Don't Stop Us Now! Podcast

Our guest this week is Kristina Karlsson, the entrepreneur and founder of global Swedish design and stationery business, kikki.K.   What’s unprecedented about this episode is that just as we were in the process of putting this out to the world, Kristina’s beloved nearly 20 year old business fell in to Administration with the latest news saying they are looking for buyers or investors to keep the business alive.  When we recorded our interview with Kristina just a few weeks ago she talked about challenging times in retail but, not surprisingly, she didn’t go into details of the current situation.  What we’ve been struck by is how positive and strong Kristina is, even now in her social posts. And that comes through so strongly in this episode where you’ll hear about:  The ups and downs of starting your own retail business and how tough you need to be  Kristina’s passion for having dreams and chasing them (She’s also written a book called ‘Your Dream Life Starts Here’ to inspire others to write down and

Our guest this week is former military leader and now Quantum Computing pioneer, Mandy Birch. Born and bred in the USA, Mandy is super qualified . . . she has a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT; another Masters in in Military Operational Art & Science, and a third Masters in International Relations! Mandy’s entire career has been in male dominated industries. She spent 16 years climbing to senior ranks in the United States Air Force and now she’s working on Quantum Computing with a company called Rigetti. Rigetti is one of four companies (Sept 2019) to have a fully operational quantum computer.  During our conversation, we were fascinated to hear how Mandy only truly thrived in her career in the military when she learnt to be herself. She talks about how important it has been to her career to feel comfortable in her own skin, even when she was different to nearly everyone else in the room.  In this episode you’ll learn:  How to summarise Quantum Computing in a single sentence How

If you’ve ever wondered about what we’ll all be eating in 10-15 years time then this is the episode for you!  Our guest is Barcelona-based Cecilia Tham, a Social Technologist and Futurist. She happens to have the coolest day job working for Alpha, which is Telefonica’s innovation arm briefed to build moonshots to address some of society’s biggest problems, including the future of food. Cecilia was raised in Macau, attended high school and Harvard university in the US, and then found herself in Spain having to start from scratch, language included. She describes herself as an entrepreneur by heart, a designer and biologist by training, and a maker for life.  On her journey to working at Alpha, she founded and co-founded 3 separate ventures including a Maker cafe, a co-working community, and a coding and tech academy for women. We think you’ll find Cecilia’s life and career lessons really inspiring. In particular you’ll learn: How Cecilia’s former husband’s gift of a sewing machine first insulted her and

Our first ‘How To’ episode of 2020 brings you super useful tips and advice to set yourself up for an awesome 2020! To put this episode together, we scoured the latest research and we drew upon the content and expertise we’ve developed delivering leadership programs around the world for major companies such as Google, Salesforce and Pinterest. And, as usual, you also get to hear thoughts from some of our amazing guests on the topic as well.  You may well have thought about some New Year’s resolutions or goals recently, but whatever your situation, we’re confident that this episode will turbocharge your prospects for the rest of the year.  Here’s a taste of some of the many invaluable things you’ll learn from this episode: The somewhat surprising first step we advise you take when planning a great year ahead The huge benefits you can reap from cultivating a more positive outlook and mindset,  plus easy tips to help you do just that How to avoid being over-ambitious with all the goals you want to set

From extreme disadvantage in her childhood, Honeywell Connected Enterprise (HCE) President and CEO, Que Dallara, has been driven all her life to ensure she and her family are far from the memories she has of begging for rice as a child refugee.  We’re in awe of what Que has so thoughtfully achieved over the years taking her from supporting her family and herself through school and uni, to reach the highest echelons of corporate America. Que grew up in Australia and worked there for McKinsey and numerous corporates before moving to the US almost 20 years ago via an MBA at Insead. She worked in senior roles for Microsoft, TE Connectivity and now is running HCE for Honeywell. Que is leading the industrial giant’s transformative push into software sales and the Internet of Things.  Alongside all of this, she’s also the mum of three kids! We urge you not to miss this episode which shares not only Que’s incredible life story but also some of the finest career advice you’re likely to hear.  In this episode you’

Our guest this week has taken the road less travelled, and pioneered her industry in Hong Kong and China for more than 30 years. We’re talking about one of Asia’s most celebrated restaurateurs, and a philanthropist as well, Michelle Garnaut AO. Michelle grew up in Australia but always knew she wanted to travel. The fact she founded and launched her business, the M Restaurant Group, in Hong Kong in the late 1980s makes her one of the first independent restaurateurs to set up shop anywhere in Hong Kong or China.  Time Magazine has even described Michelle as an ‘industry celebrity’ and someone who ‘pioneered the fashionable-dining scene in China’.  Michelle is well known for the upscale restaurants and bars she’s created and launched in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing - including M on the Bund restaurant still delighting diners in Shanghai.  She’s also committed to giving back, and founded the Shanghai International Literary Festival the M Literary Residency, the Village People Project and the women’s initia

This week’s guest has an insatiable passion for learning and the future and she has the career portfolio to prove it! We’re talking about international company director, entrepreneur and global philanthropist, Laura Anderson. Laura grew up near Chicago in the US. She found out early on that she was good at maths and loved ideas and set about immersing herself in areas that fascinated her. As a girl she wanted  to be an astronaut and to this day is convinced the Space Program is critically important. And yes, she’s passionate about humans getting to Mars! Laura’s “why not?” attitude ultimately led her to a career in the technology industry where she worked around the world for companies such as HP, KPMG and Perot Systems, as well as starting her own successful supply chain company.  Laura is now based in Australia where she has a full and fascinating portfolio of local and international interests and directorships including being Chair of LaunchVic (a Government organisation to foster a start-up ecosystem),

This week’s guest is a woman who at the age of 92 is still inspiring thousands of women to be the “best they can be!”. We’re talking about the incredible doyenne of etiquette and deportment, June Dally Watkins. Miss Dally, as she is known, grew up on a sheep farm and attended a one teacher bush school in regional Australia. Her teacher told her mother that she “would be an absolute failure in life”. He couldn’t have been more wrong. At 22, June became Australia’s Fashion Model of the Year and soon became Australia’s first supermodel. She lived the high life as part of the global jetset becoming great friends with Hollywood stars Audrey Hepburn, Bing Crosby and Gregory Peck (who asked her to marry him!). When she came back to Australia she started her now famous etiquette and deportment business which made her one of Australia’s first female entrepreneurs. The June Dally Watkins School has gone on to change thousands and thousands of people’s lives.  She is now, at 92 years of age, an absolute sensation in

We get it, no-one likes having a difficult conversation do they?  Yet, it’s a fact of life that we all need to instigate them at different times both at work and at home. And if you want to be successful at work, it’s fair to say that having constructive difficult conversations is a skill you just need to master. But difficult conversations are hard because they often illicit emotion. Hence many of us procrastinate or dodge conversations that we know we really should have, which can lead to resentment and festering emotions.    Procrastinate no more! This week we provide you with some simple tips and tools to help you navigate these tricky situations. In fact, we teach how to have difficult work conversations in our leadership programs at companies around the world, including Google, Pinterest, Uber, etc, and our participants tell us that these skills really help.  In this episode you’ll learn: Practical steps you can take to ensure your difficult conversations go as well as possible  Why it’s so i

Our guest this week has been on an incredible journey in the past decade - building an iconic online retail empire to global heights and then having no choice but to close it all down last year. We’re talking about Shoes of Prey co-founder, Jodie Fox.  The trailblazing Shoes of Prey became a global start-up and fashion darling during its nine years in business - offering shoes that its customers could personally design and customise online. It was a truly innovative concept.  Big name VC firms thought so too, and Jodie and her two male co-founders raised around $30 million over the life of the business before coming to the heart-wrenching decision to cease trading in August last year. The problem? Despite a stunning launch years earlier, they simply couldn’t get the scale to make the business sustainable in the long term.  Jodie was the Chief Creative Officer and public face of Shoes of Prey, so coming to terms with having to shut down the business, and its global offices, has been particularly confronting

