Anna Godfrey
Snapshot:
Industry / Sector: Business / Corporate, Communications / Media, Creative Industries
Career Type: Business Owner, Creative Professional
Education Pathway: University
Mid Coast Connection: Born & raised on the Mid Coast
The Blurb:
Anna Godfrey is the founder of The Switcher, a strategic innovation and marketing business run from the MidCoast. With a background in corporate roles across Australia and internationally, Anna has built a flexible career that allows her to combine big-brand boardrooms with school runs and community life.
From corporate marketing in Chicago to thought leadership from Cundletown, her story is grounded in the power of communication, confidence, and being authentic about what matters most at different stages of life.
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Current Role: Founder of Switcher, providing marketing strategy and innovation consulting from the MidCoast.
Career Path: From Chatham High to Charles Sturt University, corporate marketing roles (including international opportunities), then establishing her own business.
Key Skills: Communication, authenticity, adaptability, strategic framing of ideas.
Challenges Shared: Navigating career moves, relocating for work, balancing career ambition with family life.
What She Loves: Flexibility to combine work and family, authentic connection with clients and community.
Advice to Younger Self: Know your strengths, go with your gut—don’t overthink everything.
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“I help people think differently about lots of things.”
“Sometimes that skill actually just involves you being quiet and not saying anything.”
“Know your strengths but go with your gut.”
“Authenticity is a beautiful thing... not enough people back themselves.”
“Sometimes family has to come first, and vice versa.”
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[0:10] Intro
Hi, I'm Gemma. Thanks for joining us today for our Human Library video series. In this video series, we borrow local people from our community to tell us their stories and to showcase the diverse possibilities available in our community.
Today we are joined by Anna Godfrey, founder of The Switcher. Anna will share with us her journey and how she’s used the skill of communication through her life to get to where she is today.
[0:35] Hi Anna, can you tell us what your professional life looks like currently today?
Sure. I live in Cundletown and I run my business, The Switcher, where I help people think differently about lots of things. I do lots of marketing, strategy, innovation work—and it’s a real blend. I would say it’s a mix between professional and personal because I don’t really think professional is just where things are at these days. As a working mum of three kids, I tend to blur the both, but I’m lucky that I can do all of that from Cundletown.
[1:08] Can you name and describe a skill that you’ve used through your life to get to where you are today?
A skill that I use every day would be being a good communicator. I think there’s a real skill in being able to succinctly figure out ‘what do people need’ and then frame it in a way that people can easily understand. Sometimes that skill actually just involves you being quiet and not saying anything. But that’s actually what I spend my life doing—communicating information or ideas so we can make decisions on business and figure out where to from there. That’s a really good one, and a skill that most people can actually practice.
[1:50] Can you think of an example or a specific time that you’ve used that skill of communication to achieve a goal or get through something in your professional life?
I think when I left Chatham High and I moved to Bathurst, to Charles Sturt University, most of my career was based around communicating that there was an opportunity or something that I would like to go and do. I don’t think anybody has a big master plan for what that kind of looks like, so I think you always need to be ready to communicate openly around “That would be great for me” or “Here’s how I can help you do that.”
I can think of multiple opportunities—whether that was saying yes, I’d love to travel, communicating that I could be up for moving to Chicago for work, or yes, I’d like to do more in marketing or innovation, or yes, I want to leave corporate life and move home to Taree. All of those things required framing and really communicating very clearly what it is that I was after. I think I’ve done that pretty well to date.
[3:00] Can you tell us what you love about either your professional or personal life today?
I love the flexibility that being a working mum and being able to work from here gives me. That’s really important to me. I’ve needed different things in my career to date and sometimes professional comes first and sometimes personal comes first. I’m really clear with telling my work sense that sometimes family has to come first, and vice versa. That’s the flexibility—being able to be here and attend swimming carnivals and doing all of those things as well as sitting in a boardroom with Woolworths. All of those things work together flexibly, and that’s really what I’m after at this point in time.
[3:47] What do you think this says about the values that are important to you?
A value for me is actually being really authentic. Authenticity to me is about being really real and knowing who you are and what you need—and that changes all the time in your career. For me, working flexibly for now with three children is most important.
There are different times that I’ve needed different things. But I really value simplicity and honesty, and that’s who I am. I’m always seeking real people who say what’s going on, whether that’s good or bad, because I think authenticity is a beautiful thing. Not enough people back themselves to say, “This is who I am and what I do well.”
[4:32] What’s a piece of advice that, looking back, you would give to your younger self?
I was always pretty confident in knowing kind of where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do. The first thing was leaving Taree and moving to uni, so it’s highly ironic that I chose to come home and live a beautiful life here. But my piece of advice to myself would be: know your strengths, but go with your gut. I think lots of people overthink stuff, and looking back on all the decisions that I’ve made in my career, going with your gut—does it feel right or does it feel great—that would be a really simple piece of advice to take.
[5:17] What do you think it would mean for your younger self to hear this piece of advice?
I think as a younger person, when you just don’t have the experience yet, it probably would have just saved me a bit of time. I kind of intuitively knew that’s what I needed to do, but sometimes young people have a bit of a wobble because they’re not really sure. I think if I’d taken my own advice back then, I just would have got on with it and enjoyed it instead of thinking about it or feeling the need to talk with lots of people about it—just do it.
Please note: All content is correct at the time of recording.
