Authentic Leadership Podcast

In this episode of the Authentic Leadership Podcast, Sophie Jing reflects on a lifelong journey of becoming. Drawing on the wisdom of her grandmother and her own experiences as a mother, author, marathon runner, and PhD researcher, she explores how each generation of women shapes the next. Together, we discuss identity, migration, motherhood, curiosity, education, and why life is not about reachin...

In this episode of the Authentic Leadership Podcast, Ivan Yeo sits down with Kevin McAfee, founder of Wellbeing Solutions, to explore his journey from Belfast, Northern Ireland, to New Zealand and the mission that now drives his work. Drawing on his background in technology and his passion for helping others, Kevin shares how concerns about mental health and suicide led him to rethink how support...

In this special Pride Month conversation, I sit down with long-time Rainbow community advocate and media personality Steven Oates for an intimate and deeply personal discussion about identity, family, freedom and the changing landscape of LGBTQ+ communities. Rather than focusing on titles and achievements, this episode explores the person behind the public profile. Steven reflects on growing up in...

From unemployment and years of struggling with mental health and addiction challenges, to becoming a leader in the lived experience workforce, Shelwin Khan shares his remarkable journey into peer support. In this episode of the Authentic Leadership Podcast, Shelwin speaks openly about finding purpose through lived experience, the realities of rebuilding confidence after long-term unemployment, and...

A.K. has lived many lives. She grew up in poverty, survived a difficult childhood, became a national-level athlete, built a career in the music industry, started and ran her own successful business, left everything behind, became an international student at 40, and then rebuilt her life again in New Zealand. From growing up in a one-bedroom flat in Kuala Lumpur to leading organisations in New Zeal...

What do migrants bring in their luggage besides clothes? Migration is never just about moving countries — it is about carrying invisible luggage: identity, language, hopes, grief, values, responsibilities, and ways of understanding the world. This workshop explores the migrant journey through a unique, practical lens of intercultural communication, helping participants better understand the hidden...

In this deeply moving and powerful conversation, I sit down with Kerri Butler — founder of Take Notice, mental health advocate, and lived experience leader — to explore a journey shaped by resilience, whakapapa, injustice, healing, and the courage to keep fighting for change. Kerri shares her personal experiences navigating the mental health system, the profound impact of her beloved nana’s journe...

A Generational Conversation: Malaysian Perspectives on Migration, Identity, Queerness and Belonging in New Zealand. In this deeply honest and reflective conversation, we explore what it means to leave home, search for belonging, and navigate identity as Malaysian Chinese queer migrants in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Together, we unpack the realities of migration, cultural identity, queerness, racism, b...

What happens when the system meant to help you cannot fully see you? In this deeply moving episode of the Authentic Leadership Podcast, I sit down with Tui Taurua, a respected Māori lived experience leader, advocate, speaker, and master’s student in Wairua, to explore her extraordinary journey through trauma, mental distress, recovery, and healing. Tui shares openly about childhood trauma, psychia...

In this episode, I reconnect with someone who deeply shaped my thinking — my former lecturer and now Professor, Camille. What unfolds is an honest, courageous, and deeply human conversation about identity, justice, truth, and what it means to remain authentic in systems that often ask us to conform. Camille shares her journey from chemistry to social science, the influence of her mother, challengi...

This episode of the Authentic Leadership Podcast explores the deeply personal and transformative journey of Michael Owen—a therapist whose work is shaped by lived experience, adversity, and spiritual discovery. From an early life marked by instability, separation, and a sense of being an outsider, Michael shares how chronic illness became a turning point rather than an endpoint. Living with chroni...

In this episode of the Authentic Leadership Podcast, I sit down with Arina Aizal to explore her journey of identity, culture, and finding her voice. From growing up between Malaysia and New Zealand to navigating the challenges of language, belonging, and cultural expectations, Arina shares how these early experiences shaped who she is today. She opens up about a pivotal turning point during the Ch...