This episode features a super creative thinker and former child prodigy who’s on a quest to bring beauty and emotion to all that she creates and builds. We’re talking about renown architect, interior designer, fashion designer and artist, Jordy Fu. Jordy grew up in Chengdu in China. At the age of just six years old, 200 pieces of Jordy’s art work were exhibited in a solo exhibition at the Beijing Capital Museum. By the time she was seven a book of her artworks had been published! Jordy went on to study in London at the iconic art school, Central Saint Martins, before qualifying as an architect and eventually starting her own multi-disciplinary firm.  Now based in Bangkok, Jordy and her team work on a diverse range of projects... and Jordy in particular works on everything from iconic buildings in China to statement fashion pieces for the runways in Dubai.  In this episode you’ll learn: Why she believes most architects are boring Why being a child prodigy can make you feel like a failure when you’re a

In this week’s episode we meet an entrepreneur and innovator who’s been through more than her fair share of challenge and trauma, yet has found a way to forge her own unique path. We’re talking about the irrepressible Dr Catherine Ball. Catherine, or Cath, grew up in a pretty poor, single parent household in an industrial town in the UK. Unlike her peers she was determined to go to university where she studied environmental protection. She then went on to complete a PHD - a process she now describes as torturous.  Needing to pay off her student debt, her path then took her into the corporate world where she worked with a number of engineering consultancies in the UK and then in Australia.  Just as Cath was being recognised as a leader in her space receiving the Queensland Telstra Business Woman of the Year award in 2015, her company merged with a competitor and she, to her surprise, was made redundant.  It was this shocking jolt that led her to start her first company and led to her building on her alread

In our episode this week we meet an entrepreneur who’s been on a 30 year quest to find ways to create environments and networks for people to innovate and solve problems that matter. We’re talking about the amazing Founder and CEO of SheEO, Vicki Saunders. Vicki grew up in Canada on her family’s farm where she learnt early on to work hard and problem solve. However, her pathway to becoming an entrepreneur took place, unusually for a young Canadian woman, in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.  Vicki spent 4 years in Prague where she started multiple businesses learning as she went along. She also built a community of entrepreneurs there, before returning to Toronto to found Canada’s first ever incubator.  Fast forward many years and Vicki was mentoring a brilliant young female entrepreneur who was struggling to get funded. She realised then that the system was broken for women… with female-founded startups receiving less than 4% of all venture capital funding. Vicki decided she had to do something

Office politics - even the thought of it can make some people cringe!  We so understand because those two words together conjure up images of mostly bad experiences don’t they? Whether it’s the nightmare colleague, the boss from hell or having the goal posts shifted on you without notice, it’s just not fun! If you’ve ever experienced this or are going through something like this right now, then this is the episode for you. With one research study showing that one in three working people in Britain were unhappy at work because of office politics, we figure that all the great advice featured in this episode is going to come in pretty handy for a lot of you!  Tune in if you want to learn: How to think about office politics differently  Two great principles to apply when navigating through a tricky situation, whatever it may be  How to approach having an insecure or micro-managing boss Specific and simple tips for you to survive having a difficult colleague   Whatever your situation you’re likely to

Our guest this week is the incredibly inspiring Martha Lane Fox, one of the UK’s most well known and respected technology leaders and society shapers. In 1997 Martha was 25 years old when she became co-founder of Lastminute.com, one of the first internet travel marketplaces in the world. This was in the days of the first dot com boom when creating internet based businesses was still a truly pioneering thing.  In 2003, after 6 years running LastMinute.com, Martha stepped down as CEO and took some time off to holiday in Morocco, where she was seriously injured in a car accident. She broke 28 bones, had a stroke, was airlifted back to the UK and spent 2 years in hospital. Martha’s story of her journey back to some degree of normalcy is truly incredible. The chronic pain and injuries she lives with today would make you think she’d want to rest up and take it easy. But not Martha. She’s gone on to do so many important things, believing passionately that it’s so important for female voices to be heard. Today sh

