Sisterhood Works

Today’s guest is the extraordinary HealthMatch CEO Manuri Gun award ena who is well-aware of the power of female role models. And as you all know, sisterhood is what drives AllBright. The first woman in her life to inspire her was her mother. Then, there was the VP of IP and litigation at Google, who she met by chance at a party in San Francisco. They got talking, and she ended up being one of HealthMatch’s angel investors. There’s also the former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s wife Lucy Turnbull, who is an investor in the company. And of course, Madame Clicquot, who was arguably the first female entrepreneur. Networking has played a huge part in Manuri’s journey.  

HealthMatch is on a mission to overcome a huge bottleneck in the medical research industry, allowing for faster and more efficient access to life-changing medication. 120,000 patients have created profiles on HealthMatch and 11,000 people have been in clinical trials in just two years. The company is growing – and fast.  

So, it’s no wonder Manuri is the winner of the prestigious 2021 Veuve Clicquot Bold Future Award, which puts bold  trailblazing women in the spotlight, and celebrates their achievements in honour of Madame Clicquot. Today on Sisterhood Works, I speak to Manuri about her career journey. We talk about what is was like going straight from university into a CEO and founder role, raising capital and building a team, and of course, why what being bold means to her.  

Let’s meet Manuri 

Go to healthmatch.io 

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How do you get Demi Moore to invest in your company? That’s the question we ask Andie Swim founder Melanie Travis whose very first investor check came from the famous actor. The answer is to create a purpose-driven company that changes the way women shop for swimsuits. From the very beginning, Andie Swim has focused on being an inclusive brand dedicated to great fits (they’ve never used the term plus size and always used real human fit models rather than computers to fit their swimsuits). 

In this episode, we talk all about building a company from scratch and the grit that involves, the role of social media in brand building and why she’s on a mission to change the swimwear market for women. We hope you all learn as much about brand building as we did – and maybe even how to get a celebrity investor write your first cheqye. Let’s meet Melanie! 

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In this week’s episode, Niomi Smart, the founder of vegan and natural skincare brand, Smart Skin, and author of bestselling plant-based recipe book, ‘Eat Smart’, chats to AllBright co-founder, Anna Jones about becoming an entrepreneur and launching her skincare brand.  

Niomi reveals some of the secrets to how she created a global mindful living community with over 1.6m YouTube subscribers and Instagram followers. They also dive into how we can all embrace mindful living and be more sustainable, and discuss how to cultivate the optimum self-care routine, to help fight back against burnout. 

About Niomi: 
Niomi Smart is the founder of vegan and natural skincare brand, Smart Skin and author of best-selling plant-based recipe book, ‘Eat Smart’. As a wellness and lifestyle content creator, Niomi inspires a global audience of more than 4.6 million people to look, live and feel better. Having fronted campaigns for global brands such a Land Rover, Dior Beauty and Adidas, Niomi is a champion of the progress not perfection ethos, putting conscious living at the heart of everything she does. Her digital platforms are the perfect one-stop for wellbeing and self-love; alongside her regular sustainable lifestyle and healthy living series, ‘What I Eat In A Day’ and 'Smart Chat.'  

As an Ambassador for the Charity 'Women for Women International' she is proud to support their initiatives to empower women in conflict zones and bring their work to the forefront. She is also the founder of 'Smart Swap', a successful clothes swap event. Niomi was the UK face of L'Oréal Botanicals, the all-natural, vegan haircare brand and is the creator of the L’Occitane lipstick, Sweet Rosé. 

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In this week’s episode of Sisterhood Works, hosted by our co-founder Anna Jones, Chrissie Rucker OBE, founder of lifestyle brand, The White Company, reveals how she built her phenomenal empire. 

Anna will take you behind the scenes of Chrissie’s work and straight into the story of her career progression. They discuss everything from leadership challenges to the importance of positive role models, and what each of us can do to help encourage women to start their own businesses, reflecting Chrissie’s work on the ‘Women Supporting Women’ initiative. 

Chrissie will be sharing advice from her 27 year career, how she has navigated the ever-changing world of retail to become one of the UK’s fastest-growing multi-channel retailers, and that ever-elusive ambition of work/life 'balance’. 

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Do you know how to be a good ally? Nova Reid’s new book The Good Ally might surprise you – in it she shares her experience as a Black woman in the UK and how racism affected her from as young as seven years old. But she also talks about how sometimes, well-meaning, liberal white women can cause the most harm. It’s a confronting but incredibly important topic, and in our conversation today she shares why it’s vital that we all get comfortable with being uncomfortable. She also tells us about her experience providing the expert commentary on race for the Royal Wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and about how to have those difficult conversations with friends and family that we’d all prefer to avoid.  

