Career Confidence

You can carry your career around as a kind of blur. A sense of having done a lot, but without ever seeing what it actually adds up to.
That's what Emma Buckland realised when she finally sat down and looked at her career cumulatively.
Years of work. Thousands of people helped. Millions of dollars in impact. But she'd never properly counted it before.
And that's the thing about visibility. It doesn't start with LinkedIn. It doesn't start with speaking at conferences. It starts with becoming visible to yourself first.
In this episode of the Career Confidence Podcast, Georgie sits down with Emma Buckland, a mobile UX designer with 17 years of experience across financial services, public sector, and corporate design. Emma's career has taken her from acting to designing mobile experiences that have reached millions of people across Australia and the world.
But for years, she carried that work around without ever really seeing what it amounted to. Until she did the work of looking back, connecting the dots, and recognising the evidence that was already there.
This conversation is about what happens when you stop waiting for someone else to recognise your value and start seeing it for yourself. It's about why self-trust isn't just a mindset; it's grounded in evidence. It's about how Emma went from applying to speak at UX Australia thinking they'd say no, to delivering a talk that challenged the entire design industry on how we think about mobile and interrupted attention.
Emma also shares how she's thinking about AI, why she believes designers need to refuse to let it distract us from the things that are still broken, and why the real differentiator in an AI-driven world will be the quality of thinking behind the work, not just the speed at which we can produce it.
In this episode:
How Emma went from acting to mobile UX design, and why both come from the same impulse
Why she became fascinated by financial services and the complexity of designing within constraints
What's changed in 17 years of working in UX and mobile design
Why Emma believes we need to stay ahead of AI without letting it distract us from what's still broken in design
The blind spot in the design industry that Emma challenged at UX Australia: we're not designing for interrupted attention
Why the real differentiator in an AI world will be quality of thinking, judgment, curiosity, and adaptability
How Emma prepared for and delivered her talk at UX Australia, and why public speaking terrified her
Why visibility starts with becoming visible to yourself first
How Emma looked at her career cumulatively for the first time and realised the enormous contribution she'd never properly counted
Why self-trust is grounded in evidence, not just mindset
What happens when you carry your career around as a blur versus seeing what it actually adds up to
Why staying connected to the work and the people you've helped matters more than the numbers
How AI is changing Emma's work, from two weeks of research down to two hours, and the brain fry that comes with it
Why Emma believes AI needs governance and why designers shouldn't lose sight of the problems AI can't solve
What the boldest version of Emma looks like: not a bigger title, but using her experience more fully in ways that have wider effect
One of the biggest takeaways from this conversation?
Visibility begins with being able to see and articulate your own value before expecting anyone else to see it.
You can't position yourself for what's next if you've never properly counted what you've already done.
Behind those numbers are real people. People who received money they were owed, or managed something they'd been avoiding, or were protected from losing something because the experience finally worked.
That's not just a job. That's a contribution. And it's time you started seeing it that way.
—
✨ 60 Day Bold Move Career Accelerator
Learn more here 👉 https://www.georgiehubbard.com/bold-moves
—
📚 The Bold Move
https://www.theboldmovebook.com
—
Connect with Georgie:
🔵 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgiehubbard/
🟪 Instagram: http://instagram.com/georgielhubbard
♦️ Website: https://www.georgiehubbard.com
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Connect with Emma Buckland:
🔵 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmabuckland/

If you read the headline that AI is going to take your job, well, it might. But only if you don't learn how to work with it, you don't become more visible, and you don't know your worth.
The headlines are everywhere right now. AI will take your job. Agents are out of control. We're on the cusp of superintelligence. Or even worse, AI is going to destroy us all.
And underneath all of that noise, there's a quieter, more insidious message: you're falling behind. You're not technical enough. You don't know enough. You're not doing enough.
In this episode of the Career Confidence Podcast, Georgie and Lou sit down to talk about the language being used around AI right now, and what it's actually doing to us.
They call it FOE and FOMO. Fear of extinction and fear of missing out. Two narratives that sound like opposites but actually work the same way, creating urgency, panic and paralysis, and stopping us from asking the most important question of all: is this even a future we want?
Because here's the thing. The women who are thriving in this moment aren't the ones spiraling over every headline. They're the ones asking better questions. They're the ones staying calm, staying curious, and staying visible. They're the ones adding AI to what they already know, rather than trying to become someone else entirely.
This conversation is about how to move from AI fearful to AI ready. It's about protecting your headspace in a world designed to hijack your attention. It's about understanding who benefits when you believe the narrative. And it's about recognising that your years of experience, your wisdom, your leadership, none of that is obsolete. It just needs to be positioned correctly.
Georgie and Lou also unpack the real opportunities that exist right now for women who are willing to lead, not just keep up. From building agents to running Lunch and Learns. From asking where you want to lead, not just how to keep up. From using fear as fuel to innovate, not as a reason to hide.
In this episode:
The two narratives shaping AI right now: FOE (fear of extinction) and FOMO (fear of missing out)
Why the language of inevitability is stopping us from asking if this is even the future we want
How to protect your headspace when the headlines are designed to hijack your attention
Why coming from a place of calm, not chaos, is the most important thing you can do right now
The difference between being AI ready and being AI panicked
Why you need to ask: who's saying this, what do they gain if I believe it, and what choice does this story take off the table for me?
Why your subconscious is always listening, and why what you consume every day matters more than you think
How to use fear as fuel to innovate, not as a reason to hide
Why the question isn't how can I keep up, it's where do I want to lead
How one woman is using AI to build agents, run Lunch and Learns, and position herself as a leader in her organisation
Why your years of experience aren't obsolete, they just need to be positioned correctly
Why visibility, curiosity and critical thinking are the skills that will set you apart
How to add AI to what you already know, rather than trying to become someone else entirely
One of the biggest takeaways from this conversation?
Don't ask how you can keep up. Ask where you want to lead.
Because the women who are thriving right now aren't the most technical. They're the most visible, the most curious, and the most strategic.
They're the ones who understand that AI is a people problem, not just a technology problem.
And they're the ones who are staying AI ready, not AI fearful.
—
✨ 60 Day Bold Move Career Accelerator
Learn more here 👉 https://www.georgiehubbard.com/bold-moves
—
📚 The Bold Move
https://www.theboldmovebook.com
—
Connect with Georgie:
🔵 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgiehubbard/
🟪 Instagram: http://instagram.com/georgielhubbard
♦️ Website: https://www.georgiehubbard.com
—
Connect with Lou Compagnone:
🔵 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/loucompagnone/

