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On Air: Podcast by Femme Palette

On Air: Podcast by Femme Palette

By Femme Palette

Femme Palette brings you honest conversations with inspiring entrepreneurs and professionals; Femme Palette mentors, members, speakers in recordings from our events, and supporters to talk about their journey, experience, aspirations and the power of connection, as well as advice on career topics or diversity and inclusion.
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LGBT+ Bias with Lucie Bajgart and Matej Ftacnik

On Air: Podcast by Femme PaletteJun 28, 2021

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54:55
Embracing neurodiversity at work with MK Kirigin, Héloïse Thon, and Ashley Sigmon

Embracing neurodiversity at work with MK Kirigin, Héloïse Thon, and Ashley Sigmon

Listen to the recording of our panel discussion event on neurodiversity with MK Kirigin, Héloïse Thon, Ashley Sigmon!


Neurodiversity has recently been increasingly recognised as one of the pillars of corporate DEI efforts. In particular, neurodiversity in the workplace examines whether an organisation supports neurodiverse candidates and workers, trains non-neurodiverse managers to support all their staff, and works toward creating a culture of neuroinclusivity.

This panel will cover why neurodiversity is important in the workplace, exchange best practices for supporting neurodiversity at work, and discuss concrete steps to cultivate neuroinclusivity in the workplace.

We will hear from Héloïse Thon (Neurodivergent Coach), Ashley Sigmon (Sr. Career Specialist at CareerFoundry), and MK Kirigin (Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Expert).


About the speakers

Ashley is a Senior Career Services Support Advisor for CareerFoundry, helping to support a team of over 100 freelance coaches to provide top-quality career guidance to students and alumni. Originally from the US, she left a role as a career coach for people with disabilities to move to Berlin with her husband in 2019. All too familiar with the challenges that neurodivergent people face at work, Ashley is excited by any opportunity to foster dialogue and inclusivity, especially in management and HR contexts.


As a Neurodivergent Coach & Consultant, Héloïse is passionate about helping individuals and organisations embrace neurodiversity and create a more inclusive and innovative world. After eight years working in Human Resources in corporate settings, Héloïse has started her own coaching & consulting practice to help neurodivergent individuals thrive. She is herself neurodivergent and understands firsthand the challenges of having a uniquely wired mind. Héloïse aims to support individuals navigating neurodiversity, increase awareness, and create safe spaces to empower neurodivergent people to be themselves.


A proud Latina from Bolivia who grew up in 5 countries, MK is a global Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion expert who has been dedicated to creating safe and supportive spaces in schools and workplaces for over 8 years. MK aims to bring intersectionality to all DEI conversations. She has worked closely with neurodivergent students and colleagues, initiating affinity groups, leadership trainings, and ongoing dialogue on the topic. As someone who has experience with ADHD, she is passionate about creating workplaces where all individuals can thrive and contribute their unique skill sets by having access to the support and accommodations they need.


About Femme Palette 🎨

Femme Palette is a global mentoring platform helping (not only) women grow in their careers. Currently, 1,000+ global mentors are working with Femme Palette and helping 1,000+ mentees grow in their careers. Femme Palette’s mission is to help develop talents and give everyone the practical skills they need to thrive in their roles. They organize events, conferences and create educational resources for the community. Join our global community here.


DEI Palette Club 💬

Femme Palette launched the DEI Palette Club to bring together experts and enthusiasts in the DEI field. Are you a DEI specialist or want to be an inclusive leader? Everyone is welcome to join our global DEI community to discuss DEI topics, meet like-minded people and learn from each other to make your workplace an inclusive space.

👉 Join the DEI Palette Club 👈

Sep 18, 202341:26
Parental leave with Renata Mrazova and Evgeniy Akulich

Parental leave with Renata Mrazova and Evgeniy Akulich

What does parental leave look like in different countries? What is the optimal model and what can companies do to make it easier for parents to return to their jobs? In this episode, we sat down with experienced leaders Renata Mrazova and Evgeniy Akulich to hear their views on this heavily debated topic, including the ultimate question: do you have to choose between career or children, or is it possible to have it all?

About the speakers:

Renata Mrazova

Renata is an experienced business leader whose professional experience spans decades. After graduating from University of Economics, Prague in 1995, she began her professional career in the finance division of Swedish pharmaceutical firm Astra (now AstraZeneca), later becoming Finance Director and coordinating a merger with the British firm Zeneca.

Since then, she has served as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Direct Insurance, CFO at ING Group, devoted time to her family business - the largest company in the fabrics industry in Czech and Slovak markets (retail, wholesale and e-commerce) - and also worked as an external consultant on several projects for the banking and insurance sectors.

