MULTIPLE HATS: STEM Careers | Reinvention | Entrepreneurship |Thought Leadership

You have promising science. But is there actually a commercial opportunity behind it?

And if you’re considering moving from scientist to entrepreneur, how do you know whether your research has the ingredients for a biotech company?

Dr Laura Issa has spent years evaluating science through an industry and business development lens.

She is the founder of Bespoke Genetic Medicines and co-founder of Facio Biotech, with experience across pharma, biotech, research commercialisation and rare disease.

In this conversation, Laura gives us a practical framework for assessing the commercial potential of scientific research.

We start with what she looks for when academics pitch their research to industry. Good science alone isn’t enough.

Researchers need to understand what makes their approach meaningfully different, the competitive landscape, their intellectual property strategy and the evidence required to support their claims.

We also discuss when to seek industry feedback, why talking to patients, clinicians and payers early can change your research strategy, and when market research should begin. Spoiler: probably earlier than many scientists think.

Then we tackle the biotech spin-out question.

Laura shares five factors she considers when assessing whether academic research could become a viable biotech company, including unmet need, intellectual property, capital requirements, stage of development and the people needed to take it forward.

And importantly, starting a company isn’t automatically the answer. Sometimes licensing, partnering with industry or remaining in academia longer is the better development strategy.

We also explore why Laura remains optimistic about drug development in neurology despite its history of clinical failures, including the growing role of human-derived models, biomarkers, genomic and clinical datasets, and new approaches to generating evidence.

Finally, we move to a very different commercialisation problem: ultra-rare genetic disease.

Laura explains why conventional drug development economics can break down when a potential treatment may serve fewer than 100 people, and why these therapies may require completely different funding and development models.

In this episode:

• How to assess the commercial potential of academic research
• What industry looks for when scientists pitch a biotech opportunity
• Differentiation, competitive landscape and IP strategy
• When scientists should seek feedback from industry
• Why patient, clinician and payer insights matter early
• Five factors to consider before creating a biotech spin-out
• When licensing or partnering may make more sense than starting a company
• Balancing patents, publication and academic incentives
• Why drug development in neurology may be entering a different era
• The challenge of developing treatments for ultra-rare genetic diseases
• Why patient need and commercial viability are not always the same thing

This episode is Part 3 of a six-part series exploring the path from academic research to biotech and drug development, based on conversations from the 2026 Drug Discovery Forum in Sydney.

Across the series, scientists, biotech entrepreneurs, industry experts and technology transfer professionals unpack what it takes to move promising research beyond the lab and towards patients.

Want to craft a career story that opens doors?

I help STEMM professionals speak with clarity, confidence, and purpose and show up as thought leaders —so the right opportunities find you.

📬 Let’s connect: angeliquegreco.com.au | LinkedIn 

⭐️ Help More People Reinvent Their Careers

If you enjoyed this episode, please:

• ✅ Leave a quick ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 🙏
• ♻️ Share it with a friend who's questioning their path in STEM

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What happens when scientists stop presenting their research to other scientists and put it in front of biotech and drug development experts instead?

The questions change.

Suddenly it isn’t only, “Does the science work?”

It’s also: Who is the patient? What is the indication? What evidence do you need next? What could stop this programme? Who needs to partner with you? And what would a credible path to the clinic actually look like?

In this episode, Professor Greg Neely and Dr Jean Bertoldo share what happened when they pitched their research to industry experts at the 2026 Drug Discovery Forum ( ARCS conference 2026)

Their projects are at very different stages.

Prof Greg Neely is combining established biology and delivery technologies to explore new neurological applications.

Dr. Jean Bertoldo is working much earlier, building evidence around new biology in childhood brain cancer.

Both walked away with questions that changed how they thought about their drug development roadmap.

We also speak with Dr Gorjana Mitic about technology transfer and the role tech transfer professionals can play in helping scientists move promising academic research towards licensing, partnering or a biotech spin-out.

