Smashing The Ceiling

My guest today has gone from shy wallflower to recipient of international film awards and a column in Forbes. 

Jia Wertz is a filmmaker, entrepreneur, podcaster, activist and writer, who, like many of our guests, has had a working life with some unexpected twists and turns.

Jia had a super successful career in the fashion industry when she first ...

This is Part Two of my chat with Sam Baines, my first guest for Season 6 of the podcast, and a woman that I’ve know for a few years after she was shortlisted at the inaugural International Women’s Podcast Awards back in 2021. It’s fitting that she’s first this season, because she’s been the first woman to do a few other things too. 

Sam is an award-winning comedian, podcas...

We're back for Season 6!

My first guest is a woman that I’ve know for a few years after she was shortlisted at the inaugural International Women’s Podcast Awards back in 2021. Her name is Samantha Baines, and it’s fitting that she’s first this season, because she’s been the first woman to do a few other things too. 

Sam is an award-winning comed...

We’ve been away for a little while, but we are back! I’m Naomi Mellor, and I’m delighted to let you know that there’s a new season of Smashing The Ceiling just around the corner, with all sorts of delights awaiting you.

In this podcast we chat to women with unusual, interesting and inspiring careers, and we’re kicking off Season 6 with comedian, author, actor, podcaster and de...

If you’re into meditation and healing, you may know what a Tibetan sound bowl is. If not, you’ve got a treat in store, as we’ll be digging deep into the world of holistic health in this episode. My guest today is Justine Nagaur, a spiritual healer, teacher, mentor, and creator of bespoke crystal malas.

I met Justine a couple of years ago, and she’s one of those rare people wit...

How often do you think about your own breathing? I bet you are right now. How fast do you breathe? How deeply? 

Most of the time it’s completely unconscious. We just do it, and we rarely consider how we breathe unless we’re exercising and out of breath, or ill and out of breath, as many of us have been during the pandemic.It’s only when our capacity to breathe is reduced ...

This week, we’re talking, amongst other things, about sleep. My guest today is Dot Zacharias, COO and co-founder of Nourish, a wellbeing app designed for busy mums to find a little calm in their lives, which aims to protect maternal mental health and provide support. But that description doesn’tquite cover Dot’s career. After starting her working life in Russia, she’s worked as a management consultant, q...

My guest this week is endometriosis advocate, golf influencer and brilliant lawyer Sinéad McGrath - as you might imagine, the subjects we covered in this conversation are many and varied. Sinéad sits on the Executive Committee of the Junior Lawyers' Division at The Law Society, and after saying ‘no’ for many years, she started playing golf a couple of years ago. There she discovered a community of women ...

My first guest of 2022 is Catie Friend, who says of her adventures that she “will always be a completer rather than a competer”. Given the challenges she’s completed, which include the world’s toughest ski mountaineering race and the half Marathon des Sables, and the things she’s done in her career, completing any of them would be considered a strong achievement as far as I’m concerned. 

Siobhan Daniels grew up in a care home as one of eight children amongst the elderly people her family looked after. She's subsequently had an incredibly varied and colourful life, first working as a nurse in the NHS before joining the BBC as a trainee in broadcast journalism. Siobhan spent 30 years as a presenter, reporter and producer at the BBC, before selling her property and setting off on a new round of adventures in her campe...

When you think about human rights, what's the first thing that comes to mind?

Maybe it's the treatment of prisoners overseas, or working conditions and pay in a place of employment, or freedom of speech, or the right of an individual to live freely and safely in whatever manner they choose? Maybe it's a multitude of other things, because the subject of human rights is broad an...

To open Season 4, I’ve got two guests with me with this week, and if you’re looking for inspiring women in your life, then these two are it. 

Kirsten and Aiyven Mbawa are sisters from Northampton, England and they’re 13 and 12 years old respectively. Nothing unusual there. What is unusual is that both Kirsten and Aiyven are published authors and business owners. Their love...

To many people, the world of burlesque may seem distant, mysterious and unknown. You might have heard of Dita von Teese, but how much do you know about the art of it, the glamour, and the people, who are, by all accounts, a brilliant bunch of welcoming human beings?

My guest today is Tigz Rice, who combines her career as a burlesque and boudoir photographer with an ambition to leave her mark on the world creatively. She has shot fo...

Hannah Roper is an incredible woman with a varied career forged out of a combination of inspiration and necessity. Not many people can say that they've worked as a teacher, a policeman, a country music singer and an entrepreneur. Hannah has worked in both primary and secondary education, founded a country music festival, been on the beat and with suspects, and released several successful albums. In the midst of all of that, she's ...

We hear so much about side hustles and entrepreneurship and it seems that every second person on social media is starting a successful new business and scaling it to 7 figures from their kitchen table. But if you've had an idea, how do you get started? How do you balance your day job and the need to earn a living with launching a new venture? What's the best way to go about that, and why does it seem so damn easy for other people w...

Have you ever had a moment when you met someone for the first time, but you felt like you'd known them your entire life? It's a weird and rare but wonderful thing. I had that feeling when I chatted to Nikki Trott prior to this interview, and I knew I had to have her on the show.

Nikki is an entrepreneur, podcaster and coach on a mission with her company, Conscious Accelerator. That mission is to help entrepreneurs with a real purpo...

My guest this week is an incredible woman, whose life and career were turned upside down by circumstances. We talk often on this podcast about how circumstances shape the careers of women, but in the case of Victoria Jenkins, the circumstances were becoming disabled in her mid twenties.

Before becoming ill, Victoria was forging a successful career as a garment technologist, wor...

We've often talked on this podcast about how our upbringing shapes our attitudes to work, ambition and success. Mira Patel's parents ran a newsagent, and she started working in the shop at an early age, before forging a successful career in HR. She understands the value of hard work and determination in building a business. She stepped away the HR world to train in neurolinguistic programming, and she founded her company, Prana Co...

When you're in a box career-wise, it can be hard to get out of it. Sometimes it's pressure from others, or from society that keeps you in that box, or sometimes it's your own internal monologue telling you that you can't do anything else. Sometimes, life events send you on a different path.

Imogen Tinkler is a total inspiration in this area. After an adventurous childhood in Pakistan, and studying Russian with politics at uni, Imog...