In 2019, she moved back to the Czech Republic with her family after four years spent in the Netherlands serving as Global Head of HR of NN Group in The Hague, where she was responsible for strategic HR in 18 markets. On returning to her home country, she joined Home Credit International, a.s. (part of PPF Group), a global leader in consumer finance, as Group Chief People Officer. She is a proud mother of 2 daughters, Anna (18) and Eliska (14), and is married.

Evgeniy Akulich

Evgeniy is an experienced professional and leader in strategy management consulting and people development.

He started his career in HR in 2005, shifting to strategy management consulting in 2009. Evgeniy spent 11 years with BCG in Russia and Switzerland, having completed above 60 projects in 25+ markets, focusing on Consumer goods, banking, telecoms and public sector/social impact. It was a very exciting but very demanding time – a lot of travel (up to 130 flights / year), long hours, unpredictable schedules.

Evgeniy took a parental leave just before pandemic, quit BCG in the middle of the 1st lock down, then worked as independent consultant and executive coach for 9 months and got back to strategy consulting as a partner at EY-Parthenon in Switzerland.

Evgeniy will share his experience of taking a parental leave after his son was born, going through pandemic, quitting his job, looking for other options that are better compatible with children and family, how he got back to consulting and how he manages his work and family time.


Insights from the speakers:

  • when it comes to your parental leave, do not think in any pattern, everyone is different, so you will in the end have to find your own solution
  • if the speakers should just say just one ideal length of a parental leave for them, it would be 1 year - it is not too long so that it would harm your career, it is not too short so that your kid can already be without you for a longer period, plus some time off might do you good if you already worked for a couple years
  • when combining work and family, don’t forget about yourself
  • everyone is equally capable of taking care of and raising a child
  • the second parent is not ‘helping’ the other ‘take care’ of their child, it’s their child as well
  • important thing is also financial planning for the parental leave
Mar 02, 202201:01:57
Hybrid work & leadership with Violeta Luca and Ravi Ram

Hybrid work & leadership with Violeta Luca and Ravi Ram

What is hybrid leadership? How is it applied in a regular workday? And how can leaders deal with challenges that the future of work holds? In this episode, we sat down with Violeta Luca from Microsoft and Ravi Ram from edtech company Springboard. Tune in to hear perspectives on hybrid work from a corporate giant and a Silicon Valley startup!

About the speakers:

Violeta Luca

Violeta is leading Microsoft Czech Republic and Slovakia since January 1st, 2021. Before that, she has served as the General Manager in Microsoft Romania for the past two years. As a leader, she has an extensive track record in enabling double digit business growth, transforming business models, driving regional expansion and new market opportunities, and building strategic partnerships to enhance customer experience. She was included among TOP 100 CEOs and Forbes Top 50 most powerful businesswomen in Romania and received recognition for Business Development, Innovative Business Model, Best Digital transformation project, and Best Corporate Responsibility Campaign. Under her leadership was Microsoft Romania named #1 employer and she is a Board member of the Digital Transformation Committee under the National Digitization Authority.

“I strongly believe that technologies are more than ever the solution to support our resilience and that a healthy and sustainable culture built around a shared purpose has transformative power. Whether we speak about education, healthcare, or economy at large, having a more resilient society will enable a faster recovery and more sustainable development in the future”, said Violeta. "Slovakia ranks among the strongest countries in Europe when it comes to technology talent and their drive to realize the digitization potential. So, it is a fantastic opportunity to continue to build the digital future for thriving organizations, entrepreneurs, and society at scale.“

Prior to joining Microsoft, Violeta held several leadership roles in general management, sales and marketing in leading companies such as Metro C&C, Dante international, Flanco Retail, Whirlpool Romania or AIG. She graduated from the Academy of Economic Studies.

Ravi Ram

Ravi is Senior Director of Sales at Springboard, an education technology company based in San Francisco. He joined Springboard in 2018, and has also served as Head of Business Operations. Before that, Ravi was a management consultant with McKinsey from 2014-2016 and a Fellow with the McKinsey Global Institute from 2016-2018. He also serves as a leadership and executive coach, and facilitates learning programs with Educe Partners. Ravi graduated with degrees in molecular biology and mathematics from the University of Arizona, and has also been a visiting scholar at the National University of Singapore and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. He has lived, studied, and worked in Brazil, Peru, Singapore, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, India, and Kenya. He's a major proponent of the inner sciences of meditation and yoga, and their connection to human consciousness and well-being: Ravi has done a set of meditation practices for 90 minutes every day since July 2016.