We’re excited to share this week’s episode featuring someone who’s had an extraordinary career at the cutting edge of space exploration. Trudy Kortes is the Chief of the Human Exploration and Space Operations Division at NASA. With her day job, not only is Trudy working on real ‘moonshots’ she is also developing new technologies that will undoubtedly have an incredible impact on our lives in the future. An aeronautical engineer by profession, Trudy has spent about 30 years working for NASA focusing on helping the space agency develop many super- sophisticated technologies to explore our galaxy. Today Trudy leads a team of around 200 people working on a range of projects including advanced communications, propulsion and the crew module, to name a few. What we love about this episode is Trudy’s ability to translate the super complex work she’s been involved with in her career to date, into easy to understand and inspiring stories about the valuable lessons she’s learnt along the way, and about what’s possible

Our guest this week is one of the most determined and resilient people we’ve ever met. For the past 14 years she’s been on a mission to improve education for millions of children in Ethiopia encountering challenges on almost every front. We’re talking about the amazing Brukty Tigabu. At the age of 10, Brukty took on the role of head of her household after her mother became very ill. She found a way to make ends meet by selling vegetables from their garden in the market. She credits this time in her life with giving her the basic business and survival skills that helped her get where she is today.  And where you find this former school teacher today, is running the social enterprise she co-founded called Whiz Kids Workshop. It creates educational media programs - including 3 internationally awarded television series for children in Ethiopia. For the past 14 years Whiz Kids Workshop has inspired a generation of young children in Ethiopia with their most famous and loved program, the puppet based educational T

Our guest this week is a serial entrepreneur and one of Australia’s richest and most successful women. She’s also one of the humblest and most honest people you’re likely to meet. We’re talking about Cyan Ta’eed, Co-Founder of digital marketplaces business, Envato, and Founder of ethical luxury chocolate company, Hey Tiger and Milkshake, a new app for Instagram influencers. Cyan is a true creative and started her career as a graphic designer. However after a brief stint working for someone else she decided working for herself was the way to go. She and her then boyfriend, started a side hustle to sell stock photographs and digital assets to other creatives.  Fast forward 13 years and Envato, the name of that marketplaces company, is now worth more than A$1bn, employs over 500 people and has more than one billion digital goods for sale. Not only that, but Cyan has gone on to start, amongst other things, Hey Tiger, a chocolate social enterprise aimed at women as well as her latest start up Milkshake, a websit

Don’t forget to enter our competition (below) to win a free coaching session with Claire and Greta. This week we explore what you can do when you have that horrible feeling you’re trapped in your job… for whatever reason. Maybe you’ve been meaning to change what you do for a while but just find the whole prospect scary or overwhelming; or maybe you’re in a job that pays really well or gives you lots of status that others envy, but you feel miserable; or, perhaps, the job you took just isn’t meeting your expectations. If any of these scenarios sound like your situation then pick up those earphones and tune in now. Together we’ll share tips, tools and advice to help you feel less stuck going forward. Tune in to hear: Three key reasons why we feel stuck How one of our guests nearly died before she realised her high paying, successful career was completely wrong for her What six words are super helpful to break through any apprehension or nervousness you have about changing or going for a new job

Our guest this week has a habit of saying “yes” to things she doesn’t know how to do... such as designing women's wear collections for Nordstrom when she’d never designed clothes before! We’re talking about the unbelievably stylish entrepreneur, Caroline Issa, the CEO of the Tank group which includes the revered global fashion and culture magazine, Tank Magazine. Despite her quiet humility she’s also a fashion influencer and paparazzi favourite. Caroline started her career as a management consultant working in San Francisco, Singapore and London. One day a friend introduced her to the Founder of Tank Magazine, and she fell in love with the business. Much to the horror of her family and friends she left her big expat consulting gig and became CEO of the fledgling business. That was 17 years ago. Fast forward to today and Tank is one of the few boutique global print magazines still thriving. What’s more, the business has grown to include a creative agency and Caroline is constantly innovating and embarking o