Gorjana takes us behind the scenes of a tech transfer office, including why promising projects can get stuck, what technology transfer teams actually assess, and what scientists can do to make their research easier to champion.

You’ll hear about:

• How industry feedback can expose blind spots in a drug development plan
• Moving from an interesting scientific project to a credible path towards the clinic
• How scientists can think about indication selection and development strategy
• Why biotech development requires partners and capabilities beyond the academic lab
• What technology transfer offices actually do
• Why academics and tech transfer teams sometimes clash
• What makes academic research easier for a tech transfer team to champion
• How scientists can prepare for commercialisation, licensing or a biotech spin-out

This episode is Part 2 of a six-part series exploring the path from academic research to biotech and drug development, based on conversations from the 2026 Drug Discovery Forum in Sydney.

Across the series, we hear from scientists, biotech entrepreneurs, technology transfer professionals and industry experts about the decisions, evidence and people needed to give promising research its best chance of reaching patients.

Want to craft a career story that opens doors?

I help STEMM professionals speak with clarity, confidence, and purpose and show up as thought leaders —so the right opportunities find you.

📬 Let’s connect: angeliquegreco.com.au | LinkedIn 

⭐️ Help More People Reinvent Their Careers

If you enjoyed this episode, please:

• ✅ Leave a quick ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 🙏
• ♻️ Share it with a friend who's questioning their path in STEM

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Should your research become a medicine? And if it has commercial potential, should you be the scientist who takes it forward?

For academics considering the move from scientist to entrepreneur, that decision starts well before forming a biotech company.

In this episode, we explore how to assess academic research through a commercialisation and drug development lens. Professor Michael Kassiou, Dr Laura Issa and Dr Gorjana Mitic share what industry, investors and tech transfer teams look for when evaluating research with translational potential.

We discuss how an industry pitch differs from an academic presentation, when to seek industry feedback without compromising intellectual property, and the questions researchers need to answer around unmet need, differentiation, competitive landscape and IP.

We also look at a decision that is sometimes skipped entirely: does this research actually need a biotech spin-out?

Dr Laura Issa breaks down five factors to consider, including clinical need, intellectual property, capital requirements, stage of development and the people behind the project. We explore when staying within academia, licensing or partnering with industry may be a better route than starting a company.

You’ll hear about:

• How to assess whether academic research has commercial potential
• What biotech investors and industry experts want to understand beyond the science
• How to pitch research to industry rather than an academic audience
• When to seek industry feedback and how to protect your IP
• Why competitive landscape and differentiation matter early
• When a biotech spin-out makes sense, and when it doesn’t
• Licensing, partnering and other routes to research translation
• Why some important medicines may need philanthropic or alternative funding models

This episode is Part 1 of a six-part series exploring the path from academic research to biotech and drug development, based on conversations from the 2026 Drug Discovery Forum in Sydney, happening at the ARCS conference.

The series brings together scientists, biotech entrepreneurs, industry experts and technology transfer professionals to examine what it actually takes to move promising science towards patients.

Want to craft a career story that opens doors?

I help STEMM professionals speak with clarity, confidence, and purpose and show up as thought leaders —so the right opportunities find you.

📬 Let’s connect: angeliquegreco.com.au | LinkedIn 

⭐️ Help More People Reinvent Their Careers

If you enjoyed this episode, please:

• ✅ Leave a quick ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 🙏
• ♻️ Share it with a friend who's questioning their path in STEM

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A rapid-fire conversation on transferable STEM skills, working smarter, visibility and what is actually good enough to start.

What beliefs are quietly keeping STEM professionals stuck?

"I am just a scientist."

"I need to work harder."

"My work will speak for itself."

"I am not ready yet."

In this Fire Chat, Lauren Barber, nurse and founder of NeedleCalm, challenges some of the assumptions that can stop technical professionals from moving beyond the path they were trained for.