Insights from our speakers:

  • 73% of workers want the flexible work to continue beyond the pandemic (based on Microsoft research)
  • 46% of people think of changing their career - help people understand ‘why’ they are working, not only when and how
  • hybrid work paradox - craving for human connection while keeping the benefits of flexibility of remote work
  • think of shared service and shared experience as it is something that brings people together
  • try things - see what works, what doesn’t and move on
Jan 26, 202256:13
Cultural Bias with Tereza De Bardi and Alexis Jenkins

Cultural Bias with Tereza De Bardi and Alexis Jenkins

What assumptions do you think are made when it comes to culture, nationality or ethnicity? What can people and companies stop or start doing to help everyone feel included in the workplace? We invited Tereza De Bardi and Alexis Jenkins to get a European as well as an American opinion on this!

About the speakers:

Tereza De Bardi

Tereza is by profession a Director at Deloitte Czech Republic focused on transformations in Finance and Business Services, and co-founded the D&I Shapers, a platform which brings together organizations across Czech market to move the D&I to the next level. Her life is a diversity story itself, spending more than half of her childhood abroad in Bangladesh and Egypt, working for and with multiple international businesses both as employee or as advisor, being a woman in Consulting (still a male dominated business) and finally marrying a "foreigner", all these provide her with a precious observation field for cultural biases topic.

Alexis Jenkins

Alexis is the Founder of ANJ Consultancy a DEI firm that helps build inclusive and anti-racist workplaces and the Head of People & Culture at Dame Products. By implementing storytelling, data, and analyzing a company’s needs, she is able to use her professional and personal experience to build standards and policies for companies who are truly ready to begin the work. Alexis believes that leaving any facet of yourself at the door is a thing of the past, especially when the door is in your home. Alexis resides outside of New York City with her husband and two year old son.


Some insights from the speakers:

  • We need diversity at all levels in companies
  • Everyone is responsible for making a change in their surroundings
  • Become an accomplice to marginalized groups
  • One downside of the D&I efforts can be ‘tokenization’
  • Language was the biggest barrier for D&I work at Deloitte Czech Republic
  • Have regional and even local strategy for implementing D&I - no one-size-fits all approach from the HQ
Jul 27, 202101:06:21
LGBT+ Bias with Lucie Bajgart and Matej Ftacnik

LGBT+ Bias with Lucie Bajgart and Matej Ftacnik

What are the biases towards LGBT+ people and how do we reinforce them? How can companies prevent unfairness in the workplace and we all can do to help everyone feel safe? We invited Lucie Bajgart and Matej Ftacnik to discuss this and more!

About the guests:

Lucie Bajgart

Lucie is a freelance designer working with international clients from her studio in Prague. Her clients include companies such as fintech giant Klarna, Czech startups Productboard and Snuggs and San Francisco based Empower. Her focus is branding and product design. Lucie identifies as a gay queer woman with her/she pronouns.

Matej Ftacnik

Matej is a co-founder of Vacuumlabs, where he now works as CEO. In 2019, Matej was named EY Technology Entrepreneur of the Year in Slovakia. In the past, he significantly contributed to the creation of the Slovak startup scene and now, in addition to Vacuumlabs, he is also involved in other innovative projects such as Daylight, the first digital banking platform for the LGBT+ community in the USA or the first FintechHub in Slovakia.

Insights from the speakers:

  • Don’t assume other person’s sexual orientation
  • Don’t make jokes that put other people down
  • Keep an open mind, listen to people and respect who they are and what they say
  • Think about the power of your words and swap some that no longer serve
  • Don’t let offensive slurs or comments slide around you
  • Feel free to ask people 1:1 how they wish to be addressed
  • Don’t beat yourself up for past mistakes
  • Companies can sign the Diversity Charter to show they are serious about safe environment for everyone
  • Companies should revisit their benefit packages (e.g. marriage bonuses)
Jun 28, 202154:55
Leading with Empathy with Azeneth Ferrero Russell and Michal Ptacek

Leading with Empathy with Azeneth Ferrero Russell and Michal Ptacek

How do you practice leading with empathy? How do you develop such a skill? How to be empathetic yet assertive? We discussed this and more with Azeneth Ferrero Russell and Michal Ptacek!

About the guests:

Azeneth Ferrero Russell is the Global Business Evolution Director at CEMEX, a global building materials company, and the Country Manager of Neoris, a Digital Accelerator and partner of some of the biggest companies in the world providing Tech Consulting services in every continent.

With more than 20 years of experience in leading board-level transformation initiatives, she provides leadership to digital transformation programs designed to enhance customers’ experience.

As the head of NEORIS Prague, she supported AGILE teams composed of members of more than 30 nationalities who were responsible for the development and delivery of CEMEX Go, instrumental to the overall digital transformation journey of CEMEX, and an example of diversity and new ways of working.

