Interview Archives - Page 9 of 12

June Dally Watkins – Redefining What’s Possible for Women…

November 19, 2019
by admin

This week’s guest is a woman who at the age of 92 is still inspiring thousands of women to be the “best they can be!”. We’re talking about the incredible doyenne of etiquette and deportment, June Dally Watkins.

Miss Dally, as she is known, grew up on a sheep farm and attended a one teacher bush school in regional Australia. Her teacher told her mother that she “would be an absolute failure in life”. He couldn’t have been more wrong.

At 22, June became Australia’s Fashion Model of the Year and soon became Australia’s first supermodel. She lived the high life as part of the global jetset becoming great friends with Hollywood stars Audrey Hepburn, Bing Crosby and Gregory Peck (who asked her to marry him!).

When she came back to Australia she started her now famous etiquette and deportment business which made her one of Australia’s first female entrepreneurs. The June Dally Watkins School has gone on to change thousands and thousands of people’s lives.

She is now, at 92 years of age, an absolute sensation in China where she goes for weeks at a time to teach thousands to be “the best they can be”.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How hard it was to be one of the first business women in Australia when women were expected to play the traditional housewife role
Why June pushed through condemnation and criticism to build her business
How she came to be so in demand in China in her 90’s
And her advice on how to stay young.

Enjoy this episode with the delightful and determined June Dally Watkins.

Useful Links

June Dally Watkins Website (JDW)

Sydney Morning Herald Good Weekend Article on June Dally Watkins

JDW on Facebook

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Interview

Jodie Fox – The Rise and Demise of Her…

October 24, 2019October 24, 2019
by admin

Our guest this week has been on an incredible journey in the past decade – building an iconic online retail empire to global heights and then having no choice but to close it all down last year. We’re talking about Shoes of Prey co-founder, Jodie Fox.

The trailblazing Shoes of Prey became a global start-up and fashion darling during its nine years in business – offering shoes that its customers could personally design and customise online. It was a truly innovative concept.

Big name VC firms thought so too, and Jodie and her two male co-founders raised around $30 million over the life of the business before coming to the heart-wrenching decision to cease trading in August last year. The problem? Despite a stunning launch years earlier, they simply couldn’t get the scale to make the business sustainable in the long term.

Jodie was the Chief Creative Officer and public face of Shoes of Prey, so coming to terms with having to shut down the business, and its global offices, has been particularly confronting for her in the past year having spent the past ten years living and breathing the brand.

In this episode you’ll learn :

How and why Jodie went from being a risk averse young lawyer to a start-up co-founder
What it was like to be married and then divorced to one of her co-founders whilst still having to work in the business together
The three key lessons she’s taken away from the high profile failure of their venture
And, how vulnerable she feels sharing so much of her personal story in her new book.

This is Jodie’s first podcast interview since Shoes of Prey was shut down and it comes as she’s launching her book about the incredible journey she’s been on: ‘Reboot – More Than You Ever Probably Wanted to Know About Starting a Global Business’.

We loved this discussion and Jodie’s generosity in sharing what she’s learnt. Be sure not to miss this one and be among the first to hear her fascinating stories. Plus, enter our competition to win one of ten copies of Jodie’s book that we are giving away to lucky subscribers.

Happy Listening!

Jodie with co-Founders Michael Fox and Mike Knapp; the early days of Shoes of Prey; a Shoes of Prey concept store in the US; Jodie

Links of interest

Jodie’s website

Win one of 10 of Jodie’s new book

Jodie’s Youtube Channel

Jodie on Insta

Jodie on Linkedin

Buy Jodie’s new book – Reboot, More Than You Probably Ever Wanted to Know About Starting a Global Business

Booktopia – Australia

Amazon – US

Amazon – UK

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Interview

Jordy Fu – Child Prodigy Artist to Sought After…

October 8, 2019
by admin

This episode features a super creative thinker and former child prodigy who’s on a quest to bring beauty and emotion to all that she creates and builds. We’re talking about renown architect, interior designer, fashion designer and artist, Jordy Fu.

Jordy grew up in Chengdu in China. At the age of just six years old, 200 pieces of Jordy’s art work were exhibited in a solo exhibition at the Beijing Capital Museum. By the time she was seven a book of her artworks had been published!

Jordy went on to study in London at the iconic art school, Central Saint Martins, before qualifying as an architect and eventually starting her own multi-disciplinary firm.

