Three Minute Squiz With… Katie ‘Monty’ Dimond

Katie ‘Monty’ Dimond runs media company Show + Tell which describes itself as a site run by mates for you and your mates, and promises to share and over-share. Monty joins us for the Three Minute Squiz where we’re pleased to say she continues to over-share/completely charmed us with her down-to-earth, Aussie-gal sense of humour. 

How and where do you Squiz?
Wherever I bloody can. In the car, while on a walk, on the loo etc.

Your online bio says co-founder, Publisher, Editorial Director, dabbles in radio, television, writing and nappy changing. That’s a lot of jobs. What’s your favourite part?
All of the bits that aren’t the businessy bit! I have a brain that I’ve trained to make something out of nothing, when you have a radio show to fill every day and a website that is always hungry for content and sometimes all you have done is a load of washing, you need to make that somehow relatable and interesting. I love that challenge. The numbers and day-to-day running of our business is far from my strength. 
I also hate changing nappies so thankfully my kids can now wipe their own arses. I must update that bio.

What has been the biggest challenge in getting a media company off the ground?
Each stage has had its own challenges. The first one being how to actually put content into the backend of a site, that was a massive brain-fry! From day one the main challenge has always been getting the brand out there, this is still our biggest challenge.

You have a business partner and best friend in your co-founder, Stacey. How has your relationship grown and changed as you’ve built a business together?
She is more than my best mate, she is like my sister and from day one we said this will never come before us and close to 6 years on it never has. We have a short hand that only the two of us could. We are so secure in our friendship and our strengths and weaknesses in the business that it just works. We go off a ‘gut feel’ for most things and our morals and values have always been the same.

Show + Tell has a great video series called On the Couch where you interview notable people and nothing is off limits. Who has provided the most surprising interview so far and why?
Everyone, I know that is a disappointing answer but so often we will have a chat locked in and I will wonder how I am going to connect with that person or maybe they will be boring or mean or annoying and I am ALWAYS pleasantly surprised. We film the interviews in my own home so I think because I have invited them into my space and they can see that I am pretty normal and not out to get anything from them that we always drop into a great space for authentic conversations.

Have you noticed anything that celebrity/high achieving people have in common?
What I love about these chats that we have is that no matter how successful you are deemed we all go through the similar sh*t at some point. No one has everything together and no one is always flying, everyone has their ups and downs and insecurities. If I had to pinpoint something it would be resilience. Everyone has experienced knockbacks in some way and I think all of the women we have had on the couch have got back up and kept going.

You currently co-host the 3pm Pick Up on radio station KIIS with Yumi Stynes and Bec Judd. If you absolutely had to choose would you go for radio or TV?
Radio in a heart beat. You can have an idea one minute and do it the next, and if it fails it doesn’t matter cause you have a show the very next day. The team is smaller, the environment is buzzing with creativity and the immediacy and interaction you can have with listeners is awesome.

Where did you grow up?
Williamstown, VIC. I am a Westie through and through.

What does an ideal weekend look like?

My partner Sam taking our boys out so I can have the house to myself.

What skill or talent do you not have but wish you did?
If I could sing I would never ever talk. I would sing everything!

What’s your best and worst habit?
I pick my nose when I’m stressed. I’m a 37yo nose picker. Hot I know. Best habit hmmmm, I don’t pick my nose when I’m not stressed.

What’s your favourite book/author?*
I have read some crackers this year, firstly The Lying Game by Ruth Ware and Little Fires Everywhere and Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng. 

What’s your no-fail dinner party recipe?
Spanakopita, not fancy but always a winner and I am known as the Salad Queen with my friends because I refuse to eat a boring salad.

What qualities do you most value in a friend?
Loyalty, reliability, trustworthiness and a cracking sense of humour.

What would you say is the most currently overlooked news story we should know about?
The story of the bull shark that jumped in the tinny in Queensland a few weeks back. Literally jumped out of the water and into the little boat between two 7yos. We are always in the thick of heavy stories so give me a jumping bull shark any day (no 7yo was harmed).

*Buy any of books from Booktopia using the links provided and The Squiz may get a little commission. 

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