In this episode I interview Heather Mills, vegan entrepreneur and owner of VBites plant-based food company in England. After being fired as a young teenager for eating too many croissants at the bakery store she worked at, Heather decided she didn’t want to work for anyone else. Since then she’s run a successful bra company that made her a millionaire at the age of 19, a model agency and many other businesses. In the early 1990s on returning home from charity work in the Balkans, a road accident...
Mar 08, 2019•57 min
In this episode I interview Jodi Monelle, the founder and CEO of global vegan media company LIVEKINDLY, in Vancouver, Canada. Originally from Bath in the UK, Jodi has a background in media sales for BBC magazines and worked in marketing for Hootsuite and a small VC startup. During her time working at the VC fund, she was inspired by the entrepreneurs she met and began exploring how to turn her blog into a business with large-scale impact. In 2017 LIVEKINDLY came into being and quickly became a p...
Jan 24, 2019•44 min
In this episode I interview Alon Hochberg, co-founder and CEO of Billion Vegans, an online marketplace that is aiming to be the ‘Amazon for vegans’. Born and raised in Israel, Alon is a serial high-tech entrepreneur and angel investor who has founded five companies over the past 25 years. He started his first business Modus in 1995 and funded it by himself with a second mortgage. It was one of the first companies in the world that developed an enterprise-grade Customer Relationship Management ap...
Dec 08, 2018•1 hr
In this episode I interview Ben Davis, creator of the inaugural Plant Based World Conference & Expo, which takes place in New York in 2019. Ben is working on the project with his family’s company JD Events, a boutique trade show management company with a 17-year track record of launching and growing unique concepts into industry-leading events. He came up with the idea as a result of his own drastic transition to a plant-based lifestyle (from being a big meat-lover), and earnest desire to ma...
Nov 25, 2018•55 min
In this episode I interview Ronnie Tsunami, a vegan speaker and learning solution architect in North Carolina, who helps leaders and organizations to accelerate the growth of their world-changing movements. Originally from Honolulu, Hawaii, over the past 25 years, Ronnie’s innovative solutions have been implemented in more than 10,000 academic institutions, companies and enterprise organizations around the world including Microsoft, the US Air Force, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, the Office of the Sec...
Nov 03, 2018•58 min
In this episode I interview Diana Edelman, founder of Vegans, Baby, a resource website and guide to all things vegan in Las Vegas. After nearly a decade as a publicist, Diana wanted a change so in early 2010 she left her job and the US, to travel through Europe, documenting her experiences on a blog she launched, called d travels ’round, and worked for an elephant sanctuary in Chiang, Mai, Thailand. After four years living abroad and becoming more aware of animal rights and responsible travel, D...
Oct 12, 2018•46 min
For this episode of Vegan Business Talk I’m going to share with you an audio recording of a 20-minute talk I gave earlier this year at the Plant Powered Women’s Leadership Conference in Sydney. Organized by vegan publishing powerhouse Kathy Divine, the conference provided a platform for a range of female speakers from all walks of life talking about various aspects of veganism and plant-based living. My talk was on how to get media coverage for your vegan brand. Because it was an event focused o...
Sep 29, 2018•32 min
In this episode I interview Lindsay Rubin, director of operations for v-dog, a vegan dog food company in San Francisco. Always obsessed with animals, Lindsay ran her own dog sitting business in high school, and became a vegetarian at college. After learning about the dairy and egg industries, she went vegan and became an animal rights activist. Photo by Gianna Conci Photography In 2013, she met Dave Middlesworth, the late founder of v-dog, who started the company in 2005 with his wife Linda, and...
Sep 07, 2018•48 min
In this episode I interview Sara Kidd, vegan baking ambassador in Sydney, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand. Sara started out studying as a chef but ended up at film school in Sydney. She worked in film for 15 years as Head of Acquisitions and Marketing at Indievillage, with a remit to take on animal rights and environmental films. Photo: Melissa Katherine Her last project, Kangaroo: A Love Hate Story, released in early 2018, was quoted by Australia’s breakfast TV show Sunrise as being the mos...
Aug 25, 2018•54 min
In this episode I interview renowned business journalist, leadership expert and best-selling author Suzy Welch in New York. Suzy began her career as a crime reporter for The Miami Herald in 1981 before leaving daily journalism a few years later to study at Harvard Business School and then worked as a management consultant. In 1995 she combined her two career paths at the Harvard Business Review (HBR), where she was eventually named Editor-in-Chief. Suzy is the author of the New York Times bestse...
