career transitions Archives - Don't Stop Us Now

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

Winning Ways – Zali Steggall

May 2, 2023May 2, 2023
by Claire

Today we have a big ‘first’ for this podcast, our first Olympic medallist!

However Zali Steggall, Olympian, barrister and now an independent member of parliament in Australia is so much more than these labels!

Last year, Zali was re-elected to Federal Parliament after a stunning and, for some, an astonishing victory in the same seat at the previous election, three years earlier.

Zali really is a pioneer (and winner) in so many fields: she was Australia’s first ever individual medallist and first Australian female medallist at a Winter Olympic Games. Plus, when she won the World Championship slalom skiing event a year later in 1999, she became the first ever person from the southern hemisphere ever to win that event.

Not one to do anything by halves, when Zali was first elected as a member of Parliament in 2019 she defeated a former Prime Minister! What’s more, she did all this as an independent candidate with no big political party to support her, however she had an army of enthusiastic supporters and volunteers.

In this episode you’ll hear:

The key things Zali learnt from her Olympic skiing career that still serve her well today
Zali’s strategies for dealing with the fear of failure
How she made the transition from being a competitive skier to becoming a barrister
Why Zali decided to enter the competitive and often antagonistic world of politics
How she deals with negativity and criticism; and
The one thing she wants you to walk away with.

Zali truly has unique stories, experiences and advice to share so enjoy this episode with the indefatigable and purposeful Zali Steggall.

*For full transparency, Greta worked pro bono on Zali’s re-election campaign last year for several months.

Useful Links

Zali’s website:

Amazon link to Zali’s mum’s book Alpine Beach: (it’s an e book)

Photo credit: Zoom /Allsport

Interview

Life Beyond Work – Natalie Yan-Chatonsky

March 23, 2023March 23, 2023
by Claire

Our guest this week is founder and author, Natalie Yan-Chatonsky.

Natalie founded her start up Full Time Lives some years ago and she’s just launched a book, called ‘The Art of Full Time Living’ which is a guide to help turn women’s mid-life transitions into fulfilling and rewarding transformations for their second half of life.

Natalie is on a pioneering quest to ensure mid-life women take the time to think proactively about living fulfilled and connected lives in the decades ahead, whether that’s post kids leaving home or stepping back from a full time career.

We know Natalie well and she’s bowled us over in the past few years with her dedication and commitment to making a difference to women’s lives, particularly the second half of their lives.

In this episode you’ll hear how:

Natalie has carefully navigated her various career transitions
She originally started researching big life changes ahead of her father’s potential retirement but it’s ended up being her life that’s changed the most
Why she worked 7 days a week for a year in order to complete her book; and
The magic ingredient and habit that’s made all the difference to her focus and productivity.

Whatever life stage you’re at right now, there are lessons in here for all of us… A life proactively shaped is a life that will make us more fulfilled.

Enjoy this episode with the disciplined and purposeful Natalie Yan-Chatonsky.

Useful Links:

Natalie’s website Full Time Lives

Natalie’s book – ‘The Art of Full Time Living’

Natalie on LinkedIn

Interview

A Rare CFO – Madeline Ling

November 8, 2022November 8, 2022
by Claire

Our episode this week features the first Chief Financial Officer we’ve had on the show, however Madeline Ling is not your ‘ordinary’ CFO.

We don’t think we’ve met a CFO who values diversity and building relationships the way Madeline does, not to mention the articulate and creative way she speaks about the stories the numbers can tell her.

Madeline has held multiple CFO roles throughout her 20-plus year career to date which has seen her work far and wide, including in the U.S., China, Mexico, Europe, and Thailand. A tech-company veteran, these days she is CFO of US-based Boomi, a fast-growing global SaaS company, focussed on easy software integration, now owned by two blue chip private equity firms.

Before taking on CFO roles, Madeline spent twelve years consulting including the Boston Consulting Group where she was a Principal. She also has an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

In this episode you’ll hear:

What Madeline learnt as an impressionable teenager when she moved to the US not speaking a word of English
How she thinks about leveraging her differences to add value
Madeline’s recipe for building awesome working relationships; and
The two questions she asks herself before changing roles or company.

In short, this was a fabulous conversation and you’ll really be inspired by the thoughtful and articulate Madeline Ling.

Useful Link

Boomi website

Below you can see how the cake turned out that Madeline talked about in the interview (top right) – looks delicious!

Interview

Championing Creativity – Lucinda Barlow

April 12, 2022April 12, 2022
by Claire

It’s not everyday you come across a global marketing leader who trained as an engineer and computer scientist! But that’s true for our visionary guest this week, Lucinda Barlow.

Lucinda is Senior Director, Head of Marketing for Asia Pacific for Uber. Before joining Uber two years ago, Lucinda was global Marketing Director for YouTube, with its 2 billion daily users.

With more than 20 years of experience working in Internet and mobile in Asia, the US and UK, Lucinda has some incredible and varied experience coupled with a true passion for championing creativity.

In this episode you’ll hear how:

How Lucinda changed her life, and her job, after receiving some wise advice from fashion designer and icon Diane von Furstenberg
How she thinks about making big career transition decisions
Why she believes failure should be celebrated more
And how Lucinda brings creativity out in her teams.

