Around 240 Catholic church and business leaders spilled out onto Bourke Street on 2 April pondering the question ‘Why not be great?’ These are people already at the top of their game, but there was a palpable sense of enthusiasm after a rousing, optimistic presentation from Jonathan and Karen Doyle.
The guest speakers at the first Melbourne Catholic Professionals luncheon for 2025 are polished presenters, but there was a raw authenticity in their individual talks, which revolved around overcoming limitations, recognising your talents and understanding that God wants you to succeed.
The Doyles run Choicez Media, which equips Catholic and other Christian school communities through formation, media and leadership programs. They say they are Australia’s largest provider of values, faith based resources on respectful relationships and consent, puberty, emotional literacy and child safeguarding.
Karen Doyle said that neither she nor her husband were unfamiliar with suffering. ‘We have been asked to carry many crosses throughout our life, both individually, whether it’s through health or in business,’ she added. She said telling her story illustrated how it is possible to overcome limitations.
Karen had severe scoliosis as a child, which required major surgery, and she missed a lot of school as a result. She recalled one teacher saying that she would never amount to much, but now she runs two businesses, hosts a podcast, leads Sisterhood National Catholic Women’s movement and spearheads new work around Australian national and state curriculum–mandated consent education.
A major lesson life has taught her is that ‘God is good and he is always faithful,’ she said. ‘The night before my spinal surgery when I was 13, I was very scared and my parents weren’t allowed in the hospital room.’
She opened her confirmation devotional to Proverbs 3:5–6. ‘It says, “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Lean not on your own understanding, but in all you do acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.” And that has remained a signature Scripture over my life.’
The Doyles’ transition to becoming entrepreneurs and public speakers started when the couple was working in a boarding school for boys in far north Queensland. Karen was the school nurse—she is a trained oncology palliative care nurse, but had given that up to move north with her husband—and she soon noticed she was treating the boys’ spiritual and emotional ailments as much as the physical cuts and grazes.
‘Our experience in this school gave us a front row seat to the pain and the challenges that young people face just navigating adolescence, and some of the choices around sexual decision-making, the impact that pornography was having in shaping their attitudes in relationships,’ she said.
God wants you to be an active participant in your life.
They started running courses for young people and were soon invited to speak at conferences and Church events. Then they ‘took a leap of faith’ and moved to Melbourne to set up Choicez Media.
Karen said the resources they produce have educated around half a million students in Australia and overseas. ‘It’s quite humbling to see the impact of that, but really it’s what happens when we place Christ front and centre of all we do. Our story is a story of learning to grow into the fullness of who God has created us to be.’
She talked about the ‘unique’ gift she believes God gives each person. ‘God actually gives us a dream and a mission for different seasons of our life, and our task is to understand what are our unique gifts and how are we being asked to serve and contribute with those gifts?
’For me, that has been a game changer … because it transforms how I relate to Jonathan in our marriage, my children and parenting, and how we do business.
‘God wants you to be an active participant in your life,’ Karen said. ‘He doesn’t want you sitting on the sidelines of your marriage or parenting or in business or professional life.’
The same God that thinks galaxies from his fingertips has called you to be great.
Jonathan took the stage next, a man clearly accustomed to public speaking. His entertaining anecdotes had an arresting message: why not be great?
‘Whatever you are doing right now, whether you are an archbishop, whether you’re a chancellor, whether you’re a janitor, whether you’re a parent, whether you’re a mother, father, spouse, religious—whatever it is that you do—whether you are the chairperson of the board, why not be a great one?’
Then he asked, ‘What do you think God wants? The same God that thinks galaxies from his fingertips has called you to be great.
’Can you imagine everybody in this room went home and said, “You know what, I’m going to be not just a reasonable husband; I’m going to be a great one.” What’s your alternative? Logically, what kind of culture do you end up with?’
He recounted a little about his own background of trauma and abuse, and about his father, who he said was forced into the family business and spent his life doing something he profoundly hated. This made Jonathan determined not to be like that, but also to help others be their best.
He offered a practical tip: ‘Go home each evening and just simply think back through the day that you’ve had, and ask yourself what is something, one thing, that if you change it, fractionally, would move your life incrementally? [If] you stack enough of those tiny incremental gains together, you become extraordinary.
‘And what is the key that unlocks everything? Become radically dependent and surrender to the presence and action of God in your life.’
Find out more about Melbourne Catholic Professionals events here.
Banner image: Karen and Jonathan Doyle at the Melbourne Catholic Professionals luncheon, April 2025.
All photos by Casamento Photography.
