This week’s episode shares the story of founder Sophia Matveeva who found herself having to make a big pivot when the global pandemic hit. Before Covid, Sophia, a Russian by birth and based in the UK, had been making inroads with her fashion app called Enty. Think of it as a kind of ‘Uber for fashion stylists’, used by growing numbers of consumers, and being featured as App of the Day on Mashable. However the global lockdowns last year quickly put an end to the need for we consumers to seek styl...
Aug 03, 2021•35 min•Ep. 116
This week’s mini episode features a global branding and design icon talking about the renewed power branding has in today’s ‘social’ world to create change-making movements. When we invited the designer, author and podcaster, Debbie Millman, on the show last year she talked about how branding has evolved in the past decade and how the power has shifted to us as consumers and citizens. She explained it in a historical context that really stuck with us and we thought it was so important, we wanted...
Jul 27, 2021•8 min•Ep. 115
We are so excited about this episode featuring an inspiring and no-topic-off-limits conversation with the globally renowned Sarah Wilson. Sarah has achieved massively in multiple arenas; she’s a former journalist and TV presenter, she’s an author and activist and successful entrepreneur. She wrote the New York Times bestsellers I Quit Sugar and First, We Make the Beast Beautiful , which best-selling author Mark Manson described as the best book on living with anxiety that he’d ever read. Along w...
Jul 20, 2021•38 min•Ep. 114
This week’s Future Proofing mini episode is all about not letting your ego get the better of you. We were blown away by the maturity and wisdom of young New Zealand entrepreneur, Brianne West, the founder and CEO of Ethique, the global and sustainable cosmetics company. We spoke to her on the show last year. Brianne’s mission is to rid the world of single-use plastics and Ethique replaces bottled products like shampoos with solid bars of concentrated product. Brianne has won all kinds of honours...
Jul 13, 2021•8 min•Ep. 113
This week we feature the first ever visual artist on the show when we talk with the entrepreneurial and talented American artist, Taylor White. Taylor has worked around the world creating incredible street murals and fine art. You may have seen her work in Melbourne, Oslo, Berlin, LA, Miami, and her hometown of Raleigh in North Carolina. Taylor spent a lot of last year driven by the goal to create and produce her own solo exhibition (The Pursuit of Happiness) inspired by her observations of life...
Jul 06, 2021•30 min•Ep. 112
This week’s Future Proof mini episode is all about what it takes to get a big idea signed off. We’re excited to share very wise advice from senior Microsoft exec, Mitra Azizirad, who heads up their AI and Innovation division. Mitra speaks about what you should do when that fantastic idea or innovation you have gets knocked back. (Hands up who knows that feeling!) Mitra is someone who’s had plenty of practise selling-in new ideas and approaches, and one of her top pieces of advice from our conver...
Jun 29, 2021•7 min•Ep. 111
Our episode this week features an American woman who abandoned the security and prestige of working with some of the world’s most sought after ad agencies to start her own businesses. Her name is Allison Kent Smith and one thing that really stands out about her is that she has consciously refused to pretend to be someone she’s not when trying to find VC investors for her startup. That startup, giide.com, is a new platform for creating rich audio learning experiences featuring a host of multimedi...
Jun 22, 2021•34 min•Ep. 110
Our mini episode this week is packed with wisdom from one of our most thoughtful guests. Social entrepreneur, author and one of Forbes Magazine ‘100 Greatest Living Business Minds’, Jacqueline Novogratz, blew our socks off with her inspiring purpose and thoughtful wisdom when we spoke with her last year . We particularly loved how Jacqueline spoke inspiringly about courage and creating change, and she uses the analogy of bulls and doves in a brilliant way. At the time she was releasing her lates...
Jun 15, 2021•7 min•Ep. 109
This week’s episode is all about becoming a great ‘people person’. It’s something we believe is probably the most important trait of a great leader. Of course, it’s not always easy to do, particularly these days when many of us are working from home at least some part of each week. Thanks to Covid, we’re all losing a bit of ‘muscle tone’ when it comes to building and maintaining healthy working relationships with our colleagues, direct reports and networks. But fear not as we have just the info ...
Jun 09, 2021•19 min•Ep. 108
This week’s Future Proof Me mini episode is all about asking for what you want. It sounds so simple in theory but it’s not always easy to do is it? Listen up for great and pragmatic advice on asking and negotiating from the unique and gutsy former advertising CEO, Cindy Gallop. She’s now a Founder and international speaker and she’s passionate about women being treated equally in business. You’ll hear Cindy initially talk about being posed a great question about what she wanted to do by an old b...
