#Newsmaker: Samantha Cowen joins Hot 91.9FM's breakfast show

It's a new face, a new woman with whom to shoot the breeze! I think we are all there for the same reason: to entertain listeners and play great music, and if that can also be a whole heap of fun, then we're all winning aren't we?

I love Hot 91.9FM because it's the music and presenters of my teens and twenties.

From bumper stickers to coffee mugs, it's wall-to-wall nostalgia, it's a refuge from bad news and pessimism, it's a space designed for the listeners to find fun and familiarity.

What do you love most about your career in radio and breakfast radio in particular?

I think it's a series of things: being ready and willing to learn, having fantastic mentors, working with fluidity and good humour, and learning to stand up and speak up with very powerful personalities.

The secret to success? Four things: use your talent, pitch up on time, do what you say you'll do by when you say you'll do it and be nice to people. Do that and you can't lose, and that goes for any industry.

I think having children was a challenge. It's one thing to get up early for work, it's another thing to get up early having been up all night, and despite all progress and a super supportive husband, it's still the main responsibility of the mom.

I missed a lot of their firsts because I was so desperate not be viewed as 'slacking off' or being a 'typical woman'. I wouldn't do that now.

Learning where the coffee machine is and how it works!

I listen to a lot of true crime podcasts and I have a book on the bedside table about hostage negotiation called Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss, and another one about the benefits of growing your own vegetables.

This is a book I wouldn't have dared write a decade beforehand.

I have come so far through the tunnel of sobriety that the light at the end of it is no longer a bloody great train!

I wanted people to know that there is nothing you cannot come back from, if you want to. In a world where everything has to be perfect, and even failure needs a filter, this book is supposed to be that hand that holds yours in the dark and says, 'I get you'. It's painful and honest and funny with flashes of beauty; basically, like life itself.

I'd like women to know there is no shame in asking for help. Every time I give a talk or a workshop I invite questions, and those that are asked in a public forum are a fraction of the amount that I get in the carpark as I'm leaving or in the bathroom, or on email afterwards; women don't want anyone to know they're asking. We're so ashamed of the stigma attached to being an alcoholic.

If it's all getting too much, ask for help. There are many places to get it, from groups to therapists to coaches. I coach people about managing their recovery, and, in my experience, everyone needs someone to listen.

Tell us something about yourself not generally known.
I will always stop for a sunset. Can't get enough of them. Ordinary miracles every day. A sunset happens on its own time; it won't wait for you, but it won't rush either.

This Women’s Month, what is your word of encouragement to aspiring women in business or radio particular?

Ask yourself who you would have to be in order to want to work with you.

When I'm not on air, I coach full time and it's a variation of a question I ask all my clients. There's no right or wrong answer, but on the days that you feel uncomfortable, insecure or held back in any way, by yourself or others, ask yourself that question: Who would I have to be to be proud of myself? When you know your worth, others can't help but see it.