Don't Stop Us Now! Podcast

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 an

This week we feature the first ever visual artist on the show when we talk with the entrepreneurial and talented American artist, Taylor White. Taylor has worked around the world creating incredible street murals and fine art. You may have seen her work in Melbourne, Oslo, Berlin, LA, Miami, and her hometown of Raleigh in North Carolina.Taylor spent a lot of last year driven by the goal to create and produce her own solo exhibition (The Pursuit of Happiness) inspired by her observations of life in the time of Covid. As you’ll hear, producing your own exhibition is no small undertaking.Being a professional artist is a tough gig - a recent study showed that only 17% of artists make most of their income from their actual art practise. So Taylor’s experiences make this all the more interesting.  In this episode you’ll learn: How Taylor creates large scale street muralsHer advice for anyone who wants to be more creativeWhy focusing on what you can control is so important And, why she belie

This week’s Future Proof mini episode is all about what it takes to get a big idea signed off. We’re excited to share very wise advice from senior Microsoft exec, Mitra Azizirad, who heads up their AI and Innovation division. Mitra speaks about what you should do when that fantastic idea or innovation you have gets knocked back.  (Hands up who knows that feeling!) Mitra is someone who’s had plenty of practise selling-in new ideas and approaches, and one of her top pieces of advice from our conversation was all about how you should react to being told “no” when you pitch an idea in a big corporate.  It’s important advice and we’re excited to revisit this with you here. Enjoy! Useful LinksMitra’s Full Interview with us - Mitra Azizirad – How Resilience and Persistence Can Make All The DifferenceMitra on LinkedIn - see her speeches here too! Well worth a watch!Microsoft Innovation - Mitra’s teamMicrosoft AI - also Mitra’s teamMcirosoft’s AI Business School - Free Course  S

Our episode this week features an American woman who abandoned the security and prestige of working with some of the world’s most sought after ad agencies to start her own businesses.Her name is Allison Kent Smith and one thing that really stands out about her is that she has consciously refused to pretend to be someone she’s not when trying to find VC investors for her startup.   That startup, giide.com, is a new platform for creating rich audio learning experiences featuring a host of multimedia options such as links, articles and graphics.In our conversation you’ll hear howAllison has experienced a few seminal moments when she just knew she had to leap out of her comfort zone work-wiseWhat a Silicon Valley VC told her when she met with him for funding that nearly made her give upWhy she asks herself how can she do less when she wakes up And how she’s found her tribe of investors and supporters by staying true to herself  So sit back and enjoy this episode with the not so typic

Our mini episode this week is packed with wisdom from one of our most thoughtful guests. Social entrepreneur, author and one of Forbes Magazine ‘100 Greatest Living Business Minds’, Jacqueline Novogratz, blew our socks off with her inspiring purpose and thoughtful wisdom when we spoke with her last year.We particularly loved how Jacqueline spoke inspiringly about courage and creating change, and she uses the analogy of bulls and doves in a brilliant way. At the time she was releasing her latest book, Manifesto for a Moral Revolution. Jacqueline starts by stressing how important it is not to spend ages thinking about doing something but to make a start, even if it scares you. You’ll also learn how she channels her inner bull and dove and how she overcame her fear of public speaking.Enjoy this episode. Useful Links Our full interview with Jacqueline NovogratzAcumen WebsiteJacqueline’s Books: Manifesto for a Moral Revolution – Practices to Build a Better World The Blue Swe

This week’s episode is all about becoming a great ‘people person’. It’s something we believe is probably the most important trait of a great leader. Of course, it’s not always easy to do, particularly these days when many of us are working from home at least some part of each week. Thanks to Covid, we’re all losing a bit of ‘muscle tone’ when it comes to building and maintaining healthy working relationships with our colleagues, direct reports and networks.But fear not as we have just the info you need to hear to reinvigorate your working life! In this episode you’ll hear: How one CEO was advised not to think she was running a company and instead to think of it as managing a group of individuals;Great advice on the key ingredients for strong working relationships even when everyone is working remotely;What mistake younger women make in particular when it comes to interactions at work; And the one special ingredient you need to build enduring relationships in ways that are otherwise im

This week’s Future Proof Me mini episode is all about asking for what you want. It sounds so simple in theory but it’s not always easy to do is it? Listen up for great and pragmatic advice on asking and negotiating from the unique and gutsy former advertising CEO, Cindy Gallop. She’s now a Founder and international speaker and she’s passionate about women being treated equally in business. You’ll hear Cindy initially talk about being posed a great question about what she wanted to do by an old boss at the famed ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty that really got her thinking and changed her career. Then you get to hear her invaluable advice on promoting yourself and things you can do if you need to negotiate your salary. Enjoy this mini episode. Useful LinksLink to Cindy’s full interview with usAsk Cindy Gallop Chatbot MakeLoveNotPorn Cindy’s TED talk Cindy on Twitter Cindy on Facebook Cindy on LinkedIn  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out infor