At the heart of the episode is the experience of growing up between cultures—where nothing is explicitly taught, yet everything must be navigated. Fahima describes holding “one foot in her home culture and one foot in New Zealand,” not as a concept, but as a lived reality she had to figure out without guidance. There is no manual for this. As a child arriving in New Zealand from Somalia, she enter...

This story follows a journey that begins in silence—shaped by hardship, responsibility, and experiences that were never given space to be spoken. Growing up in an environment where survival came before self, much was carried internally. What could not be expressed outwardly became an inner world that deepened over time. Rather than being defined by these experiences, they became a source of unders...

This Podcast explores the lived experience of growing up between cultures as a second-generation Asian in New Zealand. It reveals the tension of navigating different cultural expectations—balancing expression and restraint, belonging and difference—while trying to make sense of identity. Alongside these challenges, it touches on mental health struggles that are often unspoken or misunderstood, bot...

This episode takes you through a powerful journey of identity, culture, and personal transformation — unfolding across study, lived experience, and reflection. We begin with a search for direction, where academic curiosity leads to a deeper focus on cultural psychology and emotional regulation. What starts as research soon becomes something more personal — a mirror into identity, heritage, and the...

What does it really mean to grow up as a 1.5 Asian migrant in New Zealand? In this episode of the Authentic Leadership Podcast, Wendy Su shares her deeply personal journey navigating identity, responsibility, and the unspoken pressures many Asian migrants carry but rarely talk about. From the invisible “contract to succeed” that many immigrant children inherit, to taking on adult responsibilities...

Shelwin flips the script and interviews Ivan, the creator of the Authentic Leadership Podcast, drawing out the life story behind the voice. Ivan shares his origins (born in Singapore, raised in Malaysia, later moving to New Zealand at 28) and the pressure of growing up gay in a culture where homosexuality is criminalised. He describes an unstable childhood shaped by his father’s hidden criminal li...

Tricia reflects on how life rarely unfolds as expected, tracing the “threads” that shaped her—from a childhood marked by international moves and early awareness of injustice, to teaching and youth work, to a faith grounded less in institutions and more in values of honesty, inclusion, and walking alongside others. Her life pivots in 1996 when her husband, Michael—a grounded, artistic Baptist minis...

In this heartfelt conversation, Michael—community theatre veteran and current president of The Centrestage Theatre—shares how performing helped him move from a shy, bullied teenager into a lifelong creative force. From his first productions in Hamilton to choreographing, directing, producing, and mentoring new talent, Michael reveals what theatre really demands: discipline, teamwork, chemistry, an...

This episode of the Authentic Leadership Podcast features a long-form, deeply human conversation with Shelwin Khan, exploring mental health, addiction, recovery, and the meaning of lived experience across cultures, systems, and life stages. The conversation traces Shelwin’s life journey from early exposure to substances in adolescence, repeated encounters with clinical and justice systems, and yea...

In this opening segment of the Authentic Leadership Podcast, Lisa shares a raw and deeply human turning point: depression, a major shoulder injury and infection, and a spiritual awakening that collided with the collapse of her business identity. While recovering and navigating chronic pain and hospitalisation, Lisa was also doing a guided Kundalini awakening with daily 30-minute meditations—origin...

In this episode of the Authentic Leadership Podcast, Ivan welcomes Eva Chen MNZM back for a deeply personal conversation that shifts from public leadership to the often unseen leadership work of parenting. As an Asian/Taiwanese 1.5-generation mother raising four New Zealand–born children aged 11 to 20, Eva reflects on what it means to raise kids across cultures, systems, and expectations. Together...

This video captures an intimate and deeply honest conversation between Ivan and Chris, tracing an unexpected journey from the lived experience of trauma and survival to a lifelong commitment to suicide prevention, postvention, and education. Chris reflects on growing up in a working-class family, discovering art as his first language for processing trauma, and how creativity became a lifeline long...

Dr Alexander Stevens II joins Ivan on the Authentic Leadership Podcast for a powerful conversation that begins with a heartfelt celebration of his PhD achievement and the story behind his full name, then unfolds into a deeply human journey of purpose, identity, and service. Alexander shares how growing up around domestic violence, mental health challenges, and later experiencing firsthand exposure...