The importance of having fun with Carmen Alfonso Rico
Make Space for Growth Podcast
You can feel the energy in the voice or the video. It is contagious. A breath of fresh air in a world that is almost afraid of joy. That is how I felt coming out of recording the new season of the podcast with Carmen Alfonso Rico. It is not every day that you meet someone who is unapologetic about having fun and enjoying what she is doing. Kicking off with politics Carmen wanted to be the US Secretary of State when she was a little girl. Note she was not a US national or living in the US, but that did not seem to stop her. Serendipity determined she would start her career in...
info_outline
Listening to Yourself with Samreen Ghani
Make Space for Growth Podcast
Before the summer break, I reconnected with old colleague Samreen Ghani to talk about her journey and her role as President of Moonbug Studios. It had been a long time since our M&A times together! And we end up finding ourselves in a similar life reflection on "how you measure your life"! The Early Days Samreen did not follow the expected path. Her earliest memory from childhood was spelling the word "doctor", which was exciting for her parents as she grew up. In Pakistan, her expected paths would have been doctor, engineer, lawyer or banker if she wanted to define herself...
info_outline
Believing in Serendipity with Rita Vilas-Boas
Make Space for Growth Podcast
Rita Vilas Boas first connected with me on Linkedin. After a lot of online engagement, we finally met in person last year to find out we shared . When she was a little girl, Rita wanted to dismantle things and figure out how things worked, but deep down, she wanted to be part of Fame, and dance on a Taxi roof in the streets of New York. Can you picture it? Different lives Rita studied biotechnology but soon found out about marketing, where she started her career. She threw herself into it and got a job at Loreal. For 20 years, she was a marketer in multinationals and large family...
info_outline
Finding your happiness with Sabine Tejerina
Make Space for Growth Podcast
When she was a little girl, Sabine wanted to be a businesswoman. In the middle of the pandemic, faced with economic distress in parts of the world and her day job helping large companies restructure and prepare for the economic downfall of Covid, she went on a life change. She became an entrepreneur and has since then been living the rollercoaster of start-up life. "It's not always the big decisions that impact your life", Clay Christensen Share ownership as a goal The idea for Upstreet started with a focus on rewarding customers for loyalty through company shares. Research shows that...
info_outline
A life dedicated to purpose with Daniela Barone Soares
Make Space for Growth Podcast
It is unusual to find someone who wanted to be something as a child that they are today. Daniela started volunteering at age 12 and she always knew her life would be dedicated to making the problems of the world better. These experiences increased her resolve to do something about it, even if she did not know how. A glide path "When you look back, it all seems to make sense" Daniela However, it was not so rational at the time. As Daniela was working in Private Equity, she realized her skillset was truly invaluable in the social sector and realized she could start making a difference in this...
info_outline
A life dedicated to purpose with Daniela Barone Soares
Make Space for Growth Podcast
It is unusual to find someone who wanted to be something as a child that they are today. Daniela started volunteering at age 12 and she always knew her life would be dedicated to making the problems of the world better. These experiences increased her resolve to do something about it, even if she did not know how. A glide path "When you look back, it all seems to make sense" Daniela However, it was not so rational at the time. As Daniela was working in Private Equity, she realized her skillset was truly invaluable in the social sector and realized she could start making a difference in this...
info_outline
Never waste a good crisis with Inês Santos Silva
Make Space for Growth Podcast
With a love for learning since early age, I have a feeling Inês will be learning for many years to come. She is passionate about innovation, and is not scared about solving a challenge. You just have to look at her resume to see this. I lost count of the number of roles and ventures in her profile. A fast-starter Ines assessed start-ups needed support way before it was cool to talk about accelerator programs. So she designed one. And expanded it to multiple cities. She determined there was a need for social ventures long before social impact was a concept. So she dedicated her efforts...
info_outline
Never waste a good crisis with Ines Santos Silva
Make Space for Growth Podcast
With a love for learning since early age, I have a feeling Inês will be learning for many years to come. She is passionate about innovation, and is not scared about solving a challenge. You just have to look at her resume to see this. I lost count of the number of roles and ventures in her profile. A fast-starter Ines assessed start-ups needed support way before it was cool to talk about accelerator programs. So she designed one. And expanded it to multiple cities. She determined there was a need for social ventures long before social impact was a concept. So she dedicated her efforts...
