Every Great Brand Has a Story. Mary Coleman Started With Her Own.
“I have always been stupidly ambitious”
As a teenager, performance was my strong suit. I loved to sing, dance and act. I studied drama throughout high school and later joined acting classes because I found it was the best way to express myself and to learn about the world by stepping into different people’s lives. Some people escape into novels.
I escaped into movie scripts. I started writing television shows and feature films, read scripts like Knives Out, and auditioned for casting calls whenever I could. I genuinely thought I was going to become an actress. Film fascinated me, but theatre had my heart. There was something so special about recreating a feeling, interpreting how someone might have experienced a moment, and bringing that story to life.
Looking back, acting was never just about performing. It was about storytelling.
I think storytelling is one of the most innate ways humans connect with one another. It’s how we preserve traditions, learn from each other’s experiences, and understand emotions we haven’t lived ourselves.
Growing up as part of Gen Z, I was privileged to live in a time where technology allows us to capture those emotions on camera and preserve them forever. I’ve always been hyper-creative, but my creativity has always centred around imagination, stories and people.
Before Coleman Marketing, I never really had one job. My first role was in hospitality at a café, then a pub. I babysat, taught French, worked reception, helped a marketing department while working reception, started a podcast, managed social media for hospitality venues in Sydney, worked for a startup beverage company, did influencer work after my account went viral, experimented with dropshipping and e-commerce, and eventually worked as a marketing assistant for several years.
The interesting thing is that I always had one main job, and then three or four side hustles. At one point I was juggling five jobs while studying at university. I never did those things because I was chasing money. I simply loved saying yes to opportunities. Whether it was theatre productions, television commercials, videography, editing, consulting, influencer work or marketing, I was constantly learning through different experiences.
Eventually I realised something.
I’d spent years calling them “side hustles”, but they had quietly become my life. So I stopped thinking of them as side hustles and turned them into a business. Coleman Marketing initially existed so I could run my influencer work through a company, but before long those side projects became clients. Instead of juggling random opportunities, I had created a business around the work I already loved doing.
One thing I noticed along the way was that many agencies understandably focused on larger clients. Small businesses and startups often didn’t receive the same level of attention, despite needing it just as much. That’s where Coleman Marketing found its place.
Working freelance taught me another lesson. I remember juggling countless client accounts while balancing university and trying to maintain some kind of social life. Eventually I realised I wasn’t crafting thoughtful work anymore. I was simply trying to get through the workload. It made me rethink how agencies should operate.
At Coleman Marketing, we’ve chosen a different approach by limiting our social media managers to a maximum of two clients each. I want every client to feel genuinely cared for, not like another task on someone’s list. Good work takes time, and I believe creativity deserves space.
One of the biggest misconceptions I see is around the value agencies provide. Clients often see an investment of $3,000 to $5,000 per month and understandably think it’s expensive. But over a year, that’s roughly the cost of employing one in-house marketer. Instead, they’re gaining the collective expertise of several people working together towards one shared vision.
I also think trust is something we don’t talk about enough. Businesses sometimes hire agencies but still want to oversee every tiny decision. If you hire an accountant, you don’t sit beside them checking every calculation. When you board a plane, you don’t step into the cockpit to make sure the pilot is flying correctly. You trust the professional you’ve chosen. I believe agency relationships should be built on that same trust.
The other thing I’d happily leave behind is the obsession with “the algorithm”. I think businesses spend far too much time chasing platform updates instead of understanding people. There are certainly best practices, but beyond that, I believe brands should stay in their own lane, focus on what genuinely works for their audience, and double down on that instead of constantly chasing trends.
For me, marketing has never really been about algorithms anyway.
Humans are humans. We connect through emotions. We relate to experiences we’ve lived ourselves. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that behind every screen is a real person whose life could genuinely be changed by something you post.
I learnt that through my own personal brand. I used to share marketing and university tips online, and one day someone I’d spent a week with at an academy programme told me they had already been following my content long before we met. They lived on the other side of the world and had found my page because of the advice I was sharing. I remember thinking how incredible it was that something I’d created could reach someone I’d never met and genuinely help them.
Since then, I’ve received countless messages from strangers asking for advice about university, business and life. By no means do I think I’ve got everything figured out. Some days I barely know what I’m doing myself. But I think people don’t necessarily connect with perfection. They connect with the journey you’re on.
That philosophy has carried into Coleman Marketing too. Clients often tell us how easy and enjoyable it is to work with us. I think people won’t always remember exactly what you told them, but they’ll remember how you made them feel.
One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced has been learning my own limits.
Every year, entering the final quarter, I burn out. Without fail.
In 2025, I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree while simultaneously building Coleman Marketing, organising my university’s annual ball, deepening my faith, figuring out who I wanted to become, building friendships, working multiple jobs and trying to make every opportunity count. Imposter syndrome has probably been my biggest enemy. Living away from home at 20, constantly feeling broke, studying while working what felt like a thousand jobs and trying to stay humble through every opportunity was overwhelming.
Eventually, I made the difficult decision to stop.
Around August 2025, I paused Coleman Marketing completely. I stopped taking on clients, brand partnerships and new work because it genuinely became a sink-or-swim situation. I didn’t return until December. Even then, I was still burnt out, but at least I had removed one source of pressure and given myself permission to breathe.
I’m still figuring out what I want to achieve in life.
I think success is helping people and making a difference. It probably sounds cliché, but it’s true. If I’m fortunate enough to reach a ripe old age, I hope I’ve helped people build meaningful businesses using the skills I’ve spent my life developing. I don’t really care about fame. I don’t even think I care that much about success in the traditional sense. I care about impact. I hope something I’ve shared encourages someone else to improve their own life, because ultimately it isn’t about me.
One belief I’ve come to hold is that doubt corrupts everything. Left unchecked, it slowly steals opportunities before you’ve even given yourself the chance to try.
People often misunderstand optimism too. Just because someone is kind, happy and bubbly doesn’t mean they aren’t capable of thinking deeply or critically. Happiness is often a choice. Optimism doesn’t cloud judgement. If anything, I think it gives people hope.
My faith has always grounded me through every season. A quote I return to often is, “Work like it all depends on you. Pray like it all depends on God.” It reminds me to work wholeheartedly while remembering that I don’t have to carry every outcome alone.
If I could leave one piece of advice for women building businesses, it would be this.
People often say you need to niche down, but I think we’ve misunderstood what that means. Your niche isn’t necessarily one topic or one skill. Your niche is the person you’re trying to help. I don’t create content for an algorithm. I create it for the younger version of myself. The girl who wants to grow in business but has no idea where to begin.
The same applies to life.
Why limit yourself to one skill when the person you’re becoming is made up of many?
As for what’s next, I’m still figuring that out! And I think that’s okay. I’m still learning, still growing and still discovering who I want to become. But if there’s one thing I know for certain, it’s that I’ll always be telling stories. Whether that’s through theatre, marketing, business or something completely different, helping people connect through stories has always been the common thread in my life, and I hope it always will be.
