Company

Today’s guest has rural roots that keep her sane, especially at the moment.

Stephanie is the Senior Editor for the Asia Pacific at a group called Storyful: A News and Intelligence Agency.

Each day from her home in Sydney, she verifies content on social media before distributing it to news organisations all over the world. It’s a media role that would not have existed 10 years ago, and as you will learn, her task of fact checking grass roots content is so important in the process of getting stories of things like – the war in Ukraine – to air in an accurate manner.

I’ve been thinking of her, in the last few weeks, it would have been so intense.

Outside of her work with Storyful, Steph has led an extraordinary career which has taken her from her home town of Gunnedah to the newsrooms of Prime News initially then the BBC, SkyNews London, Al Jazeera English and she’s been a supervising producer with Channel 7’s Sunrise. She’s worked with TV teams in Mongolia and Bangladesh for World Vision and Solomon Islands with Unicef.

Steph is a TedX talker - and now she has a podcast of her own – And We’re Rolling – which interviews some of the best female correspondents, presenters and reporters in the world.

Thank you to the CWA of NSW – Celebrating 100 years in 2022 for supporting this series of Company.

You can get more Company goodness by signing up to the newsletter at mansonandcompany.com

I'm really chuffed to be bringing you this very special live recording of the Company podcast from regional co-working space, The Collective, Grenfell run by Belinda Mahwinney and Ant Dixon.

Jane Cay grew up in Cooma, she went away to boarding school in Mittagong, her first ‘big girl’ job was at IBM in Sydney, then she fell in love, with Oli, quit her job and moved her life to Cooma.

In a way it was the beginning of the rest of her life as the Big Bird of BirdsNest, and it was a path she never envisaged.

She moved her life to Cooma. Bought retail clothing shop, High Country Outfitters.

In 2008 she took the business Online, everyone said she was crazy. Online wasn’t a thing back then. The business grew and grew and grew, Jane and Oli had three children and life was busy. At some point Jane googled ‘How do I calm down?’ and alongside a survey of staff, Jane was set off on a new trajectory of self awareness, that ultimately has seen her family owned business and Jane’s leadership journey, go from strength to strength to strength.

In 2017 BirdsNest came 4th in the BRW Great Places to Work Awards and then nest year Jane was awarded number one in the Top 50 People in E-commerce in Internet Retailing. Today we’re going to delve into this journey, with a particular focus on Jane’s journey of leadership and self awareness.

My guest today interior designer Sheila Smith is a glowing example that a childhood in rural Australia is no hinderance to development of a world-class business in the bush in later life.

Sheila's career path is fascinating and completely left-field. She worked alongside designers in Melbourne, in the underground mines of the Pilbara, WA, she found herself cooking on super yachts and drinking Imperial bottles of Dom Perignon in the Caribbean and finally landed back in the main street of her hometown, running her own interiors business and BnB from a historic bank that's been in the family for generations.

Sign-up to the Company on Sunday newsletter to see Sheila's personal podcast and interior magazine recommendations. mansonandcompany.com

Apparently Beef Snacking is a thing - and bringing it to the fore is the mission of Emma Williams who, alongside her mother, is the brains behind Impact Meat – an ag start-up selling good looking beef jerky and biltong using Australian beef.

Emma grew up in Sydney’s north shore, but the biggest influence on her life, her stock and station agent grandfather, lived thousands of kilometres away in Tamworth. And there was no doubt about it, despite not living on a farm, Emma was always going to study Ag at University.

She’s worked at grain company Manildra, is the marketing manager at global digital grain management company AgriDigital and is driving Impact Meat in her spare time.

This series of Company would not be possible without support from the CWA of NSW - Celebrating 100 years in 2022.

Today's guest is the epitome of no-fuss go-getterism! Kate Hufton is the former co-owner of The Sir George pub and restaurant (and now accomodation) in Jugiong, NSW.

A Sunday walk with her mother, landscape designer, Liz Prater,

Six years ago, after Kate's engagement party, she and her mother took a walk around the ground of the derelict pub at Jugiong, flippantly throwing around the dreamy idea of one-day making it their own renovation project. With no real intent the conversation was let go - but when the pub come up for sale, they ended up as the owners.

A rural road trip ensued after a google search of the 'best beer gardens in NSW' - and as a result the pair learnt there was a real demand for big, bold and beautiful beer gardens and set about creating their own under the mantra, 'build it and they will come'.

The end product was a world class pub unlike any other in rural Australia, that put the small village of Jugiong on the map and kick started many other small businesses and on-farm accomodation venues in the area.

The Sir George was sold in late 2021 and Kate now works in a local sheep stud.

Breaking into normal transmission today to bring you my Pitch for the Buy From The Bush x PayPalAu Big Break Competition.

Thank you for listening! Skye xx

Kate Greenwood has always had an itch.

An itch to make and create. But as is often the case, it took a while for her to take her urge to make things seriously.

From her home near Molong in Central New South Wales, Kate cuts, rolls and bakes, fabulously colourful earrings and accessories, under her label Greenwood Designs which now boasts more than 14,000 followers on Instagram – and can be found in almost any groovy and fun shop in any country town!

You can find Kate here on Instagram.

Thank you to Lindner Quality Socks our generous sponsor for this Series.

Kristy McGregor was born on a 1 acre block in Camden now on the outskirts of Sydney. She's the lady behind New Zealand's, Shepherdess the rural womens brand including a magazine, events, live social media get-togethers and more.

If this isn't enough to pique your interest, let me tell you that although Kristy now lives in NZ, a huge part of her heart in Australia's outback. She helped pioneer the awesome, Channel Country Ladies Lunch as well as studying social work at CSU in Wagga Wagga. There's a whole lot going on - but once you know her story it all makes sense.

You can find Shepherdess at shepherdess.co.nz or @shepherdess.nz on Instagram.

Thank you to our Sponsor for this series Lindner Quality Socks in Crookwell, NSW.

Today’s guest, Denise McClelland Yates from Grenfell in central west New South Wales, rings true precisely the sort of women I want to tap into: ambitious women living in rural Australia.

Denise has never let the fact that she lives in a small – yet strong – rural community hold her back. She’s worked so many careers - and after this chat –and most things she turns her hand to she becomes a master at! She's also a perfectionist, and a fellow Virgo.

Denise's latest business is as a holistic health coach for integrative nutrition. Her business Lorien Well encompasses all facets of health, physical, mental, hormonal, sexual, relationships - the whole bit!

I hope you love this chat as much as I did.

Thank you to our Winter Series sponsor Linder Quality Socks.

Today’s guest is someone you want to put on your online shopping list. Even if you don’t put anything in the cart, the wonders that Lucinda Newton works with her hands are just beautiful.

Her brand is Luone, a handcrafted jewellery business with pieces that are timeless and 100% stunning.

Lou says she always been obsessed with jewellery. Since childhood, she’s eyed off the jewellery of every woman that’s crossed her path. Although she didn’t initially choose this vocation, all her tendencies pulled her towards where she is now, from a childhood growing up on a farm at Bellata to her own open and airy studio shop front in Port Fairy in Victoria.

Thank you to Lindner Quality Socks the sponsor for this season of the podcast.