Azeneth has lived as a permanent resident in 5 countries (Mexico, US, UK, Switzerland and Czech Republic) and has conducted digital programs in many others.

Michal Ptacek is the Founder and CEO of CzechCrunch and has been an IT guy since he was a kid. As he says, it all started when his uncle gave him a Commodore 64 computer and Michal instantly fell in love with it, especially with programming in BASIC :) Few years later Michal started to develop websites and then got into game development, and made his first adventure game.

In 2014 Michal founded CzechCrunch and currently leads a team of 18 people, who are trying to disrupt the Czech media ecosystem. Besides that Michal also runs a side project - Officelovin.com - focused on showcasing the world’s best office design and still does some programming out of pure passion for creativity.

Tips on enhancing empathy:

  1. Read Radical Candor
  2. Get a mentor
  3. Travel the world
  4. Bonus tip from FP - Meditate
Jun 13, 202144:56
Negotiating salary with Tereza Machackova and Matej Matolin

Negotiating salary with Tereza Machackova and Matej Matolin

How do people negotiate when they are hired? What are the best practices of successful salary negotiation? When is the right time to negotiate? We discussed this and more with Tereza Machackova and Matej Matolin!

About the guests:

Tereza Machackova is a Talent Partner at Credo Ventures where she helps portfolio companies to be successful in People Ops & Recruitment. She helps startups like Productboard or Around to establish core HR and talent processes and scale these startups. In addition she supports community programs such as Femme Palette, Reactgirls, or LeanIn Czech.

Matej Matolin is a Talent partner at Impulse Ventures and his mission is to help amazing tech startups to scale. He focuses on finding tech talents and C-level executives, setting international operations, building an effective People Ops function or creating an attractive employer brand. Matej contributes to the recruitment and startup community by writing a popular blog Lovec Hlav, recording podcasts, organizing meet-ups and trainings or speaking at international conferences.

Tips:

  • Talk to friends, mentors and recruiters to understand your market value
  • Share your salary expectations early on in the hiring process
  • When negotiating share an exact amount you’d like to get and add 10%
  • When re-negotiating prepare evidence for your raise and present your value
  • Do not accept oral offers that promise salary increase first after the trial period
  • Get a mentor who can help you with negotiation and boost your confidence
  • For HR: Present the whole package the employee gets, don’t focus just on money
May 18, 202146:26
Leadership Style with Dita Formankova and Milan Formanek

Leadership Style with Dita Formankova and Milan Formanek

What makes a good leader? What are the most common leadership mistakes? What are some of the leadership specifics in the Czech environment? We discussed this and much more with Dita Formankova (Prikrylova) and Milan Formanek!

About the guests:

Dita is a co-founder and Non-executive Director of the Czech-based social business Czechitas that is inspiring and educating women and youth in IT and digital skills and today is operating in 8 locations, employing 50+ people, managing a community of 560+ active industrial experts and network of 100+ companies and organizing activities for 15.000 students yearly. Besides Czechitas, she initiated other educational projects: Academy of Programming, Powercoders, Datagirls and Czech GreenFox Academy. She is listed in Forbes 30 under 30, CESA Female Role Model, European Citizen Prize and SXSW Community Service Award. She is a member of advisory board Cesko.Digital and SocialImpact Award International and recently she has also joined Avast on a journey of building a global, diverse and inclusive culture. Her passion is education, innovations, technology, social entrepreneurship, kitesurfing, climbing, downhill biking, and many other adrenaline adventures.

Milan is a positive futurist and lifehacker. He worked in Red Bull for 14 years and was a CEO of a creative communication agency Zaraguza. Milan coordinated 20 countries, built a great team. Successfully tested and innovated complex marketing approaches on more than 300 projects and worked with over 100 world top athletes and artists. He teaches and consults modern marketing, already to 500+ organizations, NGOs, startups, universities and selected organizations like Czech chamber of commerce, Impact Hub, European Leadership & Academic Institute, Omnicom Media Group, T-Mobile, Czechitas, Siemens, Prague Institute of Planning and Development or Expres Menu. Milan has mixed this practice with theory from 400+ business audiobooks. He has visited 55+ countries and keeps exploring various life skills.

Tips:

  • Translate vision into concrete steps - simplify, simplify, simplify
  • Choose the right people aka 'coach the coachable'
  • Work on your vision - where you want to be in 10, 15, 20 years
  • Listen to others - that's the key, fu*k charisma
  • Check out the concept of Servant Leadership - shared effort towards a bigger and meaningful goal
  • Have personal approach to everyone in team - progress over promotion
  • Get outside your bubble as often as possible
Apr 20, 202143:54
Gender Bias with Dinah Spritzer and Vladimir Prikryl

Gender Bias with Dinah Spritzer and Vladimir Prikryl

What biases do we see around ourselves and how do they affect us? What should we think twice before saying out loud? We discussed this and much more with Dinah Spritzer-Richter and Vladimir Prikryl!

