She may head up one of Australia’s most vital not-for-profits, helping women in this country who are experiencing disadvantage find a meaningful place in the workforce, but Donna de Zwart can admit it – she feels Impostor Syndrome, too. 

These days, however, she has an antidote: “More and more I have that really stern conversation with myself – ‘This is rubbish, what’s the worst that can happen here? I can try something, I can fail, but no one’s going to die as a result.’ This Impostor Syndrome, this false sense of humility…that actually doesn’t help me or the women I’m trying to reach.”

In her Pep Talk with host Caroline Hugall, Donna reveals her greatest achievement, why a sense of creativity is crucial, and why everyone needs someone in their corner to say, “You can do this, you’ve got this”. 

This first series of Pep Talk is in partnership with the not-for profit Fitted For Work, which runs work-readiness programs and mentorships for disadvantaged women.

“I have a sunglasses case that says on it, ‘Don’t look back, you’re not going that way.’ And that’s my philosophy.”

Nope, taking a backwards step is not in Cindy Gallop’s DNA. After nearly four decades working in brand building, marketing and advertising on global businesses including Coca-Cola, Ray-Ban and Polaroid, ten years ago Cindy founded social sex video sharing platform Make Love Not Porn. MLNP is on a mission to make it easier for everyone in the world to talk honestly about sex, to promote better communication, consent, good sexual values and good sexual behavior. “The way to think about us is, if porn is the Hollywood blockbuster movie, Make Love Not Porn is the badly needed documentary,” is how Cindy puts it, quite simply.

In fact, much of the advice Cindy has to offer is simple – and transformative. From how to ask for a payrise (“The amount you ask for is always the highest amount you can say out loud without bursting out laughing”) to why you should consider starting your own business (“Whose hands would you rather place your future in? Those of a large corporate entity who doesn't give a shit about you or somebody who will always have your best interests at heart, i.e. you?”), Cindy’s Pep Talk with host Caroline Hugall is like a cheat sheet for life done right.

This first series of Pep Talk is in partnership with the not-for profit Fitted For Work, which runs work-readiness programs and mentorships for disadvantaged women.

“Always do the hardest thing first, because everything after that is easy.” It’s a motto that Shelley Simpson lives by, even though she admits it took years of practice to make that motto her reality.

In this Pep Talk with host Caroline Hugall, Shelley talks about growing her homewares brand side hustle into a main hustle, the importance of getting the right support (“get a good bookkeeper”), and how she focuses on the changes she can achieve in the world. “You can’t fix the whole problem, but you can work in your corner and just make that better.”

"I'm quite ferocious in creating some space for people – women, particularly – to say, ‘I worked hard and I deserve it’,” says Imogen Hewitt, who, as well as being CEO of Spark Foundry ANZ (a media agency within Publicis Media), is also on the board of the Media Federation of Australia and was awarded Executive Leader of the Year at the 2022 B&T Awards. Unsurprisingly, she says of herself: “I worked hard – that's been the key to my success."

In her Pep Talk with host Caroline Hugall, Imogen shares thoughtful and honest insights, including "Nobody else can be weird like you are weird”; plus, the advice she'd give her younger self, the importance of advocating for yourself and where her motivation comes from.

This first series of Pep Talk is in partnership with the not-for profit Fitted For Work, which runs work-readiness programs and mentorships for disadvantaged women.

Antoinette Lattouf knew from a very early age that she "wanted to tell stories and challenge the status quo". Her first book, How to Lose Friends and Influence White People, released this year, hits that mark perfectly – deeply critical of the media industry in Australia, it’s an anti-racism manual and a lesson on how diversity and inclusion can be done well.

In her Pep Talk with host Caroline Hugall, Antoinette shares raw and practical advice, revealing issues she overlooked earlier in her career that she definitely wouldn't walk past today, the questions to ask yourself before you ask for a pay rise, and how you can have a meaningful impact on the world – even just by speaking up at a family barbecue.

In her candid pep talk with host Caroline Hugall, Kirsty Muddle – Ad Standards Board Member, Gruen Transfer panellist and B&T Media Awards’ Woman of the Year and Executive of the Year in 2018 – shares the best advice she's ever been given, the person she admires most, the change that’s been most motivating, and the struggle she faced to overcome an eating disorder in her twenties.

You know how sometimes choosing a path can feel really high stakes? Tara Ford, Chief Creative Officer of The Monkeys, has a plan for that: “Make a decision. And then if that's not the right decision, just make another decision. It makes you realise that you can experiment with anything you're doing.”

It’s just one of many great pieces of advice shared by one of the country’s most nimble minds with host Caroline Hugall. Tara, who is also a board member of the Advertising Council Australia and was the first female executive creative director in Australia, has paved the way for female advertising creatives in a way that no other woman has.

But it hasn’t always been easy. While Tara says there’s no one she’d rather be on a desert island with than her three kids, listen to find out why having her kids was the biggest career challenge she’s had to overcome – and how you can find your superpower.

The first series of Pep Talk recognises Fitted For Work, a not-for-profit that helps disadvantaged women get work and keep it through mentorship and other work readiness programmes. 

Just two marks stood between Joe Pollard and the career she once wanted as a physiotherapist – and they were the best two marks she never got. 

Instead, Joe has had a career that’s taken her far and wide: from a stint in Hong Kong to running global media for Nike, to Tokyo and back to Australia to head up Ninemsn and Telstra. Today, she holds non-executive board positions for a diverse range of companies including oOh!media, Washington H. Soul Pattinson and the Endeavour Group. 

With a CV that rich, it’s perhaps unsurprising that she sees her career in chapters, as she tells host Caroline Hugall. What would those chapters be called? Something like “Great Bosses”, “Good Mentorship”, “Letting Go of Working-Mum Guilt, and “The Bridesmaid Pep Talk with David Gyngell”. 

And she’s got a pep talk of her own to share, from why you should take the job you can’t do, to a message aimed straight at the hearts of women in their 40s. 

The first series of Pep Talk recognises Fitted For Work, a not-for-profit that helps disadvantaged women get work and keep it through mentorship and other work readiness programmes. 

What does it take to start something from scratch? How do you get motivated when you feel disconnected from everything? And what do you do when you can’t do it all? 

Annabelle Hickson, founder of Galah magazine, picks it all apart with host Caroline Hugall, from her property in regional Queensland. 

It was living in the “middle of nowhere” that inspired Annabelle to create her greatest achievement yet, Galah – launched in 2020 when the print industry was being decimated, it’s become an award-winning cultural magazine celebrating regional Australia and the creative, diverse and innovative people who live there. 

“People said to me, ‘You cannot have a magazine without advertising. You cannot start a magazine these days. … And I feel really proud that I can say, well, actually, you can.”

The twist? The mother of three says she’s “not a natural entrepreneur.” Find out how she gets it done (spoiler: it takes a little help from a life motto she stumbled on while having a blood test – and some Lexapro).

The first series of Pep Talk recognises Fitted For Work, a not-for-profit that helps disadvantaged women get work and keep it through mentorship and other work readiness programmes.

Hear the the Pep Talk podcast trailer aimed to give you the nudge you didn’t know you needed in about ten minutes. It will share advice, experience and wise counsel from brilliant women connected to the world of media, communications and the arts.