Women's Business

My guest this week us Joeli Brearley, founder of Pregnant Then Screwed and we get into it all here. After Joeli's early career we dive into how being dropped from a contract after disclosing her pregnancy -followed by a high-risk pregnancy -radicalised her and led her to launch an anonymous storytelling blog on International Women’s Day 2015. Joeli describes how the project grew into an advice line, tribunal mentoring, and sustained campaigning that helped change laws and influence policy, including extending the employment tribunal time limit, redundancy protections, flexible working, and contributions to childcare investment, while noting change is slow and often unglamorous. She discusses internalised misogyny, workplace culture failing caregivers, burnout from carrying others’ trauma (especially during COVID), and her difficult decision to leave the charity after 10 years at the helm. Jolie shares her new venture Growth Spurt supporting parents returning to work, her podcast To Be A Boy about raising sons amid online harms like pornography, and practical advice for overwhelmed would-be activists to start small and build community. Honestly, this is one of my favourite conversations to date. I really hope you enjoy it. Find Joeli on Insta here Find out more about Growth Spurt here The woman Joeli shouted out was Tinuke AweJoin the conversation with me on Instagram here------This episode is supported by Explore Worldwide, who specialize in small group expert led adventures. Instead of waiting a lifetime for a big, expansive trip, microdose retirement with Explore Adventures designed to give you enough space to reset how you're thinking, working and living.Women rarely give themselves permission to properly pause or have a break. So we often end up waiting for holidays that come when we're on the brink of burnout. If that sounds familiar, head to the Explore Worldwide website and take their micro retirement quiz. This will help you work out when a break might support where you're at in life and what kind of adventure you're craving.Take the Micro-Retirement Quiz here Each one is designed to be immersive and meaningful, not escapist, and they're solo friendly, which I love for women too. So if the idea of a proper reset resonates, take the quizTake the Micro-Retirement Quiz here

In this episode I speak to Samantha Harman AKA The Style Editor - a former journalist and newspaper editor turned personal stylist and author of the upcoming book Just Get Dressed. Samantha shares growing up on a council estate, being discouraged from journalism, working three jobs through university, and pushing past elitism and sexism to become an editor before 30 while facing intense online abuse and burnout. The conversation reframes styling as identity work shaped by generational trauma, body conditioning, and patriarchy, arguing that clothes function as personal branding and influence behavior (“enclothed cognition”). Samantha critiques traditional styling “rules,” diving deep into why people feel they have nothing to wear and how to change that. I loved this chat. Sam and I are so aligned and that comes through in spades! Find Samantha on LinkedIn here Find Sam's website and work with her hereI forgot to ask for a shout out in this episode - d'oh! The shout outs will be back! Join the conversation with me on Instagram here. Join The Wilder Collective here. --------This episode is supported by Explore Worldwide, who specialise in small group expert led adventures. Instead of waiting a lifetime for a big, expansive trip, microdose retirement with Explore Adventures designed to give you enough space to reset how you're thinking, working and living.Women rarely give themselves permission to properly pause or have a break. So we often end up waiting for holidays that come when we're on the brink of burnout. If that sounds familiar, head to the Explore Worldwide website and take their micro retirement quiz. This will help you work out when a break might support where you're at in life and what kind of adventure you're craving.Take the Micro-Retirement Quiz here Each one is designed to be immersive and meaningful, not escapist, and they're solo friendly, which I love for women too. So if the idea of a proper reset resonates, take the quizTake the Micro-Retirement Quiz here

