Meet the Assisters
Michila Macleod

Michila Macleod

Michila Macleod

National Sales and Partnerships Director, Broadsheet Media

Michila is the National Sales and Partnerships director at Broadsheet Media, Australia’s leading cultural guide.

She has spent 20 years building her career across global media corporations and smaller independent publishers and across the Australian and UK markets.

Michila’s advertising experience spans magazines, newspapers, street press, radio, digital and now leads the national sales team in the content partnership space at Broadsheet.

A career highlight for Michila has been the experience she’s gained from working for incredible and inspiring female leaders, that has directly impacted how she leads today.

“My greatest reward as a leader is having a front row seat at watching the growth and development of your team. I will never get tired of seeing ambition and hard work payoff”

Career & Background

What inspired you to do what you are doing now?

Working for a brand that I truly believe in and leans hard to my passions points as a person.

I’ve been a long time lover of Broadsheet. My husband and I actually began our relationship talking about our love of food, restaurants and culture. So when I saw the role advertised on LinkedIn, I knew I had to make it mine. I also had five different people send it to me saying, “this role is so you” I had a 10month old baby at the time and most people wouldn’t of known I was looking for my next role. So I took that as a good sign and the rest is history.

Could you tell us a bit about your professional background and where you are headed in your career right now?

I started my career as an 18 year old at ACP magazines, working on the L’Oreal account. It was a tough first client, however it also taught me a huge amount of discipline and stellar account service. As a young and ambitious twenty something I started to chase the opportunity / $$$ and took a few roles that weren’t right for me. Hindsight, it was danger money but I also needed to learn that the hard way. I worked in media or for brands that I wasn’t passionate about. And in the end, wasn’t inspired or motivated came full circle back to ACP Magazines three times across a decade as I LOVED it so much.

My fondest memories and life long friends were all made in my 20’s at ACP and I’m so grateful. I left the mothership as a 27 year old to take on London. After a few failed interviews with Vogue & Harpers BAZAAR (as no one seemed to care who the Australian Women’s Weekly) was, I took at job at the BBC working across the food portfolio. This was both incredible, disappointing and insightful. I started to see the digital disruption in a market much bigger than Australia. So when I moved back to OZ, I took a pay cut and a side step and moved into a radio and digital role.

It’s here that I worked for an amazing leader that backed me to take on a more senior leadership role that I didn’t think I was experienced enough for. It proved to be the greatest move and where I really discovered my love of leading teams and developing talent. Fast forward to a few more leaderships roles. An unexpected pregnancy, a redundancy, a career break as an EA and now in my current dream role. I would say I’m the most full-filled in my career that I’ve been in a very long time. I know what I love, what I’m good at and how to make an impact. I know what motivates me and what pushes me out of my comfort zone. I’m approaching 12 months in this role, so very much in the infancy stages of mobilising the very ambitious growth plan at Broadsheet and loving every single minute of it.

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I’m done

Your favourite food for thought

Podcasts / Thought Leaders

The Daily – New York Times

Mamamia Out loud

Shameless

What drives and inspires you

What are your core values?

  • Authenticity
  • Humour
  • Respect

Who is your biggest inspiration and why?

Ita Buttrose. As someone who cut their teeth in the world of glossy magazines (pre social & digital), you can’t help but feel a sense of pride and nostalgia at what Ita did for women and the advertising industry in general. It’s easy t to see women’s magazines as redundant or problematic these days and some of the time, rightly so. However in the 70’s, what Ita did for women was groundbreaking. Working while pregnant, returning to work post having a baby to continue a successful career when most women left the workforce. Being the youngest editor to be appointed in Australia of her time. She challenged Sir Frank Packer on multiple ideas that proved to be very successful and profitable for the business. She backed herself and her gut in a time when equality for women was nowhere where it is today and we still have a long way to go. Ita is 80 years young and holds the prestigious role of Chairman of the ABC. If that’s not inspiring, I don’t know what is.

You as a Mentor

Why have you decided to become a mentor?

I’ve been lucky enough to experience the full weight of successful and inspiring female mentorship behind me, as I’ve navigated my career. I would love nothing more than to pay it forward to the next generation of female talent within our industry.

What are the top 5 skills or qualities you bring to mentoring?

  • Confident
  • Empathic
  • Intuitive
  • Passionate
  • Willing to be vulnerable

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