purpose Archives - Page 3 of 3

Greta Thomas – Creating Her Own Path

February 16, 2021February 16, 2021
by Claire

Hello and welcome to another special episode of the show.

For those of you listening in the past few weeks, you’ll know that we have finally relented to the many requests over time to share our own stories.

Claire’s been overwhelmed with the responses to her episode that we aired two weeks ago and this week it’s Greta’s turn to be interviewed by Claire!

Claire loved chatting with Greta about her innovative and fascinating career journey to date.

Tune in now to hear:

How Greta spent the very first part of her working career as a professional ballet dancer
How she hasn’t finished high school and doesn’t have an undergrad degree but managed to get an MBA and work at prestigious management consultancy, McKinsey & Company
How, against all odds, she managed to secure her dream job working for an overseas organisation founded by Bono
And, what she learnt from her time on the executive teams at eBay and Sydney Opera House.

Without further ado, enjoy this episode with our inventive and strategic co-host, Greta Thomas.

Useful Links

Greta on LinkedIn

Greta on Twitter

Don’t Stop Us Now! Website

Full Potential Labs Website

The Lazarus Effect Documentary co-produced by Greta

RED.org

Interview

Ronni Kahn – The More You Give, the More…

January 19, 2021
by Claire

Hello, Happy New Year and welcome to our first episode for 2021!

We couldn’t think of a better guest to start the year with than social entrepreneur Ronni Kahn, the Founder and CEO of OzHarvest.

Ronni is a South African who’s lived in Australia for many years. The story of how she founded and then grew OzHarvest is really quite something.

If you’re not familiar with OzHarvest, it’s Australia’s leading food rescue organisation, ensuring that quality, untouched food from supermarkets and big events gets delivered to provide meals for those in need and saving good food going to landfill.

Incredibly OzHarvest has delivered 160 million meals in Australia to date. Plus, it’s expanded overseas as well.

Ronni recently released her memoir, called A Repurposed Life and we explore her fascinating life and career journey in this episode including:

How Ronni’s early life, from growing up in South Africa, to living on a kibbutz in Israel helped shape her ultimate purpose to end food waste
How her earlier entrepreneurial endeavours with florist shops, pyramid-selling skin care, and a flourishing events business, helped her build her self confidence and enabled her to think bigger
How OzHarvest has had to pivot and adapt through COVID, and
Why Ronni advises you not to wait to give more than you get

If you’re looking to find your purpose, get some inspiration or hear how someone else has made career transitions then don’t miss this episode with the focused and impressive Ronni Kahn.

Useful Links

Ronni’s Book – A Repurposed Life

OzHarvest website

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

How To Episode

How to Change Your Career

June 30, 2020
by Claire

Welcome to our latest How To episode!

We’ve had numerous people ask us recently if now is the right time to change jobs or even careers. It got us both thinking and before you knew it, we had a new ‘How To’ ready to go!

In this episode we explore why you might want to change careers, when is the best time to change careers, and finally how you go about changing career. We also explain what we mean by ‘changing careers’ versus simply changing jobs.

You’ll hear step-by-step examples of how both Claire and Greta have each changed their careers. (Hint – we’ve had a fair bit of practise!)

Plus you’ll also learn:

The key timing and financial considerations you need to take in to account before you change careers
Why we think now is a time to be cautious and conservative before leaving your current job
Advice from a resume expert on how to change industries (a potentially common scenario for people working in COVID-affected industries such as Travel and Hospitality right now)
Examples of how to think ‘outside the box’ to make that career change easier
And a checklist of things to consider and plan for.

So without further ado, enjoy this ‘How To’ episode on changing careers …

Interview

Naomi Simson – The Renowned Entrepreneur 1000s of Small…

April 7, 2020April 7, 2020
by Claire

We have a brilliant episode for you this week with the renown entrepreneur and Shark Tank investor Naomi Simson. Given these unprecedented times, this is just the tonic we needed and we think you will love her too.

On the topic of COVID-19, wherever you’re listening to us from, we hope you’re safe and well and not doing it too tough. Please know that you are not alone, #weareinthistogether . As you’ll hear in this episode, Naomi has some great thoughts for what leaders and businesses need to be thinking about.

Nearly 20 years ago, Naomi took her savings and founded her online business ‘RedBalloon’ when she was a Mum of two small children. The site she built is an aggregator of a vast variety of experiences that people can buy vouchers for from thousands of tourism and adventure operators around Australia and NZ, and they’re expanding internationally as well.