This week, we’re really thrilled to be able to share our conversation with experienced founder, CEO and all round impressive operator, Connie Mckeage.Connie recently sold OneVue, the listed fintech business she ran in Sydney for 14 years. It was a dramatic journey at times, particularly when OneVue was left being owed $31 million dollars by another company which had collapsed. Connie is Canadian and has spent most of her career in financial services. With OneVue she and her 200 employees were looking to disrupt the funds management market by creating a new digital model that aimed to cut out the middleman and reduce fees for end investors. Connie has an impressive list of awards to her name including being awarded the Centenary Medal for contribution to Australian business leadership; as well as twice being named CEO of the Year at the Women in Finance Awards, including last year at the same time she was fighting to keep her business afloat when it was owed $31 million. In this episode you’ll h

This week’s mini episode is all about facing your fears and not being held back in life by the fear of failure. It’s important to know that we don’t always recognise how we’re feeling as ‘fear of failure’ when we hesitate or say no, but often that’s what lies behind any hesitation.  In this episode we hear again from Kat Dunn. Kat was running Grameen Australia when we spoke a year or so back and these days Kat is working for herself and very much still focused on social ventures. Kat has thought a lot about failure and has held numerous failure-themed events in the past, and as a result, she has all kinds of wisdom to share as you will hear in this future-proofing, mini episode. Extra InfoHere are the 4 different lenses we shared at the end of this episode that can help when you’re worrying about failing. . . 1. Growth Mindset - overcoming a fixed mindset and embracing the prospect of growing and learning;2. The practise of Gratitude - to be more positive;  3. Purpose -

This week’s episode features one of the most unassuming and humble entrepreneurs we’ve met.Adina Jacobs is the Co-Founder of an international technology accessories company called STM Goods that basically created a whole new category of product when it launched it 23 years ago. (Think really functional and yet not boring laptop backpacks and bags, ipad and tablet covers, chargers, and a whole host of other accessories.)Adina’s success as a young entrepreneur is testament to the power of building win-win relationships; whether it’s with manufacturers or retail clients. It was thanks to great relationships with Apple resellers that led to her products landing coveted space in Apple’s own destination retail stores when they launched. And not only does Adina work with Apple but STM are also key suppliers of Microsoft accessories as well, plus many other brands. Adina is also Co-Founder of Mentor Walks in Australia, a not-for-profit expanding all around the country with its ‘walk and talk’ model. We had

This week we look at the realities of being a startup founder. Becoming an entrepreneur and a founder is increasingly popular, even with school students where a recent survey showing that 40% of them now want to be entrepreneurs when they complete their studies. But it’s not all fame, fortune and delightful autonomy if you intend to build a business that will scale and survive. And we figured, who better to hear what being a founder is really like than one of Australia’s most successful female entrepreneurs, Cyan Ta’eed, the Co-Founder of the hugely successful digital marketplace, Envato (valued at over a billion dollars). Cyan is also the founder of the ethical chocolate company Hey Tiger and go milkshake, an app for Instagram influencers. In this episode she shares with us just how hard she and her co-founders worked to get Envato off the ground. It didn’t mean that they couldn’t choose where they’d work those long hours as you will hear in this fascinating insight into this Founders reality.

We have a very special episode this week because we’re sharing the vulnerable story of how one of our guests was subsequently fired from a high profile role in the US and how she navigated her way through the dark times that followed.  That guest is Heidi Hackemer and what she shares in this episode is so generous and valuable for all of us to hear; after all nothing is permanent and plans fall over on a regular basis. Heidi is a leading creative who had her own brand agency in New York and also headed up the Creative Studio at the philanthropic Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) in California. Not long after our first conversation with Heidi in July 2018 things went wrong, very wrong. Heidi was fired from CZI and not only that, when she got back to New York, she had to close her brand strategy agency, W&W too. We learnt about this because Heidi wrote an extremely brave and vulnerable article on Medium (link below) describing what had happened and how low she was feeling.Admiring he

This week’s future-proofing mini episode is all about making the most of meetings you attend at work. And seriously, this is one of the most important tools you have to develop your visibility and your reputation. How many times have you sat through a meeting trying to jump in and contribute, or worse, left a meeting realising you hadn’t said anything at all?As you’ll hear in today’s show, more than one senior executive uses the ‘15 minute Rule’ to hold themselves, and sometimes their direct reports, to account. In other words, have you contributed something or asked a question within the first 15 minutes of any meeting you attend? Hear some terrific advice from corporate highflyer and Honeywell’s President & CEO of Honeywell Connected Enterprise, Que Dallara who’s a strong believer in making sure you’re visible if you’re at the table.  So do not miss this episode if you sometimes leave a meeting wishing you’d made a particular point or had had the courage to ask that question that had

