Leanne on Demand Daily with Leanne Hughes

I’m joined by Jordan Mendoza, a sales and training pro with 25+ years in sales and marketing, and 14 years in the multifamily housing world (he explains what that actually means, so you’re not left guessing). I first heard him on a group Zoom call through Andy Storch’s Talent Development Summit and within minutes I knew: this guy is a live wire. He trains, he sells, he hosts the Blaze Your Own Tra...

I came back from Nepal and Alan Weiss immediately “welcomed me back to flat earth”, then we got into the real topic: climbing the mountain when it’s not cute anymore. This episode starts with the funny stuff (Lukla airport and the “dungeon” accommodation, plus a toilet situation that honestly deserves its own spin-off). But quickly it turns into something sharper: what happens when you’re deep in...

Read the article This year, I ran my entire consulting business solo. No staff. No office. Just me, my laptop, and 51 paid tools doing the work of bookings, editing, hosting, scheduling, storage, marketing, fitness, and even entertainment. Total spend $11,899 AUD Before you jump to judgement, this episode isn’t about flexing tools or convincing you to buy anything. It’s about decision-making. I sa...

Today I’m pulling back the curtain on a concept that sounds ridiculous until you realise it’s the only way a solopreneur actually scales: omnipresence. This episode starts with a text exchange I had with my mate Andy Storch a while back. He messaged me saying I’d shown up in his dream which, honestly, is the most unhinged KPI I’ve ever accidentally hit. We laughed about it, but the truth is this i...

This episode is me calling myself out on one of the least sexy but most critical parts of running a business: money management. I’m great at the fun stuff. Give me a microphone, a client room, a blank page I’m happy. But ask me to open Xero every week and I’ll suddenly find seventeen other priorities. After coming back from Nepal, I finally logged into Xero expecting the usual admin slog. Instead,...

There are 22 days left in the year, which means 22 episodes to go. If you want me to dissect anything before we wrap 2025, now is the time to speak up. I also share a big Con Con update. The venue is finally locked, and I drove down to see it myself because I refuse to run an event on “vibes only”. Expectations are high, and they should be. If I’m asking people to fly in, I need to build something...

This weekend was peak Aussie sport energy and I was all in. Cricket at the Gabba. A sweaty 10k run. And then casually bumping into Mackenzie Arnold at South Bank before 7am. Yes, I fan-girled. No, I don’t regret it. But the real fever kicking in right now is World Cup fever. The 2026 draw dropped and suddenly my calendar, my budget and my sense of logic are all in a cage match. I’ve already blocke...

In this episode, I sit down with the delightful Lisa Evans, who went from midwife and neonatal nurse to executive speaker coach and “story midwife” in her forties. Lisa lost most of her hearing after a virus, had to walk away from a 25-year career, then rebuilt everything with a cochlear implant, public speaking and business storytelling. If you’ve ever told yourself “it’s too late” or “I’m not th...

I brought Sean D’Souza into a live community call and he promptly blew up every assumption we hold about marketing, overwhelm, scale and what it actually takes to run a profitable business without burning your life to the ground. This is the guy who has taken three months off every year for two decades, runs a wildly loyal global audience with zero drama, and still answers emails like a human. He’...

In this episode I unpack the strange little origin story behind one of the biggest rivalries in sport and why it matters far more to your career than you think. It’s a reminder that the move that changes everything is usually the one you nearly talk yourself out of. A journalist in 1882 hit publish on a joke, and 140 years later we’re still living with the ripple effects. I also share the message...

Today I unpack my love-hate relationship with LinkedIn, because something has shifted and pretending it hasn’t is a waste of time. I’ve been on that platform long enough to know when the vibe changes, and right now the mix of algorithm chaos and AI sludge is killing the experience. I talk through why I’ve gone from posting daily to posting… barely. Why the dribble in my feed makes me question peop...

This morning’s episode comes straight from my parked car, because of course I arrived super early for a workshop again. People assume it’s discipline. It’s actually trauma from living near a bridge that collapses into chaos two days out of five. When you’ve been trapped on a 15-minute drive that suddenly becomes a 60-minute crawl, you learn to get ahead of the nonsense. But today my early arrival...

