inspired energy

In this episode I speak with Dr Rajesh Kumar — an expert in International Business Strategy and Cross-Cultural Management — on the importance of cultural competence in shaping global business success.

Originally from India, Dr Kumar has lived and worked in the United States, U.K., Denmark, France, Finland, Netherlands, and New Zealand. He has developed a deep appreciation and awareness of the importance of the cross-cultural dimension and how it impacts strategy formulation and implementation. He has a Ph.D. degree in International Business from New York University, an MBA from Rutgers University, and a Masters degree in Economics from the University of Delhi. He has published numerous research papers in academic journals and is the coauthor of a book on Doing Business in India which was published by Macmillan in 2005 and International Negotiations in China and India published by Macmillan in 2011. Dr Kumar is also a certified Global Dexterity Trainer and is currently appearing on Leadership Podcasts as a guest where he highlights the importance of managing the cultural dimension for global companies. He also leads training programs for companies engaged in global business.

Rajesh gives some examples of cross cultural mistakes that can be made in business, what we can do about it (hint: it includes building psychological safety), and what it means to be culturally competent. We also discuss curiosity, assumptions and the issue of slowing down, and how all three are linked to cultural openness.

Key highlights:

• When there is an element of exceptionalism, it impacts the ability to learn from others.
• If you're doing business globally, you have to be prepared. Preparation is the key to success.
• A big part of cultural competence is the ability to decode what is going on as opposed to what appears to be going on. What you might see overtly, may not be what's happening internally. There's often a difference.
• People are moving apart with globalisation, rather than coming together. A curious focus on culture helps improve this.
• In international business, you have to look at three important things; culture, history and politics, and the context of the situation.

In this episode I speak with Rupal Patel, an ex-CIA agent turned business owner who helps her audiences leverage the CIA mindset to remake the rules of success.

Called a ‘Power Woman’ by Harper's Bazaar Magazine, Rupal Patel is a sought-after international speaker and business consultant who has spoken in front of thousands. As a sitting CEO, author of From CIA to CEO (Bonnier Books, May 2022), executive advisor, coach and mentor, Rupal helps founders, leaders, and next generation change-makers reset their mindset and make the impossible possible. She brings tools and tips from the top-secret world of the CIA into everyday living and leading.  

After a thrilling career at the CIA, she earned her MBA from London Business School and started her first award-winning business 10 years ago. With motivating stories and truly unique exercises, Rupal helps her audiences leverage the CIA mindset to remake the rules of success and become unstoppable in all aspects of life.

We speak about Rupal's incredible time as an agent in the CIA, our identities as leaders and the societal conditioning around that, and how to separate noise from the signal (your task/mission/goal).

Key episode highlights include:

• Start making small and incremental tweaks so that you can live more authentically, more powerfully and with less friction in your life in every way possible.
• No matter how smart we are, how capable, how well trained, there's always a part of the picture that we just don't have.
• It takes a lot of work to separate your sense of self from what you do.
• It's really important to start developing that skill of knowing what is noise and knowing what is the signal, and then choosing to ignore all of the noise so you can focus on the signal.

In this episode I speak with Chloe Oestreich, who coaches leaders from Fortune 500 companies on how to communicate effectively, be heard and lead with impact.

As a consultant, Chloe equips leaders with the tools and techniques they need to thrive, adapt, present and communicate with impact.
An ICF accredited coach, she specialises in executive developmental coaching, which explores the inner game of the leader. Through coaching, Chloe empowers and stretches curious individuals to step into self-organisation and self-management of their own developmental growth. It is this sense of ownership that helps her clients step into their potential and purpose.

We speak about the four types of listening, why those in leadership positions really need to be adept in self leadership, the components of executive presence and we also explore tweaks to how you show up that can make a big difference in how your message lands with people.

Key episode highlights include...

• How deliberate and connected are you towards your underlying intention? What do you want people to really walk out with?
• Listening is one of the most undervalued skills. It is the most extraordinary gift you can actually offer up to another person.
• Make it easy for people to contribute.
• When we offer up sacred listening, there is no judgement, there is no chatter, there is no evaluation, there is no second guessing there is just pure 'being'.
• Leadership starts with self leadership

In this episode I speak with Shirley Dalton, an author and business mentor who is on a mission to help businesses regain control through the power of their people and their systems.

Shirley Dalton is the creator of the Blueprint For Business Freedom and author of The Loyal Lieutenant: How The Second-In-Command Brings The CEO’s Vision To Life.
Her teachings demonstrate how blending people, processes and possibilities can help business owners create their ideal business lifestyle to avoid burnout and their personal and business lives working against them.

Over 30 years, she has helped thousands of business owners and employees around the world:
- release lifelong limiting beliefs,
- put in place solid systems and procedures, and
- develop and improve their leadership skills.

With a unique set of skills including teaching and psychology degrees, she is on a mission to help even more business owners, leaders and managers to get their businesses under control by growing themselves and their teams to create more money, more time and less stress.

We speak about Shirley's three year travel in a motor home across Australia and navigating relationships in very small spaces, how leaders are able to create psychological safety for their teams, plus the blueprint for business freedom (including Shirley's 3 P's - People, Process and Possibility).

Key episode highlights include:

- Not speaking up is actually the kiss of death for the team.

- It's important to have squabbles within a team, as long as the communication with each person is strong and healthy.

- Have conversations about how you have conversations.

- Assertiveness is getting your needs met but not at another's expense.

- When you're stressed, your limiting beliefs can become magnified.

In this episode I speak with Liz Dingle, an executive mindset coach whose goal it is to help people lead with love rather than lead with fear.

After 20 years of working in senior corporate marketing, Liz decided to follow her heart rather than her head. She realised that limiting beliefs kept her exactly where she was and unknowingly stopped her from doing what she wanted to do in her career. So, with a great marketing career behind her, she put a line in the sand and decided to walk away from it all to start a new career and her own business that would suit who she was and the life she wanted for herself and her two boys.

