Interview Archives - Page 10 of 12

Cyan Ta’eed – From Imposter Syndrome to Rich List

July 2, 2019
by admin

Our guest this week is a serial entrepreneur and one of Australia’s richest and most successful women. She’s also one of the humblest and most honest people you’re likely to meet. We’re talking about Cyan Ta’eed, Co-Founder of digital marketplaces business, Envato, and Founder of ethical luxury chocolate company, Hey Tiger and Milkshake, a new app for Instagram influencers.

Cyan is a true creative and started her career as a graphic designer. However after a brief stint working for someone else she decided working for herself was the way to go. She and her then boyfriend, started a side hustle to sell stock photographs and digital assets to other creatives.

Fast forward 13 years and Envato, the name of that marketplaces company, is now worth more than A$1bn, employs over 500 people and has more than one billion digital goods for sale. Not only that, but Cyan has gone on to start, amongst other things, Hey Tiger, a chocolate social enterprise aimed at women as well as her latest start up Milkshake, a website building app for Instagrammers.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

How Cyan and her husband, Collis, took the Envato business from zero to being valued at over AU$1bn without any real plan
How an eye ulcer and sleep deprivation led her to start her chocolate social venture Hey Tiger
What she did to get over her “massive imposter syndrome”
Why she views self care as a non-negotiable
Her learnings about difficult conversations

Enjoy this episode with the inspiring and down-to-earth Cyan Ta’eed.

Serial entrepreneur and rich lister Cyan Ta’eed & her husband Collis. Cyan with her Hey Tiger chocolate brand which is designed for women with a social conscience and a love for amazing chocolate …yes please!

Episode links

Cyan’s personal Insta

Hey Tiger Insta

Hey Tiger website – order your chocolate here (delivery to Australia, NZ & US for now)

Milkshake Insta

Envato Insta

Envato website

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Interview

Caroline Issa – Feel the Fear and Do It…

June 4, 2019
by admin

Our guest this week has a habit of saying “yes” to things she doesn’t know how to do… such as designing women’s wear collections for Nordstrom when she’d never designed clothes before!

We’re talking about the unbelievably stylish entrepreneur, Caroline Issa, the CEO of the Tank group which includes the revered global fashion and culture magazine, Tank Magazine. Despite her quiet humility she’s also a fashion influencer and paparazzi favourite.

Caroline started her career as a management consultant working in San Francisco, Singapore and London. One day a friend introduced her to the Founder of Tank Magazine, and she fell in love with the business. Much to the horror of her family and friends she left her big expat consulting gig and became CEO of the fledgling business. That was 17 years ago.

Fast forward to today and Tank is one of the few boutique global print magazines still thriving. What’s more, the business has grown to include a creative agency and Caroline is constantly innovating and embarking on new projects including designing those aforementioned clothing collections for Nordstrom.

Whether she’s supporting other story tellers, advocating for young talent, working with cultural institutions or designing clothing collections, Caroline Issa has learnt the benefits of saying ‘yes’ to the opportunities that come her way.

In this episode you’ll learn:

The ‘one’ thing you must know about running a business
How Caroline found a way to succeed in the fashion world despite ignoring the advice she’d been given
What makes her say ‘yes’ to opportunities even when she feels terrified
Why she’s reassessing how she uses social media.

So without further ado, enjoy this discussion with the inspiringly positive and courageous Caroline Issa.

Links

Caroline on Instagram

Caroline on Linkedin

Tank Magazine on Instagram

Tank Magazine website

Book: Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway – by Susan Jeffries

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Interview

Mia Freedman – Is the Real Deal

May 21, 2019
by admin

We don’t think we’ve ever had a guest who is prepared to be as open and honest about her life and career as Mia Freedman is. Whether it’s in our conversation for this episode, or her Insta posts or in the 3 books she’s written, Mia is determined to show her life, warts and all, because she really cares about shattering the ‘women should look and be perfect’ myth. She’s all about making women feel better about themselves.

Mia is a household name in Australia. She’s the co founder and creative director of MamaMia, one of the largest female-focussed digital media businesses in the world. Mia became the world’s youngest editor of Cosmopolitan magazine at just 24 years of age.

In this episode you’ll hear:

How Mia advises young women to think about their career
How she was persuaded to stick out a nightmare job for months while negotiating her own redundancy
How she and her husband manage working together, and …
How Mia realised she didn’t want, nor was she the right person, to be CEO of her own company.

Enjoy this frank conversation with the amazing Mia Freedman.

Photo Credits: Supplied or from Mia’s social channels

Links

Mia on Instagram

Mia’s own website

MamaMia Women’s Network website

MamaMia Podcasts – Apple Link

Mia’s Books:

Work Strife Balance – her most recent book and a great read

Mama Mia – A Memoir of Mistakes, Magazines and Motherhood

Mia Culpa

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Interview

Katie Vanneck-Smith – Work Hard, Have Fun, Make History

May 7, 2019
by admin

This week’s guest has serious grit.