Let’s hear about why we need to start talking… 

novareid.com 

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In the last five or so years, Anna Whitehouse has launched Mother Pukka, become a radio and TV, presenter, published three books, launched FLEX APPEAL – the campaign for more flexible working for everyone - and become a mother to two girls. She is quite simply unstoppable – and making real change for women in the world.  

Today, you’re going to hear about her debut fiction novel Underbelly, which was written with her husband Matt. It’s the story of Lo and Dylan, two women striving to earn a living and raise their kids, both driven to unravel by the pressure, both driven to rage by the versions of each other they see on social media.

We’re also going to talk about Anna’s career journey. We cover the highs and lows, and of course, all the bumps along the way. Because as we all know, careers and life in general is bumpy no matter what path you take. Let’s meet my incredible friend Anna.  

Follow @motherpukka 

Purchase Underbelly here  

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Today on Sisterhood Works you’re going to meet Claire Holt, the dynamic LA-based Australian actor and mother, who has over 7 million followers on Instagram (turns out we’re not the only ones who loves following her).  

Claire has been very open about the struggles of new motherhood and also experiencing pregnancy loss and we talk about this today. We also look at the career of an actor – the highs and the lows. And how she’s also recently ventured more into other projects, such as designing a collection for cult American swimwear brand Andie Swim, who counts Demi Moore as an investor and is an inclusive brand for all women. The collection is now available.  

Claire shows us that careers have many lives, and while being an actor is something she’s passionate about (and very good at), exploring new avenues is something we can all do, anytime in our career.  

Shop Claire Holt’s collection for Andie Swim here andieswim.com 

Follow Claire Holt on Instagram @claireholt 

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It’s no secret that at AllBright, we love to talk to, learn from, and be inspired by female entrepreneurs.  

Todays’ guest is the Veuve Clicquot Australian Bold Woman award 2021 winner, ModiBodi founder Kristy Chong, who generated three million dollars in sales within the first three years of launching her period and leak proof underwear, without outside investment. In doing so, she changed the way women think about topics such as periods and incontinence. She has also put a spotlight on why thinking sustainably about these topics isn’t an option, it’s essential. The average woman will use 12,000 to 16,000 tampons and sanitary pads in her lifetime. And why period poverty isn’t a problem we can ignore (ModiBodi has donated 25,000 pairs of underwear to women in times of crisis and women in need). 

In the beginning her products were seen as “taboo” by many large retailers. But Kristy got them talking. She soon raised capital, has sold more than four million pairs of underwear globally, seen a 929 per cent revenue growth in the past two years and won numerous awards including most recently, the Veuve Clicquot Bold Woman award.  

 Impressed? So are we. Let’s meet this bold woman.  

Go to veuveclicquot.com / modibodi.com 

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Welcome back to Sisterhood Works – the podcast powering women’s careers.  

Today’s guest is the phenomenal Candice Brathwaite, who really needs no introduction, but here we go. A Sunday Times bestselling author, a contributing editor at Grazia and a presenter on Lorraine, she is also the founder of Make Motherhood Diverse and a hugely popular influencer.  

Her book I Am Not Your Baby Mother was a landmark publication in 2020. A thought-provoking, urgent and inspirational guide to life as a Black British mum, it was an important call-to-arms allowing mothers to take control and scrap the parenting rulebook to do it their own way. 

Her newest book, Sista Sister goes further. It is a compilation of essays about all the things Candice wishes someone had talked to her about when she was a young Black girl growing up in London. From family and money to Black hair and fashion, as well as relationships between people of different races and colourism.  Written in Candice's trademark straight-talking, warm and funny style, put it on your reading list.  

But before you do, don’t miss this engaging and insightful conversation. We’re so thrilled to kick off the new season of this podcast with Candice! 

Shop Sista Sista here  
Follow @candicebrathwaite here 

JOIN ALLBRIGHT FOR FREE TODAY 

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What does a decade long career at one of the world’s most glamorous fashion titles look like? That’s what we’re going to find out today. 

Today’s guest is the incredible Helena Lee, the acting deputy editor of Harper's Bazaar and founder of East Side Voices, a platform she launched out of frustration with the lack of visibility that East Asians and Southeast Asians have. Her debut book will also be published in 2022. In today’s conversation, we talk about sisterhood, her decade long career at BAZAAR, and what the career of a writer looks like. 

Helena also stars in AllBright’s The Sisterhood Works Project campaign, which is on a global mission to connect 100,000 women through our digital platform, so we can unite you all, wherever you are, and whatever your passion is. 

You can find out more about The Sisterhood Works Project here. We'll be running an unmissable line-up of free networking events, industry-specific networking opportunities, inspiring interviews, IRL meet-ups and much more. ⁠

Let’s meet the incredible Helena. 

Follow @hels_lee | @eastsidevoices

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