Liz is a sole parent with two boys aged 10 and 12 and really wanted to be present during their schooling years. She found that her corporate career kept her from doing this and decided to make a big change. But still wanted to be extremely successful and prove to her boys that anything was possible.
This realisation led her to become an executive mindset coach, as it was meaningful and gave her the flexibility she desired.
After 2 and a half years of running her own business, Liz has coached over 60 senior executives and created an incredible network that has inspired others to truly, be their best. She is very proud of what she has achieved, especially as a single mum, through the pandemic and having started with nothing. Liz has also helped people improve themselves and reach their potential.

We speak about setting yourself up for success and how it often comes when your back is up against a wall, how working on just one part of you has a huge flow on effect to all other parts, and Liz offers a great perspective on negativity and how that can bounce back to you in other areas of your life.

Key episode highlights include:What you want is right there in front of you, but you're the one blocking it
- In order to make something different, you have to do something really different.
- Things happen when you draw that line in the sand.
- Own ALL of your stuff when it comes to both positive and negative interactions with people.
- You can't have professional growth without personal development.

In this episode I speak with Kent Weed, a powerhouse producer and director who is also extremely passionate about meditation and the full spectrum of health and wellbeing.

Kent Weed is a multiple Emmy nominated Producer and DGA nominated Director and Co-founder of A.Smith & Co Productions. He has over 25 years of experience in Television in multiple genres, Music, Talk, Game, and Reality including creating formats such as “American Ninja Warrior”, “I Survived a Japanese Game Show. “ and “Hell’s Kitchen”. He has a unique skill of taking niche ideas and creating formats that appeal to broad audiences.

He founded reality television powerhouse A. Smith & Co. Productions with Arthur Smith in 2000 and His career spans 3 decades and He has produced over 150 shows for 45 different networks.

He was an executive producer on all of the company’s projects, including the Emmy and People’s Choice Award-nominated hit shows Hell’s Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, American Ninja Warrior, I Survived a Japanese Game Show, Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura, Full Throttle Saloon, The World According to Paris, Unsung, American Gangster, Pros Vs. Joes, UFC Countdown, The Swan, and Trading Spaces.

In addition to his duties as President and Executive producer, Weed also Directed many of the company’s projects, receiving two Directors Guild of America nominations for Spartan – Ultimate Team Challenge in 2017 and I Survived a Japanese Game Show in 2009, in addition to winning the international Rose d’Or award for Best Reality show in 2009.

We speak about Kent's 20 year partnership in business and how he's been able to maintain that, how he started on the path into wellness and the huge changes he noticed when he started meditating, ultimately leading him to help others in this area by creating the program, Taming Your Monkey Mind.

Key episode highlights include:

• The key to long-standing relationships in business is respect.
• Health and longevity is ultimately a combination of mind, body and soul.
• There's many opportunities for things to go wrong. And if you look at it with a different perspective, you're much more able to deal with those challenges and come up with resolutions.
• You can reprogram your brain, you can reprogram your thoughts through constant repetition and consistency.
• The world is chaos and the universe is chaos, and when you just accept things and surrender to them and deal with them in the moment, rather than try to fight and push back, it's much easier to deal with.
• Have the conversations before you need to have them.

In this episode I speak with Jeff Spahn, a pioneer in leadership forging a new, evolved theory and practice of leading that meets today’s challenges and opportunities.

With more than 20 years at the helm of Leading Leaders Inc., Jeff has drawn on his hands-on research and business leadership expertise to develop a proven process that transforms complexity into innovation and optimal business outcomes. He inspires leaders to move beyond the industrial-age concept of collaboration (aka co-labor), reimagine traditional leadership hierarchies, and embrace an innovative process for leading and following at the same time, in the same action—a seismic shift designed for the unique demands of the digital age.

We explore Jeff's passion for improvisational jazz and the links with leadership. Which includes collaboration, creativity, the balance of structure/flexibility, energy and fun!

We speak about hierarchy in teams and how we can use both hierarchy and equality to our advantage, as well as practical tasks you can do to better know (and lead) yourself, observing your behaviours and showing up better in both business and life.

Key highlights include:

• You still need the hierarchy. But the hierarchy isn't the control. It's there to free the collective flow, the improvisation of the group.
• Brainstorming is like gathering the pieces and then improv is a way of starting to connect them and see what's appearing that we haven't seen before.
• What pieces of this puzzle that we are facing are you holding back right now?
• If everyone brings what they currently think and feel, there's going to be some tension. But if we hold space for that, and allow for the connections, we start to see what this puzzle actually is. And that's the foundation of contemporary innovation.
• Reimagine hierarchy as facilitating collective flow.

In this episode I chat with Dave Robinson, a retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel and author of The Substance of Leadership: A Practical Framework for Effectively Leading a High-Performing Team (Per Capita Publishing, Sept. 2021).

Drawing on Dave’s decades of experience in the military, we cover effective leadership strategies, how to influence the culture, getting people on board, and leading in high-pressure situations.

Robinson is also a senior advisor to Fortune 1000 companies in mission-critical industries such as biotechnology, healthcare, transportation and logistics, energy and more. A former fighter pilot and TOPGUN instructor, David is an expert and international speaker on the subjects of organisational leadership and performance improvement.

In his final assignment in the US military, he was the commanding officer (CEO) of a $12B aviation enterprise where he managed a fleet of 250 jet aircraft and led over 2,500 personnel supporting global operations.

Robinson is the founder and CEO of Vertical Performance Enterprises, which helps executives develop high-performing organisations through effective leadership. The company empowers teams to gain a competitive advantage through proven performance improvement fundamentals. Robinson has guided teams to consistently produce winning results in some of the most complex, uncertain environments in the world.

Prior to founding Vertical Performance Enterprises in 2011, David served in several executive leadership positions in the military in the areas of strategy, operations, logistics, safety, human resources, training and more. While serving as the Director of Air Operations in Iraq, he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for overseeing more than 20,000 combat missions and over 2,000 medical evacuations. As a strategy director for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, David facilitated numerous studies used to develop the Pentagon’s ten-year vision and budget for the Department of Defence.

We discuss what it means to develop a high performing culture within a team or organisation, why strong leadership is vital to organisational success, and we hear about Dave's incredibly inspiring (and hair raising) lessons from the battlefield.

Key episode highlights include...

