Don't Stop Us Now AI Edition

If you’ve got a dream but don’t think you’re qualified to get there, think again. Our amazing guest today, venture capitalist Marisa Warren, is best described as a driven woman in a hurry. She’s never let a lack of experience stop her from chasing her goals. 

Marisa is co-founder and Managing Partner of a unique venture capital firm called Aliavia. Aliavia is a California based firm focused on early stage investments backing female founders in both the U.S. and Australia. 

Marisa has grown up in tech, spending the first 18 years of her career in enterprise software sales. She was in such a hurry to start working she ignored her parents’ urging to go to university and struck out to make her own path, starting in Sydney. 

In this episode you’ll hear how:

• How Marisa survives challenging times including being made redundant from big corporates on 3 separate occasions  
• What happened in a New York elevator when she met the Australian voice behind Siri 
• Marisa’s advice to female founders to flip the power dynamic with investors
• And, the differences she sees between Australian and American female founders. 

For transparency we want to share that we are investors in Aliavia’s first fund and are big supporters of the investment purpose that combines supporting women founders and building incredible businesses. 

Enjoy this episode with the driven and admirably impatient Marisa Warren. 

Useful Links

Aliavia Ventures

Marisa on LinkedIn

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We are back!! Yes, we know, we’ve had a long and awesome holiday :-)!  We hope your year has got off to a great start too. 

We have a blockbuster episode to leap into 2024 and it’s all about someone who stewards equally blockbusting brands. 

Ellie Norman runs marketing, communications and fan engagement at one of the world’s biggest sporting brands, the famed football club, Manchester United. Our minds were officially blown when Ellie told us she has to market to 1.1 billion fans around the world. That’s an incredible audience for any marketer. 

It’s not just the iconic Man United sporting brand that Ellie has experience with; she’s also been Global Director for Marketing and Communications at Formula One where she helped popularise the franchise. 

In fact, Ellie’s career has featured a lot of male-dominated industries and sectors as she also spent six years in marketing roles with Honda Motors in Europe. Her take on how to thrive and succeed in these environments is uplifting.  

We were struck by Ellie’s refreshing and inspiring way of thinking about her work on the global stage and, as you’ll hear, she shares: . . . 

• How not going to University has driven her career choices in a good way
• How Ellie makes big decisions about her career
• Why sports marketing flips the traditional marketing model on its head
• How she helped popularise the Formula 1 brand and make it less elitist 
• And how she handles the Man United brand and its legion of distraught fans when the team isn’t performing on the field.

We think you’ll love this inspiring conversation with the positive and gutsy Ellie Norman. 

Useful Links  

Manchester United website

Manchester United on Youtube

Manchester United on Instagram

Manchester United on Facebook

Manchester United on Tiktok

Manchester United on X

Ellie on LinkedIn

If you loved this podcast, you might like our interview with Lucinda Barlow, Head of International Marketing at Uber

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And just like that… 2023 is coming to a close! We hope everyone’s enjoying the Holiday season.

In our final episode for the year, we reflect on the best and most loved books, experiences, and habits and hacks we’re taking away from this year. We made a deliberate choice to focus on all things positive and constructive to help counter all the negative news in the world. We send our love and thoughts to anyone who’s doing it tough right now . . . it can be a difficult time for many people. 

In this episode you’ll hear about: 

• Our top fiction books as well as our favourite two non fiction books and why
• Our favourite podcast memories and experiences from the year 
• Cultural moments that really resonated with each of us; and 
• The top habits and hacks we’ve learnt (often from our guests) that have worked brilliantly for us. 

So as the final days for 2023 come to a close. We wish all of you a chance to rest and recuperate and all the very best for a happy, healthy and purposeful 2024. We’re taking the Australian summer to rest and relax so we'll be back in February. 

Happy Holidays and enjoy this unique ‘What we loved’ episode.

Useful Links:

WeAre8 app: Apple; Android 

Future Crunch’s end of 2023 newsletter

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman

Effortless by Greg McKeown

Don’t Stop Us Now! episodes we mention:

Amy Cuddy

Sue Fennessy 

Claire’s Eden Health Retreat

Abigail Bradshaw

Kerry James

Anna Rafferty 

Dr Selena Bartlett

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Our guest this week is someone who’s never been one to sit around and rest on her laurels. What’s more, Sarah Davis is not what you’d describe as your everyday lawyer.

Sarah’s high profile career in the UK has seen her garner much recognition for her legal career including being shortlisted for the Black British Business Awards and the UK’s Hot 100 Lawyers to name a few. 

