FINE FORM with Rebecca Jarvie-Gibbs

After thirty conversations about ambition, identity and what it means to define success for yourself, I wanted to turn the questions I’ve been asking my guests back on myself.In this final reflection on Series Two, I share some of the things these conversations have left me thinking about: our relationship with ambition, knowing when to push and when to let go, separating who we are from what we achieve, and accepting that what we want from our lives will continue to change.It’s also a reflection on a season that unfolded alongside some significant changes in my own life, and what they have taught me about grief, friendship, motherhood, work and what matters most.

This one is a very special one today - it is the final episode of Series Two, with the beautiful Elizabeth Hewson - marketer, food writer and cookbook author.Lizzie has built a career at the intersection of food, storytelling and genuine connection. She started out in PR, wrote her first cookbook at just 22, then packed her bags for a small town in Northern Italy to study food culture in the birthplace of the Slow Food movement. She returned to Australia to become the creative force behind Fink, helping build the profiles of some of the country’s most celebrated chefs, including Peter Gilmore and Lennox Hastie. And then, on a quiet Saturday night at home, she made a bowl of pasta that changed everything.Saturday Night Pasta began as a personal ritual. It became a movement, then a bestselling book, then a product range. And when we sat down together, her third book, Home Food - a cookbook for imperfect cooks - had just been released.In this conversation, we talk about the long game of a creative career, what it means to build authority in a space without being a chef, her relationship with anxiety, how cooking became her most reliable practice of presence, and the folder on her phone called Sunshine that she returns to whenever life feels heavy.Listening back now, that feels especially poignant. Since this episode was recorded, Lizzie and I have both experienced the devastating loss of our beautiful friend, James. Releasing this conversation without him here feels almost impossible. James was someone who championed the people he loved with his whole heart, and I was so looking forward to him hearing this conversation between two of his closest friends.So today, we’d like to dedicate this episode to our beautiful James. We love you. We miss you. And we’ll keep trying to make you proud.Find Elizabeth's books wherever great books are sold | Follow: @elizabethhewson

This week's guest is Paulina Paige Ortega - creative director, art director and founder of Actual Studio.Born in the Philippines, Paulina was staging elaborate Barbie photo shoots as a child that, looking back now, were her first foray into fashion editorials. She studied graphic design, began her career at one of the Philippines’ most awarded agencies, and eventually made the brave decision to start again in Australia.From working at the clothing store Incu, where she found the creative community that would shape her career, she went on to creative direct Par Femme and ELLE Australia, before founding Actuel Studio with her business partner, David Caon.And this week marks an incredibly special new chapter with the launch of PERSONA, created with her dear frriend Grace O'Neill. PERSONA is a portrait of the most interesting and captivating women of our time - singular and obsessive in its approach, with each issue dedicated entirely to one woman - the debut being the glorious Bella Freud. It’s a beautiful and ambitious idea, and one that feels so distinctly Paulina: considered, curious and underpinned by a strong point of view.In this conversation, we talk about building a creative practice rather than simply chasing a career, the role relationships play in shaping a creative life, and what becomes possible when you choose collaboration over ego. Paulina moves through the world with such grace and generosity, but beneath her gentleness is a formidable creative conviction.I’m so excited to be sharing this conversation in the very same week PERSONA makes its way into the world.Follow Paulina: @actual.studio @paulinapaige

This week’s guest is Annabel Hay - founder of Clutch, the world’s first reusable fashion tape.Annabel has always been someone who spots a problem and can’t help but solve it. At just eight years old, she made a promise to herself: she’d never be the person with a brilliant idea who never acted on it. Years later, after a wardrobe malfunction on a night out at Chinese Laundry, that promise came full circle. The idea for Clutch was born - followed by four years of quietly iterating, saving and building the business alongside full-time work before she was ready to launch.Then came Shark Tank. Annabel delivered what the show described as one of the strongest pitches in its history, received offers worth more than she’d asked for, and walked away. Not because she wasn’t grateful, but because she knew exactly what her business - and her vision - were worth.Since then, she’s built Clutch into a globally recognised brand stocked across Australia and overseas. When we recorded this conversation, she was just two weeks away from moving to New York to take the business into its next chapter.In this conversation, we talk about the discipline that sits beneath confidence, what six months of preparation really looks like, why she never walked into a room asking people for money, and the values she’s determined to protect as Clutch continues to grow.Follow Annabel and Clutch: @clutch.official | Find the product at clutch.com.au

