Success x Happiness

Dan Sowden bought into Ray White Maroochydore 14 days before the GFC.   Today he leads 80 staff and says this is the best down market he's ever worked in.   The Sunshine Coast principal and award-winning auctioneer explains why he coaches from the dugout instead of selling, how he keeps agents from burning out, and what rising interest rates, falling prices and the new investor tax rules mean for...

Doctors gave him three days to three weeks to live, and some of them begged him not to try the chemo. Joe Surace was a Melbourne-born photographer and fruit-and-veg lifer working 70-hour weeks on the Sunshine Coast when, at 39, a back pain his doctors kept calling sciatica turned out to be an extremely rare testicular cancer that had spread to his lymph nodes and taken over 70% of his liver. Given...

He spent 20 years behind the drum kit of Powderfinger, and says it all felt "moderately normal".   Jon Coghill grew up on the Sunshine Coast wanting to be Luke Skywalker, then Michael Jackson, before a drum kit at 12 and a drunk night pogo-dancing into a UQ rehearsal room put him in front of a three-piece band who'd remember him 18 months later at his audition.   The same week he auditioned for Cu...

He grew up with an outside dunny on a dirt road south of Brisbane, and ended up sitting in John Howard's cabinet. Mal Brough's dad had polio from age four, ran the family corner store opposite a three-teacher primary school, and lost every election he ever ran in.   Mal joined the army on a whim at 18, walked away in 1987 to become a milkman, built a hairdressing wholesale business on the Sunshine...

Rob Steffler gave every Year 10 student 30 days to build a business. After a decade running the DeLorean Project at Glasshouse Christian College and helping lead Silicon Coast and Forward Fest, he's seen what school misses.   You'll learn whether entrepreneurship can be taught, when to go all in on an idea, and why you should hold the problem tightly and the solution loosely.   -   Get in touch wi...

She built her career by showing up to everything, but at her most successful she was also at her lowest. Georgie Kollis went from commission-only charity sales to Billabong, Ray White and finance, then rebuilt herself through discipline, the 75 Hard challenge and the Like-Minded networking community she founded. In this episode, you'll learn how to network with intent, remove barriers and find men...

He grew up in a biker-gang family where being seen meant being hard, and it took a bloody nose in an under-9s scrum to earn his father's first "proud of you". LJ Silulu, founder of Your Legacy Project, was expelled from three high schools, lost his rugby league identity to a snapped ankle at 19, and spent his twenties drinking and fighting in mining camps before a black-vomit morning in a donga ma...

She's the registered psychologist who went from working with offenders in drug and alcohol clinics to coaching leaders in boardrooms. Shirall Silulu, founder of Honouring Minds, shares how a curious kid who made her mum label every item in the kitchen ended up specialising in trauma and attachment, and why she now believes most leadership is performance.   -   Get in touch with Shirall Silulu http...

He flies between mine sites in Brazil, Chile, Alaska, Canada and West Africa teaching leaders one uncomfortable truth: your brain is not on your side.   In this episode you'll learn why the same leadership problems show up in every country, culture and boardroom, and how to stop letting a prehistoric supercomputer make your decisions for you.   -   Get in touch with Dave Watson https://neurolead.n...

In this episode, we replay the keynote I delivered at RMX 2026 on the art of enduring: what Ultraman actually is, why the athlete out front is only 20% of the result, and the 82 minutes I chased and never got. You'll learn why your biggest competitor is yourself, why exhaustion isn't evidence of commitment, why hard is the price of becoming capable rather than proof you're going wrong, and how to...

He spent 36 years fighting other people's battles before realising the only fight that mattered was the one with himself. Kyle Kimball started his own firm at 27 in Mooloolaba, and built it into one of the Sunshine Coast's most respected litigation practices before selling to his younger partners and walking away. In this episode you'll learn why it's not your dog in the fight, how to write the Ab...

She went from a shy, gangly kid who hated taking up space to pulling on the Australian Diamonds dress at just 22. Ash Ervin is the Sunshine Coast Lightning goalkeeper and Australian Diamond number 197. A self-described type B in a world of type A athletes, who rose from Firebirds training partner to a full SSN contract to the national squad in a handful of years, then copped the phone call every a...

