Off Script, On Brand

Today I'm chatting with Nic Everist. Nic is a landscape artist based in Ocean Grove, Victoria, whose work is deeply rooted in her relationship with the natural world. 

She has a new collection out called "Life Through Trees", which is her biggest and most personal body of work to date. I had the pleasure of photographing her and all the pieces before the exhibition opening over the weekend, and they are magnificent. 

You’ll hear all about the collection, along with the behind-the-scenes story of how she created it over the course of a year, in this episode.

We also chat about: 

• How connecting with art led her to quit her physio job later and pursue painting full time
• Building an art career from scratch, without knowing any other artists or having a roadmap to follow
• Overcoming the fear of putting herself out there and connecting her name and face to her artwork
• Her fear of failure and never feeling “cool” enough to be an artist
• Seeing herself as a creative conduit and why showing up consistently is an important part of being an artist
• Navigating motherhood, the fear of losing career momentum and how her creative energy shifted between having her first and second child
• How storytelling has become central to her latest collection, and how she uses nature to help make sense of her own experiences
• How her definition of success has evolved from personal achievement to the impact she makes and the connections she creates

Follow Nic 

Website: https://www.niceverist.com. 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nic_everist_art/
Exhibition from November 7th-November 15th at Barwon Heads Arts Council https://bhac.org.au/blog/2026/11/04/life-through-trees-nic-everist-solo-exhibition/

Welcome to episode 22! This episode is a little different! Instead of our usual interview format, my friend Stepha Stock and I are swapping the interviewer and guest roles for a good ol fashioned catch-up. As photographers and multi-passionate creatives, we're asking each other questions, sharing our experiences and getting into the things that make us feel creatively alive. 

Stepha is a portrait and commercial photographer based in Meanjin/Brisbane, creating bold, boundary-pushing work for brands, businesses and the creative industries. Her signature everyday editorial style captures both the moment and the moments in between.

A creative wildcard in every sense, Stepha wears many hats: creative director, model, DJ, speaker and content creator. At the heart of her work is a personal mission to honour her angel mum, Coleen, by encouraging people to express themselves, embrace who they are and get in the photo.

In this episode, we chat about:

• How we expressed our creativity before it became our jobs
• Our journeys to picking up a camera and teaching ourselves photography
• Feeling unqualified for opportunities and learning to go for them anyway
• Why we love the in-between moments just as much as the hero shots
• Being multi-passionate and finding ways to show all sides of ourselves
• Our tendency to overproduce content, make everything aesthetically pleasing and why sometimes the simplest share has the biggest impact
• The cycles of creativity and why we need time to pull back, reset and regroup
• Making slow art for the sake of artistic expression, especially in an era of AI
• When we feel most creatively alive
• The dream projects we want to bring to life

Follow Stepha: 

www.lovestepha.com

www.instagram.com/lovestepha

www.tiktok.com/@lovestepha_

Welcome to episode 21 of Off Script, On Brand. Today we're chatting about all things brand building and marketing with Britt Austin. 

Britt is a brand marketing leader, strategist and founder of STATE OF BRAND. She has over a decade of experience building and growing brands including Apple, PUMA, EA Sports, and WHO IS ELIJIAH. 

Today, Britt works with founders as a strategic marketing partner and fractional CMO, helping them sharpen their brand positioning, build smarter marketing strategies and connect with the right people.

 She believes strong brands aren’t built by trying to be everything to everyone, but by being unmistakably for their people.

In this episode, we chat about:

• What working with iconic brands taught her about building a memorable brand
• The morning she quit her job and how she was booked out just days later
• Learning to say no, set boundaries and protect her time
• Why she struggles to take her own advice and be her own client
• How silence and switching to DND help spark her best creative ideas
• What most brands are missing and how to fix it
• Why founder-led content matters for brand growth
• AI, marketing and copywriting: the tools worth knowing about
• Why relying on ChatGPT for your marketing strategy is a huge mistake
• How founders can create new revenue streams beyond their existing services

What if the answer to growing your brand isn’t more content, more marketing tactics or another AI tool? Britt challenges some of the common approaches to marketing and explores what really makes a brand stand out.

 Follow Britt: 

Website: https://www.statesofbrand.com

IG:  https://www.instagram.com/stateofbrand.co/ & https://www.instagram.com/brittaustin/

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/brittanymayaustin

Kimmy Hogan is an Australian artist whose work is inspired by a lifelong love of nature, colour and the beautiful unpredictability of the creative process.

Working from her studio in Geelong, Victoria, Kimmy creates expressive botanical artworks filled with loose forms, layered textures and warm, dreamy colour. Her practice is intuitive and playful, often beginning with little more than a sketch, a flower or an idea and evolving through experimentation with different mediums and applications.