• Leadership is people centric and management is process centric.
• Trust is the centre of gravity of a high performing culture.
• Being a leader of a high performing team requires the three C's - Character (intention), Competence (action) and Composure (emotion).
• If we are under pressure we may sense the urge to panic, but the key is to maintain that composure because it really sets the tone for how our team responds.
• Tell them what needs to happen but don't micromanage the how.
• 'Do this because I told you so' doesn't work anymore. If you can get people to understand the importance and the why behind what you're asking them to do, that's what gets them on board with the mission.
• First, get them to understand the why, the mission. Then, show them how they can be a direct contributor to that.

In this episode I speak with Ryan Houston, who turned a successful rugby league career into a successful one in real estate. We speak about how to look at your career as a sport, why you need to maintain all three pillars of health and the massive changes happening in the local real estate market.

Ryan is a partner at PRD Newcastle Lake Macquarie, lover of all sports, health and wellbeing conscious and now he's navigating the new world of parenting.
We speak about Ryan's transition from rugby to working with kids in American summer camps, to his journey in real estate and we get a feel for just how passionate he is about Newcastle and all the changes happening here. A must listen-to if you are interested in this stunning place!

Key episode highlights include:

• In real estate you are constantly wrestling every day. And you need to be fit in all three aspects (physically, mentally, emotionally) to ensure that you're going to be the best every single day.
• There's no wealth without health.
• Everything that I learned from the sporting scene has been translated to the real estate or business scene, and I feel like that's why every day I can wake up with great energy, and I can be more proactive than reactive.
• You never know if you don't ask, you never know if you don't do.

In this episode I speak with Mykel Dixon, a speaker, facilitator, author and musician, who brings a unique perspective to how we view leadership and the relationship to our work.

Named Australia’s Breakthrough Speaker of the Year 2018*, Mykel Dixon leads a new wave of entrepreneurial savants showing fortune 500 and ASX 200 listed companies how to stay relevant in a 21st-Century Renaissance.

A jazz musician by trade, gypsy by nature, fierce non-conformist & prolific anti-perfectionist, his live-learning experiences unite teams, ignite creativity and infuse participants with the skills they need to solve complex 21st-century business challenges.

Blending his unique life & business experience, a bias for action and a magnetic stage presence, Mykel’s highly interactive keynotes and conference and event offerings are powerful, poetic and full of possibility. His use of live music, spoken word poetry, visual storytelling and audience participation gives him an unmistakable edge.

In this discussion, Mykel's perspective on music and the arts is interwoven with that of leadership, teams and how we view our work from a technical, relational and also collective standpoint. We speak about self expression, committing to a 50 day project, the importance of context in an experience, and how we can derive inspiration from jazz culture and inject it into the way we do business.

Key episode highlights include:

· There is so much we can take away from the way that musicians improvise and come together, and repurpose that into the world of work and business.

· We need to go beyond the shallow surface, the immediate, this is what it looks like, this is what worked last time. And go deeper.

· If you can bring that active listening and be present to what's emerging in front of you, you'll notice things that otherwise you might have missed.

· It's really important not just to be present, but in that presence to connect with something meaningful.

· The busyness of what people think they have on their plate is actually taking them away from the essence of what the role of a leader is all about. Leadership is about the people. It's being present. It's listening. It's showing up.

· The work itself doesn't matter, it's who we are as we're doing it.

In this episode I speak with Sam Cawthorn, an incredible story-shower and renowned professional speaker whose mission it is to teach people how to master communication for influence.

Sam Cawthorn is the Founder of Speakers Institute Group of Companies and Speakers Tribe and author of 11 books including 4 International Best Sellers. He is both the former Young Australian of the Year and the Edupreneur of the Year.
In 2006 Sam’s life changed forever when he was involved in a major car accident which left him with an amputated right arm and a permanent disability in his right leg. Sam went on to become one of the world’s most in demand global professional speakers. His award winning group of training companies runs events globally, teaching people how to master communication for influence.

We speak about the impact that the last 24 months have had on professional speakers and live events, why we should adopt a bounce forward mindset, what the hero's journey is and how it's structured for maximum impact, and why exactly 'story-showing' trumps storytelling every time. This episode is jam-packed with tips and techniques on how to communicate for positive influence and is a must-listen to.

Key episode highlights include:

• Yes we have these tough times, these crises, these problems, but it's not about going back to where we've been, it's about bouncing forward into what we can become.
• We win people's attention as leaders by giving value. But value is not value unless it addresses the pain point or problem of your target listener.
• In all reality, they don't care about your ideas, they don't care about your message, all they care about is their own pain point and problem. So if you address their pain point and problem, they will gift you their attention. And that's ultimately how we influence other people.
• If I say to you, let me tell you something you versus me saying let me show you something, it lands totally different to the listener.
• The longer you pause, the more intelligent you come across.
• If you want to be a better leader, learn how to emotionally connect. How do you emotionally connect? Be a better story shower.

In this episode I speak with Oscar Trimboli, who is on a quest to create 100 million Deep Listeners in the world. He is an author, host of the Apple Award-winning podcast—Deep Listening and a sought-after keynote speaker. Oscar is passionate about using the gift of listening to bring positive change in workplaces.

Oscar has experienced firsthand the transformational impact leaders and organisations can have when they listen beyond words. He consults to organisations including American Express, AstraZeneca, Cisco, Google, HSBC, Loreal, PwC and Stryker helping chairs, boards, executives and their teams listen to what’s unsaid by the customers and employees.

Oscar lives in Sydney with his wife Jennie, where he helps first-time runners and ocean swimmers conquer their fears and contributes to the cure for cancer as part of Can Too, a cancer research charity.

We speak about some incredible and hard-hitting facts that will make you want to adjust how you show up when other people are speaking, the differences between being a good listener and a deep listener (hint: it's more about what people aren't saying), and where we can and cannot multi-task and why this is the case.

