#KatieTalks
Conversations with influencers sharing thought-provoking, relevant business and leadership insights.
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#KatieTalks with Rochelle Tognetti: Type Your Own Name Into an LLM Tonight. Then We'll Talk
<p >Most people talking about AI in marketing have never had to fund it, defend it to a board, or answer for it. Rochelle Tognetti has done all three.</p> <p >She was CMO and Partner at Deloitte. In 2024 she walked into her performance review and told her boss she was leaving to go and study. Deloitte wrote a sabbatical clause into the partnership to keep her. She branded the year "my year of saying yes", started lecturing at the University of Sydney, and came back to go all in on AI. She co-founded the Australian Centre for AI in...
#KatieTalks with Bec Dyce: AI Is Rewriting Discovery. Is Your Brand Even in the Shortlist?
<p >AI is no longer just changing how we work. It is changing how businesses are found, compared and chosen.</p> <p >In this episode of #KatieTalks, Katie Bennett-Stenton speaks with digital marketing leader Bec Dyce about the shift many senior teams still haven’t properly clocked: customers are increasingly using AI to research brands, compare options and build shortlists before they ever reach a website.</p> <p >So what happens when your brand does not appear in the answer?</p> <p >Katie and Bec unpack why the website is no longer just for humans, why brands need to optimise fo...
#KatieTalks with James Fielding: The Rainmaker Myth and the New Rules of Professional Services Growth
<p >In this episode of #KatieTalks, Katie Bennett-Stenton speaks with James Fielding, her business partner at Camojee, about the first major theme from their new report, Rethinking Rainmakers: How Top Firms Multiply Talent and Drive 42% Better Growth.</p> <p >This first conversation explores what is broken in professional services growth, and why firms that rely too heavily on individual rainmakers risk capping performance.</p> <p >Katie and James discuss why sustainable growth requires more than star performers. It requires better systems, stronger pipeline discipline, aligned rewards, embedded collaboration and a shift from individual heroics to institutional growth capability.</p> <p >...
#KatieTalks with Howard Krais: The Human Reality of Change — And What Great Leaders Do Differently
<p >If Episode 1 explains why change fails, this conversation focuses on what it actually takes to make it work.</p> <p >In Part 2, Katie Bennett-Stenton and Howard Krais move from diagnosis to application — exploring the lived experience of change across organisations, cultures and leadership contexts.</p> <p >From global headquarters to frontline teams, this episode surfaces the often-overlooked gap between what organisations say and what people actually experience.</p> <p > </p> <p >They discuss:</p> The “head office illusion” — and why what feels critical at the centre often barely registers on the frontline. Why communication often serves the organisation, not the peopl...
#KatieTalks with Howard Krais: Why Change Fails — And What Leaders Still Get Wrong
<p >Most organisations don’t fail at change because the strategy is wrong. They fail because they underestimate the human reality of it.</p> <p >In this first episode of a two-part conversation, Katie Bennett-Stenton speaks with Howard Krais — a globally experienced leader in organisational change and communication — about why so many transformation efforts fall short, and what leaders continue to misunderstand.</p> <p >Katie first met Howard at the IABC World Conference in Vancouver, where his perspective on change as a human experience to lead, not a process to manage stood out immediately.</p> <p >This episode focuses on the di...
#KatieTalks: The Rise of Fractional Leadership, AI and the New Rules of High-Impact Organisations | With Deena Hooper
<p >Organisations are evolving.<br> Leadership models are shifting.<br> And the firms gaining momentum are rethinking how they access expertise, build capability and scale.</p> <p >In this episode of #KatieTalks, Katie Bennett-Stenton speaks with Deena Hooper, Director of Client Experience and Marketing at Korda Mentha, about the growing shift toward fractional leadership, agile expertise and smarter organisational structures.</p> <p >In a market where many large consulting firms are consolidating and recalibrating, Korda Mentha is pursuing an ambitious growth trajectory. This conversation explores what sits behind that confidence, and how leadership, talent and operating models are evolving to...
#KatieTalks: Turning the Tables – On Winning Australian Marketer of the Year
<p >This episode is a little different… and a little more uncomfortable (in the best possible way).</p> <p >For the first time on #KatieTalks, Katie is in the hot seat. Interviewed by Ike Levick, this is a sharp, honest and slightly cheeky unpack of what it actually takes to win the Australian Marketing Institute Certified Practising Marketer of the Year award.</p> <p >And… very timely, given entries for this year’s awards have just opened. No pressure.</p> <p >Spoiler: it’s not about playing it safe, being polite, or waiting your turn.</p> <p >In this conversation, we get i...
#KatieTalks: Why Understanding Gen Z Is Every Leader’s New Competitive Edge
<p >To lead well, and communicate brilliantly, we have to understand the people shaping the world around us. Gen Z already makes up around 60 percent of the global workforce, and while they’re not yet the senior decision-makers in most organisations, their influence on culture, communication and consumer behaviour is undeniable. For leaders, marketers and strategists, grasping these generational shifts isn’t optional; it’s how you stay relevant.</p> <p > </p> <p >In this episode of Katie Talks, Katie Bennett-Stenton speaks with India Starr, a graduate researcher at the USC Annenberg Center for Public Relations, about the findings from the 202...
#KatieTalks with Sally Spicer: Workaholism, Worth and What Happens When You Finally Stop
<p >In this candid and deeply human conversation, Katie Bennett-Stenton sits down with Sally Spicer, Communications Director at Future Women, to talk about the moment when relentless ambition collides with real life.</p> <p > </p> <p >Sally is a two-time Mumbrella award-winner, this year named Journalist of the Year (2025 Mumbrella Publish Awards), and last year recognised for her exceptional work as Executive Producer of There’s No Place Like Home, a powerful podcast on domestic and family violence.</p> <p >But behind the accolades was a story few knew: burnout, ADHD, and the courage to stop.</p> <p > </p> <p >In th...
#KatieTalks with Helen McCabe — Power, Dignity & the Future of Strategic Storytelling
<p >What happens when more than 70,000 women get to shape the life of one fictional character? You spark a national conversation that’s part data, part dignity — and 100% insight.</p> <p > </p> <p >In this episode of #KatieTalks, I speak with the formidable Helen McCabe, Founder and Managing Director of Future Women, about the powerhouse campaign Choose Her Own Adventure — and why it resonated so deeply across generations of Australian women. We unpack how the campaign blended content, advocacy and audience participation in a way that made people feel before they analysed — and what that signals for leaders, marketers, and organisat...
