Roll With The Punches

Some of you might relate somewhat to Graeme's story...  He went from seemingly successful in all things business and life, to 'existing' for 5 years on what we call the brink, going toe to toe with the demons of depression. In his earlier career he worked in senior leadership positions with Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, and AT Kearney and then in the year 2000 Graeme went through a 5 year ep...

Food addiction... it's a thing. But we can't quit it cold turkey, we need that sh*t to stay alive.  Is it only sugar that feeds our addiction?  How do can we modify our addictive behaviour? Is my Lindt chocolate consumption killing me?  Dr. Nicole Avena is a research neuroscientist and a pioneer in the field of food addiction. Her seminal research work jump-started a new field of ex...

They call him the real-life wizard of oz… Steve Sims is a lad who know’s how to make shit happen.  He rubs shoulders with some of the biggest names you can think of… Elon Musk, Elton John, Andrea Bocelli… Steve’s the guy who figures out how to make shit happen in life. Like taking people by submarine down to the wreck of the Titanic. Like closing a museum in F...

Did you know you can starve cancer? Well you can... but it's no one size fits all process.  Cancer is sneaky, adaptive and every type of cancer operates differently.  If this topic is of interest then you'll agree that today’s guest is an absolute superstar. Jane is a survivor of not one but two aggressive bouts of metastatic stage four cancer between 1994-2004 of which both were c...

Karen McDermott is a publisher, author, storyteller, mother, warrior and a hell of an inspiration. Karen hit my radar due to a number of my guests having published their books through one of her publishing companies, KMD Books and with a little rummaging around I realised Karen herself would make one hell of a guest herself… so, here ya'll are. EPISODE SPONSOR | MICHAEL BENJAMIN & ASSOCIATES W...

You know him as the crabby judge from Dancing With The Stars, you know him as The Boy From Oz, you know him from Strictly Ballroom, Pricilla Queen of the Desert the musical and to be quite honest I don’t really have time to reel off the rest of his accolades here... Todd McKenney has done a notable thing or two. I often get a little self-conscious before an episode when my guest is well-known... H...

Sometimes it's psychotherapy that delivers us a mental or emotional breakthrough. Sometimes it's some random 'bogan' on a train.  Dare I say this brief encounter with a stranger on a train was the catalyst for Matt Caruana moving beyond his suicide attempt (the one that left him to live life in a wheelchair at 16) and healing the wounds that lead him to believe that ending his life was the an...

What does it take to win in the boxing ring? What does it take to win in life? Hard work? Choices? Commitment? Sacrifice? Dedication? Discomfort? Well, I ask someone who's raised her hand against all sorts of crazy odds and vastly more often than not, came out on top. With over 50 amateur fights and 29 professional bouts there's no denying that 'Shotgun' Shannon O'Connell is one of Australia's ver...

Nic Monteforte has had her fair share of notable success in the health and fitness industry. She’s also emerged from a decade of notable horseshit that life through her way… We talk about the ups and downs and the strategies that got Nic through the thick of it and turned hardship into opportunity. Simple strategies that hack our physiology and thus our emotional system so we can move through the...

Joey is one of only 800-1000 humans to suffer the rare genetic disorder FOPs Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva is a severe, disabling disorder with no current cure or treatment. It is the only known medical condition where one organ system changes into another A gene mutation affects the body's repair mechanism, causing fibrous tissue including muscle, tendons, and ligaments to become ossified...

Marie Nilsson fell 500m down a mountain in Poland. When the rescue team air lifted her limp, lifeless body to safety 4 hours post fall they informed her hiking partner that she would not survive the injuries sustained. These injuries included severe traumatic brain injury, a shattered skull, 15 broken ribs, a fractured neck, shattered collarbone, fractured hip, broken left foot, loss of hearing in...

Ambulance Victoria CEO Tony Walker is back behind the mic with me today to unpack what as been an incredibly big year for Tony, for the paramedics and their families and for Ambulance Victoria as an organisation.  We discuss the challenges that Tony and Ambulance Victoria has stood to face with the increased workload on the people within the organisation, the sacrifices they have made and the...

Buckle up cos I’ve invited the much-loved Dr Bill Saunders back for a second chat. If you haven’t yet listened to our first conversation episode #168 on the show that would be a great place to start though not entirely necessary it does give a lot of context to our discussion today.. or should I say therapy session. This is basically me leaving the door to the therapy lounge slightly ajar for you...

