A founder who actually built it.
— Portrait / Briony, Melbourne
I started Adorn Cosmetics in 2008 with no capital raise, no investors, and a refusal to compromise. By 2009 I'd pioneered the world's first refillable makeup solution.
Twenty-five years and fifteen-plus awards later, I've spent every day inside the operational reality of running an Australian ecommerce brand. Twelve-plus years building communities — including Perfectly Imperfect Mumma, an award-winning private community I founded long before "community" became a marketing buzzword. The Adorn community followed. Multiple wins in loyalty, sustainability and innovation. Victorian state finalist in both loyalty and sustainability. 2024 NORA Entrepreneur of the Year.
On the live and on-camera side, I'm a past TVSN presenter with appearances across television, radio and live shopping — over a decade of selling under live, unscripted, no-second-takes conditions. I can be the face of your live commerce, or I can teach your founder how to be the face of yours.
I'm on the NORA Small Business Advisory Board, speaking at Retail Leaders 2026, and — quietly, behind the scenes — I've advised brands in beauty, supplements, skincare, makeup, manufacturing and home maintenance. I'm a hands-on Shopify dev. I understand storytelling, SEO, AI search and UX optimisation as one connected system — not separate disciplines. It's all the 1%-ers that move the needle.
And I've learned the most expensive lesson an ecommerce founder can learn — the one that nearly closed a 17-year-old business. That story sits in The Lesson, and it's the reason The Pocket CEO exists.
Fractional CEO & business advisory · Loyalty & community design · Conversion & retention · Live commerce & on-camera coaching · Platform & agency accountability · Storytelling, SEO & AI search · The 1%-ers that move the needle
The brands that win the next decade won't be the ones with the biggest ad budgets. They'll be the ones whose founders show up — on camera, in the comments, in the work. Trust is the new conversion.
Honest storyteller. · Small business advocate. · Kindness warrior.
The Pocket CEO isn't just advisory work. It's where I do live selling for brands I actually believe in, interview the founders behind them, host the podcast, and share the playbook with anyone who'll listen.