Whether she was living in a flat with a cat in the city of Sydney, travelling America promoting American Express or back in paradise – running her own business in the Upper Hunter, Pam Seccombe has always felt the well known saying is a big theme of her life. 

Pam or ‘Pammie’ as many know her, was brought up in the country and really has done the full circle throughout her life, achieving numerous goals and finally making her way back to her familiar place exactly 20 years, one month and one week since her roots were uplifted from her parent’s property.

For the past 18 years Pam has lived just outside of Blandford on her 40 acre property ‘Yaroonga’, nestled on the Pages River where she has made her home with partner Jon May-Steers in their heritage house with seven horses, three head of  cattle, two cats and a dog. 

These may seem like basic facts, but this is the dream Pam always had after moving away from her parents sheep and wheat property at Rowena in north west NSW to pursue a career and build the business and personal identity she has today. 

Like many, Pam reflects on her life and can see many catalysts and driving forces that would always see her return to the bush, but she has quite an interesting tale of the colourful areas in between.  

Family has always been really important to Pam, which made it tough when she, and her brother and sister, were sent away to boarding school as youngsters. 

With a mother who believed highly in education, the children were taught correspondence for the first five years of their education and then set off on the adventure of boarding school in Sydney.

Pam spent seven years at Ascham where she says she was homesick for the first five, but was grateful for the opportunity of gaining a good solid education. 

Pam said she has a very strong belief in education and she has continually educated herself, as she believes it is the key to the future.

“I believe if you educate women, you’ll educate the world,” said the lady who is more than happy to attend local events and speak to women freely. 

Many would find after just minutes in her presence, Pam gives off vibes of motivation and inspiration as she is a leader from the inside out. 

These leadership qualities shone through from an early age as the young girl was elected to the school committee and was eventually the deputy head of the school, a role in which she was charged with the responsibility of disciplining the other girls. 

Upon completion of her secondary education, Pam took a gap year and went home to the property to work with her parents, before completing a typing and short hand course and working in different roles in the city. 

The young woman then started the journey to her dream career, commencing a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Marketing at the University of NSW, which is where she met her great friend Ali Haydon and later led to her purchasing her property on Haydon’s Lane. 

With her university degree under her belt, Pam jet set to Europe for four months travelling the country to places such as Morocco and Italy with friends. 

Horses have always been a great passion of Pam’s from her first ride when she was just 18-months-old on the front of her mother’s saddle throughout the years of pony club, jumping, eventing and showing. 

Pam competed right throughout her junior years and as an associate rider, and was also a pony club instructor, before  geography interrupted. 

In 1977, due to flooding and the challenges of farming on her ageing parents, the property was sold and they relocated to the city.

Although disappointed her ties to the country had been severed to a degree, Pam continued living in the city and started her marketing career in February 1978 when she was employed as a marketing assistant at Rexona.

Within three years she was promoted to brand manager before answering her own wish to work for American Express.

As a dominant person in the team of three, Pam worked day and night around the clock to launch the Gold Card in 1982, an experience she remembers vividly and with pride. 

With an interest in working in Canada, Pam put the feelers out and achieved a position in charge of advertising for American Express in Canada.

It was from gold cards to opal rings when Pam moved to Atlanta as the vice president of Opals Australia marketing opal jewellery to the Americans covering 38 states. 

Pam said she arrived in Georgia right after Crocodile Dundee had launched so it was right on the wave of the launch of Australianism over there. 

In 1989 Pam moved back to Aussie soil where she settled back into corporate Sydney life working in advertising for a short time, before accepting a position in marketing and communications at Apple for three years. 

After being ‘head hunted’, she transferred to Microsoft for about three years which led her to 1994 when she believes she had a major life crisis driving her to re-evaluate what she wanted in life. 

It was then that Pam set herself a goal – she wanted to be running her own business in the country and share her life with someone, by the year 2000. 

But she didn’t need that long, a year later she was visiting the Haydon’s and the opportunity arose to purchase her property so she did and started to set up her own people focused business. 

Then, she was sitting at a Sydney Picnic Race Club day at Warwick Farm when she glanced over and spotted Jon.

Pam said she knew straight away that he was ‘the man’. 

After meeting Jon it turned out they had grown up in the same area and had an uncanny amount of links, it was meant to be. 

Just two years later she was living back in the country, running her marketing consultant business based around customer loyalty and in love. 

Since then Pam has retrained herself with various courses in people development, coaching and mentoring and provided executive coaching before tying two passions together in 2013. 

Pam has always been fascinated in people and their behaviours, which has shaped the mould for various decisions in her life. 

An opportunity arose for Pam to join Sandra Banister and Lynn Jenkin as a director and shareholder of Horsanity.

The women operate the business which exists to untether the leadership potential that exists in all of us by exploring organisational constellations, leadership and communication with the added perspective of the horse - working with horses as a mirror, a teacher and a guide to a new way of thinking and being in the workplace.

The women run workshops that apply the concepts of experiential learning to purposeful activities with horses, one of which is being held at Pam’s property next month. 

The one day workshop is being offered twice on Friday, April 17 and Saturday,  April 18 at ‘Yaroonga’ and all are welcome. 

Pam said she loves working with people and helping them build their personal skills while using the catalyst of horses to guide people. 

Naturally, Pam still rides herself and is a keen member of the Upper Hunter Dressage Association, of which she was vice president of for a period of time. 

Motivated by the wish to give back to the community she loved living in and being a part of, Pam threw her hat in the ring and was elected to the Upper Hunter Shire Council in the 2009 bi-election. 

She was active on many committees including the Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, Development and Environmental Services, Heritage Advisory Committee and the Land Development Committee, as well as being the council representative on the Arts Upper Hunter committee. 

Pam said she was so pleased to see the ‘Up Country’ campaign finally happening, as she first conceived the idea during her time on council.

She said she found her time on the council challenging as she really wanted to do the right thing for the people, however found it very difficult to fulfil the dreams of what she knew she could have achieved in there. 

“I’m very much about leaving the world a better place, and I didn’t find the council was a place I could do that,” she said. 

Within the community, Pam has been a member, secretary and past publicity officer of the Quirindi Troop 12th Australian Light Horse, and also part of the team to organise the 2000 Battle of Beersheba Commemoration and Light Horse Sporting Tournament in Murrurundi. 

She was a member of the Murrurundi Chamber of Commerce and remains a member of the Scone Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as well as being a former member of the Scone Women’s Network and a keen member of the Murrurundi District Arts Council. 

In 2006, Pam opened her garden for the Open Garden Scheme and she has judged the bareback obstacle component of the King of the Ranges Stockman’s Challenge for the past five years.

Pam said she loves being back in the country where people know each other and she feels connected and at home. 

“Being back in the country allowed me to untether from all that toxic corporate environment and follow my true nature.”