The Human Behind the Career Brand

Jeanette Walton
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When AI and other digitisation is consuming us. When we're under threat of professional and personal homogenisation and habitualisation. It's more important than ever to define our own unique career brand, supported by our individual stories, values, experiences, drivers and nuances.That's what inspired this podcast, interviewing a range of professionals who are more than their current job title. Who have other purposes and passions that inspire and complement how they earn a living. We'll discuss the worth of being a multifaceted human being, to inform and inspire ourselves and others.

  1. 4D AGO

    Kirsty McClay's Cricket Inspired Calmness & Curiosity

    My primary mission with this podcast series is to inspire each of us to value and appreciate our multifaceted strengths, experiences and offerings. Both as professionals and as human beings. And to highlight that human stories and connections will always matter, both personally and professionally. My next guest for this podcast series is Kirsty McClay. Kirsty has been working in the market research space for many years now. Her latest role is as the leader of market insights for the Australian Catholic University. And she’s previously worked for both national and international organisations across Australia, Singapore and the UK. This includes for TNS and Reality Check Research. Kirsty permanently relocated from London to Melbourne in the early 2000s. And in more recent years she’s started up a physical team-based activity that is popular in both of those countries. It's around four years ago that Kirsty signed up to start playing cricket at the Richmond Union Cricket Club. She joined as a 'mature' player, first participating in the winter season competition. Now that’s commitment when cricket is traditionally a summer sport. Despite being married to an Australian, Kirsty was completely new to cricket. She admits that she’d previously dismissed the game as 'boring'. Possibly due to her origins in Scotland where cricket was not an overly visible sport, despite its relative popularity. Kirsty surprised herself by taking to cricket like a duck takes to water. And last season her team won the grand final, while Kirsty won the team bowling award. Now that she’s an award-winning bowler, Kirsty is striving to master the art of batting. So far it’s proven to be a bit harder than bowling, but Kirsty finds that to be part of the attraction of playing cricket. The opportunity to continually learn and challenge yourself.

    24 min

  2. 6D AGO

    The Human Story Behind the Business & Brand - Ros & Khatija

    This podcast partnership with Women Making it Work aligns with but slightly deviates from my The Human Behind the Career Brand podcast series. The Human Story Behind the Business and Brand delves into those poignant moments, experiences and life lessons that shaped these high-performing professional women into who they are today. It discusses their fates, flaws, feats, fears and all the other fabulous human elements that have driven them to perform so well in their professional and personal lives. As has been encapsulated in the Women Making it Work celebratory anthology entitled Beyond the Business – Stories of Women Who Dared. The next guests for this podcast series are Ros Weadman and Khatija Halabi. Two of the authors and storytellers in Women Making it Work’s Beyond the Business anthology, representing those women who prioritise amplifying impact and communication. Two businesswomen who discovered their power through authentic communication and by creating transformative experiences. First up is Ros, founder and owner of PR and marketing consultancy Marcomms Australia, which she launched in 2011 after feeling the inner urge to run towards something greater. Ros is a self-confessed addict when it comes to language, storytelling and learning, which are three themes that have continue to fuel her career, underpinned by a desire to help people connect.  It’s been a continual evolutionary journey for Ros since she left the steady world of corporate communications, to help empower business leaders to be more transformative communicators. For a while she took on the persona of Super Ros, inspired by her business coach’s gift of a brand-themed doll that was often her ice-breaker at speaking engagements. She eventually retired that persona to go deeper in terms of finding her own voice and courage, enabling her to effectively elevate others in bringing to life authenticity, conviction and presence in their communications. My other podcast guest is Khatija, the owner of Casey Hearing as well as the chairperson of Women Making it Work. Originally migrating from South Africa to live and work in Gippsland in Victoria as an audiologist, when Khatija made the move to the big smoke of Melbourne to start up Casey Hearing, she didn’t know anyone and had minimal business acumen. It was when she joined both BNI and Women Making it Work that Khatija began to feel both immersed and evolved – the former for gaining foundational business knowledge and the latter for feeling a sense of human warmth and connection. Khatija lives by the Ubuntu philosophy that our own personal strength lies in supporting and bringing to life one another. And she learnt through those two business networking groups that a single connection should be transformational rather than transactional. Which she applies to her business in terms of helping people transition from isolation to connection. Collaboration continues to drive Khatija in both her personal and professional life.

