In Her Making

Gemma Lasenby: Why You Should Always Be Preparing Your Backfill

Sun, 04 Oct 2026 19:00:00 GMT

Gemma trained in creative arts and film production at uni, but wrote herself a diary entry early on that's basically become her career manifesto: forget the starving-artist portfolio career, just give me a nine-to-five that's vaguely creative and pays reliably. She stumbled into media almost by accident, not even knowing what the industry was when she took the leap — and then burned out completely, not once but twice, before finally landing at a major global media agency, where she's spent the last twelve years working her way from business director to running a seventy-person team through the chaos of COVID-era hiring, and now sits on the national executive team as National General Manager.

In this episode, we get into the stuff no one really says out loud: the exact moment burnout stops being about hours and starts being about feeling numb to the people around you, why every promotion you take needs a backfill plan before you say yes, how to stop over-talking in rooms to prove your value, and why being asked "are you sure?" when you go for your next role after having kids is a bias worth calling out. Gemma's built an entire career on knowing when to walk away and when to plant her flag — and she's handing over exactly how she reads the difference.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Renee Murray: How to Lead With Influence, Not Authority

Sun, 20 Sep 2026 20:00:00 GMT

Renee's career didn't start where you'd expect — she dropped out of a science degree six months in, took a retail traineeship instead, and was running a flagship store within six months of that. From there she was asked to run the business in New Zealand at twenty-one, then handed an even bigger regional role covering South Africa, Singapore and Malaysia, and worked her way all the way to the C-suite. And then, after all that, she went back to study and completely changed direction — today, she's Head of People and Culture at one of Australia's biggest independent media agencies.

In this episode, we get into the stuff no one really says out loud: how to actually build influence when you have no authority to force anyone to do anything, why "what can I do for you?" might be the worst question a leader can ask, why good leaders go looking for the hard conversations instead of waiting for them, and what it really means to make a team's job possible instead of easy. Renee's spent two decades in rooms she wasn't necessarily meant to be in yet — and she's handing over exactly how she got comfortable there.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sam Cousins: The Storyboard Trick Behind Every Winning Pitch

Sun, 13 Sep 2026 20:00:00 GMT

Sam moved to Paris at eighteen with no real plan, working as a nanny. It was translating french billboard ads that accidentally gave her the itch for advertising. She built a twenty-five year career across some of the biggest media and advertising networks in the world, starting in the media department floor in London through to seventeen years at one group across four different agencies and roles. She eventually becoming the first woman to ever hold a Chief Strategy Officer title in that business's history.

In this episode, we get into the stuff no one really says out loud: how to work out what you're actually worth to a business's bottom line, how to build the case when the answer to a pay rise or promotion is "not now," and the messy, human cost of a promised job that disappeared the moment she got pregnant.

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Kylie Pascoe: Why Withholding Feedback Is the Real Unkindness

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 20:00:00 GMT

This is In Her Making — the show for ambitious women reverse-engineering the path to the top, one honest conversation at a time.

In this episode I sit down with Kylie Pascoe. Kylie's career started with a gun strapped to her waist in case she ran into a crocodile. From there she talked her way into media, and over the next two decades built her career across some of the biggest agencies in the world, working across Melbourne and London. Today she's General Manager at Hearts & Science, a media agency part of the Omnicom Group.

In this episode, we get into the stuff no one says out loud: how to run a multi-million-dollar pitch while breastfeeding in the boardroom, why the relationships you build at every level of a business are what actually open doors, the mindset trick for handling whatever crisis lands on your desk, and why brutal honesty and kindness aren't opposites when you're leading a team. Kylie's proof that you don't have to play the political game to climb — you just have to be the person everyone actually wants on their team. She's handing over exactly how she's built that at every level of her career.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vanessa Vallely OBE: From Council Estate to Building a Movement

Sun, 30 Aug 2026 20:00:00 GMT

This is In Her Making — the show for ambitious women reverse-engineering the path to the top, one honest conversation at a time.

Today I'm sitting down with Vanessa Vallely. Vanessa left school at sixteen with barely a qualification to her name, grew up on a council estate in East London, and built a twenty-five year career in financial services. She then went on to found We Are The City in 2008, which is now one of the UK's biggest platforms for women, with over a hundred and twenty thousand members. She's been awarded an OBE for services to women and the economy, she's got an honorary doctorate from Warwick Business School. Vanessa has been named GQ UK's Top 100 Connected Women, the Evening Standard's 1000 Most Influential Londoners and The International Alliance for Women's Top 100 Women globally, to name a few…

In this episode, we get into the stuff no one really says out loud: why "job-hopping" might actually be the smartest move on your resume, how to be intentional and authentic with your personal brand, why "networking" is a dirty word, and the politics nobody warns you about until you're in the room. Vanessa's about twenty-five years further down the road than most of us, and she's handing over everything she's learned.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to In Her Making

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 05:24:55 GMT

Welcome to In Her Making: a candid interview podcast for women in the messy middle of a corporate career, reverse-engineering exactly how the women ahead of them made it.

Hosted by Mayah Nathan — seven years into a career in Australian media and marketing, recently stepped into her first leadership role — this show exists because the inspirational podcasts weren't enough. Mayah wanted the mechanics: the decisions, the politics, the negotiations, the moments nobody puts on a keynote stage.

Every episode, she sits down with a woman who's already made the climb — CEOs, CMOs, managing directors, general managers — and reverse-engineers exactly how she got there. Not the highlight reel. The playbook.

This is for the women already doing the work, with their eye on the next step, who sometimes feel out of place with the size of their own ambition. You're not trying to build your own thing — you're trying to build yourself inside a company, inside an industry. This show is for you.

Follow @inhermaking.pod on Instagram, or Mayah Nathan on LinkedIn and TikTok. First episode drops soon.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.