Valentine Gatard has been an employee for only nine months in her entire life. Based in Paris, she works as a coach, speaker, and host of the Work Narratives podcast, helping companies and independent professionals rethink their relationship with work through a human-centred lens.

Valentine explains how her musical background in jazz shapes her approach to coaching and teamwork. Drawing on the dynamics of jazz improvisation, including performing her own concert in Montmartre with four musicians, she shows how listening, trust, and presence create the same connection in coaching that musicians build on stage.

The conversation covers the rehumanisation of work, why freelancing and portfolio careers are reshaping professional identity, and how crafting your own work narrative matters more than following conventional career templates. 

Valentine draws parallels between the rise of job crafting, the teal organisation model, and the growing number of professionals choosing career independence over traditional employment.

For professionals considering how to align work with personal values rather than institutional expectations, Valentine's approach offers a framework grounded in curiosity, creativity, and genuine human connection.

Mentions and references: Work Narratives podcast. So Wow collective (Spreading an Optimistic World of Work). Teal organisation paradigm. Melody Gardot, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee.

Connect with Valentine: valentinegatard.com | LinkedIn: Valentine Gatard

Wisepreneurs explores how independent professionals turn accumulated expertise into sustainable practice.

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Connect with Nigel Rawlins
Website: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelrawlins/

Free assessments for independent professionals: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/field-guides/

The Wisepreneur newsletter, practical thinking for experienced independent professionals, every Tuesday: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/newsletter

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Andrea Chase, Canadian entrepreneur and founder of True Marketing Verse, shares how she built expertise across psychology, teaching, hospitality, and sales before channelling it all into a digital marketing agency serving women-owned businesses and solopreneurs.

Andrea discusses the mental stamina required to sustain a business over a decade, including managing burnout and the support networks that make independent practice sustainable.

She explains her approach to PR without a budget, why side hustles work as a low-risk entry point for risk-averse professionals, how government contracts through Canada's Buy and Sell can provide revenue stability, and why the psychology of branding matters as much as technical execution.

Mentions: Freelance Business Community, Freelance Business Month, The Forum (Canadian women's business mentoring), Canada Buy and Sell.

Connect with Andrea: tmv.baitsglobal.com | LinkedIn: Andrea Chase

Wisepreneurs explores how independent professionals turn accumulated expertise into sustainable practice.

Support the show

Connect with Nigel Rawlins
Website: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelrawlins/

Free assessments for independent professionals: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/field-guides/

The Wisepreneur newsletter, practical thinking for experienced independent professionals, every Tuesday: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/newsletter

Support the show: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2311675/supporters/new

Tracy Enos, LinkedIn consultant and founder of a Kansas City-based consultancy, shares how solopreneurs and independent professionals use LinkedIn to find clients, build referral networks, and grow a sustainable business without a website.

Tracy explains her HEAT system (Human, Expertise, Authority, Trust) and why 95 per cent of LinkedIn profiles fail to convert because they read like resumes. She covers the Social Selling Index, when Sales Navigator is worth the investment, and how LinkedIn articles get indexed by Google.

The conversation includes the story of Bob Lovely, a career coach who built a six-figure practice using only LinkedIn articles, Gmail, and fewer than 2,000 connections — no website, no smartphone.

Mentions: Sales Navigator, InMail, BHuman AI, Go High Level, Evernote, Linked Influence (Lewis Howes).

Connect with Tracy: LinkedIn: Tracy Enos

Wisepreneurs explores how independent professionals turn accumulated expertise into sustainable practice.

Support the show

Connect with Nigel Rawlins
Website: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelrawlins/

Free assessments for independent professionals: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/field-guides/

The Wisepreneur newsletter, practical thinking for experienced independent professionals, every Tuesday: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/newsletter

Support the show: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2311675/supporters/new

Amanda Reeves has worked in administrative support for over 40 years, building an independent practice entirely through referrals after starting as a junior typist clerk at Gas and Fuel. 

Based in Melbourne, she provides executive-level administrative support to solopreneurs and independent consultants, working in their homes and remotely.