About the guests:

For more than 20 years Dinah Spritzer-Richter worked as a journalist covering politics, education, minorities and gender issues in Europe and beyond for outlets such as The New York Times, Jerusalem Post and USAToday. Although she continues her journalistic pursuits, Dinah now runs a training agency, Media Confident that provides courses for students, NGOS and companies in media literacy.

In addition, Dinah is a professor of journalism at two study-abroad programs for American university students at New York University and The Council of International Educational Exchange.

Dinah is a proud native of New Jersey, USA and has lived in Prague for two decades. She has twin boys, age 9, who are 100 percent Czech and 100 percent American. Dinah works every day to help them understand and support equality and fairness in the home, at work, and in the world.


Vladimir Prikryl’s philosophy is: Happy employees > Satisfied customers > Company growth. Vladimir fully believes that through building collaborative and high-performing company cultures we can contribute to a better society.

As a General Manager of CGM CZ & SK, Vladimir was always a fan of everything that can improve company culture, that's how he discovered topics like diversity or gender equality. But Vladimir believes that to achieve and improve anything, you have to measure it. For many years, Vladimir has been searching for a tool to measure company culture, when he finally found platform LutherOne, and joined their team. Vladimir is now helping companies with implementation of their own pulse-check tool for company culture and loves it!


Note: Vladimir mentions VUCA world which stands for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous World.

Mar 24, 202157:14
On Air with Petra Nulíčková on the Importance of investing in talent development [Czech]

On Air with Petra Nulíčková on the Importance of investing in talent development [Czech]

Many of you know Petra Nulíčková from LinkedIn or thanks to the 2019 Recruiter of the year award. In 2016, Petra joined Alza.cz as an intern, and over time she was given more and more responsibilities, progressing in the organizational structure. At the moment, Petra and her team take care of four departments, looking for the most suitable colleagues and delivering HR services of the highest possible quality. The goal of their work is to have great managers and produce results they can be proud of. 

Petra is a passionate creator on social networks, where she not only ensures the smooth running of Alza’s HR LinkedIn, but she is also involved in many extracurricular and non-profit projects. The most famous of these is the Holky z Marketingu movement, where she offers tips and tricks in the field of marketing and HR in an entertaining way. 

For Petra, the equation holds that ♡ = HR + psychology + marketing. In all her activities, she intertwines these, applying them not only her work experience, but also her psychology background. In the podcast, we talk about the importance of companies investing in their talent development. Petra shares qualities of an ideal candidate and what mistakes to avoid, both on the side of applicants as well as companies.

Follow Petra on her website or IG: @petra.nulickova

Jan 20, 202142:32
On Air with Callee Ackland on Building a Successful Zero Waste Business

On Air with Callee Ackland on Building a Successful Zero Waste Business

Callee Ackland is a serial entrepreneur on a mission to arm you with the knowledge & tools you need to spark progressive change in your community. At age 23, Callee founded Bestowed Essentials – a social enterprise that creates eco-friendly products & provides jobs for people of all abilities. Their products are now stocked in more than 200 stores around the US & Canada. Callee hosts the popular Hippie Haven Podcast, a free weekly resource on holistic living that reaches people in more than 60 countries. In December 2019, Callee & her badass all-female team opened Hippie Haven, a zero waste store & community space in Rapid City, South Dakota. Callee recently joined the Young Democrats of South Dakota as Communications Director, the latest step in her long history of political activism and a new project underway -- the upcoming launch of the Zero Waste Business Alliance, a nonprofit professional networking organization of which she is President. When we aren't in a pandemic, Callee also travels the country in a self-converted campervan, hosting zero waste workshops & trash cleanups.

With Callee we talked about her initial startup costs at the time when she was still shipping her goods from the back of her campervan, navigating change from being a solo-entrepreneur to leading her own company, what waste still exists behind the scenes of a zero-waste business, her tips on the eco-friendly swaps we all can make and much more!

Follow Callee’s journey on Instagram @hippie.ceo, check out Hippie Haven or Callee’s global directory of online zero waste shops.

About mutual aid concept that Callee mentioned:
In mutual-aid systems, people work cooperatively to meet the needs of everyone in the community. It’s different from charity, which features a one-way relationship between an organization and recipients, and often responds to the effects of inequality but not its causes. Mutual aid is an act of solidarity that builds sustained networks between neighbors.

