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How to Dress a Dummy. Inspiring journey of self-discovery with author Cassie Lane!
DOWNLOAD the PODCAST – #141 Cassie Lane author of ‘How to Dress a Dummy’.
“True beauty is found in the imperfect and vulnerable.”
Cassie Lane is one of the most hilarious, intelligent and beautiful people I know and like so many of us, Cassie Lane grew up desperately wanting to be someone else.
At 16 years of age, Cassie jetted off overseas from Australia on an exciting student exchange adventure. One day she was walking the streets of Italy and the next she found herself swept up into the life of a jet-setter, strutting the catwalks of Milan, Italy and the world as an international model.
Next stop USA. Life living in Los Angeles was like something out of a TV show – sharing a house with 3 other models, mixing it with celebrities on a global scale and partying hard in the LA scene. And yet something was missing…
Beneath all the flash and fancy, she started seeing through the world of exploitation and self-destruction where “living off your looks can attract as much scorn as admiration.”
Yearning for something more, Cassie returned to Australia determined to pursue her passions and whilst taking her next steps in self-development through study, she also began dating Australian footballer, Alan Didak (Collingwood football Club), who wasn’t that well known at the time. As his sporting profile grew in Australia, Cassie found herself thrust back into the limelight and the oft noxious environment of a WAG (Wives And Girlfriends of high-profile professional athlete), where at times she found herself labelled as ‘slut’, ‘skank’ and ‘stripper’, and constantly being told that she should toe the line and be happy with her life as the partner of a football star. And then came the toxic cherry top… being voted worst dressed at the Brownlow Medal whilst attending the nationally televised AFL Best & Fairest Awards show with her partner. Devastating…
Especially for a highly intelligent person that now not only has a double degree in Psychology and Communications, but now a Masters of Creative Writing at the University of Melbourne, from which the thesis of that Masters is this very book and memoir.
‘How to Dress a Dummy’ is frank, open, honest, hilarious and beautiful journey of empowerment and self discovery… I myself was clearly never a catwalk model, but there are so many parallels between Cassie’s life and my own. I grew up knowing that I was different, an outsider and I always felt like a bit of a weirdo. And I still am a weirdo, it’s just that I’m my kind of weirdo and the most beautiful thing that you can discover is to learn to love yourself and to be yourself, for once you do you will notice that you attract the friends/people who most want to be around you, to be with you and to be like you… And that is one of the most amazing moments of realization that anyone can experience!
It makes me so happy to see my friends strive for success, achieve their goals and focus on what completes them and makes them happy. I love that I can share this story.
I love you Cassie Lane and I am SO proud of you!
Ambition is greater than fear. Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet! with Poe (CEO and co-founder of Habu Health)
DOWNLOAD the PODCAST – #140 Poe (CEO and co-founder of Habu Health).
Ever had a vision and then brought your dreams into reality?
Christopher Poe AKA Poe is the CEO and co-founder of Habu Health, a Portland (Oregon, USA) based research group committed to building consumer confidence through scientific rigour.
Led by 12 years of research into the neurobiology of pain, and the pain-relieving properties of opioids and cannabis by leading industry pharmacologist and neural scientist, Dr Adie Poe (Poe’s co-founder and wife), Habu Health is a startup created to work with legislators and partners to build digital products that will fuel an intelligent database which integrates high-fidelity plant and human data.
We cover the legalities of recreational use and need for medicinal marijuana globally, the $2M dollars that Dr Adie Poe has already received in US government federal funding, the meaning behind the name of the business (Japanese for “herb”), what motivated Poe and Dr Adie Poe to take the leap of faith to pursue this dream and the launch of the Habu Health App in just 2 weeks!
Fascinating and educating insights into this data-fuelled startup and I have no doubt that you’ll enjoy this entrepreneur podcast as much as I do!
‘Cause legalising cannabis can change the lives and how we manage chronic pain in our global community. This shit is SO much more than Puff Puff Pass!
Download Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet! now via iTunes today!
Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet! with Alexis Jones (I Am That Girl founder, activist, speaker & social entrepreneur)
“Woman are inherently bad-ass”
And Alexis Jones is truly a bad-ass in her own right!
Alexis Jones is the founder of nonprofit I AM THAT GIRL, which currently has 1M+ girls involved and chapters in over 20 countries. She is also an internationally recognized author, activist, speaker, TV host across a range of channels incl. CBS, ESPN, Fox Sports and MTV, and the founder of ProtectHer, a locker room program educating male athletes on the importance of respecting women.
She has spoken at The White House, Harvard, Stanford, The United Nations, for Nike, DELL and Pepsi just to name a few.
Alexis Jones is a women who has made it her life’s mission to “inject more empathy, vulnerability and more authenticity into the world” and she is truly one of the most awe-inspiring podcast guests that I have had the pleasure of speaking with on Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet!
And today I bring Alexis Jones over the interwebs from Austin, Texas to you!
Download Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet! now via iTunes today!
Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet! with Matthew Vroom (tech entrepreneur, CEO & founder of Henge Docks)
DOWNLOAD the PODCAST – #138 Matt Vroom (CEO & founder of Henge Docks).
Boom boom boom…
Is your life is designed around pursuing your passions tenaciously? Creating a life by following gut instinct and pushing yourself beyond your comfort to try things you think that you might love, through an ethos of #ChooseYourOwnAdventure?
If it’s not right now, you have a fire burning in you and you’re made like me, then it should be! And that’s that this week’s show is all about! This week, Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet! with San Francisco-based, tech entrepreneur, co-founder and CEO of Henge Docks, Matthew Vroom.
Launched in April 2010, Henge Docks sold 3 months worth of inventory within the first 3 days of the launching, grew from a single product line to become the leading supplier of docking stations for MacBooks after only 8 months on the market and in 2017 enjoy one of the few direct hardware partnerships with the Apple brand globally.
Fascinating show as we chat about Matthew Vroom’s latest invention, the 6 months spent living out of his Nissan sports car after completing business school in Texas, driving around the USA hot-spotting to work remotely on Henge Docks before finally settling into San Francisco, becoming semi-famous for the creation of a satirical cartoon called “I hate Pam” whilst in college, the logistics of working with manufacturers in foreign countries at a time when the tech that Henge Docks were creating hadn’t been envisioned yet and so much more.
First and foremost, Matt Vroom is a husband, he’s a dad and he’s an ambitious, creative and strategic businessman. He is also the cousin of Illinois-based soya bean and corn farmer Nathan Webster AKA @nlwebs, my partner-in-crime on the @craftbeerlovin’ Instagram account, Matt Vroom is an inspiration and I am proud to call him my friend.
“Don’t defer your life’s goals.” Make a start, make a start today. After all… we’re both just normal guys who took the leap of faith in pursuit of happiness…
How many of you can say that you put everything on the line for an idea that you believe in? And managed to make it work! This is that story.
Download Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet! now via iTunes today!
Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet! with Ben Britton to launch STRANGERS ‘Mirrorland’.
DOWNLOAD the PODCAST – #137 Ben Britton (STRANGERS launch ‘Mirrorland’).
Strangers lead singer Ben Britton & I met at the world’s largest music, film and interactive conference, South By South West (SXSW) back in 2013 when his kick-ass Australian heavy rock band Strangers were selected to play the conference and was I immediately blown away by their explosive live set in the basement at The Aussie BBQ Australian showcase event in Austin (Texas).
The Aussie BBQ SXSW boasted an A-grade line-up of the likes Vance Joy, Hiatus Kaiyote, Flume, Emma Louse, Seth Sentry, 360, Dune Rats, Clairy Browne & the Bangin’ Rackettes, Alpine, Jackson Firebird, San Cisco, The Rubens, Jack Carty, Gold Fields, The Beards, The Falls & shit-tons more… 37 amazing Australian bands and artists playing 3 stages in one venue across 13 hours in Texas!!!! Blew my mind!
