Illuminated Story

Illuminated Story Illuminated Story enables professionals to deliver their most engaging presentation yet. You will l

04/09/2026

The door opens whether or not we feel ready.

In this episode of Beyond the Keynote, Steph Tisdell shares her personal journey through anxiety and fear, and what she discovered about the distance between having something to say and being ready to say it.

Steph Tisdell woman, comedian, keynote speaker, emcee, actor and author who has built a career using comedy to make space for conversations that might otherwise be difficult to hear.

Steph learned something different from a stranger who told her that saying why not is not recklessness at all. It is a set of rules about what you will and will not do. When a door opens, you walk through it. When something arrives, that is the journey.

In a world that rewards waiting until it feels safe, that is a different kind of discipline. Present. Decided. Already moving.
This conversation goes to what becomes possible when fear is no longer the thing that decides.

There is a great deal more in the full episode. How that one rule became a career. Why corporate rooms ask the most of a performer. And how Steph uses humour to carry the things that would otherwise be too heavy for a room to sit with.

She is warm, very funny, and completely honest about all of it. Come and spend an hour with her.

🎧 A conversation with Steph Tisdell on Beyond the Keynote. Episode link in the comments.

02/09/2026

What if you just said, "Why not?"

In this episode of Beyond the Keynote, Steph Tisdell shares the perspective she found inside anxiety and fear, rather than on the other side of them.

When anxiety made opening the front door feel like a ten out of ten, she noticed that getting on a plane was also a ten. So was everything she wanted and had never done.

The fear was already there.

So the question became: Why not point it at something that matters?

That question followed Steph into rooms where she had something important to say. About being Indigenous in this country, and about the stories and fights that can go unheard.

She didn't make the message smaller to fit the room. She found another way in.

Comedy became that way.

This isn't really about conquering fear. It's about what might happen when fear is no longer the only thing deciding where you go.

🎧 A conversation with Steph Tisdell on Beyond the Keynote. Thursday 3 September.

Episode link in the comments.

I have started noticing something across these conversations.Each one traces back to something that happened first. A cr...
29/08/2026

I have started noticing something across these conversations.

Each one traces back to something that happened first. A crisis, a decision, a question that would not leave them alone.

Years later it arrives on a stage to be heard.

That is the part I find most interesting. Where the message came from.

Eight of them here.

You may already have yours, and it deserves to be heard and remembered.

Send this to someone who is building their message for the world.

28/08/2026

Our style speaks before we do.

In this episode of Beyond the Keynote, Carly Faragher shares her personal journey into authentic self expression and what she discovered about the gap between the speaker and their message.

Carly is an intuitive brand stylist, award-winning fashion designer, and TEDx speaker who has spent years guiding speakers on the journey to their own TEDx stage.

So many people step into a room carrying a version of themselves that was shaped by other people's expectations. Not because they lack confidence. Because they have spent so long fitting into a certain box that the full version of who they are has never quite made it into the room with them.

What Carly shares in this conversation is what becomes possible when that changes. When the inside and the outside finally match. When genuine connection replaces performance.

In a world genuinely craving authenticity over polish, this is a conversation worth sitting with.

🎧 A conversation with Carly Faragher on Beyond the Keynote. Episode link below.

Thirty-four conversations. Almost a year.The podcast went somewhere I did not expect.Guests arrived with far more than I...
28/08/2026

Thirty-four conversations. Almost a year.

The podcast went somewhere I did not expect.

Guests arrived with far more than I had prepared for.

The hour often took us somewhere I had not planned. I asked one more question. They went a little further. A story emerged that perhaps had not been told in quite that way before.

What sat between us became more than an interview.

It became an exchange.

Every one of them has a message.

Every one of them earned it somewhere.

And I stopped wondering how to fill an hour.

I realised I was simply curious. Curious about the person behind the achievement. The decisions they made. The turning points. The moments that shaped them.

That turned out to be the whole requirement.

Because it was never about me.

It was about the person opposite me.

And that has stayed with me.

Your story is yours.

Your expertise is yours.

But you are not speaking to be seen.

You are speaking to place something in the room.

To every guest who has sat down with me, thank you.

And to everyone listening, thank you for being here. You are the reason it continues.

