Welcome to Amplified!
I want to live in a world where gender doesn't restrict opportunity – for anyone.
Amplified is part of that journey. Join me in this 10 part series of interviews with women and men as we discuss gender through exploring individual journeys.
I can't wait for you to join me in these discussions – looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
Thank you for tuning in to Amplified, supporting Amplify: East in various ways and being a believer that there isn’t a shortage of remarkable women in Atlantic Canada (or anywhere)!
In this final and very short episode of Amplified, I close this chapter and give you a sneak preview of my next podcast project, “Polarizing Conversations” which is graciously supported by Inspiring Communities (https://inspiringcommunities.ca/). The first episode will air in January 2023, and biweekly after that for 10 episodes. Stay tuned for more details!
28 Feb 2023
Episode 10: Creating an inclusive economy, with Alexandra McCann
Join me for our last Amplified conversation with the inimitable Alexandra McCann, Executive Director of ONSIDE. ONSIDE’s mission is a prosperous Nova Scotia driven by inclusive innovation, entrepreneurship, and comparative advantage.
Alexandra has a wide-ranging, impressive background. She was the Chief Operating Officer for Dockside Investco, a Nova Scotia-based portfolio management company; as well as the CEO for Baie Run Pet Products, a natural products start-up, focused on pet wellness including, omega3s and supplements sold in the U.S. and Canada. She holds an MA in Pacific Asian Studies from the University of London, School of Oriental African Studies (SOAS) and a double BA from the University of Virginia in Asian Studies and Anthropology. Alex is a Certified International Trade Professional (CITP) and a member of the Board of Governors at the University of Kings College. Alex is also on the board of the Inspirit Foundation—which promotes an inclusive and pluralistic Canada—both on the Equity Committee and the Impact Investment Committee.
In this conversation, we dive deep into ideas on building an inclusive economy at home. If you’re looking for ideas on how to do this on a very practical level, I’d encourage you to check out a resource that Alexandra discusses in the episode, Nova Scotia’s Inclusive Innovation Monitor.
Some reads that Alexandra recommends related to inclusive economies are:
Anthro-Vision: A New Way to See in Business and Life by Gillian Tett
The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty by Clayton M. Christensen
Both of those are listed on Amazon.ca and I don’t receive any affiliate benefits from you purchasing through these links.
Connect with Alexandra on LinkedIn (https://ca.linkedin.com/in/alexandramccann).
We’d love to hear your thoughts on what you took away from this conversation!
28 Feb 2023
Episode 9: Being intentional about diversity with Amplify’s curator, Liesl Harewood Mulholland
Join me for this beautiful conversation with Liesl Harewood Mulholland. Liesl has been a LINCHPIN behind Amplify: East since its inception. She joined me to curate all of our stories not long after the project’s inception. In 2019, she wrote “I see you” to talk about her work curating stories for Amplify: East.
With a background in Law and Diplomatic Studies, Liesl is an International Trade and Development Consultant and Entrepreneur with over thirteen years practical expertise in business, gender and youth development, human rights, entrepreneurship, trade in services and trade facilitation. The ability to engage diverse individuals and communities in capitalising on and responding to change, along with effective time management skills, has prompted a demand for her consultancy expertise in both government and non-governmental organisations across the globe.
In this episode, we talk through some ideas on how we can all be more intentional about diversity.
Connect with Liesl on LinkedIn here. (https://ca.linkedin.com/in/lieslharewood)
We’d love to hear your thoughts on the episode!
28 Feb 2023
Episode 8: Connecting with mentors can change the trajectory of your career, with Techsploration & EnPoint
Join me for this ultra-inspiring conversation with Emily Boucher, Interim Executive Director of Techsploration and Chantal Brine, CEO of EnPoint.
Emily and Chantal both share personal stories of how mentorship has transformed both their careers and lives, and share how they’ve used this as fuel in their work helping connect girls and young women to women in under-represented fields to light up possibilities that may not have otherwise been considered. We all want to live whole, integrated lives and there are lots of inspiring stories in this conversation to inspire us to connect more deeply – with ourselves, our path, and people who want to help us along the way.
Mentorship lights up a spark, and those sparks will continue to light up other sparks!
Connect with Emily and Chantal (https://ca.linkedin.com/in/chantalbrine) on LinkedIn.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on the conversation!
28 Feb 2023
Episode 7: Gender + UX, with Ceara Crawshaw
I met Ceara Crawshaw (https://www.cearacrawshaw.com/) at a water cooler at Startupfest (https://www.startupfestival.com/) 2018 in Montreal. It goes to show the importance of staying open because you never really know when you’re going to happen upon a great conversation!
Ceara and I somehow got to talking about podcasts and planned a follow-up chat for a few weeks later. I looked into her work freelancing in UX design (user experience, if you’re not familiar with the acronym – and no worries if you’re not, I can barely keep track of the acronyms I need to use on a daily basis!) – UX is something I think a lot about from a systems point-of-view. Another way of saying that, is – I often think about how people interact / interface with systems – systems like gender. During that chat about podcasting, I invited her to this interview and she thankfully agreed!
