28/10/2026
What Stanford taught me about running a candle company.
Not a sentence I ever expected to write.
Last year, I had the opportunity to study executive leadership at Stanford University in California.
For those who don’t know, my day job is managing a large news department at one of Australia’s biggest broadcasters. In my spare time (lol), I run Richmond Botanicals Co with my husband and four kids from our farm in southern Tasmania.
On paper, they’re two very different worlds.
But one of the things I’ve found most interesting is how much they have in common.
Whether you’re leading teams in a large organisation or building a small business from the ground up, so much comes back to the same things. Good people, good decisions, connection, knowing your numbers and having a clear idea of where you’re going.
And while I went to Stanford to develop my leadership skills, I’ve increasingly found myself applying plenty of what I learned to our own business down here at the bottom of the world.
There’s a lot that goes into running Richmond Botanicals Co that you don’t see on Instagram. Manufacturing, retail, wholesale, logistics, marketing, managing people and the never-ending decisions that come with growing a business.
A few things I took away from Stanford, through the lens of our little Tasmanian candle company. 🤍