Katie Vanneck-Smith is a media industry veteran and for anyone who’s not familiar with that industry, let’s just say it’s a pretty male dominated and blokey world. Katie has spent more than 20 years in the commercial side of publishing on both sides of the Atlantic.

Katie’s grit really came to the fore when she spent nine years – yes nine years – trying to persuade her bosses at The Times newspaper in London to get readers to pay for online news content.

Her determination and patience paid off and in 2010 The Times became the first mainstream newspaper globally to charge for access to its digital content. This changed the future of how we all read newspapers online and Katie’s motto: ‘Work hard, have fun, make history’ really came to life.

Fast forward nine years and Katie is attempting to make history again.

Last year she left her high-powered role as President of Dow Jones (which includes the Wall Street Journal) to co-found a new online media start-up called ‘Tortoise’ which is reporting news in a completely different way – they’re focused not on churning out breaking news but on what’s driving the news.

In today’s episode you’ll hear:

How Katie didn’t realise her family was relatively poor until she was 14 years old
What she did over nine years to persuade her bosses at The Times to make a transformative decision for the business
How she managed to double her salary, twice, in three years
And how she thinks about money and failure.

So sit back, pop those earphones in and enjoy this episode with the determined and passionate, Katie Vanneck-Smith

Katie and her two Co-Founders James Hardy & Matthew Barzun; Greta and Claire with Katie at the Tortoise London offices (yes, we got the white sneaker memo!)

Links

Katie on Linkedin

Katie on Twitter

Tortoise Website

Tortoise on Twitter

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Interview

Gaby Dalkin – How Her Food Side Hustle Took…

April 23, 2019
by admin

We’re so impressed by how this week’s guest has grown her business and her brand from pre side-hustle stage, to become the entrepreneurial ‘foodie’ success it is today. We think you’ll love getting to know Gaby Dalkin, the California based chef, author and influencer.

Gaby is the CEO of ‘What’s Gaby Cooking’. She and her team are a content and recipe creating machine! She has more than 450,000 Instagram followers, she’s published 2 cookbooks with another on the way, she’s appeared on some of America’s most watched TV shows, she has several product ranges at kitchenware giant Williams Sonoma, and has numerous other brand partnerships as well.

When we met Gaby we were blown away by her obvious dedication and commitment. We actually met her whilst on holiday in Patagonia and in between our horse riding and hearty ‘estancia’ (ranch) Patagonian BBQ lunch, Gaby was clearly working on social media and we were intrigued.

So intrigued, we got chatting and the rest is history!

And in today’s episode you’ll learn:

How this famous foodie had never tasted fish until she started at culinary school
The secret to her building up such a loyal and ever-growing number of followers
How her business smarts and initiative led her to her first product line with Williams Sonoma
And the biggest challenge she’s had to overcome in order to be able to delegate and grow her business

We hope you enjoy this episode with the super smart and delightful Gaby Dalkin.

Gaby having fun – on set with two of her team, Matt & Adam; and with her husband Thomas in Patagonia (where we met them)

Links:

Webiste – https://whatsgabycooking.com/

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/whatsgabycookin/

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/WhatsGabyCookin/

Pinterest – https://www.pinterest.com.au/whatsgabycookin/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/whatsgabycookin

Snapchat –https://www.snapchat.com/add/whatsgabycookin

Gaby’s Email: gdalkin@gmail.com

Where you can find Gaby’s Products:

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Interview

Ann Sherry – The Positive Change Agent

April 9, 2019
by admin

Ann Sherry is a change maker who’s notched up so many extraordinary achievements during her decades long and inspiring career to date that it’s hard to know where to start. Suffice to say Australian women have a lot to thank her for as one of the many things she’s responsible for is introducing paid maternity leave to corporate Australia.

She also transformed the cruise industry in Australia as CEO of Carnival Australia, notching up double digit growth every year despite having to deal with significant challenges.

Today Ann sits on multiple boards including Carnival Australia where she is Chairman, she is also Chair of UNICEF Australia, and a Non Executive Director (NED) with one of the country’s biggest banks, National Australia Bank (NAB), as well as Sydney Airport, Rugby Australia, the Museum of Contemporary Arts Australia and Palladium.

Ann has many accolades for her extremely varied career to date including a Centenary Medal, an Order of Australia and the overall winner of the Women of Influence award in 2015.

In this episode you’ll hear:

How having a baby with Downs syndrome at just 21 didn’t stop her from pioneering his care and returning to work when he was still young
How she’s learnt to be resilient and not be phased by others judging her
Why she thinks women need to take more risks
And why she controversially bought a host of brightly coloured pant suits shortly after becoming one of the first senior women at a major bank.

For listeners who outside of Australia, near the end of the episode we talk about how there’s recently been a Royal Commission in to banking in Australia – it’s basically a court-style public inquiry into misconduct which unearthed some serious misconduct across the industry.

So please enjoy this fascinating discussion with the inspiring and truly entertaining Ann Sherry.