London-based Sarah, has a broad non executive board career these days and also advises other organisations as a General Counsel. During her executive career she spent more than 15 years as General Counsel at The Guardian Media Group. That meant she was there in the thick of it when The Guardian was publishing the first Wikileaks stories, the Edward Snowdon stories, and of course so much more, which we’ll hear about. 

We think you can tell from Sarah’s Board career which includes Unicef UK and the Women’s Prize Trust (which awards the highly regarded Women's Prize for Fiction)  that Sarah has a huge heart and clearly a love of the written word.

In this episode you’ll hear more about Sarah’s love of books as well as:

• How she came to be a lawyer and what drew her to the Media
• How Sarah made a transition after nearly 17 years at one company
• The challenges she faced (& lessons learnt) when things just didn’t feel right whilst navigating her new role during lockdown
• How Sarah’s coped with the micro aggressions and slights she’s received during her career as a woman of colour; and 
• Her advice to others who are at the receiving end of similar behaviour.

There’s lots of great insights in this conversation so enjoy this episode with the warm and impact-focused Sarah Davis.

Useful Links

Unicef UK

Women's Prize for Fiction

RGSI - global think-tank for the legal industry 

International Catalogue Raisonné Association

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If you’re anything like us and fed up with all the bleak news, then this week’s episode may be just what you need; a guaranteed dose of positivity, progress and inspiration!

We're joined by the humble and impressive Dr Lineo Thahane. Lineo is a paediatrician and is Executive Director of a major medical clinic in the Kingdom of Lesotho called the Baylor College of Medicine Children's Foundation Lesotho. 

Lesotho, a tiny country in southern Africa, is ranked number two in terms of the countries with the highest proportion of its adult population living with HIV in the world. Nearly one in 4 adults is HIV positive and many children are too.

Lineo was born and raised in the US but her parents were both from Lesotho and so Lineo spent summer holidays back in Lesotho with her extended family. There, she was able to experience what it was like to live in her parents’ country of birth and, as she grew older, she felt a deep sense of unfairness at the differences in the standard of living in the US versus that of Lesotho. 

As you will hear, this convinced Lineo to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become a doctor so that she could return to Lesotho and help make a difference to the quality of healthcare the average person could receive there. 

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How nearly 10% of Lesotho’s children are orphans
• How Lineo stays positive despite the sometimes confronting experiences and challenges she has faced treating sick babies and children 
• Why she continues to work in Lesotho when she could be living comfortably in the US,
• And what Lineo has learnt about the challenges of transitioning from being a specialist doctor to becoming a leader of a large organisation with nearly 800 employees. 

This is a fascinating, moving and uplifting conversation. Don’t miss this episode with the compassionate and dedicated Dr Lineo Thahane. 

Useful Links:

Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation website

Texas Children's Global Health - Lesotho

World AIDS Day 2023

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We’re super excited this week to share a conversation with the globally known best selling author, TED speaker, social psychologist, and incredible roller skater, Amy Cuddy. 

Amy’s TED talk on body language, the benefits of power poses and holding an expansive body posture is the second most viewed TED talk of all time. 

In this special episode where Greta met with Amy in Sydney, they focus on the work and writing that has kept Amy busy since she shot to fame with her TED talk and her follow-on best selling book on body language and power called: ‘Presence: Bringing your boldest self to your biggest challenges’.  

Amy’s new work is all about bullying, particularly bullying in the workplace. This is something Amy unfortunately has had some pretty extreme first hand experience with. 

Amy’s new book on dealing with bullying will be released next year (Bullies, Bystanders, and Bravehearts) and in this episode we’re super fortunate to get a sneak preview of some of her well-researched advice on dealing with bullies. 

Plus on a much lighter note, Greta and Amy compare notes on ballet and roller skating too! 

In this fascinating episode you’ll hear so many nuggets and stories including: 

• How Amy isn’t letting a broken jaw stop her
• How common workplace bullying is
• What to do if you are being bullied
• And why the chance to roller skate everyday makes Amy that much more creative in her work. 

Don’t miss this conversation with the unique, brave and insightful, Amy Cuddy. 

Useful Links

Amy Cuddy’s website

Amy on LinkedIn

Amy on Instagram

Amy’s iconic TED talk

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Burning Out? Top Tips from Claire’s Health ‘Intervention’

Feeling burnt out? Wondering how you’ll get to the end of the year? Well that’s exactly how Claire was feeling a few weeks ago. . . until she decided an intervention was needed. 

A gruelling work schedule for ten months plus a second bout of Covid earlier this year left Claire wondering if she’d ever feel 100% again. So, realising she had a short window of time, she did what any self-respecting woman lucky enough to be in a position to do: she booked herself into a health retreat! 

