Reinvention: Yvette Vignando

You need a degree of determination and inspiration to leap from one career to another, let alone from one career into an untried business. Yvette Vignando realised she was ready for that leap when she was working as a litigation lawyer in 2000.

“I’d always been interested in what makes people tick,” she says. “Then I read a book by Daniel Goleman [Emotional Intelligence ]. I knew successful careers were about more than intelligence and this seemed to capture what I’d observed.”

Inspired by Goleman’s ideas, she conducted research in the US and returned to Australia to become an executive coach, running a series of presentations on emotional intelligence.

By 2002 she’d left the law and was focused on founding Emotional Intelligence Australia. The change proved successful and brought in a steady stream of work but it wasn’t until she went through a mentoring program run by the Australian Businesswomen’s Network that her ideas began to solidify.

“Working through the mentoring program provoked me into writing a real business plan, which in turn led to the creation of the happychild.com.au website,” she says. The website is a resource aimed at raising emotionally intelligent children.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go according to plan. A year and a half after embarking on the project, she was forced to scrap the original website because it lacked the flexibility she needed to ensure it could grow into a vibrant online hub.

“It was heart-breaking and liberating all at once,” she says. “After about 20 months of going the wrong way, I knew a lot more about what I needed and how to integrate the different features I needed. The revelation was finding a web developer who really knew his stuff; he solves problems and makes suggestions and has played a really important part in making the site a success.”

With the website up and running, Vignando is working on a number of commercial partnerships and is establishing herself as a commentator on emotional development in children.

She is also keenly aware that online businesses need to be flexible and interactive and is embracing that approach on the happychild.com.au service.

“Over the next 12 months we’ll continue to diversify our revenue stream,” she says.

“We’re not just going to become another online directory. I’m not entirely sure what we are going to be but I’m willing to try different approaches.”

BRW

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