Creating a Meaningful Impact with Your Actions & Words

Actively managing your personal brand is critical if you want to make a significant impact in the areas of your life important to you. What you say and what you do influences how people perceive you, so take note that your personal branding will determine how successfully you’ll be able to make an impact in life.

In the second episode of The Personal Brand Catalyst, we are joined by Louise Walsh: the founder and CEO of Walsh Capital, a third-party capital raising business that she launched in mid-2021. We discuss her career development over the years and how this led to the strengthening of her personal brand. 

Louise and her team grew the ASX listed funds by $1 billion in assets in just six years. She has developed best practice investor and major donor engagement programs throughout her career, and has a substantial ultra-high net worth and high network across Australia. This extensive network has been developed and nurtured over three decades. 

Having started her career as a lawyer at Allens' Head of Sponsorships for the Sydney Olympic Games, Louise is widely regarded as one of Australia's leading philanthropic advisors and is a fundraising expert. Louise's extensive capital raising experience across many sectors - most recently is the CEO of the Future Generation companies. 

And what a privilege and pleasure it was to speak with her today.

Defining Herself as Simply a Brand - or as Louise Walsh

You probably don't look at Louise as a brand. But when she got married 19 years ago at the age of 39, she was having a chat one night over a glass of wine with her husband and he said, “Are you going to change your name or not?”

And she replied, “Well, I’ve thought about that. And I think there's a bit of brand equity in Louise Walsh. So I don't think I've got to change it.” They were just having a laugh, but Louise didn't want to go through all the admin and the paperwork, and they weren't planning on having children.

So when someone says, “Oh, that's interesting. You've never changed your name to Jordan,” her husband says, “There's a bit of brand equity in Louise Walsh.”

Being Concerned About How People Perceive You 

We have to be totally honest with ourselves. You can sit here and say you don't really care what XYZ thinks, but it’s always in the back of your mind. 

Louise grew up believing that you've got to be yourself. Her parents were very influential in her life and her mother used to say, “It’s always better to be overdressed than underdressed. Always remember, just a little bit of colour. A bit of a difference is very important.” 

They’ve both got quite signature glasses, and that's been a bit of a trademark over the years. You don't want to be outlandish, but there is something about having been remembered. 

Louise says that she never wants to be going to the grave in her eulogy where someone says, “We remember Louise Walsh as being nice.” That's not the description she’s looking for. Nothing against that word, but there are probably other words that she’d want to be remembered by.

Recognition Leads to Reputation

Louise worked hard over the years to build a network. She never did it consciously when she first started her career, and she always felt that life is a bit of an adventure. 

She studied economics law, did the traditional things, started as an M&A lawyer at Allens. But she always loved a sense of adventure and didn’t overly plan things like her career, but it's been through the strength of that network that the doors have opened. 

It’s quite extraordinary how that's happened, but as people have said to her, “You worked incredibly hard in whatever role you've done. And also, you've achieved things in those roles, and they've been in different sectors that you've built this network of interesting people.” 

Louise never applied for a role in her career or did anything through a search, they've more been sort of taps on the shoulder. Or, she created the opportunity herself, so she doesn’t necessarily believe that there has to be a job there for you to secure an opening. 

Establishing Values

Values are probably something that Louise admits she should have written down early on, but she was in so much of a hurry with the career that they just sort of naturally evolved.

Louise’s mother was a nurse, she ended up being a matron, and she was heavily involved in a lot of charitable, nonprofit things.

Her father grew up on a dairy farm on the south coast of New South Wales and had a very limited education. He was a phenomenal fundraiser - probono. He was extraordinarily good, and he just fundamentally believed in giving back and doing whatever he could. 

He passed away about five years ago, so it's a shame he's not alive today to see that his daughter made a professional career of it and having her own capital raising business. 

Actively Managing Your Relevance in Engaging Your Passion

Louise was originally going to call her bespoke third party capital raising business Cap Raiser. And then a friend who's an IP lawyer said, “Louise, I think it's a little bit too close to something else.” 

So they got a bit nervous. 

They were in the 11th hour with the designer, throwing around different names and things. And he was the one who said, “But what about Walsh Capital?” 

When Louise resigned from her previous role, she had thought at the time that she would probably go and work for another fund manager, or maybe do something in private equity or venture capital. She was sort of wooed to come and work for a new agricultural investment fund. 

A very good friend who's a fund manager said to her, “What are you doing? What are you doing next?” She said, “Well, look, what's happened is, I'm about to go and work for this hedge fund. I've been made an offer, it sounds really interesting, it's a bit different, I like doing things.” 

He said, “Seriously, next time around you should do something yourself. You've spent a lot of time in your career making other people look good. And actually, in some cases, helping them make quite a lot of money. I seriously think you need to have your own business.” 

Louise always thought about it over the years, but never really had the cracker idea. She loves working for other entrepreneurs and being around them. And often cases, they're philanthropists as well. And he said, “Let's sit down right now and talk about that idea.” They talked about distribution, capital raising type businesses in private equity and funds management. And that's where the idea came from. 

Louise went home and said to her husband, “What do you think?” He said for the first six months he’d look after all the back end admin - “But only six months, because we'll probably end up being divorced after that.” 

They launched in July and had her financial licence from ASIC in August, six weeks record time. And the first four clients were locked in in August, and off they went. 

People have asked Louise if she regrets not having done it earlier in her career, but she says that she probably wouldn't have been ready. When it comes to reputation and networks, it just feels like the culmination of years of effort. 

Building Your Personal Brand 

If Louise had have launched the other brand, Cap Raiser, people might not know that she was the person behind the name. But now, she has the opportunity to bring her own personal brand to life.

Louise isn’t a big social media person, besides LinkedIn a bit. But it was interesting launching this business: when she did the first post, she had about 23,000 likes.

She didn't think to herself, well, that's probably not bad. She thought to herself, “Speaking of personal brands, this is exactly what I'm doing now. You can take your own approach and your own strategy, and develop it accordingly.”

Mentors that Impact Your Journey

There have been three or four people over the years who have been what Louise calls ‘sounding boards’ when she needed to have a chat. 

Rod Miguel would be the one whenever she thought about changing careers. David Gonski has been very influential to her, as well as Helen Lynch.

But there's one person in particular who she wouldn't say has been a mentor, but someone who she finds incredibly inspirational -  is James Wolfensohn.

Advice to the Youth

Don’t be impatient and focus on instant gratification. Aim for more stability, especially in the workforce. That will contribute to your reputation.

Louise doesn't see how you can actually build a reputation if you're staying in a role for two years. It's got to be a longer haul. From her experience, it takes a lifetime to build a reputation.

Build your net worth, but build it face to face.

Focus on the non-profit. If you're going to do something, focus on one or two particular areas as a complement to your existing career.

Learn how to say thank you properly. And it's just making that special, extra effort that makes you memorable. That helps build the reputation and build your brand.

Final Thoughts

I want to thank Louise Walsh very much for taking the time to really share her wisdom and insights. 

Thank you for listening to this episode. Please leave a five-star review and subscribe for more episodes if you enjoyed it. 

If you'd like to learn more about developing your personal brand, please visit garrybrowne.com.au to get in touch or grab a copy of Brand New Brand You.