Within minutes, an interview was locked in. Within weeks, she was in the third stage interview. And she landed the job.
That job was never advertised. It never hit a job board.
And it's exactly the case in point of how powerful your network is.
In this episode of the Career Confidence Podcast, Georgie sits down with Priscilla, a transformation and technology leader who's spent her career connecting people, process and technology in some of Australia's biggest retail and tech organisations.
After years at David Jones leading digital trannew way
sformation, Priscilla recently stepped into a brand new AI-focused role at a fast-growing scale-up.
And here's the thing: the role was never advertised.
An old boss reached out. They had a conversation. And within weeks, she was in.
This conversation is about what it actually takes to break into AI roles when you're not the most technical person in the room. It's about why curiosity and problem solving matter more than coding. It's about the hidden cost of AI that no one's talking about yet, like token usage, data governance, and how one workflow change can break three other systems if you're not thinking holistically.
Priscilla shares how she's upskilling herself on AI, from using Claude for personal budgeting to building agents, to learning how Copilot works across different Microsoft tools, and why it's changing almost every month.
She also talks about what companies are getting wrong when they rush to implement AI without clarity on the problem they're actually trying to solve, and why the soft skills, the human connection, the ability to bring people together, are going to be the most valuable skills in an AI-driven world.
In this episode:
How Priscilla landed her AI role through her network, not a job board
Why technology is no longer a specialised area but everyone's business
Whether you actually need a tech degree to work in AI
The skills companies are hiring for right now: orchestration, communication, and the human touch
What Priscilla's doing day to day in her new AI-focused role
Why data strategy and governance are foundational to AI success
How AI is being used to automate credit processing and document intake
How she's upskilling herself on AI, from Claude to Copilot to building agents
Why Copilot in PowerPoint was terrible six months ago and is now amazing
The hidden cost of AI that most people don't think about: token usage
Why companies need to think about cost control, not just cost effectiveness
The new questions you need to ask vendors: where is the metadata stored? Is it overseas? What's your AI governance?
Why most companies are applying AI without clarity on the problem they're solving
Why delivery is the easy part, and getting clarity is the hard part
How Priscilla thinks about the future of work and why humans will always be needed
Why soft skills, critical thinking, and the courage to ask questions will matter more than technical expertise
Her advice for women who feel intimidated by AI: embrace it, give it a go, and remember no one is an expert right now
One of the biggest takeaways from this conversation?
You don't need to be the most technical person to break into AI. You need to be curious, ask good questions, and understand how to connect technology with people and business outcomes.
As Priscilla puts it: if anyone says they're an expert in AI right now, you should probably ask why they think that.
Because no one is. Everyone is learning. And that's exactly why now is the time to start.
—
✨ 60 Day Bold Move Career Accelerator
Learn more here 👉 https://www.georgiehubbard.com/bold-moves
—
📚 The Bold Move
https://www.theboldmovebook.com
—
Connect with Georgie:
🔵 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgiehubbard/
🟪 Instagram: http://instagram.com/georgielhubbard
♦️ Website: https://www.georgiehubbard.com
—
Connect with Priscilla
🔵 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/priscillachanau/

AI is supposed to make us more productive.

So why are so many of us using it all day… and finishing work feeling completely mentally fried?

In this episode of AI Ready Women, Georgie Hubbard and Lou Compagnoni sit down with behavioural scientist Angela Bliss to explore what our increasing reliance on AI could be doing to the way we think, work and make decisions.

