Curveball

Once upon a time, a young Kirstin Ferguson wanted to be Australia’s first female Prime Minister. And she figured the free university education and rigorous leadership training of the military would make a good first step.   But – surprise! - the Royal Australian Air Force Academy of the 1990s wasn’t the most welcoming environment for an ambitious young woman. Kirstin had to adjust her behaviour in...

Think back to the toughest challenges you've ever faced - the longest grind, the lowest low... What would you do if, almost as soon as it ended, you were told you had to do it all again?  For Kath Koschel, former New South Wales cricketer, this question isn’t hypothetical. She’d already faced loss of her fiancé and was overwhelmed with grief. And after months of rehab following a debilitating back...

As Kath Koschel steps behind the crease, she grips her bat just a little tighter than usual: she’s pushing through an annoying but minor back injury.   The next thing she sees is the sky. She’s laying flat on her back. She can’t feel her legs. Turns out that back injury wasn’t so innocuous, and Kath’s on her way to the hospital.   She doesn’t know it yet, but it’s not going to be her last operatio...

“We’re building it for the people comfortable doing mobile banking, who are living on the edge of the future,” says fin-tech entrepreneur Dom Pym. “All the things we do with Up are different than other banks. Because when you’re carrying your phone in your pocket, doing everything with your finger on your phone, or with your face or your voice, that user experience becomes so much more important t...

Athlete Jana Pittman has spent her life clearing obstacles that arise out of nowhere.  Chasing down Olympics gold on the 400-metre hurdles track since she was a teenager, she’s overcome injury after injury, hounded by the media along the way.  All for that spot on the top podium to evade her.  That kind of determination isn’t uncommon among professional athletes in the heat of competition. But whe...

Were we tempting fate hosting a show called Curveball ?  Because it feels a little like the universe wants us to have more first-hand experience of adversity.  As 2022 began, host Kellie Riordan was champing at the bit to bring you some amazing new guests with stories of resilience.   Then the Australian floods in February ruined the Curveball studio (and most of Kellie’s house!).  So Kellie and h...

Gaven Morris has put his doubts aside and stepped into a leadership role at the ABC, but his trials are far from over.   While he’s trying to un-learn everything he was taught as a journalist in order to become a more open-minded, proactive leader, life starts to unravel around him.   Family illnesses and a workplace tragedy that kills several of his colleagues shatter the foundations of Gaven’s w...

Gaven Morris is the man behind most of the news you consume on a daily basis. As the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Director of News, Gaven’s led many of the country’s top reporters and best-loved programs.   But now he’s stepping away from this leadership role, and reflecting on his time in one of the most rapidly changing industries.   Journalism isn’t the most logical path to leadership....

The crowd is spilling out of a Bob Geldof event, but one wily ex-reporter has tapped into her performing arts know-how to get backstage. Armed with nothing but a business card and a tiny handwritten message, she’s trying to get her name to rockstar Bono and his new venture, PRODUCT (RED).   It might sound ludicrous. And it kind of was. Greta Thomas was a marketing professional in Sydney, Australia...

When the ‘why’ is missing, often so is our motivation.  Something I’ve noticed about people who bounce back from adversity, is they tend to have a strong sense of purpose – and if they don’t have one when that curveball hits, it sure prompts them to find it!  Take Who Give a Crap founder Simon Griffiths – when his body gave out and exhaustion hit, his passion to make others’ lives better literally...

“Education can change your life in a generation.”  When RMIT University announced its newest Chancellor would be Richmond Football Club President Peggy O’Neal, those words from her mother might just have been on Peggy’s mind.  From the tiny coal-mining town she grew up in, Peggy became the first member of her family to graduate university. Then the first woman hired by an establishment law firm. A...

“The more you fail, the easier it gets. People get scared of failing. I know this is something that anyone entrepreneurial will say, but every time you lose all your money, it becomes easier. Because you know you can pick yourself up.”  Declan Lee never chooses the easy path. These days he’s one of four owners of the famous Messina gelato chain, but he's had to pick himself up a few times already....

When Kate Vale was appointed Google Australia’s first employee, she didn’t have an office or a mobile phone. She found herself answering her home landline to do business!  From humble beginnings she used her HR background to quickly build a team, and grew Google Australia to record revenues and eventually to IPO.  Ever the digital pioneer since her days managing a dot com company before the crash,...

