Soloist in the Spotlight, Margaret Gill

Name

Margaret Gill

Town and country

Hepburn Springs/Daylesford VIC Australia

Occupation

Mentor and Muse to People in Transition

What's the best bit of feedback you've ever had…?

The validation that what I do works when my client I'd mentored and taken from 'zero to hero' took out the 2004 Victorian Panasonic Young Business Women of the Year award at the Telstra Business Women's Awards in front of 600 people in the Sofitel Ballroom. Yes, I cried - it was a sacred mentor moment!

…and what did you wish you'd never heard?

While working in a spa one angry client told me I’d made her leave more stressed than when she’d arrived – needless to say she had arrived with the intent not to enjoy the experience and I just stepped up and helped her with that goal!

What would be your advice to aspiring soloists?

Love what you do with a passion because you are going to be doing it a lot plus don’t do it alone, get support from a mentor or coach who has achieved what you want to achieve.

How did your school report describe you?

A quiet little girl.

What inspires you most about your work?

The people I work with. I’m in awe of the magnificence the human spirit is capable of achieving when it is positively challenged.

Is it more important to be fair or right?

Fair is much better because everyone has a different version of right and wrong but most people can recognise when someone is being fair.

Do you prefer crosswords, logic puzzles or neither?

I hate those things – I much prefer a general knowledge quiz.

What’s one habit you’d like to change?

I don’t smoke or drink alcohol or coffee so I guess sugar is the next one to go.

What’s the one resource you’d never be without?

My Palm Pilot – it’s only an old VX but I love it!

What actor/actress would play the lead in the story of your life?

Susan Dey - firstly I used to idolise her as the ever so cool Laurie Partridge in The Partridge Family. Probably no co-incidence I became a chick keyboard player for nine years after leaving high school to play in a rock and roll band. Then she played high-powered DA Grace Van Owen in LA Law. In her private life she has battled many demons and I just think she is a gutsy lady. I so wanted to be her in both The Partridge Family and LA Law, so it only seems fair that she plays me in my blockbuster.

You’ve got a free half hour during your work day. What do you do?

I just love to sit on my back porch overlooking Doctors Gully with a cup of herbal tea, feet up on the railings, looking out at my trees and the chooks and my garden, (which inevitably needs weeding, trimming, cutting or mowing) and counting my blessings to have such peace and serenity in my back yard.

What’s your proudest moment?

When words actually came out of my mouth when talking live to Tracy Grimshaw on the Today Show, via an earpiece remotely from Melbourne, when all I could see of what was going on in the Sydney studio was a blank autocue screen – I overcame a lot of fear that morning.