Can you believe it? Almost three years ago we started this podcast and now we’re excited to be releasing this, our 100th episode! A particular thank you to you if you’ve taken the time to review, subscribe or recommend our show as it really makes all our work that much more worthwhile. And we always love to hear from you, whether it’s guest or show ideas, or any feedback. Just email us here. This week’s 100th episode features a woman who has a pretty incredible story. Her name is Mouna Aouri and she’s a Tunisian who started out as a bridge engineer, including working for 7 years in Japan. (And Japan is NOT an easy place for women to work!)  After running a successful business in her home country of Tunisia, Mouna now works in Singapore with Beacon Fund which is investing in female entrepreneurs in South East Asia. Not only that, she launched and runs her own online community supporting women entrepreneurs called ‘Woomentum’. In this episode you’ll learn: Why Mouna left Tunisia to

This week’s mini episode is about keeping things in perspective and not taking things personally at work. We hear great advice from one of our wisest guests, Julia Paige, Uber’s global head of Social Impact. We both have in our time, and the wasted hours of angst trying to second-guess the motivations of others or their perceptions of us, were truly a waste of time.How often have you been rattled by something someone has said to you at work, then spent hours ruminating and worrying about how you're perceived by others? Spare yourself the pain and check out this mini episode to help you realise if it's work ...it's not personal!Useful LinksLink to Julia’s full interviewJulia on LinkedIn  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A recent Microsoft trends in work report showed that 40 billion more emails were sent in February 2021 than the previous February, due to the increase in remote working. No wonder so many of us are feeling burnt out and that our work/life boundaries are all askew! We’re happy to say our latest ‘How To’ episode is jam-packed with tips on how to appropriately say “No” at work, whether you’re an employee or work for yourself. We’re not saying it’s always right or easy to say “No” but what we do observe in our leadership work around the world is that some people say “Yes” way more than they need to and can be taken advantage of. If you think this might be you, then don’t miss this episode where you’ll learn:The reasons why we often find it hard to say “No”Great responses you can try when asked out of the blue to do something for someoneA useful framework one professional speaker and author uses to work out what to say “No” to; and An intuitive way to figure out what your true priorities are.&n

This week’s mini episode focuses on staying current with your skills in the fast changing world of work. Something that’s relevant for all of us given the pace of technology change! In this episode, we hear from drone and tech expert, Dr Catherine Ball, whom we featured on the show about a year and a half ago. She’s a real dynamo and a passionate believer in accessible lifelong learning. Cath is a strong believer in how important it is for corporates and individuals to think about re-training in order to keep up with where technology is taking us all. Plus she shares some great resources as well and you can see links to those below. Our take is this: don’t get overwhelmed with the full spectrum of change that’s happening in technology, take it one SMALL chunk at a time. Think about what one new skill or piece of knowledge would be most useful for you right now in your current role to help you to continue to grow and progress? Then find a short course or expert you can learn from - it might be a

We’re excited to bring you this week’s important conversation with psychologist, burnout expert, author and leadership coach, Dr Jacinta Jiménez.We’ve actually known Jacinta for some years and followed her great work on leadership, coaching and high performance with keen interest. We were really excited when she told us about her new book, The Burnout Fix.Jacinta has broken new ground with this book deconstructing and presenting burnout in an actionable way we’d never seen before, and all of it is science backed. Jacinta studied and obtained her doctorate in Psychology from Stanford University where she focused on peak performance, motivation and behaviour change.  What makes her so interesting to speak to and learn from is that she has also more recently spent several years in the tech startup world helping to build a coaching-at-scale business called BetterUp, in San Francisco. In this episode and in her new book, Jacinta deconstructs burnout and you’ll hear how: Her own 2 burnout e

This week’s mini episode is in honour of International Women’s Day. We don’t know about you but this feels like a bit of a watershed year in terms of gender equality and sexual harassment issues rising to almost boiling point in multiple places around the world. Now is the time to call out inequality, injustice and gendered violence when we see them in action. In this episode we reflect on:Why we still need to keep gender equality on the agenda and why IWD is importantHow the pandemic created a triple whammy for womenGreat advice on how you can call out bias when you encounter it at work, andHow virtual meetings haven’t necessarily improved things for women’s voices being heard. You’ll get to hear some advice from us and from one of our favourite guests, NASA’s Trudy Kortes, so enjoy this Future Proof Me episode. Useful LinksWomens March 4 Justice websitePetition to Australia’s Prime Minister on Gendered ViolenceTrudy Kortes episodeNASA websiteTrudy’s websiteTrudy LinkedinTrudy Instag

Have you ever felt totally blindsided or cheated? That’s exactly what happened to our guest this week who spent more than ten years building a startup into a huge success, only to find the company sold by the other investors without receiving a cent. Just two years later the business was valued at over 11 billion dollars!There’s no doubt that serial Scottish entrepreneur Lesley Eccles has ridden the startup rollercoaster on a grand scale. What we find so incredible and inspiring is how she’s bounced back from the devastating loss of her and her co-founders’ first business hit, FanDuel, to focus on starting a business all over again.Lesley says she felt she had no alternative but to start from scratch again - but this time she’s brought her knowledge of running and scaling a technology business to build the number one relationship and self care app, Relish.As Lesley shares her fascinating journey you’ll learn how:Lesley, her husband and their 3 other co-founders weren’t sure if their start up would b