She Started It Elise O'Halloran and Steph Benseman

Rachel Taulelei is an inspiring business leader and a strong advocate for the Maori economy, purpose-driven business models and Aotearoa’s food and beverage industry.
She began her global career at New Zealand Trade & Enterprise in North America. Once returning home she set up sustainable seafood company Yellow Brick Road, which was later acquired by Kono before she became CEO of the group. She’s now the co-founder of business design and brand strategy firm, Oho. Rachel is a multifaceted business leader and wears a number of other hats, from Director to Basketball Team Owner. In this episode of the She Started It podcast Rachel shares openly about the learnings from her career on leadership, establishing your personal values and staying true to them, how to build and authentically nurture your network, and so much more.

Sophie Hallwright has had an incredible career as a producer for some of the biggest shows in Australasia. Her experiences have led her to now being a co-founder and producer for The Curve, an award winning investing and financial education platform for women. In this episode, Sophie candidly shares that she does not identify with the idea that people are “born entrepreneurs” and personally, never saw herself as one - largely because growing up, it wasn’t something she was surrounded by.


But now, here she is as a business owner, podcast host and content creator for one of the largest female investing communities online. Sophie shares in this episode how she has overcome self-doubt to embrace this next stage of her life - and how you can too! She shares with us her interesting career from radio producer, to living in fiji producing survivor for 6 months, to travelling the globe and everything else in between and how this has prepared her for the work she is doing now. Sophie’s story is such great encouragement for those who are currently in the throes of a fast growing business or career progression, as well as for those who feel like they are in a stage of just trying to figure everything out. For those of you who have listened to the Curve podcast, you will know that Sophie is absolutely hilarious - so it was a pleasure to speak with Sophie on this month's episode of the She Started it Podcast. 

In this episode, Sophie shares on her story on:

- Managing the demands of a growing business

- Finding the right business partner

- Being 'authentically you' in your business

- Her globally ambitious plans for growing community

- Making financial education engaging and empowering

- How to start a business that is inline with your own risk tolerance

Claudia has achieved global success. She left her promising career as a young lawyer at Russel Mcveigh to move to New York in 2002. She had ambitions to combine her love of technology, marketing and make up. While that didn’t go exactly to plan her optimism and work ethic opened up many more opportunities. She went on to found and exit two startups. The first being Massive, a gaming ad network which was sold to Microsoft in 2006. Then Victors & Spoils which pioneered crowdsourcing in an advertising agency. Havas acquired a majority stake in the agency in 2012.

Claudia returned to New Zealand in 2021, she now contributes her global knowledge and experience as a board director for Air NZ and Vista Group and as Chair of Serko.

In this episode she shares on:
- Trusting your intuition and jumping into the unknown, lessons learnt from her business ventures and successful career moves. - What it means to live a squiggly life. 

- Her experience moving to New York as a young lawyer and how she had to unlock her inner strength to make it work.

- Unlocking her inner strength to succeed when moving to New York as a young lawyer

 - Authentically building your network and relationships and the benefits that come from having female power circles.

 - How she sets goals and measures what matters in her life and career. 

- Practical advice for just getting started on your business ideas, big dreams and goals. 

- Encouragement on being your authentic-self and how she carries this with her as a super-power in the board room. 



Booksreferenced: https://www.mightyape.co.nz/product/measure-what-matters/27567130?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAk9itBhASEiwA1my_69cHMxaegfo5UkgBdDhi-xUdbhEfoIhGyN_8vZtxty8rvBtz5hFSdRoCefUQAvD_BwEhttps://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/17134189

Elise Hilliam is the Co-Founder and Chief Operations Offer of Menu Aid - an online meal planning platform that is solving the "what's for dinner" dilemma for thousands of people with personalised recipes and smart shopping lists.



In this episode Elise shares with us:


Her journey from a small-town upbringing to now leading a fast-growing company. 


Her lessons learnt from traveling around the world. 


Harnessing data insights and embracing new and creative opportunities.


Strategies for building genuine relationships with customers and using their insights to solve their problems and anticipate their needs. 


Tips for successfully working with a co-founder (so successful, they are about to get married!). 


Strategies for investing in your own personal development as a people leader. 



https://menuaid.co.nz/

Siân Simpson is the Founder and CEO of Public Rally, an agency dedicated to building world class communities and content strategies and has clients in the technology, music, AI, crime, legal and education sectors. Along with this, Siân has recently launched her latest venture Bountifull Media which is a media company growing community and global connections through the simplicity of garden-to-plate living.



In this episode Siân shares with us:

- Her inspiring and interesting career journey which has now found her launching her new global media company, focused on bringing garden-to-plate joy to people all over the world.

- How she has created a career and life for herself that is in line with her values and passions, with tips on how you can do the same.

- The importance of community building,  opening up on her extensive experience and tips from a diverse career of community building for companies all over the world.

- How she has overcome burnout and exhaustion by coming back to nature and grounding ourselves



Read more about Siân's ventures:

https://www.bountifullworld.com/about/

https://www.siansimpson.com/my-story.html

https://indigoandiris.co/blogs/i-i-blog/an-interview-with-sian-simpson

Natalia Lopez is a Director and the Chief Operations Officer at Kitea Health, a medical technology company transforming healthcare for people living with chronic conditions.

Natalia shares about the inspiring work she is leading in the medical technology space, and how her career journey has been filled with many different experiences ranging from studying electrical engineering in the US, to working in the automotive industry, to her current role now.

Natalia's story is great encouragement for anyone who is considering or going through a career pivot and Natalia is also an inspiring role model for women in STEM and Engineering, as she shares her story of how she was one of only two women in her entire engineering class at university.

We hope your enjoy this month episode!