The You Project

Matt Church is like a better version of me. Craig 2.0, perhaps. He is a leadership expert, author of 13 books, founder of Thought Leaders, recognised as one of the best professional speakers on the planet and most importantly, he’s a kind, generous and conscious human who swung the vulnerability door wide open for our chat. At the risk of being presumptuous, I’m guessing that this episode will resonate with many of you. Enjoy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I absolutely loved this chat and loved Anna. Smart. Funny. Fascinating. And super kind. She is the Founder and CEO of Bambuddha Group who believe the power of Kindness is world changing. With a deep commitment for creating equality based on her lived experience, Anna began Bambuddha Group to empower corporate leaders and their teams on how to ‘work kinder’. Anna grew up in a caravan park on the northeast coast of England and is one of five sisters, several of whom have physical and learning disabilities. As a child, Anna spent most of her childhood fighting prejudice and finally went into the care system for a short time before braving the world alone, at the young age of 16. As a neurodiverse gay person, fitting into the various systems in life has always been a challenge. The good news? Anna was lucky enough to have found and understood her ‘why’ from a young age. Early life experiences helped her develop a strong passion for equality and a vision for change. Despite having ADHD and Dyslexia, Anna worked tirelessly putting herself through college, university and a master’s degree. Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John Cantor is an adventurer, thrill-seeker and explorer of human limits, who achieved his long-held dream of traversing the Brooks Range solo; a 1,600 km expedition across Arctic Alaska, considered to be one of the toughest solo expeditions on earth. Almost completely devoid of human presence, this environment is full of grizzly bears, wolves and countless other animals. With no previous experience and only blind self-belief, this young surfer from Noosa Heads set himself a near-impossible goal. There were only four documented solo traverses of the range prior to this, all of whom were Americans. After failing on three successive attempts in three consecutive years, John realised he was banging his head against a brick wall, so he took a year off and adopted a completely different approach to the expedition. He broke it down into little battles and worked on perfecting each element. John finally completed the expedition in 31-and-a-half days, setting a speed record for the traverse. During this time, John also battled chronic knee and back injuries, severe anxiety and huge financial costs, working up to three jobs at a time. John’s expedition was featured on the ABC’s Australian Story. Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ken Mogi is a Japanese neuroscientist, senior researcher at the Sony Computer Science Laboratories and a visiting professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. He has written more than a hundred books (what!) on a range of topics, including brain science, philosophy, history, art, education and linguistics and I loved chatting with him. Apart from being an accomplished academic, author, speaker and media performer, he’s also funny, cheeky and has incredible energy. In this episode, we speak about Ninja and Samurai (types) and it turns out that I’m a Ninja, not a Samurai. More introvert, than extravert. And yes, anecdotal evidence would suggest otherwise. Shy little wallflower that I am. Oh, and in breaking news… Einstein’s first wife (Mrs Einstein) was the smart one. Who knew? Okay, he went alright as well. Not surprisingly, we also chatted about all-things brain, mind, human behaviour and consciousness. And also, Mozart’s sister. Apparently, she was as talented as her brother. Again, who knew? Enjoy.  The Way Of NagomiSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a conversation with Tommy about your past. And mine. And his. We talk about the relationship we have (in the present) with the events, outcomes and experiences of our past. We consider the impact (good and bad) of our historical events. The lessons and insights. The blessings and the damage done. The resultant anxiety and over-thinking. The resilience, awareness and skill gained. We talk about reframing; a different mental representation (or story) of things past. We consider how our past can live (a present-tense verb) in our present. We talk about doing a ‘treasure hunt’ on our past and finally, we each share stories from our past(s) and explore how they impact us now. Enjoy.  vidpod.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Every hundred shows (or so), Melissa, Tiff and I get together to chat about everything and nothing. This episode was part staff meeting, part planning session, part informal catch-up, part human-behaviour workshop and part counselling session. Enjoy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lisa Saygun is one of Australia’s best female bodybuilders and last weekend she won her ‘Pro Card’, in her 51st (!) competition at forty-one years of age. Of course, women’s bodybuilding is not everyone’s ‘cup of tea’ (as Mary would say) but at the very least, this conversation is interesting, eye-opening, educating, funny and towards the end, very inspiring (you’ll know when you get there). Our intended fifty-minute chat turned into an almost two-hour deep dive, so I definitely enjoyed it. Hope you do to.  lisasaygunbodyfit.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lisa Saygun is one of Australia’s best female bodybuilders and last weekend she won her ‘Pro Card’, in her 51st (!) competition at forty-one years of age. Of course, women’s bodybuilding is not everyone’s ‘cup of tea’ (as Mary would say) but at the very least, this conversation is interesting, eye-opening, educating, funny and towards the end, very inspiring (you’ll know when you get there). Our intended fifty-minute chat turned into an almost two-hour deep dive, so I definitely enjoyed it. Hope you do to.  lisasaygunbodyfit.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David Gillespie and I had planned to chat about a particular topic. It didn’t happen. Instead, I ended up opening the David Gillespie door (it needed a little verbal WD-40) to get an insight into what drives and inspires the renowned Author, Lawyer, Researcher and Tech Guy (I just discovered that) to do what he does. Among many fascinating things, I discovered he started a not-for-profit online resource for Australian students (freeschool.org.au), delivering free education (of current curriculums) by exceptional Australian Teachers (35 of them), with over 8,000 lessons available. We also spoke about Universal Basic Income, his parenting style (terrifying), his tech start-up (in the old days), the relationship we have with our job, why he didn’t become a doctor and much more. Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How lucky am I that I get to chat with people like Tony Wheeler who, along with his wife Maureen, created the Lonely Planet guidebook company and spent decades exploring countries, cultures and cuisines. Apart from realising how boring my life is, I loved chatting with this much-loved and world-renowned travel writer. Enjoy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.