Lauren built a medtech company without starting with a business background. Her experience is a useful reminder that you do not need to know everything before you begin, but you do need enough energy and curiosity to keep taking the next right step.

🔍 What You'll Learn:

• Why your scientific or clinical expertise can be an advantage outside your traditional technical role.
• What "work smarter" can actually look like, including using AI as a thought and learning partner.
• Why done can be better than perfect when applying for grants, awards and opportunities.
• Why good work does not always speak for itself, and how word of mouth, networking and visibility help.
• What Lauren believes you really need before starting something new.
• 
  

Play this episode if you have been waiting for more skills, more money, more confidence or a perfect plan before making your next move.

🧠 About the Guest:

Lauren Barber is a registered nurse and founder and CEO of NeedleCalm, an Australian medical device company focused on reducing pain and anxiety during needle procedures.

After repeatedly seeing the impact of needle fear in clinical practice, Lauren developed NeedleCalm and has spent the past decade learning how to turn clinical insight into a commercial product.

📌 Episode Highlights:

00:00 The beliefs that can keep STEM professionals stuck

01:20 Meet Lauren Barber and NeedleCalm

02:40 The clinical experience that led her towards entrepreneurship

04:15 "I'm just a scientist", why technical skills do transfer

05:10 Working smarter instead of simply working harder

06:00 Using AI as a thought and learning partner

07:00 When done is better than perfect

07:40 Why your work will not always speak for itself

08:20 What is actually good enough to start

08:50 Taking the next right step

🔗 Resources Mentioned:

• NeedleCalm
• Claude
• Grants and founder awards
• Professional networking
• 
  

🤔 Reflection Time:

1. Which skill from your STEM background are you undervaluing because it feels ordinary to you?
2. Where are you working harder when a better tool, system or person could help you work smarter?
3. What could you start now if you stopped requiring yourself to know the whole path first?

Full interview:

🎧 https://shows.acast.com/multiple-hats/episodes/6a8114dbff328abd8407723c

Want to craft a career story that opens doors?

I help STEMM professionals speak with clarity, confidence, and purpose and show up as thought leaders —so the right opportunities find you.

📬 Let’s connect: angeliquegreco.com.au | LinkedIn 

⭐️ Help More People Reinvent Their Careers

If you enjoyed this episode, please:

• ✅ Leave a quick ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 🙏
• ♻️ Share it with a friend who's questioning their path in STEM

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How a nurse turned a recurring healthcare problem into NeedleCalm, and what ten years of building taught her about medtech entrepreneurship.

What happens when you keep seeing the same problem at work and decide to solve it yourself?

Lauren Barber spent years as a nurse watching patients struggle with needle fear, sometimes avoiding healthcare altogether. After a distressing procedure ended in a needle-stick injury for Lauren herself, she decided there had to be a better way.

That decision became NeedleCalm.

But the idea was the easy part.

Lauren had no business background and no commercialisation roadmap. Over the next ten years, she learned about patents, prototypes, grants, clinical trials, manufacturing, funding, procurement and one of the hardest parts of medtech, getting healthcare systems to adopt something new. fileciteturn0file0

🔍 What You'll Learn:

If you are a STEM professional sitting close to a problem you understand deeply, Lauren's story shows why that proximity can become a real entrepreneurial advantage.

You'll hear:

• How clinical experience helped Lauren identify a problem others had accepted as normal.
• What happens between an idea and a medical device reaching patients.
• Why proving that a product works is only part of the challenge, adoption, reimbursement and workflow matter too.
• How grants, the R&D Tax Incentive, clinical trials and early manufacturing helped move NeedleCalm forward.
• Why advice from well-meaning people is not always useful advice.

If you have ever looked at a problem in your lab, clinic or workplace and thought, "Someone should fix that", play this episode to see what taking the first step can actually look like.