Some takeaways from the conversation:
Recognizing people first, before considering their gender
How to recover from perfectionism to fully embrace entrepreneurship
The importance of strong female role models in life should never be understated
And the question I’m left pondering from this episode is:
How do we embrace a diversity of ways to communicate and not necessarily relate it to gender?
I hope you enjoyed the conversation and looking forward to hearing your thoughts!
28 Feb 2023
Episode 6: Prompting deeper thinking, with Christy Gray
Christy Gray is one of the most thoughtful people I’ve met – which I think you’ll agree with after listening to this gem of an interview with her.
I met Christy in 2012 in an 8-month leadership development program and since then, she’s gone on to complete a PhD, run multiple businesses and become a mom. Like me, she’s passionate about books, so she decided to get into business distributing Barefoot Books (http://www.barefootfamilies.com/) because their company ethos really reflected her values.
Some of my takeaways from this conversation include:
Books can be used to prompt deeper thinking – and to let us have difficult conversations within ourselves before we have them with other people.
Some practices to challenge our beliefs – the most important of which is reframing through a lens of curiosity (not easy! though important)
It’s okay that talking about difficult things is difficult
It’s become a norm for her to talk about deep life themes with her son, which I think is such a beautiful thing
The way gender is expressed today is generational and multicultural – it’s important for us to keep talking about it.
I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
28 Feb 2023
Episode 5: Practice, with Nadine Kelly
I hope you’re ready for a treat! I had this chat with Nadine Kelly in 2018 – we met through a podcasting fellowship and she kindly agreed to be interviewed for the show.
Nadine is a physician-turned-entrepreneur, who teaches yoga and curates beautiful spaces for people – in particular, women. Her website, Yogi MD (http://yogimd.net/), lists her purpose as “empowering & educating women to care for mind, body, & spirit” and I think you’ll hear in this interview that’s exactly what she excels in. Some of my takeaways from this conversation include:
A gentle and polite no as a practice of self-care
Practice, practice, practice
Work to get through the noise to what is right for you
Health has to be a focus on the whole person
Oh, and she’s a martial artist (!).
I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did, and as always, please feel to share your thoughts and consider subscribing to the podcast!
28 Feb 2023
Episode 4: Femme Wonk, with Katie Davey
Katie Davey is a rising star in New Brunswick. I first met her a few years ago when she was competing in ‘Our Top Talent’ – an event I co-organized with longtime colleague, Rachel Mathis. The event was designed for top graduating students to connect with NB employers. After I launched Amplify, Katie was one of the first people to reach out to support and discuss the idea.
She recently launched Femme Wonk (https://www.femmewonk.com/) – designed to provide a platform to discuss gendered decision making. She reached out to see if I would chat for her podcast and I asked if we could chat a bit about her initiative too. You’ll hear a lot from me in the episode and I’ll ask Katie what is becoming one of my favourite questions – ‘when did you first become aware of gender?”
28 Feb 2023
Episode 3: #NotASupplyProblem, with Louise Adongo
Louise Adongo was one of the first people I approached when I was considering launching what became ‘Amplify’. I approached Louise because she’s one of the most thoughtful people I know and she’s very good at giving real, direct and gentle feedback – a very rare skill.
She suggested the tagline, ‘#NotASupplyProblem’ in an email, and as soon as I read it, I knew that encapsulated EXACTLY what I wanted to achieve with this.
I’m so honoured to have had this conversation with Louise – I hope you enjoy it too. It’s wide-ranging and we talk about everything from her experiences leading her to suggest the #NotASupplyProblem tagline to when she first started becoming aware of gender. You can find Louise on LinkedIn here.
28 Feb 2023
Episode 2: Reframing gender in tech, with Sage Franch
Thanks so much for joining me for episode 2! I absolutely loved this conversation with Sage Franch. I learned so much – I hope you take away lots too!
A few notes on this conversation:
This was recorded in late summer / early Fall – you’ll hear Sage mention moving to Montreal for an accelerator, which they’ve since completed.
I met Sage through her business co-founder, Stefan Kollenberg – thanks so much for the introduction, Stefan!
I was outside for this conversation, so you’ll hear a bit of wind and a few birds – my apologies! Still learning about audio 🙂
You can follow Sage on Twitter at @TheTrendyTechie.
28 Feb 2023
Episode 1: Be a mom and be fit, with Caroline Mackay
Thanks so much for joining me in this new adventure into podcasting. I started working on this project a little over 6 months ago. It’s taught me that I tend to get a little overwhelmed by technical stuff, and that going back to the basics is important and outsourcing what I dread is even MORE important!
My favourite part of the process was by FAR having these conversations. I’ve learned so much from each and every conversation, and I’m so excited for you to join for the first conversation in the series with Caroline Mackay. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, and I hope you’ll consider leaving an iTunes review!
28 Feb 2023
Amplified Trailer
Welcome to Amplified!
I want to live in a world where gender doesn’t restrict opportunity – for anyone.
Amplified is part of that journey. Join me in this 10 part series of interviews with women and men as we discuss gender through exploring individual journeys.
I can’t wait for you to join me in these discussions – looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
Contact Amplified with Vanessa Paesani
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