Don't Stop Us Now AI Edition

This week’s mini episode is all about crowdfunding and in particular equity crowdfunding. 

Equity crowdfunding is where retail investors can buy a share in a young company which is seeking funding without having to list on the stock exchange or take on formal VC capital. 

Capital raising can be such a time consuming occupation for a Founder yet if you have the right offer for equity crowdfunding, then this can be a great way to proceed. 

One of our guests has proven to be a master at successfully completing two extremely impressive equity crowdfunding campaigns. We’re talking about 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 plastic-bottled products we use in our bathrooms, from shampoos to moisturisers, with solid bars of concentrated product. 

Brianne crowdfunded twice to grow her business: once in 2015 when she raised NZ$200,000 in 10 days; and again in 2017 when she raised an extraordinary $500,000 in just over an hour!

Ethique continues to grow, has taken on other types of investment and is now found in more than 20 countries. It’s become a B Corp as well. 

In this mini episode you’ll hear Brianne explaining why she felt crowdfunding was best for her and then shares her views on what it takes to be successful if you’re wondering if crowdfunding is for you. 

Enjoy this mini episode. 

Useful Links

Brianne’s full interview

Ethique Website

Brianne on Instagram

Equitise - Crowdfunding platform

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With so much talk about the ‘Great Resignation’ and all the job changes that are occurring as a result, what better time to make sure your LinkedIn profile is working for you? 

In this episode we share some valuable ‘insider’ tips and gain an insight into how recruiters use LinkedIn to find the right people. We’ll also hear from US based Executive Resume writer and expert Donna Svei who will share insights you may be surprised to learn. 

And you’ll glean some valuable tips to ensure that you are doing yourself justice on this all important platform. 

You’ll learn: 

• How you can optimise your LinkedIn profile
• What parts of your profile get shared by recruiters with their clients, the hiring managers  
• And, a simple step you can take that could make a surprising difference.

Here’s to you having an ‘All Star’ profile and shining bright! Enjoy.

Useful Links

Executive Resume Writer, Donna Svei’s website

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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

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We’re excited to be bringing you an inspiring and very relevant guest this week given world leaders have been meeting at COP 26 in Glasgow for vital climate talks as this episode goes to air. 

Tessa Clarke is Co-founder and CEO of the international food sharing and household goods app called OLIO. Her passion for sustainability and for creating simple ways to help all of us to take simple but powerful steps to help the environment is just what we need right now! 

Tessa and her Co-founder (whom she met at Stanford doing her MBA) launched OLIO in 2015 and originally focused on food waste in the home, although now you can find new homes for all kinds of other items as well. 

OLIO has just successfully closed a Series B fundraising round raising $43 million dollars from top tier VC firms who have described OLIO’s 5-fold growth in the past year as phenomenal. More than 5 million OLIO users in 53 countries are now reducing not only food waste but also preventing more than 3 million household goods going to landfill as well.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How Tessa wished she’d made the time earlier in her career to stop and really reflect about what she was passionate about doing in her career
• How Tessa came up with the idea for OLIO; 
• Her four tips for female founders raising funds; and 
• How food waste globally results in greenhouse gas emissions that would make it the 3rd largest country in emission terms in the world.

And last but not least, Tessa shares how western householders make up for HALF of all that food waste. So dear fellow citizen of Planet Earth, please make haste and devour this episode with the determined and passionate Tessa Clarke. Enjoy! 

Useful Links

OLIO website

OLIO in the App store - Google & Apple

OLIO on Instagram

OLIO on Facebook

OLIO on LinkedIn

Tessa on LinkedIn

Tessa on Medium

Dana Kanze TED Talk on the real reason female founders get less funding

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Welcome to this week’s mini episode all about how you should think about career opportunities. Making career decisions can be really stressful can’t it? 

One guest who made a big impression on us with her career advice is the well known Australasian leader, Michelle Guthrie. 

Michelle has had an international career including being CEO of Star TV in Asia, a senior executive at Google in Asia, and she was Managing Director of Australia’s national broadcaster the ABC - a term which ended in great controversy and was a challenging time for all involved.

Michelle really believes all of us need to take a few more risks and think about our careers with the long term in mind. She also has great advice on how we need to back ourselves more and trust we’ll figure it out even if it seems really daunting. 

So if you’re in need of some reassurance and perspective on a career decision, then this is ten minutes you need to spend right now! 

Useful Links

Our Full Interview with Michelle Guthrie 

Michelle on LinkedIn  

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It doesn’t take much imagination to work out how many challenges tourism businesses have been facing during the pandemic. 

Typically, those who’ve been challenged the most can offer us the most interesting and helpful stories and advice. So our latest episode features the first of several amazing female travel entrepreneurs we’ll be featuring in the coming weeks. 