This episode is jam-packed full of tips, but some key highlights include:

• The number one thing to improve listening is to switch off all electronic notifications.
• Technology's amazing, but if you become a slave to it you have no processing capability whatsoever. If you have a device near you, and it's turned on, you have the cognitive processing capacity of an eight year old.
• The shorter your questions, the more effective they are. They're more neutral. And they invite a wider perspective of answer.
• In some cultures, silence is just a sign of wisdom, respect and authority. It's something that's embraced, not pushed away.
• It's not your job to make sense of what they say it's your job to help them make sense of what they're thinking

In this episode I speak with breathwork experts Shane and Angie Saunders of Breathe Me. It is jam-packed full of insight and practical tips to help leaders and their teams become more energised.

Shane and Angie are award winning authors, professional coaches, professional speakers, and hosts of The Breathing Edge Podcast. Their common interest in the art (practice) and science (research) of mind-body psychology and the development of optimal self-regulation during performance under pressure led them to weave together an integrated collection of high-performance learning techniques for reducing stress, working in demanding environments. improving sleep, and stabilizing personal energy.

These techniques include the union of ancient wisdom of the breath with breathing science to lower reactivity, improve focus, and bring the mind and body into balance.

Shane served for 13 years in the Australian Defense Force where he trained military divers, tactical assault experts, and top military performers in mind-body self-regulation science while also assisting them to successfully complete the SAS selection course, which he also completed himself.

Angie is from a high-powered background in the entertainment industry in Hollywood where she worked both in front of the camera (singing, dancing, acting and stunts) and behind the scenes in production, coordinating films where personal high performance was central to her profession.

Shane and Angie joined forces in Australia, not only in marriage but in their professional work where together they built a business, Breathe Me, that helps people experience and implement multi-disciplinary techniques for improving health and performance.

We speak about the physiological effects that breathwork has on the body and mind, some practical techniques that you can implement right now that will help shift your internal state, as well as how something as simple as your breath can affect the energy you bring to meetings and conversations with people. Recently Angie and Shane have been working with the Graduate School of Breathing and Behavioural Science and we talk about this fascinating work too!

Key episode highlights include:

• If your breathing is fragmented and out of rhythm, so will you be in your life.
• It's not just about having a breathwork practice, it's also learning how to have your nervous system regulate itself in the face of changing environments.
• Yes you require oxygen. The other part of the equation is that you also require co2 in order for that oxygen to be transported around the body. And if we have those gases out of balance, that affects the blood pH, which affects neurotransmitters that affects hormone release it affects micro tension in the body.
• The way you breathe will entrain the way other people breathe, and will affect how they're feeling around you.

In this episode I chat with the effervescent Kelley Wacher, whose mission it is to show people a pathway to self awareness, strengths and leadership excellence through behavioural coaching.

Kelley's contribution is to have others find their purpose through managing expectations and limiting beliefs, understanding behaviour and interpersonal communication whilst focusing on strengths building not weakness fixing. This will define a future path and build new cultures, for individuals, teams and leaders.

We discuss engagement tips and how to utilise effective spaces for online meetings, how we can find common threads (and lessons) between parenting and organisational leadership, what empowerment really is, and how to make decisions for the majority of people within your business whilst cultivating compassion for the outliers.

Key episode highlights include:

• You bring value by saving someone time, effort and emotion.
• With trust comes empowerment and with empowerment comes accountability.
• Empowerment is not about a leader giving someone power. It is about allowing them to let their own power out.
• There is so much magic in the combination of strengths and talents and how they work together, not just what they mean standalone. Dive into how they interact together, which is actually what makes you unique.

In this episode I speak with Tim Montague, an absolute powerhouse when it comes to the global transition to clean energy. His passion leans into both the sustainability and economical aspects of clean energy and this episode is a must-listen for anyone who cares for our future.

Tim Montague, M.S., is a solar PV expert, NABCEP PV Technical Sales certified solar professional and host of two podcasts: the Solar Podcast and the Clean Power Hour with co-host John Weaver. Tim is a business development executive for Continental Energy Solutions in Chicago, IL and has been involved with over 40 megawatts of solar projects in the Midwest including portfolios of community solar (3 MW DC), and many commercial, industrial, government, nonprofit and campus clients.

*warning - this podcast contains discussion on teen suicide*

In this episode I chat with Dan Hardie, an experienced teen counsellor and the founder of MyStrengths Australia. He has worked with young people for his entire career and together with the MyStrengths team, have seen over 30,000 teens discover their Strengths and grow to love their own uniqueness.

Dan observed that so many teens know their weaknesses, but how many know their strengths? They would come to Dan with all kinds of negative labels that were damaging their self-esteem and confidence. But he wondered, "What if instead of diagnosing what is wrong, we could diagnose what is right? What if I could shift the self-perception from deficits and weakness to strengths, beauty and uniqueness?" It has had such a dramatic effect on adolescent mental health, self-esteem and identity that this has become Dan's life passion - and it's changing the school landscape for thousands.

We discuss how Dan shifted from diagnosing people's deficits to focusing on positive psychology and strengths. He believes that the next generation of young people are beautiful, talented, self-aware and passionate - and we're here to cheer them, advocate for them, and celebrate each and every one of them. His hope for the future is that every person could say, I like who I am, I've got what it takes and the future is mine to imagine.

Key episode highlights include:

• How can we diagnose what's right with someone?
• There's so much gold in young people.
• Using Strengths, we can find the labels and ideas around a teen's personality that we can celebrate.
• A teen's self perception and their identity is around the labels that we give them and around the insight into 'who am I?' So how can we choose more positive labels?
• Liking themselves is such a critical part of teen formation. And so it's our job to help them discover and like who they are.

In this episode I chat with Mya Joseph, a Spiritual Guide, Shamanic Practitioner and Creator in service of others on their soul journey of uncovering their true nature, and guiding them to create and live a life aligned to their souls purpose.

Mya is also a podcaster and writer dedicated to sharing wisdom teachings and stories from her own soul journey to guide, inspire and encourage others to connect with their own inner wisdom.

This is the episode to listen to when we are just feeling despondent, frustrated or stressed about what's happening right now. We chat about how we are able to come together more effectively as local communities, finding purpose in what we do every day, and go through some practical techniques to help move any heaviness or emotions through and out of the body.

