innovation Archives - Page 3 of 4

Future Proof Me – Taking Control of your Calendar

November 24, 2020
by Claire

Brought to you by Microsoft’s The New Next

With the crazy year that 2020 has been and many people feeling exhausted as we come into the Holiday season, this week’s mini episode may be exactly what you need.

In ‘Taking Control of Your Calendar’ we revisit some great advice from drone expert and Associate Professor, Dr Cath Ball on optimising your time and calendar. As she puts it so adroitly, she now thinks of emails simply as other people telling you how to use your time.

Cath is something of a dynamo – you can hear it in the way she speaks – so many fantastic thoughts, all at a million miles per hour.

Cath had to learn some important lessons when she left corporate life and started working for herself. Particularly once she had her first baby, she realised just how priceless her time was and how easy it was to let other people control her time.

So if you’re feeling like your diary is out of your control then you’ll love Cath’s thoughts and advice on ensuring how you spend your time works for you. Whether you work for yourself or for others there’s plenty of great advice here.

Enjoy!

Links

Link to full episode with Dr Cath Ball – Flying High with Drones & More

Dr Cath Ball’s website

World of Drones Congress

Dr Cath Ball Linkedin

Interview

Jennifer Aaker & Naomi Bagdonas – Humour as a…

October 6, 2020October 6, 2020
by Claire

We think you’re going to love this week’s episode featuring two super impressive women who, amongst other things, teach at Stanford University’s famed Graduate School of Business (GSB).

Yes, today you get two for the price of one! 😉

Despite their serious surrounds, these two are determined to bring levity and humour to the world having discovered just how powerful humour can be in dark times and at work.

Jennifer Aaker is General Atlantic Professor at Stanford’s GSB, where she has been one of the favourite professors there for around 20 years. She’s a Behavioural Psychologist and author, and her research focus areas include: purpose and meaning and how they shape the choices we make; and most recently she’s been working with our other guest today, Naomi Bagdonas on the power of using humour in a business context.

Naomi Bagdonas was a stand up comic by night and a management consultant by day, never mixing the two, until one day she realised that she was living an almost double life and decided it was time to be herself wherever she was. These days Naomi is a lecturer at Stanford, an Executive Coach, an author and she even teaches improv comedy to inmates at San Francisco’s County Jail.

Jennifer and Naomi began teaching the importance of humour to MBA students and then realised that what they’d discovered was what the world really needed right now . . . hence their new book out this week, ‘Humour, Seriously’.

In this laughter-filled episode, you’ll hear:

Why Naomi and Jennifer believe humour is a secret superpower at work and in life,
How we all fall off a humour cliff at the age of 23 and what we can do about it,
Practical tips to increase creativity and innovation in your team, and
How you can potentially gain an additional 8 years on your life!

Enjoy this episode with these two witty, wickedly smart women …

Useful Links:

Humour, Seriously book website – find out where to buy your copy

Test to see what humour type you are

Jennifer Aaker on LinkedIn

Naomi Bagdonas on LinkedIn

Future Proof Me Mini Episode

Future Proof Me – Advice on Starting your Idea

September 29, 2020
by Claire

This week’s Future Proof Me mini episode shares some great advice if you’re contemplating starting your own business or side hustle.

We were so inspired by social enterprise founder Navyn Salem when we had her on the show a year or so ago. She told us how, when she had the idea to set up a social enterprise to tackle malnutrition in children in developing countries, everyone told her it couldn’t be done.

She decided she would prove the naysayers wrong and, today, her organisation Edesia has made an incredible impact and transformed 12 million children’s lives in 54 countries.

In this mini episode, Navyn shares advice about how to get started and how to approach the many problems any founder is sure to encounter.

Navyn really is the ‘real deal’ and if you like this mini episode be sure to listen back to our full conversation with her here.

Useful Links:

Edesia Website

Navyn on Instagram

Link to the full ‘Don’t Stop Us Now!’ episode with Navyn Salem

How To Episode

How to Build Your Network

September 22, 2020
by Claire

This week’s episode is one of our ‘How To’ episodes and we’re covering that sometimes awkward topic of networking.

One of our guests has described your network as your ‘net worth’ and while that may be an exaggeration, there’s no doubt who you know can really make a difference to opportunities that may come your way. Particularly if you’re in the position of wanting to change industries or jobs.

Of course, building your network during COVID can be a little bit trickier and we talk about this during the episode.

You’ll also hear tips and advice on:

How to nurture and maintain your existing network
What we (Claire and Greta) actually say and do when we’re ‘networking’
How we approach it to take the awkwardness away
And how to think about growing your network to help your career goals.

So if you’re contemplating a career change, or have neglected your network this year, then this is the episode for you! If you know someone who is looking for a job or to change careers, then why not share this with them now. Enjoy!

Useful Links:

New York Times Article we refer to – ‘We’re all socially awkward now”

Full interview with Dr Cath Ball – Flying High with Drones and More

Full interview with Maria Macnamara – On Reinvention

Future Proof Me Mini Episode

Future Proof Me – Managing Imposter Syndrome

September 1, 2020September 1, 2020
by Claire

This week’s ‘Future Proof Me’ mini episode shares fantastic advice on how to overcome Imposter Syndrome. We were really struck by the great advice one of our very earliest guests shared with us on this topic.

Courtney Hohne has a box seat to some of the most incredible innovations in the world as chief Storyteller at X: the Moonshot Factory, Alphabet’s (i.e. Google) – innovation and R&D company. Think self driving cars, internet balloons and drone deliveries amongst many other innovations in the works.