Angela has spent years studying human behaviour and decision-making, including completing a Master’s in Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics, where her research explored how humans build trust with chatbots.

And her message is one every ambitious woman using AI at work needs to hear:

The goal isn’t to stop using AI. It’s to become much more deliberate about what you outsource to it.

We unpack the emerging phenomenon of AI brain fry, the cognitive overload that can come from prompting, checking, comparing and managing multiple AI outputs at once, and why being able to produce more work doesn’t necessarily mean we’re doing better work.

We also explore cognitive debt, automation bias, why AI can feel so addictive, and what happens when we start outsourcing judgment, creativity and independent thinking alongside the menial work.

In this episode:

What “AI brain fry” actually is and why knowledge workers are starting to feel it

Why using AI can sometimes increase cognitive load rather than reduce it

The hidden problem with AI producing work faster than humans can properly evaluate it

Why hyper-productivity could be changing expectations of employees

How automation bias can cause us to trust AI outputs too easily

Why AI feels so compelling — even when we know there may be a cost

What “cognitive debt” means and why it matters for your career

Why creativity and your best thinking often happen away from the screen

How AI could change the way we make decisions

Why organisations need to rethink productivity in an AI-enabled workplace

Why women may be particularly vulnerable to the pressure to do even more with AI

How to decide what work to automate — and what thinking you should protect

Why your judgement, curiosity, creativity and expertise may become even more valuable as AI improves

Angela’s advice is simple but powerful:

Get AI to remove the menial work. Don’t hand over the skills that are building your expertise.

Because being AI ready isn’t about using AI for everything.

It’s knowing where AI can make you better — and where you still need to do the thinking.

——

✨ 60 Day Bold Move Career Accelerator
Learn more here 👉 https://www.georgiehubbard.com/bold-moves

— —

📚 The Bold Move
https://www.theboldmovebook.com

— —

Connect with Georgie:
🔵 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgiehubbard/
🟪 Instagram: http://instagram.com/georgielhubbard
♦️ Website: https://www.georgiehubbard.com

— —

Connect with Lou Compagnoni:
🔵 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/loucompagnone/

— —

Connect with Angela Bliss:
🔵 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-bliss-behavioural-design/

What do you do when you know something needs to change in your career… but you have absolutely no idea what the next move should be?

That’s exactly where Rebecca found herself.

After more than 15 years across experience design, leadership, coaching, and transformation, she knew there were parts of her work she loved, problem-solving, facilitating, helping people make better decisions, but she wasn’t sure what that translated into as a career.

Then redundancy gave her the space to stop, reflect and rethink what came next.

In this episode of the Career Confidence Podcast, Rebecca joins Georgie for a very real conversation about sitting in the uncomfortable middle of a career change, resisting the urge to jump straight into another familiar job, and using design thinking to work out what you actually want next.

Rebecca shares how she stopped focusing on job titles and started looking at the work she genuinely loved doing, the problems she wanted to solve and the values she wanted her next chapter to align with.

And then something interesting happened.

Once she got clearer and started sharing more publicly about the work she wanted to be known for, someone from her existing network reached out with an opportunity that was almost exactly what she had been trying to create.

In this episode:

How to recognise when you’ve outgrown your current career path

Why the “uncomfortable middle” is a necessary part of meaningful career change

Why jumping straight into another familiar job can take you back to exactly where you started

How Rebecca used design thinking to approach her own career

The questions to ask yourself when you don’t know what you want next

Why your values matter just as much as your skills

How to stop defining yourself by job titles and start thinking about the problems you love solving

Why experimentation is often more useful than trying to have your entire future figured out

How networking and visibility helped Rebecca attract her next opportunity

Why sharing what you know online isn’t just “self-promotion”

What redundancy taught Rebecca about job security and identity

Why AI doesn’t have to mean panic — and how to start using it to make your work easier

Why a learner’s mindset will be one of the most valuable career skills over the next few years

How to identify the human skills you want to double down on as AI changes work

One of the biggest takeaways from this conversation?

You don’t have to know the exact answer immediately.

Sometimes the most important thing you can do is resist the urge to jump into solution mode.

What are you really good at?
What kind of work gives you energy?
What problems do you love solving?
What do you want to be known for?
What are you no longer willing to compromise on?

Rebecca’s story is a brilliant reminder that clarity doesn’t always arrive in one big moment.

Sometimes you have to sit with the uncertainty, experiment, learn, put yourself out there and let the next opportunity reveal itself.

As Rebecca puts it: great opportunities come from movement.

If you’re in that uncomfortable middle right now, this episode is for you.

—

✨ 60 Day Bold Move Career Accelerator
Learn more here 👉 https://www.georgiehubbard.com/bold-moves

—

📚 The Bold Move
https://www.theboldmovebook.com

—

Connect with Georgie:
🔵 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgiehubbard/
🟪 Instagram: http://instagram.com/georgielhubbard
♦️ Website: https://www.georgiehubbard.com

—

Connect with Rebecca:
🔵 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccakkarpiuk/