Anna Robb on Spectacle, Leadership & Belonging

This week on STOPTIME: Live in the Moment, Lisa sits down with powerhouse producer and global live entertainment leader Anna Robb for a deeply thoughtful conversation about creativity, leadership, risk-taking, and what it truly means to live fully in the present.

Originally from Australia and now based in Hong Kong, Anna has spent more than 25 years producing and leading some of the most ambitious live entertainment projects in the world — from The Beatles LOVE with Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas to The House of Dancing Water in Macau and large-scale global productions across five continents.

But beyond the titles and productions, this conversation explores the human being behind the extraordinary career.

Together, Lisa and Anna dive into:

•  Why the biggest leaps in life often happen when we jump into the unknown 
•  The difference between reckless risk and grounded, intentional risk 
•  Leadership under pressure and making high-stakes decisions in real time 
•  The beauty of imperfection in live performance and in life 
•  Raising children while navigating a demanding global career 
•  Creativity, discipline, and finding flow state 
•  Cross-cultural leadership and understanding people deeply 
•  Presence in a digitally distracted world 
•  Why community and human connection matter more than ever 
•  Letting go of control and releasing responsibility for others’ behavior 
•  Mortality, legacy, and living without regret 

Anna also shares moving reflections on motherhood, resilience, creative purpose, and the importance of creating spaces where people feel seen, connected, and inspired.

This episode is a masterclass in grounded leadership, creative courage, and remembering what truly matters.

About Anna Robb

Anna Robb is one of the world’s leading producers of live entertainment. Originally from Australia and now based in Hong Kong, her career has spanned more than 25 years across five continents.

She began backstage at the Sydney Opera House before joining Cirque du Soleil as Stage Manager for The Beatles LOVE in Las Vegas. She later became General Stage Manager for The House of Dancing Water in Macau and served as COO for visionary director Franco Dragone.

Today, Anna is the Executive Producer at Our Legacy Creations and CEO of StageLync, where she continues to shape the future of the global performing arts industry through innovative storytelling, leadership, and community-building.

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Transcript

Welcome And Meet Anna Rob

Lisa Hopkins 0:00

Today is the StopTime Podcast. I'm your host, Lisa Hopkins, and I'm here to engage you in thought-provoking motivational conversations around practicing the art of living in the moment. I'm a certified life coach, and I'm excited to dig deep and offer insights into embracing who we are and where we are at. Today's guest is someone who quite literally lives in the room where it happens on a global scale. She is one of the world's leading producers of live entertainment, a creative force whose work has spanned 25 years, five continents, and some of the most ambitious productions ever brought to life. Originally from Australia and now based in Hong Kong, she began her career backstage at the iconic Sydney Opera House before stepping into the world of Cirque du Soleil as stage manager for the Beatles Love in Las Vegas. From there, she went on to become general stage manager for House of Dancing Water in Macau, a multi-billion dollar aquatic spectacle that redefined what live entertainment could be. Her decade-long collaboration with visionary director Franco Dragon, including serving as COO, cemented her reputation as someone who can hold both the artistry and the complexity of large-scale creation. Today, as executive producer at Our Legacy Creations and CEO of StageLink, she continues to shape the future of the performing arts, developing original experiences, connecting global communities, and reimagining how this industry evolves across cultures and continents. She is a powerful voice on leadership under pressure, in motion, taking the stage at TEDx to share what it means to make clear, grounded decisions in the most high-stakes environments. This is a conversation about creativity at scale, leadership in the unknown, and what it really takes to bring something extraordinary to life. And I must add that I know this person personally and have had the great pleasure of working with her both professionally and in a leadership capacity. And I am so excited to welcome her here and to celebrate, really, to celebrate and introduce you all to the wonderful Anna Rob. Anna, welcome to the show.

Anna Robb 2:38

Thank you, Lisa. What a wonderful wrap-up. And I think you undersold yourself in how much you helped me in my career with uh you just know me. No, you've been an integral part of uh the last two years of my life. So uh yeah, it's wonderful to be able to speak on this platform.

Lisa Hopkins 2:54

Oh, thanks. I appreciate that. And it's you know, we talk we work together on leadership, right? That's that's what brought us together. And, you know, um Anna and I could both preach preach now to all of us about what leadership is about, how we lead with our energy, and that we always have a choice of doing this. And I am so excited to get into that. But first, I would love it if you would just share like a little bit of your origin story.

Anna Robb 3:19

Yeah, it's interesting because as you just asked that question, I think a lot of people, because I also do a podcast when I ask them to give me a little bit of a wrap-up of their um the how they got to be where they are, uh, a lot of them will share with me their trajectory

Jumping Into The Unknown

Anna Robb 3:36

or their career trajectory. And and for me, I it's never really been about a career trajectory because I think at the core of who I am and what I do is I'm really a resilient, passionate, adventurous, risk-taking person. And on the back of being of that nature, uh a career has evolved over those the last 20, 25 years. And I think that, you know, when I think about all of these moments that defined my sort of leap forward or my big projects that I've had to take has always been on the precipice of me taking major um risks, or what I used to say is like jumping off a cliff. When I left Australia, I had a lot of work in Australia, I had a lot of projects, but I felt that I was being pushed into things like um technical direction and production management. And I just loved running shows. I just loved running shows. And I just was like, well, if I'm being pushed into these roles, let me go where there's bigger shows and then I'll I'll try and work there. And I literally got on a plane with no plan and went to London, you know, and it was a desi I landed in a very like disastrous situation. I didn't know anybody, I didn't have any connections, I didn't have any job opportunities. Um, but what's amazing when you throw yourself to the wind in that is how you can land on your feet. Yeah. And and in that path, I ended up at Cirque du Soleil, even though the Cirque du Soleil was in Las Vegas, not in London. That's a whole other story. But and in the same vein, the next big leap after I left Cirque du Soleil, I left, you know, with I had learned what I'd learnt from Cirque du Soleil, and I and I understood that I wanted to take those skills that I'd used and and and facilitate that somewhere else. So again, I left and having no job and no next step and things like that. And I I watch people a lot of these days where they they want to see their path and they want security. And I often encourage people to, you know, launch themselves into the unknown because the big major things that have happened for me have happened with my ability to to jump off that cliff not knowing where I was going to land. And all that's well, all well and good because then you've got family and partners and and things like that. So those things come into your life, which did come into my life as well. So you're not only when you're young and single and free, it's very easy to jump off that cliff, right? But then when you're when you've got dependence, and so you've got to find that balance. And I I still I have to find that balance. For me, I have to find that balance where I feel like I've got that opportunity to take those risks and and and and those opportunities. And and that's how I continue to live my life in my work and in my personal life and in my um all around. It's uh getting to know and understand myself and how I operate and how I find peace in how I operate has been the consec the consequences has been that career. Do you know what I mean? And I think you knowing yourself as best as you can about what lane you sit in and what um what you're good at and what you need and what world you need to create around yourself to have a satisfactory life, and that's different for everyone, um, is the cultivating factor in having an enjoyable life as well as a good career.

