A LOT TO SAY PODCAST

Ep 11: SMALL-STARTS with Joan Westenberg

Episode Summary

Today, we have appearing with us Joan Westenberg, an award winning PR director, contemporary writer, and creative who is regarded as one of the leading startup voices in Australia. Joan's writing has appeared in many publications and her regular work can be found on Pizza Party, a blog about creativity, culture and technology. Joan emphasises a DIY ideal, starting something small and beautiful and diving into multiple projects at once, but not being married to them forever.

Episode Notes

Joan Westenberg is an award winning Australian PR director, contemporary writer, and creative. She is the founder of PR and communications firm Studio Self. Her approach to messaging, communication and semiotics has built her reputation as a writer, and she has been named as one of the leading startup voices in Australia by SmartCompany.

Her writing has appeared in The SF Chronicle, Wired, The AFR, The Observer, ABC, Junkee, SBS, Crikey and over 40+ publications. Her regular work can be found on Pizza Party, a blog about creativity, culture and technology.

Joan is the creator of Transgenderinclusion.com, an open-source workplace inclusion hack, and the author of the book #DIY, a manifesto for indie creativity.

A few points in the chit-chat:

  1. Newfound awareness of the distractions in everyday life
  2. Observing mainstreaming in the technology ecosystem
  3. Finding different outlets with your voice
  4. Receiving criticism in the extreme
  5. Creating a Self-care community and space for it in your life
  6. How to/ When to/ Why to start an idea
  7. The evolution of projects
  8. Scaling at the expense of beauty
  9. Give yourself permission to go ahead and make what you want to make
  10. Diversity and inclusion priorities for people and companies
  11. Reflecting on a year of sobriety
  12. Creating a pathway for outsiders in tech to be able to enter the ecosystem
  13. The value placed on creatives

Notes and Links:

Follow @joanwestenberg on Instagram and Twitter

 

Music by Gareth Leach Music by way of Bateman

Twitter: @ALTSProjects

Instagram: @altsprojects_

Hosted by Gaz Williams @gwilliamsALTS