NEW EPISODES FORTNIGHTLY ON TUESDAY
A podcast of curious conversations about becoming and unbecoming.
Listen and follow on Spotify or Apple.
Who did you have to become to get here..… and what did you have to leave behind to become this version of yourself?
Welcome to The Identity Project. Curious conversations about identity and who we are beyond our titles, labels, and work.
I started these conversations as a passion project… something for me, because I feel like I’m on an identity journey, and I want to talk to others about their journeys.
My guests in Season 1 are founders and business owners—some are friends, people I follow online that I’ve bravely asked, and others I’ve met and thought “wow, I’d love to know your story”.
So, it’s my hope that these curious and honest conversations feel like you’re sitting with friends, talking about the big stuff—and that you find a little nugget of something for yourself.
First episodes drop Tuesday the 11th of August. Follow The Identity Project on your favourite app so they find you when they land.
Podcast Guests
Recent Episodes
001 — When Work Becomes Your Whole Identity — with Chanel Clark
> Click here to listen on Spotify
> Click here to listen on Apple
What happens when your job becomes your whole identity?
Chanel Clark knows the question well. She's lived the version where work took over completely, and she's honest about the season she's in right now.
We talk about the pressure of everyone else's timeline, goalposts that never stop moving, delusional optimism as a strategy, and what it takes to show up as yourself on a platform built for masks.
ABOUT CHANEL:
Chanel Clark is the founder of The Marketing Club, Australasia's fastest-growing marketing communities, connecting over 17,000+ marketers and counting across Australia and New Zealand.
She specialises in community-led growth, building engaged ecosystems that drive real connection, opportunity, and commercial impact. Through events, content, and education, Chanel has grown TMC with zero ad spend into a highly active network spanning multiple cities. She now helps brands and founders build communities as a growth strategy—focusing on connection over transactions and long-term brand equity over short-term wins.
CONNECT WITH CHANEL:
Chanel’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chanel-clark/
Chanel’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themarketingchanel
Chanel’s Website: https://www.chanelclarkmarketing.com
The Marketing Club: https://www.themarketingclub.org/
The Marketing Club on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themarketingclub_aunz/
The Marketing Club on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-marketing-club-au-nz/
002 — I Can Be Whoever I Want to Be — with Jacqui Toumbas
> Click here to listen on Spotify
> Click here to listen on Apple
In this conversation, Jacqui shares the moment she knew the Miss Bliss chapter was done, the trip to southern Italy where she realised she was becoming someone new, and how she thinks about grief, belonging, and doing life off the expected timeline. Plus why her next season is deliberately uncomfortable.
ABOUT JACQUI:
Jacqui Toumbas is a Brisbane-based founder and host who has built her life around a slower, more deliberate version of success, one measured in good food, real connection and time well spent rather than hustle.
She hosts intimate small-group culinary retreats through Savour the Slow, taking women through Southern Italy to travel solo but not alone. She shares The Flavour Journal on Substack, gathers strangers around long tables at her Dinner with Strangers events, and shares food, travel and slow-living stories with her community online.
Before all of this, she built and sold a wholefoods café, Miss Bliss, and today she also mentors other women building service businesses through Business Banquet. Across everything she does, the throughline is the same: a belief that success should feel like a life you actually want to be living.
CONNECT WITH JACQUI:
Jacqui's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacquitoumbas/
Jacqui's Website: https://www.jacquitoumbas.com/
Savour the Slow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/savourtheslowretreats/
Business Banquet on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/businessbanquet_/
003 — I Had the Job That Gave Me Everything I Was Told to Want — with Alison Rice
> Click here to listen on Spotify
> Click here to listen on Apple
"I did all the things, but I don't feel how you told me I was going to feel."
Alison Rice had the job, the title, the access, the travel — everything she'd been told to want — and she left it to pursue something that, at the time, had no shape but a podcast.
We talk about what it was like when the industry invites stopped arriving, the version of herself she had to let go of, why clarity arrives in the action rather than before it, and what happens when you finally get the seat at the table and realise it was never built to hold you.
ABOUT ALISON:
Alison Rice is a 10x award-winning leader, speaker, host, mentor and the founder of Get Offline — established in 2018.
Get Offline is a world of mentorship and community for women reimagining success and building richer, deeper, more sovereign lives offline in the age of algorithms and artificial intelligence.
Prior to Get Offline, Alison held editing and publishing roles at The Walkley Foundation For Excellence in Journalism, ACP Magazines and Allure Media.
She led the award-winning localisation and launch of Who What Wear into the Australian market and led POPSUGAR to become one of the country's most-read women's lifestyle websites. Alison has been featured on B&T's Women In Media Power List twice, and is the recipient of some of the Australian publishing industry's most coveted awards including Publish Executive of the Year, Launch of the Year and Website of the Year.
CONNECT WITH ALISON:
Connect with Alison on Substack: https://offlinewithalisonrice.substack.com/
And her website: https://getoffline.co/
Or check out her 'paused' accounts at:
Alison's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alisonlarsenrice/
Get Offline on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getoffline.co/
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Oh, wow, now this is tricky.
I'm hosting a podcast about identity—about who we are beyond our work and titles—and now I need to introduce myself without telling you what I do, and I don't have anything planned.
Well, I can tell you a bit about what makes me, me—beyond my work. I'm 43 years old, nope, not important. Scratch that. I'm a sister, daughter, partner, friend. Hmmm, do these things define me? I'm a Capricorn Sun, Aquarius Moon and Pisces Rising—a walking contradiction, it feels at times. But this doesn't feel suitable either as a way to introduce myself.
It's a work in progress; it's a 'project' after all... me, I'm the project, and so is discovering more about identity from my guests.
I will leave you with this (until I record an episode interviewing myself... is that weird?!). I feel deeply. So much so that sometimes it's hard to distinguish my own feelings from others'. I'm energetic. I can go for daaaays. I love music but can't sing or play a musical instrument. Food is life. And I would call myself creative and curious—I love to ask questions.
I think that’s it for now. If you’d like to know more. Come and chat over on Instagram, or leave a note below.
Get in touch — leave me your musings below.
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