Anne Miles is the founder of Suits & Sneakers, an international creative services company, but she has done so much more! As a female founder, she is constantly juggling clients, the work she needs to do on the business in terms of strategy, and implementation. Luckily she has a super-strong work ethic – which you will hear about in the interview.
In this interview, Anne explains that she felt moved to go out on her own after suffering from bullying, ageism, and sexism in the workplace for many years. As one of the brightest young women in the advertising and creative industries in her early career, she went on to hold very senior roles in a number of big-name agencies – and corporate businesses – until she started being discriminated against.
Turning the negative into a positive, she decided to help other amazing creatives who were looking for projects to work on or even employment. She had a number of challenges in the process of setting up her business but has managed to get around all of them.
Karina Bruce is an unstoppable force! As a curvy model, and the co-founder of Hear Us Roar, a marketplace for fashion designers who specialize in curvy women, she is determined to change things in the fashion industry – and no doubt she will!
In this episode, Karina and Jules discuss what it was like for Karina as a young woman who experienced bullying for her size at school, and how she eventually was persuaded by a friend to try out as a model. Her description of how she felt (sure of rejection) when she walked in the door of Vivian’s Model Agency is one many women will relate to. But she was booked immediately!
It was after Karina met her business partner, Blaize McCann, that the two like-minded women decided to set up Hear Us Roar. They were so fed up with the lack of fashion choices for women oversize 14 (by the way, size 16 is the average woman’s size in Australia) that they sourced the best designers and brought them all together in one place.
Karina and Blaize set out to find VC funding and Karina tells us what that was like. Unfortunately, their timing was a bit off as it was just before the Bushfires and COVID-19 isolation period but nothing will keep these women down!
Karina’s quirky fact is a classic too. Listen for it towards the end!
Laura Piccardi is the founder of Uppy which provides much-needed life and performance coaching. She is also a speaker, presenter, and the author of Unfaked. Having grown up in an enterprising family and running a number of businesses in Australia, Laura is now parlaying all of her experience to lift the lid on businesses in a fun and entertaining way. As a result of the time she gained over the isolation period of COVID-19, Laura has reassessed what she really wants to do – and from now on will be a small business satirist. How cool is that?! Being a native Brit and having moved to Australia 10 years ago, Laura is fearless in her approach to business, having tried a few adventures and businesses before landing on the one that’s right for her. Having experienced and overcome severe stress, Laura also comes from a place of authenticity in being able to help others in their own personal growth. Her idea of lifting the lid on business and creating business satire is brilliant, and her mission is to make businesses more relatable to people whilst providing meaningful entertainment from her platform.
It’s hard to know where to start with the accolades for this incredible woman of many talents! An early adopter of digital technology and a huge fan of yoga and ‘being of service’, Polly’s interview is fascinating. On her website, she describes herself as an ‘All Purpose’ human but she is also an author, speaker, business strategist, yogi, and good hustler, As one of only 400 people worldwide to have attended Brene Brown’s master course and become a Certified Dare To LeadTM facilitator, these days she and her business partner, Zoe Coyle (who also did the course), are running workshops around the country through their company Pilot Light. Jules and Polly have known each other for a few years now so they discuss how they met and their combined love of startups, female founders, and innovation in all its forms. They move on to Polly’s emergence from academia and her curiosity about the digital world. She has been at the forefront of innovation for decades now. Polly’s lust for life, her certainty that she was put on this planet to be of service to others and her mixture of ‘woo woo’ and business savvy makes this an interview not to be missed.
An industry veteran in graphic design, Lora Starling is the founder of Starling Design, a business spanning decades across Australia and the UK. Lora’s design philosophy is based on the emotional center, resulting in designs that resonate. She loves a bit of woo woo and has spent a lot of time exploring the influences on a brand. During the chat, Lora talks about how her experience at large design firms helped her shape her own business and her point of difference in creating brands and designs that actually mean something. With a positive mindset, Lora talks about how being an entrepreneur has taught her to learn from life crises, that perceived mistakes are actually learning opportunities to do better next time, and that it’s important to be one’s true self, have a back-up plan, and a stellar support network.