Links to Ann:

Twitter

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Interview

Dr Emma Camp – On a Quest to Save…

March 12, 2019
by admin

This week’s inspiring guest is Dr Emma Camp, a British marine bio-geochemist who searches out and then studies corals that can naturally survive in extreme conditions such as mangroves. This might sound simple but it leads to Emma listing crocodiles as one of the greatest risks of a day in the office!

She’s passionate about saving the world’s coral reefs and has made it her mission that we all should be too. (Emma, we’re convinced!)

Emma is a National Geographic Explorer and a current United Nations Young leader. Despite her relative youth, her pioneering research work and passion for saving corals has seen her receive numerous honours and highly-prized research fellowships.

In this episode you’ll hear:

How Emma used her determination and ingenuity to go from struggling to break into academia to starting her own company to get the research experience she needed
How her Dad’s mantra helps her reach her goals
What it felt like the first time she found herself at the UN General Assembly
And, the real story about the state of the world’s coral reefs and what you can do to make a difference,

Enjoy this episode with the passionate and determined Dr Emma Camp.

Links to Emma:

Emma’s website

Twitter

Instagram

UN Young Leaders Website

Things you can do to help save our oceans:

Take small actions – don’t use plastic, drink from a reusable cup, walk more
Get involved in beach clean ups
Eat sustainable fish. Find out how:
Lobby your politicians – get vocal – make them accountable!

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Interview

Kat Dunn – Making Tough Career Decisions to be…

February 26, 2019
by admin

If we had to summarise what our guest this week is all about, we’d say she’s about reinvention and being true to herself. And for 35 year old Kat Dunn, that meant abandoning a successful corporate career.

Born in the Philippines, Kat had been climbing the corporate ladder at an impressive rate in Australia, first of all as a lawyer and then in a variety of roles in financial services. But she was deeply unhappy.

One day she said “Enough” and took radical action. In this episode we explore exactly how and why she did this and how she feels about her new career now, several years down the track.

Today Kat is CEO of Grameen in Australia, part of the global not for profit organisation founded by the Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Muhammad Yunus.

In this frank and heartfelt episode you’ll hear:

What it’s like growing up Asian in an almost all white country town in Western Australia
How Kat started out as a consummate planner and then realised that just wasn’t working
How she confronted failure head-on and even made a business out of it
And, how she’s never felt more secure despite earning 50% less than she used to.

Enjoy this episode with the wise-beyond-her-years, Kat Dunn.

Links to things Kat mentioned

Malcolm Gladwell – on Snap Judgements

Kyle Cease – 6 minutes on Creativity

Charity TV Casting Session Facebook Event – open until 7th March 2019

Links to Kat

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Interview

Marie Johnson – Breaking Digital Boundaries and Challenging Stereotypes

February 12, 2019
by admin

On the show this week is Marie Johnson, an Australian entrepreneur with a passion for digital and AI.

Marie’s cutting edge work today is all the more incredible when you hear her story….

She was married as a teenager, then soon found herself pregnant and living in a caravan! Despite not having the chance to take her studies further immediately after school, Marie went on to juggle motherhood and study, and earnt several degrees.

One thing led to another and Marie took on CIO and other senior technology roles, particularly in Government, and in 2006 she was named “Innovative CIO of the Year – for Australia” (according to CIO magazine).

Marie now leads the Centre for Digital Business – a company she co-founded with her husband (yes the same one she married all those years ago). She’s a passionate believer in finding ways to use digital technology including AI to make life more equal and fair for everyone.

In this episode you’ll hear:

Why you should have a long and a short game plan
What it’s like as an older woman in technology
How she copes with adversity
How she co-designed the world’s first digital human, Nadia, with the disabled community and
How her husband’s four heart operations and her grandsons are shaping the digital ventures Marie is working on now

Enjoy this episode with the forward thinking Marie Johnson.

We were amazed by this video Marie shared with us (below) showing the incredibly human conversational skills of her current project: creating a Digital Human Cardiac Coach. We think she and the team at FaceMe are doing a truly incredible job. Prepare to be blown away by AI in action:

Debbie Wosskow, OBE – What It Takes To Be…

January 29, 2019January 29, 2019
by admin

On the show this week is Debbie Wosskow, a dynamic serial entrepreneur who sold her third business, LoveHomeSwap, for US$53m. Debbie recently co-founded The AllBright, Britain’s first members-only club specifically for business women. The AllBright named after Madeleine Albright, also offers a an online academy and a community that aims to create opportunities for women to thrive and flourish. We love the idea and mission behind AllBright and think you will too.

In addition to successfully selling two businesses, Debbie’s also recently been awarded The Evening Standard ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ 2018. She’s a member of the Mayor of London’s Business Advisory Board and has also been awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE).

We so enjoyed meeting with Debbie at the AllBright in London and talking about:

Why Debbie’s mission is to create a monster, global sisterhood of kick-ass women
The recent pitch that Debbie and her coFounder used to raise 9 million pounds
Why it’s crucial to have a ‘Rhino Hide’ when you’re a successful professional woman
The three “G’s” she looks for when deciding whether to invest in a business, and
How she uses her intuition and what she still gets wrong after 20 years

We hope you enjoy this episode with the trailblazing Debbie Wosskow.