The Reinventor's Mindset with Ashton Jones

Halfway through Season 1 of The Reinventor's Mindset, I stepped away from the interview chair and answered the hard questions myself. In this episode I reflect on what's surprised me most about building this project, the moments of self-doubt, what I'd do differently, and the guests I'm still dreaming of having on. And I answer the question I ask every single guest to close: what c...

Dr Corinna Galliano is a researcher at the University of Sydney Business School whose work sits at the intersection of entrepreneurship, paradox theory, and how founders experience the tensions most business schools teach as strategy problems. Born in Italy, trained as a structural civil engineer, then a management consultant - she left everything behind at 35 and started over in Australia. A Vedi...

Mat Keeley grew up on a fifth-generation sheep and wheat farm in rural New South Wales. He didn't finish his exams. He tried to be a professional footballer. Then he spent a decade as a financial planner before co-founding a fintech startup that ended up inside one of the world's largest fund managers. An encounter in Florida left him with a question: would you keep reading a book that keeps telli...

Monty Hamilton co-founded UBank inside NAB, Australia’s first digital bank, then built Belong inside Telstra in just eight weeks, from brief to launch. He has spent his career launching new ventures from inside large organisations and has since led digital transformation at PwC and TELUS Digital across 30+ countries. A conversation about creating space for change, corporate innovation and why prog...

Nicholle Lindner has built a portfolio career across CBA, NAB, Westpac, AT Kearney, Capgemini, Gartner and Unisys. She completed a Masters in AI before it was fashionable and her innovation philosophy is grounded in giving people "room to roam" - think Western Plains, not Taronga. A conversation about portfolio careers, the GFC as a teacher, and why success is a journey, not a ladder. Th...

Gareth Jones built a talent consulting firm, sold it to Mercer , and spun it back out as Revolve Partners . A talented golfer, he treats business like a season: you can't play at 100% every round and expect to be sharp for championship moments. A conversation about growth through subtraction and managing energy for when it counts. This is The Reinventor's Mindset . Let's dive in. Times...

CEO Rob Samuels is 8th generation at Maker's Mark . His grandparents walked away from 160 years of family whiskey to start fresh - then didn't profit for 25 years. Now Rob is pioneering regenerative agriculture, rebuilding soil health while making bourbon. A conversation about legacy, purposeful inefficiency, and why nature is the real maker. This is The Reinventor's Mindset . Let'...

Conversations about transformation with leaders who are still in the arena. The guests here aren't theorists. They're practitioners who've transformed themselves, transformed systems, and know what it costs to do both. Host Ashton Jones grew up in housing commission, learned to swim at 34 to compete in triathlons, and is now a director at Australia's largest wealth manager. He's writing Bold Water...