Breaking Barriers: Using Passion to Drive Success with Taz Zammit
May 15, 2024
In this follow-up episode, we are thrilled to dive deeper with our guest, Taz Zammit. Listen as Taz shares her fascinating journey from being a dancer and tennis player to making waves in the Australian Football League and beyond. Discover how she has shattered gender norms and thrived in male-dominated industries, including sports and DJing.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
How Taz's interest in sports began with a challenge at a local football club and how her mother's support played a crucial role in her persistence.
The challenges Taz faced in entering a male-dominated sport and how she used rejection as a fuel to drive her success, leading to her playing at the national level.
Taz discusses her entry into the world of DJing, the setbacks she faced as a female DJ, and how she overcame them by focusing on her skills and the music instead of conforming to industry stereotypes.
Delve into Taz’s involvement in the creator space, discussing the gender pay gap and the unique challenges female creators face, both online and offline.
Learn about the importance of resilience, self-marketing, and leveraging different platforms like LinkedIn to stand out and share your progress and knowledge.
Taz shares her thoughts on the future of her career and offers advice to other creators on handling online negativity and supporting one another.
This episode provides lessons on perseverance, embracing your passion, and making a mark in challenging environments. No matter your passion, Taz's story offers invaluable insights and motivation.
In this follow-up episode, we are thrilled to dive deeper with our guest, Taz Zammit. Listen as Taz shares her fascinating journey from being a dancer and tennis player to making waves in the Australian Football League and beyond. Discover how she has shattered gender norms and thrived in male-dominated industries, including sports and DJing.
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
How Taz's interest in sports began with a challenge at a local football club and how her mother's support played a crucial role in her persistence.
The challenges Taz faced in entering a male-dominated sport and how she used rejection as a fuel to drive her success, leading to her playing at the national level.
Taz discusses her entry into the world of DJing, the setbacks she faced as a female DJ, and how she overcame them by focusing on her skills and the music instead of conforming to industry stereotypes.
Delve into Taz’s involvement in the creator space, discussing the gender pay gap and the unique challenges female creators face, both online and offline.
Learn about the importance of resilience, self-marketing, and leveraging different platforms like LinkedIn to stand out and share your progress and knowledge.
Taz shares her thoughts on the future of her career and offers advice to other creators on handling online negativity and supporting one another.
This episode provides lessons on perseverance, embracing your passion, and making a mark in challenging environments. No matter your passion, Taz's story offers invaluable insights and motivation.
I never let it stop me, I never let it hold me back, because it's not that I love proving people wrong. I just really love deeply. I get passionate about the things that I care about, and at the time, football was one of those things and nothing was going to stop me from doing it, even if every team said no, I probably would have just started my own team with my mom and built it up from there.
Speaker 2:
Welcome back to the show. If you heard last week's episode, we had both Taz and Alessia on, so if you have not heard that, please go back and listen to it. This week we're bringing you part number two of that conversation, where we do a deeper dive just with Taz, and we talk about her incredibly interesting background and how she started out as a dancer and a tennis player and then fell in love with the Australian Football League and she broke barriers and became a member of the Australian Football League. So we talk about that how to deal with rejection and how to break some of those barriers that are more traditionally roles that men play how she was really able to add her perspective, her value and her skills. So it's really interesting, really interesting conversation.
Speaker 2:
We talk also about her amazing DJing, that she's just such a multi-talented person. We talk about gender disparities and resilience in her going into these areas that are considered male-dominated DJing the Australian Football League and how she was really able to get people to accept her and that role and see her as somebody successful. We also talk about the ability to how creators should not be and influencers should be looking at using LinkedIn and why that's important. So a very interesting part two to this conversation. I hope you enjoy it. Taz, you were selected as part of the Australian Football League, the AFL. Can you talk a little bit about how you navigated that male field of?
