Claire, Author at Don't Stop Us Now

How to Get Through the S**ttiest of Times

October 18, 2022October 18, 2022
by Claire

Our episode this week follows hard on the heels of some personally challenging anniversaries. We share how, even after the s++ttiest news possible, Claire has moved forward and thrived, thanks to some very specific mindset choices.

She shares those choices and we talk about what’s become her north star in terms of how she views work and life.

You’ll also hear from our special guest Heidi Hackemer, now Executive Director of the innovation and future focused Oatly Climate Culture Lab in New York.

Prior to her starting her time with Oatly, Heidi had had an ‘annus horribilis’ where her world fell apart. She shares her key lesson from that time and also what she did and does to get out of tough times.

You’ll also hear:

About four key building blocks to become more resilient
How your thoughts have a MASSIVE influence on your quality of life
A simple exercise you can do to improve how you look at life, and
Why being kind to yourself is absolutely essential to build resilience

Now if you’re thinking this episode will be all sombre and sad, think again – in fact re-frame those thoughts right now coz you be wrong sista!

Enjoy this episode!

Interview

Championing the Circular Economy – Lisa Saunders

October 5, 2022October 5, 2022
by Claire

Our episode this week is packed with great advice and stories thanks to our guest, social entrepreneur Lisa Saunders.

Less than three years ago, Lisa and her partner Adrian decided they had to do something to stop so many household goods from being sent to landfill. Specifically, they made a life changing decision to prevent as many electronic appliances and tech products as they could from being thrown away.

As a result, ‘Arnie’s Recon’ was born. It’s a completely free service that takes your old electronics (think phones, computers, fridges, cables etc.) and ensures they’re recycled and not sent to landfill. Plus, as you’ll hear, this startup has already created more than 80 different products and spawned others around them to start complementary businesses.

CEO Lisa’s stories of adapting to start-up life after a career in leadership development and coaching, and particularly getting used to literally getting her hands dirty in her day job are really fascinating.

Plus you’ll hear:

How Lisa’s ten years of doing Karate has helped her to stay mentally calm and not be triggered by difficult people and bullies
Plus, the clever and simple thing she says to herself to stay in that calm state when others around her are not
How she and her partner navigate having to pivot as they grow their enterprise
The simple thing she does when she needs to think creatively
And the magic of this model that stops so many electrical appliances and tech from going to landfill.

We love the ethos and the business model behind Arnie’s Recon and we think you will too. So enjoy this conversation with the passionate and resilient Lisa Saunders.

Useful Links:

Arnies Recon Website

Arnies Recon on Facebook

Lisa Saunders on LinkedIn

Clare Graves Spiral Dynamics Explanation

Interview

From Side Hustle to Multi Million Dollar Business –…

September 19, 2022September 20, 2022
by Claire

Our guest on the show today is a successful entrepreneur who has leveraged the power of social media to grow her one-time side hustle into a multi million dollar business.

Chi Mai, was born and raised in Hanoi in Vietnam. She came to Australia to study and it was in Melbourne some years later that her career took an unexpected turn.

Instead of the corporate career she’d always imagined, she ended up with no experience and barely in her 20’s, starting a jewelry business.

In just two short years since its founding in 2018, Chi’s business, called S-kin Studio Jewelry, was taking off.

In this episode you’ll learn:

The marketing strategy that changed everything and created an explosion in the growth of Chi’s business
How and when Chi decided to let go of her day job and devote herself full time to S-kin Studio
What she’s learnt as an introvert so she can successfully lead and delegate to her team of 9 staff;
How having a baby has changed her work habits; and
What success looks like for Chi.

Without further ado, enjoy this fascinating episode with the entrepreneurial and passionate Chi Mai.

P.S. You’ll only hear Greta this week as poor Claire lost her voice with a flu virus.

Useful Links

Chi on LinkedIn

S-kin studio website

S-kin studio on Instagram

S-kin studio on Facebook

S-kin studio on Pinterest

S-kin studio on Tiktok

Bonus Episode

The ‘Secret Sauce’ Behind Successful Change

September 8, 2022September 8, 2022
by Claire

This week’s episode covers surely one of the most topical subjects right now: how to deliver or be part of successful change at work. If the Pandemic wasn’t enough, digital disruption and changing economic and geo-political conditions are certainly ensuring that virtually every business we know of is running a change project of some sort.

That’s especially true for one of our listeners who got in touch and asked us for any tips or advice we could give her to support a big change project in her workplace. So we decided what better time to explore this important topic and figure out if there’s a ‘secret sauce’ to successful change? And if there is, what is it?

You’ll want to listen in because we have the answers to both questions for you in this episode.

We also hear priceless advice from seasoned change expert, Carole Ashford, who’s spent years helping big corporates implement successful major change projects. Carol also has a Masters of Change and numerous other change qualifications.

In this episode you’ll hear how:

None of us are immune to being part of change these days
How to respond when change projects impact you
How to build your change-ready ‘muscle’, and of course:
The Secret Sauce to making sure your change project goes well!

So before you so much as change outfits, why not pop in those ear buds and enjoy this episode!

Bonus Episode

What Surfing Taught Us About Learning

August 24, 2022August 31, 2022
by Claire

It all began with a provocative question from Claire and it ended with Greta spending last week learning to surf in Bali!

Now if you know anything about surfing then you’ll be laughing right now because you’ll know there’s only so much you can learn in a week!

Back in podcast HQ, complete with a few bruises and very sore arms (paddling and pop ups are hard people!!), it got us thinking about the lessons and crazy wipeouts that so many new learning experiences can entail.

We also asked ourselves, “what is the best way to learn a new work or hobby-related skill?” Thanks to Greta’s thrills and spills on the water, a very patient instructor, and some research we have some answers.