Amanda explains how she built a freelance practice without any marketing by delivering work that generates referrals. All of her clients came through word of mouth, which she sees as evidence of trust rather than a marketing strategy. 

She describes a typical week balancing multiple clients, from preparing annual reports and conference materials to managing websites, social media, and personal accounts.

The conversation covers how administrative needs change as independent professionals grow, why her clients are mostly women running their own consulting practices, and the practical realities of freelancing after 50 including setting boundaries with friends who assume working from home means being available. 

Amanda also shares how one Melbourne client's recommendation led to international work in Switzerland, reconfiguring an entire office setup over two weeks.

Mentions and references: Evernote. Instapaper. Manderey Administrative Services (manderey.com.au).

Connect with Amanda: manderey.com.au | LinkedIn: Amanda Reeves

Wisepreneurs explores how independent professionals turn accumulated expertise into sustainable practice.

Support the show

Connect with Nigel Rawlins
Website: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelrawlins/

Free assessments for independent professionals: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/field-guides/

The Wisepreneur newsletter, practical thinking for experienced independent professionals, every Tuesday: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/newsletter

Support the show: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2311675/supporters/new

Terri Connellan helps experienced women professionals navigate career independence through self-leadership, creativity, and psychological type awareness.

After 30 years in TAFE as a teacher and leader in adult vocational education, she negotiated a job share, trained as a life transition coach and psychological type practitioner, and wrote Wholehearted: Self-leadership for Women in Transition.

Terri covers how she carved out time for professional reinvention while still working full-time and why understanding your psychological type changes how you approach career decisions.

She discusses how creativity and writing became the foundation of her independent practice, why wholehearted living means designing work around what fulfils you rather than what you are qualified for, and how she uses tarot alongside more conventional coaching frameworks.

Mentions: Wholehearted: Self-leadership for Women in Transition by Terri Connellan (Amazon, Booktopia, Kobo, iBooks). Aspiration: The Agency of Becoming by Agnes Callard.

Connect with Terri Connellan: https://www.quietwriting.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terri-connellan/

Wisepreneurs explores how women over 50 monetise expertise and build sustainable solopreneur practice.

Support the show

Connect with Nigel Rawlins
Website: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelrawlins/

Free assessments for independent professionals: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/field-guides/

The Wisepreneur newsletter, practical thinking for experienced independent professionals, every Tuesday: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/newsletter

Support the show: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2311675/supporters/new

In this Wisepreneurs Podcast episode, I talk with Meredith Fuller OAM about the award-winning documentary, 'Home Truths', which focuses on domestic violence and is co-produced by Lesley Coleman & Rod Winning. 

She shares helpful tips on dealing with this issue. Meredith also talks about women in their 50s struggling in their careers and advises them to explore new directions. 

Mentioned

Home Truths: www.home-truths.com.au

Isabel Davies is a Melbourne-based Australian artist: https://www.isabeldavies.com.au/

Connect with Meredith Fuller, OAM
website: https://meredithfuller.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredith-fuller-oam-2132695/

Support the show

Connect with Nigel Rawlins
Website: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelrawlins/

Free assessments for independent professionals: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/field-guides/

The Wisepreneur newsletter, practical thinking for experienced independent professionals, every Tuesday: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/newsletter

Support the show: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2311675/supporters/new

Elina Jutelyte explains pricing for freelancers through a first-of-its-kind global study across 13 independent communities.

After 20 years in corporate event management, Elina started freelancing and found how isolated independent work can be. She founded the Freelance Business Community in Belgium and created Freelance Business Month, now attracting 4,000 attendees across multiple countries. Her experience rebuilding from scratch after a difficult business partner split offers practical lessons for independent professionals building their own practice.

Her survey of 400 freelancers worldwide found that 90 per cent find work through personal networks, while only 14 per cent rely on platforms. Experienced freelancers with more than 10 years in business get approached by recruiters, while newer freelancers depend on job boards. Elina shares what topics are trending among freelancers globally, from finding customers and using LinkedIn effectively to navigating AI. She discusses why existing business education fails freelancers, with MBA programmes costing 20 to 40 thousand and offering little that fits independent professionals, and her ambition to build an MBA-style programme designed specifically for freelancers.

