The Women of Influence Podcast with Kate Meade

Be excellent at what you do. Not perfect.

This is your reminder that you don't have to be perfect at what you do but aim for excellence.

This is Carmen Pavlovic is the CEO & Producer of Global Creatures.

Think Walking with Dinosaurs, How to train your Dragon, King Kong, Moulin Rouge!

Growing up in a busy family with a busy mind there is no stopping Carmen.

This isn't a romance story of falling in love with theatre. No breakthrough moment.

This is of vision and grit.

Taking calculated gambles and risks but with a plan and a strategy.

If there is one thing you can walk away with it's - Be excellent, not perfect.

I think I need that on a poster!

And if you are lucky enough to get an interview for a job with Carmen she reveals her one interesting question she wants to know about you. 

Thank-you Carmen for sitting with me and sharing.

This is 100 Women in 100 days (ish)

Enjoy the episode

Luv Kate

OH! And if you are listening for the first time! This is your introduction (required reading). This series is unedited, raw and just gets straight into it. You have been warned!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Moments in life shape us. For Diana it was in the classroom as a child being asked to read out loud. 

She could read but she couldn't pronounce the words. 

The children laughed. 

But still a love of stories remained. 

Maybe it was from her siblings reading to her, maybe it was her imagination. Diana went from that experience in the classroom to becoming a teacher, then Manager and Owner of a book shop. 

But not just any book shop. 

The much loved Hill of Content Bourke Street Melbourne (plus another couple!)

Thank-you Diana for sitting with me and sharing. 

This is 100 Women in 100 days (ish)

Enjoy the episode

Luv Kate

OH! And if you are listening for the first time! This is your introduction (required reading). This series is unedited, raw and just gets straight into it. You have been warned!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

They say you will do anything for your kids. It is so true. 

Katrina was a match. 

One minute you are going in for your 20 week scan, the next a team of specialists enter your life and one thing because the most important of all.

Life. 

Living donors are rare in Australia. About 250 per year. This is one of those stories. This is Katrina's story. 

This is 100 Women in 100 days (ish)

Enjoy the episode

Luv Kate

OH! And if you are listening for the first time! This is your introduction (required reading). This series is unedited, raw and just gets straight into it. You have been warned!

MORE:

Live donations

In Australia, you can also donate a kidney while you’re alive, as long as you’re over the age of 18 and meet the criteria for a donor. You can choose to donate to:

someone you know, to whom you’re related genetically (such as a parent, sister, or brother), or emotionally (including a spouse or close friend)

the next suitable recipient on the transplant waiting list. Contact the Kidney Transplant Coordinator in your closest transplant hospital for more information.

Paired donations

Another form of living donation is referred to as a ‘paired exchange’.

This is when there are potential kidney donor/recipient pairs whose blood types are incompatible. The two recipients trade donors so that each recipient can receive a kidney from a better match.

People willing to join the Australian and New Zealand Paired Kidney Exchange Program (ANZKX) should discuss this with their kidney specialist.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Neicy is what they call a club 'legend'. A child of 11, Neicy and her family have endured more than most and yet despite so much loss we meet a humble woman with great humour that is known for her volunteering, and doing whatever it takes.Not just at the football netball club but whatever the Cobden and surrounds have needed she is there to give a hand- 'It's what you do' she says.

Neicy lives with Lynch syndrome. It is an inherited genetic condition that significantly increases the lifetime risk of developing certain cancers, particularly colorectal (bowel) and endometrial (uterine) cancers.

2 of her 3 children have the gene and she has had to say goodbye to more family members than you can count as she says all the names. 

Get the test is what she wants you to know. 

A wife and mother. Family is everything to 'our Neicy' as the locals call her. 

This is 100 Women in 100 Days (ish) for the Women of Influence Podcast. 

Thank-you so much to the Cobden Football Netball Club for inviting me to come along and record this story. Our first recording with a live audience. Thank-you to all the women that packed out the club rooms and all the sponsors and donors that helped make the day so special. 

Enjoy the episode

Luv Kate

OH! And if you are listening for the first time! This is your introduction (required reading). This series is unedited, raw and just gets straight into it. You have been warned!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recorded on location of the Hill of Content Book shop. I admit to have been a little nervous about interviewing Dee. It's confronting to think about the relationships you've had in the past and that at the time you thought it was ok. But to look back and realise; no it wasn't that good. I should not have been nervous.

Dee is fierce.

Dee knows her worth.

Dee also has this beautiful vulnerability.

When she shows up, she shows up with her whole self, in the moment, deliberately present.

Even for our little podcast. 

Her book is out now;It's Not Love, Actually: How to find the life and love you deserve. In a world that keeps telling women to settle, It's Not Love, Actually will empower each of us to embrace the life we deserve, and whether single or partnered up, remind us that the happiest, hottest and healthiest relationship should always be the one we have with ourselves.

