Keeping It Real with Jac and Ral

A Storyteller and a Leadership Coach walk into a bar… literally! In this episode, recorded in a Melbourne bar with a live audience, Jac sits down with Ral to unpack her latest book, Story Intelligence: The Craft of Authentic Storytelling Made Smarter with AI. Together they explore why storytelling remains one of the most powerful leadership tools and how AI is elevating it in ways we’ve never seen...

Offsites should be the most energising day in your team’s year…So why do so many feel like a hostage situation with pastries? In this episode, Jac & Ral break down exactly what makes an offsite brilliant, memorable and commercially valuable - not just another day of a stuffy room, bad slides, beige thinking and forced fun. You’ll learn: The 5 elements every high-impact 2026 offsite must includ...

Imagine being 26 and creating an app that’s redefining how the world runs. Louis Phillips is the co-founder and CEO of INTVL, a fitness and running platform that’s exploded globally, not just because of the tech… but because of how he tells the story. In this episode, we’re picking Louis’s brain on what every leader can learn from a generation that builds community, not just campaigns… and knows h...

Emotional intelligence used to be call soft skills, however the future just made EI the power skills. As AI gets smarter, the leaders who can sense emotion, read the room, and stay regulated under pressure will be the ones still standing. Tech will expose emotional blind spots faster than you can say “feedback” the question is, will we use it to connect and influence… or to manipulate? In this epi...

Emotional intelligence used to be call soft skills, however the future just made EI the power skills. As AI gets smarter, the leaders who can sense emotion, read the room, and stay regulated under pressure will be the ones still standing. Tech will expose emotional blind spots faster than you can say “feedback” the question is, will we use it to connect and influence… or to manipulate? In this epi...

Have you ever been asked what your leadership style is? And were you clear, confident and articulate in your response? Most of us either don’t know it, or if we do, don’t communicate it well. In this episode, Jac and Ral discuss the 10 traditional leader styles – what we think is relevant for today and what we think isn’t. Ral even comes up with a new style (watch this one take off!) and Jac share...

In this episode, Jac and Ral explore the concept of “leading from the side” - a leadership stance that sits between the traditional command-and-control approach and servant leadership (leading from behind). What organisations need today is less about the single strong person out front giving all the orders, and less about the heroic self-effacing leader in the background, and more about someone wh...

So instead of breaking bad… we’re Breaking Good! In this latest episode, Ral opens up about a recent health scare that became the catalyst for big, positive change. This isn’t her first rodeo, she knew for awhile she wasn’t at peak performance, her Oura ring told her… daily. Jac suggested throwing the ring away but Ral’s smart, she took responsibility and shares how she created a new healthier hab...

We are all chasing a good life, a happy life and a meaningful life, but recent research claims we should be chasing a psychological rich life… what is that? A psychological rich life is marked by novel experiences, perspective sharing insights and complexity. This type of life has more discomfort than a happy or meaningful life and asks us to leave our comfort zones and be open to changing our min...

Following on from last week’s interview with Layne Beachley, in part 2 Ral digs deeper and finds out more about what drives the very healthy and humble Layne, when she knew it was time to stop chasing waves for competition and some very funny stories about marrying a rockstar, picking up litter and what keeps her real… the answer will surprise you! -------------------------------------------------...

Resilience, courage and the power of positive mindset…Seven-time world surfing champ Layne Beachley can teach us how to achieve all three. She’s a legend, driven by immense purpose and she keeps it real in this great part 1 interview with Ral. Hear Layne talk openly about the multiple times she thought of giving up, and how she used the lessons she’s learned and applied these – mental fortitude, h...

There are eight traits of high performance Jac has identified after coaching leaders across many different industries – these traits quietly separate the rockstars from the random… After discussing these last week, Jac & Ral went deep and both agreed it was worth doing so in order for our Keepers to get a great grasp on what can set them up for leadership performance success. Do you display th...

Aftercoaching leaders across industries, Jac has seen the patterns: there are a handful of traits that quietly separate the serious players from the seat-warmers.  They’re not buzzwords, they’re behaviours. And when you spot them, you know you’re dealing with someone operatingon a different level. In this episode of Keeping it Real, Jac & Ral unpack what those traits look like in action, witho...

We all see others with more… better careers, happier lives, stylish homes, perfectly behaved kids and we get envious. And we also know that to compare is crazy, because not everything is as it seems. Jac worked in private banking and saw the complexity of lots of wealth… the grief was greater than the joy! What you see on social media and hear from others isn’t always the REAL deal. Ral shares a g...

Some might say Jac is a failure when it comes to cake baking, and whilst Ral is one of Australia’s leading storytellers for business, she’s also been known to not fill a public workshop… is that a failure? In this episode we define failing as not having a go… to win, learn and evolve you need to make mistakes, because it’s how you bounce back that matters. So how resilient are you when it comes to...

Part 2 – Interview with Founder of Enhanced Games, Dr Aron D’Souza. Aron D’Souza says if we act with intentionality and have a good business plan, we can do anything. This is part 2 of a very inspiring conversation between Ral and Aron whose mission is dedicating his life to impacting and changing the human condition and creating the enhanced age. A new movement… We have seen artificial intelligen...

Five generations walk into a workplace… and no one can agree on how to send a meeting invite! From Boomers who still love a phone call, to Gen Z who think email is for “old people,” Jac & Ral dive into the hilarious, maddening, and surprisingly brilliant world of generational blind spots when it comes to cross-generational work. Expect a few stereotypes, a few truths, and a lot of “ohhh… that...

This week, we flip the script on productivity. Forget your endless To Do list… what about your To Be list? In this episode, Jac & Ral explore how shifting focus from tasks to traits can change everything. Instead of just ticking off jobs, ask: Who do I want to be while I do these things? Calm? Curious? Brave? Generous? From leadership moments to everyday challenges, your To Be list reminds you tha...

What if doping wasn’t banned… but embraced? In this unfiltered Part 1 interview, Ral sits down with the audacious founder of the Enhanced Games, Aron D’Souza, who’s taking a sledgehammer to the Olympic establishment. He says the IOC is broken, outdated, and hypocritical and he’s not here to play by their rules. Love it or loathe it, the Enhanced Games are real, rising, and ready to disrupt everyth...

Have you done a joy audit lately? How much of your week involves you laughing, loving and living a joyful life? Jac declares she’s the queen of joy and Ral reveals a new thing she has started doing at home which brings her huge joy… In this episode, we share WHY you should schedule your joy – especially if you want sustainable performance, enhanced creativity and a broader perspective. Leaders who...

Being a very successful leader is….   Your ability to attract, retain and develop talent. Awesome talent multiplies impact, accelerates performance, and gives you the force multiplier effect.   Is it easy to be a great leader? No. Is it easy to attract, retain and develop your talent? Absolutely not, but if you listen to this episode we will give you a competitive advantage and teach you our core...

We start this episode with some sage advice from Ferris Beuller…                                                                                                                                        There tends to be two types of us in the world… Those who can actively listen and give you their full attention, also known as being fully present. And then there is the rest of us… always on, doing a...

The biggest trap in life? Thinking your current path is the only path.  In this episode we introduce you to the Odyssey Plan – a 20 minute personal exercise that encourages you to zoom out, ask yourself bigger questions to reveal 3 possible futures and forces you to confront what you really want.   For Ral – her plan reveals less work and move over Ellen Degeneres! For Jac – linen and leather, Ken...

Are your co-workers your mates? Do you love working with them? Have you stayed longer in a role that didn’t serve you because of your coworkers? Yep, guilty. Have you been promoted and all of a sudden your great mate colleagues now report to you, and things feel different for them and for you? Have you left a role and promised a co-worker or direct report you will take them with you…?   This topic...

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