Lisa Hopkins 7:12

Yeah, I love that. The the risk piece is really interesting, right? Because I'm guessing, and I'd love to dig in if it's okay with you, I'm guessing that risk uh looks and feels differently now, not because it's the same thing. Like it's not so much that you're looking at it differently, but although that's probably true as well, but that um that risk means something different to you. It might not mean just jumping into the unknown, it might mean saying no. It might mean, I mean, I fill in the blanks. So I'm just curious to know, yeah, how risk um at this stage in your life and career has changed at all, or or yeah, what it is for you now.

Anna Robb 7:57

Well, I think the the way that you start having the agency for risk is having yourself um set up in a manner where you can take those risks, right? And I think that one of the things that I've learned as an expat and as a parent and living in a volatile industry is I have to have, you know, some foundations, which is enough savings

Building Stability For Big Risks

Anna Robb 8:20

to live for six months in the location that I live in and enough sort of to pay for the school fees and the rent and the things like that, right? Like you need to have a financial grounding to be able to launch off that. So it's really important to get the foundations there so that it's not just reckless decisions and throwing yourself into that. I've had an opportunity, you know, when I joined OLC to actually invest some money into the start of that company as well as work without pay for a certain period of time. Now, that can be very nerve-wracking for a lot of people to go, okay, I'm gonna start a company, I'm gonna put money in it, and I'm not gonna take a salary for this period of time. But because of my um situation and because what it set up previously, I had that's a that's a that's a big risk because I could land at the end of that thing and it didn't work, and I've invested money and I went without salary, and now I've got to quick find a job and get some money soon. Do you know what I mean? Like so I would say that the approach to risk becomes a more structured approach to risk, right? Like it becomes a more mature approach of um what is best for me to be able to feel that freedom um and still create the stability and the the routines and necessary things for the children and and my my current situation. So yeah, it's shifted a little shifted a little bit, but I never would want people to. I think it's really awesome to for the kids to also see you take those risks and see you approach life with some audaciousness so that they in turn can then feel a little bit of fearlessness and also to know that okay, we're gonna try something and we might fail at it, and we might fail spectacularly, but you know what? That's that's how we grow and that's how we learn and that's how we can move forward. And you never know with kids, right? Because you just you've like they're little drops in a bucket that you spend with them every day, and it's only now in the teen years where you see your parenting coming back to you uh k to you in full force. So it's a fascinating journey.

Lisa Hopkins 10:21

Totally, totally. You've got two, you've got two, right?

Anna Robb 10:24

And what why are you two now? My son is 15 and my daughter is almost 13 next month. You're a mini me, yes.

Lisa Hopkins 10:31

Yeah, my little mini me. You're making me think about that, you know that um concept of failing fast. What do you think about that? I'm ripping off the risk thing, right? So when you when you where it sounds like when you're when you're younger, what have you got to lose, right? Because you're gonna you're gonna learn something and nobody else will be affected. When you're older, you you know more, which can make it more difficult just because you know more,

Why Long Haul Craft Wins

Lisa Hopkins 10:57

because there's more sort of things that come into it, but the that can also help you and make you a calc, you know, make it a calculated risk. Um, but then there's also the others, like your family, that are that are affected by that. So the the fail fast thing, is that something that is valuable to you as a kind of concept?

Anna Robb 11:19

I think in my personal life, no, I don't buy into the these kind of catchphrases of failing fast and and and um and and only because it doesn't apply to my life. Like my risks, for example, are actually long-term investment risks, right? For example, stage link, we're doing a massive upgrade, it's taken longer than we've expected it to do. It's it's this is a this is a year and a half risk. This is not a fail fast risk, this is a long haul. You know, people will see the results of this thing and they'll be like, oh, it's just a new thing. They won't know that there's a year and a half of work behind the scenes for that that risk to take. And and and for me, I I I we're this is such a world where everything moves so fast and there's quick cash and AI and build a business here and do that. I I don't I don't buy into that. I I believe in authenticity, I believe in the human connection, I believe that quality work takes time, I believe that craftsmanship, especially in the arts, is an earned thing that is cultivated over many years, and you can only truly re reap those rewards and results after a dedication to a practice over many years. And I think that when I think about some of the risks, you know, like for example, the stage link or some other things that I'm working on in my own sort of things, is it a risk? No, but it is a dedication of my time for a significant period that I'm putting, that I'm not getting paid for, that I'm that I'm doing on my own volition, and I'm I'm trying to take something to the next level. And that's a long-term thing. So that's not a fail fast. That's a big investment long-term, um, let's see if it works out kind of situation.

Lisa Hopkins 13:07

You walk, you walk the line as a as a stage manager, right? First, right? I mean, your job is to make sure that everything runs smoothly and timely. So it talks talk to me a little bit about that and how you navigate that.

