Life Lessons

Simon Petie is the founder and director of Escalate Consulting, specialists in business resilience. After drifting out of high school and into the arts, Simon unexpectedly found himself joining the Australian Defence Force. Here he learned some critical lessons that turned him from drifter to top performer, seeing him rise up the ranks as an officer and leader in the Army. In this episode we dig d...

Lisa Blair is a remarkable human who won't take no for an answer. She has always set herself huge challenges, figuring out how to complete them later. After a summer job as a hostess on a sailing boat in Australia's Whitsundays, Lisa was captivated by the thought of sailing. Ever curious, she quickly learned more and more about boats and sailing, leading to a course change in her life and...

Matthew Garvey has been providing immigration expertise for 27 years, enabling thousands of people to build new lives in new countries. From starting and scaling a migration business with partners from all 'four corners' of the world, we discuss changes in migration trends over three decades along with the importance of migration to growing economies. Moving country is a huge undertaking....

Chris McGowan is a business founder and creator with a desire to do things differently. Partnering with an A Team of tech innovators, he is focussed on providing heroic tech outcomes for visionary leaders. He is also a podcaster, launching his ThunderCast the same week as this podcast. Seemed like a great reason to talk tech, podcasting and content creation! Join me as I learn why podcasting, and...

Peter Whitlam is an experienced executive leader that has delivered across the full spectrum of IT organisations. He is currently delivering project services for some of the UK's most important government organisations. A resilient leader who has seen it all. The pandemic caught him off guard and during and intense period of work he hit the wall. Finding recovery in walking, Peter challenged h...

Steve Sharp is a highly experienced motivational speaker, known for his infectious energy and authenticity as well as a unique ability to captivate and inspire an audience. Having spent nearly 22 years in both leadership and consulting roles, Steve brings a deep understanding of the importance of corporate culture to optimise performance. And he knows how to get the best from people. Passionate ab...

How can Season 2 be over already? 9 more hours of deep conversations with remarkable people. Josh Edwards; outstanding leader and true podcast supporter, special guests in this episode, helping me review all of Season 2. We pull out our best takeaway lessons and pearls of wisdom and we also establish that Josh gets zero pleasure from listening to me in breweries and distilleries. Thank you for you...

Alethea Mills is a clinical nutritionist with lived experiences, extensive qualifications and a passion for providing proven nutrition advice to her clients. With an internet awash with health, fitness and wellness advisors it can be overwhelming when looking for sound, practical, evidence based advice. Alethea's approach is the antidote to the cookie cutter answers and is focussed on science...

Cara Bradley is a mind-body consultant, entrepreneur, author and menopause performance coach. With decades of high performance coaching experience, applied knowledge of flow states and a business based around age old yoga practices, Cara has created Menopause Inc to provide workplace education to educate and empower women. In this podcast we dive into Cara's experience in high performance coac...

Mark Pratt is the CEO and Founder of Project Partners in the UK; a company dedicated to delivering great projects. With a long history of successfully delivering unimaginably large change programs and projects, Mark has earned the right to provide technical guidance on how to manage projects. What is more insightful is the glimpse into how Mark thinks and the steps he goes through to deliver such...

Philippa Willis is the Director for Queensland at Emanate Technology, an Australia wide technology and transformation business. With a long career in recruitment, Philippa has seen the industry change from purely manual to heavily augmented by technology. Philippa believes the human touch remains strong and is what makes the difference when it comes to applying for roles, or hiring into them. Join...

Luke Ridden is Co Founder and Head Distiller at Granddad Jack's Craft Distillery on the Gold Coast. He is also on a serious transformation journey. Having taken the business from a small still in his kitchen, to a high end distillery tasting room experience delivering award winning spirits, Luke has scaled a steep learning curve. He maintains that passion for learning now, constantly reflectin...

Jodie Cumner is an elite level runner based on the Gold Coast. Through her run coaching business she has coached over 200 people to achieve more from their running. More results, more personal goals, more joy. Jodie's passion for running has seen her achieve numerous results and milestones. Not least her most recent 7 marathons in 7 days in 7 states for the Bravehearts Protect Kids charity. It...

Veronica Llorca-Smith is a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Consultant, Author and Public Speaker. With a successful international corporate career, Veronica found herself locked out of her country of residence when border restrictions increased during the pandemic. Away from her husband, and focussed on caring for her two children, Veronica turned to writing and content production as a way...

Annelies Nijskens fell in love with Australia during a year 11 backpacking adventure. Who could have predicted she would return with her family years later to build an award winning Belgian style brewery in the heart of the Gold Coast. Building a business is a mammoth task in any circumstances. Throw in temporary visas, a pandemic and the necessity to create their first brewery in a double garage...

Colin James is an internationally recognised keynote speaker, executive coach, educator and facilitator. His method of creating outstanding leadership through impactful communication and storytelling has seen him work across 100s of engagements in 34 countries. Colin's early days significantly shaped his attitude and resilience as he left his apartheid controlled South African birthplace and e...

Season 1 is done. It's over. 9 hours of deep conversations with amazing people. In this episode I review the podcasts so far, taking and sharing my key learnings from the guests and my own journey into podcasting. I also share some of my biggest podcast howlers and what not to do. Thank you for all the support. Season 2 starts next week.

Benny Wallington is a remarkable human being able to straddle both the known and lesser known worlds we live in. Able to navigate corporate life one day, and build regenerative businesses the next, Benny is a true box-to-box player on the pitch of life. From a career in advertising to becoming a drinking coach and with a wealth of global travel thrown in, Benny has a unique take on how to get the...

Petra Zink is the founder of impaCCCt and The360TalentCo. For close to ten years Petra has been involved in recruiting talent, growing talent, writing about talent and delivering key note speeches about talent. Petra knows a thing or two about what it takes to be seen within your industry. Too many talented individuals remain invisible with their potential going to waste because they are seen as t...

Georgia Ellis is the founder of Blue Chip Minds and specialises in helping others develop optimal performance mindsets, enabling them to achieve and contribute more. Following a successful career in Financial Services, Georgia came to the realisation that life could offer a lot more. Through the support of close friends she chose to invest in her own personal development, thus starting a chain of...

Chris Mapp had an unexpected career change after sustaining a serious sporting injury. What came next was an accelerated launch into the world of recruitment, resulting in the creation of a business that he now shares with his partner. Building a business is difficult at the best of times but when you throw in a pandemic that effectively stops recruitment across 90% of the country you have to dig...

Jordan Ross has mixed fitness and sport with corporate success for many years. As a sales leader for major financial services organisations he has enabled 1000s of people to achieve their financial goals. As an athlete he has performed at the highest level in Rugby, Ironman, Cycling and now Cross Fit. I think Jordan was born a winner. He disagrees and continues to apply hard work and consistent pr...

Benjamin Knight has pursued various careers as Lead Engagement for AIME, Brand Manager with Orange Sky, professional photographer, youth advocate, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander program facilitator and music press Chief Editor to name a few. He has a passion for community connection and believes marketing and communications should always start with strong storytelling. From working in stree...

Justin Engels is a technology and financial services executive with a passion for life's big questions. A true enthusiast of all things human, Justin is fuelled by curiosity and is the perfect guest to jointly contemplate an AI enhanced future. What does the future hold for human connection, art, music and performance? Should we embrace what is coming with positivity or should we model the ver...

Andy Fell is the founder of GiFT631, a leadership and personal growth business that centres on helping people to achieve their full potential. With a history of achievement as a financial services executive, Andy took his own Rocking Chair Test on his 50th birthday and felt that something was missing. Fast forward to today and Andy has helped countless organisations and individuals to up level the...