Remember when Michael Fox first joined us on Curveball ? He’d clawed his way back from a  bruising collapse of his first start-up Shoes of Prey  to build a new company.   Fable Foods  creates a meat-alternative from shiitake mushrooms and Michael and his co-founders had convinced celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal to be part of their journey.   But Covid had hit and Michael wasn’t sure his newly-est...

Olivia Humphrey has taken her company Kanopy from her spare bedroom in Perth to San Francisco... and turned down some pretty enticing investment offers along the way.   She stuck to her guns, keeping her values front of mind at all times, and it paid off. I mean – it  really  paid off! Kanopy has sold for an eye-watering price.  In part two of this revealing interview, Olivia Humphrey walks us thr...

Olivia Humphrey was having lunch in a Napa vineyard when a billionaire stepped in to help turn her genius start-up into a fully-fledged global streaming platform.   A former Village Roadshow employee, Olivia came up with the idea to streamline the way universities could secure rights for films and documentaries for students.  As streaming took off and Kanopy became a digital platform much like Net...

Meggie Palmer was one of Australia’s best TV journalists, when she learned she wasn’t being paid the same as her male colleagues. She had a choice. Put up with it or speak up and risk it all. This enormous career gamble almost crushed her. Until she realised it could also be the making of her.  Disillusioned with the power of traditional media, and galvanised by this first-hand experience with gen...

Imagine a life where the simple act of sitting sends your body into spasms of pain.  Entrepreneur Simon Griffiths likes to optimise for success. But pushing far beyond his limits has come at a cost. And it’s a warning for so many leaders.  The Who Gives a Crap CEO opens up for the first time about the lengths he went to cope with chronic pain and full physical collapse, including checking into a y...

A funny thing happened during a  Curveball  production meeting recently. Our junior producer Liam mentioned that his Mum thinks he needs a mentor. Liam explained that he had some in Rachel and Kellie, who work together to oversee the team that brings you  Curveball.   But Kellie wasn’t sure she was a mentor to Liam. Sure, he’s given feedback. Sometimes even a pep talk. But is that the same as ment...

Giving in  is not the same as  giving up . Sometimes, despite your best intentions, things don’t just work out and it’s better to give in to the signs.  So many leaders on  Curveball  have, at some point, found themselves in a tricky situation. And yes,  sometimes they’ve pulled through.  But what about those times you just can’t pull a rabbit out of a hat? How do you know when it’s time to call t...

Elizabeth Broderick has been fighting for equality since she was in utero.  Growing up with a twin sister helped instil a burning sense of fairness in young Liz. She’d go on to become a trailblazing lawyer, Special Rapporteur to the United Nations, and Australia’s longest-serving Sex Discrimination Commissioner.  Elizabeth Broderick is a leader who’s spent her whole career negotiating in hostile e...

“Sometimes there’s a monstrous demonic fire front that’s bearing down on your little town, and your little team... and the only thing that you can do to stay alive, is to quietly and quickly make an orderly exit via stage left.”   Wow. Let us set the scene for you here. Marine Hautemont and Rob Malicki sent  Curveball  that message as they clinked champagne glasses in a trailer park in remote nort...

Justin Dry lost his house not once, but twice, before he learned to trust his gut.  With each loss, the robust Vinomofo founder has picked himself up off the cellar floor and come at it again from a new angle.  Dry has aged wisely. He’s grown from the classic idea-machine entrepreneur, through record funding rounds and tough decisions, to responding to crises with exactly the right kind of genius...

Dwayne Good is no stranger to fighting for survival.   Kicked out of home as a teen, and then struggling after the death of his mum, Dwayne drifted until he found himself on an idyllic holiday in Thailand. But it was 2004 and a killer tsunami was about to up-end his life in more ways than one.  “The best way to summarize it is confusing. What the hell am I going to do? What have I just seen? What...

American lawyer Peggy O’Neal might lead a team of Tigers, but it’s rare to hear her roar. Although you might have heard an enthusiastic “whoop!” or three when her team won those Australian Football League grand finals!   That unflappable pragmatism is something the president of Richmond Football Club learned growing up in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, USA.   Peggy has seen off leader...