So in this episode come to Bali with us and hear what surfing taught us about learning, including:
Why knowing how you want to learn something can make all the difference
How homework can be both helpful and sometimes very unhelpful
The genius tactic Greta’s surfing instructor used, and
What she did to transform her experience out on the water from one day to the next.

Grab your swimmers, pull up a sun lounge and enjoy this episode. Who knows what you might learn next!

P.S. Greta is ready for surfing sponsorships and endorsements any time!! 😂

How To Episode

How to Discover Your Strengths and Thrive

August 9, 2022August 9, 2022
by Claire

Leaning into your strengths is perhaps the most powerful thing you can do as an individual to progress your career AND enjoy it more.

And if it’s that important we figured we should have a conversation about this! So we did! 🙂

In this week’s episode, Claire and Greta have a lot of fun talking about everything you need to know to own your strengths, thrive and feel more fulfilled.

We cover:

Why leaning into your strengths has so many payoffs
How you discover what your key strengths really are
How to think about applying them in to your day to day work and life, and
Hear real life stories of people who’ve made changes and are now thriving all due to insights about their strengths.

Wherever you’re at in your career, we can all benefit from pausing and asking ourselves “how much am I using my strengths this week?”

Join us now 🙂

Interview

The Amazing and Creative World of Immersive and Extended…

July 26, 2022July 26, 2022
by Claire

Today you are coming on tour with us to a newly opened, state of the art immersive technologies research centre at Portsmouth University in England.

The CCIXR, or Centre for Creative and Immersive Extended Reality, is the UK’s first facility where the latest in special effects, gaming and virtual reality technologies are all brought together.

Come with us as we learn all about this cutting edge facility from the Centre’s Business Director, Pippa Bostock and Specialist Technician and Producer, Hattie Ball.

As you’ll hear, the Centre is at the forefront of how technologies are converging to make all kinds of experiences that much more realistic – from films and theatre, to museum visits, as well as incredible training simulations for industry and the armed forces. (Think virtual reality on steroids.)

In this episode we start with Pippa taking us through the big picture including the metaverse, and then we’re going to dive a little deeper and speak with Hattie who walks us through a real example.

In this episode you’ll learn:

What Immersive and extended realities are
How and where we might see them used in the future
How you can learn more and get creative yourself
And exactly how the buzzword of the moment, the Metaverse might play out.

All the people at the CCIXR were so welcoming so a big shout out to the whole team there. Let’s start the tour shall we?

Useful Links

CCIXR (Centre for Creative and Immersive Extended Reality) website

Pippa LinkedIn

Hattie LinkedIn

Hattie Ball’s personal website

Interview

Making the Leap from Corporate to Startup – Maya…

July 12, 2022July 13, 2022
by Claire

We’re back from our much needed holiday and super excited about our guest this week. She’s a technology veteran who’s just made the leap, after a long career with big global tech brands, to run a climate tech startup in Singapore.

Maya Hari spent over 15 years in the digital media, mobile and e-commerce industries, working in the US and in Asia Pacific with companies such as Google, Samsung and Microsoft. She also led Twitter’s operations in Asia Pacific.

Now she’s taken up the reins as CEO of a startup called Terrascope with a mandate to scale the young venture. She’s had three months in her new role and is excited about how it fits both her professional and her personal purpose.

You can tell Maya is a deep thinker and we love how she talks about:

How she made the decision to leave big corporates to join a startup
How she assesses when it’s right to make a career transition
What she learnt from her most challenging career experience,
And we just loved a habit of hers that she calls ‘Serendipity Reading’.

So without further ado, enjoy this conversation with the strategic and thoughtful Maya Hari.

Useful Links

Maya on LinkedIn

Terrascope website

Interview

Bringing Nature Indoors – Belinda Everingham

June 7, 2022June 7, 2022
by Claire

This week we have a treat in store for you: an Australian entrepreneur who’s literally bringing nature indoors with her creation of a whole new segment using Australian native botanicals for products such as hand wash, cleaning products, and dog shampoo.

Founder of Bondi Wash, Belinda Everingham, launched her business in 2013. Today, the premium Bondi Wash range is sold and known around the world for its quality, chemical-free formulations and beautiful scents.

Curiously, what Belinda’s doing now with her business is light years away from how her career started as a management consultant.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How serendipity helped Belinda scale her overseas presence not long after launching
What happened when Belinda had to go into battle with a US giant trying to stop her using her brand name
The one thing she believes is critical for success in business
And why, when starting Bondi Wash, Belinda threw her rigorous and structured management consultant training out the window.

We think you’ll love this episode with the super thoughtful and inspiring Belinda Everingham.

Useful Links

4th Birthday Special – Highlights & Memories

May 25, 2022May 25, 2022
by Claire

We can hardly believe it but Don’t Stop Us Now! is officially 4 years old!

It was quite a different world back when we launched in 2018. Covid wasn’t a ‘thing’, working from home was often seen as a privilege, and organisations never would have believed they could ‘convert’ to digital and remote operations as easily and rapidly as they did.

We’ve had a ball going back through the 146 episodes of the past four years to bring you this special episode featuring wonderful highlights and memories. We also identified a few key incredibly helpful themes that keep cropping up with our inspiring, pioneering and innovative female leaders (83 and counting).

You’ll also hear about the one moment Claire will NEVER repeat again as well as the moments that filled us with wonder and awe. Plus, learn how you could win a $100 Amazon gift card.

So come on a highlights-filled journey with us now. . . preferably whilst eating cake and supping champagne! 🙂

Links

Our How to Manage Your Inner Critic episode:

Our How to Breathe Easy About Your Purpose episode :

Claire on LinkedIn

Greta on LinkedIn