Jan 06, 202135:20
On Air with Pavlina Louzenska on the Future of Work

On Air with Pavlina Louzenska on the Future of Work

Pavlina Louzenska is a Marketing, Product and Business Consultant with focus on tech startups and fashion brands. She is a Lead Mentor in Google for Startups for Europe and Africa, as well as in various other accelerators and a Google Certified Trainer for Design Thinking.

Pavlina is passionate about giving voice to underrepresented groups, leading her to found #HolkyzMarketingu, a female empowerment community which currently unites 24,000+ women and hosts StartupDisrupt: Female Leaders. She also helps Transparency International as a Board member.

With Pavlina we talked about the Future of Work. What, in her opinion, will be the most dramatic long-term changes that await us in the business environment? How can we assess the positive and negative impacts of remote work on the long-term? What are the skills we are going to need as technology and automation continues to evolve? And how will the education system have to adjust?

Follow Pavlina on Instagram.

Pavlina’s recommendations:

Dec 09, 202043:36
On Air with Dana Pick on Building a business that helps expats

On Air with Dana Pick on Building a business that helps expats

Dana Pick has been the Founder and Managing Director of ReloCare since 2008. ReloCare is an immigration and relocation provider that gives support to HR on moving their newly hired or transferred employees to Czech Republic. Dana has led ReloCare with a high level of communication and customer care which they consider a unique and authentic asset.

We spoke with Dana about the process and challenges of starting a new life in the Czech Republic as a foreigner. She shares with us the long journey of ReloCare, one full of difficulties--literally from zero to hero. Determination, persistence, passion for her job and ability to bravely take risks were all necessary features that Dana had to be equipped with.

You will also hear Dana’s thoughts on maintaining work-life balance as well as tips for effective networking.

Nov 26, 202037:22
On Air with Julia Hakspiel on building a social enterprise that helps women traders in Africa

On Air with Julia Hakspiel on building a social enterprise that helps women traders in Africa

Julia is an expert on market systems development and trade with a focus on gender and women’s economic empowerment. She works as Senior Specialist at MarketShare Associates. Its a global firm, which believes that both public and private institutions should contribute to social transformation. Julia works with clients such as the IFC, World Bank or USAID to integrate gender into their development aid programs.

Julia‘s passion for women's economic empowerment and gender equality was so strong that she decided to leave Europe and move to Africa. Now, she has been living in Kenya for almost 6 years, where she co-founded Sauti, an award-winning social enterprise that disseminates trade and market information to East African SMEs engaged in cross-border trade using mobile technology.

We spoke about Julia’s life-changing experiences in Kenya and what challenges she faced moving to a different continent. We also discussed the main issues plaguing women in Africa, how her start-up helps them, and what the beginnings of a social impact business looks like along with her plans for the future.

Julia’s social business Sauti: http://sautiafrica.org/

Nov 11, 202033:30
On Air with Jana Novakova Stara on advocating for wellness

On Air with Jana Novakova Stara on advocating for wellness

Jana Nováková Stará is a researcher and lecturer promoting wellness in both the Czech Republic and abroad. She has a passion for different cultures and traditions related to healthy living. In the past years she has studied wellness practices and philosophies wherever she could - in Denmark, Turkey and the US. She is a certified Wellness Inventory Coach and assists future coaches from all around the world in their professional preparation. In the Czech Republic, Jana organizes international training courses for youth workers and teaches at Masaryk University in Brno, where she developed and delivers an experiential wellness course for Czech and international students.

Jana founded the Czech Wellness Institute in 2019 with the aim to support, connect and empower wellness professionals across the country. The positive feedback from students, clients, educators and other wellness practitioners support Jana’s belief that better times for European wellness are yet to come.

With Jana we talked about her understanding of wellness and how to cultivate it through self-awareness. She gives us practical tips on how to bring more balance and ease to our lives, along with her story of founding the Czech Wellness Institute.

Oct 28, 202047:04
On Air with Anfisa Bogomolova on switching from freelance to employment and building an online UX community

On Air with Anfisa Bogomolova on switching from freelance to employment and building an online UX community

Anfisa Bogomolova is a user-centric designer with the entrepreneurial mindset and passion for helping other creatives. She was a freelance UX and Product designer for 6 years before moving to re-inventing daily work routines for employees in a product company. Anfisa is also a design trainer and Instagram blogger. Originally from Ukraine, she has lived in 7 different countries and traveled over 45. 

With Anfisa we talked about the dangers of freelance work, her lessons from building startups, creating a design community in the early Instagram era and many tips for starting out in Product Design.