Anna Robb 13:27

Well, the beautiful thing about being a

Live Show Leadership Under Pressure

Anna Robb 13:30

stage manager for live entertainment is you have to accept imperfection. Yeah. And for someone who, you know, likes all her ducks in a row and things in boxes and things checked, what a beautiful lesson to learn that there's just no perfection in any given show, you know, and especially when you're running large-scale circus shows, because you know that no show is the same, no lineup of people is the same, no nothing is going to run exactly the way that it does every day. And um in that space um is a beautiful lesson of striving for perfection, but being okay when you don't reach that perfection. And most of the time, when I now produce shows, I'm looking at the team, I'm looking at the time, I'm looking at the quality of the team, and I'm thinking, okay, we're gonna shoot for the stars, but my expectation of where we're probably gonna land is around here, just because there's no perfect combination. And when you're a producer, you're trying to, you're trying to create those synergies of time and people, resources, money and talent into a concoction that is successful. And, you know, if if we were the masters, I mean, you know, as soon as you add the human element, there's going to be things to manage and there's going to be things to do, you know. And so there's that concoction is something I'm really quite fascinated with. But also that balance between, you know, striving for perfection but allowing it not to be is a really healthy thing as a stage manager, but also as a producer. Um, that and something that I've learned as I've moved into leadership roles, because like in the stage management space, you're the doer, you're the executor, and you're the one that's in control of that. When you're a leader, you're laying the table and letting people have the dinner at it, right? Like you're not ultimately um responsible for how the dinner rolls out because you're not actively in it. You know what I mean? Yes. And so, so it's a fascinating journey. And then I'd say, so that was one, that's one thing I'd want to say about stage management and the skills. And then, and all of that is a beautiful lesson also that I've applied to my life as a parent and other facets of my friendships and and all of those things in my life of you know, attempting to do things but and going for the goal, but being okay with less than that, just because the effort of trying is worth it, worth it. And then the second thing I would say, which is sort of leans into, you know, what I did talked about in my TEDx talk, when you're when you train as a show caller, especially in the circus realm, you are put in a position where um you have to make decisions on the fly all the time, every time, and in a state of fear. And because you know, you've got people's lives at stake, you've got um 2,000 people watching, you've got um acrobats that might be underwater or in this air and things like that. And what years of that, like when they were supposed to talk about the 10,000 hours thing. When you do 10,000 hours of something, you know what I mean? You become really, really good at it. And I'm very good at making decisions fast, right? And that's not always the situation that I make decisions fast, because if there's times to make decisions, you should take the time to make a decision. But if you have to make a decision fast, um uh I can I can do it. And I I never really realized that superpower um until I applied that outside the show world, you know, trying to make fast decisions and moving through life where you're like, okay, we're doing that, and how much I can do achieve or uh activate in a day. There's such an amazing thing about people who work in live entertainment, is a lot of the people every day at five o'clock or eight o'clock, we drop everything and we deliver.

Lisa Hopkins 17:31

Yeah.

Anna Robb 17:32

We deliver, deliver, deliver, deliver, deliver, deliver, deliver. And you've got to understand the rest of the world just doesn't deliver on a regular basis like that. So consistently. Yeah, exactly. And it is, and it is such a mind training. Like, you know, I I always tell this story that when I I moved to an agency where we were doing, I was creative producing stuff when I first moved to Hong Kong and we were delivering something in Saudi Arabia, and and uh the delivery of equipment was going to be late. And I was like, okay, well, we've got to figure this out, we've got to get it there on time, and they're like, Oh, we'll just move the delivery date for like two weeks. And in my mind, my mind just kind of exploded because I was like, sorry, what? We can change the delivery date. That wasn't even a, you know, when opening night is opening night, like you don't just change the delivery date, you don't just change opening night. And and it what it does is you see that you have this wiring, and there's so many things that I'll do on a day-to-day basis that has replaced my delivery of a show. Like, yeah, I'll do my Duolingo every day. Like it will, do you know what I mean? It's like there's something, there's little things that I have in my day that I will do every day because it's a it's a little deliverable that I actually need in my life because I'm so used to doing it. I'm so used to delivering it. And that consistency is such an amazing thing. And I think the arts, people in the arts, we talk about our creativity and we can talk about that, but there's so many other facets of our modes of operation that are so productive and very um, you know, amazing to share with people who don't work in our industry, I would say.

Lisa Hopkins 19:03

When you were, when you were a young person, was there a seminal moment when you kind of were at least started to get interested in theater or in you know live entertainment? Or what was your first exposure to that?

Anna Robb 19:15

But it's kind of funny because I think when I was 11, we went to a um production in our local town from the Mansfield Musical and

A Small Town Doorway To Theatre

Anna Robb 19:26

Dramatic Society called MUDS. MUDs what they were called. Just a non-profit um thing. And we saw Fiddler on the roof. And I must have at the time had said to my dad, uh, I want to do that, or I want to be involved in that. Like that that's that looks cool. Not knowing really what that was. So my dad's like, all right, my my daughter wants to be on stage, so let me go help make that happen. And so um the next production was Brigadoon, uh, old musical, and we went down to the local high school at Mansfield where they had the uh auditions, or I don't even know if it was auditions, it's whoever wanted to be in the show, because it was a small country town of 6,000 people, right? Like, so um, and we went in there, and I distinctly remember this moment because uh we walked in with my dad and me to the high school like room, and the two men in the room turned to us and looked at my dad and said, Oh, great, we need more men. And my dad's like, Oh no, um, here for my daughter, and and you know, and in the in the next thing, like dad was playing Angus McMoney's, he was singing on stage, he's the local pharmacist, everyone's showing up, and I'm totally upstaged by my dad in my first production. I'm just in a little Highland skirt at the back doing some sword dancing. That's it was just so funny. I always say, You drove me backstage, dad, because you upstaged me in my first production.

Lisa Hopkins 20:50

That's incredible. Oh my god, I love that.

Anna Robb 20:54

But it's not true, it's a joke between us. In all truth, that was just like, okay, I was drawn to the theater. I did some of those productions and I started doing school productions, but I actually, it's funny because when I look back at it now, I don't actually remember enjoying being on the stage. I just was enjoying being part of the community and all of that sort of thing. And it wasn't until I finished high school where my dad was like, you know, I'm trying to figure out what to do for my university degree and everything. And my dad had said to me, What are your three favorite subjects at school? And they were graphic design, art and theatre. And he said, Well, go find a course that does that. And so we I went and did some um research and I found a production degree in uh in Australi in Victoria, which is one state in Australia, and one in um New South Wales. And there was the course that I got into was called Design for Theatre and Television, and and that became the journey into the foray of backstage and production and stage management. And so that's that's really where I where I got started.

Lisa Hopkins 21:57

What's the hardest thing that you've ever done? What a question. Just a late question, you know.

Anna Robb 22:06

There's been so many. I think the answer to that question is so multifaceted for me because I think in every stage of my career there's been

Hard Calls On Safety And Loss

Anna Robb 22:20

quite difficult moments. I was in Saudi Arabia, we opened this show, and then there was something that fell out of the ceiling in uh in the first night, which was extremely dangerous. And um as the producer, I had to tell the client and everybody, you know, in Saudi Arabia, we're not doing another show until this is fixed, you know. And I remember standing in a parking lot with 20 Arab men being the only female with a technical director standing next to me saying, This is not happening. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Um, I've stood in, you know, the House of Dancing Water and turned to the leadership team and said, This show is not happening, knowing what it means to be massive loss of the show in terms of revenue and things like that. And so one thing I do know when I talk about hard things, I have a very strong moral line, especially when it comes to safety and um and things like that. And I will never cross it. And that's what people trust in me. So to talk about hard situations, I have been so exposed to so many, I'm very confident in that. When I talk about personal hardship, um, you know, there's some in the workplace and there's some as a parent. You know, I my son, when uh my son got when he was just before he was four, got Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome in uh a bacterial and a viral infection at the same time. Um when we were living in Macau and uh his throat closed was closing over. And um the scariest, hardest thing I've had to do was hand my son over to a team of people that spoke Chinese to save his life. And um and not knowing and being totally powerless as a parent to to be the person to save my son's life, right? That's a hard thing, you know. Um being in um a situation in producing environments where the client has been incredibly relentless and cruel and not passing that uh energy or situation down to the people below you who are working for you. Those are really hard places to be to absorb the impact of something above you and not letting it go down to the team below you. So yeah, I think those are in terms of hard things, stopping shows and canceling things and whatever, people may see those as hard things, but I find those quite I find I I know that I'm the person to do those things, and I'm okay with doing that. When it comes to personal things where you're being affected and you're trying to protect other people, or you know, being a parent and you're almost losing your child, those are hard things, you know what I mean. And yes, indeed. Yeah. There's been a few things in my life where they're being super scary like that.

Lisa Hopkins 25:20

Yeah. What did they teach you, if anything? Those hard things. What did they teach you about yourself?

Anna Robb 25:29

That that no matter how well intentioned you are and how much you try and how much you try to, you know, structure your life in a in a good and positive way, hard things are gonna happen. You know? It's just gonna happen and you've got to navigate through it. There are so many things in our world that are gonna come at you. We are not immune to life, and we just have to to navigate through those things and and know that they will come and not be like, oh, why me? Why me? It's hard times hit everybody, and it's how you are through those things that defines who you are and how you respond to those things that defines who you are, you know?

Lisa Hopkins 26:12

Yes, 100%.

Anna Robb 26:14

And we don't always do it well, right? Like I think the other thing is is that you know, you can't I can't say, well, I did I dealt with that situation. Well, you know what it there has to be some forgiveness on yourself, be like, okay, I lost my shit, or I lost I lost control of that situation, and you can reflect on that and build your resilience and preparedness for the next time that it happens, you know. And I think that's you could you can you can take that situation and and sit there and regret it for the rest of your life or how you behaved in a certain moment, or you can take that lesson and say, okay, that's never gonna happen again, and I'm gonna behave this way in the next instance that I'm faced with that, you know.

Lisa Hopkins 26:52

Yep. And we can remind ourselves that even though it might not seem like it, because you know, we're always comparing everything to everything, um, is we always do the best we can. We always do, even when it doesn't, you know, it's maybe not how, you know, in retrospect we we would have liked to have been, but it was the best we had because nobody plays to lose. Nobody. We all we all want to do our best.

Anna Robb 27:16

And it's it's such a wonderful thing to also remember when you're um managing people that everybody's trying to do their best. Yes. Yes. In within their capacity. And that's something that I've learned a lot working cross-culturally, because I think I I often talk to people about um, there's a lot of people that come and work cross-culturally, there's a lot of expectations, and especially in our industry, job titles and roles and responsibilities are very fluid and interpreted differently and play out differently in different zones and

Leading Across Cultures And Contexts

Anna Robb 27:49

regions. And so there's a lot of like you should be doing this and you should be doing that, and all of the the shoulds of the world, right? And I think that often I'm looking at people in in a cultural context of you know, what is their country culture, what is their family culture, and then what is the company cultures that they're used to, and all of those, and then their personal motivations and all of those facets um play into how they show up at work. Yep. Right? And and so um, and especially when you're working cross-culturally, because even from a country level, our our um cultural dimensions are very different, can be very different. And so even the baseline in which you're operating can be very different from their baseline, and then their family upbringing, whether it be good, bad, indifferent, um their cultural beliefs, their practices, their view on money or um all of these things, and and then the company cultures that they've worked in and how they've been expected to play in those spaces. It's a mindfield, absolute mind field. And so from a fundamental perspective, getting to know and understanding what who people are and what they're capable of is the first step in a producer understanding about what they how successful they can make a show, right? And like what you can get what you can get out of people um in any given day or moment.