🧠 About the Guest:

Lauren Barber is a registered nurse and founder and CEO of NeedleCalm, an Australian medical device company focused on reducing pain and anxiety during needle procedures.

She developed NeedleCalm after years of seeing the impact of needle fear on patients and has spent the past decade building the product while continuing to work clinically.

📌 Episode Highlights:

00:00 Why proximity to a problem can become an entrepreneurial advantage

03:20 What NeedleCalm is and why needle fear matters

07:15 The science behind the device

13:15 The needle-stick injury that changed everything

17:00 Starting with Google, a drawing and a provisional patent

21:30 Grants, prototypes and the first clinical trial

24:00 Learning the business side of medtech

28:30 R&D funding and manufacturing in Australia

30:00 Why product development is only half the challenge

33:00 Reimbursement, economics and healthcare adoption

38:15 The difficulty of scaling medtech in Australia

40:00 Ten years of sacrifice and founder burnout

42:00 What Lauren would do differently

43:00 Whose advice should you actually listen to?

45:00 Awards, self-nomination and running your own PR campaign

47:00 Why you do not need the whole plan before you start

🔗 Resources Mentioned:

• NeedleCalm
• NSW Minimum Viable Product Grant
• R&D Tax Incentive
• Radium Capital
• NDIS
• Diabetes Australia

🤔 Reflection Time:

1. What problem do you understand better than most because you see it repeatedly in your work?
2. Who are you taking advice from, and have they actually walked a similar path?
3. What is one small step you could take to test an idea instead of waiting until you feel ready?

Want to craft a career story that opens doors?

I help STEMM professionals speak with clarity, confidence, and purpose and show up as thought leaders —so the right opportunities find you.

📬 Let’s connect: angeliquegreco.com.au | LinkedIn 

⭐️ Help More People Reinvent Their Careers

If you enjoyed this episode, please:

• ✅ Leave a quick ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 🙏
• ♻️ Share it with a friend who's questioning their path in STEM

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if feeling restless in a perfectly respectable STEM career does not mean you chose the wrong path, but that too much of you has been left outside it?

🔍 What You'll Learn:

STEM careers tend to reward the rational, analytical and credible parts of us. After years of training, those qualities can become our whole professional identity, while the writer, artist, teacher, founder or curious beginner quietly waits in the background.

This episode explores how to make room for more of yourself without resigning dramatically by Tuesday.

• Recognise which parts of yourself have been rewarded, and which have been neglected because they did not fit the sensible career box.
• Identify three ways to expand your career: revive something that was always there, combine two existing strengths, or discover a new direction through experimentation.
• Choose one small action that gives an underused part of yourself room, without forcing it to become a job or business immediately.

Play this episode to identify which part of you needs more room and choose one concrete action you can take this week.

🧠 About the Guests:

Dr Anupama Hariharan began her career as a dentist before moving into clinical research. Writing had been part of her life since childhood, but she placed it on the back burner while building a serious STEM career. Once she returned to it, she wrote six books in about a year.

Dr Sue Pillans is a marine scientist, artist, children's author and graphic recorder. Through Picture Your Ideas, she combines science, strategic thinking and visual storytelling to help people understand complex information.

Dr Chloe Lim has a PhD in medical science and works in regulatory science. After volunteering to make balloon animals at a community event, she discovered an unexpected creative skill and built Twisty Science, using balloon art to explain scientific concepts to children and families.

