Podcast round-up: Women in Finance series

Why Tanya Sale believes support is key to being a female leader

Tanya Sale co-founded mortgage aggregation group outsource Financial with Andrea Tassis 13 years ago, with Ms Sale now one of the very few female chief executives in the mortgage industry.

In this episode, Annie Kane sits down with Ms Sale to find out:

• How a piggy bank triggered her love of finance.
• Why she started her own aggregation business.
• Why she believes support is critical to succeed as a female business leader.

Why Joanna James believes in visualising and emotionalising success

Joanna James is an advocate for constant reinvention and resilience, having adapted to change over her career in the finance space herself.

Having worked in the lending space for more than 20 years – including as the general manager of non-bank lender Mortgage Ezy – she now helps support women in building successful businesses through Artemis Space, a women’s community group delivered by the Finance Brokers Association of Australia.

In this episode, Annie Kane sits down with Ms James to find out:

• Why success is subjective.
• The power of visualisation, emotionalisation, and manifestation.
• Why she believes the finance industry is a great industry for women.

How Mortgage Choice is working to create inclusive workplaces

Deslie Taylor, principal at Mortgage Choice Ormeau in Queensland, is one of the top brokers in the country, having settled over $1 billion in loans in her 16-year career and taken home numerous awards including Mortgage Broker of the Year at the Women in Finance Awards multiple years in a row.

In this episode, we chat to Ms Taylor about how she runs her award-winning brokerage and find out from Aaron Slater, general manager of distribution at Mortgage Choice (principal partner of the Women in Finance Summit and Awards 2023), how we can help support and create more inclusive workplaces.

Tune in to find out:

• The power of being an empathetic leader.
• The art of practising continuous improvement.
• How Mortgage Choice’s Aspire program is supporting women in finance.

The Olympian financial planner balancing passion and profession

In this episode, host Maja Garaca Djurdjevic is joined by Olympian and financial adviser at HLB Mann Judd, Sarah Carli, to discuss how she made her way from the track to financial advice.

Ms Carli, who competed in the 400-metre hurdles at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, reveals the valuable skills she has learned as an adviser that have positively impacted her athletic career, as well as how she balances being a professional athlete with working full time.

Tune in to find out:

• The importance of a supportive work environment.
• How she balances her professional and athletic commitments.
• How there are more transferable skills between athletics and advice than many might expect.

The importance of showcasing diversity at all levels

In this episode, we chat to Anjali Crossette, manager of motor operations at non-bank lender Liberty, about breaking barriers and misconceptions about car finance and why she believes the industry needs to showcase gender diversity across every rung of the career ladder.

Tune in to find out:

• Why the finance industry is an attractive industry to work in for women.
• The progress being made in gender diversity in car finance.
• How Liberty is leading the way by example.

The power of having strong female role models

In this episode, we chat to Suzanne Wood, state general manager residential broker Victoria/Tasmania at Westpac Group (and state chair of the Women of Westpac employee advocacy group), about how she climbed the career ladder in banking and the power of having strong female role models.

Tune in to find out:

• How she learnt the art of having difficult conversations.
• The perils of unconscious bias and how to tackle them.
• How Westpac is supporting women through the Women of Westpac employee advocacy group.

How diversity provides a competitive advantage

In this episode, we chat to Rebecca Warren, executive general manager of small-business banking at CommBank, about how she navigated a historically male-dominated industry over her 20-year career and why she believes inclusion and diversity are not just morally imperative, but key to achieving superior business results.

Tune in to find out:

• Why she loves commercial finance.
• The secret power of ‘quiet achievers’.
• How CommBank is creating a more inclusive and supportive work culture.

[Related: Winners of the Women in Finance Awards 2023 revealed]