    36 min

  3. FEB 4

    The Human Story Behind the Business & Brand - Jo Fisher & Jutta Klipsch

    This podcast partnership with Women Making it Work aligns with but slightly deviates from my The Human Behind the Career Brand podcast series. The Human Story Behind the Business and Brand delves into those poignant moments, experiences and life lessons that shaped these high-performing professional women into who they are today. It discusses their fates, flaws, feats, fears and all the other fabulous human elements that have driven them to perform so well in their professional lives. My next guests for this podcast series are Jo Fisher and Jutta Klipsch. Two of the authors and storytellers in Women Making it Work’s Beyond the Business anthology, representing those women who shed the masks of others’ expectations, abusive relationships, and/or inherited limitations to discover who they were always meant to be beneath the conditioning. First up is transformation coach and group facilitator Jo who underwent a significant ‘finding her voice’ journey after migrating from Wales to Australia in 2016 with her husband and three sons.  Formerly a highly regarded manipulative therapist in Wales and the broader United Kingdom for 20+ years, there were several cosmic or fatalistic experiences that brought Jo and her family to Australia. Where she had the opportunity to break free from her former practitioner career, and cultivate a career pathway better aligned with her internal passions and values, which includes coaching and public speaking. There were some challenging times for Jo when it came to building a new life in Australia, but she always knew she was meant to be in her new homeland. And she’s consequently redefined what success looks like, and continues to grow and flourish within the networks and relationships she’s established in Australia and beyond. My other guest is women’s empowerment coach and public speaker Jutta, who really started to find her voice after she left a long-term relationship in 2018. It had been Jutta’s dream since 2007 to become a transformation coach, and it was after breaking free of her domestically violent marriage along with an office job she’d had for 19 years that she began to choose herself and her career aspirations. There were crippling doubts and unspoken wounds that Jutta had to navigate, along with a financial setback from being conned by a fake coaching franchise, as she progressed towards living by her own rhythm as a coach empowering others. A clear signpost that she was moving in the right business direction was 12 months after leaving her marriage, when she hosted the first Women’s Empowerment Summit – she has since created multiple spaces where women can take off their mask and exhale. Jutta’s favourite quote is ‘it is better to be hated for who you are than loved for who you are not’, based on her belief that freedom begins when you are willing to take full ownership of your life.

    29 min

  4. JAN 31

    Heidi Clarris's Running Consistency

    My next guest for this podcast series is Heidi Clarris. Heidi is currently an executive leader at the disability service provider Aruma. Specialising in customer experience insights and strategy, also on executive boards that include for Aruma and Parkinson’s Australia, she’s previously been in leadership roles at Bupa, Public Transport Victoria and the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure. Heidi lives in the leafy eastern suburbs of Melbourne where she regularly hits the pavement to pursue her passion for running. She started running at around 19 years of age when she was diagnosed with a heart condition called supraventricular tachycardia – basically a tendency for fast heartrate. After she was told that if she didn’t increase her physical fitness level, she’d be on tablets for the rest of her life and possibly need an operation. Starting at zero fitness level, she took up running and it took at least a year before Heidi started to feel comfortable with (i.e. not close to dying) from this form of exercise.  Appreciating both the physical and mental health benefits of running, in her early 40s as her twin children started to become more independent, she started to set running goals. First it was 10km fun runs, then 15km, and now it’s half marathons. To be able to continue with this physically demanding but rewarding passion, Heidi has to continuously manage injuries based on her age and the length of time she’s been hitting the pavement, including through health specialists. And she recently recorded her personal best time in a half marathon in Melbourne.

    22 min

  5. JAN 29

    The Human Story Behind the Business & Brand - Naarah Harrison

    This podcast partnership with Women Making it Work aligns with but slightly deviates from my The Human Behind the Career Brand podcast series. The Human Story Behind the Business and Brand delves into those poignant moments, experiences and life lessons that shaped these high-performing professional women into who they are today. It discusses their fates, flaws, feats, fears and all the other fabulous human elements that have driven them to perform so well in their professional lives. My next guest for this podcast series is Naarah Harrison. One of the authors and storytellers in Women Making it Work’s Beyond the Business anthology, representing those women who have faced devastating health diagnoses or profound loss, and who chose to transform their pain into purpose, creating legacies that help others navigate life's hardest moments. Naarah is the co-owner of Home Inspections for a Better Peace of Mind, which she co-founded in 2013. Naarah has undergone several significant life transformations since leaving high school at 16 to work in a factory, followed soon after by starting a family at 20. She returned to high school at 28 after feeling an innate calling to make something better of her life, and hasn’t looked back since acing her VCE marks. Naarah’s career pathway since then has included the corporate world, youth support including as a volunteer, and tertiary education.

