start up Archives - Don't Stop Us Now

2021 – That’s a Wrap!

December 14, 2021December 14, 2021
by Claire

We’re really thrilled to share a very different type of episode, one that features some of the best advice and insights from six of our incredible guests this year. We recap some of the key themes that emerged from 2021 AND we explore how to set yourself up for 2022.

If you’re looking for some perspective at the end of another crazy year filled with all the highs, lows, cancellations, and uncertainties that come with living during a global pandemic then you’re welcome! 🙂

After listening to these amazing and inspiring guests you’ll:

Hear what we and others think is most important, really
Be inspired by the simple steps you can take to build a better world; and
Feel equipped and ready to constructively farewell 2021 and welcome 2022 with the right mindset and the right priorities for you going forward.

We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we’ve enjoyed revisiting our time with the amazing people who joined us this year.

Finally from both of us, we wish you and yours all the very best for a safe and joyous Festive Season and we look forward to sharing lots of adventures and insights with you in 2022.

Useful Links

Our full episode with Connie Mckeage

Connie on LinkedIn

Our full episode with Holly Ransom

Holly on LinkedIn

Our full episode with Adina Jacobs

Adina on LinkedIn

Our full episode with Tessa Clarke, Co-Founder of OLIO

Tessa on LinkedIn

Drawdown.org – great site if you want to educate yourself on climate change

Our full episode with Sarah Wilson

Sarah’s website

Our full episode with Dr J (Dr Jacinta Jimenez)

Jacinta on LinkedIn

Interview

Mikaela Jade – Pioneering for First Nations

October 5, 2021October 5, 2021
by Claire

We have a treat in store for you today with a guest whom we reckon is one of the best storytellers we’ve had on the show.

Australian entrepreneur, Mikaela Jade, otherwise known as Mik, is the Founder and CEO of Indigital, a company developing innovative new ways to digitise and translate knowledge, culture and stories from remote and ancient First Nations communities.

Mik, a proud Cabrogal woman, is a UN Permanent Forum Indigenous Issues delegate; she’s a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Augmented and Virtual Reality; and she’s also been recognised as a Top 100 Innovator in Australia.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How Mik reacted when, as a young adult, she learnt she had indigenous ancestors
How she came up with the idea of using augmented reality to share cultural stories in the national parks where she worked
How hard it was to get people to help her progress her augmented reality ideas
What happened when Mik reached rock bottom, and
The one technology Mik thinks we all need to read up on.

We think you’ll LOVE this conversation with the ever-so resilient and compelling storyteller, Mik Jade.

Enjoy!

Useful Links

https://indigitalschools.com/

https://indigital.net.au/

Mik on Twitter

Mik on Linkedin

Indigital on Instagram

Spatial Web book by Gabriel Rene

Great article – An Introduction to The Spatial Web by Gabriel Rene

Atlas of AI – great podcast with the author, Kate Crawford if you don’t have time to read her book

Future Proof Me Mini Episode

Future Proof Me – Mastering Your Ego

July 13, 2021
by Claire

This week’s Future Proofing mini episode is all about not letting your ego get the better of you.

We were blown away by the maturity and wisdom of young New Zealand entrepreneur, Brianne West, the founder and CEO of Ethique, the global and sustainable cosmetics company. We spoke to her on the show last year.

Brianne’s mission is to rid the world of single-use plastics and Ethique replaces bottled products like shampoos with solid bars of concentrated product.

Brianne has won all kinds of honours including New Zealand’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year and she was named an Obama Leader for Asia Pacific.

With these accolades Brianne could be forgiven for running her global business exactly as she pleases. But what’s so refreshing about this entrepreneur in her 30’s is that she’s well aware she’s never worked in any other business and so she knows she needs other people’s expertise to help her succeed.

And that’s where mastering your ego comes into it. Brianne is so authentic and open about what she does and doesn’t know.

In a world where it’s so easy for all of us to think we have to role play and claim more experience and capability than we may have, one of the secrets to Brianne’s success is that she’s learnt her business needs her to listen to the recommendations of others in order to succeed. She leaves her ego at the door when she goes to work and so do her colleagues.

Take a listen and be inspired how vulnerability really can be the best way forward.

Useful Links

Brianne’s Full Interview with us – Brianne West – Running the World’s most Sustainable Cosmetics Company

Ethique Website

Brianne on Instagram

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

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

Interview

Brianne West – Running the World’s most Sustainable Cosmetics…

July 28, 2020
by Claire

Our guest on the podcast this week is Brianne West, the New Zealander serial entrepreneur and founder of global sustainable cosmetics company, Ethique.

Brianne has a bold and pioneering mission, to rid the world of single-use plastics. She started Ethique to replace all those bottled products we use in our bathrooms, from shampoos to moisturisers, with solid bars of concentrated product.

We’ve been so impressed with the degree of sustainability and ethical practices that Brianne has baked into her business, from sourcing her products directly from around the globe, to being a B Corp, to donating 20% of profits to charitable causes. It really is a business that walks the talk.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How Brianne displayed the entrepreneurial gene very early
How she’s funded Ethique with two very successful crowdfunding campaigns, as well as what it takes to crowdfund successfully
What Brianne does to manage her anxiety; and
How Huffington Post and Britney Spears changed everything for her business overnight!

We hope you come away as inspired by this conversation as we were. It’s a real demonstration of what’s possible when a business decides to make a reasonable profit whilst also caring for planet and people.

Finally, a quick request from us, if you enjoy our podcast and have yet to rate or review us on your listening platform of choice, we’d so appreciate it if you would. This is a passion project for us and it would really make a positive difference.

Interesting Links

Ethique Website

Brianne on Instagram

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

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

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)