A TABLE AT THE BACK Branka Injac Misic and Laura Luck

This is the last episode of season 3! 

Pretend you're in a coffee shop, sitting down with us (remember sitting in a coffee shop?).. and having a casual chat about: 

- Laura celebrating a milestone this week! 

- Branka needing a drink (haha desperate times) 

- Is the black hole of quarantine swallowing us up? 

- Laura chats about current work projects and starting a new role

- Branka dives deep into her concerns around superannuation and sole traders during COVID

- How we're coping (or not coping) working from home with kids

- What our work days actually look like at the moment (it’s not pretty) 

- Why we haven’t been active on socials 

- Yes, we both just need to chill the eff out

Recs:

- Normal People TV adaptation 

- The Danish Way of Parenting



Contact us:
Hello@lauraluck.com.au

Branka@gigsuper.com.au

At the time of recording this episode, the world is experiencing a one in a hundred year event with the global pandemic that is COVID-19. Businesses all over the planet are struggling with many things – the most noticeable from the outside being their communication.

So this week, we invited a crisis comms expert on the podcast to guide us all through approaching business comms when things get turned upside down.

Anna Rogan is a foolhardy olive farmer and stubbornly creative copywriter who specialises in personality-driven website and email copy for small biz owners.

Anna has a BA in psychology, a post-grad in writing and a decade-long career in comms and media roles for some pretty big brands under her belt. And though she hails from a background in crisis comms, these days she mainly writes for purpose-driven, heart-led, socially-conscious small business owners and entrepreneurs.

In this episode we talked about:
• The standard format to follow when crafting crisis comms.
• Tapping into empathy to guide communication during a crisis – especially for businesses that tend to be more transactional.
• Finding the balance in your comms between business as usual and ‘business unusual’.
• Respecting brand tone of voice during a crisis.
• Tips for communicating with teams and stakeholders when you’re working remotely.

Find Anna here:
• https://www.annarogan.com/
• https://www.instagram.com/annaroganwriter/
• https://au.linkedin.com/in/anna-rogan-a7349624

With a decade of marketing experience for brands large and small, Matt applies user research and data to craft results-driven messaging combined with visual design and tech.

By day, Matt works as a conversion copywriter for Kajabi. By night, Matt combines copy, visual design, and tech to deliver high-converting websites for his clients.

No matter what he's working on, Matt obsessively asks how we can lead users on a journey that achieves business goals while making the world a little bit better.

In this episode we talked with Matt about:
• What it’s like to work for an amazing company that always puts the customer first
• How UX, copywriting, and comms strategy fit into the current economic and ethical climate
• How important will our type of work will be in the recovery from Covid-19

Connect with Matt:
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-hall-372b4645/
• https://www.conversiondesign.org/
• https://www.getanawesomejob.com/

As writers, we have a huge impact on making sure digital products are inclusive and accessible – and we spoke with Veronica Camara about how she does just that.
She's is the founder and Principal at AVO Agency, a human-centred content company serving complex industries.

We also spoke about:
- How Avo Agency came about and what cool projects Veronica has been working on
- How she works remotely with a team of freelancers, with people all over the world
- Tips for swapping time for money, and how the Avo business has evolved
- What does accessibility mean to writers and content strategists (and what are some examples)?
- An insight into Veronica's workshops on accessibility and inclusivity 

Recommendations:
- Range by David Epstein
- Chromatical Club: https://chromatical.com.au/
- Content Design Podcast with Vanessa Barlow

Find Veronica here:
@veronica.avo on instagram
Avoagency.com

Ethics in product design and UX writing.
It's a pretty heavy topic today pals. But we make it fun ;) 
We're talking:
- the addictiveness of apps
- moral dilemmas with projects or companies we’ve worked for and with 
- where does the responsibility lie?
- how we do things a little differently now that we have more experience under our belts
- why traditional influence techniques are great to know, but it's how you use them


Here are our recommendations:
• How tech hijacks people's minds (the list we run through by Tristan Harris, design ethicist): https://medium.com/thrive-global/how-technology-hijacks-peoples-minds-from-a-magician-and-google-s-design-ethicist-56d62ef5edf3
• “It’s all just a bunch of BS” (ep 6): https://podtail.com/en/podcast/it-s-all-just-a-bunch-of-bs/
• Samuel Salzer: Humans Design Products...Or Products Design Humans
http://nxhx.org/Choicemaking/
• Matt Wallaert Salary or Equity: https://salaryorequity.com/
• UX writer (Erik Wong) at Google: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfZCI-SOS2g
• UXWC newsletter signup: thedash.uxwriterscollective.com/newsletter
• 'Hooked' by Nir Eyal
• Matrix for ethical and behavioural design: https://designli.co/blog/using-the-manipulation-matrix-for-ethical-behavioral-design/
• Tristan Harris (again): https://humanetech.com/problem/

In the lead up to International Women's Day 8 March), we spoke to Meggie Palmer, founder of PepTalkHer.  PepTalkHer's mission is to close the gender pay gap. The PepTalkHer app helps you track your career successes through artificial intelligence: building confidence, negotiation skills and through giving you a pep talk when you need it most. We spoke about: - Meggie's background as a Walkley-winning journo and what led her down the entrepreneurial track  - The inspiration behind PepTalkHer (and some frightening stats about the gender pay gap...) - Our own money stories and how they can hold us back from a young age - How freelancers can use the PepTalkHer app to increase their rates and fight imposter syndrome - The PepTalkHer app launch process – the importance of testing and iterating - Salary surveys and why women with 10+ years experience tend to get less $$ Our recommendations: - The Loudest Voice (TV show on Stan in Aus or Showtime overseas) - Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez - The Crown on Netflix - Girl, Stop Apologising by Rachel Hollis Find Meggie and PepTalkHer: @Peptalkher www.peptalkher.com @MeggiePalmer