Ipswich business shortlisted in national innovation awards

Chuwar business dynamo Cas McCullough is in the running to win an Australian Anthill’s Cool Company Award 2014.

Last week, Australian Anthill announced Cas’s company Content Marketing Cardiology was in the top 100 of the coolest and most innovative companies in Australia.

Cas said since starting her business three years ago, she never imagined she would be where she is now. “Life has been interesting over the past few years and being shortlisted for this award is such a wonderful validation of all the work I have put in,” she said.

“I started my business after realising how much marketing has changed in the past five years. Many small businesses really struggle with how to market their businesses on and offline.

“We help small and medium enterprises connect with their right people through powerful content.”

But Content Marketing Cardiology is not the only feather in Cas’s cap. A mum of three boys, who are all home schooled, founder of social media start-up The Likeability Company….and the author of Your Brilliant Un-Career: Women, Entrepreneurship, and Making the Leap, which will be launched on 2 December.

“It seems like I have a lot going on; I would not have it any other way,” Cas said.

“I am a great believer in women can not only have their cake and eat it, but they can have the whole cake shop if they want.”

After working in corporate marketing and communications, Cas’s entrepreneurial journey started in 2009 when she launched a social enterprise called Mumatopia, funded by dipping into the family’s grocery budget.

She said it was one of the hardest years in her life. “We lost people we loved, the GFC hit us hard and I almost lost my life due to an ectopic pregnancy,” Cas said.

“What I gained from that year was clarity. If you have a good idea, you should make it happen. Chances are you are the only one with the gumption and energy to make it happen. With Mumatopia, I was obsessed enough to make it happen and it has lead me down a whole new path.

“That is the nature of being an entrepreneur…and not being afraid to fail. It does suck to fail but we can learn through the experience and be better for it. 

“With all my ventures, I have found if I just jump in and give it a good crack, my chances of success are much higher than if I did not jump at all.  That’s all I have done – been prepared to jump.”

In under two years, Cas has been making her mark on the Australian and international business community. She has been:

·         honoured as one of the top 24 social media blogs in the world in Social Media Examiner’s Top 10 Social Media Blogs 2013 contest

·         listed as one of the top 25 small business blogs in Australia in the Telstra Smarter Small Business Blog Awards

·         a finalist in the Women in Technology Sue Wickenden Entrepreneurial Award in 2013 and 2014

·         a finalist in the MarketingProfs Bright Bulb Awards for Best New Agency 2013

The Cool Company Awards were launched in 2006 as a way for Anthill to acknowledge and celebrate Australian organisations that are doing things differently to bring about positive change. Cool Companies stay one step ahead of the rest. They breed leaders who are rule-makers and rule-breakers. They are trend-setters in attitude and action.

The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony in Melbourne December 4.

yourbrilliantuncareer.com