This episode is a quiet rallying cry that change is possible, with co-founder of Hawkins Laxton & Co, Sian Hawkins. We trace Sian’s early drive to work, her psychology degree, and how volunteering on the National Domestic Violence Helpline led to paid frontline work supporting women fleeing abuse and shaped her feminist lens on patriarchy and systemic injustice. A trafficking case sparked her focus on modern slavery, research in Nepal, and a public affairs role at the Salvation Army. Sian describes shifting into policy and campaigning at Women’s Aid, helping secure coercive control legislation and later progress on family court child-contact presumption, emphasising that change is possible but slow. She explains Hawkins Laxton & Co’s work in strategic communications, public affairs, and personal branding, arguing visibility is leadership, grounded in evidence-based ethical influence, and encourages women to make “micro” changes, support other women, and make the invisible visible.Find Hawkins Laxton & Co here Find Sian on LinkedIn here Sian shouted out Clare Laxton. Find her here. Join the conversation with me on Instagram here. -----------This episode is supported by Explore Worldwide, who specialize in small group expert led adventures. Instead of waiting a lifetime for a big, expansive trip, microdose retirement with Explore Adventures designed to give you enough space to reset how you're thinking, working and living.Women rarely give themselves permission to properly pause or have a break. So we often end up waiting for holidays that come when we're on the brink of burnout. If that sounds familiar, head to the Explore Worldwide website and take their micro retirement quiz. This will help you work out when a break might support where you're at in life and what kind of adventure you're craving.Take the Micro-Retirement Quiz here Each one is designed to be immersive and meaningful, not escapist, and they're solo friendly, which I love for women too. So if the idea of a proper reset resonates, take the quizTake the Micro-Retirement Quiz here

I speak to PR and content strategist Antonia Taylor about her upbringing in Cyprus, the work ethic shaped by her grandfather and mother, and how she fell into PR through publishing publicity. Antonia shares how childcare logistics and commuting led her to freelance despite warnings of a “PR graveyard,” and discusses why workplace visibility is not neutral, highlighting the “paradox of visibility” where women are overlooked if quiet but punished if they speak up. We also have a juicy discussion on what we hate about International Women's Day,, explore the idea of safety and the personal costs of visibility for women, reframing it as leadership with ripple effects that can shift culture. Find Antonia on LinkedIn here Find her on Instagram hereJoin the conversation with me on Instagram here -----------This episode is supported by Explore Worldwide, who specialize in small group expert led adventures. Instead of waiting a lifetime for a big, expansive trip, microdose retirement with Explore Adventures designed to give you enough space to reset how you're thinking, working and living.Women rarely give themselves permission to properly pause or have a break. So we often end up waiting for holidays that come when we're on the brink of burnout. If that sounds familiar, head to the Explore Worldwide website and take their micro retirement quiz. This will help you work out when a break might support where you're at in life and what kind of adventure you're craving.Take the Micro-Retirement Quiz here Each one is designed to be immersive and meaningful, not escapist, and they're solo friendly, which I love for women too. So if the idea of a proper reset resonates, take the quizTake the Micro-Retirement Quiz here 

In this episode I speak to Penny Wincer, a book coach and author, about creativity, care, and what work means when life is complex. Penny shares her path from a childhood around film sets to studying a multidisciplinary arts degree, assisting fashion photographers in London and New York, and ultimately becoming an interiors photographer. She explains how writing returned when she ringfenced Fridays for a City Lit course after divorce and as a single parent, and how her experiences as a young carer for her unwell mother connected with parenting her autistic son with a learning disability, leading to her first book, Tender, on care, unpaid labour, and identity. We discuss how her proposal secured multiple publishing offers despite a small profile, and how the pandemic and escalating care needs forced her to end her photography career and rebuild her working life from home. Penny talks about employing nannies, the limits of paid support, the emotional labour of constant regulation, work as respite, and how her lived experience reshaped her views on privilege, fairness, disability, and intersectionality. She describes training with Author Accelerator to become a non-fiction book proposal coach, building a business and audience through a newsletter and online visibility, and challenging myths about perfect writing conditions and the claim that everyone has a book in them. Penny also shares practical guidance for aspiring nonfiction authors - starting with the ‘why’, understanding the market, and defining a unique angle and voice. Find Penny on Instagram here Find Penny's website and more about her non-fiction book coaching here Join the conversation with me on Instagram hereThe women Penny recommended were Caro Giles and Suzy Reading (scroll back to episode 2 to hear her story!)