Angela Priestly is a journalist through and through! She has always loved current affairs, politics, and writing and in her early years, she was a freelance journalist writing for a number of custom and niche publications across a variety of topics. After a stint writing for Private Media where she launched an investigative journalism title, The Power Index for Crikey.com, she identified a huge gap in the market. Quality journalism for women in business. And so The Women’s Agenda was created. This publication is at the top of the tree when it comes to politics, business, leadership, and more.
When it first came out, in 2011, it was a breath of fresh air for the Australian media landscape and it still is! These days The Women’s Agenda runs events, maintains an annual Leadership awards program, and lots more. In 2018 Angela co-founded Agenda Media which recently launched Women’s Health News and other new titles covering women’s sport, STEM, climate leadership, and more. If there was only one publication you should follow in Australia as a woman in business, this would be it! Angela is amazing and you are bound to be inspired by her story and her purpose. This episode is sponsored by Brand for Brands. Brand For Brands is a branding agency run by two sisters, located in Sydney. They specialise in building and refreshing brands that speak to the right people, the ones that will invest in your products and services. To find out more, go to https://brandforbrands.com/
To find out more about She’s The Boss Group, and our other podcasts, go to https://shesthebossgroup.com/
Martina is turning education as we know it on its head. Thank goodness for women like her! As a school teacher and principal for many years, Martina knew that something needed to change and so she created The School Beyond Limitations, an online school for students from all over the world. The School Beyond Limitations has students of all different ages that share the same virtual classroom (just like real life where we have to interact with people of all ages and abilities) and follow the subjects and topics that interest them.
Christina takes a holistic view when it comes to education, so the students can work on one subject and then look at the related areas such as geography, maths, history and biology to make the content relevant and stimulating for all ages. the lessons go for 3 hours, the students are offered the opportunity to conduct classes themselves if they would like and it completely changes their lives! The students also get the incredibly exciting opportunity to meet three times a year, in real life, in different geographic locations (how cool is that!) where they can socialise and learn together about the country or city they are in. This woman is a complete game changer when it comes to education. This episode is sponsored by Brand for Brands. Brand For Brands is a branding agency run by two sisters, located in Sydney. They specialise in building and refreshing brands that speak to the right people, the ones that will invest in your products and services. To find out more, go to https://brandforbrands.com/
To find out more about She’s The Boss Group, and our other podcasts, go to https://shesthebossgroup.com/
Casey Burgess, who recently released her first solo album, is an amazing actress, musician, and television presenter with over a decade of experience in the entertainment industry. Having grown up in a musical family, Casey’s first role was in Annie while she was still at school, and on the back of that, she was mercilessly bullied by her schoolmates. As a result of her breakout stage role in the musical, she was offered a role as the presenter of Girl TV on Channel 7.
What a great way to show her bullies that she wasn’t going to let them get her down! Following on from Girl TV, Casey auditioned for the children’s group Hi-5 and was chosen to replace Charli. She stayed with Hi-5 for 4 years, traveling the world but also working incredibly hard. Finding it hard to be taken seriously after her stint in a children’s group, Casey eventually got acting roles then the Pandemic hit, and the time at home made her want to realise her dream of a solo album. That album is now out, fully funded by Casey and is called Space to Breathe.
Sue Fennessy has been an entrepreneur since she left school, and is one of the most successful, and nicest female founders out there! Sue’s story started with a fax machine in her bedroom when she started her first business, MM Communications, a marketing and PR agency in Melbourne. This was followed by a move to Shanghai where she started the Chinese arm of Frontier Entertainment and brought international acts. such as Andrew Lloyd Webber productions to China for the first time. Then she came back to Australia and started the Standard media Index (SMI) to bring transparency to where brands were spending their marketing dollars. As SMI grew, Sue moved to New York to expand the business into the USA.
This was followed by a lightbulb moment where Sue realised that the $550 billion dollars that social media platforms like Facebook were earning from advertising, and the data that was being mined, should be handed back to the people. So she created WeAre8, bringing brands and people together to change the world. Sue still lives in New York and has spent the last 10 years building WeAre8. She explains how, at one stage she realised the model was wrong and had to pare back to a tiny team, reassess the situation and rebuild. It’s now taking off around the world. Sue is an absolute hero of Jules’ (they have known each other for years) and this interview will definitely inspire anyone who has plans for global disruption!
Noga Edelstein is my latest guest on the She’s The Boss show. What a woman! She started her career as a lawyer and talks about why she left the law to set up UrbanYou, a cleaning and housekeeping marketplace. She raised capital a couple of times before negotiating a successful exit from a multinational company.
Their strategy of the acquisition was fascinating and it worked! Noga is now looking at becoming an investor herself, and is involved with a number of initiatives, including being on the board of Springboard Enterprises (SBE Australia).
