten Nixon to our breakfast meeting. Kirsten has had a varied career in nursing and working in the family business and recently turned her hand to writing.

Her first book is “Voices of Entrepreneurial Women”, a series of interviews with seventeen women who have started their own businesses, many of them based in our part of the on the South Coast of NSW. Her book introduced her to editors and designers and opened the door to a new world.

She gives a thumbnail sketch of each woman’s business, then provides an edited transcript of her chat with them about the highs and lows of their business journey and retaining the voice of the businesswoman herself. Each chapter then concludes with bullet points setting out that businesswoman’s key tips.

The businesses vary from making covers for aircraft to book-keeping for small businesses, growing succulents and various arts and crafts. All of them had had their challenges and the lessons from all of them are surprisingly similar - persevere but be flexible. That it’s ok to make changes if something doesn’t work was a strong message, as all of Kirsten’s interviewees had steered their businesses through the pandemic. Other common themes were: Believe in yourself and don’t undersell your abilities and services and love what you are doing

The heart of the message was summed up in a quote from John O’Donohue, “Choose one thing. Dig deep. Make it urgent”. We all came away from the meeting inspired!