Managing director Melissa Richardson brought Art of Mentoring, plus various members of her family, to Bellingen in July 2016.

She’d founded the business a few years earlier with her son Alex as director and technical guru, building on her decades of experience as a mentoring consultant, executive coach and senior marketing executive.

When Alex and his wife Carol, who were expecting a baby, announced that they were thinking of moving out of Sydney, possibly to Byron Bay, Melissa started casting around for alternatives.

She wanted the family to stay together, but she thought Byron Bay was too expensive, too far away and too over-developed.

While visiting a friend in Coffs Harbour, she came to see Bellingen and immediately realised it might suit everyone.

“Alex and his dad were on a little trip together, and I called them and said ‘I’m here in Bellingen, it’s really beautiful and I’d like to live here – what about that?’” Melissa said. 

“Alex said ‘Oh, actually I’ve been there for a music festival and I really liked Bellingen’.

“So everybody came up a couple of months later and had a look around, and we all decided, yeah, this is where we want to be.”

Melissa and Graham’s other son, Louis, made the move to Bellingen eight months after the others, along with his girlfriend Tamika.

Art of Mentoring, which operates across the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the United States, allows organisations to build and execute tailored mentoring programs for staff. 

It includes a complete library of  mentoring resources and supports recruitment, mentor matching, online training, automated notifications and surveys.

The roots of the business go back to 1997 and a not-for-profit association called Marketing Women that Melissa and a handful of other volunteers established to mentor younger women in marketing and help them navigate their careers.

Currently, Art of Mentoring employs 13 people in various locations, including a technical support person who lives in Bellingen and a marketing manager in Dorrigo.