Speaker 1:
sports and playing sport has been such a big part of my life. Before AFL, I was a dancer for 10 years, I played tennis. I loved all sport, but I really fell in love with AFL football and I remember when I was young, playing at school and I wanted to play for a club, One of my friends said why don't you come down to the local football team? Ask the coach if you can be part of it? So me and mom went down and, feeling super confident, ready to be a part of it with my friends, the coach laughed at us and said footy's not for girls. I was young at this time. I was probably like, oh, maybe 12. And I just remember feeling that was the first time I felt like I don't understand what's happening here. Why am I so different to my friends who are males? Luckily, my mom is amazing and she walked away from the conversation. We got in the car and she said we're going to go down the road and ask another team and luckily, down the road accepted me straight away. They said, yep, jump on the field.
Speaker 1:
And honestly, that was such a big part of my life playing football. I learned a lot about myself, how to be resilient and how to play it in the league level too, because I ended up going on to play for an all Australian team and I just I love that part of my life and it was very difficult overcoming some of those challenges, you know, where the men kind of didn't really see you as an equal, especially back then. That's probably over 10 years ago now. But I never let it stop me, I never let it hold me back, because it's not that I love proving people wrong, I just really love deeply. I get passionate about the things that I care about, and at the time football was one of those things and nothing was going to stop me from doing it, Even if every team said no, I probably would have just started my own team with my mom and built it up from there.
Speaker 2:
You basically ended up playing with men, right, in terms of playing with, I mean talk about resilience. Is it the same football we play here in the States, or is it a?
Speaker 1:
different kind, it's different. So there's no padding, there's no helmet, there's people coming at you from all sides of the field and you can kick the ball, pass the ball, but you can't throw the ball. And, yeah, it's a very heavy contact sport. I broke my collarbone playing. I remember I lost a tooth when I played once and I brought it over to the sidelines, handed it over to someone and kept playing Like I was really tough back then. I think I would cry if something like that happened to me.
Speaker 2:
That's amazing. I learned a lot through that time. That's unbelievable. And so you broke a lot of barriers there. You also got into DJing, which also kind of male oriented right. Is your attitude similar to what you just said? It was with football, it was, it's. It's about you being interested in it and you're just going to pursue it. You don't pay attention to the fact that you're breaking down a barrier by going into a male dominated sport. You just kind of are interested and you go for it.
Speaker 1:
Totally Like I. I think my interests have just kind of led me to places that are male dominated and I think part of my being naive sometimes is just, you know, I've put myself in positions to put my hand up for things that maybe if I knew how difficult it was going to be as a woman in that space, it probably would have turned me off. But I just went into it not really knowing and yeah, djing was very difficult to break through as a woman in the space because a lot of the time you're highly sexualized as a female DJ and that was something I didn't want any part in. I wanted to be known for my skill and the music just like the men were kind of known in the space for. And another thing is people don't take you as seriously as a female DJ. They they think that you're like not doing your mixes. They think someone else has done it for you and you're like acting.
Speaker 1:
So there was a lot of like having to prove myself. I remember being on the decks one day. You kind of transition from another person, so when they're playing you put in your song and it was a really difficult song he chose last for me to like come into and when I finished the transition he looked over at me and he said okay, like I respect you now, like I gave you a really hard one and I was kind of thinking you wouldn't do that for a guy. Like why did you have to, like, test me? So it was constant, you trying to prove yourself in that space. So it was challenging, it was exhausting, but because I loved music so much, it just kept me going back.
Speaker 2:
Do you still DJ or are you mostly focused on the creator space?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, mostly on the creator space now, but I do love DJing as an outlet, like another creative outlet, and I do hope to get back into it where I can do gigs more often. But the creator space has been taking up a lot of my energy in the best way, because I'm super passionate about that space as well. Well, I had to learn very early that you have to find ways to stand out and that is through skill and just getting better at your craft. But also part of it in DJing is marketing yourself and like how others see you. So that's really helped.
