Meet the Founders: Georgie van der Walt and Shanleigh Oades

A podcast on resiliency and reinvention, Georgie van der Walt and Shanleigh Oades are the WESTPORT-based voices behind Big Girls Don’t Cry, a podcast built by two friends both from South Africa.

To be human is to have a story. Big Girls Don’t Cry Podcast is a platform for inspiration through storytelling: the energy that comes from hearing someone else’s, the belief that resilience is essential, and the conviction that reinvention is always possible.

Georgie’s career focused on advertising, marketing, and tech, with a childhood split between South Africa and Hong Kong. She grew up a diver, and still calls the board the best metaphor she knows: courage, then the leap.

Shan spent years in banking, first in London, then in the US, before turning toward coaching and the psychology of what actually moves people. She’s stood at Everest Base Camp and summited Kilimanjaro, but her favorite moments are smaller: a fire, family, friends, the outdoors.

Between them: four countries, two fire signs, two Sagittarius. Moms juggling kids, dogs, careers, and reinvention, and never too precious about any of it.

Already close friends, Georgie and Shan joined a Toastmasters chapter to face a shared fear of public speaking. There was no big breakthrough moment, just a slow loosening. Along the way, they noticed something: the people around them needed encouragement more than they needed to give speeches.

One night, Georgie floated the idea of a podcast. Shan woke up the next morning with the name already formed, sent Georgie a voice note, and that was that. No debate.

Everyone has a story. Big Girls Don’t Cry is a space for the ones told honestly. It’s about the hard human stuff, met with openness, humor, and zero pretense. I’ll be sharing mine. Stay tuned for the episode.

Right now: Season One, Resilience, launched this summer. Season Two, Reinvention, drops this fall.