Today the ‘Big Red Group’ has 5 separate businesses under its umbrella with revenue over $70 million and literally millions of experiences sold to date. Thousands of small businesses rely on her company to deliver them customers, a big deal normally and an even bigger one now with COVID-19.

Naomi is also well known for sharing her positivity and business wisdom as a keynote speaker and author of two books.

In this episode you’ll hear Naomi talk about:

How she’s feeling in these uncertain times and how she’s coping with COVID 19 consequences
Her experience of stepping out of her business after splitting from her husband, only to later secretly buy back the company
What Naomi looks for when startups are pitching to her for investment
Why you’ll always see her wearing something red, and
Her advice to you in these times of uncertainty.

So stay safe, get comfy, and enjoy this episode with the super positive and impressive Naomi Simson.

One final note from us, given our leadership development business has understandably lost revenue, we’ve decided it’s timely to trial one or two ads at the beginning or end of each episode whilst taking great care not to damage your listening experience. This is a way to help us with all the hours we spend on bringing each episode to you. Thank you for being part of our community.

Links of interest

Naomi’s website

Redballoon

Big Red Group

Naomi’s books: Live What You Love & Ready to Soar

Interview

Mandy Birch – On Being Yourself (in a Man’s…

February 25, 2020
by Claire

Our guest this week is former military leader and now Quantum Computing pioneer, Mandy Birch.

Born and bred in the USA, Mandy is super qualified . . . she has a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT; another Masters in in Military Operational Art & Science, and a third Masters in International Relations!

Mandy’s entire career has been in male dominated industries. She spent 16 years climbing to senior ranks in the United States Air Force and now she’s working on Quantum Computing with a company called Rigetti. Rigetti is one of four companies (Sept 2019) to have a fully operational quantum computer.

During our conversation, we were fascinated to hear how Mandy only truly thrived in her career in the military when she learnt to be herself. She talks about how important it has been to her career to feel comfortable in her own skin, even when she was different to nearly everyone else in the room.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How to summarise Quantum Computing in a single sentence
How being under-estimated became a positive and shaped Mandy’s leadership style
Why she believes over-planning your career can be a problem
And why getting used to being different and seeing the value in that made all the difference.

Enjoy this episode with the passionate and mission-driven Mandy Birch.

Links of Interest

Mandy on LinkedIn

Rigetti Computing

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:47 — 29.2MB) | Embed

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Interview

Margarita Herdocia – The Compassionate Capitalist

August 27, 2018December 5, 2018
by admin

We have a truly international businesswoman and global citizen on the show today.

Margarita Herdocia, is Nicaraguan by birth, was educated in New York, and lives in Costa Rica. She owns and runs Renaissance Holdings which operates multiple businesses based in Central America, the Caribbean, Russia and Europe.

Incredibly, she’s using her businesses to further the cause of democracy in her dictator-run country of birth where she finds herself having to make decisions in the current civil unrest that have life or death implications for her staff.

Margarita began – with no experience – by taking over a failing, family owned fast food and casual dining business and totally blitzed it. She’s expanded her portfolio over the years to also include real estate development, some retail, and financial asset management interests as well.

In this episode you’ll hear:

How a comment in her living room saw her go overnight from no experience in business, to turning around a failing business in Nicaragua
Her philosophy as a leader, and how her purpose is to create what she calls ‘happy jobs’
How she takes advantage of the times when men in meetings won’t look at her – she’s often the only woman in the room
Her advice for women who want to negotiate a pay rise

Enjoy this episode!

Links of interest:

Margarita’s profile

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:27 — 28.9MB) | Embed

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Interview

Rebekah Campbell – Serial Entrepreneur

August 14, 2018December 5, 2018
by admin

We’re excited to feature our latest guest, serial entrepreneur Rebekah Campbell.

Rebekah has just founded and launched her third business, Zambesi, an online marketplace for career-related workshops.

Prior to Zambesi, she was co founder of a well-known cafe ordering app in Australia called Hey You!

Raised in New Zealand but now based in Australia, Rebekah started her career and first significant business in the music industry following a university summer holiday project she did that took off.

We love this interview because it is so jam-packed with honest stories, useful tips and advice.

In this episode you’ll hear Rebekah share her thoughts about:
How she figures out what business to start next and, related to that . . .
How she found her new purpose – one that would really last
Her fascinating experience working out how to ‘own the room’
The surprise in store when she shared how inadequate she felt compared with some of her peers.

Enjoy this episode with the entrepreneurial and insightful Rebekah Campbell