Speaker 1:
Coming into the creative space, realising this is a competitive field, you know there's a certain amount of spots up for grabs and people's attention, so you really have to like hook people in, which is the same thing I had to do in DJing, like when I would do a 60 minute mix of music. How do I keep people there? How do I get them to choose my mix to listen to over another person's? So there's actually a lot of similarities. And in sport, I see what we do now in a similar lens as what an athlete would see their sport. I try to take time off to prepare myself for those creative moments and when I needed to be on. When I needed to be on, I try and fuel my body correctly. I live my life in a way where the craft is like so high up on a pedestal for me and I'm just trying to do my best to like show up as the best version of myself.
Speaker 2:
Well, I want to ask you if you think about how women are treated online, and I've talked with creators who've told me that female creators who feel like they are treated differently than men are that they might create a piece of content that has nothing to do with their appearance, but people are commenting on their appearance. They just get a lot of negativity. And I'm curious first, do you have a perspective on whether female creators are treated differently? So what are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 1:
I definitely think women have a difficult time online and offline too, actually, which makes us just really resilient people. And there is actually a lot of data in the space. I read a report recently that said in the Australian creator economy, women make $110 an hour where males are earning $150 an hour. So there's still a gender pay gap even in the creator economy space, which is not really shocking. Unfortunately, it kind of proceeds wherever you look.
Speaker 1:
And then another thing is dealing with hate comments and people always talking about your appearance. Me and Alessia are pretty lucky with our account that we do not. We don't give any energy to hate so that it stops breeding more of it. But I think as a creator, you actually you can't help it.
Speaker 1:
At some point the internet and the commentary becomes louder than what you can actually control, and we've seen that on videos that go mega viral. So if you get like 3 million plus views on a video, you can't really control your message. People are interpreting that in so many different ways from different cultures, perceptions and moods. Some people are going to be offended by things. So I think as women, we need to like, support each other and not you know, buy into that not be commenting on other women's content like, try and take that high ground and just see people as human beings who don't have the intention of hurting others a lot of the time, because, as a creator myself, I know that I don't put content out there to upset people, even though sometimes it gets misconstrued like that sometimes. So, yeah, I think the best way we can overcome it as a community of women is by actually just lifting each other up.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I love that. I love your advice too, for you know, not giving energy to the hate, because if you do, it just breeds more hate. It just breeds more of it.
Speaker 1:
I prefer to spend time on people who you know have come to be positive in the space. That makes us feel better as well. So, yeah, it's good to heal the hate.
Speaker 2:
Well, if you think about where things are moving, one of the reasons that we actually were kind of landed on some of your content was actually on LinkedIn also about how you're using and because I feel like LinkedIn is now like this new platform for creators, where maybe it wasn't so much in the past, I think now people are taking it seriously as a creator platform. Talk about how you think of how you're thinking about LinkedIn and using it.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I love LinkedIn. I'm such a nerd for LinkedIn. I get to show a different part of my personality on LinkedIn to what I do on TikTok or Snapchat or Pinterest. I'm allowed to like express myself in a different way and through written word instead of video, but I have heard that LinkedIn is bringing a video too, which is interesting. But I just I really love sharing as I'm building.
Speaker 1:
That's something I'm passionate about, because people have been so kind to mentor me in my life. I've had coaches in football who have helped me become a better athlete. I've had DJ friends who are like years above me come in and show me the ropes, and same thing in the creator space so many amazing people that have just accepted me in, and I want to be able to like share what I'm learning with people who are maybe like a year behind me or you know, just kind of in their process, because there's no course you can take on how to be a creator. It's starting to come up now, but it's a very new kind of space to navigate and I love being able to talk about the challenges, the good times, the bad and, you know, the experimenting too.
Speaker 2:
Well, there's that generous spirit again.
Speaker 1:
So I love that.
Speaker 2:
Well, Taz, if people want to follow you, what is the best way for them to do that?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, if you want to see more of the creator economy and the analysis of what we're doing behind the scenes, I would say to follow me on LinkedIn, just Taz Zamet. But if you want to see some of the content myself and my partner create together, you can follow us on all platforms like TikTok and Instagram, at Taz and Alessia. And, yeah, I would love to connect with people and I'm always down for a conversation. I really appreciate you having me on today, so thank you.
Speaker 2:
Well, thank you for taking the time to do it. Appreciate it.