If you have found your way here for conversations like these, welcome.

Beyond the Keynote. New episodes weekly.

Do not just speak. Illuminate.

08/03/2026

She walked into her CEO’s office and said, “I’m done. I can’t do this for one more minute.”
Single mother. Director of marketing at IBM. First master’s degree under her belt. Dream job by every measure. And she was completely burnt out.
That moment became the turning point for everything Megan Dalla-Camina has built since.
Because when she started to rebuild, she started asking a different question. Not “what’s wrong with me?” but “what’s wrong with this system?” She looked around at the corporate structures she’d spent 18 years navigating, structures designed by and for a world that no longer exists, and she saw what so many women feel but can’t name.
So she named it. In four books. In a global organisation called Women Rising that has now worked with over 10,500 women in 68 countries. And in a conversation with me on Beyond the Keynote that I think every person, woman or man, needs to hear.
She said something that I haven’t been able to shake: “Once women realise it’s not just them and they’re not the problem, everything shifts.”
That’s the moment. That’s where the empowerment actually begins. Not in fixing yourself. In seeing the system clearly for the first time.
And Megan is quick to say: men aren’t the problem either. She runs a male allies program. Hundreds of men come in and say the same thing: “I just didn’t know. I couldn’t put words to it.” The system is the problem. And it takes all of us to change it.
This International Women’s Day, the theme is Balance the Scales. Megan has spent 13 years doing exactly that. Her voice is one you want in your ear.
Beyond the Keynote. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Link in comments.

08/03/2026

A woman survives cancer. Rebuilds her life. Starts a charity that’s changing the world.
You say to her, “You need to tell that story on stage.”
She says, “Really? I don’t think it’s ready yet.”
Meanwhile, a man with half the credentials has already booked the keynote. And honestly? Good on him. That confidence, that willingness to back yourself before you feel 100% ready, is something worth admiring. Women just need to start doing it too.
Jules Brooke shared that observation with me on Beyond the Keynote this week, and it landed. Because I’ve seen it too. Over and over. Women with extraordinary expertise, powerful stories, real depth of experience, convincing themselves they’re not quite enough for the stage.
The numbers back it up. Only 30% of speakers on global stages are women. Just 15% of panels include a female voice. Jules has spent years working to shift that, and she’s not waiting for permission.
She’s a serial entrepreneur who grew up as a military kid, moved countries every eighteen months, learned to walk into any room of strangers and make it feel like home. That skill became her superpower. She now teaches women how to raise their profile, claim their influence, and stop waiting for someone to invite them onto the stage.
She also shared one of the smartest strategies I’ve heard for using a podcast to open doors that would otherwise stay closed. I won’t spoil it. You’ll have to listen.
This International Women’s Day, the theme is Balance the Scales. Jules is doing that work, one woman, one stage, one voice at a time.
Beyond the Keynote. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Link in comments.

It is go day! ‘Beyond The Keynote’ Show podcast is now live.Beyond the Keynote illuminates extraordinary Stories from s...
12/02/2026

It is go day! ‘Beyond The Keynote’ Show podcast is now live.

Beyond the Keynote illuminates extraordinary Stories from some of the World’s Most Influential Voices.

The series dives deep into the untold stories of today’s most compelling leaders and speakers.

This podcast goes beyond the stage to reveal the raw, powerful journeys that truly shape incredible communicators.

Each episode delivers:
- Unfiltered personal narratives
- Career-defining revelations
- Intimate insights into leadership and impact

This is for the dreamers, leaders, and anyone who believes in the power of an authentic story.

I truly hope you enjoy listening as much as myself and the team have enjoyed bringing it to life in collaboration with our exceptional guests.

Carmen.
Performance Strategist
Founder, Illuminated Story.

Fun, fun, fun speaking on the ABLE Nexusphere stage last weekend. 👏👏Congratulations to all of the incredibly talented au...
25/10/2025

Fun, fun, fun speaking on the ABLE Nexusphere stage last weekend. 👏👏

Congratulations to all of the incredibly talented authors who launched their books that night.

Address

Level 14, 333 Collins Street
Melbourne, VIC
3000

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+61409007114

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Illuminated Story posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Illuminated Story:

Shortcuts

Share

Category