Now based in Bangkok, Jordy and her team work on a diverse range of projects… and Jordy in particular works on everything from iconic buildings in China to statement fashion pieces for the runways in Dubai.

In this episode you’ll learn:

Why she believes most architects are boring
Why being a child prodigy can make you feel like a failure when you’re an adult
How she manages to juggle multiple projects and be a parent; and
How she’s trained herself to have a positive attitude, and how you can too ….

If you aspire to be more creative or have a more positive mindset, then don’t miss this episode!

Jordy as a six year old at Beijing Capital Musuem; artwork she drew as a five year old; Jordy’s fashion collection at Dubai Fashion Week; putting the final touches on her paper chandelier; Jordy in her egg chair in her office; Greta Thomas, Jordy Fu and Claire Hatton in her Bangkok office; one of Jordy’s architectural designs.

Links of Interest

Marques & Jordy Website

Jordy’s TED Talk

Jordy on Linkedin

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Interview

Dr Cath Ball – Flying High with Drones and…

September 24, 2019September 24, 2019
by admin

In this week’s episode we meet an entrepreneur and innovator who’s been through more than her fair share of challenge and trauma, yet has found a way to forge her own unique path. We’re talking about the irrepressible Dr Catherine Ball.

Catherine, or Cath, grew up in a pretty poor, single parent household in an industrial town in the UK. Unlike her peers she was determined to go to university where she studied environmental protection. She then went on to complete a PHD – a process she now describes as torturous.

Needing to pay off her student debt, her path then took her into the corporate world where she worked with a number of engineering consultancies in the UK and then in Australia.

Just as Cath was being recognised as a leader in her space receiving the Queensland Telstra Business Woman of the Year award in 2015, her company merged with a competitor and she, to her surprise, was made redundant.

It was this shocking jolt that led her to start her first company and led to her building on her already existing experience working with drones.

Since then she’s be recognised as a true thought leader in emerging technologies, having been awarded many accolades in Australia, including then AFR Women of Influence and Top 25 Women in Robotics Lists, both in 2016.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How she’s carved out her unique path as an entrepreneur;
How she manages her time involved with 10 different projects plus having a young toddler and another one on the way;
How drones will change our lives and
How you need to think about your career in a world of AI, robotics and cybersecurity.

Enjoy this episode with the witty and inspiring Dr Cath Ball.

Links of Interest

Dr Cath Ball’s website

World of Drones Congress

Dr Cath Ball Linkedin

The Social Start Up

World of Drones Education

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Interview

Vicki Saunders – Reinventing the Game for Female Founders

September 11, 2019September 11, 2019
by admin

In our episode this week we meet an entrepreneur who’s been on a 30 year quest to find ways to create environments and networks for people to innovate and solve problems that matter. We’re talking about the amazing Founder and CEO of SheEO, Vicki Saunders.

Vicki grew up in Canada on her family’s farm where she learnt early on to work hard and problem solve. However, her pathway to becoming an entrepreneur took place, unusually for a young Canadian woman, in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.

Vicki spent 4 years in Prague where she started multiple businesses learning as she went along. She also built a community of entrepreneurs there, before returning to Toronto to found Canada’s first ever incubator.

Fast forward many years and Vicki was mentoring a brilliant young female entrepreneur who was struggling to get funded. She realised then that the system was broken for women… with female-founded startups receiving less than 4% of all venture capital funding.

Vicki decided she had to do something to change this and figure out a way to get more women’s business ideas funded.

And so SheEO was founded. Now operating in 5 countries, SheEO is a network of women who support, finance and celebrate female innovators who run ventures solving important world problems.

In this episode learn:

What it was like as an entrepreneur in Eastern Europe after the Berlin Wall came down
How Vicki created Canada’s first incubator, floated it on the stock exchange; and then got fired
Why she thinks the environment you surround yourself in is so critical to your success
How women’s radical generosity is changing the world, and how you can get involved.

Enjoy this episode with the visionary and passionate Vicki Saunders.

Links of interest

Vicki on Linkedin

SheEO website

Become an Activator

Apply to be a Venture

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Interview

Martha Lane Fox – A Powerful Voice Where Few…

August 13, 2019August 13, 2019
by admin

Our guest this week is the incredibly inspiring Martha Lane Fox, one of the UK’s most well known and respected technology leaders and society shapers.

In 1997 Martha was 25 years old when she became co-founder of Lastminute.com, one of the first internet travel marketplaces in the world. This was in the days of the first dot com boom when creating internet based businesses was still a truly pioneering thing.

