Sophie Hallwright has had an incredible career as a producer for some of the biggest shows in Australasia. Her experiences have led her to now being a co-founder and producer for The Curve, an award winning investing and financial education platform for women. In this episode, Sophie candidly shares that she does not identify with the idea that people are “born entrepreneurs” and personally, never saw herself as one - largely because growing up, it wasn’t something she was surrounded by.

But now, here she is as a business owner, podcast host and content creator for one of the largest female investing communities online. Sophie shares in this episode how she has overcome self-doubt to embrace this next stage of her life - and how you can too! She shares with us her interesting career from radio producer, to living in fiji producing survivor for 6 months, to travelling the globe and everything else in between and how this has prepared her for the work she is doing now. Sophie’s story is such great encouragement for those who are currently in the throes of a fast growing business or career progression, as well as for those who feel like they are in a stage of just trying to figure everything out. For those of you who have listened to the Curve podcast, you will know that Sophie is absolutely hilarious - so it was a pleasure to speak with Sophie on this month's episode of the She Started it Podcast. 

In this episode, Sophie shares on her story on:

- Managing the demands of a growing business

- Finding the right business partner

- Being 'authentically you' in your business

- Her globally ambitious plans for growing community

- Making financial education engaging and empowering

- How to start a business that is inline with your own risk tolerance

Claudia has achieved global success. She left her promising career as a young lawyer at Russel Mcveigh to move to New York in 2002. She had ambitions to combine her love of technology, marketing and make up. While that didn’t go exactly to plan her optimism and work ethic opened up many more opportunities. She went on to found and exit two startups. The first being Massive, a gaming ad network which was sold to Microsoft in 2006. Then Victors & Spoils which pioneered crowdsourcing in an advertising agency. Havas acquired a majority stake in the agency in 2012.

Claudia returned to New Zealand in 2021, she now contributes her global knowledge and experience as a board director for Air NZ and Vista Group and as Chair of Serko.

In this episode she shares on:

- Her experience moving to New York as a young lawyer and how she had to unlock her inner strength to make it work.

- Unlocking her inner strength to succeed when moving to New York as a young lawyer

 - Authentically building your network and relationships and the benefits that come from having female power circles.

 - How she sets goals and measures what matters in her life and career. 

- Practical advice for just getting started on your business ideas, big dreams and goals. 

- Encouragement on being your authentic-self and how she carries this with her as a super-power in the board room. 

Booksreferenced: https://www.mightyape.co.nz/product/measure-what-matters/27567130?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAk9itBhASEiwA1my_69cHMxaegfo5UkgBdDhi-xUdbhEfoIhGyN_8vZtxty8rvBtz5hFSdRoCefUQAvD_BwE
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/17134189

Elise Hilliam is the Co-Founder and Chief Operations Offer of Menu Aid - an online meal planning platform that is solving the "what's for dinner" dilemma for thousands of people with personalised recipes and smart shopping lists.

In this episode Elise shares with us:

https://menuaid.co.nz/

Siân Simpson is the Founder and CEO of Public Rally, an agency dedicated to building world class communities and content strategies and has clients in the technology, music, AI, crime, legal and education sectors. Along with this, Siân has recently launched her latest venture Bountifull Media which is a media company growing community and global connections through the simplicity of garden-to-plate living.

In this episode Siân shares with us:

- Her inspiring and interesting career journey which has now found her launching her new global media company, focused on bringing garden-to-plate joy to people all over the world.

- How she has created a career and life for herself that is in line with her values and passions, with tips on how you can do the same.

- The importance of community building,  opening up on her extensive experience and tips from a diverse career of community building for companies all over the world.

- How she has overcome burnout and exhaustion by coming back to nature and grounding ourselves

Read more about Siân's ventures:

https://www.bountifullworld.com/about/

https://www.siansimpson.com/my-story.html

https://indigoandiris.co/blogs/i-i-blog/an-interview-with-sian-simpson

Natalia Lopez is a Director and the Chief Operations Officer at Kitea Health, a medical technology company transforming healthcare for people living with chronic conditions.

Natalia shares about the inspiring work she is leading in the medical technology space, and how her career journey has been filled with many different experiences ranging from studying electrical engineering in the US, to working in the automotive industry, to her current role now.

Natalia's story is great encouragement for anyone who is considering or going through a career pivot and Natalia is also an inspiring role model for women in STEM and Engineering, as she shares her story of how she was one of only two women in her entire engineering class at university.

We hope your enjoy this month episode!

Lisa King is the formidable Entrepreneur behind Eat My Lunch and most recently, AF drinks. Her story proves that it is not only possible but also profitable, to create businesses that have a strong sense of purpose.

In this episode of She Started It, Lisa King shares with us:

--> About her recent trip to America and how she is launching her business globally, including into America's biggest whole-foods retailers.

--> Her learnings from her 15 year corporate career and how she transferred these skills to start her own business.

--> The importance of knowing your customers and market, along with some creative and cost-effective ways for startups to understand their consumers.

--> How she has brought her kids along for the ride on her entrepreneurial journey.

--> When she knew it was time to step back from her first venture Eat My Lunch, and how this transition was as for her.

--> Her current business and how she is distrusting the alcohol-(free) market, along with sharing on her own journey of sober-curiosity.

Today I am joined by Janine Grainger. Janine is the Co-Founder and CEO at Easy Crypto. Janine first got involved in cryptocurrency in 2015 and saw massive opportunity. After founding Easy Crypto in 2017 with her brother, Janine has been a common name in the crypto scene in New Zealand. Easy Crypto is now a fast growing New Zealand start up and Janine is leading the way and challenging the gender biases which heavily skew the cryptocurrency and finance industry.

In this episode Janine shares about her career journey leading up to being the CEO at Easy Crypto, she also shares honestly about the importance of having female representation in the finance and cryptocurrency industry and how she is leading the way so that other young women can follow. 

If you want to find out more about Easy Crypto, check out their website: https://easycrypto.com/nz

In this episode we are joined by Dr Jenny Kruger. Jenny is the cofounder of JUNOFEM which is a start-up company with a product called Femfit, which aims to help women manage their journey to pelvic floor health. JUNOFEM ‘s technology originated from Auckland Bioengineering institute and is now being trialed in NZ, Australia, Canada and the UK. Jenny is on a mission to educate and empower women when it comes to their health to regain independence, and resolve pelvic discomfort once and for all.

In this episode Jenny shares about female pelvic floor health, which is a topic that is not often spoken about! She also shares on the inspiring work she is doing to help women in this space along with sharing pearls of wisdom from her (very successful and interesting) career journey. 

https://www.junofem.com/

In this Episode we are joined by Emily Blythe who is the founder and CEO of Pyper Vision. Pyper Vision is an aviation startup with a product that disperses fog to provide the visibility pilots and air traffic controllers require at every stage of their aerodrome operations. Emily’s company is gaining global attention and investment, as she tackles an ambitious problem which affects millions of people when they travel.

In this episode Emily shares what it is like being a female founder in the aerospace industry, how she says motivated and inspired while developing and launching this groundbreaking technology and the importance of having a good support network around you. 

To read more about Pyper Vision and connect further with Emily check out their website https://pypervision.com/