The Female Advantage with Tina Tower

Lindsay is the MD and co-founder of Chello, an agency that applies creativity to communication problems; connecting brands and people back to what matters most. At the age of 25 Lindsay Rogers left a dream career – to build the company she couldn’t have dreamed of. It was 2014, a time where advertising agencies were staking their claim on digital content, and digital agencies were extending their offerings to campaigns. So it was the perfect time to start Chello; an agency that wheels and...

The whole time I was interviewing Sara I was nodding along. I find that once you’ve gone through a massive life shift and had to change your way of life, it really does shift your perspective and give you an affinity with other people who have also crossed over so to speak into that space in life where you need to look closely within and ask yourself if the life you’re living is really the one that is going to optimise your potential and your happiness. Sara owns SRA Corporate Change whose...

Kirsty Dunphey grew up immersed in an entrepreneurial wonderland: parents who had their own businesses and rental properties, who escaped the rat race and retired in their 30’s and who enveloped her in that culture working in their businesses from a young age. It was perfect, until as the story always goes, it wasn’t. The valuable life lessons she lived through in her teens started the journey that lead her to starting her first two businesses coupled with two part time jobs under her belt...

Valerie Khoo is founder and CEO of the Australian Writers’ Centre, which is Australia’s leading centre for writing courses. Over 40,000 students have learnt at the centre and it has campuses in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane – as well as a huge online learning community enrolling from all over the world. Valerie is a former journalist and author of the best-selling book “Power Stories: The 8 Stories You MUST Tell to Build an Epic Business”. She now combines her love of storytelling...

Elizabeth Abegg is one half of sister-duo that makes up Byron Bay fashion brand Spell and the Gypsy Collective. With a background in video editing and a lot of gut instinct, Elizabeth drove the label into a global business by embracing the blogging and online shopping world. Over almost ten years, the brand has grown from strength to strength, employing over 50 women in Byron Bay, stocked in American online retailers Free People, Revolve and Planet Blue and gaining over 1 million followers...

Leanne Haining is one of those people that you just feel calmer when you’re around. She’s the Creative Director of bath, body & home fragrance brand, Urban Rituelle. Proving that they have a business to thrive in the test of time, Leanne and her partner, Co-founder, Scott Kelly have been running Urban Rituelle since 1999. Having their products stocked in over 1000 boutiques in Australia, Leanne has learnt the art of adaptation and innovation throughout the changing seasons of...

Jacinta McDonell is an absolute unicorn of a human. She’s incredibly cool, fierce and also the most kind and generous person you could imagine. Jacinta launched the US franchise Anytime Fitness into the Australian market in 2008. An entrepreneur and a mother of three, Jacinta has now exited Anytime Fitness and has turned her passion towards two new business ventures. Jacinta established The Human Kind Project in 2015, a not-for-profit foundation that funds life changing projects in Africa...

Pamela Jabbour is the CEO of Total Image Group, Australia’s leader in the uniform industry dressing over 250,000 people a day. She’s super successful and the business is 13 years old but it hasn’t always been that way. It took her 12 months to sign the first client after making 100 calls a day! Persistence anyone? Doing what many people find astronomically difficult, she employs a large staff which also includes her father, brother and a good friend. We talk about how she handles the...

Leanne Hegarty is a Partner within KPMG working with large private and family owned businesses and high net worth individuals. She’s also been my accountant for nearly 10 years so I know what an incredible woman she is. In today’s interview she talks about what it’s been like as a woman rising up in a traditional male dominated industry when so many deals take place on the golf course. How she bought her baby to work, how she runs marathons to stay sane and the money mistakes that you could...

Known to many as Sel, Sue-Ellen Watts disrupted the HR industry over 17 years ago when she launched her business wattsnext from home and has grown it into a National company, one of the largest of its kind in Australia. Sel is a serial entrepreneur and I’d recommend also looking up Scrappi, Your Secret Sauce and Zzoota. She’s a mum of 3, a lover of NYC and Gary Vaynerchuck in a massive way and an all round incredible woman. In this episode we touch on how Sel has defined her ideal life and...

This week on the podcast are my two favourite guests, my children. I started my business before my children were born so they’ve never known a mum without it. I get asked way too often if my children are ok because I work and have a career that I love and how I juggle it all. Unfortunately my husband never got asked if our kids were ok when he worked full time and so the guilt that I was somehow doing something wrong, always feel on me. It’s often women that ask the question because they...

There’s lots of people that have a small success and call themselves an entrepreneur. Suzi Dafnis has done what many people dream to, she’s been a successful entrepreneur for DECADES! I first saw Suzi speak at a Robert Kiyosaki seminar when I was at uni and then met her when I first started my business at The Australia Business Women’s Network. No other woman in business has made a more consistent and long lasting impression on my life and business. She is truly remarkable and one of the...

This week I’m lucky enough to talk to Justine Teggelove, an absolute powerhouse in the construction industry. We’re pretty sure she’s the only woman founder & operational CEO of a commercial construction company and we’ll be talking about how she thrives in that environment as well as the advice she has for you in investing in property and renovating your home, managing your team and your own emotions and her big business and new business. Justine is one of the founders and CEO of Rodine....

In this episode I’m talking to Major Matina Jewell who really like no other lady I know. This is LONG episode but trust me, it’s worth it for the insights on resilience, leadership, working in a male dominated space and really just general kicking butt in life. I actually met Matti after she spoke at A Commonwealth Bank Women In Focus event where she’d shared her story and everyone was left shocked, in tears and in awe of her strength. After living quite close we were lucky enough to...

Angela Ceberano is one of those rare unicorn humans who is equal parts fierce strength and beautiful vulnerability. She's beautiful on the inside and out and has built an incredible PR company by breaking traditional moulds and backing herself. In this episode, Angela talks about leaving the comfort of a corporate job to go it alone, on building a business and dealing with anxiety and how you can get the most out of your social media marketing. At 28, she saw an opportunity to create a...

If you've wondered about what it takes to build your business internationally, you're going to love listening to Canadian business superstar, Diana Goodwin. We met at the Dell Women's Entrepreneur Conference and I was amazed by how she uses technology to build her company with so many people spread far and wide. Diana Goodwin is Founder and CEO of Toronto-based AquaMobile, an on- demand at-home swim lesson provider, the largest of its kind in North America. AquaMobile has grown to over...

In short, Keri is a wellness magician! She's who I turned to when I had hit absolute burnout and she helped to put me back together. Keri helps women come home to themselves. In their practices. In their personal lives. In their bodies. She is passionate to offer women a way to learn how to truly nourish themselves mind body and spirit to step away from over work, exhaustion, burnout and self loathing to experience personal peace, stillness and passion for life. Having spent over a decade...

Jo Cardozo is an award winning entrepreneur known for building her Self-Managed Super business “Engage” from start-up to sale. She has recently returned to her start-up roots with the launch of her celebrant business Love Story Ceremonies. In 2017, Jo’s long career in the finance industry was recognised when she was named the Women in Finance “Woman of the Year”. She is a passionate speaker, and inspires many with her personal stories of resilience and determination as a working mum in...

In the inaugural episode of The Female Advantage, your host, Tina Tower, welcomes you and gives you a little background on where the idea of The Female Advantage came from. Tina Tower has captured attention with her raw and real approach to building business. Born in 1984 in Sydney, she’s not afraid to share her failures as well as her successes. Tina is an example of what happens when you define what you want in life and go after it with all you’ve got. Like some people find religion,...