Lisa Hopkins 29:11

Well, yeah, like what you how you can support them to be their best, right? Recognizing what their best is, what they're capable of, and maybe even seeing a little bit that they don't see. I mean, that's a great leader, right? And then and then indicating and supporting them in that way, which is what you do in spades. I mean, that's really what you do. Um, you know, you're not sort of just just laying law laying the law and doing it your way or the highway. I mean, this is that's you know, that's the essence of good leadership, which is what I respect so much about you. I mean, really, you know, uh values, values-based leadership, right?

Anna Robb 29:44

Yeah, for sure. But I think it's also about, you know, not just accepting how it is, setting the bar of what you'd like to retrieve from them and and also like pushing them to set that bar, but and then keeping the expectation here. Because if you set the bar here and then expect it to be here and and and that that gap is too much, then you're only going to be disappointed. So like I often look at the baseline and I think, okay, there's our baseline, I'm gonna ask you to do this, and then anywhere they get between here and here is a win for me.

Lisa Hopkins 30:14

I love that, you know? Yeah, I love that. No, 100%.

Anna Robb 30:18

That was very and that that comes back to that idea of perfection versus yes, you know, but you know, you shoot for the moon, but keep your expectations there, and somewhere between the you here and the the earth and the moon, you're gonna land. And and that's the best you can get in any given circumstance, right?

Lisa Hopkins 30:34

Yeah, absolutely. So I asked you the hardest thing you have ever done.

Anna Robb 30:38

What's the easiest? I'd like to answer that a little differently in the sense of like what's the easiest space and place to be in for me? And I think that when you're in a flow and you're in this place, and it doesn't mean that it's easy, but when time stops and things become not hard, and you're just in the moment and you're in that state of flow, that

Flow State And Creative Alchemy

Anna Robb 31:01

for me is that's when you know you're doing what you're supposed to do. When we were creating the House of Dancing Water, obviously it was one of the hardest projects of my life. You know, we'd have 300 people, we'd have Franco screaming at us. We're, you know, I'm navigating this, you know, 125 winches and a 50-meter pool that's seven meters in depth with 22 scuba divers underneath it. But it came into this like what was beautiful about the process there is when we built the show in Belgium, for we had this training information period, and um I lived and worked with most of the performers for nigh on a year. And we had this community and a connection, which I actually credit the success. I think the success of the show was partly because of this this group of people coming together in a such a unique and beautiful way. When we got to the theater, we just knew each other so well. And on the I'd get on the microphone and be like, guys, move over to here, we're gonna move this lift, this is gonna go up and down, rah-r-uh. And we're in this state of flow. And the the creation of that show became so productive because of that relationship between these people. And I we had built these things together, the technicians, the artists, or whatever. And then we would we we'd build all of this over in Belgium, and we'd come into this theater and we were executing it, and we were in such a state of flow that time stopped.

Lisa Hopkins 32:33

Yeah.

Anna Robb 32:34

And and I and I just remember the magic of that um period. It was hard and it was tough, and it was 16-hour days and whatever, but we were in this flow. And and and I always look for that moment where things are flowing. And again, as a producer, you know that you're in that state of ease because you've put the things together to create the alchemy for things to to happen in a beautiful way.

Lisa Hopkins 33:00

Yeah.

Anna Robb 33:00

And that's where you create, that's where you create great shows. So I'm looking for that ease in not that it's an easy show or an easy thing, but the ease in which people come together and the way that we create things. Um that synergy is really important to me. And then you know you're doing what you're supposed to do, right?

Lisa Hopkins 33:17

100%. It's beautiful. I always ask because it's called live in the moment, stop time. What does living in the moment mean to you? I mean, I kind of feel like you just described it, but I I would love you to, if you feel like, you know, elaborating on, you know, more specifically to that question.

Anna Robb 33:32

I think if you would apply that to every part of your life is really important, especially in a career that demands

Living In The Moment On Purpose

Anna Robb 33:42

so much of you. The biggest gift I was given was to have children because you're forced to divide your time between work and other things in your life and creating space for all of those things. And when you're running two companies and you're a parent and you're an expat and you've got family by distance, and you've got so many people contacting you because now that you're running a website, people want to um want to write an article or they want to speak to you, or they want you to come to a conference. And you're, you know, I said to somebody the other day, I on any given day, I have about 400 people who might interact with me. And I might be just in my home. Do you know what I mean? Between small texts. Oh yeah. And and and it and it can be really overwhelming. And I think that what I've learned, um, we often I used to feel guilty about whether I was in my parent being with my kids and then not doing the work or the work and then the kids and the thing like that. All of that is irrelevant because there's no such thing as balance. It's where you put your attention and where you put your presence. And and what's really important, especially in this digitally distracted world, is to be really present with whoever that you're with in that moment. Be present on my run in the morning. I'm present with myself because that's my meditation. When I'm with my kids, I'm present with my kids. When I'm at work, I'm present in the moment of the person that I'm meeting with at the work, fully focused, not distracted, giving of myself to that person and vice versa. Because if we're so distracted, life just passes us by, right? Yes. And you've got to really remember. I just woke up this morning and I was like, oh, it's already Wednesday. Gosh, this week's going by fast. And I literally told myself, like, let's be present today because you've got lots to get done, but let's enjoy this day of productivity, but also being present with the moment because you know, as you get older, like those days get quicker. Well, they don't get quicker, but they feel quicker, right? So um that's what I feel like is really important, and it takes a long time to learn that, I think, really to to know how to sit in the in the present.

Lisa Hopkins 35:59

How do you practice it? It sounds like you do, it sounds like you've got a good handle on that. I'm just curious, yeah. What what do you have any tools that you use?