The good news is that you don’t have to go anywhere to learn what Claire learnt during her retreat because we’re sharing all the goodies here. 

In this episode you’ll hear:

• What made Claire choose the retreat she did
• The massive insight she had about her behaviours in the past two years 
• How she survived without her mobile or wifi 
• Fun facts about the gut, and 
• Her key takeaway habits and rituals - that you can easily do too. 

Plus you’ll hear why you should think of your body (not your bank balance) as your retirement fund. 

Suffice to say we had a lot of fun talking about Claire’s week away and we think you’ll have fun listening too. Plus, your body may well thank you for it. 

You’re welcome! ;-)

Useful Links:

Eden Health Retreat

Elise de Giovanni - Functional Neurology Tops - her website has lots of great tips and videos

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If you’re thinking the title of this week’s episode sounds distinctly like it’s describing modern day espionage and intelligence agencies you would be right! 

We are super excited to share this exclusive conversation with Cyber Security leader, Abigail Bradshaw. Abi is Head of the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) which is part of the national Foreign Intelligence agency known as the Australian Signals Directorate. 

Abi describes her job as “revealing other peoples’ secrets whilst protecting our own”. The agency she heads, the ACSC, is tasked with protecting Australia’s communications and technology networks, and all Australians, from malicious cyber activity. That includes threats from both sovereign nations and cyber criminals.

Suffice to say, Abi is a very busy person! 

Abi has had a fascinating career and is passionate about serving her country. She’s also really passionate about seeing more women in leadership roles and is proud of the number of women who are working with her at the agency. 

In this episode you’ll hear: 

• How Abi’s career journey took her from being a lawyer in the Navy to a key role in an intelligence agency
• Why Abi realised she had to change her leadership style significantly when she started her current role, 
• The pros and cons of having to lock your mobile away all day; and
• Her seriously informed tips of how we can all protect ourselves from cyber crime. 

This really is a special episode so synchronise watches, put your phones on silent, and enjoy this conversation with the dynamic and patriotic Abigail Bradshaw.

Useful Links

Australian Signals Directorate website  

Australian Cyber Security Centre website

Free cyber advice 

Link to TAFE Cyber Essential 8 course 

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We’ve all been there, sitting in that meeting trying to get our point across and becoming infuriated because someone we work with repeatedly ignores what we say in meetings. 

Being heard at work isn’t as simple as just speaking up. Research shows that particularly if you’re a woman or a minority it’s harder to have your ideas, your comments and contributions acknowledged and accepted.

But there are things we can do to help overcome the challenges we sometimes face and in this episode Claire and Greta take you through numerous ways you can improve your influence at work and ensure your messages and communications are landing as well as they can. 

They look at tactics and tools you can use before, during and after important meetings, plus share stories from some of the most senior guests we’ve had on the show including a member of the House of Lords in the UK and the President of a large global health business.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• When, and with whom, Claire typically finds it difficult to be heard 
• How to piggyback off someone else in a meeting when you’re having trouble finding the moment to speak
• Why you have to stand up for yourself
• And, an important meeting tactic everyone should use. 

This episode is jam packed with tips and tools that can help us all increase our influence, and that we use regularly. If you know someone who’s complained of not being heard at work then why not share this episode with them as well. 

Enjoy!

Useful Links

Martha Lane Fox episode   

Que Dallara episode

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Our guest on the show this week is Anna Rafferty who runs a global team of more than a thousand people at Lego, the company with play at the heart of its DNA. 

Based in London, Anna and her large team oversee Lego’s consumer relationships including digital and social engagement, apps, websites, memberships, magazines, community management, digital safety, and events. Phew! 

Anna’s had a remarkable career journey starting out of university with early dotcom ‘rocket ship’ Last Minute.com, where she worked for one of our former guests, Martha Lane Fox.

Her career has also seen her work with Penguin Books, the BBC and blockbuster author JK Rowling’s company, Pottermore. To this day she retains her links to the publishing world as Chair of the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Suffice to say, Anna is one busy woman! 

In this episode you’ll hear how:

• She had a career epiphany at 23 years of age
• What working for author JK Rowling was like
• How one question helped her deal with overwhelm; and  
• The 3 behaviours that Lego values most in its leaders.

Anna’s worked with some truly amazing brands and organisations in her career to date so we think you’ll love hearing more about her impressive journey. Enjoy this episode with the passionate and playful Anna Rafferty.  

Links

www.Lego.com

Women’s Prize for Fiction

Anna on LinkedIn

For Anna's Book Recommendations - go to our episode webpage and scroll down ....there are some fantastic recommendations here and we hope you enjoy them!

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