📌 Episode Highlights:

00:00 When a sensible STEM career becomes the only version of you

03:35 What it means to contain multitudes

05:15 The psychology behind our many selves

08:00 Psychosynthesis, Voice Dialogue and Dialogical Self Theory

11:50 Anu's story: returning to the writer who was always there

16:40 The conversation with her mother that brought writing back

18:45 Completing a 21-day poetry challenge in eight days

21:20 Sue's story: building a bridge between science and art

25:15 Discovering that graphic recording was a real profession

26:45 How visual storytelling makes complex science understandable

29:40 Chloe's story: discovering a new direction by trying something unexpected

31:55 Turning balloon art into Twisty Science

34:20 Why some parts of yourself can only be discovered through experimentation

35:25 Three patterns: revive, combine or discover

37:30 Why every interest does not need to become a business

39:05 Finding the part of yourself that needs more room

40:30 One concrete act of permission to take this week

🔗 Resources Mentioned:

• Listen to Dr Anupama Hariharan: The Scientist and the Storyteller
• Listen to Dr Sue Pillans: Combining Marine Science, Art and Graphic Recording
• Listen to Dr Chloe Lim: Building a Portfolio Career in STEM
• Song of Myself by Walt Whitman
• The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown
• An introduction to Psychosynthesis
• Voice Dialogue and the Psychology of Selves
• The International Society for Dialogical Science
• What Makes You Unique by Dr Chloe Lim

🤔 Reflection Time:

1. Which part of you has been well rewarded by your STEM career, and which part has been left waiting outside the room?
2. Is the part asking for attention something you once loved, something you could combine with your scientific skills, or something you will only discover by trying?
3. What is one concrete act of permission you can give that part this week, without asking it to prove its commercial value?

Want to craft a career story that opens doors?

I help STEMM professionals speak with clarity, confidence, and purpose and show up as thought leaders —so the right opportunities find you.

📬 Let’s connect: angeliquegreco.com.au | LinkedIn 

⭐️ Help More People Reinvent Their Careers

If you enjoyed this episode, please:

• ✅ Leave a quick ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 🙏
• ♻️ Share it with a friend who's questioning their path in STEM

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A 10-minute Fire Chat on transferable STEM skills, perfectionism, working smarter and making space for creative work.

What if the biggest barrier to your next step is not a lack of time, money or skills, but the belief that you need more of all three before you can begin?

🔍 What You'll Learn:

Many STEM professionals assume their technical skills only matter inside their current field. Then they work longer, wait to feel ready and quietly hope their work will speak for itself. This episode challenges those assumptions.

• Recognise how analytical thinking, problem-solving and perseverance can transfer beyond the technical work you were trained to do.
• Stop confusing longer hours with better results, and put your effort into the action most likely to change the outcome.
• Use one small, finished action to test an idea, build confidence and move past perfectionism.
• 
  

Play this 10-minute episode to identify what is really holding you back and choose one practical step you can take this week.

🧠 About the Guest:

Dr Anupama Hariharan began her career as a dentist before moving into clinical research. Alongside her STEM career, she has become a published poet and fiction author.

In this Fire Chat, she explains how scientific discipline supports her creative work, why perfection is overrated and how completing an eight-day writing challenge gave her the confidence to publish her first book.

📌 Episode Highlights:

00:00 The beliefs that quietly hold scientists back

01:20 From dentistry and clinical research to becoming an author

01:45 The scientific skills that transfer beyond technical roles

02:20 What working smarter actually looks like

02:50 Why the book cover deserved focused attention

04:15 Is done really better than perfect?

05:00 What nature teaches us about beauty and imperfection

06:40 What is good enough to start?

07:40 Turning existing work into a practical first step

08:10 Completing a 21-day writing challenge in eight days

09:20 Facing rejection without giving away your creative voice

10:05 How science and creativity can strengthen each other

🔗 Resources Mentioned:

• Listen to the full conversation: The Scientist and the Storyteller
• The Sound of Your Name: Chiang Mai Saga by Dr Anupama Hariharan
• Explore Antoni Gaudi's architecture in Barcelona

🤔 Reflection Time:

1. Which ability do you dismiss as "just part of being a scientist", even though it could help you in a different role, business or creative project?
2. Where are you working longer because you have not decided which action will make the biggest difference?
3. What could you finish within the next eight days to prove to yourself that you are ready to begin?

Want to craft a career story that opens doors?

