Juanita Wheeler

Business adviser, Business leader, Change Agent, Connector, Consultant, Entrepreneur, Producer, Writer/Editor

I help leaders and organisations strengthen consequential ideas, build the case for action, and move the right decision-makers to yes. I am the Founder and CEO of Full & Frank, a strategy, persuasion and leadership consultancy working with executives, founders, researchers, experts, nonprofit and social-impact leaders, government and organisations in Australia and internationally. My work starts well before the final act of persuasion. I interrogate strategy, evidence and assumptions; assess readiness; map decision-makers and stakeholders; identify barriers to action; strengthen propositions; and help leaders build credible cases for what should happen next. I am also CEO, Licensee and Head of Curation at TEDxBrisbane, where I lead strategy, curation, speaker selection and development, partnerships, governance and audience experience. I have worked intensively with more than 100 TEDx speakers across science, health, technology, education, business, culture, justice and social change, challenging assumptions and strengthening the clarity, evidence and persuasive integrity of their ideas. Before founding Full & Frank, my career spanned organisational leadership, commercial strategy, global marketing and market development, negotiations, due diligence and M&A. I led the financial and operational turnaround of QUT Student Guild and later held senior roles with Australian laboratory-automation company BSD Robotics and its US acquirer, Luminex Corporation. Across Full & Frank, my work has included strengthening organisational strategy and funding propositions, designing initiatives and programs, developing cases for support, advising leaders and executive teams, and helping mobilise government, philanthropic, corporate and community partners around important work. I hold three master’s degrees spanning executive business, philanthropy and nonprofit studies, and social change leadership. I am also a Global Atlantic Fellow within the worldwide Atlantic Fellows community. Sometimes the final act of persuasion is a boardroom conversation, proposal, pitch, negotiation or keynote. Those are channels, not the objective. The objective is stronger strategy, stronger leadership and a well-founded reason for the right people to say yes.

1. Giving consequential ideas the best possible chance of succeeding. Important ideas need more than passionate advocates. They need rigorous thinking, credible evidence, strong strategy, capable leadership and a compelling case for why others should act. I am particularly interested in the work that happens before the final pitch, proposal or public moment: recognising what has potential, testing assumptions, identifying what could prevent an idea from succeeding, strengthening what is weak, and working out who needs to understand, support or act on it. 2. Leaving both the leaders and the ideas stronger than when they entered the process. The most valuable work should build capability rather than dependency. Whether I am advising an executive, developing a speaker, strengthening an organisation or helping shape an initiative, I want the person and the work itself to be better equipped for what comes next. That means asking difficult questions, being willing to challenge assumptions, helping people see what they may have missed, and then giving them the tools and confidence to keep moving without me. 3. Creating the conditions for people, expertise and ideas that might otherwise remain separated to find one another. Some of the most interesting progress happens at the intersections between disciplines, sectors, communities and lived experience. I am drawn to work that breaks down unnecessary silos, connects people who see different parts of the problem, and creates environments in which better questions, unexpected collaborations and stronger solutions can emerge.

Persuasion is not a performance skill. It is a strategic responsibility. We often treat persuasion as something that happens at the end: the pitch, presentation, proposal, negotiation, keynote or meeting where someone asks another person to say yes. But by then, much of the outcome has already been determined. Before asking anyone to act, we should be willing to interrogate the idea itself. Is the strategy sound? What evidence supports it? Which assumptions are we making? Who will be affected? Who actually has the power to act? What might stop them? And what would need to become stronger before a yes would be well founded? That changes persuasion from the art of making something sound compelling into the discipline of making something more worthy of support. It also changes the role of the person helping. Their job is not simply to make someone more polished or convincing. It is to challenge the thinking, strengthen the proposition, understand the decision-making environment and help build a credible case for action. Sometimes that process reveals that the original idea should change. Sometimes the ask should change. Sometimes the timing is wrong. Occasionally, the responsible answer is that we should not persuade people at all. That is not failed persuasion. It is better decision-making. The ideas most worth spreading deserve more than amplification. They deserve rigorous thinking, credible evidence and the strongest possible conditions in which the right people can decide whether to act.

Consulting, Leadership, Persuasion, Strategic Planning, Strategy

I first encountered TEDxSouthBankWomen as an audience member in 2012. I volunteered with the event in 2013 and stepped onto the TEDx stage myself as a speaker in 2014. In 2015, I succeeded founder and licensee Laura Stokes, taking responsibility for the event and its future direction. I led TEDxSouthBank in 2016 before transitioning the event to the TEDxBrisbane name from 2017 following an invitation from TED. Since then, I have continued as Licensee and CEO of TEDxBrisbane, evolving its strategy, curation, speaker-selection and development processes, partnerships, production systems and approaches to supporting ideas beyond the stage. My broader TED engagement includes attending TEDGlobal in Geneva in 2015 and TEDSummit in Banff in 2016 and Edinburgh in 2019, including dedicated TEDx workshops, community sessions and professional development. What has kept me involved for more than a decade is the belief that important ideas deserve rigorous interrogation, thoughtful development and the best possible conditions to be heard, understood and acted upon.

Taking candid photos of humans. Geeking out over the Indigenous plant species of the Enogerra Creek catchment in Brisbane. Recalling very specific details from past conversations. Racing to short-people-friendly vantage points at concerts and events.