You can have a seat at the table or you can build your own.
Faustina Agolley, affectionally called Fuzzy, has enjoyed a career over 15 years across Broadcast Television, Music, Djing, Writing, and Theatre. She's a proud Black and Asian gay Australian of Ghanaian and Chinese-Malaysian heritage.
Current Work:
Faustina began her career interviewing her idols like Alicia Keys to then icons-in-the making like Adele, Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga while bringing joy to Australian homes on Video Hits.
She's also co-hosted The Voice and Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. She openly speaks and writes about queer matters, queer life and overcoming her own mental health struggles for Women of Letters, ABC, Netflix Pause, and Huffington Post.
She was personally chosen by the Harpo team to be Oprah Winfrey's touring DJ across Oprah's tour of Australia and Aotearoa, New Zealand and can verify that Oprah gives some of the best hugs ever.
Since early 2021 Faustina has embarked on her entrepreneurial journey, founding a haircare brand for textured hair that will launch in the United States at the end of 2022. This brand was selected to be part of Credo For Change, an entrepreneurial program for BIPOC founders established by America's fastest-growing clean beauty retailer, Credo.
She loves nature, surfing, and traditional practices from her heritage for personal health, wellbeing, and care for the environment.
Faustina’s practice in Arts and culture, work in unison to imagine and transform new, sustainable and inclusive ways of working, promoting cultural safety and distancing a practice of grind culture - cause that has never done any good for anybody.
Talking Points
Following the Joy: Ways I've Shaped a Meaningful Life and Career
This keynote is part speaking part sharing music, music videos and a lot of pop culture nostalgia through Faustina’s life and career. Following the Joy: Ways I've Shaped a Meaningful Life and Career
Faustina's first ever memory was on her migration journey to Australia. Born in England, her family took a pit-stop to her mother's home country - Malaysia. She was on a beach, heard pop music blasting out of a radio, got up on her shaky baby legs and broke out into dancing, not knowing that at the next moment, a crowd of locals would cheer as she revelled in her joy.
She's always been chasing that feeling; which has navigated her from wagging a strict Catholic high school - just so she could watch The Oprah Winfrey Show, to becoming a straight-A student and School Captain, to realising she can get paid for having fun.
That feeling and the lessons its given her has had her touring with Oprah as her DJ, playing sets of music to screaming arenas of 15,000 people at a time, interviewing her music idols and idols in the making, to dismantling her life, wading through her most difficult mental health challenges to then come out as her true self, a vulnerable but proud gay woman.
With new refined tools and lessons, Faustina continues to live a genuine Queer life as a brand founder and CEO, with a spot of Djing for good measure.
Who this is for: literally anyone who likes to be in their feelings, or is at least ready to be in their feelings, for those who want to learn greater self-awareness and self-identity, for those who a bloody frustrated with their life situation and want a change.
Key Takeaways:
- Learn tools to identify genuine personal life goals
- Resources to develop greater self-awareness
- Pop culture nostalgia
-Overall, this should feel like a warm hug with a bunch of anecdotes and lessons right in your back pocket.
Optional Additions:
- Further LGBTQIA+ and multiracial DE&I messaging: from storytelling to tools
Ownership is the real flex - from employee to entrepreneur
Most creative types have a dream of starting a business or a side hustle. But between the thought and the morning your special something launches there’s a secret garden almost all entrepreneurs need to walk through. Ownership is the real flex - from employee to entrepreneur
Some pivotal life moments in 2021 compelled Faustina to make that dream into reality and found ways to equip herself with the tools of entrepreneurship determined to compensate for the skills she wished she had learned decades earlier.
Fast forward to early 2024, Faustina is poised to launch Superfamily™, a global hair care brand for people with textured and curly hair. Remarkably, before its launch, Superfamily had already gained acclaim in the United States. It has proudly earned both the Goodkind Co grant and a spot amongst just 13 esteemed brands in the Credo Beauty Accelerator program.
While many keynotes can leave you feeling motivated, Faustina's keynote goes the extra mile by providing tangible tools and a clear map to navigate the secret forest.
Her story is a testament to the power of recognising the need for change and seizing it. Showing it’s never too late to start a new chapter and to have both life and financial goals work in unison.
Key takeaways:
- Tools and strategy for the dreamers who want the map to realise their creative idea
- Tools for freelancers, soloprenuers, agencies and businesses of all types (product-based, service-based to digital businesses) who want to refine and create a clearer plan
- Genuine, practical insights forged from firsthand experience
Faustina hosted an online masterclass for Hampton Water Rosé with Jon Bon Jovi and Jesse Bongiovi. Team members from Dan Murphy’s around the country, plus food and wine media at a luncheon e ... keep reading Red Jelly
Thank you for jumping in when needed and making the show work in every city in Australia and New Zealand despite minimal rehearsal. Your hustling to get it done, to make smooth transitions and a seamless show, was felt by me and, of course, our audiences in every arena. You have earned a special chapter in my Gratitude journal.
Visa invited Faustina to be on a panel discussion on the topic of The Art of Joy at Splendour in the Grass. This event is one of Visa’s major marketing investments and together with our team and the agency, we create an insightful and interesting environment for our clients so they can learn more about the behaviours, trends and cultural engagement with young Aussies, and the positive impact music and marketing to this audience in their ‘environment’ has for brands. Faustina was devoted to her preparation for the panel topic and gave an abundance of ideas during our group briefing call whilst also being respectful and an astute listener to what our other rockstar panellists had to say. Faustina arrived early on the day, was professional, respectful to everyone involved including my team, my agency team, the Splendour team, invited guests, and the production crew. With Faustina's ability to read the room, she was able to bring an in-depth and nuanced contribution to our panel topic. She was honest, vulnerable, and, where appropriate, humorous as she navigated topics around women's rights, collective pain, and the comfort and potential joy that comes from the solidarity of #MeToo. Faustina spoke about the power of music and its intersection with political and social movements. And she spoke candidly about ways to be accountable with systemic racism and bias in our workplaces and to be more inclusive and genuine with the stories we put out to the world. Faustina's contribution deeply connected with our invited guests and took what could've easily been a light-hearted discussion to a level of deep connection.
Fuzzy looked beautiful, behaved in a totally professional way and was an outstanding MC - perfect for the audience of young kids, families and tweens.
Fuzzy did a fantastic job and was a pleasure to work with. She was very well prepared and arrived with plenty of time to be briefed. She was also a celebrity draw card with lots of people asking for photos and signatures.
On behalf of ASF Limited and the Australian Science Festival team, we would like to thank you for your participation in the festival this year. We appreciate your time, enthusiasm and professionalism in preparing for and being involved with Hot Innovation… The feedback we have received from your contribution has been extremely positive, and ASF were very happy with the event in general. Once again, thank you for helping make the 2009 Australian Science Festival such a success. We look forward to the opportunity of working with you on future festivals.
