What You Will Learn

Naomi Simson is the founder of RedBalloon, a 'shark' on Shark Tank Australia, Australia #1 LinkedIn profile with over 2.4m followers, and the author of the books 'Ready To Soar' and 'Live What You Love'.   In this episode, we talk about:  - The skills you'll learn as a corporate employee  - How employees, no matter their seniority, can contribute something meaningful to customers and to the organi...

Ready To Soar - by Naomi Simson 'Turn your brilliants idea into a business you love'   Naomi Simson is the founder of Red Balloon, a 'shark' on Shark Tank Australia, and Australia's #1 LinkedIn profile with over 2.4 million followers. This book is all about getting started in business, with chapters such as 'the dream' 'the first steps', 'funding' and 'what you need to survive'. Hosted on Aca...

Joel Bakan is the author of the books 'The Corporation' and 'Childhood Under Siege'. The Corporation (the last book we read and reviewed) talks about how the structure of large companies essentially forces them to focus purely on profit and disregard any other obligations or responsibilities they may have to those around them. It was also a documentation (of the same title) and Joel is c...

The Corporation - by Joel Bakan 'The Pathological Pursuit of Power and Profit'   This is another eye-opening book, where the author contends that the structure of companies forces them to be 'psychopaths' by definition: they have no regard for others, they externalise as many costs as they can, the take no responsibility, the feel no guilt or remorse, they lack empathy, the have asocial tende...

We had the privilege of speaking to the King of Productivity, David Allen, author of the cult classic 'Getting Things Done'. He advocates for being stoned - not by smoking weed, but by getting everything out of your head and maximising productivity so you can be present with whatever you are doing. We delve deeper into his system and talk about the futility of 'busyness'. Hosted on Acast. See acas...

Getting Things Done - by David Allen 'The Art of Stress-Free Productivity'   This book as highly regarded as the ultimate guide in efficiency. It is all about, as the title suggests, Getting Things Done. The books provides a full-on system that, once fully implemented, will mean nothing ever gets missed: Capture, Clarify, Organise, Reflect, Engage. Join our mailing list for monthly updates by...

Switch - by Chip & Dan Heath 'How to change things when change is hard'   This is a phenomenal book about creating change, any change at any level. They break it down into three elements: 1. Direct the Rider (make it crystal clear) 2. Motivate the Elephant (strong feelings, a NEED to change) 3. Shape the Path (Make it as easy as possible) The rider can control the elephant for a very...

Influence - by Robert Cialdini 'The Psychology of Persuasion'   An extremely well-respected book that breaks down some of the ways in which we are easily influenced. Cialdini highlights some of the triggers of our 'primitive automaticity' and shows us some ways in which we are being influenced without even realising it. By reading and understanding these concepts, we can choose to use them fo...

'Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career' Reid Hoffman, the cofounder of LinkedIn, offers career advice in a way that views your career trajectory as a business or startup that you need to take control of. Concepts like 'ABZ planning', 'Almost Ready, Aim, Fire, Aim, Fire', 'Pivot as you learn', 'Assessing and Managing Risk' and 'Network Intelligence' were tools usually r...

We spoke to John Perkins, the author of 'The New Confessions of an Economic Hitman'. Just like the book, it was a wild ride. We spoke about what is happening in the world right now and we got pretty deep and pretty real. There's a lot going on around us today and it's probably better to open our eyes a little than go through our day oblivious. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more inform...

This book takes you on a wild ride into the world of 'Economic Hit Men' and how they riddle developing countries with so much crippling debt that they eventually succumb to the demands of the US and give up they power. We read about political leaders being assassinated or coming into 'unfortunate accidents' if they try to resist...  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We got the opportunity to speak to Frans Johansson, the author of The Medici Effect and The Click Moment .  We spoke about both of these books, and our discussion spanned uncertainty, purposeful bets, click moments, doubling down, innovation, and a whole lot more. Frans is an absolute weapon of a bloke and drops some serious gems of wisdom.   Check him out at www.fransjohansson.com or on twitter a...

