Places She Shapes
Places She Shapes
Podcast Description
Places She Shapes, hosted by Zoe Smeeth and recorded at the iconic Abbey Road Studios, is a show that puts the spotlight on those driving and thriving in the property, construction, real estate, fit-out industries, and more. It’s a chance to hear the sliding door moments, the good, the bad, and the unapologetically ambitious, that have shaped each guest's journey.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast explores themes of career development, resilience, and empowerment within traditionally male-dominated industries. Episodes feature discussions on topics like overcoming gender bias and navigating career transitions, such as Marian Ferguson’s story of reinventing her career in building services engineering and starting her own business later in life.
Places She Shapes, hosted by Zoe Smeeth and recorded at the iconic Abbey Road Studios, is a show that puts the spotlight on those driving and thriving in the property, construction, real estate, fit-out industries, and more. It’s a chance to hear the sliding door moments, the good, the bad, and the unapologetically ambitious, that have shaped each guest’s journey.
Season 3 | Episode 12 – Places She Shapes with Zoe Smeeth
This week, Zoe sits down with Christina Hsieh, structural engineer, Fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers, and founder of Matter, a consultancy she built around social value long before the term existed.
Christina’s story begins with a documentary, a dream, and a decision that put almost everyone she loved against her. She applied to study in the UK in secret, having never held a passport or set foot in an airport. What happened when she finally arrived is the kind of thing you couldn’t make up, and it’s only the beginning.
She’s remarkably open about the moments that shaped her: the mentors who saw something she couldn’t yet see in herself, a rebuild on the other side of the world, a diagnosis that changed everything, and the comment that finally made her stop trying to break the glass ceiling and simply build a company without one.
It’s a conversation about following your gut, asking “why,” and deciding your time is worth spending on work that matters. You’ll want to hear how she got here.
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