Project Brave

At 32 years old, Carly Broerson was juggling motherhood, a demanding career, and caring for ageing parents when life changed forever. Within just eight days, she lost both her mum and dad. The first loss was devastating. The second was unimaginable.

In this deeply moving conversation, Carly shares what it was like to navigate grief while raising young kids, supporting her family through two deaths, managing an estate, working full-time, and somehow continuing to show up for the people who needed her most.

We talk about what happens when life breaks your heart. The shock and disbelief. The weight of responsibility that arrives alongside loss. The practical realities nobody talks about. And the unexpected kindnesses that become a lifeline when you're learning how to function in a world that suddenly feels very different.

This episode explores resilience, motherhood, perseverance, and finding beauty in a life that no longer looks the way you expected it to. It's about carrying grief without letting it define you. And it's about learning that strength isn't something you choose, it's something you discover when life leaves you no other option.

If you've ever lost someone you love, cared for ageing parents, struggled beneath the invisible weight of responsibility, or wondered how people keep going after tragedy, this conversation will stay with you long after it ends.

In this episode:

✓ Losing both parents within eight days

✓ Parenting through profound grief

✓ The hidden realities of becoming an orphan in adulthood

✓ Why resilience isn't what most people think it is

✓ Finding joy again without feeling guilty

✓ The legacy our parents leave behind

✓ What it means to truly keep living after loss

Grief has a way of finding us all eventually. If Carly's story touches something tender in you, be gentle with yourself. Reach out to a friend, family member, your GP, or a qualified mental health professional. Support is available, and you don't have to navigate difficult chapters on your own.

For immediate support: • Lifeline 13 11 14 • Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636

Connect with Carly on LinkedIn: Carly Broersen | LinkedIn

In this episode, Jessica Bouyamourn (she/her) steps into the spotlight with the same wholehearted energy she brings to every aspect of her life.

A colleague once told her, “Jess, you really live life,” and as she shares in our conversation, this year she’s doing exactly that.

With Amazigh Global First Nations heritage, a biracial immigrant upbringing, and deep connection to the SOGIESC community, Jess has always navigated the world as an outsider in the best possible way. She reflects on growing up between cultures, learning to embrace her difference, and discovering early signs of her entrepreneurial spirit selling a jumble sale find to a friend for profit (much to her dad’s delight!)

Across a decade in finance, a year in the not-for-profit sector, and countless hours of volunteering, Jess has built a career anchored in community, connection, and courage. Her work as a learning consultant designing offshore learning programs, collaborating across cultures, and removing friction through clever, human centered teaching reveals her gift for making people feel safe, seen, and capable.

As she jokes, strangers constantly ask her where things are in supermarkets, a sign of her naturally approachable energy.

Jess also speaks candidly about identity, belonging, and the experience of being “different” in corporate spaces. She shares how her lived experience shaped her empathy, her leadership, and her commitment to being a visible, vocal advocate, often stepping up as a subject matter expert so others didn’t have to carry the burden of representation.

Now, after leaving corporate life, Jess is navigating the disorienting but liberating process of rediscovering herself outside the confines of an institution. She describes feeling “untethered” yet newly free, noticing the layers that fall away when you no longer need permission to be fully yourself.

Connect with Jessica on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-bouyamourn/?isSelfProfile=false

A woman in STEM who says yes before she’s ready. Elena's global career proves bravery builds legacy.

I first met Elena through the 2026 TEDxBrisbane 60 Second Pitch Challenge: a gutsy test that most people will never attempt. Elena delivered an idea that resonated with many women in the audience navigating STEM careers – outlining how she elevates the voices of other women in traditionally male-dominated industries. That was my first glimpse of her unassuming leadership presence that doesn’t need to be loud to be felt.

Elena is a manufacturing leader and Lean/WCM coach with more than 20 years of global experience across Russia, the United States and Australia. Her career spans plywood production, heavy machinery, industrial gases and large-scale logistics operations. She’s led high performing teams, driven cultural change, and built leaders across three countries and five plants. Her achievements include spearheading logistics operations for two new Volvo plants, delivering Six Sigma improvements at Linde Gas, serving as a Lean coach for executive teams, and being recognised as Manager of the Year and a Continuous Improvement Ambassador. She’s also a mentor for women in leadership.

But what makes Elena extraordinary stretches far beyond her professional achievements. It’s her courage to leap before she feels ready.