May 31, 2021•10 min•Ep. 107
This week, we’re really thrilled to be able to share our conversation with experienced founder, CEO and all round impressive operator, Connie Mckeage. Connie recently sold OneVue, the listed fintech business she ran in Sydney for 14 years. It was a dramatic journey at times, particularly when OneVue was left being owed $31 million dollars by another company which had collapsed. Connie is Canadian and has spent most of her career in financial services. With OneVue she and her 200 employees were l...
May 25, 2021•35 min•Ep. 106
This week’s mini episode is all about facing your fears and not being held back in life by the fear of failure. It’s important to know that we don’t always recognise how we’re feeling as ‘fear of failure’ when we hesitate or say no, but often that’s what lies behind any hesitation. In this episode we hear again from Kat Dunn . Kat was running Grameen Australia when we spoke a year or so back and these days Kat is working for herself and very much still focused on social ventures. Kat has thought...
May 18, 2021•7 min•Ep. 105
This week’s episode features one of the most unassuming and humble entrepreneurs we’ve met. Adina Jacobs is the Co-Founder of an international technology accessories company called STM Goods that basically created a whole new category of product when it launched it 23 years ago. (Think really functional and yet not boring laptop backpacks and bags, ipad and tablet covers, chargers, and a whole host of other accessories.) Adina’s success as a young entrepreneur is testament to the power of buildi...
May 11, 2021•37 min•Ep. 104
This week we look at the realities of being a startup founder. Becoming an entrepreneur and a founder is increasingly popular, even with school students where a recent survey showing that 40% of them now want to be entrepreneurs when they complete their studies. But it’s not all fame, fortune and delightful autonomy if you intend to build a business that will scale and survive. And we figured, who better to hear what being a founder is really like than one of Australia’s most successful female e...
May 04, 2021•7 min•Ep. 103
We have a very special episode this week because we’re sharing the vulnerable story of how one of our guests was subsequently fired from a high profile role in the US and how she navigated her way through the dark times that followed. That guest is Heidi Hackemer and what she shares in this episode is so generous and valuable for all of us to hear; after all nothing is permanent and plans fall over on a regular basis. Heidi is a leading creative who had her own brand agency in New York and also ...
Apr 27, 2021•29 min•Ep. 102
This week’s future-proofing mini episode is all about making the most of meetings you attend at work. And seriously, this is one of the most important tools you have to develop your visibility and your reputation. How many times have you sat through a meeting trying to jump in and contribute, or worse, left a meeting realising you hadn’t said anything at all? As you’ll hear in today’s show, more than one senior executive uses the ‘15 minute Rule’ to hold themselves, and sometimes their direct re...
Apr 20, 2021•8 min•Ep. 101
Can you believe it? Almost three years ago we started this podcast and now we’re excited to be releasing this, our 100th episode! A particular thank you to you if you’ve taken the time to review, subscribe or recommend our show as it really makes all our work that much more worthwhile. And we always love to hear from you, whether it’s guest or show ideas, or any feedback. Just email us here . This week’s 100th episode features a woman who has a pretty incredible story. Her name is Mouna Aouri an...
Apr 13, 2021•38 min•Ep. 100
This week’s mini episode is about keeping things in perspective and not taking things personally at work. We hear great advice from one of our wisest guests, Julia Paige, Uber’s global head of Social Impact. We both have in our time, and the wasted hours of angst trying to second-guess the motivations of others or their perceptions of us, were truly a waste of time. How often have you been rattled by something someone has said to you at work, then spent hours ruminating and worrying about how yo...
Apr 06, 2021•9 min•Ep. 99
A recent Microsoft trends in work report showed that 40 billion more emails were sent in February 2021 than the previous February, due to the increase in remote working. No wonder so many of us are feeling burnt out and that our work/life boundaries are all askew! We’re happy to say our latest ‘How To’ episode is jam-packed with tips on how to appropriately say “No” at work, whether you’re an employee or work for yourself. We’re not saying it’s always right or easy to say “No” but what we do obs...
Mar 31, 2021•19 min•Ep. 98
This week’s mini episode focuses on staying current with your skills in the fast changing world of work. Something that’s relevant for all of us given the pace of technology change! In this episode, we hear from drone and tech expert, Dr Catherine Ball, whom we featured on the show about a year and a half ago. She’s a real dynamo and a passionate believer in accessible lifelong learning. Cath is a strong believer in how important it is for corporates and individuals to think about re-training in...