Thank-you Dee. I'm so sorry I stuffed up my first question.... I had practiced it over and over! There is a lesson in that I think!!!! It should have been- It's Not Love, Actually... but is it actually? We got there in the end!!

Enjoy the episode

OH! And if you are listening for the first time! This is your introduction (required reading). This series is unedited, raw and just gets straight into it. You have been warned!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We haven't recorded an episode for a Go Fund me page before. I've always been worried it would open a can of worms with so many deserving people needing help.But when I was sent Jess's story I knew this was about more than raising money for her son.It was about giving her son a voice until he can use his own. 

Tommy is four years old and needs a specialised wheelchair accessible Van. Currently Mum and Dad are lifting him in and out of the car and into his wheelchair. No. It's not going to be covered by NDIS. 

Jess has found herself in a situation where she is exhausted and needs help. 

This is her story, this is Tommy's story. It's a Mum fighting for her child. Advocating and using her voice and that's why she is a Woman of Influence. 

We know that things are tough, and that money is tight but if you can you can donate here:https://gofund.me/00444e05f

Enjoy the episode

OH! And if you are listening for the first time! This is your introduction (required reading). This series is unedited, raw and just gets straight into it. You have been warned!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We are meeting Kanchan in a moment in time. Ready to launch into the world her own business and vision. 

If one thing is sure; Kanchan is determined. You can hear it when she speaks of her plans for her new shoe brand and you can hear it when she talks about the fabric and when she decided to tell her family (her Mum and Dad in particular) she was going to build something for herself. 

Kanchan Assudani is the founder of Walkie Walkie, an Australian women’s footwear brand launching its debut limited edition collection in June 2026.

She is of Indian origin and based in Melbourne for nearly a decade. Holding a Masters in Communication, Kanchan left the corporate world to build a fashion brand entirely from scratch — no design background, no industry playbook, just a firsthand frustration with shoes that looked beautiful and felt terrible.

Walkie Walkie exists to close that gap. Every pair is handcrafted by skilled Indian artisans using premium fabrics, built for the modern woman who refuses to trade comfort for style.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

'If it didn't work out I would have been happy to go back and be a cadet'. This is Jo Hall and this is 100 Women in 100 Days (ish).

Ash Wednesday, 911, The Bali Bombings.... think of a major news event and there is a high chance it was Jo Hall delivering you the news with heart, and care and always professional. A kindness that extends from the screen to in person. 

Our Jo. 

I've been lucky enough to cross paths with Jo on a few occasions since moving to Melbourne and it was a delight to sit with her now. To share her story with you. Decades of news to Australian audiences and what I have noticed most is that kindness. 

From the cadet at the newspaper to a job being advertised at Nine and not knowing if she wanted it.Parents that encouraged her every step of the way. Tough bosses and friendships. But mostly stories. 

Thank-you Jo, Truly thankyou. 

Enjoy the episode

OH! And if you are listening for the first time! This is your introduction (required reading). This series is unedited, raw and just gets straight into it. You have been warned!

Luv Kate

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

She has graced our scenes and stages. We have watched her evolve, even grow up. 

Sigrid was 13 years old when she landed her first professional gig but it started at home performing with parents that supported. 

Sigrid reminded me of a moment in time. 

There was so much I could have asked. 

Different layers of her life, of her career. 

But this was this moment and I'm glad we had it. 

If I had interviewed her next week (this was recorded last week) it would have been a very different conversation. 

So.... we stay in the moment. 

Thank-you Sigrid. Truly thank-you. 

OH! And HUGE NEWS!!!

Sigrid joins the cast of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF as Yente, marking her first starring role in a musical in more than a decade.

Thank-you to the Good Humans team. 

I'm a pretty simple person- Good People. Good Projects. 

Enjoy the episode

OH! And if you are listening for the first time! This is your introduction (required reading). This series is unedited, raw and just gets straight into it. You have been warned!

Luv Kate

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From the stages of the Warrnambool Performing Arts Centre to Melbourne, to singing, performing and writing. Really writing with intention, with her voice. Megan brings her whole being into everything she does and it's contagious in all the good ways. 

There is a knowing in this episode. A, knowing about being a country kid trying to do something in the big city. It's something only country kids know and if I'm honest it's something pretty special but it doesn't take away the hardness. Being away from family, friends, from everything you know... to try. To try it in the big smoke. But equally, knowing when to come home. When you realise you can create from wherever you want. 

Thank-you Megan for your time. I want your energy!! 

Enjoy the episode

OH! And if you are listening for the first time! This is your introduction (required reading). This series is unedited, raw and just gets straight into it. You have been warned!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.