    24 min

  6. JAN 22

    The Human Story Behind the Business & Brand - Mary, Emma & Amanda

    This podcast partnership with Women Making it Work aligns with but slightly deviates from my The Human Behind the Career Brand podcast series. The Human Story Behind the Business and Brand delves into those poignant moments, experiences and life lessons that shaped these high-performing professional women into who they are today. It discusses their fates, flaws, feats, fears and all the other fabulous human elements that have driven them to perform so well in their professional and personal lives. As has been encapsulated in the Women Making it Work celebratory anthology entitled Beyond the Business – Stories of Women Who Dared. The guests in this podcast episode are Mary Benton, Emma Zoobi and Amanda Wright. Three of the authors and storytellers in Women Making it Work’s Beyond the Business anthology, representing those women who saw opportunities, took chances, put in the extra mileage, and confronted fears and doubts to enable them to grow both personally and professionally. Mary is one of the original committee members and the former chair of Women Making it Work, and is also the founder and owner of financial advisory Plan4Wealth. Mary stepped out of the safe, reliable corporate world to start up her own financial planning business shortly before she became involved in Women Making it Work that was also at its embryotic stage. She knows what it’s like to learn as you go, while operating with minimal business capital or funding, and to keep navigating feelings of dread and trepidation. Mary also understands the benefits of continuing to experiment and to be willing to be imperfect, as long as you keep trying. She played a pivotal role in Women Making it Work becoming the highly regarded local voice and businesswomen sisterhood that it is today, 20 years later, while also continuing to build and expand her own business Plan4Wealth. Mortgage and lending specialist Emma started up Loan Market in 2023, which follows on from her former Elevate Lending Solutions business. Emma has been involved in both property and business ownership for many years, after an earlier career in the corporate world, and is particularly passionate about empowering women and young people via deeper financial literacy. She believes that financial security is a freedom that can change people’s lives for the better, and she has first-hand experience in feeling rejected and neglected by Australia’s major financial institutions. Her earlier disheartening encounter with the bank lending system is what inspired Mary to become a lending specialist back in 2022. Amanda is the founder and owner of The Small Business Launching Pad that she kicked off in 2016, after spending many years in safety and injury management advisory roles. Her adult learning business’s main slogan is learning without boundaries, and it’s the establishment and running of this training and mentoring provider that has enabled Amanda to continue to build on her own capabilities including in the digital promotion and engagement space. While Amanda still believes that real connection is made in the warmth of a handshake and a face-to-face conversation, she has slowly but surely started to embrace the digital landscape for professional purposes, which includes a strong LinkedIn presence.

    32 min

  7. JAN 17

    Julie Allen's Football Playing Revelation

    My next guest for this podcast series is Julie Allen. Julie is a website specialist who’s been running her own website design and training business Biz Yourself since 2012. Which is backed up by her former career in finance, including as the director of finance broking service JMA Lending Solutions. Julie currently lives and grew up in the same part of Melbourne as me, an outer eastern area where AFL football continues to reign supreme as the preferred winter sport. For the first time in 2024, Julie laced up her footy boots at the age of 53, to start playing in the Masters AFL league. The following year she was voted in as vice captain. And in the same year, was honoured with the Spirit of the Hawka award, based on peer votes submitted after each game. An award that recognises those players who bring effort, positivity, and heart both on and off the field. As we’ll further discuss in this episode, playing football has showed Julie the rewards of taking on something new both physically and mentally, no matter what age. Along with learning a whole bunch of new skills, and finding confidence as a leader in a totally different environment.

    26 min

  8. JAN 15

    The Human Story Behind the Business & Brand - Debbie Key

    This podcast partnership with Women Making it Work aligns with but slightly deviates from my The Human Behind the Career Brand podcast series. The Human Story Behind the Business and Brand delves into those poignant moments, experiences and life lessons that shaped these high-performing professional women into who they are today. It discusses their fates, flaws, feats, fears and all the other fabulous human elements that have driven them to perform so well in their professional and personal lives. As has been encapsulated in the Women Making it Work celebratory anthology entitled Beyond the Business – Stories of Women Who Dared. My next guest for this podcast series is Debbie Key. One of the authors and storytellers in Women Making it Work’s Beyond the Business anthology, representing those women who have had the courage to pivot. Who walked away from corporate security, 40-year careers, and traditional definitions of success to build something aligned with their deeper calling and values. Debbie had been a high performer in the corporate world as an award-winning learning strategist for many years, before setting up her own Success BOX consultancy in 2020 during the global pandemic. It’s a L&D service focused on supporting leader and team growth through purposeful, practical and human-centred learning. This was inspired by Debbie’s desire to go deeper and wider in terms of unlocking the potential in other people, to shake off the sense of hollowness that had continued to infiltrate throughout her corporate career. Debbie acknowledges that there were moments of crippling self-doubt in establishing her own business. But that a louder internal voice shouting ‘what if it does work’ kept her going. Through her entrepreneurial journey she’s learned that success is deeply personal and that you’re allowed to redefine and redefine again your own version of business success. Debbie’s legacy is the belief that we all deserve to do work that lights us up and lifts others too.

    27 min
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About

When AI and other digitisation is consuming us. When we're under threat of professional and personal homogenisation and habitualisation. It's more important than ever to define our own unique career brand, supported by our individual stories, values, experiences, drivers and nuances.That's what inspired this podcast, interviewing a range of professionals who are more than their current job title. Who have other purposes and passions that inspire and complement how they earn a living. We'll discuss the worth of being a multifaceted human being, to inform and inspire ourselves and others.

Information

  • Creator
    Jeanette Walton
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    18
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Jeanette Walton