Interview Archives - Page 4 of 14

How to Manage Up

March 28, 2024March 28, 2024
by Claire

Ever had a boss who made life difficult?

We have good news as this week’s show is one of our regular ‘How To’ episodes where we focus on a common career challenge; and our episode this week is all about How to Manage Up.

Many of us have been there, that experience of frustration with a manager who just doesn’t seem to get it for whatever reason. Maybe they’re a little too hands-off and leave you floundering for direction, or maybe they’re the complete opposite, a controlling micromanager who wants to be across every tiny detail.

We certainly know what that feels like, and if you’re in that position right now, we feel for you.

More importantly, this episode is especially for you!

In this episode you’ll hear how to:

Influence your manager: We’ll share strategies on how to effectively communicate your ideas and get buy-in for your projects
Get the credit you deserve: No more feeling like your contributions are going unnoticed! You’ll learn actionable tips to ensure your hard work gets the recognition it deserves; and . . .
What to do when you’re being Micromanaged: and how to manage it in a professional and respectful way

No one sets out to be a bad boss but sadly sometimes it happens, often due to insecurity or a lack of trust.

Knowing what to do when you find yourself in this situation is invaluable, so don’t miss this episode!

Useful Link

Link to Trust Equation

Interview

Woman in a Hurry – Marisa Warren

March 2, 2024March 2, 2024
by Claire

If you’ve got a dream but don’t think you’re qualified to get there, think again. Our amazing guest today, venture capitalist Marisa Warren, is best described as a driven woman in a hurry. She’s never let a lack of experience stop her from chasing her goals.

Marisa is co-founder and Managing Partner of a unique venture capital firm called Aliavia. Aliavia is a California based firm focused on early stage investments backing female founders in both the U.S. and Australia.

Marisa has grown up in tech, spending the first 18 years of her career in enterprise software sales. She was in such a hurry to start working she ignored her parents’ urging to go to university and struck out to make her own path, starting in Sydney.

In this episode you’ll hear how:

How Marisa survives challenging times including being made redundant from big corporates on 3 separate occasions
What happened in a New York elevator when she met the Australian voice behind Siri
Marisa’s advice to female founders to flip the power dynamic with investors
And, the differences she sees between Australian and American female founders.

For transparency we want to share that we are investors in Aliavia’s first fund and are big supporters of the investment purpose that combines supporting women founders and building incredible businesses.

Enjoy this episode with the driven and admirably impatient Marisa Warren…

Useful Links

Aliavia Ventures

Marisa on LinkedIn

Interview

Stewarding the Man United Brand – Ellie Norman

February 14, 2024February 14, 2024
by Claire

We are back!! Yes, we know, we’ve had a long and awesome holiday :-)! We hope your year has got off to a great start too.

We have a blockbuster episode to leap into 2024 and it’s all about someone who stewards equally blockbusting brands.

Ellie Norman runs marketing, communications and fan engagement at one of the world’s biggest sporting brands, the famed football club, Manchester United. Our minds were officially blown when Ellie told us she has to market to 1.1 billion fans around the world. That’s an incredible audience for any marketer.

It’s not just the iconic Man United sporting brand that Ellie has experience with; she’s also been Global Director for Marketing and Communications at Formula One where she helped popularise the franchise.

In fact, Ellie’s career has featured a lot of male-dominated industries and sectors as she also spent six years in marketing roles with Honda Motors in Europe. Her take on how to thrive and succeed in these environments is uplifting.

We were struck by Ellie’s refreshing and inspiring way of thinking about her work on the global stage and, as you’ll hear, she shares: . . .

How not going to University has driven her career choices in a good way
How Ellie makes big decisions about her career
Why sports marketing flips the traditional marketing model on its head
How she helped popularise the Formula 1 brand and make it less elitist
And how she handles the Man United brand and its legion of distraught fans when the team isn’t performing on the field.

We think you’ll love this inspiring conversation with the positive and gutsy Ellie Norman.