info_outline
Creating Space - Launching Season 3
Make Space for Growth Podcast
Today, I am bringing you the launch of Season 3 - Creating Space. In order to tell you more about the upcoming season, I feel I need to go back in time and explain my concept of word of the year. Because Space is my word of the year. For the last 3 years, I have been defining myself a word of the year. Why a word of the year? I already have goals, values, and even a vision board. I found a word goes beyond and through all that. A word gives me a true north. Believe In 2020, my word of the year was . And that belief helped me hold it together - do you remember the year of Covid? I acted...
info_outline
A Journey back through the Season
Make Space for Growth Podcast
For the Season Finale, I went around the world and down into my memory to pick the highlights of this season. What I learnt, what I discovered, what I was impressed about. There is no bittersweet taste in getting to the end of a season. In fact, it is exciting to look back and remember all the amazing women that crossed my path. After the hard to forget year of 2020, my goal was to bring to light in 2021, the stories of what are now almost 2 years of this pandemic, but more importantly, how each of us is looking to lift ourselves up, look forward and face life stronger and together. As for...
info_outlineWhen she was a little girl, Sabine wanted to be a businesswoman. In the middle of the pandemic, faced with economic distress in parts of the world and her day job helping large companies restructure and prepare for the economic downfall of Covid, she went on a life change. She became an entrepreneur and has since then been living the rollercoaster of start-up life.
"It's not always the big decisions that impact your life", Clay Christensen
Share ownership as a goal
The idea for Upstreet started with a focus on rewarding customers for loyalty through company shares. Research shows that customers are more loyal to a company they have a stake in. Moreover, they are willing to pay more. Upstreet came in as a provider for these share ownership programs. It also allowed people to give shares in the ever more exciting space of micro-investing. More recently, the company has evolved to facilitate share ownership for employees. While we may think that is an already resolved issue as we hear of start-up employees winning small fortunes when the companies become unicorns, this is still not always a common form of reward. Sabine believes it is important that more companies can do this, as it is key for employees to have an upside stake in the future of the company.
Women Share Ownership
In Australia, the percentage of women that make up the total number of Australian investors is still around 18%. Sabine believes Upstreet can play a role in reducing the inequity here as well. It starts with women earning the first shares through one of Upstreet's programmes and then demystifying ownership from there.
From consultant to COO
The skillset that came with her consulting background is extremely valuable, however, Sabine describes the start-up life as very different. A consultant's life is stressful no doubt, but it is also surrounded by lots of comforts and the certainty of payroll coming in at the end of the month. On the other side, Sabine now knows a whole new level of stress, that of running a company, having to meet payroll, winning a customer to find out they won't do a contract until perhaps the next year.
"That is what real stress looks like!", Sabine
Finding the Silver lining
Sabine reveals her way of dealing with these challenges. Since early in her life, she has always sought to find the silver lining, to identify the good, even if small, in any bad situation. Yes, she still gets upset when something bad happens, she is still human. But she has a tendency to bring perspective and find something that makes it better. We also talked about how everything seems to be better just when you sleep on it and wake up the next day. We both seem to have a tendency to try to go to bed early when we have a particularly bad day, in the hope a new day will be halfway through resolving the feeling. It mostly works.
A holistic approach
Sabine does not believe in balance. In fact, the way she described her single to-do list seems very much like she is practising "Work-life sway", my newly learnt expression from the book "Power Mums". Her to-do list incorporates anything she needs to get done, be it for the company, for her or for her family. She approaches her day as a whole and does not try to compartmentalize too much as she does not think balance is a real thing. I tend to agree (but I still keep 2 separate lists)
I had not spoken to Sabine in almost 15 years. Speaking to her felt like meeting an old school friend. I am passionate about how she is pursuing her own type of balance through her life choices whilst growing a company she is extremely passionate about. And the added bonus that can contribute to a reduction in the equity ownership gender gap no doubt makes it even more special to me. I can't wait to see what Upstreet is up to next!
Sabine's List
- Quote: "Go find your happiness, your happiness will not find you"
- Word of the Year: Renewal
- Book: How will you measure your life, Clay Christensen
Stay connected