At X, Courtney is surrounded by some of the world’s brightest, quickest and sharpest minds, an environment where even the most confident of executives could be forgiven for feeling a tad intimidated or for feeling like an imposter at the meeting table!

In fact, as she so refreshingly shares with us, this is something Courtney has to face into every day and her great advice on overcoming that imposter feeling is well worth heeding.

Check it out now we’re sure you’ll be glad you did! Enjoy.

Useful Links

Link to Courtney’s original episode

Interview

Maria MacNamara – On Reinvention

August 25, 2020August 25, 2020
by Claire

Our guest on the show this week is someone who’s a textbook case in career reinvention.

Maria MacNamara completely reinvented her career after two and a half decades working in professional services. After finally getting sick of what she describes as misogyny and bad behaviour, Maria knew she had to call it quits and leave professional services for something completely different.

Now, that’s not to say professional services today has the same issues Maria experienced, and Maria is the complete diplomat on this topic, but suffice to say she needed a change and knew she wanted to do something completely different.

And so she did! Maria worked in politics and government in completely different roles including digital transformation for a number of years and immersed herself in the startup world. Today Maria’s role is CEO of Advance which is all about connecting global Australians with one another and to Australia, in order to create economic and cultural opportunities, collaborations, investments and innovations.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How being an immigrant set Maria up for successful reinvention
What it takes to reinvent your career
Maria’s principles for successful innovation, and
Her advice on networking and connecting.

Enjoy this episode with the constantly learning and always connecting Maria MacNamara.

Useful Links

Start-ups Maria has Mentored

1. Stone & Chalk and its new acquisition Ribit.net
2. Faethm.ai
3. Curious Thing
4. WithYouWithMe
5. Hyper Anna
6. Startup Muster

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

Future Proof Me Mini Episode

Future Proof Me – Advice on Getting Out of…

June 23, 2020June 23, 2020
by Claire

Our latest Future Proof me mini-episode this week shares invaluable lessons from an entrepreneur who’s truly experienced the highs and lows of building a global business.

For this week’s mini episode, we return the spotlight to Jodie Fox, the Co-Founder of the iconic online retail brand Shoes of Prey.

Jodie and her co-founders went on an incredible journey over a decade building Shoes of Prey to be a global brand, only to be forced to close it all down in 2018.

The advice Jodie shares here isn’t just relevant for a budding entrepreneur; it’s actually about how to navigate your way through your chosen career and not short change yourself by holding yourself back or getting in your own way of progress.

Jodie has really thought deeply about how we can hold ourselves back and how we like to keep ourselves safe and has some great advice to share.

She also shares her views on how we all think too judgmentally about failure – both when it comes to ourselves as well as others.

Don’t forget, if you love this taste of Jodie’s invaluable lessons then we encourage you to listen to our full interview with Jodie here and check out Jodie’s book called ReBoot – More Than You Ever Probably Wanted to Know About Starting a Global Business.

Enjoy this mini episode and be sure to practise getting out of your own way! 🙂

Interview

Mitra Azizirad – How Resilience and Persistence Can Make…

June 16, 2020June 17, 2020
by Claire

This week’s episode features a trailblazing woman in tech who’s had an extraordinary 28 year career at Microsoft.

Mitra Azizirad is Corporate Vice President of AI and Innovation Marketing at Microsoft based in Seattle.

As you’ll discover, Mitra’s heard it all, including a senior Defence executive telling her he had shoes older than she was! This indomitable woman has also got used to hearing plenty of ‘No’s’ at work but has repeatedly found ways to prove the naysayers wrong.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How it’s almost an accident Mitra got into tech in the first place, given she studied and wanted to work in International Relations
What it was like being Chief of Staff to the CEO of Microsoft and why she turned the job down several times in the first place
Why she’s never taken anyone’s advice
And the secrets of innovation she’s learnt from working on the cutting edge of technology.

We spoke with Mitra in Seattle during the coronavirus shutdown but before the Black Lives Matter protests.

Without further ado enjoy this episode with the forward thinking and very persistent Mitra Azizirad.

Links of interest

Mitra on LinkedIn – see her speeches here too! Well worth a look!

Microsoft Innovation – Mitra’s team

Microsoft AI – also Mitra’s team

Microsoft’s AI Business School – Free Course

Interview

Audrey Tang – Taiwan’s Digital Minister and Her Vital…

May 5, 2020May 5, 2020
by Claire

We have a fascinating episode this week with our guest, Taiwan’s remarkable Digital Minister, Audrey Tang.

Audrey became the youngest Government Minister ever in Taiwan when she was appointed a few years ago at the age of 35. She is also the world’s first ever Transgender government Minister.

Audrey’s childhood was anything but conventional, in her early years she was something of a child prodigy who also had a serious heart condition. She dropped out of school at the age of 14 to manage her own education and at the age of 16 started her first successful software business.

Fast forward in time, and after some years working in Silicon Valley and further success, Audrey found herself moving from being a Government activist in her home country to a Government Minister!

In this episode you’ll hear:

How Audrey’s quick involvement in creating a valuable app has played a key role in Taiwan’s extraordinarily successful management of Covid-19, with the country never having to stop working
How her heart condition as a child means that to this day Audrey does not experience anger or upset or extreme joy
How in Taiwan, thanks to calling software coders Programme Designers vs Software Engineers, there are significantly more women than men working in the field
And her unique ways of seeing arguments from both sides

Enjoy this discussion with the remarkable Audrey Tang.

Useful Links

Audrey on Twitter

Taiwan Can Help Us – a COVID-19 initiative from Taiwan to help other countries

CoHack – a hackathon led by Audrey to use open data and technology to help fight the coronavirus pandemic across the world

G0V – a decentralised civic tech community from Taiwan