Anna Robb 36:06

Yeah, well, my mind races a thousand miles a minute. I think it's a it comes in small moments, and I think that you know, I recently just bought a um Italian espresso maker for the stovetop. And I I'm really just enjoying the ritual of this very simple thing of pouring the water, packing the thing, um, putting um, you know, putting it on the stove top

Rituals That Create Daily Joy

Anna Robb 36:30

and waiting those couple of minutes for um for the uh for that. You know, it's it's by introducing a little bit of sense of presence and play. My daughter likes eggs in the morning. And it's just happened in the last month that I go up and I cook I cook two sunny side eggs up in the morning. And she's you know, she's a teen and she's got hormones, and some days it's great and sometimes it's not. So I've started this little practice because I've got two minutes, right? Of like, while these eggs are cooking to come up with something. So every day I I yesterday I she was having a hard day, so I cut two strawberries into the shape of hearts and I gave it to her, and she was like, We've got two strong hearts, right? Louetta got two strong hearts today because you're gonna go to school and get this morning. I the eggs kind of look like two eyes, so I cut carrots and and made like a orange hair and a nose and a face. And so in my moment, I'm like, okay, instead of just sitting here or scrolling on Instagram, I've got like I got two minutes to come up with a creative blade out of the fridge. And it's just a moment for and just you know, it's a moment for me to be a little bit creative and for my daughter to get a smile out of my daughter, you know. And um, you've got to have those moments where in the day where you find joy, it's really important. People grinding and hustling and working and whatever, and joy can be found in the simplest of moments. Especially.

Lisa Hopkins 38:01

And yeah.

Anna Robb 38:02

And that's that's the way I bring those moments into my life and to be present with with people, you know.

Lisa Hopkins 38:08

Oh, I'm a lot of play. What would you do, do you think, if you weren't in the performing arts? That's such a great question.

Anna Robb 38:17

I think I'd still be doing something that's to do with coordination and creativity. Do you know what I mean? And I think that what you do and who you are would manifest in a different way, you know. Whether I'd be if I lived is still lived in a country Australia, I'd be probably on all of the committees, organizing all the sports teams and then being doing the bake sales. And do you know what I mean? Like I would be, I would be manifesting those skills in a in a different way. And that's not more or less than what I do, because I think it's just, you know, all of those things I have a huge place of huge value on those sort of sense of communities and things like that. But if you were to say that, I really enjoy baking and I'd love to be better at decorating cakes, but I'd love to like um something that my mum, my mum taught me to cook or bake. And so it's something that I do quite often. So, and that again, coordination or a business where um baking cakes and coordinating things, maybe something like that. I don't know. I'm one of those optimistic people. I feel that there's always those options available to me if something disappeared of the industry and it went away for a second. Like I think because I've thrown myself in different continents and started again so many times, I feel like I could just start again somewhere doing something else if I really felt like it. And and there's such a freedom to that, you know what I mean? Like I'm not tired. I choose to do this work, yeah, but it doesn't define me. And if if I could take these skills and deploy it in other other industries, I to I totally could. I just I'm not choosing to do that right now. So if it did go away, I'd I'd find something else. You know what I mean?

Lisa Hopkins 39:45

Yeah, oh I do. Absolutely. No, I I think that's amazing. What would you say is your Achilles heel? Oh, that's a good question.

Anna Robb 39:53

There's a couple of things. I'd say um stubbornness and impatience is part of the traits that I have that I have to work really hard to sort of mitigate in some parts of my work and my life. And I've gotten a lot better over the last few years. Um, they're

Letting Go Of Control

Anna Robb 40:13

probably the two biggest ones, you know. Um I have to but a lot of that is mitigated by a lot of self-talking to.

Lisa Hopkins 40:25

And you talking to you. Talking to me. It's so funny.

Anna Robb 40:29

Yeah, yeah.

Lisa Hopkins 40:30

Yeah.

Anna Robb 40:31

You know, I I often I see things how things are gonna play out before they play out. I'm quite insightful like that, I feel. And so I just sometimes I have to sit there and wait for everybody else to be on board with that and and I have to practice patience in that space between me seeing what it's gonna be, and and also I think the other thing is that I think the biggest lesson, which you've helped me with it quite a lot, is other people's not be not feeling responsible for other people's behaviour, and not and not being affected by other people's behavior around you, and and and that's such a um growth thing, especially as a woman, right? Because you always want to fix things and you always want to create a nice environment for everybody and you want everybody to be happy, and then you realise that that in certain circumstances that's just not possible. And when you want somebody to behave in a certain way and they just won't, there's sometimes there's nothing you can do about that, and and not to let the frustration of that affect you personally. And I think that is that that sits in the stubbornness and impatience camp because, right, like I I'm trying to create these environments where everybody's happy, and um accepting that is one thing, and then also not putting it on your shoulders and carrying it around is is one thing that I've really had to let go of in the last few years. And I think I'm I'm really quite getting there in that and and letting people be as they are, you know. And I say that to other people now, just let them behave how they behave, you know. And so I'm telling myself that, and then I'm also telling other people that too.

Lisa Hopkins 42:17

Well, yeah, I mean, there's you can control them, right? So, but it's it's not that you don't care, and I think maybe that that's probably part of the hard part for you, is that you really do care. I mean, I know sometimes when we have the capability to see the way things could be, like you do, like you just described, we want to offer that to them too. And it gets frustrating sometimes because sometimes we're able to take them on that journey and teach them that, and sometimes not. And it can be very frustrating and feels almost like um you've you've failed a little bit. And so then it gets turned on self because you think, well, why why couldn't I have maybe I didn't do something, or maybe it's me, or instead of just realizing that you cannot control how they feel. You can just offer them, you can control what what you can control. And if your value is to make it as as beautiful and warm as you like, then that's all you can do.

