Collective Conversations: The Women in Business Podcast

Meet Verity Hare, the powerhouse behind TradieWives - a thriving community of nearly 30,000 members supporting partners in the trades industry. From starting a Facebook group to help with her husband's landscaping business to building a comprehensive business academy and directory, Verity shares her journey of creating Australia's largest trade support network. Learn how she transformed...

Join us for an insightful conversation with HR expert Amy Christophersen from Grounded HR, alongside guest host Jane from The Jane Edit. Amy shares her fresh perspective on human resources for small businesses, discussing everything from managing husband-wife teams to creating healthy workplace cultures. Learn why HR isn't just for big corporations and how proper people management can transfo...

In the first episode of  the freshly rebranded Collective Conversations (formerly FAFO), Jane Ekholm returns to discuss neurodivergence in business, mindset, and the importance of understanding personal work rhythms. From tackling perfectionism to creating boundaries that provide clarity rather than walls, Jane shares insights from her 20 years of business experience. The conversation explores how...

An important announcement episode where the podcast team shares news about Rah stepping back from her co-hosting role and reveals the show's upcoming rebrand to "Collective Conversations: The Women in Business Podcast." The episode captures the bittersweet transition while celebrating the growth of what started as an experiment into a thriving business community with conferences and...

Meet Rebecca Lambert, founder of the Freelance Jungle and portfolio career pioneer, as she unpacks the art of building a multi-faceted career. From disrupting old systems to creating inclusive communities, Beck shares her insights on how to thrive beyond the traditional "one job for life" model. Learn about time boxing, value-driven decision making, and why having multiple professional p...

Meet Sophie, the 20-year-old founder of Sophie's Slime Factory, who turned her childhood love of slime into a thriving business empire. Starting at age 12 with homemade recipes, she now runs a gorgeous creative space in Castle Hill with a team of 15. Listen in as Sophie shares her journey from kitchen experiments to professional slime queen , including the science behind the perfect recipe, g...

Ready to rethink how you make money in your business? Join Chris, Em, and Rah as they unpack the concept of pivoting - not just as a response to crisis, but as a strategic approach to building sustainable income streams. Inspired by Milly Tamati's "Independent Income Ladder" concept, the trio shares honest insights about diversifying revenue, testing new ideas, and giving yourself p...

Ever wondered what happens when you stop limiting your business dreams? Meet Mo and Pat from Greer Films, who transformed their business from a home-based side hustle into a thriving studio space in regional NSW.   In today's episode, they share their journey from Pat getting fired (best thing that ever happened) to building a professional studio. Plus, they open up about juggling three kids,...

Sometimes the hardest part of running a business is knowing when to walk away from clients. In this episode, we open up about our experiences of breaking up with clients for a bunch from reasons, like escaping challenging clients or re-focusing your business priorities. We dive into the factors to help make the decision, how to handle the exit professionally, and why documenting everything is your...

Meet Larissa Wright, a woman who manages to juggle four kids, multiple businesses, and still finds time to be everyone's biggest cheerleader in the business community. (And she recently won an award to prove it!) Larissa opens up about how she manages it all without losing her shit. She shares honest truths about learning to say no, dealing with difficult relationships, and why sometimes you...

Content warning: Death of a husband, grief. Meet Cassandra Barrie - business therapist, empire builder, and the most refreshingly honest guest we've had yet. When life threw Cass the unthinkable - losing her husband while 30 weeks pregnant and managing four businesses through grief - she didn't just survive, she transformed her experience into a revolutionary approach to business therapy...

There's no denying it - shit goes wrong in business. Whether it's getting locked out of your socials, losing clients, or having your whole world turned upside down (hello, pandemic), every business owner faces moments when everything goes to shit. In this episode, we're breaking down what to do when disaster strikes. No sugar-coating, just practical strategies to help you prepare fo...

