The fabulous Judith Rizzio is a style activist, an LGBTQIA activist, and her mission in life is to empower 50+ women in order to make fashion accessible to everyone. She has a very fun business called Out Of Our Closet. Judith has a real love for fashion but she discovered a long time ago that fashion is focused on youth and it’s becoming less and less part of her life, but this isn’t by choice. Judith’s love affair with fashion started in the Bowery in New York. At the Salvation Army, she would dig through bins to find vintage clothes that she could tear apart to create something new. She’s spent more than 40 years collecting, creating, and styling. Judith has run non-profit thrift stores and costumed high school theatre shows.
She learned to sew when she was in fifth grade and her love for stylish clothes came from her father and grandmother. Judith famously patched a pair of jeans for JFK Junior after he admired a pair of patched jeans she was wearing. She lived in a commune in the 70s and has even had a mini-documentary made about her through Vice Media. For 26 years Judith was involved in community relations on management teams for two of Portland’s largest HIV agencies and this helped shape her life. She saw over 400 predominantly gay men die from the disease. She was also hired by HNM to be Iris Apfel’s body and stunt double for a commercial. In Judith’s words, “It’s a damn right to look good in your clothes, in your body and in the world!”
Lauren Ryan is the BDM-Investments for ThinkTank Commercial Finance. She joined Thinktank in 2018 to create brand awareness in the investment market. Lauren is passionate about helping investors achieve their income goals. Lauren is also passionate about sports. S
he’s always played high-level sports and has a love for theatre. Lauren began studying Creative Arts at university but decided she didn’t want to be a struggling artist so chose finance instead. Her first job was at MLC. Lauren is a young successful, ambitious and competitive woman, In 2019 she did about 80 flights for work, played semi-pro football and was running a business chamber for a sporting club. She did all this under the age of thirty!
Christina Ryan established the Disability Leadership Institute in 2016 as a professional hub for disabled leaders to build and support disability leaders. It is the first organisation of its kind globally, run by and for disability leaders. Christina advocates for the single largest minority group in the world and the UN reported that 15% of disabled people make up the global population, but Christina believes that it’s closer to 25%. In Australia, only four out of 900 parliamentarians have a disability, and only one is a woman.
Frighteningly, violence in the disability sector is endemic. About 90% of women with a cognitive disability will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime, most of these women more than once. People with disabilities are often on the receiving end of discrimination and vilification. Christina has been a feminist since the age of eight and the women in her family have always been active in the women’s movement, including her grandmother. Christina grew up knowing she could change things and make a difference. She did her apprenticeship at home!
Emma is extraordinary. Coming from a family that thrived on innovation and entrepreneurship, she grew up helping her parents with their magazines, with the expectation that she would continue. But Emma wanted to go out on her own. In this interview, she takes us through the various incarnations of her career before the pandemic – which includes running a directory and an events company. While many people didn’t do much during the lockdowns, Emma isn’t one of those people! She and her husband, as foster parents themselves, realised there was a huge gap when it comes to preserving memories for foster children, many of whom can move around up to 20 times before they are 18.
The launch of CaringLife has gone incredibly well and they have now launched in the UK and the USA as well as Australia. Emma also launched Plezed.com which is a digital platform that is addressing the fact that from next year, no one will be able to use cookies on their websites, therefore they won’t get the same insights into their customers’ behaviour. Plezed will allow organisations to speak directly with their customers to ask them for their preferences. It is a game-changer! This woman is totally inspiring and you will love this episode!
Emma is extraordinary. Coming from a family that thrived on innovation and entrepreneurship, she grew up helping her parents with their magazines, with the expectation that she would continue. But Emma wanted to go out on her own. In this interview, she takes us through the various incarnations of her career before the pandemic – which includes running a directory and an events company. While many people didn’t do much during the lockdowns, Emma isn’t one of those people! She and her husband, as foster parents themselves, realised there was a huge gap when it comes to preserving memories for foster children, many of whom can move around up to 20 times before they are 18.
The launch of CaringLife has gone incredibly well and they have now launched in the UK and the USA as well as Australia. Emma also launched Plezed.com which is a digital platform that is addressing the fact that from next year, no one will be able to use cookies on their websites, therefore they won’t get the same insights into their customers’ behaviour. Plezed will allow organisations to speak directly with their customers to ask them for their preferences. It is a game-changer! This woman is totally inspiring and you will love this episode!
Trenna Probert is amazing! After a career that culminated in her being Head of Strategy APAC for Macquarie Group, and the same role at Blue Chilli, Trenna struck out on her own. As an experienced entrepreneur, she has started multiple businesses, and her passion stems from a rich tapestry of personal experience. Her greatest passion currently is Super Fierce, a business Treena founded. Super Fierce is a social enterprise Fin Tech that was built to help close the $30 Trillion gender wealth gap. Superannuation, for younger Australian women, is their largest financial asset.
Trenna wants women to be able to fund the retirement that they deserve and The Super Fierce platform is one that enables women to do this, as well as saving them $3,000 – $4,500 that they would normally pay if they were to seek the help of a financial advisor. Trenna wants to make appropriate, affordable advice is accessible to every single woman in this country. She wants to empower women to age with dignity, self-confidence and have the ability to become financially resilient. Her life experience has taught Treena how vital it is for women to stand on their own two feet.