Anna Robb 43:11

It's also a hangover from a stage management thing, too, because I think like there's such a level of control when you control the show, right? So when when you when you have a when you have this training where you are literally in control of everything and everyone, you're used to that control, right? That doesn't give you permission to go and control people in their own lives, though. Do you know what I mean? Like you have to be like, okay, just because you can control the show doesn't mean you can control everybody, everything outside that, you know what I mean? But it's like the mindset there where you feel that you have the agency to control that and you're trying to create that environment. And and there's so many positive things about that from a stage management perspective and how it can play out into your life. But there's also some also, like anything, there's there's there's there can be some negative things that um you take on with it as well. So yeah, no, it's absolutely Absolutely true. It's so funny.

Lisa Hopkins 44:01

It's so funny. Hey, what dream do you have that maybe you haven't put out in the universe yet? Is there something that's kind of brewing in in your heart somewhere about something maybe that you dream of or for me personally?

Anna Robb 44:17

Um no. I I, you know, I have two humans in my life that I have a responsibility to grow up to be quality humans. So I think at some point in your life where you're like, okay, my investment in time and love and energy is to allow them to become the best versions of themselves. And a lot of time of my time is invested in that. And for me, my dream is is to see them healthy and happy and satisfied with their world, and me being a person that has helped them take that space in there and their place in the world and bring, you know, have good humans. So that the core of who I am, that that that is that is my dream. It comes down to very personal rather than career. I don't have I'm very lucky to do what I do. I love what I do. I don't want things on my CV. I don't want to scale to new heights. I just enjoy my work and I I love what I do. I just happen to do it in a great place and a great space that's very fulfilling for me. So um, yeah, that's really my dream.

Lisa Hopkins 45:23

Well, that's beautiful. And I I would add probably that that vision you have of these humans that you've launched into the world on their beautiful, is is uh is that ease piece is is that will bring you ease, right? That's the flow, isn't it? When it's just kind of like when you when you've arrived and it's just happening, you're you guys are the show. It's just running. Yeah.

Anna Robb 45:46

That's it. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And uh, and that's again, that's that's the long game, right? As you know as a parent, it's a it's not a it's not a one project or a couple of years, it's a it's a good lifetime, it's a lifetime achievement award. Literally.

Lisa Hopkins 46:05

What do you know will stay true about you no matter what happens?

Anna Robb 46:14

My discipline. I know whatever I do, I'm disciplined at it. And that has been one of the most consistent things in my life is my ability to be disciplined, and that applies to all facets of my life, my work, um, my taking care of my own body and my own mind and uh my parenting. So those things are gonna that that will stay, you know. And you can see that in my the women in my life, in my women family, my my mothers, my grandmothers, my great-grandmothers that I had the fortunate ability to to know and love. And um we come from uh uh a very resilient Australian, strong Australian women, and uh who are very, very disciplined, and that I feel the lineage of that in my life. And so that is a core generational thing that won't change. And I love to be part of that.

Lisa Hopkins 47:11

What would what would you say younger self would be proud of? What would little Anna be proud of right now? Younger Anna.

Anna Robb 47:21

I think she would be proud of the places and spaces that that I have managed to, you know, from a small country town where most people live and breathe and stay there most of their lives, have how far wide I have explored the world and experienced life. And you know, I think that little Anna was a bit of a a huge reader and a big dreamer and uh and wanted to, you know, live the depth and breadth of life as as large and as as multifaceted as possible. And I think I think older Anna is doing that.

Lisa Hopkins 47:58

Yeah, I would say that's pretty pretty spot on, right? Yeah. So five years from now, what are we celebrating?

Anna Robb 48:09

Five years from now. I'd really like to see the plans that we have for stage link take off. I really believe what we're doing in that space has the potential to really serve the industry. And I think we're in a unique time. Because a lot of the time when you bake create a business, it's not necessarily about whether it's a good

StageLink And Art That Builds Belonging

Anna Robb 48:32

idea or a bad idea. It can be about timing. And um, and I'm wondering if we're in the right timing for this. And and I feel like we may be, and I and I have I have hope. I have hope for that because I have a vision in my head about what I'd like the industry to be capable of in this onset of AI and drama, about all of the things that we're dealing with in the arts and the lack of funding and the shifting and sand, the shifting sands. And it's always been like that. But I feel like everybody seems to be really worked up about it now and stressed about it. And I really think we have to we we have so much capacity and we have so capable, and I'm such an optimistic person, and I want to put a platform out there that serves it. And and I believe that the foundation, although it's been a long project, it's a long learning curve. I started Theatre Art Life in 2017. So it's almost 10 years since I've been in this little media space understanding how that space works, and I'm trying to bring the digital with our industry into a space that that can serve each other. And um and I like to play in that space where we're creating things that don't exist yet. So I'm really hopeful. I want to see that come to a fruition that serves the industry. So that's one of my hopes. I I feel more and more compelled to do projects that again serve communities and cultures rather than be a moneymaker. When we did the New Year's Eve sit show for Emar, the chairman asked us to do to do the show for seven days after. So on the New Year's Eve show, everybody pays for the ticket to watch the Birchkhalifa fireworks. So the people that play in that space on New Year's Eve have a quite a higher socioeconomic status. And the chairman said, But I want the people of Dubai to see the show. So we ran it for another seven days. And over those seven days, something quite incredible happened in the sense that people from all demographics, because it was free, could experience this show. So people were becoming Emiratis and Filipinos and Pakistanis and Indians and Russians and people were all converging on a community event that they could all participate on. And from that, in the social media space, it was there was a sense of pride. This is our Dubai. Come and this is the kind of shows that Dubai puts on. And what's beautiful about that moment is we're so digitally driven these days, but to for to have people come from different socioeconomic backgrounds and that accessibility for people to stand in the same space and experience something together, you've got to realize how that doesn't happen very often anymore.

Lisa Hopkins 51:26

No.