I help STEMM professionals speak with clarity, confidence, and purpose and show up as thought leaders —so the right opportunities find you.

📬 Let’s connect: angeliquegreco.com.au | LinkedIn 

⭐️ Help More People Reinvent Their Careers

If you enjoyed this episode, please:

• ✅ Leave a quick ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 🙏
• ♻️ Share it with a friend who's questioning their path in STEM

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if your scientific career and your creative life were never competing identities?

What if one could make the other stronger?

Dr. Anupama Hariharan has built a long career across dentistry and clinical research. She is also a published poet and fiction author.

For years, the writer in her stayed mostly in the background. Not because the talent was missing, but because the scientific path looked safer, more serious and easier to explain.

Once she gave that creative identity a real place in her life, everything shifted.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why being analytical does not make you less creative
• How scientific skills such as research, structure, discipline and project thinking can support creative work
• How to stop treating your creative identity as less legitimate than your professional one
• Why you do not need to leave your career to take another part of yourself seriously
• How grief, frustration and difficult experiences can be channelled into meaningful work
• What can happen when you stop waiting for permission and give an idea a proper chance
• Why creativity still needs strategy, visibility and commercial thinking if you want the work to reach people
• How small acts of confidence create evidence that you are capable of more

Anu’s story is not about abandoning science to become an author.

It is about recognising that the scientist and the storyteller can exist in the same person.

Your creative side is not necessarily a distraction from your serious career. It may be the part of you that brings back energy, perspective and a stronger sense of self.

The question is not always, "Which identity should I choose?"

Sometimes the better question is, "Which part of me have I kept hidden because it did not look sensible enough on paper?"

Want to craft a career story that opens doors?

I help STEMM professionals speak with clarity, confidence, and purpose and show up as thought leaders —so the right opportunities find you.

📬 Let’s connect: angeliquegreco.com.au | LinkedIn 

⭐️ Help More People Reinvent Their Careers

If you enjoyed this episode, please:

• ✅ Leave a quick ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 🙏
• ♻️ Share it with a friend who's questioning their path in STEM

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens when “there has to be more than this” becomes the start of a completely different career.

🔍 What You’ll Learn:

Many STEM professionals assume career reinvention starts with a perfect plan, a business idea, or a dramatic leap.

The reality is usually much messier.

In this episode, Rachel Service shares how a period of burnout and depression eventually led her to build a multi-million dollar training business, despite having no business plan, no roadmap, and no idea what “corporate rates” even meant when she got her first client. 

You’ll discover:

• How to recognise when you’ve outgrown a version of your life and what to do about it
• Why you don’t need the full picture before taking your first step toward a new career or business
• Practical ways to build momentum, find your first opportunities, and test ideas without taking reckless risks
• 
  

If you’ve been sitting on an idea, craving something more, or wondering whether you could build a different future, this episode will give you permission to start before you’re ready.

🧠 About the Guest:

Rachel Service is the founder and CEO of Happiness Concierge, a workplace training company that has worked with more than 200 organisations and trained thousands of employees and leaders. After experiencing burnout, anxiety, and depression, Rachel slowly rebuilt her life, eventually creating a business that allows her to work on her own terms while helping others create healthier workplaces. 

📌 Episode Highlights:

00:00 The moment “there has to be more” becomes impossible to ignore

03:00 Burnout, depression, and crying through a Beyoncé concert

04:30 Why Rachel called her business Happiness Concierge

06:30 Starting without a master plan and following curiosity instead

07:30 The power of nurturing an alternative reality before taking action

08:30 How Rachel discovered she wanted to become a speaker

09:00 The first free talk that unexpectedly led to paid work

10:30 Building momentum through visibility and borrowing audiences

12:00 Why nobody is waiting to discover you

14:00 Working for free, building credibility, and finding your first customers

16:00 Different pathways to entrepreneurship depending on your risk profile

18:30 How to handle family members who don’t understand your ambitions

22:00 Why people struggle to imagine future versions of you

25:00 Rachel’s biggest business mistakes and lessons learned

27:00 The role of tiny experiments in career reinvention

🔗 Resources Mentioned:

• There Has To Be More by Rachel Service
• Squarespace
• Beyoncé
• 
  

🤔 Reflection Time:

1. What is the “there has to be more” feeling trying to tell you right now?
2. If you removed the pressure of having the perfect plan, what tiny experiment could you run this month?
3. Are you seeking advice from people who have actually walked the path you want to take, or only from people who understand your current path?