Cynthia is a Property Advisor and Buyers Advocate through her business, Metrolinx, but she has a twist! She only works with one person at a time which means she gives them her undivided attention until they have the house of their dreams and then she takes the next client. Howzat?! She also loves working with generations within the same family – first home for the kids, downsizing for the parents, upsizing for the kids when they have kids of their own, and so on. What a great model!
Growing up in South Africa, Cynthia and her husband
Sheree Rubinstein is such an inspiration! She created One Roof as a co-working space for female entrepreneurs and it has everything a business woman would want, from childcare to courses to social events and business support. Starting out as a lawyer, it didn’t take Sheree long to realise it really wasn’t for her. She wanted to build something herself. The concept of One Roof took off fast and Sheree was lucky to be given access to a space in Southbank, Melbourne that was ideal. She invested time and resources to make it perfect, including an event space.
After 4 years, she was given notice and had to find a new space. In order to do that she needed money and Sheree describes what it was like to capital raise (her experience with her female investors sounds like the ideal scenario!) and then COVID hit. Where many women would have curled up in a ball as co-working spaces became unworkable, Sheree pivoted to online and created One Line, making the community and support services available to women around the country (and overseas). You’ll love this story from a woman who is determined to support Australian female founders. Get inspired!
Oh wow! Natasha Price is brilliant. She is an elite adptive athlete, an entreprerneur, speaker, awards winner and author. Tash is truly a woman who has overcome obstacles most of us couldn’t even begin to comprehend, and yet she is the most positive, inspiring woman I have interviewed yet! Born in England, Tash’s father was an A-League soccer player for Aston Villa, which led to some bullying at school, making life difficult for her as the family also moved around a lot due to football commitments. In year 12 she got sick and, with no support from her school after medical issues, she was kicked out. Tash went on to complete school by herself.
Upon leaving school, Tash, who has Type 1 diabetes, headed to Australia for a 12 month holiday. Her story of having her car (and insulin) stolen in a remote part of WA, and the repercussions, are a massive story in itself, but this was only the beginning of the challenges life has thrown at her. Upon returning home, she persuaded her entire family to move to Australia, before she returned, for what she thought would be a year, to the UK with her little sister to look after her while she completed her education.
At this point, Tash’s story becomes quite harrowing. She woke up on Boxing Day at a relative’s house, and was blind in one eye. A week later, she lost the sight in her other eye and yet the doctor’s didn’t know what it was, so they didn’t offer any treatment. As a result, Tash suffered permanent damage to her sight and has never recovered any sight in one eye, and has limited vision in the other. The doctors still couldn’t work out what was wrong.
She later went on to lose the use of the lower half of her body and then, cruelly (and very fast), became completely paralysed to the point of not being able to even speak. It took four years of rehab for Tash to regain some independence and at that stage, she managed to return to her beloved Australia to be reunited with her parents. But she was bedridden and very unhappy.
Then, in 2017 she watched the Brisbane Marathon from her sick bed and told her fmily that she was going to compete the following year…and she did! Despite just about everything that could go wrong, going wrong, she completed the marathon which led to a training camp for wheelchair atheletes, which led to her trying to find a coach. Enter Adam Shepherd.
These days Tash and Adam run InvincAble – giving visibility to disability and empowering people regardless of ability, they do a lot of motivational speaking, coaching and consulting on Diversity and Inclusion. She has even become an author! Tash’s story is truly inspirational, and if you realise what she has overcome herself, it should put any of your own issues into perspective. I can’t wait to see what she does in the future. She’s amazing!
Nafisa’s story is absolutely fascinating. From growing up in Hong Kong and being ‘good at maths as well as art, Nafisa studied for her medical degree to please her parents. As soon as it was finished, she started an activewear fashion brand that went global and she ran that for ten years before deciding to pursue her first love, portraiture. She went on to found Portraits Artists Australia, an NFP to support artists. She went on to win the Archibald Prize and the Gold Medal for Painting at the Florence Biennale and her work hangs in the National Gallery.
Another of Nafisa’s great loves throughout her life has been wildlife and animals. She is now dedicating the rest of her life to wildlife protection as the co-founder of Animalworks International where they will be raising funds for specific equipment – and focusing on solar-powered water pumps. This is a woman who excels at everything she turns her mind to. A total inspiration!
This episode is sponsored by Brand for Brands. Brand For Brands is a branding agency run by two sisters, located in Sydney. They specialise in building and refreshing brands that speak to the right people, the ones that will invest in your products and services. To find out more, go to https://brandforbrands.com/
Heidi Dugan is by no means your usual television celebrity! Growing up in Australia in a family that valued self-improvement, she knew intimately the advice and encouragement of every well-known self-improvement expert from Tony Robbins to Wayne Dyer and everyone in between. As a university student, she signed up for a program to learn to teach English as a Second Language in China, which led to her being in a TV studio twenty years ago, on the day they decided it was time to have China’s first foreign-born host. Heidi got the gig.