Enjoy this episode with the incredibly passionate and creative Lucinda Barlow.

P.S. A reminder that our mini episodes are taking a little break right now so we’re back with a new episode every 2nd week.

Links

How to Make Career Decisions

February 8, 2022February 8, 2022
by Claire

Career decisions can be tricky things can’t they? Often they can be some of the most stressful decisions we make; decisions such as: ”Should I say yes to this project or transfer?” Or “Should I stay in my job or should I go?”

These times come to nearly all of us . . . unless you’re the Queen of course who’s just reached her 70th year anniversary in her job! Can you imagine that?

Our How To episode this week explores all that’s involved in making great career decisions and with a lot less stress. Huge apologies to Her Majesty as we know this probably isn’t the episode for her 😁.

In this episode you’ll hear us share:

Traps we can fall into when searching for the right answer,
What to do when you have multiple options to choose from,
How to make sure you’re not leaving for the wrong reasons,
And, a simple process and lots of practical ideas for your next big decision.

As Tony Robbins says, “It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.”

Enjoy this episode!

Useful Links

Adam Grant’s new book ‘Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know’

Article on ‘Why you need a Challenge Network’

Daniel Kahneman’s great book – ‘Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow’

A past episode of ‘Don’t Stop Us Now!’ you might also like ‘How to Feel Less Stuck in Your Job’

Future Proof Me Mini Episode

Future Proof Me – Career Decisions

October 26, 2021October 26, 2021
by Claire

Welcome to this week’s mini episode all about how you should think about career opportunities. Making career decisions can be really stressful can’t it?

One guest who made a big impression on us with her career advice is the well known Australasian leader, Michelle Guthrie.

Michelle has had an international career including being CEO of Star TV in Asia, a senior executive at Google in Asia, and she was Managing Director of Australia’s national broadcaster the ABC – a term which ended in great controversy and was a challenging time for all involved.

Michelle really believes all of us need to take a few more risks and think about our careers with the long term in mind. She also has great advice on how we need to back ourselves more and trust we’ll figure it out even if it seems really daunting.

So if you’re in need of some reassurance and perspective on a career decision, then this is ten minutes you need to spend right now!

Useful Links

Our Full Interview with Michelle Guthrie

Michelle on LinkedIn

Interview

Heidi Hackemer – On Navigating the Worst

April 27, 2021June 1, 2021
by Claire

We have a very special episode this week because we’re sharing the vulnerable story of how one of our guests was subsequently fired from a high profile role in the US and how she navigated her way through the dark times that followed.

That guest is Heidi Hackemer and what she shares in this episode is so generous and valuable for all of us to hear; after all nothing is permanent and plans fall over on a regular basis.

Heidi is a leading creative who had her own brand agency in New York and also headed up the Creative Studio at the philanthropic Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) in California.

Not long after our first conversation with Heidi in July 2018 things went wrong, very wrong. Heidi was fired from CZI and not only that, when she got back to New York, she had to close her brand strategy agency, W&W too. We learnt about this because Heidi wrote an extremely brave and vulnerable article on Medium (link below) describing what had happened and how low she was feeling.

Admiring her generous honesty, we reached out to her just as COVID was taking hold everywhere round the world last year. Heidi agreed to speak with us.

After our conversation, we made a decision not to publish the interview last year, as it just felt too raw. With Heidi’s permission, we’ve all agreed that now is the right time to share the story she has been so generous in sharing with us. She’s well and truly bounced back from the lows she describes and is now the Executive Creative Director for North America at the booming global company, Oatly.

In this episode Heidi shares:

How, after being fired, she initially couldn’t stop worrying about money
Her advice for others who lose their jobs
Heidi’s generous sharing of all the things she did to pull herself out of depression and bounce back,
And the inspiring reason she shared her extraordinary piece on Medium

Even if you are securely employed right now, we really recommend you listen to this unique conversation. And if you know someone who’s lost their job make sure they listen to this too! They’ll thank you later.

Enjoy this episode with the generous, and very thoughtful, Heidi Hackemer …

Useful Links

Our first conversation with Heidi in July 2018

Medium article that prompted this second interview

Claire Hatton – Living Life to the Full

February 2, 2021
by Claire

By popular demand, we’re excited to share a unique episode with you today. We’re pretty excited because we’ve been asked to do this since we launched the podcast nearly 3 years ago.

If you haven’t already guessed, we’ve finally relented and will be sharing our own career stories and journeys with you. Today you get to hear all about Claire’s extraordinary career and journey.

Whilst normally you’d hear both of us asking questions, of course today, only Greta is asking the questions. Claire, of course, will be answering them. (Yippee!)

Greta was blown away by Claire’s remarkable career to date. In this episode you’ll learn how Claire:

Received an award from the UK Prime Minister as one of Britain’s People of the Year at the age of 26
How a tragedy changed the course of her life
What it was like working at Google and why they’re so innovative
And finally, why she left her plum job on the Google Australian leadership team

Without further ado please enjoy this episode getting to know our co-host, the amazing Claire Hatton.

Useful Links

Claire on Linkedin

Don’t Stop Us Now! Website

Full Potential Labs Website

3P Learning Website

APT Travel Group