By the time I turned eight I was negotiating with bank managers. Mine is the classic immigrant kid’s story. My parents arrived in Australia with no English; I was off the boat, in school and learning the language pronto.

My appointment as family interpreter owed as much to a lack of competition as it did my knack for languages. Soon I was interpreting, translating and filling-in forms—it didn’t take me long to work out that telling the bank manager what my grandmother said word-for-word wasn’t going to achieve the desired outcome. I learnt diplomacy on the job.

My first day at kindergarten taught me the value of communication skills. I was alone, couldn’t speak the language, had a surname (Fragiacomo) the teacher couldn’t pronounce and had no idea where I was (kids in Italy start school later). It was a defining moment, which drove the subjects I took at school, influenced my choices at university and determined my career path.

Choosing a career in communication was a no brainer. I love getting a message across simply because I can still remember a time when I couldn’t.

Over the past 20 years, I’ve harnessed communication to engage employees, customers and stakeholders, build brands, manage reputation and help change take root. My work bridges internal and external communications—these disciplines are two sides of the same coin and treating them as separate is a recipe for disaster.

I drew on my experience in corporate communication, social media and journalism to lecture on public relations and media at Macquarie University. Teaching is learning, and I believe I learnt as much from my students as they did from me.

Strategy execution, change, cross-cultural communication, employee engagement and social media in crisis management are of special interest to me, as is coaching leaders and managers to become better communicators.

The Italian in me loves her espresso with a shot of Grappa.