I have been watching Amanda Rose's star rise for a number of years and she is definitely an ambitious woman who gets lots of stuff done fast.

Amanda wears a number of impressive hats including being the Founder of Small Business Women Australia, Publisher of Business Woman Media and Founding Director of Western Sydney Women, Western Sydney Executive Women & Managing Partner of Western Sydney Advisory.

As one of the most influential people on LinkedIn, Amanda Rose (#BossLady) is quoted as an "internet winning blogger" by TIME.com and contributes regularly to ABC The Drum and has a weekly #BossLady Careers Column in the Daily Telegraph.

A passionate keynote speaker, Amanda Rose has worked with organizations such as The Australian Defence Force, CPA Australia, Law Institute, UBER, ANZ, and Western Sydney University on the areas of confident leadership, conflict resolution & relationship building via connection.

Amanda has a degree in Business majoring in Marketing & Psychology from Macquarie University, a Masters of Communications Management from UTS & Post Graduate qualification in Educational Leadership from Macquarie University. She is the non-executive director at Excelsia College and on the NSW Government's Council for Women's Economic Opportunity.

If the word ambition had a moniker surely Amanda Rose would be it. Welcome to the podcast, Amanda.

Hear from Amanda on:

1. How she relates to the idea of being ambitious and why for many it so hard to say out loud?
2. Describe how your ambition has changed over your career and business journey?
3. Do you have a view on setting quotas for women to hold senior board roles or corporate positions as well as in public office?
4. Career and business ambition are important but what about other life ambitions? Like fitness goals or even hobbies - how do you view that in your own life?
5. Takeaway: How would you sum up The Politics of Ambition?

More on Amanda can be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandarosemedia/

Age is just a number, right? Much of the modern world revolves around our age - are we too young or too old for a certain outfit or job or can we defy our age with new skincare products and exercise and diet regimes? I met today's guest, Dr. Catherine Rickwood, on the speaking circuit some years ago. She is a thought leader and subject matter expert on the topic of aging. Among her academic achievements, Catherine holds a Ph.D. from the University of Sydney which she acquired at the youthful age of 48. Her doctoral studies sparked a curiosity about retirement that led to her TEDx talk entitled 'Retirement is Redundant'.

Dr. Rickwood believes that being curious about how we live, work, and play at any age and life stage is essential. She considers the idea of educate-work-retire an outdated life plan. A useless paradigm given that we live for so long. She says it's time to get creative about how we use the extra 20+ healthy years we've been given. Using those years throughout our life rather than saving them up until our 60's. Catherine also suggests that gap years are something we can embrace at any age. They do not need to be the sole possession of school leavers. She specialises in working with corporates to enhance their business strategies and adapting them to the changing age structure of our population.

We discuss in this podcast:

1. The notion of age being just a number - why?                                            
2. How can we overcome the disconnect between living longer, and wanting or needing to be in paid work and the issue of ageism? Older workers seem to be getting younger!                                                                                   
3. Why don't you think we should retire and how realistic is that we age and our mental and physical well-being can decline and impact their skills and ability to work longer?       
4. How can businesses better adapt to suit a multi-generational workforce? (examples and ideas or case studies please)

5. What is her biggest message for us on The Politics of Age?

To connect to Catherine go to Catherine Rickwood PhD | LinkedIn

Energy has become one of the biggest political, moral, economic, and social issues our time - on par with its cousin climate change.

Sally Torgoman is an Australian lawyer and commercial advisor specializing in renewable energy transactions and development projects. Sally is a qualified electrical engineer and lawyer and she was admitted to the NSW Supreme Court in 2015 after 10 years of practicing as an engineer.

Sally has worked at leading law firms as well as in-house including at Origin Energy, Energy Australia, BlueScope Steel.

Today Sally Torgoman is Managing Director at PwC Australia, Energy M&A Practice, Australia's leading energy advisor on solar, wind, pumped hydro, and more recently hydrogen. Prior to joining PwC Australia, she was Global General Counsel of EEW Limited, a renewable energy developer and operator. She supported projects and activities in Russia, Europe, Australia, South America, and MENA.

At one point in her career, she joined Better Place, the electric vehicle start-up, at its time, it was the third-highest ranked start-up after Facebook and Twitter. She learned a great deal about starting an ideology in a new business, and that a powerful idea can transform nations.

Sally believes Australia has some of the best clean energy transition experts, and she wants them to be heard in shaping a cleaner economy.

Hear from Sally on:

1. What role does 'clean energy' play and how will that change over the next decade or two in a decarbonizing world?
2. Why Australia has a major role in hydrogen as a sustainable alternative to conventional energy production and storage.
3. How can governments and businesses make decisive, energy policy changes faster?
4. Beyond solar, wind, hydrogen, and other areas what are some untapped ideas on energy that could become big in the future?
5. Electric vehicles have become more popular and are becoming more affordable. Are they likely to replace fuel cars any time soon? Why or why not.
6. Take away: What your final takeaway message on The Politics of Energy?

To connect with Sally: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sally-torgoman-88527a2/