In this episode, we chat about:

• Growing up in a small rural town, where everyone knows your business, and how that shaped Kimmy’s relationship with people-pleasing and worrying about what others think
• Moving from Townsville to Melbourne and how stepping outside her familiar environment opened up her world and expanded what felt possible
• Spending 10 years in the corporate world before giving digital art a go
• Deciding to pour more energy into her art after having her second child, and backing herself creatively
• Balancing her systems-loving, perfectionist brain with the freedom to experiment, play, and figure things out as she goes
• The spiritual journey that’s helped her unpack people-pleasing, release perfectionist tendencies, and get more comfortable with who she really is
• The ongoing process of discovering what she loves, what matters to her, and what feels authentic
• Receiving an ADHD diagnosis later in life, finding self-compassion through understanding her patterns, and learning to accept them while leaning into her strengths

If you’ve ever held yourself back because you were worried about what other people would say, struggled to give yourself permission to try something new, or found yourself questioning who you are beneath everyone else’s expectations, this episode is for you.

www.kimmyhogan.com.au

https://www.instagram.com/kimmyhogan/

Big thanks to Elise from Evolving Wellness for sponsoring today’s episode!

Elise is a Kinesiologist who blends Eastern and Western practices to support your physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. I know so many women in my community, especially those building businesses, are navigating stress, burnout and big life changes. Elise offers a supportive, non-judgemental space where you can slow down, feel heard and work through what’s coming up for you.

You can visit evolvingwellness.com.au or find her on Instagram at @e.volvingwellnessto book a 10-minute discovery call or Kinesiology session.

And as a listener of Off Script, On Brand, you’ll receive $30 off your first booking. Just mention you heard about Elise through the podcast when booking.

Abbey Naylor is the founder of Bold Mood, where she helps founders and creators build personal brands on LinkedIn. She’s grown a company page from 6,000 to 23,000 followers, built a six-figure business through content and community, and coached more than 100 founders and creators to do the same.

Her philosophy? Depth over going viral. Point of view over performance. And using LinkedIn to build a personal brand that opens doors and brings opportunities your way.

In this episode, we chat about:

• How Abbey’s career path took a few unexpected turns
• Her twenties as a character-building decade, the lessons she learned, and everything she had to unlearn along the way
• Her love story with LinkedIn and why she chose it as the place to build her personal brand
• How she helped a leadership team grow their LinkedIn page from 6K to 23K followers through personal branding and employee advocacy
• Starting Bold Mood as a side gig, backing herself, and turning it into a six-figure business in just a year
• The unexpected opportunities LinkedIn has brought her, and her advice for anyone looking to build their presence on the platform today
• Why she prioritises depth over going viral and point of view over performance, especially in a world where everyone is chasing trends

If you’ve been LinkedIn-curious, wondering how to show up on the platform, or ready to start building a presence that actually opens doors for your business, this episode is for you. 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abbey-naylor/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_boldmood/ 

Email list: https://lnkd.in/gNN6fW-K 

Peta Serras is the founder of Professional Babe, the creator of Give Good Email® and the host of the business podcast, The Business Fondle.

With almost two decades of entrepreneurial experience in the bag and all her Virgo wisdom, she’s been described as a business oracle and the go-to for practical and bold business advisory.

In this episode, we chat about:

• Her love of glamour from an early age and how her dad’s advertising agency influenced it
• Growing up in rural NSW and sometimes feeling like she was “too much”
• The business switch: how she showed up in her first business as a Pilates teacher, and how much she was performing. 
• Starting Professional Babe as a blog and creative outlet, where she had the freedom to do and say whatever she wanted
• The job that ended before it even started, after something she wore was seen as “not family-friendly” 
• What she delegates now — and what she’d love to hand over in the future
• Why identity purchases are so important to her, and the purchases that have helped affirm who she’s becoming
• Her take on imposter syndrome — and why she thinks we’re often mistaking it for something else entirely (like nerves)
• How she handles feedback, criticism and other people’s opinions

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/professionalbabe/

Website: https://www.professionalbabe.com/

Kim James pitched her way into her first content marketing role at 24 for one of Australia’s biggest brands. Over the next decade, she worked across corporate brands, government and startups. She’s also an international industry speaker, working with Startmate, RMIT University and the Singapore Government.

We talk about her journey from the corporate world to building her own tech company, the ego and identity death that had to happen along the way, and what those first few years of building a business have actually looked like.

In this episode: 

• Why walking away from a career with massive potential became the right decision for her.
• The reality behind the beautiful facade of entrepreneurship, and how the online version of business can make building something of your own look easier than it actually is.
• Why she works in 90-day sprints, how the 12 Week Year helps her focus, and why thinking in shorter timeframes has changed the way she builds and scales.
• The sacrifices creating her own business has required of her over the last 2 years
• Her thoughts on why women don't have a capability ceiling, but a visibility ceiling.
• Getting more comfortable with visibility, selling and rejection.
• The people Kim chooses to surround herself with, and why having ambitious, driven people around you matters when you have big goals. 

Follow Kim: 

Website: https://buildwedge.com/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-elizabeth-james

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildwedge/

Suz Chadwick has spent more than 20 years in sales, marketing and branding, and in this episode, she’s sharing the knowledge and big lessons she's learned along the way.

We talk about how personal brands are changing, what actually moves the needle when you’re already an expert, and the mindset shifts you need to grow.

