values Archives - Don't Stop Us Now

Purpose Powered Pioneer – Annie Crawford

October 10, 2024October 10, 2024
by Claire

Few people can say they’ve founded a non-profit that raises millions while creating a community that helps supporters achieve extraordinary physical challenges. Annie Crawford is one of those rare individuals.

As the founder of CanToo, a high-profile Australian charity running for nearly two decades, Annie has revolutionised fundraising for cancer research. CanToo organises physical challenges like ocean swims and half marathons, where participants receive months of professional coaching in exchange for fundraising commitments.

As a result, more than 20,000 people to date have achieved impressive physical challenges, and more than AUD$33 million has been raised to fund cancer research.

Aside from CanToo, Annie’s had some fascinating career experience including helping to build a very successful Biotech startup in San Francisco.

In this episode you’ll hear how:

How a Kombi van trip around Europe with her parents and 6 siblings impacted Annie’s world view (can you imagine 9 people in a Kombi van?!)
How Annie places values at the heart of what she does and how she built CanToo
Her ingredients for building a sustainable and successful organisation, and
How Annie learnt to overcome an almost paralysing fear of public speaking

Annie is a very down to earth and modest person and you can tell that her life and priorities have been shaped by family tragedy. With CanToo she’s built an incredible and fitting legacy.

Enjoy this episode with the inspiring and values-driven Annie Crawford.

Useful Links

CanToo website – check out their latest physical challenges

Interview

Taking on Goliath – Sue Fennessy

July 11, 2023July 11, 2023
by Claire

We have a truly incredible guest in this week’s episode. We don’t think we’ve ever met someone with so much drive and conviction as serial entrepreneur, Sue Fennessy.

Sue’s vision for her latest, purpose-led-business ‘WeAre8’ is absolutely epic. So large is the vision, that she’s spent the past 8 years building the technology platform required to take on the social media giants of the world. Yes, this one woman ‘tour de force’ is taking on the goliaths of social media with a determination to make social media better for all.

She’s also invested more than $11 million of her own money to get WeAre8 to where it is today. She’s been able to do this because of her phenomenal track record building and exiting businesses. To date, she’s scaled and sold three previous businesses.

The last business that Sue co-founded and then sold in 2022, the global Standard Media Index, was bought for $200million. SMI, as it’s also known, was a pioneering data and technology business recording global media spends across different advertising channels. It required years of persistence and serious influence skills to get all the world’s largest media agencies on board to have access to all that data. Sue has these in spades!

These days, after numerous years living in New York, Sue is based in London where we visited her at her HQ in central London.

In this epic conversation you’ll learn :

How Sue thinks about her Purpose in life
How she plans to transform the worlds of social media AND digital advertising
The high personal cost of Sue’s single minded focus on making WeAre8 a success; and
The crazy and sexist things Venture Capitalists have said to her.

In short, this is a truly memorable conversation so please enjoy this episode with the purposeful and driven, Sue Fennessy.

Useful Links

WeAre8: https://www.weare8.com/

Sue on LInkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/sue-fennessy/

Top Tips

5 years in – Here’s what we’ve Learnt

June 6, 2023June 6, 2023
by Claire

Blow out the candles and sing a merry tune for Don’t Stop Us Now! is 5 years old!

A lot has happened in the past 5 years and we’re so grateful to have had some incredible conversations with incredibly inspiring women.

So in this special birthday episode, we take a step back and reflect on the key insights and lessons our guests have shared over more than 165 episodes. What we find is that there are common themes that keep cropping up again and again.

Whether it’s a female leader and innovator in London, Bangkok, Silicon Valley or Costa Rica or Sydney, it turns out there are universal challenges our amazing guests have faced. We’ve also faced them and we’re pretty sure these are challenges that you’ve likely had, or may be facing too, they’re that universal.

It’s not that our stellar guests are in a different league to the rest of us, it’s simply that they’ve found a way to work through these challenges en route to their success.