Chris Lemons has been a commercial diver for over 14 years, and currently specialises in deep sea Saturation diving, operating almost exclusively in the Oil and Gas Industry. This highly specialised form of diving involves living in the claustrophobic confines of a decompression chamber for up to 28 days at a time, commuting daily to the sea bed in a diving bell, and working at depths of up to 900...

Mick Harrington belted out a rendition of Somewhere Over The Rainbow that turned the chairs of all four judges 18 seconds into his audition on The Voice 2021. From mowing lawns and punching faces to writing poetry and making it through to the grand final of The Voice, Mick is an incredibly interesting and expressive flannel-wearing country lad and I think you're going to love listening in on our b...

Well, the debut Weekend Workshop episode last week was a hit (phew, thank #%@$ for that hey). And from it came a few points I thought were worth covering in this weeks episode, so here I am giving my two cents worth (for what it's worth) on how to be a brilliant podcast host and interviewer. Now the imposter-syndrome voice in my head wishes to announce that I'm no expert in the space of interviewi...

When we speak, we often focus on our words.. but what story is our 'voice' telling the recipients of these words? Franca Locandro is a voice teacher, singer, pianist, musician and presenter and she has a hell of a lot to say (in a well trained voice) when it comes to these pipes we spend our life communicating with. When I think of a voice coach I think of a vocalist or pop artist aiming to make i...

Named by TIME magazine as one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World,” Dean Karnazes has pushed his body and mind to inconceivable limits. Among his many accomplishments, he has run 50 marathons, in all 50 US states, in 50 consecutive days. He’s run across Death Valley in the middle of summer, and he’s run a marathon to the South Pole. On ten separate occasions he’s run a 200-mile relay...

If you're a parent, planning to be a parent or have ever had a parent then this episode is going to float your boat. I have dubbed Dr Vanessa Lapointe 'The Parent Whisperer'.   Dr Vanessa is one of the world's most respected voices in child psychology. She is also child, a mother, a wife, a best selling author, a world renowned speaker and someone I am incredibly proud to be introducing you t...

Welcome to a new thang I'm taking for a test drive. I'm dubbing it my 'Weekend Workshop' poddy... a little mini workshop where I share some insights, knowledge, coaching, strategies and lessons that will with any luck be of some value to some of you legends tuning into this show. A little on me (for the newbies in the room) Getting 'better' became somewhat of an interest to me with I realised that...

Imagine if funeral crashing was a job!!  Well, for Bill Edgar it actually is. He’s the professional teller of secrets and for 10 grand a pop you can be certain the last word at your funeral is your own. A eulogy for the secrets you don’t wish to take to the grave. Aptly named “The Coffin Confessor” Bill has let the cat out of the bag when the deceased best mate has been hitting on his wife… F...

Vickie Simos, Author of The Boxer Within, discovered her passion at the intersection of psychotherapy and martial arts. A combination which not only dragged Vickie beyond her own self-doubt and self-deprecation but became the platform for which she helps others. A fighter, a lover, a therapist and one hell of a big heart, Vickie and I talk about her own personal experiences before diving deep into...

Leah has been a firefighter for just a whisker short of two decades.  Heck, that's a lot of fires.  But it's not just fires that Leah is fighting now... it's PTSD (or PTSI as many of us prefer to identified it as the 'injury' it is rather than 'disorder') and the invisible chaos that's been building up beneath the surface. It's not the flames that take their toll on firefighters, it's al...

Every conversation I have on this who shapes me and changes me and thus changes the world I live in… perhaps none as consciously and profoundly as the conversation you’re about to listen to. Captain Charlie Plumb is my guest today and it is an honour to be bringing his story to you. In 1967 after 74 successful combat missions over Vietnam, Fighter Pilot Captain Charlie Plumb was shot down in his F...

We are about to get to know one of the most widely recognised voices that (if you’re anything like me) you didn’t  even realise belongs to a real actual human. You’re going to have to bury the hatchet on all your previous arguments with Siri start with a clean slate, right now. Not only is Karen Jacobsen the Australian voice of Siri, but also the majority of GPS navigation software worldwide....