Tall Poppy Talk

"Life is constantly evolving and everyone is constantly growing. Preferences are changing, ideas are changing, goal posts are changing" - Nick, SACHI. Nick Chrisp and Will Thomas, the music duo best known as SACHI. From Aotearoa New Zealand SACHI are making moves through the sound waves and across the festival scene, with their Tomorrowland debut in 2022. Balancing life in both LA and NZ, these tw...

"It doesn't really matter the emotion, it is the relationship to the emotion" - Jonah Oliver is a world-class Performance Psychologist. Jonah works with elite athletes, sports teams, national organizations, and leaders. He is an author, executive coach, speaker, consultant, leader, father, and entrepreneur – founding North. He has a refined approach and growing expertise across codes, which has se...

"I'm not going to waste anymore exhausation trying to convince you of something, that I already know" - Camryn Spina, USA Football & D1 Cheerleader. Camryn Spina works for USA Football in the High Performance and National Team Operations. Flag Football has recently been announced as an Olympic sport. This has made for an exciting & intense time for Cam as the entire organization works towa...

"Mental Health affects everything, even down to how you take words" - Jenn Stautz, D1 Athletic Trainer. Jenn's experience in collegiate athletics is extensive with her expertise (so far) covering sports including American Football, Golf, Tennis, Volleyball, Rowing, and now Gymnastics. Her impact on the teams she works with cannot be understated, as attested to by her hundreds - yes hundreds - of p...

"If you're not uncomfortable, you're not growing" - Marius van der Pol. Marius is a true powerhouse that can’t be defined by one sporting code or discipline. Instead, he embodies a larger sense of the overall noun: Athlete. He served with the NZSAS (aka the New Zealand Defence Force Special Forces) in Iraq and the Solomon Islands, he cycled the length of NZ at age 20, all before joining Emirates T...

Cyril Riley is a producer and one of Australia’s fastest growing artists. With over 14-million monthly listeners on Spotify alone and counting. His record ‘Stumblin’ In’ is making global waves and features in some of the biggest playlists, including Hot Hits Australia, Hot Hits Deutschland, and topping the ARIA Australia Single charts. Cyril’s online presence is substantial with well over 535,000...

Dougal Sutherland is a clinical psychologist and the CEO of Umbrella Wellbeing, he is a regular media contributor, and is passionate about training the next generation of clinical psychologists. With over 20+ years working as a clinical psychologist Dougal has traveled the world providing help to bureaucrats and governments, victims of crime, and even people living in unimaginable circumstances wi...

Gaynor Parkin is a clinical psychologist and founder of Button Psychology, she is a co-founder of Terrain, and the founder or Umbrella Wellbeing where she also spent nearly 12-years serving as CEO. Gaynor was one of the first clinical psychologists to focus on mental wellbeing and how it affected productivity, both in our private and work lives. Her vision is to contribute to positive and genuine,...

Mitch McCann is a reporter, a presenter, and the US Correspondent for Newshub NZ. He is living in New York now with his career having taken him all over the world. Covering some of the most major international events in the modern day including the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, natural disasters that shaped societies in New Zealand, Pacific Islands, and Australia; more rece...

Jonathan - Jono - Trenberth is a businessman, content creator, freelancer writer, reality TV star & dog enthusiast. He is the Owner and Director of Pooped, which has seen much success + expansion. This business has become a pillar of his day-to-day purpoe and a source for true, authentic joy. The word Authentic will come up a lot during this korero. Many may of first heard about Jono during Th...

Steph Tan is a Public Health and Regulatory Research Fellow with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Her fascination in public health focuses in using science to develop policy and legal interventions that enhance population health. She has been published in prestigious medical forums, most notably the World Health Organization (WHO) Bulletin and The Lancet, in 2022. As a Legislative Affair...

Jamie Beaton is the CEO and co-founder of Crimson Education, the world’s most successful college admissions consultancy. In 2023 he received the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award. At age 18, Jamie was accepted into 25 of the world’s best universities and clearly decided he wouldn’t limit himself to just one. He took just three years to earn both a bachelor's and masters from Harvard in applied mat...