Key episode highlights include:

• This reset is helping people to understand what is important.
• Have a good look at what you really want, and if it is still true for you.
• The narrative is shifting from long term future planning, to how can we get the most out of right now.
• Shift the word 'surrender' to 'allow'. You are allowing the ebbs and flows of this journey to happen.
• From the wise words of Mya's shaman teacher, "nothing is yours, but everything is for you".
• Just doing life, doing exactly what you're doing right now, is your purpose. Find the purpose in what you do every day.
• Inspired energy is bringing our whole selves into an experience.
  

In this episode I speak with Richard Sterry, a major contributor to the Strengths coaching community with a mission to empower others to make a lasting difference. We discuss how to use your Strengths to shape and run your business, his incredible Cascade tool and the benefits of finding your Strengths twin!

Richard Sterry is a trustworthy contributor to the global strengths movement by equipping coaches with practical resources to make a lasting difference in people's lives. He is the founder of Releasing Strengths which is a Gallup Licensed Partner where he is the person behind the popular Cascade strengths reports and the Strengths Twins initiative. Thousands of coaches in over 60 countries benefit from his tools and resources.

Richard lives in the UK and spent most of his early career in IT management. Focusing more on the people, he became a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach in 2015. He is now a major contributor to the Strengths Coaching Community.

His top 5 themes are Individualization, Learner, Relator, Maximizer and Harmony.

This episode is also a must-listen for those with Harmony in their top Strengths - Richard riffs on his definition of Harmony and how to really utilise this Strength to its full advantage.

Key episode highlights include:

• When business is quiet, don't discount the value of building relationships.
• Feed your strengths so that they energise you and fill up your cup - especially when going through a big change in your life.
• If you're working solely in your own business, there's no way you can do everything. Work out what you're good at and what you want to do, and let somebody else do the rest.
• When someone is deflated and burnt out, there's no point going in on an emotional high and expecting people to be with you. It's about sharing their pain, sharing the feelings of how tough it really is. And just help them little step by little step of finding ways forward.
• How can you get those moments for deep thinking? How can you build that into your day or your week?
• Inspired energy is about being true to yourself and fueling that fire within, so then you can make a positive and practical difference to other people.

In this episode I chat with Mark Kentwell, an award-winning founder, thought leader, advisor and entrepreneur specialising in real estate, property development, business systems and property technology sectors. We explore leadership, business, entrepreneurship, mindset, personal growth and a whole lot more!

Mark has started or helped build more than 20 Australian companies and trusts with the majority reaching sector leading positions and growth figures of several times industry benchmarks. He is co-founder of PRD Newcastle, Lake Macquarie & Central Coast Group, which he built from start-up into a very successful 8 figure business.

In 2020 Mark was named Australian Principal of the Year for the third time in the Real Estate Business (REB) Awards, as well as a finalist as Industry Thought Leader of the Year three times. In the same year, Mark was ranked the top real estate agent in the Hunter Region and number 26th in the country out of 40,000 agents (across all brands) in the REB annual Top 100 agents list.

Mark has his own particular leadership style that helps gear a business and its organisation structure around having each individual perform at their highest and best use, meaning spending the majority of their time doing things that they are good at, things that they like and that make their heart sing.

We speak about energy and the dance between input and output, the importance of rituals at the beginning and end of your day, and unpack the Be Do Have model which Mark lives by. Our modernised version of work life balance is discussed as well as systems and procedures, and where to automate or humanise these processes.

Key episode highlights include...

• Your purpose may have an ROI on itself, but if you look at the secondary and tertiary and other ongoing benefits from it, you can have multiplication in almost everything that you do.
• As a leader you always need to remember, what is the best use of my time right now?
• There were processes being done by humans that didn't need to be done by humans. And there were things that weren't being done because the humans didn't have time to do them in a human way. Take the time to review and re-engineer your processes and procedures.
• Legacy is all about living your flow state as you go, in a way that contributes to people beyond your imagination.

In this episode I speak with Dave McKeown, the CEO of Outfield Leadership and author of The Self-Evolved Leader - Elevate Your Focus and Develop Your People in a World That Refuses to Slow Down. Dave helps individuals, teams, and organizations achieve excellence by doing the ordinary things extraordinarily well.

We discuss some super practical tips on how to actually run a meeting through a facilitator's lens, why right now it's important to still be flexing our long term strategic planning muscles, how over-communicating with clarity is essential in times of crisis, and why we need to take stock of the lessons from the last 12 months and make them transferable to other situations.

Key episode highlights include:

• Craft the intention for your meetings. Share the intent behind why you are speaking about something or why it is up for discussion.
• Keep the horizon of focus the same throughout the meeting. It's very hard for folks to switch context.
• Re-engage each other around the core guiding principles of the organization - who are we, who do we serve and why, why would people want to work for us, what sort of an impact do we want to have. This is what can give you some motivation and momentum right now.
• View your meetings as an experience that people are going to go through. See your role as one of designing an experience that gets to the outcome that you need to and in a way that makes people feel good about it.

In this episode I speak with Corinne Noyes, the owner and founder of popular Australian tea brand, Madame Flavour. Corinne speaks regularly at women’s business and industry events, is featured in articles on all things tea, slowing down, meditation, work-life balance; and was selected Telstra Businesswoman of the Year finalist. The success of her business has been in its personal approach, authenticity, and stand for the right to a beautiful experience.

In this episode we unpack how Madame Flavour came to fruition, from Corinne's 20 year career marketing for multinationals to creating tea blends from the spare room of her home, and how her skills were so transferable from one career path to another. Madame Flavour is now a household brand with over 200 million tea pyramids sold through major supermarkets, top hotels and airlines.

We discuss creating mindfulness in your day (and how tea can do that!), the challenges of running a business with an international supply chain during Covid, and also Corinne's passion for Australian native foods after discovering Australian Mountain Pepper growing wild on her South Gippsland property.

Dana’s expertise ranges from Strategic Marketing Advisor, CliftonStrengths Certified Coach, leadership development, living with purpose, and travel. Dana’s industry experience comes from her 25 years at Southwest Airlines in leadership in areas of operations and brand marketing.

Dana has a passion for guiding people to impact the world by focusing on their unique talents which led her to create Dana Williams Co., a consulting company that exists to build tools and experiences helping leaders live in their purpose.

