When I was first thinking about doing this podcast and speaking to people doing amazing things, this woman was one of the people I had in mind. Sarah Hickey and I met when we were 11 in primary school on the Gold Coast, Australia. At the time she was a champion swimmer and held a couple of national records. As we grew up and threw our teenage years Sarah moved more into the music scene to show she was also, and still is, an incredibly talented song writer and performer, she and I were actually in a band together for a while and we had an acoustic duo as well and we sang at cocktail parties and restaurants and pubs, all super fun!

Jump cut to a few years later and Sarah is now writer and director at her very own production company Monster and Bear which is based in Melbourne.

Through this interview we cover a whole range of aspects about her story - she talks about the early days of the business and trying to be someone you’re not, working all kinds of casual jobs in the building phase and also how to stop yourself from burning out in the early years when all you want to do is work on the business.

We talk a bit too about the changing scene of advertising and the role that film making plays in that space.

Sarah is just a joy to talk to, she’s incredibly passionate and proud of her work. She also likes to 'shock the system' by really stepping outside her comfort zone - she once walked from Melbourne to Adelaide (more than 700km) as research for a short film which you can see here Barren . One of the things I’ve always known about Sarah is just how driven she is. As she says, she doesn’t wait for doors to open, she fly kicks them in.

Find out more about Monster and Bear on the website and also the Monster and Bear Instagram