Fruitful Conversations

It was a sobering yet uplifting chat I had with Rochelle Courtenay, founder of the charity Share the Dignity. Rochelle started this so every woman and girl could have access to sanitary products, no matter what their situation. You may be shocked to hear, as I was, when this was originally brought to my attention, that not everyone has access to period  products.  We talked about the real issues f...

I was going to write an intro for my next guest but her website says it all. Maz Farrelly has been to more showbiz parties than Kim Kardashian’s Spanx and down more red carpets than a Dyson vacuum.  Her contacts contain bigger names than the toilet queue at the Oscars and if you can stick a name plate on it and hand it over to loud applause, she’s won it  from BAFTAs to Logies. If you’ve watched i...

Author Fiona McIntosh doesn't waste time. In 20 years she has published 39 books across the genres of fantasy, crime, children's and in the last decade or so, historical romantic adventure fiction. Fiona  is a marketer turned writer and this business experience shows.  We talked about where her endless drive comes from, her highly successful masterclasses for writers, how she started her...

Rear Admiral Robert Plath AM was such a pleasure to chat to. He had some great stories to share and much prudent advice to impart to us civilians from his 38 years  in the Australian Navy. We talked about his story to join the navy, the influence of his dad and what it means to be a father himself. He shared many stories of life in the navy, what it was like in the eighties and what it’s like toda...

So here's a topic of relevance to pretty much everyone. Yep, we're talking about sex. As my guest today says, we beat ourselves up a bit over our sex lives. It's something we get the least education on, and expect the most. Isiah McKimmie is a couples therapist, sex therapist and sexologist who has been helping women and couples discover intimacy and connection for over a decade.  S...

Penny Spencer is an entrepreneur, founder and MD of the Spencer Travel Group of Companies. She and her business have a raft of awards including Penny being  recognised as one of Australia’s top 30 female entrepreneurs by Smart Company in 2016, 2017, 2018  and Spencer Travel featured in the Financial Reviews 2017 list of Australia’s top 100 companies. Penny has been a finalist in the Telstra Busine...

Tim Houlihan is the guy you want to be seated next to at a dinner party. The sort of man you can talk to for a long time about a lot of things.  So when I saw him described as a thirsty explorer with a passion for applying knowledge to improving life, well, I had to have him on the show. Tim is not only a talented singer/songwriter, but the founder of BehaviorAlchemy, and co host on the excellent...

Kim Seeling Smith is founder of Ignite Global and a  speaker, consultant, author and thought leader on the future of work, the future workforce, employee experience, recruitment and hiring skills and employee engagement and retention. That's a bunch of stuff to talk about before we even got to the elephants and manta rays. Kim shared the latest on what she calls the Now of Work and the differ...

A career in communications found Felicity Zadro. And when you hear her story, you understand why. I had a lovely chat  with founder and managing director of Zadro Agency, Felicity Zadro about the year that was and how to understand it all. We start with the curly hair gene, traverse Felicity’s love of words and books, childhood influences and the power of metaphor. Felicity reveals her company’s j...

It was a delight to chat with the inimitable Ian Whitworth, author of blog, Motivation for Sceptics, and co founder of Scene Change, a corporate audio visual group. Ian had been an ad/creative director type guy before deciding to test his award winning ideas on his own business, which, as you’ll hear, has worked rather well. We talked about the work culture at Scene Change and what it takes to cre...

 What an insightful conversation I had with Andy Moore, CEO of Hello Sunday Morning , an organisation that helps people manage their relationship with alcohol. Andy has been in civic service for most of his life, working in roles at Northcott Disability, the National Breast Cancer Centre, the Hong Kong Cancer Fund, Sydney Water and most recently, our beloved Royal Flying Doctor Service. Now CEO of...

What a pleasure it was to chat to the lovely Larissa Huntington of artisan bakery Little Pudding in Sydney. They deliver artisan cakes to cafes and do beautiful celebration cakes. Larissa is one of us. Just a hard working woman and mother of two who had a dream, and in her case, for a home based business. We talked about cake, of course. But we also talked about Larissa’s pivot from journo to bake...