Since then she has hosted a daily show called ‘You Are The Chef’ with over 6 million viewers per episode! She is fluent in Chinese and has a Chinese husband, and is dearly loved by millions. These days, Heidi has added another string to her bow by working with Australian lifestyle brands that want to access the Chinese market. Her endorsement can make the difference in whether a brand will sink or swim, and she loves introducing new products into the Chinese market as she knows it so intimately. You will love Heidi and not only what she has achieved in the past, but also what she is doing now for Aussie brands.
Lisa Andrews is, as she says, ‘actively working on solving the global grand challenges’ by using technology and innovation to make the world a better place. She has not had your average career. With a deep love of numbers, she went down the accounting route for many years, resulting in her creating a firm with 82 employees, before she chose a completely different path and started to explore working with entrepreneurs and visionary disruptors.
Lisa has also experienced two kidney transplants, both times with kidneys donated by family members, and to a certain extent, it is her experience of having an ‘invisible disability’ that has shaped her dramatic change and exciting future! Lisa has really had an extraordinary career, including spending hours, one-on-one with Richard Branson on Necker Island, and going to Davos in Switzerland. By the time you get to the end of this interview, you should be all fired up and ready to take on the world!
This episode is sponsored by Brand for Brands. Brand For Brands is a branding agency run by two sisters, located in Sydney. They specialise in building and refreshing brands that speak to the right people, the ones that will invest in your products and services. To find out more, go to https://brandforbrands.com/
Genine Howard is just fabulous! She now teaches women how to unwind everything they have been taught about business, step into their own feminine power and intuition and lead the life they have always wanted! She always looks like a model but she’s the most down-to-earth woman you could know.
Genine grew up in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, before heading north to Queensland as soon as she graduated. After arriving with almost nothing but her car and her optimism and can-do attitude, within a week she had a house, a job, and a new life. From tour guide to management and then a segway into magazine publishing, Genine is not a woman to sit on her laurels!
After a brief stint back in Melbourne, Genine is now living the life she always wanted on the Sunshine Coast, and she has picked a lot into her life so far. You will love her story!
Lisa Cox wants to change the way disabled people are featured in the media. By the end of this episode, you will feel the same way. Lisa’s story is quite shocking as she had a stroke and then got sepsis in her 20s whilst in the midst of her career trajectory in advertising. After the initial 3 years of rehabilitation (which included two years learning to type again), she optimistically went out to reclaim her career, with the same resume and awards, but rather than being embraced back into the fold, she was basically patted on the head, told she was ‘brave’ but no one offered her a job.
Lisa knows firsthand what it is like to be affected physically but to be treated as if she is mentally impaired. She also knows that there are very few disabled role models that are ‘normal’ people – not Paralympians or geniuses – and she wants to change that. This is a super inspiring episode.
This episode is sponsored by Brand for Brands. Brand For Brands is a branding agency run by two sisters, located in Sydney. They specialise in building and refreshing brands that speak to the right people, the ones that will invest in your products and services. To find out more, go to https://brandforbrands.com/
Kerry Howard is a psychologist, an author, speaker, coach, advocate for change within the health system, adventurer, and all-round bad arse!
You will love her story.
After growing up as the youngest of 5 with a single Mum, Kerry somehow blamed herself for her father’s departure from the family a few months after she was born. This has informed many of her decisions in adult life. She also got knocked down by a bus which led to PTSD and her becoming a psychologist and specialising in trauma.
After growing up in a variety of homes, starting off in outer suburban Victoria, Kerry took off overseas as soon as she finished school.
After she returned, she married very young and soon had two young kids. After her marriage broke down she headed to security and stability in Canberra.
Using her secretarial skills to work for government departments, Kerry soon rose up the ranks, and it was after the birth of her kids and her divorce that she decided to have some counseling, and then become a counselor.
Kerry has written two serious books – and one about dating that is very funny and compares men to shoes – and has had a psychology counseling business for over a decade. But that’s all about to change.
As we were recording the interview, Kerry is planning a long trip overseas to reassess her life and see where she wants to go next. You will absolutely love this woman and her adventurous spirit!
Rochelle Courtenay is one inspiring woman! Not only has she built Share the Dignity into a huge brand that has built awareness of the lack of sanitary products available for homeless women, or as she calls it, ‘period poverty’ but she has also agitated successfully for the removal of the GST that was applied to tampons and sanitary products for years and years. And that’s not half of it!
Watch the show to find out how she grew a volunteer network of over 5,000 ‘Sheroes, how she created free vending machines with ‘period packs’, and what she doing to help our indigenous sisters and the women caught in the bushfires or caught out by COVID. She explains the challenges she is facing right now, as many of her annual drives have been canceled because of the pandemic, and what she is doing to get around the obstacles. Share the Dignity is more important than ever as we come out of the pandemic and lockdown, with more and more women needing access to sanitary products.
This episode is sponsored by Brand for Brands. Brand For Brands is a branding agency run by two sisters, located in Sydney. They specialise in building and refreshing brands that speak to the right people, the ones that will invest in your products and services. To find out more, go to https://brandforbrands.com/