Dana also is the creator of The Strengths Journal™, a daily planning journal to help leaders live in their strengths and dominate their day. In this episode we delve into why Dana created The Strength's Journal, the process behind it, plus we gain some great insight into how to best use it.

Key episode highlights include:

• Focus on the people who are excited about what you're doing. Put your energy there.
• How can you layer Strengths through any project?
• Be open not just about what you know, but also about what you don't know yet. Being upfront can prevent others from making up their own narratives to the story.
• Find your framework. And rinse and repeat.

Renee Giarrusso is a communication, leadership and mindset expert. She is a speaker, author, facilitator, educator and coach who works with leaders, teams and organisations to energise mindset and accelerate communication, collaboration and leadership to lift performance and culture.

Her first book Limitless Leadership in 2016 was soon followed by the Leaders of Influence anthology. This episode with Renee is jam-packed with practical tips as we unpack her new book, The Gift Mindset - Unwrap the 12 gifts to lead and live a life of purpose, connection and contribution.

We explore how to apply the Gift Mindset to both challenging and positive circumstances. Also some of the barriers to living a gift mindset.

Renee's stories throughout this episode are really peppered with some immediately implementable actions so make sure to have a paper and pen handy!

Key episode highlights include:

• What bookend habits can you develop? What is something that you can do that anchor the beginning and end of your working day?
• Don't just confine yourself to one workspace. Change it up according to your mood and tasks being completed.
• Ask yourself, what habits are working for me and which ones do I need to rewrite?
• Don't use success as a secret weapon, share it with others to elevate the whole organisation.
• Try this: when you need a breather from work, open every window in your house, and then shut them again. Not only will it increase oxygen by 200% but it's a great brain break and gets your body moving!

Across this 5-part podcast series, I chat with co-facilitator of Leaders Who Give A Damn, Becky Hammond from Isogo Strong on how to create your success map to learn from 2020 and set your sights for success in 2021. We cover topics such as growth mindset, reflection, goal setting, actions, accountability & partnerships, and word for the year.

In this final episode of the series, we dive into your word of the year - again using the supportive Success Map 2021 resource as we go.
The 'word of the year' concept has been around for a really long time (even as far back as the 1940s) and for good reason! It is an intentional theme, an anchor word, to take you through the year and keep coming back to. But if it hasn't dropped in yet, don't despair! Think of the process of figuring out your word as an invitation, not a pressure.
We end on inviting you to bring your word into each day by asking a reflection question: How am I being *insert word* today?

Key points:

• Let your word of the year just drop in - don't force it
• Your word of the year doesn't necessarily need to be an action-based one - it could convey that you need more space
• Allow your word of the year to inspire you and shift your energy
• Bring your word into daily action via the process of reflection.

Across this 5-part podcast series, I chat with co-facilitator of Leaders Who Give A Damn, Becky Hammond from Isogo Strong on how to create your success map to learn from 2020 and set your sights for success in 2021. We cover topics such as growth mindset, reflection, goal setting, actions, accountability & partnerships, and word for the year.

In this episode, we dive deep into goal setting and walk you through the Success Map 2021 workbook on this.

It's proven that people who set goals are happier, healthier, feel a higher sense of achievement and gain more momentum, self-assurance, and self-esteem. We look at what areas you should consider having goals in, the beauty in being really specific and clear in what you want, and why self-care needs to be in there too.

Key points:

• Have a mixture of smaller goals and stretch goals
• Visualise to enhance your goal clarity
• Being the best version of you should always be on your goal list
• Bring other people on board to help you achieve your goals

Across this 5-part podcast series, I chat with Becky Hammond from Isogo Strong on how to create your success map to learn from 2020 and set your sights for success in 2021. We cover topics such as growth mindset, reflection, goal setting, actions, accountability & partnerships, and word for the year.

In this episode, we dive into the growth mindset.

In this episode, I chat with Bek Smith, founder of Smith and Wellness, speaker and subject matter expert in health and wellbeing. Bek has a background in psychology, spent ten years working as a physiotherapist, is a group fitness instructor of 17 years and was sponsored by Reebok for 5 years in her role as a dance program presenter. She was also the inaugural Lead Trainer for the Wellbeing and Resilience Centre at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, and in 2019 did a TEDx talk on the importance of mental fitness.

This insightful and joyful discussion is full of practical strategies and focuses on the concepts of mental health and mental fitness, and its alignment with general health and fitness concepts that are better understood.  We also delve into how it is useful to balance our mental strength, flexibility and endurance, as focusing too much on any one of these leads to dysfunction.

Key episode highlights include:

• The permission you need to stop and relax, comes from you
• Sometimes the most valuable use of your time is to unplug, but sometimes it’s to actually plugin and get things done, because it will give you a sense of fulfilment and release the emotional baggage
• Allow for there to be space and silence in emotionally heavy conversations
• Don't try to 'fix' someone, instead partner with them to solve a problem
• Start to cultivate a growth mindset around mental fitness
• When you follow what brings you joy, not only does it make you happier but it makes you more productive.

In this episode I chat with Ben Bateman, head of people and culture for Little Miracles Childcare, father, husband and self proclaimed adrenalin chaser. Ben’s professional life has always centred around people development but has spanned many roles, including 8 years as a chaplain at a state high school, 6 years as a youth pastor in Australia and the USA and 10 years of professional development and management in his family run business across 10 locations.

This conversation really focuses on the significant impact that Strengths has had on the Little Miracles business through discovery, awareness and development of staff talents, both personally and professionally. We also delve into Ben’s experience with using the professional development course Transformational Leadership, along with creating his own personal development course Wholehearted, based on work by Brene Brown, Russell Brand, Richard Rohr and others.

Key episode highlights include:

• The overextension of our Strengths can often be our weakness
• Build trust through open communication, kindness, self compassion and empowering others
• Use dialling up and dialling down of Strengths as safe dialogue and a performance tool
• Broken people break people, whole people help bring healing to others
• Linking Strengths, professional development and coaching helps to determine expectation and drive clarity.