Julia Vahry is the Founder and Managing Director of Vahry Insurance, an Actress, Former Police Officer, New Zealand’s top female insurance leader 2023, Finalist – The Traitors NZ, and a motivational speaker. As a sworn police officer for nearly a decade, Julia built a strong reputation for being resilient, high energy, and brilliantly insightful. Making her move from the police force to being a bu...

Today we welcome back the highly celebrated and brilliant Performance Psychologist Rod Corban. Rod is the Director at RMC Performance Psychology and a Senior Psychologist with High-Performance Sport New Zealand. With over 30 years of experience as an academic in the field of psychology, and 20 years working in high performance sport New Zealand – Rod truly embodies the balance of theory and practi...

Amy Stevens is the founder of Slice, an educational end-to-end buyers platform that provides financial and legal support for first home buyers. Today we talk about the emotional factors involved in home ownership, and the 'good' or 'bad' reasons to invest. Formally, Amy studied Law and Economics, working in a law firm, before moving into a financial advisor role at the Foreign Exchange. She spent...

As the saying goes, Kelly Kraiss has many feathers to her bow. NCAA D1 coach, advocate, professor, scholar (PhD), and an athlete. Kelly is currently an Assistant Coach with The University of Alabama’s rowing crew and is a part-time professor. We spend a lot of this episode diving into her various passions in life - special education, rowing, advocacy, and family. Her personality is immeditely infe...

Jessie O’Brien is a musician, youth & family worker, NZ Idol & Amazing Race contestant, and father. During this korero, Jessie shares his family motto of " don't live life with what ifs ." This approach to life has led to some pretty incredible opportunities and experiences for Jessie, including competing on New Zealand Idol and The Amazing Race. During the day he works with youth & fa...

Dan Williamson is an Olympic Champion, New Zealand rower, Yale graduate, and a High Impact Athlete (HIA). Becoming an Olympic gold medalist at 21-years-old in the mens eight, Dan has some wild and brilliant stories. He shares about the internal and external pressures experienced during pinnacle events, and why it took him some time to truly accept his accomplishment... about a year in fact, until...

Jennifer Dunne Keeney is an absolute force of nature across many fields. She's a Broadway Performer on NYC classic 'Chicago.' A Visual Artist, Podcaster & student currently earning a Master of Communication and Media at Rutgers University. Within the arts, Jenn has performed in numerous Broadway shows, national tours, international productions, music videos, television appearances such as the...

Lachlan Holt is a kaiako (teacher), activist, content creator, and a student of Aotearoa New Zealand history. Being constantly curious about history, and keen to share his learnings, is what led Lachie to share his journey on social media with the handle aotearoahistory_ . He has swiftly grown his community, embracing this new life of a part-time influencer and full-time educator. During this kore...

Happy Holidays! New episodes with incredible guests are coming out January 11th - in the meantime, here’s a revisit of one of 2023’s most shared episode … season two, episode 25 - Eric Murray!!

Mike Emanuel is the Chief Washington Correspondent for Fox News Channel, joining the network in 1997 as a Los Angeles-based correspondent and also currently serves as a co-anchor of Fox News Live. He has contributed to and covered major moments in history, including FNC’s 2022 Midterm Election coverage, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine where he helmed overnight special coverage, reported live from the...

Koi Love is a 5th year senior at the University of Southern California, living in Los Angeles and making the most of her opportunities in basketball & content creation. Koi made a name for herself on the college courts as a freshman when she made the SEC All-Freshman Team, 2x freshman of the week, and the academic honor roll, and has gone on to be a dominant force ever since. ‘Kickin’ it with...

Angela Strang is a self-made multi-millionaire property investor & real estate developer, with 10 properties and ever-growing ambitions. She was the 2015 NZ landlord of the year, retired at age 34, and is also diving into content creation where she shares her personal + professional advice on a variety of topics, in particular property investment. She is a property mentor with a true ‘rags to...

Reo Sakurano-Thomas, Japan Men's Cricket National team Vice Captain. Reo is instrumental in the national team's rising success & Sano Cricket Club, both as a player and through his work with the Japan Cricket Association. Having debuted on the international stage in October 2022, he has been extremely busy! Reo is an all-rounder, both batting & bowling, having competed in 67 matches and co...