Follow Anfisa’s IG @anfisign and take a look at her UX course: uxforfreelancers.com

Anfisa’s Femme shoutout: Tatiana Shalunova - professional photographer

Oct 14, 202047:10
On Air with Jana Najbrtova on her mission to build a better future for seniors

On Air with Jana Najbrtova on her mission to build a better future for seniors

Jana Najbrtova is the founder and CEO of a non-profit agency, Seniorem s radostí (Superhero senior). Jana and her team help seniors stay active by organizing workshops, offering physical and mental training as well as legal help and fair job opportunities. Jana is also a yoga instructor and Decathlon ambassador.

With Jana we talked about bringing classes for seniors to 150 cities in the Czech Republic, along with her failures and successes, her big plans for the future, and also how yoga nidra helps her recover after working hard.

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Find Yoga Nidra with Everett Newell here.

Jana’s femme inspiration: Helena Lašková - senior model at Seniorem s radostí

Follow Jana and Seniorem s radosti on Instagram!

Sep 30, 202047:22
On Air with Hana Souckova on the art of managing managers and work life integration

On Air with Hana Souckova on the art of managing managers and work life integration

Hana Součková has been the Managing Director of SAP Czech Republic since August 2018.

Hana joined SAP in 2014 as Head of Presales for the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Since the very beginning she was working on close collaboration with sales and marketing departments. On August 1, 2018, she became Managing Director of SAP Czech Republic, leaving her the responsibility of managing the entire team as well as the business results of the Czech branch.

Before joining SAP, Hana worked in several marketing and sales management positions in Ness Czech, Ness Europe, APP and Scala. She studied at the Czech Technical University in Prague and holds certificates from the Czech Marketing Institute. In her free time, she likes sports, especially biking. She also organizes biking races for children.

With Hana we talked about her multiple career shifts, the importance of stepping out of her comfort zone, the challenges of managing managers and her tactics on work life integration. Get inspired by one of the most influential women in Czechia and listen to Hana’s story!

Hana’s leadership recommendation: Predator Code workshop

Sep 16, 202046:20
On Air with Sandra Kisic on the advantages of being employed after 10 years freelancing

On Air with Sandra Kisic on the advantages of being employed after 10 years freelancing

Sandra Kisic is a former blogger, writer, my university classmate and recently positioned as content manager at Welcome to the Jungle. Sandra was born in Sarajevo, followed by a few years in Split and Tunisia before ending up in Prague. She is a passionate scuba diver, can say ‘thank you’ in 25 languages and dreams of living in a Wes Anderson film.

With Sandra we talked about her start as a blogger, how the blogging scene has changed over the past decade, and the beautiful advantages of being an employee (for the first time in Sandra’s life) that we often take for granted!

Follow Sandra and Welcome to the Jungle on IG.

Sep 02, 202037:22
On Air with Pavla Lokajova on the importance of combating ego and finding her fulfilment

On Air with Pavla Lokajova on the importance of combating ego and finding her fulfilment

Pavla Lokajova is a solo-preneur, journalist, Founding Member of Future Farm and a new mother to twins. Her passion lies in telling the stories of our time.

Not quite finding her fit in traditional newsrooms, Pavla pioneered her own way building a couple of newspapers from scratch, filling the gaps she sensed in the industry. From student journalist to content creator to co-founder of Czech employer branding platform, Pavla has learned a lot by telling stories the last 12 years. She has interviewed over 400 CEOs and covered culture in 300+ companies. You can read her work at Naratives.co.

With Pavla, we talked about the importance of being true to yourself, allowing your priorities to change along the way, combining her multiple projects while becoming a mother, and much more!

Make sure you follow Pavla’s Instagram - it is full of inspiration!

Pavla's Femme shoutout: Vladimira Mesko Briestenska - CEO of Future Farm

Aug 19, 202042:43
On Air with Andrea Tkacukova on building a relocation company while still completing university

On Air with Andrea Tkacukova on building a relocation company while still completing university

Andrea co-founded the company Foreigners, a relocation agency providing comprehensive services for expats in the Czech Republic. After over 10 years of leading Foreigners as CEO, Andrea's team comprises more than 40 people working in 6 different offices. She is also a mentor in communities that incubate new projects and just recently, she became a mother of a baby girl.

We spoke about the first years of her business while still completing university, the importance of taking it all step by step, and her current challenges connected not only to the global epidemic, but also to running a company while being a new mom.

Follow Andrea on Instagram!

Andrea’s femme shoutout: Lucie Patkova from Foreigners and Renata Mrazova from Home Credit International

Aug 05, 202041:00
On Air with Petra Vaskovych on her leadership lessons and work-life integration

On Air with Petra Vaskovych on her leadership lessons and work-life integration

Petra Vaskovych is a Chief Product Officer at Kiwi.com, a Czech online travel tech start-up. She was the fourth Kiwi.com employee hired and played a large part in scaling the team to over 2600 employees by leading product strategy and planning. Petra loves to explore new places, practice sports, folklore and being a dedicated mother and partner.