Mentions and references: Freelance Business Community, Freelance Business Month, Matt Mottola, Cedric Chin, Uzbekistan Ministry of Digital Development

Connect with Elina Jutelyte
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/elina-jutelyte/

Website https://freelancebusiness.eu/

Wisepreneurs explores how independent professionals turn accumulated expertise into sustainable practice.

Support the show

Connect with Nigel Rawlins
Website: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelrawlins/

Free assessments for independent professionals: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/field-guides/

The Wisepreneur newsletter, practical thinking for experienced independent professionals, every Tuesday: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/newsletter

Support the show: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2311675/supporters/new

Aging, employment, and retirement research from a gerontology professor on what the 100-year life actually means for experienced professionals. 

Professor Martin Hyde from the University of Leicester studies how aging reshapes work, why ageism operates as the least addressed barrier to late-career employment, and what quality of life research reveals about professional longevity. 

• He explains why the 100-year life concept requires fundamentally different planning than traditional three-stage careers
• How ongoing education sustains professional relevance, and 
• What his studies show about the relationship between health and sustained work in later life 

For independent professionals building practices that need to last decades beyond traditional retirement, this episode provides the research foundation for decisions most people make on instinct alone. 

Wisepreneurs explores how independent professionals turn accumulated expertise into sustainable practice.

Contacting Professor Martin Hydehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-hyde-5815ab42/

Support the show

Connect with Nigel Rawlins
Website: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelrawlins/

Free assessments for independent professionals: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/field-guides/

The Wisepreneur newsletter, practical thinking for experienced independent professionals, every Tuesday: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/newsletter

Support the show: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2311675/supporters/new

Gabrielle Sun explains how AI is reshaping expertise building in corporate learning, from instructional design principles to the tools every knowledge worker should explore.

Originally from China, Gabrielle completed a Master's in Educational Technology at Carnegie Mellon before becoming an instructional designer at a large global corporation, working remotely across time zones.

The conversation covers what makes training effective, why alignment between learning goals, practice activities, and presentation materials is the foundation of good course design, and where AI fits into the process.

Gabrielle discusses using ChatGPT as a brainstorming partner for scenario creation and course outlines, while explaining why judgment-based work and stakeholder relationships remain firmly human. She walks through four AI capabilities to explore: text generation, text to audio with voice cloning, text to image, and text to video.

Mentions: ChatGPT, text-to-audio tools including voice cloning, text-to-image, text-to-video.

Connect with Gabrielle on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/qianhui-sun/

Wisepreneurs explores how independent professionals turn accumulated expertise into sustainable practice.

Support the show

Connect with Nigel Rawlins
Website: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelrawlins/

Free assessments for independent professionals: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/field-guides/

The Wisepreneur newsletter, practical thinking for experienced independent professionals, every Tuesday: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/newsletter

Support the show: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2311675/supporters/new

Alison Grade helps experienced professionals build sustainable freelance practices as the author of The Freelance Bible, published by Penguin. Her path runs from film and TV production, where she spent years as a freelancer and producer, into writing, teaching, and running her own motorbike training company.

Alison covers the practical mechanics of starting and running a freelance business: pricing, finding clients, managing the feast-famine cycle, and the mindset shifts that separate freelancers who build lasting practices from those who drift between gigs. 

The conversation draws on her own working life across creative industries and small-business ownership.

The Freelance Bible is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle.

Wisepreneurs explores how women over 50 monetize expertise and build sustainable solopreneur practice.

Get in touch with Alison

https://alisongrade.com
https://www.mission.guru/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisongrade/
https://www.instagram.com/freelancebible/
https://www.facebook.com/freelancebible

Support the show

Connect with Nigel Rawlins
Website: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelrawlins/

Free assessments for independent professionals: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/field-guides/

The Wisepreneur newsletter, practical thinking for experienced independent professionals, every Tuesday: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/newsletter

Support the show: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2311675/supporters/new