Quick Win: The million-dollar moment that tested Catriona Wallace’s integrity

When Dr Catriona Wallace was offered a million dollars to take out her nose ring, she didn’t hesitate. Her response wasn’t defiance - it was clarity. 

In this Quick Win, Catriona shares how she dealt with the sexism and double standards she faced as a tech CEO, from being told to “brush her hair” to being offered a million dollars to look more like the kind of leader investors expected. 

Her story is a reminder that staying true to yourself is sometimes the most strategic move you can make. 

Catriona and I discuss:  

• The moment Catriona was offered $1 million - if she removed her nose ring 

• The everyday misogyny she faced while leading a listed tech company 

• Why she refused to compromise, even when it cost her 

• How staying authentic became her greatest advantage as a leader 

• The ripple effect of saying “no” from self-respect, not rebellion 

KEY QUOTE: 

“The moment you start to compromise and change, more things will compromise and change — and you lose who you are.” 

Connect with Dr Catriona Wallace on Instagram, LinkedIn, and via her website. 
Check out her book Rapid Transformation for more on how to embrace change through technology and leadership. 

Listen to the full conversation with Catriona here 

My latest book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here: https://www.amantha.com/the-health-habit/  

Connect with me on the socials: Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanthaimber)  

Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/amanthai)  

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at https://amantha-imber.ck.page/subscribe  

Visithttps://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.  

Get in touch at [e-mail]  

Credits:  

Host: Amantha Imber  

Sound Engineer: The Podcast Butler 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
One million dollars. That is what they offered her if
she would just take out her nose ring. And when
doctor Katrina Wallace told me that, I had to ask,
did you even consider it? Because this wasn't a casual
insult by someone. Katrina was the CEO of one of

(00:21):
the world's first AI companies, pitching to investors trying to
grow a newly listed startup, and the condition for their
million dollar investment was that she looked more like the
kind of leader they expected. In this quick win, you'll
hear what kat did next and why her decision wasn't
just about a piece of jewelry. And by the end

(00:42):
of this episode you will see how saying no, even
when it costs you one million dollars, can become the
clearest yes to yourself. Welcome to How I Work, a
show about habits, richel and strategies for optimizing your date.

(01:03):
I'm your host, Doctor Amantha Imper. Tell me about your
million dollar nosering.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Right, So this is another like a mind blowing time
stopping a moment. So this is when we had just
been down to Melbourne. At that stage we were sort
of like the darling of the ASX as we knew
were ai. It's all exciting. We went down and we
pitched a number of investment companies in Melbourne in Melbourne Airport,

(01:34):
flying home. I was there with my board of directors
and one of the directors got a call and said
and I could hear him talking and saying, what a
million dollar investment, that'd be great. You know, that's fantastic,
thank you very much. And then who seems that, oh
there's a condition, right, okay, okay, let me just check
on that. So he sort of put the call on
hold and he said to me, oh, Kat, it's very exciting.

(01:57):
We've got one of the investment companies, the lead investors here.
They are willing to invest a million dollars into the business.
And I said, fantastic. We must must have known a
really great pitch and it's all done really well. And
then you can see the blood draining from his face
and he said, oh, but there is one condition. And
I said, sure, you know what's the condition? Is it

(02:18):
revenue or reducing the cost of sale or you know,
expansion into another territory. He said, no, it's not it's
not that. He said, they will give you a million dollars.
They will give the business a million dollars if you
the CEO, will take your nose ring out. Then I

(02:39):
said what what?

Speaker 1 (02:42):
What the hell?

Speaker 2 (02:44):
And then I thought he was joking and I can
see like more blood training facs. We're not joking. That's
the condition. It's a million dollars, but you need to
remove your nos ering. And right there I already knew,
and I just said no, then we won't take the money.
There's absolutely no way is he going to ask a
male CEO to remove his tattoo like, And then my

(03:06):
board member started, oh, you know, very conservative that people
and his funds, and I said, it's a nose ring.
It's a nose ring, that's all it is. And so
I said no, tell him no, we won't accept his money.
And so again, which is very hard because you know,
startup newly listed on the stock and of course you
want to take money. But there was like absolutely not
not going to do it. So we said no. And

(03:27):
then the next day I had like a quite a
conservative nose ring. I went down to Gleab Markets or
somewhere and I bought like a really big nose room.
I've bought like a pretty big nose ring ever since.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Oh, my gosh. Was there a part of you that
considered it well? That one?