We discussed her beginnings at kiwi.com and the many lessons learned from being a manager in a fast-growing company along with the main challenges she faces in her career and personal life, especially during these turbulent times where the travel industry has been decimated due to the global pandemic.

Jul 22, 202044:21
On Air with Nela Dopanova on starting her business focused on healthier movement

On Air with Nela Dopanova on starting her business focused on healthier movement

Nela Ďopanová is the founder and CEO of Fpohybu - a company created with the desire to increase movement literacy, helping people to create healthy movements habits. In cooperation with physiotherapists, Fpohybu provides workshops, programs and team buildings for companies to take care of their employees, educate them and by this have a healthier and happier company culture.  With Nela we talked about her start with her business idea,  how her main challenges evolved over time, and the importance of keeping flexibility when building a company. 

Make sure you follow Fpohybu on Instagram and Facebook.

Nela’s female shoutout: Marie Havlickova (ex-CEO of Slevomat)

Jul 08, 202044:55
On Air with Zuzana Maderova on international expansions and juggling several projects

On Air with Zuzana Maderova on international expansions and juggling several projects

Zuzana Maderova is a Senior VP of Business Development & Expansions at Enehano and Co-Founder of Kilta, a platform with tech experts from CEE. Zuzka is also active in Diversity & Inclusion project Be ID Human and works on creating a Female Angel Investor network. 

We connected with Zuzka at the beginning of the nationwide lockdown in the Czech Republic and talked about everything from leading international expansions after studying translation, to time management when juggling so many different projects, and much more!

Zuzka's femme shout-out: Popysky

Jun 24, 202037:05
On Air with Ines Gaston SPECIAL: An Open Story about Burnout

On Air with Ines Gaston SPECIAL: An Open Story about Burnout

Ines Gaston is a Clinical Psychologist teaching resilience, and gaining more clarity, confidence and energy. After coping with her own burnout, Ines built a program thanks to which her clients become proactive in managing their own well-being that protects them from exhaustion, burnout, feeling overwhelmed or stuck.

In this On Air Special be ready for an open chat about burnout and Ines’s story!

Get in touch with Ines:

Jun 10, 202052:48
On Air with Daria Hvizdalova on Getting into AI and Public speaking

On Air with Daria Hvizdalova on Getting into AI and Public speaking

Daria Hvizdalova leads JHV Solutions, providing the industry with insights on how to automate manufacturing processes. She also takes care of R&D investment and strategy with the focus on spin-offs and joint ventures in the innovative technological fields. Among other things, Daria gave a TEDx talk - twice - can speak 5 languages, is a fresh mom and is only 26 years old! 

With Daria we discussed the journey that led her to the Czech Republic, how she got into Artificial Intelligence on a non-tech position, her experience with public speaking and how she's now combining maternity with professional life.

May 27, 202041:42
On Air with Nina Formanek Jaganjacova on Building health-tech business with two kids
May 13, 202044:14
On Air with Lea Lundblad on How she landed a job at Apple

On Air with Lea Lundblad on How she landed a job at Apple

Lea Lundblad works as a Platform Specialist at Apple in San Francisco. Her personal and professional satisfaction is driven by the desire to make logistics and people work well together. With this philosophy being at the center of focus in her day, she maintains all parts of her life in balance. The roots of this philosophy sprouted during her adolescence in Hawaii. She kept cultivating it during her business studies at the University of San Francisco, as well as her later in her professional career. Her experience at USF expanded her perspectives globally, on top of being surrounded by innovations in Silicon Valley.

Listen to how the power of connection and the consistency in using her personal and professional motto got her where she is today!

Note: Check out Lea's recent female inspiration - Janaye Ingram's LinkedIn or Instagram.

Apr 29, 202033:21
On Air with Cristina Muntean on Building her business over the past 10 years

On Air with Cristina Muntean on Building her business over the past 10 years

Cristina Muntean is a consultant, trainer, mentor and coach who specializes in personal branding, strategic communications, emotional and systemic intelligence for leadership. A former journalist with more than 12 years of experience in the Czech, Romanian and international media, she founded Media Education CEE, a PR advisory, and training agency in Prague in May 2010. Her clients are executive-level managers and entrepreneurs with Top100 companies in the Czech Republic and Central and Eastern Europe. Cristina is also an internationally certified trainer and coach with Enneagram, a complex system of personal development, and a facilitator of systemic dynamics in organizations.

In this episode we chat with Cristina about the beginnings of starting a new business as an expat in the Czech Republic, as well as about pivoting it multiple times over the past decade, writing her book in a foreign language, and running her first digital conference on Personal Branding.

Apr 14, 202046:49