Useful Links

Ellie on LinkedIn

Manchester United website

Manchester United on Youtube

Manchester United on Instagram

Manchester United on Facebook

Manchester United on Tiktok

Manchester United on X

And if you loved this podcast, you might like our interview with Lucinda Barlow, Head of International Marketing at Uber

Interview

Not Your Everyday Lawyer – Sarah Davis

December 6, 2023December 6, 2023
by Claire

Our guest this week is someone who’s never been one to sit around and rest on her laurels. What’s more, Sarah Davis is not what you’d describe as your everyday lawyer.

Sarah’s high profile career in the UK has seen her garner much recognition for her legal career including being shortlisted for the Black British Business Awards and the UK’s Hot 100 Lawyers to name a few.

London-based Sarah, has a broad non executive board career these days and also advises other organisations as a General Counsel. During her executive career she spent more than 15 years as General Counsel at The Guardian Media Group. That meant she was there in the thick of it when The Guardian was publishing the first Wikileaks stories, the Edward Snowdon stories, and of course so much more, which we’ll hear about.

We think you can tell from Sarah’s Board career which includes Unicef UK and the Women’s Prize Trust (which awards the highly regarded Women’s Prize for Fiction) that Sarah has a huge heart and clearly a love of the written word.

In this episode you’ll hear more about Sarah’s love of books as well as:

How she came to be a lawyer and what drew her to the Media
How Sarah made a transition after nearly 17 years at one company
The challenges she faced (& lessons learnt) when things just didn’t feel right whilst navigating her new role during lockdown
How Sarah’s coped with the micro aggressions and slights she’s received during her career as a woman of colour; and
Her advice to others who are at the receiving end of similar behaviour.

There’s lots of great insights in this conversation so enjoy this episode with the warm and impact-focused Sarah Davis.

Useful Links

Unicef UK

Women’s Prize for Fiction

RGSI – global think-tank for the legal industry

International Catalogue Raisonné Association

Interview

Compassion + Contribution – Dr Lineo Thahane

November 17, 2023November 17, 2023
by Claire

If you’re anything like us and fed up with all the bleak news, then this week’s episode may be just what you need; a guaranteed dose of positivity, progress and inspiration!

We’re joined by the humble and impressive Dr Lineo Thahane. Lineo is a paediatrician and is Executive Director of a major medical clinic in the Kingdom of Lesotho called the Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation Lesotho.

Lesotho, a tiny country in southern Africa, is ranked number two in terms of the countries with the highest proportion of its adult population living with HIV in the world. Nearly one in 4 adults is HIV positive and many children are too.

Lineo was born and raised in the US but her parents were both from Lesotho and so Lineo spent summer holidays back in Lesotho with her extended family. There, she was able to experience what it was like to live in her parents’ country of birth and, as she grew older, she felt a deep sense of unfairness at the differences in the standard of living in the US versus that of Lesotho.

As you will hear, this convinced Lineo to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become a doctor so that she could return to Lesotho and help make a difference to the quality of healthcare the average person could receive there.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How nearly 10% of Lesotho’s children are orphans
How Lineo stays positive despite the sometimes confronting experiences and challenges she has faced treating sick babies and children
Why she continues to work in Lesotho when she could be living comfortably in the US,
And what Lineo has learnt about the challenges of transitioning from being a specialist doctor to becoming a leader of a large organisation with nearly 800 employees.

This is a fascinating, moving and uplifting conversation. Don’t miss this episode with the compassionate and dedicated Dr Lineo Thahane.

Useful Links:

Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation website

Texas Children’s Global Health – Lesotho

World AIDS Day 2023

Interview

Bullies on Notice – Amy Cuddy

October 29, 2023October 29, 2023
by Claire

We’re super excited this week to share a conversation with the globally known best selling author, TED speaker, social psychologist, and incredible roller skater, Amy Cuddy.

Amy’s TED talk on body language, the benefits of power poses and holding an expansive body posture is the second most viewed TED talk of all time.

In this special episode where Greta met with Amy in Sydney, they focus on the work and writing that has kept Amy busy since she shot to fame with her TED talk and her follow-on best selling book on body language and power called: ‘Presence: Bringing your boldest self to your biggest challenges’.

Amy’s new work is all about bullying, particularly bullying in the workplace. This is something Amy unfortunately has had some pretty extreme first hand experience with.

Amy’s new book on dealing with bullying will be released next year (Bullies, Bystanders, and Bravehearts) and in this episode we’re super fortunate to get a sneak preview of some of her well-researched advice on dealing with bullies.