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Actually some of the board members said, m cat, you know,
maybe it's a bit of ego that's you're saying no,
or maybe you know, we've all got to make sacrifices,
and this seems like a very very small sacrifice. You know,
it's essentially it's a million dollar no answering. And I said, yeah,
and still no, like still no for this one, Mantha.

(04:09):
It was a strict no because it was also I
believe the fact that I was a female, you know,
I really believe that, and so it's like I start
compromising on this as a woman leader and there were
very few women leaders of tech Stock at the time,
Like what next is it going to be? And then
I had lots of other times I had. I once

(04:29):
did a big investor presentation. I was wearing this kind
of black and gold dress. I had an investor come
up to me later and said, please never wear a
dress when you speak again, because I can't concentrate on
what you're saying because I'm staring at your dress. And
I've had investors ring my directors to say, if Katrina's
going to present we'd like her to brush her hair

(04:50):
more because her hair is a bit messy, like just
staggering misogynous thing after thing after thing. And it was like, Wow,
this is in the capital markets, this is still live
and well and amanth that. I think in the thousand
odd investors I would have presented to over the four years,
four or five years I was running the company, only

(05:12):
ever had one woman investor in the room, and she
was remarkable. There's only one out of a thousand who
I was presenting to.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
Wow, that just blows my mind. And just the critique
of what you wear and your hair. I mean, I
look at you and I think you're the epitome of
style and you've got you know, gorgeous long red hair.
Because obviously most listeners won't be able to see that.
Did you change anything about your appearance based on the

(05:39):
let's say feedback in inverted commas that you were getting?

Speaker 2 (05:43):
No? Never, never would. It just reminded me of another
classic one. This is in America. This is not so related,
but I just have to say it's come to mind.
So our business is called Flamingo Flamingo AI And so
the brown colors we had were hot pink hot pink
and white and black. When we're in a America, We
had an American CTO of a large fortune five hundred

(06:05):
company say he couldn't actually choose us to work with
because the brand colors were so strongly pink. Yeah, that
was another one.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
Wow. Wow, Like when you look back on this time
and you know, because I know that you advise and
mentor so many young women, what are those big lessons
that you then share Because these stories are quite horrific,
but I want to know, like, how have you then
turned them into lessons that you've shared with others.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yeah. So I think it is particularly as women, just
walking your own path and being confident that the way
you express yourself is the way you express yourself, and
just to stay that course. When you start compromising, Oh
maybe I need to cut my hair. Oh I'll change
the stress so it's not so flattering, or I'll take
my jewelry out, or I won't have a tatic like tattoos.

(06:58):
Imagine they see me now of things is the moment
you start to compromise and change, then more things will
compromise and change. And I believe you could get on
that path. So I think sitting strongly in yourself as
your true expression of yourself as a leader is actually

(07:18):
what's needed. And it can be hard because you, as
I have been criticized troll time and time and time
and time again. But I think just staying the course,
and eventually that becomes noise and will drop away when
people realize, oh, and she's not going to change. She
is who she is and she's doing a good job. Okay,
maybe now we can drop those criticians and look for
some other criticisms, maybe some criticisms of how the business

(07:41):
is running. That'll be good, and I've got plenty of
those too, but I welcome those like I welcome those.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
What stayed with me after Cat's story wasn't the million dollars.
It was how calm She's outed when she said no.
Cat's refusal wasn't rebellion for the sake of it. It
was self respect in action. And when you protect your
integrity even under pressure, people eventually stop trying to change you.
So the next time someone tells you to soften, to

(08:10):
dress differently to fit in, we notice what they're really
asking you to give up. And if this moment resonated
with you, go listen to my full chat with Katrino Wallace,
where we explore how she built resilience in the face
of a lot of bias and built one of the
world's first AI companies on her own terms. You'll find

(08:31):
a link to that in the show notes. If you
like today's show, make sure you hit follow on your
podcast app to be alerted when new episodes drop. How
I Work was recorded on the traditional land of the
Warrangery people, part of the Cooler Nation