And for those who haven’t been before, the most wonderful thing about touring the USA with Sounds Australia and all the Aussie bands performing every year at SXSW is that you spend time with your music industry peeps that you know from back home whom you haven’t seen for ages, make a whole swag of new music biz friends and soak up the most beautiful and generous sense of community that Austin and SXSW have on offer. Benny and I kept bumping into each other at different bars and live music showcases around Austin, became buddies that week and I was quite struck by what a friendly, chatty and genuine dude he is.
Flash forward 4 years and I am super excited to feature Strangers launch of their 2nd album ‘Mirrorland’ on Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet! Benny and I catch-up to discuss just what it’s like for Australian artists/bands looking to take on SXSW, the differences between the Melbourne and Sydney music scenes, He generously shares his experiences battling anxiety and mental health, which have come to be a massive learning experience and part of the ‘Mirrorland’ album and yep, I’ll even give you an exclusive sneak peek of 3 tracks from the new album by just simply downloading the podcast.
Over the next 2 weeks this Sydney born, Melbourne based 4-piece are carving out their next steps with 2 explosive ‘Mirrorland’ album launch shows in Melbourne (Saturday Just 1st – The Evelyn Hotel) and Sydney (Friday July 14th – The Chippo Hotel).
Last time I saw them play in Texas, Benny was on some dude’s shoulders in the crowd singing mid-set, the guitarist brought his axe out into the crowd too and then I think Mr. Britton capped it all off by stage-diving back ONTO the stage and tackling the drummer and drum-kit in one fell swoop… Now THAT’s what I’m talkin’ ‘bout!
Download this shit and come see the show with me in Sydney! #GetSome #RocknRoll 🤘🏼✨🎸
Download Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet! now via iTunes today!
Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet! with Democracy In Colour social enterprise founder, Tim Lo Surdo.
DOWNLOAD the PODCAST – #136 Tim Lo Surdo (Democracy in Colour founder).
Fascinating episode of Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet! this week as Tim Lo Surdo joins us to talk about social justice, “anti-racism” and what inspired him to found Australian social enterprise, Democracy in Colour. 🎙✨👊
At the age of 23, Tim has lead by example in being a thought leader for change as the former Head of Campaigns at Oaktree Foundation, an adviser to two Senators, run national campaigns for a digital campaigning organisation in India, co-founded an international spoken word poetry platform, led communications for UN Youth Australia and organised young people in Queensland for the AYCC.
And now he’s created, Democracy in Colour, Australia’s first national racial justice advocacy organisation led by people of colour, who run campaigns to tackle structural racism; do rapid response work to hold political, cultural and corporate leaders to account on the things they say and do on race; and build platforms to increase the political voice of people of colour.
Every single week on Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet! we interview inspiring individuals and entrepreneurs across a range of industries about what makes them tick and drives their hunger for success.
Let’s get into it!
Download Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet! now via iTunes today!
Chart-topping ‘Grease: Live’ star Sam Clark live from Los Angeles, releases ‘Out Of Reach’!
Los Angeles-based Australian actor and singer/songwriter Sam Clark joins us this week on Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet! LIVE from LA!
Sam’s first ever acting job was on Australian TV soap opera Neighbours, he’s had 2 x #1s on the ARIAs Physical Singles Chart and last year starred in Grease: Live, the USA television special broadcast by Fox that was a live, televised remake of the 1978 film Grease and this week Sam’s launched a brand new single and music video called ‘Out Of Reach’ that we’re featuring on the show!
Sam & I chat about working with Grammy award-winning songwriting partner Bill Grainer (Jennifer Hudson, Forever In Your Mind), our very first meeting for at a house party in the Hollywood Hills with Aussie actor Jacinta Stapleton, our shared love of hiking the canyons around greater Los Angeles and top tips/key lessons/advice for any Australian contemplating packing up their lives and making a go of it in LA.
Are an Aussie actor or budding rockstar wanted to live a life in Los Angeles, California? THIS is the show for you!
Download Hot & Delicious: Rocks The Planet! now via iTunes today!