Lena Andersson is the Founder and CEO of ‘Go Running Tours’, a global platform where you can book guided sightseeing runs in more than 70 cities and towns around the world. 

Pre Covid last February, Lena’s business was really hitting its strides (excuse the pun!) and receiving record bookings. . . and then Covid happened. 

Prior to founding her global running tours business, Lena had a successful career in marketing for large corporates in the UK and Denmark. She was traveling more than 200 days a year and that’s when she came upon the idea that literally inspired her to quit the very next day. A friend in a foreign city took her for a run that combined running with sightseeing and Lena thought how amazing it would be if she could do this in every destination she travelled to. 

Little could Lena have imagined 8 plus years ago that she’d have to deal with all the trials and tribulations a global pandemic would bring. 

We think you’ll be blown away by Lena’s resilience and positivity and you’ll also hear: 

• How Lena decided her next steps when the world shut down last year
• How she's got through the devastating impact COVID has had on her business
• Lena’s career advice if you're an introvert; and
• Why she’s optimistic about the future for her business despite everything she’s been through.

Enjoy this episode with the positive and purposeful Lena Andersson. 

Useful Links

Go Running Tours Website

Lena on LinkedIn

GoRunningTours on Insta

GoRunningTours on Facebook

GoRunning Tours on Strava

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Welcome to this week’s Future Proof Me mini episode. 

For many of us the past few months have shrunk our world to the confines of our homes and our local suburb. What we’ve noticed can sometimes come with that, is a tendency to lose sight of the bigger picture and of others who may be doing it tougher than we are.

It’s why we thought it was really timely for this beautiful reminder from social entrepreneur Ronni Kahn of the value we personally derive from helping others, even now when uncertainty and disruption is still so prevalent in our own lives. 

We were really moved by her first hand testimony of how her experience has been that you get so much more than you give, and that time is so precious we all need to think about what we’re doing now, not putting things off for “one day” in future. 

This point was brought vividly home to us as we just heard the news that one of our recent guests, artist and muralist Taylor White has been injured in a serious road accident in Iceland. Fortunately she’s confident of making a full, if slow, recovery so we’re sending her love and heartfelt “Get well soon Taylor” wishes. 

Seize the day dear friends. 

Useful Link

Full interview with Ronni Kahn - The More You Give, the More You Get

Ronni’s Book – A Repurposed Life

OzHarvest website

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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

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Welcome to another of our mini episodes where we revisit the specific pearls of wisdom that our amazing guests have shared with us. 

This week we’re exploring what it takes to really innovate in a big corporate or government organisation. Because, as you’ll hear, successful innovation is about much more than having a great idea. Often the challenge really comes when you try to get that idea off the ground. 

You may remember a conversation we had with Mandy Birch, an executive with quantum computing company, Rigetti Computing. Mandy also spent many years in the US Airforce in senior operational and logistics roles in the field so she knows all about innovating and getting ideas passed in large organisations.  

You’ll hear how Mandy thinks about generating breakthrough ideas and, importantly, getting some of them implemented! 

Enjoy this Future Proof Me episode. And if you are getting value from our show then please rate and review us on your podcast listening platform, we’d really appreciate it if you haven’t already. 

Useful Links

Our full interview episode with Mandy 

Mandy on LinkedIn

Rigetti Computing

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Our guest for this week’s episode is Swedish best selling author, financial journalist and women’s economic champion, Katrine Marçal. 

Katrine’s two books, ‘Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner’ and her latest book - ‘Mother of Invention - How Good Ideas Get Ignored in an Economy Built for Men’ explore how women’s roles and contribution have been systemically ignored over time. 

Katrine has a fun and engaging way of telling stories that show just how much we’ve missed out on by overlooking the value women bring to the table. Not surprisingly, she also shares how frustrated she is that we’ve missed out on countless potential innovations because there haven’t been enough women involved in the process. 

Katrine’s first book was named one of The Guardian’s Books of the Year in 2015 and she was named as one of the BBC’s top 100 women in the same year. Her latest book builds on this impressive record. 

In this fascinating discussion you’ll learn: 

• How the founder of modern economics, Adam Smith, overlooked one very important factor when he came up with his ‘self interest’ theory and what impact that’s had on women and what we’re paid,
• How innovation history has overlooked or re-written women’s vital role in computer science and the founding of software,
• How and why a company that specialised in women’s underwear won the contract to make the spacesuits that took the Apollo astronauts to their history making landing on the Moon; and
• How Katrine herself comes up with her original ideas and perspectives.

So sit back, enjoy and be prepared to have your eyes opened by the insightful and engaging Katrine Marçal. 

Useful Links

Katrine’s website - find her books here

SheEO home page 

Interview with Vicki Saunders, CEO of SheEO 

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