In this episode, I chat with Alessandra Edwards. Alessandra is a high performance and wellbeing expert, coach and trainer. Alessandra is passionate about helping leaders understand their own genetic limits so they can achieve their maximum potential and reach exceptional levels of physical and mental performance.

This enlightening chat is packed with deep knowledge on the importance of understanding yourself deeply from a genetic, biochemical and emotional perspective. Our deep dive into genomic wellness goes into how that enables you to be the leader of you and how combining with intrinsic motivation can lead to boundless, self-renewing energy, clarity and the ability to ‘stretch’ time.  We explore how Alessandra's work helps not only A-type achievers (with high dopamine) but all leaders. You will learn how to take advantage of your inner workings and so much more.

Key episode highlights include:

• Identify and create clarity about what you actually want, from more physical energy, more stamina or mental staying power, strength and cognitive ability.
• If we don’t focus on patching up our leaks - energy leaks, resiliency leaks, motivational leaks, compassion leaks - then what are we left with?
• When you’re in a state of complete self-serving, self-love, self-acceptance and self-mastery, you become completely magnetic and access the highest level of personal power.

In this episode I chat with Kristen Ulmer, who is a thought leader on fear and anxiety. Kristen draws from her tenure as the most ‘fearless’ female extreme skier in the world, from intently studying Zen for 16 years and also from facilitating thousands of clients on flow and peak performance.

This chat was a deep dive into the philosophy of fear, how and where it shows it up and how you can respond to it with insightful anecdotes from Kristen's extreme previous life and more recent interpersonal experiences with people whom you would consider ‘fearless’. We also cover exactly why some people struggle with anxiety and others don’t, fear and your flow state, and why calling people fearless sets our society up to live under an impossible ideal.

You will definitely want to take notes on this one! Especially around Kristen’s top three tips to start embracing your fear.

Key episode highlights include:

• If you embrace fear, it just feels like excitement and presence.
• We can’t see what’s really going on in our undercurrent until we raise our antenna (our awareness).
• You cannot have less fear by controlling it. The ONLY way you can have less fear is by taking risks and expanding your comfort zone.
• Your unwillingness to feel fear is actually what’s holding you back - not fear itself.

In this episode, I chat with Jim Collison, a powerhouse Talent Acquisition and CliftonStrengths Community Manager at Gallup.

Jim brings his incredible knowledge of people, podcasting, and purpose to this discussion. He has facilitated and been featured on over 1000 podcasts and generously shares his top tips on the podcast process - including how to make other experts look even better and the keys to being a pro-interviewer.

We also discuss his journey of Strengths discovery, the impact it's had on his relationships, the positives from the pandemic, and how to start being a better leader by shining the light on others.

Key episode highlights include:

• It’s all about the person you’re interviewing, it’s not about you. Make other people the big deal.
• The less the agenda is about you and the more the agenda is about your kids/spouse/team members/employees, the more effective it is.
• When you find the thing that inspires you, boundaries don’t matter. What matters is the flow.
• Strengthening partnerships starts with one simple question: What can I do for you today?

In this episode I chat with Paul Dunlop, who works with organizations to implement change and improvement through lean thinking and methodologies.

Paul brings with him over 20 years of management and manufacturing experience in a broad range of industries, and provides a holistic approach with the pillars of People, Process, Play and Profit.  He’s passionate about the importance of engaging people at the frontlines of organizations and developing servant leaders to facilitate cultures of learning and improvement (i.e. nice places to come to work!).

We discuss the three L’s - Lean, Leadership and LEGO! Paul talks us through why he’s the 'chaos to calm’ guy in the eyes of his clients, how implementing change is always incremental, and why decluttering your business allows you to see where improvements need to be made.

Key highlights include:

• Where can you tighten up your processes so you have time and space to think above the day-to-day processes.
• Lean is a way of thinking. It’s about ownership and empowerment.
• Culture and performance is always a reflection of leadership.
• Implementing change (that sticks!) in organisations is a lot like losing weight. You need to build the structure, the habits and the daily routines, to see the long term changes.

In this episode I chat with Brigette Landy, a passionate recruiter who loves helping businesses solve their people needs.

Celebrating 16 years with Forsythes Recruitment & HR this month, she is passionate about all things recruitment, people, leadership, CX and 90's grunge music. Born and bred in Newcastle, Brig leads a team of niche consultants across the Hunter and Central Coast, specialising in the recruitment of CX, Marketing and Sales professionals. When she's not recruiting, you can usually find Brig hanging out in her backyard with her partner Zac and fur child Evie, listening to music or playing guitar.

We delve into the recruitment world and how that has been affected over the last 6 months, why video is playing a vital role in the recruitment process right now, and how she has developed ways to ‘evidence’ the gut feelings that she gets about placing people into positions.
We also discuss Strengths and why she happily describes herself as an adaptable, positive achiever (can you guess what some of her Top 5 are?!). Knowing her Strengths has enabled Brig to know herself and her team better, and we touch on how they also flow across into dealing with clients and placing candidates in roles.

Key highlights on this episode include:

• Whilst it’s a priority for me, it may not be someone else’s priority
• Expect people to display their emotions (especially in these times) and accept the person where they’re at
• Recruiting in the CX space is not about technical skillset, it’s about behaviour, personality and culture fit.

In this episode I chat with Kirsty McCulloch all about sleep, fatigue and human factors. She literally wakes companies up, and helps employees get enough sleep and arrive at work full of energy to start the day.

Kirsty is a world expert in fatigue risk management. She has worked as an academic, written regulation in several industries, danced through industrial work hour negotiations. She has history with all modes of transportation, oil and gas, mining, military, energy, construction, IT and public service sectors. Kirsty excels at applying scientific methods to develop practical solutions to improve safety, productivity & overall employee wellness.

We discuss sleep and the impact of not getting enough of it - both personally and from a company standpoint.
Sleep has a huge impact on company revenue, safety, and on overall health.

Human factors is another area we delve into - understanding that we all make mistakes and we’re all programmed to be lazy, to conserve energy and do things in the easiest way possible.