One idea from Rachel that stayed with me:

“Show them because they can’t imagine.”

People cannot support, hire, promote, or buy from a version of you they’ve never seen before. Sometimes the next step isn’t becoming something new. It’s giving people evidence that you’re already becoming it. 

This is ultimately an episode about permission. Permission to explore. Permission to test. Permission to imagine a different future before you know exactly how you’ll get there. 

Want to craft a career story that opens doors?

I help STEMM professionals speak with clarity, confidence, and purpose and show up as thought leaders —so the right opportunities find you.

📬 Let’s connect: angeliquegreco.com.au | LinkedIn 

⭐️ Help More People Reinvent Their Careers

If you enjoyed this episode, please:

• ✅ Leave a quick ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 🙏
• ♻️ Share it with a friend who's questioning their path in STEM

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if the biggest thing holding your career back isn’t a lack of skills, experience, or opportunity, but a belief you’ve been carrying for years?

🔍 What You’ll Learn:

Many STEM professionals underestimate the value of their skills, overestimate the need for perfection, and assume hard work alone will create opportunities.

In this quick-fire episode, Rachel Service tackles four common beliefs that keep scientists playing small and offers practical ways to think differently.

You’ll discover:

• Why your scientific training gives you highly transferable skills that employers desperately need
• Why working hard stops being enough as your career progresses, and what replaces it
• How perfectionism disguises itself as professionalism and keeps talented people stuck

If you’ve ever thought “I’m just a scientist”, “I’m not ready”, or “I just need to work harder”, this episode will challenge those assumptions in under 10 minutes.

🧠 About the Guest:

Rachel Service is the founder and CEO of Happiness Concierge, a workplace training company that has worked with more than 200 organisations. Following her own experience with burnout and depression, Rachel built a business helping people improve communication, leadership, workplace culture, and career satisfaction. 

📌 Episode Highlights:

00:00 The beliefs that quietly hold STEM professionals back

02:30 Rachel’s accidental entrepreneurship story and the burnout that started it all

03:15 “I’m just a scientist” and why that’s completely wrong

04:00 The scientific skills that transfer into almost any career

04:30 Does your work really speak for itself?

05:00 Why career growth eventually becomes a PR campaign

05:30 Done versus perfect, and the real fear underneath perfectionism

06:45 The question to ask when you think you don’t have enough time, money, or resources

🔗 Resources Mentioned:

• There Has To Be More by Rachel Service
• Previous long-form episode with Rachel Service on motivation and the “whinge phase”
• 
  

🤔 Reflection Time:

1. Which belief have you been carrying: “I’m just a scientist”, “I need to work harder”, “My work speaks for itself”, or “I’m not ready yet”?
2. What skill do you use every day that you underestimate because it comes naturally to you?
3. What’s one small action you could take this week if you stopped waiting to feel completely ready?

One of my favourite insights from Rachel was this:

“It’s not about being perfect. It’s about learning to live with the idea that someone might see your incompetence.” 

That’s uncomfortable. But it’s also where growth starts.

Want to craft a career story that opens doors?

I help STEMM professionals speak with clarity, confidence, and purpose and show up as thought leaders —so the right opportunities find you.

📬 Let’s connect: angeliquegreco.com.au | LinkedIn 

⭐️ Help More People Reinvent Their Careers

If you enjoyed this episode, please:

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