And you can too.

In this episode you’ll hear:

The 5 key challenges that crop up again and again
The lessons to navigate these challenges more successfully
Thoughts, confessions and struggles from leaders including internationally renowned author and speaker, Rachel Botsman; former entrepreneur and current member of the House of Lords and board director of Chanel, Martha Lane Fox and Forbes Philanthropy Hero, Audette Exel; and…
How we all have fear and if we’re not feeling a bit of it right now, then we’re playing too safe.

In short, this episode is jam-packed with 5 years worth of wisdom.

So grab a slice of (birthday) cake and enjoy our special 5th birthday episode.

Episodes we feature:

Rachel Botsman – https://dontstopusnow.co/ever-wanted-to-do-a-ted-talk/

Audette Exel – https://dontstopusnow.co/audette-exel-make-your-own-rules/

Courtney Hohne – https://dontstopusnow.co/courtney-hohne-the-truth-about-innovation/

Lindley Edwards – https://dontstopusnow.co/lindley-edwards-wisdom-to-live-work-by/

Caroline Issa – https://dontstopusnow.co/caroline-issa-feel-the-fear-and-do-it-anyway/

Holly Ransom – https://dontstopusnow.co/holly-ransom-curious-on-purpose/

Martha Lane Fox – https://dontstopusnow.co/martha-lane-fox-a-powerful-voice-where-few-women-are-heard/

Que Dallara – https://dontstopusnow.co/que-dallara-unlocks-what-it-takes-to-be-successful/

Tina Sharkey – https://dontstopusnow.co/tina-sharkey-web-pioneer-industry-disruptor-tech-legend/

Ann Sherry – https://dontstopusnow.co/ann-sherry-the-positive-change-agent/

Julia Paige – https://dontstopusnow.co/julia-paige-the-stories-we-tell-ourselves/

Bonus Episode

4th Birthday Special – Highlights & Memories

May 25, 2022May 25, 2022
by Claire

We can hardly believe it but Don’t Stop Us Now! is officially 4 years old!

It was quite a different world back when we launched in 2018. Covid wasn’t a ‘thing’, working from home was often seen as a privilege, and organisations never would have believed they could ‘convert’ to digital and remote operations as easily and rapidly as they did.

We’ve had a ball going back through the 146 episodes of the past four years to bring you this special episode featuring wonderful highlights and memories. We also identified a few key incredibly helpful themes that keep cropping up with our inspiring, pioneering and innovative female leaders (83 and counting).

You’ll also hear about the one moment Claire will NEVER repeat again as well as the moments that filled us with wonder and awe. Plus, learn how you could win a $100 Amazon gift card.

So come on a highlights-filled journey with us now. . . preferably whilst eating cake and supping champagne! 🙂

Links

Our How to Manage Your Inner Critic episode:

Our How to Breathe Easy About Your Purpose episode :

Claire on LinkedIn

Greta on LinkedIn

Future Proof Me Mini Episode

Succeeding with Co-Founders – Future Proof Me

March 15, 2022March 16, 2022
by Claire

This week’s mini episode explores what it takes to build a successful partnership with a co-founder.

One thing we’ve noticed with numerous early stage startups is the challenge in those very early days of finding a co-founder, or co-founders, whom you can really work with for the long term, even when the pressure’s on.

So often you hear of acrimonious founder breakups and it got us asking ourselves, how do you create a good working relationship over time if you have co-founders?

One person who’s brilliantly navigated the co-founder challenge is serial Scottish entrepreneur Lesley Eccles, who with her 4 other co-founders built a blockbuster business called FanDuel. We spoke to Lesley on the podcast a year ago and she has some amazing stories and experiences if you haven’t heard that episode.

In this mini episode you’ll hear how Lesley and her co-founders made a success of working and pivoting together for more than ten years to create a business that has ultimately been valued over $11 billion.

We also share some of our observations from the four years of producing this podcast and from years of observing and advising numerous startups first hand.