Mar 23, 2021•6 min•Ep. 97
We’re excited to bring you this week’s important conversation with psychologist, burnout expert, author and leadership coach, Dr Jacinta Jiménez. We’ve actually known Jacinta for some years and followed her great work on leadership, coaching and high performance with keen interest. We were really excited when she told us about her new book, The Burnout Fix. Jacinta has broken new ground with this book deconstructing and presenting burnout in an actionable way we’d never seen before, and all of i...
Mar 16, 2021•33 min•Ep. 96
This week’s mini episode is in honour of International Women’s Day. We don’t know about you but this feels like a bit of a watershed year in terms of gender equality and sexual harassment issues rising to almost boiling point in multiple places around the world. Now is the time to call out inequality, injustice and gendered violence when we see them in action. In this episode we reflect on: Why we still need to keep gender equality on the agenda and why IWD is important How the pandemic created ...
Mar 09, 2021•13 min•Ep. 95
Have you ever felt totally blindsided or cheated? That’s exactly what happened to our guest this week who spent more than ten years building a startup into a huge success, only to find the company sold by the other investors without receiving a cent. Just two years later the business was valued at over 11 billion dollars! There’s no doubt that serial Scottish entrepreneur Lesley Eccles has ridden the startup rollercoaster on a grand scale. What we find so incredible and inspiring is how she’s bo...
Mar 02, 2021•35 min•Ep. 94
Hello and welcome to this week’s Future Proof Me mini-episode. Valentine’s Day was only a week or two prior to us recording this episode and it really brought home how we’re often primed to make our self worth dependent on being loved or valued by others. Whereas what really counts, is what we think and say to ourselves! This brings us to the wisdom of the amazing 92 year old June Dally Watkins, whom we were lucky enough to feature on the show some time ago but still in her 90’s. Very sadly, she...
Feb 23, 2021•8 min•Ep. 93
Hello and welcome to another special episode of the show. For those of you listening in the past few weeks, you’ll know that we have finally relented to the many requests over time to share our own stories. Claire’s been overwhelmed with the responses to her episode that we aired two weeks ago and this week it’s Greta’s turn to be interviewed by Claire! Claire loved chatting with Greta about her innovative and fascinating career journey to date. Tune in now to hear: How Greta spent the very firs...
Feb 16, 2021•42 min•Ep. 92
This week’s mini ‘Future Proof Me’ episode is all about the power of dreaming big. One person who’s a passionate believer in the power of the dreams we make for ourselves is stationery and Swedish design entrepreneur, Kristina Karlsson - the founder of kikki.K. We had Kristina on the show around the time her business went into voluntary administration last year. It was a perfect storm and COVID was the last straw. However, the great news is that in August last year they found an investor and the...
Feb 09, 2021•7 min•Ep. 92
By popular demand, we’re excited to share a unique episode with you today. We’re pretty excited because we’ve been asked to do this since we launched the podcast nearly 3 years ago. If you haven’t already guessed, we’ve finally relented and will be sharing our own career stories and journeys with you. Today you get to hear all about Claire’s extraordinary career and journey. Whilst normally you’d hear both of us asking questions, of course today, only Greta is asking the questions. Claire, of co...
Feb 02, 2021•39 min•Ep. 90
We’re excited to share our first mini episode for 2021! It’s a topical one for many people, particularly those whose careers may have been affected in some way by COVID in the past year. We were blown away by the career story of Dr Emma Camp, a coral scientist, a UN Young Leader and a National Geographic Explorer, amongst numerous other accolades she’s earnt along the way. When you look at Emma’s LinkedIn profile now you would think she’s always been seen as a superstar but in fact, this is far ...
Jan 26, 2021•7 min•Ep. 89
Hello, Happy New Year and welcome to our first episode for 2021! We couldn’t think of a better guest to start the year with than social entrepreneur Ronni Kahn, the Founder and CEO of OzHarvest. Ronni is a South African who’s lived in Australia for many years. The story of how she founded and then grew OzHarvest is really quite something. If you’re not familiar with OzHarvest, it’s Australia’s leading food rescue organisation, ensuring that quality, untouched food from supermarkets and big event...
Jan 19, 2021•35 min•Ep. 88
We can’t think of a better note to finish 2020 on than this week’s episode with an incredible woman and international leader, Michelle Guthrie. Michelle may be best known for her time as Managing Director at the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation which is Australia’s equivalent to the UK’s BBC). She was dismissed halfway through her contract amidst great public controversy. Prior to her role with the ABC, Michelle spent much of her career based in Asia where she was CEO of Star TV with mor...
Dec 15, 2020•34 min•Ep. 87