Anna Robb 51:27

And so, like, we have to keep making arts. People need to have to keep creating and reminding people who they are and what is important, which is community and collective psyche as a culture. And and we need to create the spaces to do that. And so the important thing is not to create entertainment for the purposes of people being entertained, it's to create entertainment for the people to have a sense of belonging. So again, my five-year plans are not on where I want to be, it's on my hopes. And so my hopes are my hopes I can do more of those things, and my hopes is I can serve the industry with stage link. So, and if I've got the money and the security and this financial situation under control in my own personal life, then the more of my personal time I can dedicate to those missions.

Lisa Hopkins 52:21

Yeah. Brilliant. Beautifully said, and it's so true. How do you want to be remembered?

Anna Robb 52:28

I just want to be remembered as somebody who who cared for other people. That that becomes very, very personal, you know. I like I I don't necessarily want the whole world to remember me, but the people that are important in my life need to remember me for me being there for them when they needed me to be there for them. And that's my children and my

Legacy Mortality And No Regrets

Anna Robb 52:49

partner and my parents and my siblings and and knowing that those are the things. Because the memories are carry the people that are gonna remember you are those ones, right? Over the time.

Lisa Hopkins 52:59

Yeah, absolutely. And I mean you're living the way you want to be remembered. I mean, you're living, you're living out loud very much like that. Like mission accomplished, basically.

Anna Robb 53:08

That's what I'm saying. Well, it's funny because I do ask, might sound really morbid, because I'm I hate flying and I fly a lot, but I like, you know, if I if something happened to me today, uh-huh, I asked myself, would I be satisfied with what I've done thus far?

Lisa Hopkins 53:22

Yep.

Anna Robb 53:23

And I ask myself that question a lot. And I think it really does guide how I live my life because I'm I'm very, I'm I'm especially after losing my mum, I'm very, very aware of my own mortality and and I'm and I'm and I that's why I want to be present and I I want to make sure that I make the most of each day and also have no regrets in the sense that I did my best every single day, so that if something did, God forbid, happen to me, that the foundation of myself is in my kids, the foundation of what I've built is there, and um and that I that I've given everything, you know, uh up until this point.

Lisa Hopkins 54:00

So we've arrived at the rapid fire. What makes you? Oh, there's more.

Anna Robb 54:05

You've already got so many great questions, and now you're gonna hit me with more. I love this.

Lisa Hopkins 54:08

So here we go. What makes you? I'm gonna say a word, and you're gonna just answer with whatever whatever comes into your head. So you ready? Go. Ana Rob, in what makes you? I'm scared.

Rapid Fire On Motivation And Goals

Lisa Hopkins 54:23

What makes you hungry?

Anna Robb 54:28

That's a great question. What makes me hungry? Uh like food-wise, or you're just asking me to answer the question, I what makes me hungry? Um seeing opportunity. What makes you sad? When people um have a belief about themselves but it's not exactly how they are, when when there's a disconnect between who they are and who they think they are, I I I find that to be sad.

Lisa Hopkins 54:59

What inspires you?

Anna Robb 55:03

Ah, life generally. I I I'm very easily motivated. Music, food, my coffee in the morning, all the things. I am a very simply satisfied person. A good conversation, everything.

Lisa Hopkins 55:17

I love it. What frustrates you if I'm procrastinating?

Anna Robb 55:22

I don't like when I procrastinate. What makes you laugh?

Lisa Hopkins 55:29

Oh my kids.

Anna Robb 55:32

My kids make me laugh.

Lisa Hopkins 55:34

What makes you angry?

Anna Robb 55:39

Banking processes in Hong Kong.

Lisa Hopkins 55:42

That was very specific. Finally, what makes you grateful? The beautiful people in my life. I love that. What are the top three things that have happened so far today?

Anna Robb 56:00

I made eggs with um spiky hair.

Lisa Hopkins 56:04

Totally.

Anna Robb 56:06

Uh it's that's a it's a good question. You're you it's a high question to ask because it's only 9.15, right? Uh so I've got to come up with three things before uh driving my son, driving my daughter to down to the ferry terminal is something a simple uh joy of mine, just because we have this little routine where she gets gives me a hug and does a little heart sign as she leaves and things like that. Um so the spiky hair eggs, my dropping my daughter off, and um and my new espresso coffee maker. Nice that I made a coffee with this morning.

Lisa Hopkins 56:40

There you go. What is something that you're looking forward to both today and then long term?

Anna Robb 56:46

I schedule my entire life on my calendar and I have a long list of things to do today. So I'm actually looking forward to knocking that list out today. And uh I I it's one of those days like today's gonna be a good work day. So I'm gonna smash that out. And then long term, I have a personal goal. I live on an island and there's it's defined by two peaks, Lantau Peak and Sunset Peak. It's the second and third highest peaks in Hong Kong. I have a personal midlife goal to compete in the Lantau Peaks race in October three, which is 24 kilometers and 1800 meters elevation and uh uh descent. And I want to take my midlife uh body through that hell. And I um and I obviously that requires some training and all of that sort of stuff. But that's my own personal thing that I want to do for me um is is run my two mountains behind where I live right now and in that race. So that's that's one of my more midterm, long-term goals.

Lisa Hopkins 57:51

Yeah, something you're looking forward to, right? In the in the long term.

Anna Robb 57:54

100%.

Lisa Hopkins 57:55

Yeah, that's really cool. I love that. Listen, I cannot thank you enough. It's been such a pleasure.

Anna Robb 58:01

Oh, it's been so awesome. You have great questions, as always.

Lisa Hopkins 58:06

I've been speaking today to Anna Robb. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Lisa Hopkins. Stay safe and healthy, everyone, and remember to live in the moment. In music, stop time

Closing And Stop Time Reminder

Lisa Hopkins 58:20

is that beautiful moment where the band is suspended in rhythmic unison supporting the soloists to express their individuality. In the moment, I encourage you to take that time and create your own rhythm. Until next time, I'm Lisa Hopkins. Thanks for listening.