Starting in Branding and Marketing with King Gee Workwear Clothing, Being a Young Female in a Male Dominated Space, Through to Capital Raising and Managing a Forestry Business in Nicaragua, Sonia Shwabsky Brings a Diverse Career Experience to Her Role as CEO of Kwik Kopy
Episode Timeline
- 0:00 – Intro
- 0:53 – Key career start and experience in clothing with King Gee work wear
- 1:27 – The start in clothing while working in retail at University
- 2:26 – Seeing the world with trade shows globally in clothing and apparel
- 2:48 – Starting with King Gee as a product and brand manager to GM
- 4:06 – Working on large client corporate accounts
- 4:40 – Working with small businesses while managing corporates
- 7:44 – Offshore manufacturing of clothing and price points
- 9:24 – A young female in a male dominated industry
- 10:49 – Stay in corporate or move overseas?
- 13:28 – Entrepreneurial move in Nicaragua with lumber business
- 15:00 – Running a forestry business in the 3rd world
- 16:48 – Learnings from Nicaragua and problem solving
- 18:38 – Exiting forestry → into training & franchising with Dale Carnegie
- 20:35 – Starting Dale Carnegie franchise in Nicaragua
- 22:35 – Core training products delivered
- 23:12 – Leaving training → digital marketing COO role
- 24:07 – Nicaragua turmoil & decision to leave
- 24:59 – Moving back to Australia in 2018 suddenly
- 27:42 – CMO role in print franchise, digital transformation
- 28:51 – Appeal of print & digital marketing space
- 30:02 – Becoming CEO of Kwik Kopy
- 31:05 – Reconnecting with corporate Australia after 11 years
- 32:05 – Day-to-day life as CEO of Kwik Kopy
- 34:03 – Staying on top of tech developments
- 35:33 – Future of Kwik Kopy business
- 37:49 – Wrap up
Starting out in clothing retail while at University soon saw Sonia enjoy the opportunity to travel the world attending trade shows and factories in clothing and apparel. On a fast promotion track through the Pacific Brands business meant a variety of roles through to GM with working with a varied range of clients from large corporate client accounts, right through to small businesses.
A desire for a broader working experience and a sense for adventure ending up in Latin America, and Nicaragua specifically running a forestry business after initially just raising capital for it in and around the GFC in 2008. The first taste of franchising came a time after through attaining the Dale Carnegie Training license for the country.
A quick departure from Nicaragua came after internal turmoil, and re-entering corporate Australia in the print and digital franchise space, which soon led to the role of CEO Kwik Kopy Australia.