Aug 03, 2018•1 hr 3 min
In this episode I interview Nicole D’Angelo, owner of The Yoga Collective studio in New York. Nicole left her full-time career as a social worker in the Philadelphia suburbs to move to the Big Apple in 2014 to pursue her dreams of working in health and wellness. Just four day after she arrived in New York, she started her yoga training. A graduate of the Three Sisters Yoga School, she’s taught gentle yoga, yoga for runners and meditation for runners at The Yoga Collective, which she bought in 20...
Jul 14, 2018•49 min
In this episode I interview April Tam Smith, co-owner of PS Kitchen, a vegan restaurant in New York that gives away 100% of its profits. April’s ‘day job’ is managing director of an equity sales and trading team at a large investment bank where she’s worked for the past 13 years. Most evenings, however, she can be found at PS Kitchen. It’s a balance she’s happy to strike as she’s driven by a passion to help people. Having spent time volunteering in South Africa and Haiti, April, who moved to the...
Jun 24, 2018•42 min
In this episode I interview Dylan Kendall, a designer of fun, affordable, functional and responsibly-manufactured products for the home, in Los Angeles. Dylan founded her first enterprise, Hollywood Arts, as a response to the challenge of ending youth homelessness. Hollywood Arts was the only educational facility in the nation to use arts and music to help homeless young people become self-sufficient. It quickly grew to serve hundreds of young people and earned Dylan the recognition of the Ashok...
Jun 09, 2018•55 min
In this episode I interview Leslie Durso, a vegan chef and wellness expert in Los Angeles. An Italian-American, Leslie has eaten plant-based since the age of eight and you may remember her from her entertainment days when she starred as Leslie the lab girl, on the popular TV show Bill Nye, the science guy that ran from 1993 to 1998. It was during the show that Leslie discovered her love of education and shifted from science to plant-based food. After establishing herself as a private chef for th...
May 26, 2018•46 min
In this episode I interview Ryan Bethencourt, a vegan biotech entrepreneur, investor, and one of the founders of the biohacker movement, in Los Angeles. Growing up in inner-city Miami, Ryan’s imagination was fueled by science fiction and as an adult he’s focused on using science and technology to solve some of humanity’s most intractable problems and reduce animal suffering. He’s a co-founder, former program director and venture partner at biotech accelerator program IndieBio. Ryan has invested ...
May 13, 2018•1 hr 1 min
In this episode I interview Dr Joel Kahn, holistic cardiologist and owner of two vegan restaurants GreenSpace Café and GreenSpace & Go in Detroit, Michigan. Joel is the founder of the Kahn Center for Cardiac Longevity and Professor of Medicine at Wayne State University. Even though he’d practiced traditional cardiology since 1983, it was only after his own commitment to a plant-based diet that he began to explore non-traditional diagnostic tools, prevention tactics and nutrition-based recove...
Apr 28, 2018•43 min
So, this is a special episode of Vegan Business Talk, as it’s episode number 100! I’ve interviewed 100 brilliant vegan business owners for the show who have been so kind and generous in sharing their challenges and how they overcame them, along with providing practical strategies for success. I love how this community of entrepreneurs on a shared vision are willing to share their intel and tips to help other vegan business owners to succeed. I know I learn heaps from every single person I interv...
Apr 14, 2018•24 min
In this episode, I interview Rebecca Mink, founder of vegan luxury shoe brand Mink Shoes in Los Angeles. Rebecca is a pioneer in this field, as she started Mink Shoes back in 2000 when there were few other players in the market. Working as a celebrity wardrobe stylist, she found it hard to find high-end vegan shoes for her clients, so she decided to create her own. She was initially turned down by 16 factories in Italy, until one finally agreed to take up the challenge of making luxury vegan sho...
Mar 26, 2018•1 hr 11 min
In this episode, I interview Jonathan Petrides – aka JP – from allplants, a plant-based frozen food subscription service in the UK. JP is a serial entrepreneur passionate about building businesses that solve major global problems. He founded Africa's first and fastest growing mobile bank, M-Shwari, which now has more than 30 million users, most of whom previously had no access to a bank account, and issues more than 100,000 new loans each day. He also founded an award-winning retail health chain...
Feb 24, 2018•1 hr
In this episode I interview Marla Rose, an award-nominated journalist, columnist and author from creative agency Vegan Street Media in Chicago. Since 1995, Marla has dedicated her life to building vegan culture and community. In addition to writing most of the content and managing social media for the Vegan Street website, including a variety of creative and informative memes, she is the co-founder of the annual free vegan festival Chicago VeganMania, which is now in its 10th year. For the past ...