As the saying goes: “it takes two to tango” and it typically takes two or more to build an epic business. So enjoy this mini episode on Succeeding with Co Founders.

Links

Link to Lesley Eccles original episode

Link to Adina Jacobs orig episode

How To Episode

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 – Beating Burnout

November 9, 2021
by Claire

We’re in the ‘home straight’ heading towards the end of the year and following the crazy year so many of us have had (thanks COVID!) we thought what better time to remind ourselves of tools to help prevent burnout?

We were lucky enough a few weeks back to run an online seminar on burnout with the best selling author, psychologist and leadership expert, Dr Jacinta Jiménez, and, as so many people signed up, we decided we should revisit Dr Jacinta’s amazing advice from our conversation on the podcast with her some months back.

Following the release of her science-backed, best selling book, The Burnout Fix, Dr Jacinta is definitely the one to turn to for advice dealing with burnout. She has deconstructed what burnout is, how it can be caused, and of course how to recover from burnout.

In this info-packed mini episode, you’ll hear that burnout for all of us is caused by one of six mismatches between who we are and our work or roles. Then you’ll hear how using Dr Jacinta’s PULSE model can help you keep burnout away.

Enjoy this mini episode and don’t forget to schedule yourself a mini break for today too! 🙂

Useful Links

Our full episode with Dr J

Link to the Mentor Walks Webinar we did with Dr J

Jacinta’s new book: The Burnout Fix

Amazon Kindle link

Amazon Hardcover link

Jacinta’s website

Jacinta on LinkedIn

Future Proof Me Mini Episode

Future Proof Me – Calling Out Bias

October 27, 2020October 27, 2020
by Claire

Brought to you by Microsoft’s The New Next

How do you go with sensitive conversations? They’re not easy are they?

This week’s mini episode shares how NASA executive Trudy Kortes has learnt over time to call out gender bias when she experiences it.

If you’ve not heard one of these bite-sized episodes before, the idea is to focus on the most valuable insights, gems of advice and ideas from our incredible guests . . . all focusing on the theme of future proofing ourselves and our careers.

Trudy’s advice includes some great principles for all difficult conversations, so make your next difficult conversation a little easier with this bite-sized nugget of wisdom and experience.

Useful Links

Trudy’s orig episode: A Career in Space and Real Life Moonshots

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

How To Episode

How to Have a Difficult Conversation

November 5, 2019November 5, 2019
by admin

We get it, no-one likes having a difficult conversation do they?

Yet, it’s a fact of life that we all need to instigate them at different times both at work and at home. And if you want to be successful at work, it’s fair to say that having constructive difficult conversations is a skill you just need to master.

But difficult conversations are hard because they often illicit emotion. Hence many of us procrastinate or dodge conversations that we know we really should have, which can lead to resentment and festering emotions.

Procrastinate no more! This week we provide you with some simple tips and tools to help you navigate these tricky situations.

In fact, we teach how to have difficult work conversations in our leadership programs at companies around the world, including Google, Pinterest, Uber, etc, and our participants tell us that these skills really help.

In this episode you’ll learn:

Practical steps you can take to ensure your difficult conversations go as well as possible
Why it’s so important to have difficult conversations
A super useful way to give feedback well
And, how to say No

Plus, you get to hear an, almost, Oscar-winning feedback role-play (if we say so ourselves)!

So don’t delay that difficult conversation you’ve been putting off – click below and have a listen and then try it for real!

You’ve got this!

Oh and email us at claireandgreta@dontstopusnow.co if you’d like us to send you our Values Assessment Exercise.

Useful Links

The SBI Feedback Model

Additional Reading:

Crucial Conversations – Tools for Talking When Stake are High by Kerry Paterson

Radical Candour by Kim Scott Malone

What’s Worst Than Having a Difficult Conversation? Avoiding One! by Deborah Rowland – HBR article

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:38 — 20.9MB) | Embed

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