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Interview

Sophia Athas – 20-Something Founder and Creative Trendsetter

  • October 20, 2020October 21, 2020
  • by Claire

Brought to you by Microsoft’s The New Next 

 

We’re excited to introduce you to the youngest woman we’ve had on the show to date. But age isn’t the reason we’re happy for you to meet 27 year old Sophia Athas.  

Sophia is the self-taught, entrepreneurial founder of a thriving new-age creative agency called Hatrik House. 

Sophia’s business started out simply as a creative outlet and side hustle for when she was studying law at university. In the years that followed, Sophia realised she had the makings of a business as her work on social media attracted attention and turned her into a brand influencer in her own right.  

Hatrik House has now grown to become a fully fledged agency focusing on social media and content with a talented team of women helping service a whole host of brands.  

And full disclosure here, we were so impressed with Hatrik’s work when we saw one of their clients on Instagram, we hired her ourselves about two years ago!

In that time we’ve watched as Sophia’s business has grown and admired how she continues to navigate all the challenges that come with leading a fast growing business as a young woman.  

In this episode you’ll hear:

  • Sophia’s experiences of being taken seriously (or not) as a female boss in her 20’s
  • What she believes have been the most important factors in running her business
  • How she thinks COVID will affect both digital and real-life experiences going forward
  • And, her advice if you’re thinking of setting up a side hustle.

Without further ado, here’s our conversation with the composed and creative Sophia Athas. 

 


Links

Sophia on Instagram

Hatrik House website

Hatrik House on Instagram

 

Interview

Debbie Millman – Brave Heart, Big Life

  • September 8, 2020
  • by Claire

We have such a treat for you this week with the truly multi-talented and globally respected Debbie Millman. 

Debbie is a designer, author, educator, artist, brand expert and host of one of the world’s longest running and highly respected podcasts, Design Matters. 

Named one of the most creative people in business by Fast Company and one of the most influential designers working today by Graphic Design USA, Debbie has also written six books, her artwork has been exhibited in numerous galleries, and she co-founded the world’s first Masters in Branding.

She’s also one of the most authentic and thoughtful people we’ve met. 

From difficult and traumatic beginnings, Debbie has gone on to have a stellar career.

She was President of Sterling Brands for 20 years and grew the company from 15 people to 150 before selling the business.  She’s created many many iconic household brands that you see in stores today, including for Haagen-Dazs,  Burger King, 7Up, and Star Wars merchandise. 

In this episode you’ll learn: 

  • How the worst day of Debbie’s life ended up being probably the most important day of her life,
  • Why she feels branding is one of the most significant disciplines in our culture and lives today,
  • Her advice about developing self esteem; and 
  • What’s she’s learnt from over 500 podcast interviews with some incredible guests.

Enjoy this episode with the insightful and inspiring Debbie Millman

 

Useful Links

https://www.debbiemillman.com/

Debbie’s TED talk – How Symbols and Brands Shape our Humanity

Society 6 Debbie Millman – various designs by Debbie that you can buy

How to Build Your Personal Brand – A Course with Debbie Millman

The Art of the Story – Creating Visual Narratives

Debbie’s reading list

Futurists Debbie mentions:

Faith Popcorn

William Gordon’s books

 

Photography credit: John Madere Photography

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Future Proof Me Mini Episode

Future Proof Me – How an Innovator Stays Creative

  • July 7, 2020
  • by Claire

Welcome to this week’s mini Future Proof Me episode all about how to stay creative in a busy world. 

We loved the advice that serial Canadian entrepreneur and founder, Vicki Saunders shared with us when we spoke to her last year.

Vicki is CEO and Founder of SheEO. SheEO is an international network of women who support, finance and celebrate female innovators who run ventures solving important world problems. 

As a serial entrepreneur and true original thinker, Vicki has learnt she needs to create space for ideas to flow. As you’ll hear in this episode, she’s very conscious of ensuring she has a routine and practices that give her that space and stimulus despite facing, as we all do, the demands of a hectic busy work life and all the usual stresses we all experience. 

You’ll hear how Vicki carves out time in her schedule to consume a wide variety of different topics in order to fuel her creative thinking, and you’ll hear how she’s found meditating makes a big difference.

If you’re struggling to have fresh ideas or see old problems from new perspectives, then this mini episode is just what you need!

 

Links of interest

Our full interview with Vicki

SheEO website

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

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 41:55 — 38.5MB) | Embed

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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

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:21 — 37.1MB) | Embed

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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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:43 — 33.8MB) | Embed

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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

 

 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:50 — 33.0MB) | Embed

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