Today I’m taking you behind the scenes of a values project I’m running for a client who has operated for twenty years with no formal values. They now want clarity for the next twenty years, and my job is to help them create values that aren’t generic, fluffy or destined to die on a wall. I walk through how I’ve set this up: collecting real employee stories, stripping out my own bias, keeping the i...

Today’s episode is a look behind the curtain at what actually happens when you come home from a massive trip and try to slot straight back into “normal life”. Spoiler: nothing feels normal. I’m juggling a big work week, a suddenly superhuman Peloton ranking, a weighted vest obsession, and a social calendar that went from zero to unhinged in 48 hours. I also talk about a documentary that cracked me...

This week I’m talking with someone who knows exactly what it takes to shift people out of old habits and into new ways of thinking and behaving. Yoke van Dam is a behavioural change coach, facilitator and leadership trainer with deep expertise in NLP, emotional intelligence, communication and sales. What I love about Yoke is her ability to take big, psychological concepts and translate them into p...

This week I’m exploring how something as simple and tactile as Lego can open people up, shift conversations, and spark ideas in ways most traditional workshops can’t touch. My guest is Michael Fearne, founder of Pivotal Play and an expert in Lego Serious Play. He works with everyone from startup founders to corporate leaders, helping them break out of business-as-usual thinking and communicate in...

Today's Work Fame article. Read it / comment over at: https://www.workfa.me/ In today’s episode, I’m taking you behind the scenes of my Everest Base Camp trip. And no, this isn’t a hiking podcast now. This is about what happens when you say yes to something you feel wildly unqualified for, and then get punched in the face by altitude, exhaustion and your own self-doubt. I share the email that kick...

Today I’m pulling out two standout passages from my friend Sally Prosser’s new book, Voice Print. Sal and I go way back to a mastermind in 2020 when she was toying with TikTok. Within a year she’d exploded to 300k followers because she’s sharp, specific and actually helpful. We’ve collaborated on workshops, client gigs and public sessions, and she’s the person I trust when it comes to helping peop...

In this episode I’m back home at my desk, testing my tech before a webinar and settling into the strange, slightly disorienting experience of re-entry after my Everest Base Camp trip. I talk through the mix of appreciation and fatigue that hits on the first day back: the joy of good coffee, hot showers, proper humidity and tap water, alongside the unexpected sadness of leaving the simplicity of mo...

Today’s episode comes straight from a rooftop bar in Singapore, where I’m easing my way back into city life after weeks in Nepal. The contrast hit me hard. Clear air. Tap water. A sunset skyline instead of dust and diesel. I’m sitting here with a cocktail in hand, a good book, and that classic Singapore view of cranes, towers and ocean. It’s exactly the pause I needed before heading home. I also w...

I recorded this one from my favourite cafe in Kathmandu (Rise and Grind Coffeee) on my last day in the city. Same table, same first-day coffee spot, but a very different version of me sitting here. This trip has pushed every limit I thought I had and exposed all the places where I cling too tightly to certainty, control, comfort and pace. I share four lessons from the last couple of weeks: Loosen...

This conversation with Sophie Scott felt like a masterclass wrapped in a reality check. She’s one of the few people who can talk about burnout, anxiety, performance and communication without drifting into clichés or soft advice. Her story about hitting the podium, feeling the room spin and realising her nervous system had finally had enough… that lands. It’s the kind of story facilitators rarely a...

This conversation with Jenny Blake was a masterclass in running a business without burying yourself in noise, pressure, and pointless admin. Jenny is one of the few people in the business world who genuinely walks her talk. Her book Free Time isn’t theory, it’s lived experience. Hearing her break down nonlinear breakthroughs, the pressure to niche, the trap of constant productivity, and how she’s...

In this episode of Leanne on Demand, I sit down with Tim just days after he summited Ushba East. He’s still recovering, but he gives me an honest, raw, and vivid look into what it truly took to reach nearly 6,200 meters. From climbing in complete darkness to pushing through sickness, exhaustion, and brutal gradients, Tim shares the reality behind one of the hardest physical and mental challenges o...

I’m tucked into a cozy tea house in Perche while our summit team pushed on to 6,200 meters, and this morning we found out they all made it. Hearing that news after imagining them climbing at 1 am in negative 20 degrees on fixed lines in the dark filled me with so much pride and relief. A few of us stayed back, and with partners and loved ones up there, the waiting felt long. But everyone’s safe, a...