Holy shit, today's guest is a fucking powerhouse! Meet Adrienne Donnelly, the reluctant 'ultimate entrepreneur' (yeah, we gave her that title and we're sticking to it). This badass runs multiple businesses like a boss, including Organised by Adrienne and Newcastle Virtual Assistants (which she runs with Jane Elkholm, one of our epic guest from 2024). And because apparently slee...

Holy shit, we're getting ORGANISED! Today we're diving into the mind-blowing concept of setting 100 smaller goals for your business (yes, you read that right - one hundred fucking goals!). Between Dotty the cat's attempts to steal the show and our usual shenanigans, we're breaking down how to turn those overwhelming ""holy fuck, how will I ever do this"" bus...

Today we're doing something new and having a dude into our podcast - but trust us, David Rosenthal from Retinue Accounting is not a boring accountant. We're diving into the money chat that usually makes entrepreneurs want to hide under their desk, but David somehow takes the ick out of talking about cash flow and balance sheets. We have plenty of "holy shit, I didn't know that&...

Today we're diving deep into why winging it in business is a recipe for disaster (we've been there and it sucks) and how our planning days and goal-setting sessions have saved our asses and actually helped us achieve some pretty epic shit. Get ready for real talk about what actually works - from figuring out what resources you've got, to building habits that don't make you want...

Today we're joined by the absolute legend Sarah Sydir, who turned being "unemployable" into a massive f*ck you to the system by building not one, but TWO successful businesses supporting people with disabilities to become their own boss. Sarah keeps it real about juggling work and life, why traditional employment can get in the bin, and her kick-ass vision for creating workspaces th...

It's the first episode of 2025! Today we're talking about our business goals - including how we're actually going to achieve them without losing our minds. Spoiler alert: it involves saying "no" more, getting our shit together with planning, and accepting we can't do everything ourselves. We're especially pumped to chat about the events coming up with our newly-f...

Today's episode is our 2024 wrap-up where we spill the tea on everything that went down this year. From launching this podcast (and somehow not swearing TOO much) to putting on our first conference and watching our businesses grow - we're covering all the wins, fails, and ""what the actual f*ck"" moments of the year. Thank you SO much for being part of our first seaso...

Today we're diving into the Microsoft world with Marianne Tansley from Thrive Admin Services. Marianne's basically a wizard at turning Microsoft 365 from that boring software you kinda know into a total business superpower. We're talking way beyond basic Word and Excel - she's gonna blow your mind with tools you didn't even know existed that can basically run half your bus...

Today you're joining us on a road trip while discussing the importance of finding and building your business tribe. We're chatting about why going solo doesn't mean going it alone. We break down how having a solid network is basically business oxygen. Forget that toxic competition bullshit - we're all about lifting each other up, sharing the real deal, and creating connections...

Today we're shooting the shit from Newcastle, 2 hours north of Sydney, and we've got Jane from The Jane Edit and Newcastle Virtual Assistants joining us. Jane gets real about her ADHD diagnosis and how she's not just surviving, but absolutely crushing it in business. We dive deep into the tools that keep her sane, the strategies that help her thrive, and all the messy, beautiful bit...

Today we're banging on about the whole customer journey thing - you know, from that first "hey girl!" to keeping them coming back for more. We dive into all the bits and pieces that make up solid customer relationships (including our own stuff-ups along the way). There's a heap of chat about automation (because who has time to manually send every damn email?), and we share some...

Today we're joined by graphic designer Elise from Elise Lola Designs. We dive deep into her journey and have a solid chat about the elephant in the room - Canva and its impact on professional design (spoiler alert: it's complicated!). Between fits of laughter and some classic FAFO tangents, Elise drops some gold about keeping your brand consistent and why sometimes you need to invest in...

Get ready to nerd the fuck out about business systems! Today it's part 1 and we're diving deep into the shit that'll save your sanity - CRMs and automation tools that'll stop you from losing your mind over repetitive tasks. We're spilling all the tea about our love-hate relationships with tools like SuiteDash, ClickUp, and Asana (spoiler alert: they're actually pretty...