She has built a global career by saying yes to roles, industries and continents she hadn’t mastered yet, trusting her adaptability, curiosity and emotional intelligence to carry her forward. She leads with depth and sees talent before it’s fully formed, getting a genuine thrill from watching people grow into the biggest version of themselves.

In this episode, we explore what it means to break barriers in manufacturing, navigate the messy middle of reinvention, and build a legacy grounded in courage, sustainable improvement and lifting others as you rise.

If you’re figuring things out as you go, Elena’s story will remind you that bravery often begins long before certainty arrives.

Connect with Elena on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elenasokolovacoach/

Susanna Mothershaw is the kind of woman who doesn’t need to dial up the volume to make an impact. She’s quiet power and sharp curiosity, shaped by decades of unseen courage and steady determination in moments no one else noticed.

In this episode, we crack open the real story behind her 35-year insurance career, her Brave beginnings with Donna Walker, and the moments that solidified her into the leader so many of us (including me!) relied on.

We go right back to the start to the version of Susanna who learned early that showing her true self wasn’t safe. “I began in a place where showing my authentic true self was actually going to be completely detrimental to me,” she says, and that one line sets the tone for everything that follows.

From there, we follow the many twists, turns, and “messy middles” of Susanna’s life and career:

• The underground TED sharing crew that seeded Project Brave.

• The Melbourne leap, uprooting her life, leaving her kids behind, and stepping into a role that demanded she back herself harder than ever.

• The moment she walked into a room full of senior leaders and bravely said, "Stop the train! Something’s about to blow."

• The emotional weight of leading diverse teams across Australia and India through restructure, uncertainty, and reinvention.

• The quiet, steady leadership philosophy of connection, collaboration, and doing the hard things with heart that she espoused along the way.

This is an episode about bravery that doesn’t roar. It whispers, nudges, and insists. It reveals the intentional courage that shows up in boardrooms, during restructures, or in moments where you say the uncomfortable thing because it’s the right thing.

If you’re a woman in the messy middle of mid-career, midlife, or mid-reinvention, Susanna’s story will rest like a warm hand on your back. It’s wise, deeply human, and a reminder that sometimes the bravest thing you can do is simply step into the arena even when you’re not sure you’re ready).

Connect with Susanna on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susannamothershaw/

If Part 1 introduced Chloe’s resilience, Part 2 reveals the philosophy, emotional intelligence and creative practices that allow her to survive (and thrive) in a life shaped by a chronic condition called "Myasthenia Gravis" and relentless uncertainty.

But this episode is not about her résumé. It’s about her humanity.

The Beauty in the Ordinary

Chloe and Tiana explore why the world often overlooks “ordinary” people and why the most profound wisdom often comes from those who have lived through hardship quietly, without applause. Chloe speaks candidly about choosing courage every day, even when she doesn’t get it right, and even when her body is fighting against her.

Feeling Your Feelings (All of Them)

Chloe dismantles the myth that emotions must be controlled or suppressed. She explains why crying is a release mechanism, why anger is valid, and why happiness is transient. She challenges the cultural obsession with “the pursuit of happiness,” reminding us that joy is found in moments, not milestones.

Joy in the Cracks

This episode is filled with Chloe’s everyday rituals. Her morning tea sipped from mugs handcrafted to accommodate her weak hands and “Royal Happy Crab Dance.” These tiny practices are her survival tools to create joy even when life is crushingly hard.

Creative Practice as Medicine

Chloe shares how creative engagement became her lifeline. She explains the neuroscience of anticipation and resolution, the mental‑health benefits of keeping hands busy, and the profound impact of heritage crafts. Her national project, "Oh MG", invited people across Australia to crochet snowflakes while learning about her rare disease, resulting in 2,600 handmade snowflakes and a 15‑metre installation of community love.

Courage in the Medical System

Chloe speaks openly about the trauma of repeated hospital admissions, infusions, ICU stays, and the emotional toll of knowing her condition is life‑limiting. She describes the courage required to walk into emergency departments alone, the fear of burdening loved ones, and the heartbreaking reality of navigating healthcare when cost becomes a barrier to survival.

Love, Partnership & Shared Resilience

One of the most moving parts of this episode is Chloe’s reflection on her marriage. The fear her husband carries, the emotional weight of watching someone you love suffer, and the creative practice (lapidary) that became his anchor in the storm. Together, they learned how to cope, communicate, and build pockets of joy in a life that often feels like a cyclone.