Feb 10, 2018•56 min
In this episode I interview Brooke Goldner, medical doctor and plant-based healer, in Texas. Brooke was diagnosed with systemic lupus nephritis with stage 4 kidney disease at the age of 16 and made a startling recovery at 28 through plant-based nutrition from supermarket foods. She’s been symptom-free ever since, with normal lab results and no trace of disease in her body. Now, she educates physicians and patients on how to heal and achieve vibrant health using her Hyper-Nourishing Healing Proto...
Jan 27, 2018•52 min
In this episode I interview Lisa Gawthorne, owner of Bravura Foods, a marketing, sales and distribution company in the UK. Lisa has worked in a variety of FMCG marketing roles at major blue-chip companies, including Leaf UK working on the Chewits and Malaco brands, Nichols Foods working with the Vimto, Sunkist and Rani brands, Burton's Foods on their sugar confectionery and branded export biscuits portfolio that included Cadbury, Maryland, Wagon Wheels, Jammie Dodgers and Lyons Biscuits) and Ced...
Jan 12, 2018•52 min
In this episode I interview Anna Tagliabue from luxury faux fur company Pelush in New York. Originally from Milan, Italy, Anna moved to New York two decades ago and took a job working in the fur department at Fendi where she worked for the next eight years. When the brand launched a faux fur, Anna was captivated by it, but since it sold for a lot less than the animal furs and was popular with many customers, Fendi decided to no longer do faux fur. Anna bought the coat with a staff discount and b...
Dec 30, 2017•1 hr 7 min
In this episode I interview two fabulous vegan powerhouses, both of whom have previously appeared on the show as individual guests: Victoria Moran from Main Street Vegan Academy in New York and vegan lifestyle coach JL Fields in Colorado. The reason I’ve got them back on the show and together is because they’ve co-authored a new book and being experienced authors, I knew they’d have a ton of advice on writing, co-authoring and publishing books. Victoria is a vegan of over three decades and made ...
Dec 15, 2017•1 hr 7 min
In this episode I interview renowned US TV journalist and best-selling author Jane Velez-Mitchell, founder of JaneUnchained in Los Angeles, a multi-platform social media news outlet that produces original video content on animal rights and the vegan/compassionate lifestyle. Jane worked as a TV journalist for mainstream media for several decades. This included stints as a news anchor and reporter at KCAL-TV in Los Angeles and WCBS-TV in New York, as well as reporting for the nationally syndicated...
Dec 02, 2017•51 min
In this episode I interview Debra Denniston, co-founder with her daughter Rachel, of HFS Collective (formerly Hipsters for Sisters), a fashion brand in Los Angeles aimed at ‘liberating women from their baggage’. The brand is renowned for its belt bags, a much more stylish and colorful alternative to fanny packs. An artist at heart, Debra loved color, texture and shape as a child and taught herself to sew by the age of five. But, due to pressure from her parents to pursue more sensible career opt...
Nov 18, 2017•52 min
In this episode I interview Kathy Divine, author, publisher and book mentor in Sydney, Australia. Kathy is the author of five vegan books: Forever 21, Vegans are Cool, Plant-Powered Women, Plant-Powered Men, and Everyday Vegans, and founder of the magazine Australian Vegans Journal. The concept of ethical vegan leadership as the solution to world peace inspires and drives her work, and she uses publishing as a way to broadcast this vision into the world. Kathy offers one-on-one coaching to first...
Oct 07, 2017•1 hr
In this episode I interview Robert Petrarca, co-founder and chief operations officer at Maxine’s Heavenly, a vegan cookie company in Los Angeles. The company is named after co-founder Tim Miller’s mother Maxine, who took great pleasure in creating delicious sweet treats for the family. As Tim got older and started making cookies for his children, he wanted to preserve the joy of his mother’s baking, but adapt it for a healthier lifestyle. So he took out the processed flours and sugars, gluten an...
Sep 30, 2017•53 min
In this episode, I interview Billy Simmonds, founder of ECO Superfoods, a natural, vegan and organic health and fitness products company in Queensland, Australia. Billy is a martial artist, bodybuilder, powerlifter, and winner of the 2009 Mr Universe title in Hollywood. An authority in health and nutrition, he has served as a strength and conditioning coach to athletes around the world. Twenty years ago he worked in in the supplements industry in a health food store that is part of the largest c...
Sep 24, 2017•56 min
In this episode I interview Heidi Lovig, founder of Heidi Ho! an organic vegan cheese company in Oregon. Heidi is fanatic about farm-to-table dining, sustainability, seasonal menus, and local. She honed her vegan chef skills during her time living in Hawaii in a sustainable community where she managed an eco-hostel and farm. She’s trained with vegans and raw foodies from all over the world and was introduced to the spiritual side of veganism including elements of Jainism and the ethics of kindne...
Sep 16, 2017•39 min