Plus on a much lighter note, Greta and Amy compare notes on ballet and roller skating too!

In this fascinating episode you’ll hear so many nuggets and stories including:

How Amy isn’t letting a broken jaw stop her
How common workplace bullying is
What to do if you are being bullied
And why the chance to roller skate everyday makes Amy that much more creative in her work.

Don’t miss this conversation with the unique, brave and insightful, Amy Cuddy.

Useful Links

Amy Cuddy’s website

Amy on LinkedIn

Amy on Instagram

Amy’s iconic TED talk

Interview

Revealing Their Secrets, Protecting Ours – Abigail Bradshaw

September 21, 2023September 21, 2023
by Claire

If you’re thinking the title of this week’s episode sounds distinctly like it’s describing modern day espionage and intelligence agencies you would be right!

We are super excited to share this exclusive conversation with Cyber Security leader, Abigail Bradshaw. Abi is Head of the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) which is part of the national Foreign Intelligence agency known as the Australian Signals Directorate.

Abi describes her job as “revealing other peoples’ secrets whilst protecting our own”. The agency she heads, the ACSC, is tasked with protecting Australia’s communications and technology networks, and all Australians, from malicious cyber activity. That includes threats from both sovereign nations and cyber criminals.

Suffice to say, Abi is a very busy person!

Abi has had a fascinating career and is passionate about serving her country. She’s also really passionate about seeing more women in leadership roles and is proud of the number of women who are working with her at the agency.

In this episode you’ll hear:

How Abi’s career journey took her from being a lawyer in the Navy to a key role in an intelligence agency
Why Abi realised she had to change her leadership style significantly when she started her current role,
The pros and cons of having to lock your mobile away all day; and
Her seriously informed tips of how we can all protect ourselves from cyber crime.

This really is a special episode so synchronise watches, put your phones on silent, and enjoy this conversation with the dynamic and patriotic Abigail Bradshaw.

Useful Links

Australian Signals Directorate website

Australian Cyber Security Centre website

Free cyber advice

Link to TAFE Cyber Essential 8 course

Interview

Passionate about Stories and Play – Anna Rafferty

August 9, 2023August 9, 2023
by Claire

Our guest on the show this week is Anna Rafferty who runs a global team of more than a thousand people at Lego, the company with play at the heart of its DNA.

Based in London, Anna and her large team oversee Lego’s consumer relationships including digital and social engagement, apps, websites, memberships, magazines, community management, digital safety, and events. Phew!

Anna’s had a remarkable career journey starting out of university with early dotcom ‘rocket ship’ Last Minute.com, where she worked for one of our former guests, Martha Lane Fox.

Her career has also seen her work with Penguin Books, the BBC and blockbuster author JK Rowling’s company, Pottermore. To this day she retains her links to the publishing world as Chair of the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Suffice to say, Anna is one busy woman!

In this episode you’ll hear how:

She had a career epiphany at 23 years of age
What working for author JK Rowling was like
How one question helped her deal with overwhelm; and
The 3 behaviours that Lego values most in its leaders.

Anna’s worked with some truly amazing brands and organisations in her career to date so we think you’ll love hearing more about her impressive journey. Enjoy this episode with the passionate and playful Anna Rafferty.

Links

www.Lego.com

Women’s Prize for Fiction

Anna on LinkedIn

Anna’s current top ‘Must read’ books:

Books recommended by Anna in her own words:

In no particular order:

Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe – the original mistress of reinvention and the cat who had nine lives.

Warrior Queens and Quiet Revolutionaries by Kate Mosse – an encyclopaedia of incredible women from history who you should know but probably don’t.

The Power by Naomi Alderman – winner of the 2017 Women’s Prize for Fiction, presenting an alternative universe in which there’s a new physical dominance in town.

Star of the Sea by Joseph O’Connor – compulsive thriller set in the height of the Irish famine and depicting a true story from the area where my mother is from. Think Titanic crossed with Agatha Christie crossed with Dickens.