Jo Munro is the founder of The Savvy Shopaholic and Media Savvy, bringing together her diverse experience in sales and business channel development, retail, and media commentary. As a female founder, Jo made the leap from a corporate career to entrepreneurship through simply doing what makes her heart sing and pushing through the fear. Jo talks about her inspiration in teaching, developed during her time as a passionate ballet teacher, and building relationships within her corporate telco career, her nous in retail shopping habits, and the life experiences that all lead to her establishing her businesses that essentially helps people and businesses alike get from A to B. As an expert media commentator, appearing regularly on TV as the Savvy Shopaholic and as a business consultant at Media Savvy, Jo helps educate businesses about how to be prepared for any media interaction. She bridges the gap between businesses and media, making it an easier process all around.
Beverley Honig is the founder of Honeylight Enterprises, a business she has built over the last 25 years across a number of industries. With an extensive law background, including a judgeship with the ESC and time as a multilingual, inter-continental lawyer, and vast experience as an accomplished business director with an MBA, Beverley is a fine example of what happens with a positive mindset and open-mindedness. Opportunities do indeed come along. Utilizing her law expertise, Beverley ventured into the world of shopping center redevelopment for the likes of Coles Myer and managed the largest shopping center portfolios at the time. Then came the birth of Honeylight Enterprises, bringing together Beverley’s specific way of thinking as a lawyer and strategic management theories to help businesses with improvements in the areas of growth, profitability, processes, product innovation, and culture. Today, Honeylight Enterprises has expanded into commercial developments in upcycling shipping containers, blockchain for indigenous cultural intellectual property, and the exciting ‘TV talking machine’ for the aged care industry. Beverley has built an empire and mentions that a large part of that success is attributed to being able to know when to delegate to specialists, and extending herself, and learning the hard stuff. Beverley loves what she does and talks about the idea of ‘success in progress’. It’s about continuous learning and not having regrets as there’s always an upside; ‘there’s a reason for everything and it’s usually in your favor if you see the light’.Apps List:DuoLingoBufferAccompany
Naomi Lambert is the founder of The Cool To Be Kind Project, an initiative spreading worldwide kindness through very simple small acts of kindness. It all started in the lead up to Christmas 2017 when Naomi noticed a youth knock over an elderly lady without stopping to help or see if she was OK. That was Naomi’s eureka moment and it got her thinking about how she could spread kindness in the world. Naomi comes from a place of resilience and love. Having gone through a devastating loss in her life, she had to grieve, find a way to acknowledge the pain, and find happiness in everyday life. Naomi overcame the obstacles, changed her mindset, and came into the light again. From a small venture started in 2017 with 50 message cards randomly dropped in public places prompting kindness in those lucky enough to find the cards, The Cool To Be Kind Project has had a massive impact. There was the fellow who gave up a Christmas lunch to take out a homeless man to a nice restaurant for lunch and the 52-week Kindness Challenge with recognition from the likes of Ariana Huffington. Goes to show that a little bit of kindness and effort can go a long way.
Louise Larkin is the founder of Friend in Me, a company that creates all-inclusive parties so that all children can be involved. The concept has been created to ensure ‘no child gets left behind’ and Louise is a woman who gets stuff done!
Following a career in event management for Crown, and after having a ‘lightbulb moment’ on the way to work one day, Louise has stopped at nothing to help thousands of little kids have fun on their birthdays and be invited to the humongous parties she puts on. She wants kids to feel comfortable to embrace their uniqueness and, with the amazing events she puts on, they have the perfect opportunity to do so.
Louise keeps it real and talks about how she was at such ease with her decision to start her business that she felt as if a weight lifted once she concentrated on it full time after leaving her corporate career. You will love her sense of humor, her stories of kindness and she is a woman to be totally admired as she is also juggling a young family at the same time. She credits her success to persistence, online networking, and surrounding herself with supportive people.
Susan Jarvis is the founder of the Spicy Boudoir, which aims to boost the confidence of disabled people and people over the age of 50 and help them embrace their sexuality. Susan mentions that she herself just turned 50 a few years ago and noticed that, from her age group onwards, talk about sex seemed to be taboo and suggests this could have had something to do with the time in which this age group was growing up. She wants to open up the conversation and help older people feel comfortable in talking about their sexuality
Susan saw a need in the market and met it, with a tailored online adult sex toy shop for those over 50 and for those with disabilities. Her target audience is bang on because when trialing activity on Pinterest, she received a lot of interest – not surprising given the high arts and crafts content on the medium. She also launched the business with a n=bang! A highly successful PR campaign she did herself.