In 2003, after 6 years running LastMinute.com, Martha stepped down as CEO and took some time off to holiday in Morocco, where she was seriously injured in a car accident. She broke 28 bones, had a stroke, was airlifted back to the UK and spent 2 years in hospital.

Martha’s story of her journey back to some degree of normalcy is truly incredible. The chronic pain and injuries she lives with today would make you think she’d want to rest up and take it easy. But not Martha.

She’s gone on to do so many important things, believing passionately that it’s so important for female voices to be heard. Today she sits on numerous boards including Twitter, Chanel, and the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust and is the Chancellor of the UK’s Open University.

She’s also the founder and Chair of a think tank called DotEveryone which promotes responsible technology for a fairer future. And since 2013, Martha has been a member of the House of Lords, the upper house of the UK parliament (where her title is Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho).

In this episode you’ll hear:

What it’s like to be a member of the House of Lords, particularly as a woman
How her accident impacted her life and what tactics she uses to cope and achieve all that she does
Her advice on how you can speak up and be heard
Why she tries to raise the climate crisis in whatever forum she finds herself in.

Please enjoy this interview with the irrepressible Martha Lane Fox.

Links of interest:

Martha on Twitter

Martha’s Website

Doteveryone on Twitter

Doteveryone Website

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Interview

Trudy Kortes – A Career in Space Exploration and…

July 30, 2019July 30, 2019
by admin

We’re excited to share this week’s episode featuring someone who’s had an extraordinary career at the cutting edge of space exploration. Trudy Kortes is the Chief of the Human Exploration and Space Operations Division at NASA. With her day job, not only is Trudy working on real ‘moonshots’ she is also developing new technologies that will undoubtedly have an incredible impact on our lives in the future.

An aeronautical engineer by profession, Trudy has spent about 30 years working for NASA focusing on helping the space agency develop many super- sophisticated technologies to explore our galaxy. Today Trudy leads a team of around 200 people working on a range of projects including advanced communications, propulsion and the crew module, to name a few.

What we love about this episode is Trudy’s ability to translate the super complex work she’s been involved with in her career to date, into easy to understand and inspiring stories about the valuable lessons she’s learnt along the way, and about what’s possible in the future.

In this episode you’ll learn:

The really unusual reason why Trudy decided at high school she wanted to work for NASA
How Trudy has found her authentic and humorous self, and why it matters
What she’s learnt about having difficult conversations
What it’s like being a senior woman at NASA
And how she feels about the project she’s working on to send the first female astronaut to the moon in 2024

So click below, sit back, buckle up and enjoy fascinating stories and insights from the wonderful Trudy Kortes.

Links of interest:

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Interview

Brukty Tigabu – Changing African Kids Lives With TV

July 16, 2019
by admin

Our guest this week is one of the most determined and resilient people we’ve ever met. For the past 14 years she’s been on a mission to improve education for millions of children in Ethiopia encountering challenges on almost every front. We’re talking about the amazing Brukty Tigabu.

At the age of 10, Brukty took on the role of head of her household after her mother became very ill. She found a way to make ends meet by selling vegetables from their garden in the market. She credits this time in her life with giving her the basic business and survival skills that helped her get where she is today.

And where you find this former school teacher today, is running the social enterprise she co-founded called Whiz Kids Workshop. It creates educational media programs – including 3 internationally awarded television series for children in Ethiopia. For the past 14 years Whiz Kids Workshop has inspired a generation of young children in Ethiopia with their most famous and loved program, the puppet based educational TV show called Tsehai Loves Learning. They’ve also published over 100 books in 7 languages, produced radio programs, DVDs and teacher training – all to improve literacy, health education, gender equality and early childhood education.

Brukty has won many accolades for her work including the World Economic Forum’s “Outstanding Social Entrepreneur of the year 2018”, Fast Company’s ‘Most Creative People in Business’ 2012 and the Rolex Young Laureate Award in 2008.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How Brukty found her life’s purpose to enrich the lives of children and teens in Ethiopia and beyond
What it’s like being a woman running a business in Ethiopia (seriously hard)
How she pushes through fear
Why she found herself not being able to get out of bed and how she got herself going again.

Please enjoy this episode with the incredible Brukty Tigabu.

Links

Whiz Kids Workshop Website

Great YT video explaining Tsehai Loves Learning

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Interview

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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Good move!

Jodie with co-Founders Michael Fox and Mike Knapp; the early days of Shoes of Prey; a Shoes of Prey concept store in the US; Jodie