Three years after leaving pro sport, we break down the athlete mentality that we believe high-performing business leaders are missing. In this episode you’ll learn the four foundations that carried from world championship racing into building businesses, and the one question leaders avoid asking: how do I personally get better?   -   New episodes every week — follow the show so you never miss one....

He was picking pine cones off the backyard lawn as a kid. Now he's the CFO behind a private equity buyout of one of Australia's fastest-growing IT platforms. Damien Hicks dropped out of law, qualified as a chartered accountant, and became CFO and Board Director of Entag — headquartered right here on the Sunshine Coast. In this episode you'll learn how a modern CFO actually uses AI, what a private...

He walked away from a six-figure corporate career to build his own buyer’s agency from the ground up. In this episode, Murray McCarthy shares his path from accounting and law to major property projects in London and Maroochydore, and what drove him to back himself. You'll gain insight into how buyer’s agents source, assess and negotiate properties, and why data must outweigh emotion when the numbe...

From hacking Commodore Amigas in communist-era Poland to advising businesses as the Sunshine Coast's leading AI thought leader — Arek Rejman's path is anything but ordinary. With a masters in computer image analysis and a machine learning PhD behind him, Arek and his wife left Poland for Melbourne in 2005, spent "temporary" 15 years there, and landed on the Sunshine Coast after COVID — right as Ch...

What happens when a high performance coach admits he can't crush every day either? Returning guest Rich Burrows - breathwork, mindset and movement thought leader opens up about the year that tested everything he teaches. After the unexpected loss of his mum, Rich used his own toolkit of hard things to rebuild momentum from a standstill, and his honesty about it is the heart of this conversation. Q...

Justin Pascoe was drafted into the AFL at 18 and now owns Super Netball's Sunshine Coast Lightning, after leading professional clubs across the AFL, NRL and world sport. He shares why self-interest kills teams, how to build a sporting club that doesn't live or die on weekend results, why netball is Australia's most under-commercialised sport, and the "be the duck" approach to pressure: calm on the...

Travis Schultz has built, sold, rebuilt, and grown one of Queensland’s most respected compensation law firms. From starting as an articled clerk on $165 a week to leading teams through growth, sale, failure, reinvention, and purpose-driven success, Travis shares the lessons that shaped him as a lawyer, leader, father, and community advocate. In this episode, you’ll learn how resilience, fairness,...

The quality of your life may be shaped by the quality of the questions you ask yourself. In this solo episode, we unpack seven powerful questions that sit at the intersection of success and happiness.   -   Listen To The Podcast https://pod.link/1683066164?view=apps&sort=popularity   -   Find Us On Social Media https://www.instagram.com/sxhpod   -   Chapters   (00:00:00) - Introduction   (00:0...

The coach behind one of the greatest sporting dynasties of all time reveals what it really takes to build a culture of sustained success. John Buchanan went from being a schoolteacher and Queensland coach to leading the Australian cricket team through an era of unprecedented dominance, redefining leadership, innovation, and high performance along the way.   -   Get in touch with John Buchanan - ht...

Property investing isn’t about buying houses, it’s about creating choices. Mia Shilkin’s journey from drug and alcohol counselling to becoming one of Australia’s most values-driven property investment strategists reveals how wealth creation starts long before you purchase your first asset. You’ll learn why mindset matters more than market timing, how to approach investing with clarity, and why fin...

From standing on a Sydney wharf watching her husband sail away on a tuna boat to building one of Australia’s most recognised seafood brands, Heidi Walker’s journey is a masterclass in resilience, risk-taking, and backing a vision when nobody else can see it. Heidi shares the story behind Walker Seafoods and Walker’s Tuna, and the lessons learned growing a business through uncertainty, setbacks, an...

Andrea Levinson spent 25 years helping businesses and leaders perform at the highest level, before realising the version of success she had chased no longer aligned with who she truly was. From climbing the corporate ladder as an organisational psychologist to redefining her relationship with ambition, burnout, identity, and fulfillment, Andrea’s story is a powerful reminder that achievement witho...

Ben Norris built one of the fastest-rising gym equipment brands in the world after spending 18 months barely selling a single machine. In this conversation, the founder of Citadel Strength opens up about autism, getting bullied through school, learning human interaction from scratch, and turning blind self-belief into a global manufacturing company now operating in 21+ countries. Ben shares how he...