In this chat: 

• How Suz was subconsciously building her personal brand from 19, long before she had a name for it.
• Building a personal brand from scratch — including the power of a borrowed audience and the conference that helped establish Suz in the industry.
• How personal branding has evolved — and why Suz believes we’re entering an era of the anti-expert personal brand.
• The gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it — especially when you’re already an expert in your field.
• What happened when Suz went from $100K months to stepping away from the systems that had helped create that success.
• The story she was telling herself in 2023 — and how that narrative pulled her away from the momentum she’d built.
• Relevance, visibility, ageing, and the fear of becoming invisible — plus why Suz is leaning further into the woo, not just the do.
  

With 20+ years in sales, marketing, and branding, she's the founder of Personal Brand Agency, Bold Vibes Consulting, author of Play Big, Brand Bold, and host of the Brand Builders Lab podcast. Suz specialises in helping ambitious women build magnetic brands that attract dream clients and create profitable businesses.

https://suzchadwick.com/

https://www.instagram.com/suzchadwick/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzannechadwick/

Today’s interview is with Clare Reilly - she’s an adventurer, podcast host, disability advocate, and likes doing things that people say she shouldn't be able to do.

Clare lives with multiple sclerosis (MS), but she refuses to let that define the limits of her life. Instead, she’s encouraging others to embrace micro adventures and sharing the realities of living with MS with honesty, humour, and hope.

In this conversation, we explore Clare's journey from receiving her MS diagnosis to becoming the first person to traverse the Munda Biddi Trail, the world's longest off-road cycling route in Western Australia, using a wheelchair.

We also chat about:

• Clare's life before multiple sclerosis and how big adventures were a core part of her identity
• Why she kept her diagnosis private early on 
• Why she started her podcast, MS Understood, and how listening to others expanded her understanding of how differently MS affects each person.
• What gradual acceptance looked like as her mobility declined
• Why she's passionate about encouraging people to embrace micro-adventures
• The inspiration behind tackling the 1,000km Munda Biddi Trail
• What 18 months of preparation looked like for such an enormous challenge
• The conversations she hopes her journey sparks around accessibility, inclusion, and reimagining what's possible

Clare is an adventurer, storyteller, and passionate advocate for people living with multiple sclerosis. Originally from Portarlington, Victoria, she loves proving that the things people say are impossible are often worth attempting anyway.

Whether she's hunting for roadside honey stalls, hiding away in native cottage gardens, recording her podcast, writing her memoir, or tackling ambitious outdoor adventures, Clare brings humour, curiosity, and determination to everything she does.

Through her advocacy, podcast MS Understood, and her incredible Munda Biddi Trail expedition, which is also raising funds for medical research, Clare hopes to inspire people to think differently about adventure, disability, and what's possible.

You can learn more about Clare and support her fundraising journey at wheelchairmeetswilderness.org.

Follow Clare on IG: https://www.instagram.com/clare.reilly/

Today I'm chatting with Jacqui Maloney — a public speaking and presence coach who works with CEOs, founders, and entrepreneurs who are done playing small.

Jacqui’s 20-year career as a professional actor and voice-over artist forms the foundation of everything she teaches, giving her clients access to performance-based techniques used by working actors to command attention, hold a room, and land every word.

In this conversation, we explore what visibility really means, why so many women struggle to be seen even when they have powerful things to say, and how presence, voice, and authenticity shape the way we are perceived in business and in life.

We go behind the scenes of Jacqui’s own recent experience with stepping back from visibility — what was happening for her personally, what it cost her to hide, and how she reconciles being an expert in presence while navigating her own seasons of withdrawal.

We also chat about: 

• Jacqui’s journey and how she came to specialise in visibility work
• Common patterns she sees in women who have something powerful to say but still hold back
• What was happening behind the scenes when she stopped showing up publicly
• Why hiding can feel safe — and what it actually costs us
• the unexpected benefits to going quiet for a period of time
• The role of body language and self-presentation in how we are perceived
• How to balance vulnerability with professionalism in business and life
• Practical strategies to overcome fear of being seen and show up with more confidence

About Jacqui

Jacqui is a visibility expert who has spent over two decades studying and teaching the art of presence — helping women and professionals understand how to communicate with confidence, command attention, and show up more authentically in both life and business.

Her work explores the intersection of mindset, identity, and expression, supporting women to move through fear, self-doubt, and visibility blocks so they can step into their next level with clarity and confidence.

She is passionate about helping women stop shrinking, start showing up fully, and own the space they’re meant to take up.

Follow Jacqui:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqui-maloney/

https://www.instagram.com/jacquimaloneycoaching/

This episode is proudly sponsored by Bec Thompson.

If you've ever had to leave town and found yourself worrying more about your pets than your actual trip, Bec is the person you need to know. Through her house and pet sitting service, she provides a calm, reliable presence for your home and the animals you love most, so you can head away knowing everything is being looked after.

You can find Bec on Instagram at @btnohome to learn more about her house and pet sitting services and see if she's the right fit for you and your furry family.