This week's guest is Liana Rossi - creative consultant, cultural critic and speaker.Liana grew up the daughter of Italian immigrants - grandparents who came to Australia post-war with very little, parents who built beautiful lives from hard work and oomph and pizzazz - something she has in spades. She moved to Sydney at 19, grew a creative network and built a career that is entirely, stubbornly inbound. People find her. Work finds her. That's not an accident - it's the result of two decades of building genuine relationships and showing up exactly as herself.She now works across strategy and creative consulting with some of the most interesting brands and agencies - and she calls her practice Surprisingly Professional, after something a creative director once said to her that she refused to let land as an insult.In this conversation we talk about what incremental ambition actually looks like, the deep unlearning that comes with letting go of people pleasing and and the importance of letting your values evolve. Follow Liana: @lianarossi

⚠️ Content note: This conversation includes discussion of pregnancy loss. If this is a tender topic for you, please take care while listening.Katherine Sabbath is the effervescent baker, author and creative force behind some of the most extraordinary cakes you’ll ever see.Before the cookbooks, the television appearances and the hundreds of thousands of people following her work, Katherine was a high school teacher in Campbelltown, baking cakes for her students as a way of making them feel seen. That simple act of generosity became the foundation for an entirely new career.But this conversation goes far beyond cake. We talk about finding the courage to face your fears, exploring the financial realities of backing creative ideas, her relationship with risk, and her experience of carrying grief while continuing to show up publicly with joy. Katherine truly is as good as they come.Follow Katherine: @katherine_sabbath

Adriana Picker is one of Australia's most beloved illustrators and the best-selling author of several books - including Petal, a stunning coffee table book of botanical illustration that thousands of copies around the world.With an upbringing in NSW’s Blue Mountains and the Hunter Valley, Adriana has been surrounded by nature and botanicals since her early childhood and she talks beautifully about her formative years shaped in her grandmother’s garden.After moving to Sydney to study at the Collegue of Fine Arts, she became an intern for acclaimed costumer designer Catherine Martin - her illustrations for the film Australia were shown at the Oscars. She followed that with The Great Gatsby, then stepped out entirely on her own. Her folio today spans commercial and editorial illustration, murals, exhibition work, and several books — including Petal, which hasn’t left my coffee table since it came out.She came to our conversation 31 weeks pregnant and I was incredibly grateful to speak to her at this transformative time. In this conversation, we explore what Covid completely changed about her relationship to ambition, how she lives with hyperfocus and what she's learned to do with it, what it means to structure a whole life around appreciating beauty, and what happens to your creative identity when you're about to become a mother.Find Adriana's work at adrianapicker.com | Follow: @adrianapicker | Petal at all good bookstores

Chloe Matters is the founder and creative director of Matters and Made, one of Sydney's most distinctive interior design studios.Chloe came into the world with an innate confidence - a willingness to back herself and simply go for it. Which is exactly what makes her honesty in this conversation so compelling. She's remarkably candid about what it felt like to lose that confidence.She launched Matters and Made when her second child was just six months old and her first had only recently turned one. What followed wasn't the version of success she'd imagined. There was burnout, the end of her marriage, and a period where her confidence was completely shaken.So she rebuilt. Learning to trust herself again, to work differently, and to define success on her own terms.In this conversation, we explore the role our homes play in regulating the nervous system, how her relationship with work has evolved, and the non-negotiables that now shape the way she lives, leads and designs.Follow Chloe: @mattersandmade_ | Find her at mattersandmade.com