As an endurance athlete and ex tv guy, Graham Ross learned a lot of lessons he's applying to his businesses. Founding his sports brand, Kusaga Athletic led him on a path to discover the enormous problem we have with unwanted textiles - think clothing, towels, sheets, everything. Blocktexx was born, where Graham and his partner Adrian Jones are doing their best to save the planet from more tha...

By the time you finish this podcast you’re going to want to work for our next guest. Since 2001, Nikki Beaumont has been Founder and CEO of recruitment agency Beaumont People and I’ve never met a CEO who brings so much humanity to a company, and succeeds financially. Amongst other things she won a lifetime achievement award from the Recruitment Consulting Services Association in 2018. In 2020,  Be...

Two years ago, Yvonne McClaren made a decision to pack up, leave Australia and go to live in Vietnam with the plan to set up a food based business. A few months later she was back, diagnosed with head and neck cancer. Join me for this very honest and real conversation as we track Yvonne’s journey from diagnosis to surgery, to learning how to eat real food again. And she’s still a long way from mun...

Convinced that we're all more creative than we give ourselves credit for, Nigel Collin, decided to jump on his motorbike and travel around Australia talking to every day Aussies doing ingenious things. The Ingenious Oz Project was born which has now spawned hundreds of episodes. A business speaker, and MC/Facilitator, Nigel is pretty impressive. As a trained actor and teacher of camera skills...

Grammy-nominated songwriter and performer Ciaran Gribbin who, , in addition to working with world class artists such as Madonna, U2, Paul McCartney, Snow Patrol and Al Pacino, has toured the world as the lead singer of INXS. Today Ciaran Gribbin continues to write and perform as well as being the founder of Rock and Roll Team Building which delivers awesome music programs to corporate companies al...

This guest has so much to say ( well, he is Irish, after all), we’re doing it in two parts. I was thrilled to chat to a Grammy-nominated songwriter and performer who, in addition to working with world class artists such as Madonna, U2, Paul McCartney, Snow Patrol and Al Pacino, has toured the world as the lead singer of INXS. Today Ciaran Gribbin continues to write and perform as well as being the...

If you like thinking and challenging yourself then you’re going to enjoy my talk with the marvellous Mo Fox. As both an artist and business strategist her worlds constantly coincide. In short, Mo is a creative strategist who gets hired to help companies think differently and creatively about the wicked, messy problems they have. This means she’s that rare hybrid who melds art with business, and it...

Welcome to my podcast, Fruitful Conversations where we chat to interesting people who share their stories to teach and inspire us to be better versions of ourselves.  When I launched this podcast recently, it was called People Matter. at the same time there began one of the biggest cultural shifts in hundreds of years.  So as not to detract at all from the critical movement of Black Lives Matter,...

It's safe to say you'll never meet another Julie Cross. Julie Cross is an award winning conference speaker and one of the most successful in Australia. But it's not the job that defines her.  As we spoke I found myself seduced by her  by her positive energy, her wisdom and frankly her inspirational attitude. She was already a great speaker on  self esteem, loving yourself, connected...

From army sniper to globetrotting cameraman and professional magician, and now a video smart phone evangelist, Julian Mather has made an art form out of change. This is a guy who knows how to make things work. Believing that extraordinary people are only ordinary people who do extra, it was captivating to listen to his stories and discover that the ability to learn and unlearn is our next critical...

Currently one of the stars of Channel Nine’s Travel Guides, Kevin Moloney was living the quiet retired life in the country before he and his wife lucked in to the dream job. It was energising to chat to Kevin and his insatiable zest for life, change and opportunity despite a rocky start to life. Reminding us that life is made up of the choices we make, and no one is responsible for that but oursel...

Lovely to speak to the calm and grounded Peter Bliss (not everyone can wear that name well) when we chatted about mindfulness, meditation and other weird shit. Peter shares how he turned grief into gratitude, how staying calm is a bit of a myth, and tips on how we can all cope a little better during what has been and continues to be, challenging times.   Don’t stay calm, stay connected. Don’t miss...

As a home baker and enthusiastic eater, it was super exciting for me to have as my very first guest, Nadine Ingram, baking goddess, chef and founder of artisan bakery Flour and Stone and must have cook book by the same name. From a dairy farm in NSW through the intensity of London kitchens, Nadine talks managing teams, customers, generosity and how cake keeps us connected.  ***** Flour and Stone a...