Dynamic Duos: How a recruiter’s mismatch sparked a budding friendship
This week in Dynamic Duos, we hear from Invnt's APAC managing director Laura Roberts and director of production Fiona Pullen.
In Dynamic Duos, Mumbrella each week asks two colleagues with a professional and personal affiliation to share with readers the importance of workplace relationships in an increasingly hybridised world of work.
Laura Roberts:
I first met Fi through a recruiter seven years ago. She didn’t see me approaching the reception area where she was waiting for our first meeting, but I could see she was deep in her phone, multitasking, very busy. She was just about to do a huge roadshow around Australia. And she had on a really nice pair of Chanel shoes that I appreciated.
We instantly clicked as we chatted. It was just an instant connection. But she’d been put forward for the wrong role. Wrong job. Right person. I work on gut instincts, and I just knew Fi was awesome. So I said, ’Don’t worry, let me come back to you. I’m going to find you the right role.’
Fi’s first day at Invnt was spent on a plane to New York City for our annual company meeting. Talk about throwing her straight into the fire!
We hit New York for a week, meeting with the entire global agency, attending workshops and networking events and even going to Blondie and Red Hot Chilli Peppers concerts all whilst managing our workload from home. Fi was this fantastic mix of hard work, tenacity, creativity, and fun. She still is.
We’ve been through a lot of experiences together over the years.
Like everyone, Covid was rock bottom for us. We’ve always just referred to that period as hanging on a life raft together. But we held on pretty tight, and came out stronger. And that was largely thanks to Fi and her background. She drove the innovation that meant we were first out of the gates to do big virtual events, with a broadcast show that became the gold standard for virtual experiences in Australia, and really the world.
We’ve both juggled motherhood and our working lives together too. When Fi’s eldest child Charlie recently did her HSC, the entire agency also did the HSC. We all knew the schedule; we all knew what exam was coming up next. Every client meeting was scheduled around it!
There’s a lot of trust between us. And that deep sense of trust just grows deeper year on year. It comes from the enormous amount of time we spend traveling on the road together and sharing experiences all over the world. Even when I’m not traveling with Fi, we are texting and chatting multiple times a day. I don’t think we’ve ever had a run in. Though Fi has a different opinion on that!
Fiona Pullen:
Laura and I were a match made by a recruiter.
The recruiter had reached out to me about a job but when I turned up, it was for a creative director. Completely the wrong role. I almost talked Laura out of hiring me. But the spark was ignited and shortly after, I joined to lead the production team.
I’m surprised our paths had never crossed before that. We’re so similar. One of Laura’s closest friends even lives next door to my parents! It felt really good right from the start. So much fun. We have such similar personalities and there’s a lot of trust there.
Our partnership is built on mutual trust and respect for each other’s skills, strengths and differences — and lots and lots of communication at every hour of the day, and often the night too.
We really trust each other’s instincts. It’s very intuitive. We’re a really good, complementary team. The things I really enjoy doing are not necessarily what Laura enjoys, and vice versa. So between us, we cover all bases.
Laura has that tenacity we both share, but in different ways. She’s much more big picture. She really loves the thrill of the chase in terms of new business and driving growth.
She’s such an advocate for the team and has their back in every way. But she’s definitely a builder. So her vision is expansive in a business. I’m much more a down to the detail person. I’m pedantic about the fine details. Like budgeting. Laura’s superpower is in the creative realm, but the craft of the production process is what really fires me up.
We’ve definitely had our moments, but it’s never personal.
Whenever we’ve clashed on an approach to a job, or how we were going to do something, we have always navigated through it. One person gives, and it’s not always the same person. Ultimately, we respect what’s important to the other person and spend time to work it out.
It’s go big or go home with us, wherever we go.
We absolutely love each other’s company. We love hanging out. We love doing great work. We speak almost every hour of the day. And we’ve traveled all over the world together. It’s just doing something super fun with someone you care about.
Laura on Fiona:
Most memorable moment with Fiona: It’s the experiences we share together in our downtime when we’re traveling for work, which is a lot. Walking the streets of Istanbul. Driving those crazy carts around London. We swim for exercise when we travel. We have probably swum in every pool, in every hotel, in every country. And we’ve gone skiing in Dubai!
Best word to describe her: Punchy.
Most annoying habit or endearing behaviour she has: Fi has a unique sleep cycle whereby she wakes at 3am and works straight until the afternoon. So, if we have a client dinner or evening event she falls asleep at the table, around 9pm. This really makes us laugh.
Fi also has an incredible fashion style and most endearingly, wears her heart on her sleeve.
Fiona on Laura:
Most memorable moment with Laura: There’s too many memorable moments to condense. Travelling the world together – from London, the Middle East, Turkey, Asia to right across the US. Celebrating Agency of the Year, Event of the Year and Production Team of the Year awards, and increasing clients’ share prices off the back of our global events.
Some of the most incredible moments though, are simply walking into the Sydney and Singapore offices and remembering where it started seven years ago — in a Wework space with five people.
Best word to describe her: Tenacious!
Most annoying habit or endearing behaviour she has: Laura will get 1,000 emails every day and plow through them like a machine, so nothing lands and stays in her inbox. There are currently 11,683 unread emails in mine. She’s like a rolling stone and needs her in-tray empty. I like thinking things through. We meet somewhere in the middle.
Keep up to date with the latest in media and marketing
Got a tip?
Lauren McNamara is the associate editor at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
Linkedin
Have your say