Balancing the Grind with Angela Clark, Co-Founder of Wallet Nation

Angela Clark is the co-founder of Wallet Nation, an app that is essentially an escrow wallet, a new and secure way of making crypto transfers with confidence.

1) To kick things off, could you tell us a little about your career background and current role?

Earlier in my career I ran different media companies, JCDecaux Australia and Macquarie Radio and then started experimenting with digital media and digital technology in 2003, because I was interested in changing consumer trends.

Then I founded a digital media startup in hyperlocal media. After that ran Digital & Innovation at the ABC, switched over to financial services to run the Small Business segment at CBA, then a payments fintech Beem It.

Now I am the co-founder, with Ric Richardson (an amazing Aussie tech inventor) of a crypto startup called Wallet Nation: we are making crypto payments safer and more protective for consumers than traditional payments.

2) What does a day in your life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?

There isn’t really a typical day. Sometimes it’s business development, connecting with and meeting with investors or working with my co-founder on strategy and tech build.

Other times it’s admin and all those other things that are important but not urgent but become important and urgent if you don’t attend to them.

I’m someone who likes a lot of variety so it’s probably good that I don’t have a standard day. 

3) Does your current role allow for flexible or remote working? If so, how does that fit into your life and routine?

As a startup founder, yes, my role is flexible – but not in the way that that generally means, as there is always more work to be done than have time in the day or week, so I have to make sure I prioritise the crucial stuff. 

4) What does work-life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal?

This is probably not the way I am supposed to answer this question – but here goes anyway. Work-life balance to me means figuring out how the role of work plays in your life and what it is you want from life.

When all is said and done and you look back on your life, what do you want your life to be about and how do you want to have spent your time? I don’t see them as binary inputs. 

5) In the past 12 months, have you started or stopped any routines or habits to change your life?

I’ve been trying to journal every morning before I start on ‘work’. Just anything that comes into my head. I don’t always do it. But it makes such a huge difference when I do so having said that, it’s a good reminder to make sure I do it tomorrow (and everyday thereafter!).

6) Do you have any favourite books, podcasts or newsletters that you’d like to recommend?

I’m loathe to recommend particular books, podcasts or newsletters – everyone seems to have recommended ‘lists’ these days, it’s almost mandatory to have a list – but I worry it makes us all feel we are not doing enough when the truth is we currently have access to and take in more information than any generation before us. 

I’ve got a pile of books by my bed that people have ‘recommended’ that I haven’t read, just hurting my brain. Now I try to listen to myself and pick the things that I feel I need right now, rather than a ‘must read’ list. The wisdom in books only really speaks to us when we are ready to hear it – well that’s what I believe – so you’ll find what you need if you listen to yourself.

7) Are there any products, gadgets or apps that you can’t live without?

No, I like to think I could live without any particular product, gadget or app. Maybe I’d miss my garden weeding fork but that’s probably not the kind of gadget you mean.

I’d also struggle to live without cheese, but again probably not the kind of ‘product’ you meant.

8) If you could read an interview about work-life balance by anyone, who would that be? 

A middle-aged working mother of three school age children working on an early-stage crypto startup. I’d like to know how she finds balance, that would be helpful!

9) Do you have any last thoughts on work, life or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?

I have no wisdom, or maybe my wisdom is that I find it hard to balance everything. Maybe someone else is like me and needs to hear that. I sometimes feel like I have a bit of balance but then the next day something’s not quite gone to plan or the plan has been thrown out the window by something out of my control. I just try to tell myself, try again tomorrow.

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