SHFT POD

Dan and Erin sit down with David and Luke Ridden, the father and son duo behind Granddad Jack’s, one of Australia’s most awarded craft distilleries. They opened on the Gold Coast in 2018 with no distilling experience, inspired by the story of David’s grandfather, a New Zealand born farmer and barber who loved a daily whiskey. It’s an episode full of tears, laughter and some seriously wild stories....

Dan and Erin sit down with Nick Proctor, who went from freight runner to running a $15M-a-year international freight business. It started with a simple idea: ship cars from Australia to New Zealand for less. A $2k website and one viral post turned that side hustle into the main event. They discuss how COVID wiped out most of his revenue overnight, why he hired a head of AI, and some wild freight f...

Dan and Erin sit down with natural health practitioner Holly Mayo to unpack why so many high performers walk around bloated, exhausted and foggy, accepting it as the cost of the job. Holly explains why the stomach is our "second brain," how chronic workplace stress quietly wrecks the gut microbiome, and why hustle culture self-talk ("I have to," "I'm so busy") kee...

Dan and Erin sit down with Daniel Watkins - a three-time world wakeboarding champion, Ski and Wake Hall of Famer, and the entrepreneur behind some of the Gold Coast's biggest waterparks. Daniel takes us right back to the beginning: from being a kid dragging a ski handle around Victoria, to chasing his dream all the way to SeaWorld California, and eventually clinching that first world title aft...

This week, it's just Dan and Erin for an episode all about routines : the ones that actually work, the ones they're still figuring out, and what happens when life throws them off track. They get into the nitty-gritty of their weekly meal prep systems, the boundaries they've set around travel and work (including why saying no might earn you more respect , not less), and the small daily...

Dan and Erin sit down with Charmaine Schembri , one of Australia's most recognised beauty business coaches. Charmaine started hustling at 13 years old by talking her way into a street promo team gig before she was legally allowed to work, and has spent 22 years since then building brands across Australia, New Zealand and the US. We cover her wild origin story (Barbies, garage sales, marbles as...

Dan and Erin sit down with serial entrepreneur Mick Spencer, the founder behind OTG Sports , Gravity Drinks Co and Australia's homegrown agave brand SOLLOS . Mick gets real about the health scares that shaped his mindset early on, and how nearly running out of time taught him that every single day counts. From there he takes us back to the very start: registering his first business for $142 an...

Dan and Erin sit down with Alison Geale, a friend and long-time mentor to Erin, who made one of the biggest career pivots you'll hear on this show — swapping two decades in commercial media leadership for the CEO chair at Bravehearts . They discuss how Alison built her career, starting as a 15-year-old work experience kid at a local radio station and rising to general manager, the "almost...

Dan and Erin love AI, they use it every single day, but this week they're pulling back the curtain on where it actually lets people down. From bland LinkedIn posts, to performance reviews that clearly weren't written by a human, they dig into the difference between using AI as a tool and outsourcing your thinking, your voice, and your leadership to it entirely. Dan shares how he's trai...

Dan and Erin sit down with Katharina Cser-Mostyn, the powerhouse behind Wine Not - the feminine wine brand that started with a Tinder date and ended up on Shark Tank. Kata takes us right back to her network marketing days, unpacking the good, the bad and the genuinely toxic sides of that world. She opens up about the lessons the industry taught her, and expresses gratitude for the lifelong skills...

Dan and Erin are tackling high performance culture this week, and it has nothing to do with ping pong tables and free lunches. They dig into what actually separates a genuinely high-performing team from one that just looks good on the surface, from the energy you feel walking into a business to the way leaders handle things when they go wrong. Along the way they get into some eye-opening stats on...

Dan and Erin sit down for a second episode with Matt Bellgrove from National Custom Compounding to unpack one of the biggest health trends right now: peptides. Matt breaks down what a peptide actually is, how they differ from things like testosterone therapy, and why products like BPC-157, TB-500 and semaglutide have gone from niche biohacking tools to mainstream conversation. They delve into the...