Key highlights from this episode include:

• Managing fatigue is about engaging your workforce about what it means to be 'fit for work'
• It’s not just about telling people to sleep, it’s about relearning how to sleep
• How do we create a system that makes it easy to succeed?
• When you’ve been awake for 18 hours, your performance is comparable to having a BAC of 0.05, whereas being awake for 24 hours is comparable to a 0.1 BAC.
• We aren’t taught about the importance of sleep in our overall health picture - we learn about movement and food pyramids but miss that key piece of our wellbeing

And we’ll finish up by including some top sleep tips:

• Sleep in a dark, quiet room
• Remove all technology - turn off your phone at least half an hour before going to bed, don’t fall asleep in front of the tv
• Avoid caffeine within 4 hours of bed
• Avoid alcohol and sleeping tablets
• Train your brain to fall asleep by using ambient music.

Across this 5-part podcast series, I chat with Becky Hammond from Isogo Strong and unpack some common leadership themes that we have seen stand out during this crisis. As we've coached and worked with leaders over the past several months, themes have emerged where the best leaders are thriving and implementing changes to successfully take their team and organisation forward. These themes include Grace & Kindness, Communication, Individualization, Clarity, and Selfcare.

In this episode, we focus on CLARITY. The need for clear conversations to reduce anxiety, stress and clear those murky waters that can often come in times of unpredictability. 

Prioritising clarity brings calmness, expectations, more security and safety about what’s ahead. It allows the opportunity for honesty from both a leadership and a team perspective and reduces the element of surprise.

Key highlights include:

• By communicating clearly and with clarity when it’s business-as-usual, it enhances the team’s communication, productivity and responsiveness when things get murky
• Sometimes clarity needs to come from the bottom up, not just the top down.
• Teams who focus on clarity are often happier and more engaged
• Even if you have no answers to a certain event/situation/project, be open about that. Otherwise people start to create assumptions and stories as to what might happen.

Actionable steps to take from this episode:

• Where can you provide more clarity in ONE space?
• Challenge: at your next team meeting, ask everyone where they need more clarity right now.
• Review: Are the cycle of your meetings matching the rhythms of your work?
• Use a traffic light system for flagging what tasks need more clarity - green is good to go, amber/yellow needs more clarity, and red is something that won’t progress without further conversation.

These conversations with Becky are always valuable, she brings a wealth of knowledge and inspiration from the other side of the world. I hope you follow along with this series here on the podcast as we get into 4 more themes that have shined through the best leaders in this time of lockdown.

If you gained inspiration from this episode then you will love our program, Leaders Who Give a Damn, where we take these concepts even further.

In the next conversation of this series, we will be delving into Self Care and how it is vital for you and your team.

Across this 5-part podcast series, I chat with Becky Hammond from Isogo Strong and unpack some common leadership themes that we have seen stand out during this crisis. As we've coached and worked with leaders over the past several months, themes have emerged where the best leaders are thriving and implementing changes to successfully take their team and organisation forward. These themes include Grace & Kindness, Communication, Individualization, Clarity, and Selfcare.

In this episode, we focus on INDIVIDUALIZATION. The need for tailoring the way we show up for different people, how we communicate with them, and how we can adjust their working life during these times.

Gallup states that the best managers are those who individualize, and during this conversation, Becky and I unpack just how to do that effectively.

Key highlights include:

• People aren’t assets, they’re humans.
  
• Know your people, but have boundaries - leaders aren’t counselors.
  
• Be prepared to adjust your direction once you know where people are at.
  
• If we consider that it takes 21 days to form a new habit, consider that the way your team is currently working - their new habits - have been in place for over 90 days.
  

Actionable steps to take from this episode:

• Ask yourself, are you managing people to a job description?
  
• When deciding which of your workforce works from home and which come to the facility, switch your thinking from ‘who do we need at work’ to ‘who needs to be at home right now’.
  
• If short on time, can you do one-word check ins at the beginning of a meeting? This will give insight into the team member’s headspace, but without them having to go into detail.
  
• Ask your team members, what parts of this new way of working do they want to continue in the future?
  

These conversations with Becky are always valuable, she brings a wealth of knowledge and inspiration from the other side of the world. I hope you follow along with this series here on the podcast as we get into the themes that have shined through the best leaders in this time of lockdown.

Lockdown Leadership | Communication

Lockdown Leadership | Grace & Kindness

In this episode I chat with Michael Fearne, who is the founder of Pivotal Play, a facilitation consultancy in Melbourne, Australia.
Michael specialises in the LEGO® Serious Play® method. He’s worked with companies big and small to tackle business problems and make change happen using a playful approach. He is also a big believer in empowering others and so trains people to run their own playful workshops using the LEGO® Serious Play® Method. When he’s not making people play with LEGO, he enjoys time at home in Australia with his wife Lily and daughter Maya.

During our conversation we unpack what LEGO® Serious Play® actually is and how it helps organisations and its people to open up. We touch on vulnerability, on judgement, and on how to bring the essence of playfulness to everyday tasks through using it as a lens to work through.

Key episode highlights include:

• Playfulness in an organisation opens up whole new ways of thinking.
• When you play, business ego moves to the side and you show up as who you really are.
• Right now we need to build something new, not rebuild what we had.

In this episode I chat with Sharon Hespe, a naturopath who is also known as The Good Gut Girl and who wholeheartedly believes that it is possible to change your life through good gut health.

Sharon is passionate about getting to the cause of her patient's gut problems to ensure that they can be addressed correctly, through testing, diet change, and bespoke herbal medicines and supplements. She knows that gut health plays a major role in how you feel mentally and physically.

During the episode we unpack the differences between food allergies and intolerances, why we are seeing a lot more food intolerances in recent times, common symptoms, and why the best thing you can do for your gut is to find out exactly what’s going on for you - don’t guess, get a test.

We also discuss Strengths (Sharon’s top 5 are Empathy, Deliberative, Responsibility, Consistency, Activator) and her awareness of how her Strengths show up within her particular niche.

Key episode highlights include:

• It becomes easier to listen to the body when it’s not constantly dealing with intolerances.
• The best thing you can do for your body and its immune system during these times, is focus on your gut health.
• Stress is one of the biggest contributing and aggravating factors when it comes to food intolerances.
• With what’s happening in the world we need to adapt not react. We need to build resilience within the body.