The Click Moment by Frans Johansson 'Seizing Opportunity in an Unpredictable World'   This is a great business book. The world is random and there are forces out there that make success impossible to predict, so we need to be doing everything we can to harness randomness and use it to our advantage. The famed '10,000 hours rule' works in many cases, but it's essentially irrelevant in the busi...

'A look at 20 world views, faiths and religions'   We didn't really know anything about religion, so we decided to try and find out. This book gives a bit of an overview of the world's major religions and describes their beliefs. Unfortunately, the book isn't an unbiased account of the world as it's written by a devout Christian and thus is seen through the lens of a particular belief. Nevert...

Good to Great - by Jim Collins 'Why some companies make the leap... and why others don't'   ' Good to Great ' is highly regarded as one of the greatest business books and recommended by many of the authors we've interviewed. It's very well structured and analyses companies that went through a prolonged period of being just 'good', then went through a transition phase, then became 'great'...

Chris Guillebeau is the author of 'The $100 Startup', 'Born For This', 'The Happiness of Pursuit', 'The Art of Non-Comformity', and is about to release his brand new book 'Side Hustle'. He hosts the daily podcast 'Side Hustle School' which you can find wherever you're listening to this podcast.  In this conversation, we talk about some of Chris's previous books and then dive into side hustles...

The $100 Startup - by Chris Guillebeau 'Fire your boss, do what you love and work better to live more'   This book gives insight into a whole bunch of businesses that started with very little capital, made a better-than-average income and required no specialised skills or knowledge. It provides a roadmap to how we can do it too. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our interview with Andy Molinsky, the author of 'Reach' and 'Global Dexterity'.  We delve deeper into the ideas of getting outside your comfort zone as we discussed on our previous episode, our review of the best bits of Andy's book Reach . We also talk about Andy's experience of moving to a new country and adjusting to a new culture, as he details in hit book Global Dexterity .  You can check out...

Reach - by Andy Molinsky 'A new strategy to help you step outside your comfort zone, rise to the challenge, and build confidence'   A lot of magic seems to happen outside of our comfort zone. We all need to do things that we don't like doing, and we all need to be prepared to step up and grab opportunities when they are presented. But most people struggle to do things that test their limits....

Finite and Infinite Games - by James P Carse   This book starts with some general definitions of the economics theory of finite and infinite games. Things like finite games having defined rules and players, precise start times, and the way to which a game ends and a winner is declared. Contrast that with the infinite games that are constantly evolving so that they never end.  Honestly, b...

Steve Keen is an Australian-born, British-based economist and author. He looks at the world economy with a different set of metrics that include private debt levels, unlike the mainstream economists (who apparently are all idiots). He is not an optimist on the current state of the global financial economy. In the episode we cover why he thinks the Aussie property market is the biggest bubble in th...

Can We Avoid Another Financial Crisis - by Professor Steve Keen   Through a lot of research, specifically into the levels of private debt, Steve Keen has highlighted a number of countries that are on the brink of financial disaster. He explains why they are in trouble, how they have gotten to this position, and what options they have for trying to get out of the 'danger zone'. Hosted on Acast...

Start With Why - by Simon Sinek 'How great leaders inspire everyone to take action'   'Start With Why' is a great book about a massive mistake a lot of people are making. Simon Sinek's TED Talk, based on the principles in this book, is the third most viewed of all time. Essentially, he argues that people make a fundamental error when they try to sell based on WHAT they do. "People don't buy W...

We speak with the author of 'The Millionaire Fastlane' about his latest book 'Unscripted'. MJ tells us about the "scripts" that have been indoctrinated in all of us - things like lining up in rows at school and asking permission to go to the bathroom, working 5 days a week for a 2 day weekend, working for 50 years and hoping to save enough for retirement... This may not be the most comfortable con...

The Millionaire Fastlane - by MJ DeMarco "Crack the code to wealth and live rich for a lifetime"   This book might be a little uncomfortable to read but it's a serious punch in the face. This isn't for everyone, but if you've got a bit of a sense that the traditional path isn't leading to wealth and happiness, this might be the wakeup call you need. MJ distinguishes between the Sidewalk (sacr...