The Wisdom You Earn the Hard Way

Part 2 is Chloe at her most expansive, offering profound insights on autonomy, control, mental health, creativity, grief, joy, and the art of continuing when you have nothing left. Her philosophy is simple and radical:

Don’t wait for life to get easier before you start living it.

Find joy now.

Create joy now.

Choose joy now.

This episode is a testament to the strength of lived experience, the power of creative practice, and the quiet, everyday bravery of choosing to keep going.

Visit Chloe Wigg's website: https://www.chloewigg.com/

Learn more about Oh MG: https://www.chloewigg.com/ohmg

Chloe Wigg: A woman who refuses to wait for life to get easier before she starts living it.

In this first part of our conversation with Chloe Wigg, we meet a woman whose courage has been forged in places most people never have to walk. Chloe is an artist, disability advocate, lived‑experience consultant, community activator, former Advanced Care Paramedic, and a TEDxBrisbane 60 Second Challenge finalist.

But her story is far more layered than any title can capture.

Chloe’s work sits at the intersection of health, community voice, and creative engagement. She brings lived experience into conversations about healthcare, accessibility, and inclusive design as a vital source of truth. As a former paramedic and now a patient navigating a rare neuromuscular autoimmune disease known as "Myasthenia Gravis", Chloe understands the healthcare system from every angle. That perspective shapes her advocacy, art, and commitment to ensuring disabled voices are included in the design of services, spaces and policies that affect them.

In this episode, we go back to the beginning to little Chloe. The spicy, undiagnosed kid who struggled to make friends, endured relentless bullying, and yet somehow developed a powerful inner compass that told her: this pain will pass. Even at seven years old, she imagined a future version of herself looking back at these moments with tenderness, remembering only the good parts. That early instinct to find joy in the cracks became a guiding principle throughout her life.

Chloe shares how she learned to be the guardian of her mental health, how she clawed her way out of depression, and how she refuses to let other people’s actions dictate her own. She talks about optimism not as a personality trait, but as a survival strategy that has carried her through hospital stays, ICU admissions, tremors, breathing difficulties, and the slow erosion of physical abilities she once relied on.

We explore her journey as an artist, and how she had to reinvent her entire creative practice when her hands could no longer perform fine motor tasks. Instead of grieving the loss of who she used to be, Chloe pivoted to choosing new mediums, methods, and ways of expressing herself. She calls herself "handicapable", speaking with deep gratitude for a body that has survived 100% of what has tried to kill it.

This episode is a masterclass in perspective shifting, resilience, and the quiet bravery of choosing joy in the middle of hardship. It’s about redefining strength, rewriting expectations, and learning to live fully in the body you have, not the one you used to have.

Visit Chloe Wigg's website: https://www.chloewigg.com/

Learn more about Oh MG: https://www.chloewigg.com/ohmg

Visit the Brisbane Disability Expo website: Home - Brisbane Disability Expo

In this episode of Project Brave, we sit down with Katrina Campbell, a Growth & AI Transformation Executive whose career has spanned journalism, motorsport, pharmaceutical sales, online retail, healthcare systems, digital health, and AI‑led commercial strategy.

But Katrina’s story is not defined by her résumé. It's defined by her resilience.

Katrina started as a journalist and chased her childhood dream of working in motorsport. When the industry didn’t open its doors, she pivoted into radiation therapy, then into pharmaceutical sales, where she learned the commercial and behavioural foundations that shaped her career.

She became an early digital pioneer, launching an online business in 2009 and running Facebook ads before most people even knew they existed. She built a chicken‑coop empire from scratch and learned what it means to build something with no safety net. Her life then expanded across India, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi and Singapore. She led the Australian Chamber of Commerce through COVID, briefed High Commissioners, hosted CEOs, navigated international business, and built networks across continents. And then, in a single moment, everything changed.

Her husband’s role was made redundant, their visas were tied together, and within 30 days they were forced to leave Singapore and return to Australia after 15 years away. What followed was the hardest restart of her life. Katrina describes the grief of returning home unexpectedly, the shock of being told her global experience “didn’t count,” and the emotional toll of feeling like she had fallen down the snakes‑and‑ladders board of life.

But she also shares how she rose again. Katrina talks about the builder’s mindset that has carried her through every change: asking the right questions, listening deeply, and building frameworks that work in the real world. She explains how this mindset is what allowed her to apply AI and agent strategy to commercial growth long before most marketers understood what AI could do.

