Belles and Business

Understanding who we are outside of our business, families, relationships, and hobbies has been something COVID has challenged in so many ways. Women seem to be more focused on being a super mum or career woman, but when we do not understand our true selves, it shows up in a plethora of unhealthy ways. We chat to Deborah De Jong about her journey to understanding her identity and how she helps other women do so.

This is a big topic, and one our host, mother of 4 mixed-race children has taken her time to compile a panel of experts to have an important conversation about what this movement actually means and just being 'not racist' is not the answer. We dive into what social bias is, how they show up in our lives and what we need to do about it in this real and raw conversation with Mini Biti a diversity and inclusion practitioner and African woman living in Australia, Amy Kate Isaacs, Psychologist and owner of the Mindful Collective and Bronte Ramm, Councellor and Indigenous Australian.

This changed my thinking forever and I cannot wait to share it with you all.

Branka is the Co-founder of GigSuper (Belle’s Bestie) and joins Jess to talk openly and honestly about her journey to where she is now. She shares authentically about the driving factors within her career and the way GigSuper uniquely breaks the barriers of stale, professional jargon and invites the self-employed to take control of their superannuation.

We talk through how to identify the right growth trajectory for your business, how to work through what is holding you back, identify when you are ready by working through a formula of numbers, then the steps to do a trajectory and put a plan into motion to make it happen. We often treat growth as a reactive action when the business lands in our lap, or as an accident with a lack of intentionality, but that can only get us so far. Imagine if we had a plan, a goal and an understanding of what to do? This is a big poddy filled with so much brain juice so grab a pen and a cuppa, and get into it!

Aoife owns a boutique beauty salon in St Lucia and openly shares her struggle with building a presence and point of difference, having positive relationships, battling imposter syndrome and dating as she grows her business to be hugely successful. The secret lies in the balance of staying in your own lane but having your finger on the pulse of your competition and industry all while having the resilience to tackle gaslighting, dating, and life at the same time!

So this is one of those big fat scary topics, so I asked single women, married women, newlyweds and men to aim to get some of the cold hard facts about being in a relationship with an Entrepreneur and why they can appear unsupportive. Plus I share my own journey of tackling this. It is not an easy topic to talk about, but someone has to do it!

Melanie Loy is a freelancing internal communications coach & trainer who is killing the freelancing and consulting world. But nothing makes her blood boyle more than the misconceptions around what they should charge or be worth. So her and Jess explore the contributing factors and formulas on how to calculate what you should be charging and having the courage to charge it!

The juggle is real, but it also often very very wrong. I share my 8 myths about the mum juggle, how to prepare for it and how to make it a little easier for yourself. 4 kids later, I wish I knew some of these in the beginning and saved myself some heartache. I would love to know your findings on some of these topics, so listen in and then drop me an Insta message and let me know!

Rudi is well known here in Brisbane as a serial event attendee and one of the kindest humans we have ever met. Rudi identifies as non-binary and courageously shares the story of resilience in life, career and business that we can all learn a lot from.

This is my first solo podcast, but I could not share the things we learnt when Kate Carnall joined us at our January event. She is the Small Business Ombudsman and had the most amazing career as a Pharmacy owner, Premier of ACT, CEO of multiple companies and sitting on significant Australian boards.

We haven’t stopped obsessing over her at Belle and had to share her amazing pockets of wisdom. She is an inspiring woman who shows us what, authentic, brave and empowering leadership is with a no-fluff approach.