In this episode Kate speaks with Australian author, editor and climate activist, Sophie Cunningham, about her career spanning editing, publishing, industry advocacy and the writing of novels, essays and other non-fiction works.  



Cunningham's latest novel is This Devastating Fever, published in 2022 by Ultimo Press and she discusses its long road from genesis to finished product. The conversation also covers how and why Cunningham writers about the climate crisis, her love of walking and drawing (especially trees) and why she loves debut novels.



Check out show notes for this episode on our website www.thefirsttimepodcast.com or get in touch via Twitter (@thefirsttimepod) or Instagram (@thefirsttimepod).



Don't forget you can support us and the making of Season Five via our Patreon page. Thanks for joining us!

S5 Ep181: Masters Series: Sophie Cunningham

A podcast about the first time…you publish a book.

One part reality show, one part writers’ master class. Novelists Katherine Collette (https://www.katherinecollette.com/) (The Helpline, The Competition) and Kate Mildenhall (https://katemildenhall.com/) (Skylarking, The Mother Fault, The Hummingbird Effect) discuss the feels and logistics of writing and publishing and speak to Australian and international writers about their books and creative process.

Now in its sixth season, The First Time podcast has features more than 200 authors including industry icons Helen Garner, Claire G Coleman, Christos Tsiolkas, Tony Birch, Sarah Winman and George Saunders.

The First Time Podcast includes Featured Book segments supported by a range of Australian publishers.

Society & Culture

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Philosophy

Places & Travel

Arts

Literature

Performing Arts

Design

Food

Fashion & Beauty

Visual Arts

Books

This episode of The Next Step is with Nat Kringoudis. It’s the episode where Katherine FINALLY gets to talk about both ice baths and fasting. Fasting can be problematic for some people so if you feel like food restriction discussions are triggering, maybe sit this one out.

 

Nat Kringoudis is a health care practitioner, she’s also a two times best selling author, Speaker and all-round natural fertility expert.  She’s the founder of Melbourne women’s health clinic, The Pagoda Tree and host of The Wellness Collective podcast. 



Nat is one of those people that’s consistently ahead of the curve. She does a lot of self-experimentation when it comes to health (as discussed in this episode) and has a huge following on social media – if you’re an Instagram person definitely follow her. In addition to health stuff, Nat also talks about how she's built an audience and  businesses around that audience.  



Check out show notes for this episode at katherinecollette.com, subscribe via your podcast app or get in touch via Instagram @katherinecollettewriter.

S6 Ep273: Interview: Nat Kringoudis (The Next Step)

Laurie Kilmartin is a stand-up comedian and an Emmy-nominated and award-winning comedy writer. She was a staff writer for all 11 years of CONAN and has performed standup on CONAN, Late Late Show w/James Corden, and Comedy Central. 



Laurie Kilmartin is also on Twitter. A lot of people are on Twitter or have been on Twitter, but she’s the kind of tweeter that makes you wish Twitter was still a thing . For example, she life tweeted her dad’s death in a way that was both heart wrenching and hilarious. 



In addition to being very, very funny, Laurie is super candid in this episode about the reality of making a living as a comedian. Her newest special, “Cis Woke Grief Slut,” is currently available in Australia via Tubi.  



Check out show notes for this episode at katherinecollette.com, subscribe via your podcast app or get in touch via Instagram @katherinecollettewriter.

S6 Ep272: Interview: Comedian Laurie Kilmartin (The Next Step)

Sarah Pound is the creator of @wholesomebysarah. You’ve probably heard of her before, you may also have cooked her food. Sarah shares easy weeknight recipes on Insta where she a cult following of more than 700,000 people. You can also get Sarah’s meal kids in Woolworths around the country. 



Sarah recently released her first cookbook also called ‘Wholesome by Sarah’. When pre-orders of her cookbook were announced to her within hours it was the #1 bestselling on Amazon Australia. It stayed in the #1 spot for more than a week. It went through multiple re-prints before it was even released, a pretty incredible achievement! 



Sarah and Katherine talk about bouncing back from failure, growing her following on social media and how sometimes she wishes her passion (i.e. cooking) didn't correlate so much with traditional gender roles.  



Check out show notes for this episode at katherinecollette.com, subscribe via your podcast app or get in touch via Instagram @katherinecollettewriter.



 This episode of The Next Step is sponsored by Fremantle Press and How to Avoid a Happy Life by Julia Lawrinson.   






S6 Ep271: Interview: Cookbook author and entrepreneur Sarah Pound

Have you ever wanted to own your own business but not known where to begin? Like, literally all you know is that you WANT a business and nothing else? This interview with coach and entrepreneur Luisa Zhou is for you.



Luisa Zhou is the founder of LuisaZhou.com, which teaches people how to go from employee to entrepreneur, and scale their businesses to 6- and 7-figures. She’s helped thousands of people make their first $10K to $100K in less than a year.



Luisa has appeared in numerous online and print publications including Forbes, Business Insider, Money, Inc, Entrepreneur, Success magazine, and more.



In this interview, Katherine mentions the content Luisa puts out for free via her YouTube channel – if you're keen to explore that, here are some places to start: 







Starting your coaching business in less than 24 hours (YouTube)

How to put together your first coaching package (YouTube)

All you need is this one sentence marketing plan (YouTube)

Books mentioned:


Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz

Think and Grow Rich (mentioned in the context of auto-suggestion) by Napoleon Hill

Show notes for this episode are available at katherinecollette.com.

 

You can subscribe to The Next Step / The First Time via your podcast app and if you like what you hear, please leave a review! If you don't like what you hear, recommend us to someone you hate.  

 

Get  in touch via Instagram @katherinecollettewriter. 



This episode is sponsored by Fremantle Press and the book People Want to Shoot Me by Wayne Bergmann and Madelaine Dickie.  






S6 Ep270: HOW TO GROW YOUR OWN BUSINESS (FROM SCRATCH) Interview: Luisa Zhou (The Next Step)

Brigid Delaney is currently a political speechwriter. She was a journalist for The Guardian, and wrote popular weekly column, 'Brigid Delaney's Diary',’ which we little a little about in this interview. She wrote that column for eight years. It is so good. Like unbelievably and consistently funny, it’s stood the test of time. Read the cheese story and the mansion story mentioned in the episode—they’re incredible!  



Brigid also wrote Wellmania, the book that the Netflix series is based. But the main thing that Katherine and Brigid talk a lot in this interview about is stoicism, which is the focus of her most recent book, Reasons Not to Worry. 



Katherine has wanted to speak to Brigid about stoicism for a long time. Brigid wrote an article about stoicism when COVID first started, and it felt like it offered a sort of solace that wasn’t anywhere else. The concepts are so useful, particularly for creatives and people putting art/writing into the world. 



Check out show notes for this episode at katherinecollette.com, subscribe via your podcast app or get in touch via Instagram @katherinecollettewriter.



This episode is sponsored by Fremantle Press and Marie O'Rourke's book 'Kintsugi'. 

S5 Ep181: Masters Series: Sophie Cunningham

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