As a first time entrepreneur over the age of 50, and having worked within the health industry in her previous career, Susan bravely stepped outside of her comfort zone from the 9-5 to start her own business. In the interview, she talks about all of the research she did and the operational efficiencies she’s employed to keep down storage costs for physical products. Susan is passionate about her mission and product, and it’s clear that she has established a business that works for her.
Mel Dancer is only new to the entrepreneurial journey but her story is so interesting that she has to be heard! Mel is an ex-Police Officer. She had always wanted to be a detective and loved her years in the Force, but they were very, very stressful. Mel describes what it was like to work across some pretty full-on crime scenes and how it affects your psychology.
Mel realized that when most people leave the Police Force to go back to the private sector, they need support. They need to be taught about job interviews and LinkedIn and the sorts of roles they could apply for (other than security) and that is what she offers through her cleverly names business, Out Of The Blue. Mel is so generous with her story, you will be fascinated.
What a barrel of laughs Chamaine Lovett, the co-founder of Gin Birds, is! She is full of positive energy and fun. Her story of life in the UK as a nurse and health professional prior to moving to Australia is fascinating. once she and her family got here (she has 3 older children and an 8-year-old with her hubby) she got herself a job and made friends with the other Mums at the primary school.
Starting off as Three Birds Drink Wine with two other Mums, she decided to focus on Gin in March 2020 when their wine tours had to stop. Since then she has created the Consumer Gindex (an index of all the Australian independent distilleries), she has a Gin Birds blog that won Top 5 Blogs in the World recently, and she has stacks of plans for the future.
JJ Ferrari is the founder of Go Bold, a business that makes it really easy for small and medium enterprises to find legitimate experts in a range of fields. After an illustrious sales career in the USA, JJ moved to Australia to be CEO of the Anthony Robbins organization here. Her breadth of knowledge, entrepreneurial spirit, and experience planted the seed for a new business opportunity – enter Go Bold. Many years ago JJ was John. Her transition journey and her drive to help others make her a fantastic guest. She is very generous with her stories, (you should see her TEDX talk) and she has used her experience to apply the concept of change and how to manage it, to all aspects of the business. You should also hear her quirky fact about problem-solving! Growing up, the most powerful people in her life were women. Women, who were at home, solving problems, looking after everyone, taking care of everything, and taking it all in their stride. From a young age she saw women as powerful people and experts in our ‘internal arts’, and strongly believes that women need to help other women. JJ also believes that whomever you are is who you attract, and that to be open to success, you need to be flexible to your intuition and let the world bring the answers.AppsNote KeeperNotability
Kylie Bartlett is amazing! Her business, The Digital Talent Group is just the latest in a long string of businesses she has started – the first one being an RTO that she sold in her early 20’s. She then became a speaker and has spoken at conferences and events all over the world, focusing on social media for businesses. Her book, Friends with Benefits, all about Facebook marketing was the impetus for the speaking gigs.
In 2019 Kylie decided to go back to what she loves, and set up The Digital Talent Group as a way of giving back. The idea is that they train unemployed and young people in social media marketing, putting them through a course that gives them a fully recognized accreditation. then they employ them to work on people’s small businesses. Brilliant! COVID-19 threw a curveball though, just as they were pitching to VS’s for funding!
In this episode, Jules and Kylie talk about her entrepreneurial journey from dropping out of school to where she is today, what she has learned along the way, and where she hopes to take the business. Jules and Kylie have known each other for many years so there is a lovely familiarity in their conversation.
Fiona is a true creative – she’s a writer, actor, author, and Co-Founder of a television production house with her partner. She talks about how she traveled in her early years and then started acting in various roles before starting to write – plays, movies, comedy, and now, her own multi-award-winning web-based show, The Drop Off.
Fiona’s story of how The Drop Off has grown in popularity makes for great listening. The book has now been launched (it’s fantastic) and the show has been picked up by a commercial station. All the ingredients you need for a great tale.
Watch out for our technical glitch towards the end. Our Producer, Dave Stokes, saved the day with his clever transition!!