We explore her relationship with imposter syndrome, the persistent whisper that follows her even after decades of achievement. Katrina speaks openly about the fear that keeps women small, the internal ceilings we place above ourselves, and the courage required to break them.

She reflects on the lessons learned from failure, the power of listening to yourself when the world tells you to stay put, and the cost of choosing a life that doesn’t fit. This conversation is a masterclass in reinvention. It’s about restarting more times than most people change jobs. It’s about building again when everything falls apart. It’s about trusting your inner pull, even when you’re terrified. And it’s about redefining bravery as listening to yourself, knowing when something has run its course, and choosing to move anyway.

Katrina Campbell: A woman who thinks differently about growth because she has lived it differently. A builder, strategist, creator, and a testament to what happens when you keep choosing courage over certainty.

In this episode of Project Brave, we sit down with the luminous and fiercely self-led Diana Di Fabio. A woman who has rebuilt her courage one choice at a time and now lives life entirely on her own terms.

Diana is a daughter of Italian migrants, the youngest of four, a team manager in a thriving mortgage broking business, an intrepid solo traveller, a samba dancer who has performed in the Rio Carnaval, and a woman stepping boldly into modelling in her 40s.

But her story is far deeper than the titles. Diana’s journey is one of awakening.

From a shy little girl who hid behind her mother at family functions, to a woman who dances on moving floats in Rio, travels the world alone, and says yes to herself even when she’s scared. She shares how she learned to follow joy, trust her intuition, and break free from the expectations placed on her by culture, family, and fear.

We explore the moment she realised she was living life for others, not herself, and how a personal growth course cracked open her understanding of meaning, fear, authority and self-trust. Diana talks about the mantra that changed her life (“F*ck it, just do it”), the epiphany that time is passing whether she chooses courage or not, and the decision to stop waiting for permission.

She tells the story of performing in the Rio Carnaval and the overwhelming sense of being cheered on by generations of women in her family who never had the freedom she now claims. She shares how she accidentally joined one of Rio’s biggest blocos, danced for hours in the heat, and felt more alive than ever before.

We dive into solo travel, intuition, mindset, legacy, and the power of choosing yourself unapologetically. Diana explains how travel built her confidence, sharpened her judgment, strengthened her leadership, and taught her to trust her own voice above anyone else’s fears or projections.

This conversation is a celebration of courage in its purest forms. Not loud or performative but lived. It’s about breaking patterns, stepping into visibility, and living a life your 80-year-old self will be truly proud of.

In this episode of Project Brave, we welcome Lucy Broadbent, an original member of the Project Brave community and a woman whose story captures exactly what this movement has always been about: courage built over time, purpose-led leadership, and the messy middle of navigating ambition and motherhood.

Lucy is a senior leader in customer and product innovation, with a career shaped at the intersection of customer behaviour, product strategy, transformation and purpose. She’s worked across complex, regulated industries such as health, insurance, and education in organisations including Bupa, RACV, RMIT University and IAG.

But today, she joins us from a very different chapter: maternity leave with baby number two, navigating the 24‑hour job of motherhood while preparing for her next evolution as she returns to work.

In this conversation, we explore Lucy's current season of joy, exhaustion, identity shift, and the trade‑offs required to be the kind of mum she wants to be and the kind of leader she aspires to become. She talks about the realisation that you can have it all, just not all at the same time, and how she’s redefining success in a way that honours her ambition without sacrificing the moments that matter most.

We explore Lucy’s early days in Project Brave, when she was a 25‑year‑old newcomer to Australia, sitting in rooms with senior women and battling imposter syndrome. She reflects on how those experiences (and the women who advocated for her, challenged her, and held her accountable) shaped her confidence and leadership philosophy.

Lucy shares how courage is built like a muscle: through small, quiet acts of bravery, not just big dramatic ones. From asking for what you need, to negotiating flex, to having hard conversations, to backing yourself even when you feel underqualified, these are the moments that have shaped her into the assertive, values‑anchored leader she is today.

We also dive into the sideways, peer‑to‑peer mentorship that keeps women progressing and the powerful advice that changed her trajectory: “If you only ever work for people who inspire you, you limit your impact on the world.” Lucy reflects on the leaders who shaped her, including the late Donna Walker and former IAG CEO Peter Harmer, and how their humanity influenced her leadership style.

This episode is a masterclass in modern womanhood: ambition without burnout, leadership with heart, motherhood without apology, and courage built one intentional step at a time.