Trespasses – Louise Kennedy – Waterstones calls it “A blistering account of encroaching violence and fractured loyalties in 1970’s Belfast” and I couldn’t put it better except to add that it’s darkly funny and full of love of all kinds – romantic, maternal, fraternal, platonic. So good

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Zen Buddhist priest Ruth Ozeki – The perfect summer read, so original and funny and sweet and loving and clever and magical and sad – a must-read!

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker – absolutely compulsive, beautiful and horrifying retelling of the siege of Troy.

Life after Life by Kate Atkinson – like nothing else ever and will blow your minds.

Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis – my go-to funny comfort read.

As a bonus – I would add that, honestly, every book long listed for the Women’s Prize for Fiction every year is excellent; from Circe to Hamnet to Piranesi to Salt Lick and so on. I am biased but please let me offer this gift to you: read these books.

Finally here’s our interview with Martha Lane Fox, Co-Founder of Lastminute.com, the first company Anna worked for.

Interview

Inspiring Others with Her ‘Why’ – Lina Xu

July 26, 2023July 26, 2023
by Claire

If you’re inspired by people who have a worthy and clear purpose or mission then you’re going to love our episode this week.

Our guest is Lina Xu, co-founder of a Medtech startup called Telecare which offers under-served people living in regional and rural areas virtual access to specialists and other healthcare professionals.

When Chinese born and raised Lina moved to Australia seven years ago and became a mum shortly after, she felt very isolated, out of touch with her new country and alone.

Whilst still breastfeeding her second son four years ago, Lina realised she needed to make a change and do something more in her new country and so this quietly spoken and determined woman, along with her husband, co-founded Telecare.

Two doctors joined them as co-founders and all were inspired by the potential of Telecare to fill a vital healthcare gap by enabling regionally based patients to have affordable access to city based specialists and allied healthcare professionals.

As luck would have it, Telecare was founded just 6 months before Covid happened, so their foresight and careful stakeholder management has really paid off. So much so that Lina was awarded a Cartier Women’s Initiative Fellowship this year as one of Oceania’s leading female entrepreneurs.

In this episode you’ll hear how:

A family tragedy helped Lina develop the resilience and adaptability that’s so valuable as a female founder
How having a clear and impact-focused Mission has made it much easier for Telecare, and Lina personally, to garner supporters
How she and her co-founders are making headway with innovative technology in what is a very conservative and risk averse healthcare sector; and
Why relationships are so important to her.

What struck us about this inspiring conversation with Lina is how clear she is about her ‘Why’ and how that’s morphed into becoming something much bigger and even more meaningful with her business.

We think you’ll love this episode with the humble and mission-driven Lina Xu.

Useful Links

Telecare Website

Lina Xu on LinkedIn

Cartier Women’s Initiative

Interview

Taking on Goliath – Sue Fennessy

July 11, 2023July 11, 2023
by Claire

We have a truly incredible guest in this week’s episode. We don’t think we’ve ever met someone with so much drive and conviction as serial entrepreneur, Sue Fennessy.

Sue’s vision for her latest, purpose-led-business ‘WeAre8’ is absolutely epic. So large is the vision, that she’s spent the past 8 years building the technology platform required to take on the social media giants of the world. Yes, this one woman ‘tour de force’ is taking on the goliaths of social media with a determination to make social media better for all.

She’s also invested more than $11 million of her own money to get WeAre8 to where it is today. She’s been able to do this because of her phenomenal track record building and exiting businesses. To date, she’s scaled and sold three previous businesses.

The last business that Sue co-founded and then sold in 2022, the global Standard Media Index, was bought for $200million. SMI, as it’s also known, was a pioneering data and technology business recording global media spends across different advertising channels. It required years of persistence and serious influence skills to get all the world’s largest media agencies on board to have access to all that data. Sue has these in spades!

These days, after numerous years living in New York, Sue is based in London where we visited her at her HQ in central London.

In this epic conversation you’ll learn :

How Sue thinks about her Purpose in life
How she plans to transform the worlds of social media AND digital advertising
The high personal cost of Sue’s single minded focus on making WeAre8 a success; and
The crazy and sexist things Venture Capitalists have said to her.

In short, this is a truly memorable conversation so please enjoy this episode with the purposeful and driven, Sue Fennessy.

Useful Links

WeAre8: https://www.weare8.com/

Sue on LInkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/sue-fennessy/