Dan and Erin sit down with Matt Bellgrove, founder and director of National Custom Compounding , for a conversation about one of the biggest shifts happening in modern healthcare. Matt takes us through his journey from growing up in a pharmacy family in country South Australia to building a compounding pharmacy business on the Gold Coast — including the moment he decided to go out on his own, the...

This week, Erin turns the mic on Dan for a deep dive into his story. They cover everything from leaving school at 14 to chase a professional basketball career, to landing his first corporate gig at Coca-Cola at 20, to becoming the youngest ever Sales Manager of the Year at 24. Dan also shares some wild stories from managing vending machines inside Queensland prisons, including one particularly cha...

This week, Dan turns the mic on his co-host, unpacking Erin's story for the first time. From a childhood move from Geelong to Darwin, to leaving school early and working everything from Domino's to a government job, media sales and eventually chasing an entirely different life on super yachts around the world, Erin's path has been anything but predictable. She also opens up about her t...

Dan and Erin sit down with Stephen Woods — founder of Employee Wellness Australia and former professional footballer — to talk about what it really takes to perform at your best without running yourself into the ground. Stephen shares how a colleague's stroke became the wake-up call that shifted his whole career path, and the practical frameworks he now uses to help teams and leaders build genuine...

Burnout is one of those words everyone throws around, but do we actually know what it means? In this episode, Dan and Erin dig into the official definition and break down why it's getting worse, not better, despite all the awareness around it. Spoiler: a ping pong table in the lunch room isn't going to cut it. From stats that'll make you stop and think (73% of full-time workers say wor...

Dan and Erin sit down with Lisa Jones, founder of SHE-com and a powerhouse in the Australian e-commerce and female founder space. Lisa has built and sold multi-million dollar businesses, and now channels everything she's learned into mentoring and empowering women to do the same. Lisa gets refreshingly honest about the messy, unglamorous reality of building product-based businesses — from her...

Dan and Erin sit down with Jade Howcroft, founder of Synergy Boards Australia , to unpack how a chance coffee shop conversation set her on a decade-long career in advisory boards. Jade shares her full journey: from selling real estate at 17, to being told as a young woman she'd never fill a boardroom, to building a national team of 35 and scaling 130 boards across Australia before striking out...

Dan and Erin sit down with Ben Nowlan, co-founder and CEO of Sherpa - one of Australia's leading last-mile delivery and retail fulfilment platforms. Ben shares Sherpa's fascinating origin story, from a Sydney lounge room startup in 2014 to a national logistics technology business serving major retailers across Australia. He unpacks the world of same-day delivery, how Sherpa operates behind...

Erin sits down with Mark Curry, founder of Savvy Beverage - a functional drinks brand built around brain health, focus, and sustainable energy. Mark takes us back to his roots as a commercial lawyer at one of Australia's largest firms, where long hours, toxic culture, and the gap between legal theory and reality slowly pushed him to question everything. His curiosity led him down a rabbit hole...

In this special duo episode, Dan and Erin step back from their guest interviews to reflect on the first 12 episodes of the SHFT POD. They share standout moments and key takeaways from guests, highlighting themes of family, health, authenticity, and the courage to leave corporate comfort zones.  Dan and Erin then deep-dive into leadership - specifically, what makes a truly great leader. They unpack...

Dan and Erin sit down with Cass Champion, founder of My First Job ,  a platform connecting teenagers with real employment opportunities while they're still in school. This conversation covers the gaps young people face when entering the workforce, ranging from lacking basic workplace confidence and communication skills to having no understanding of superannuation or financial literacy.  Cass,...

Dan and Erin sit down with Chloe Ragg, founder of Social Studio Middle East , for an honest conversation about building a business from scratch, navigating major life challenges, and redefining success. From growing up on a Queensland farm to launching a social media agency in Dubai, Chloe shares her journey through risk-taking, resilience, motherhood, and overcoming cancer. Chloe also opens up ab...

Dan sits down with Chrae Tawhai, founder of Envision Energy , to unpack his journey from growing up in Alice Springs to building a 100% First Nations–owned energy business. Chrae shares how he transitioned from the tools into entrepreneurship, the lessons learned from scaling a team, and how a near-fatal accident became the turning point that pushed him to pursue something bigger. Chrae also dives...