Leadership Odysseys

Mike Erlin on Human Capability, AI, and the Decision That Changed Everything

There is a version of every life that almost happened. The path we were on before we turned, suddenly, toward something we couldn't yet see. Most of us never talk about that fork in the road, or what it cost to walk away from the safe thing. This conversation is about exactly that moment, and what unfolds when you trust it completely.
Mike Erlin is the co-founder and CEO of AbilityMap, a company built to answer a question that followed him across three countries and twenty years: why do organisations keep getting it wrong on people, and why does nobody seem able to fix it? Before any of that, he was a footballer at the University of Oregon, a stranger on a yacht club dock in San Francisco, and a young man standing at a literal crossroads in Salt Lake City.
Highlights
The paper route that funded a household. When Mike's parents divorced in 1975, his mother was left with two boys and no income. At nine years old, Mike was lending her money from his paper route savings — the first lesson in a belief that would define his life: there is no option but to move forward.
Two worlds in one childhood. After the divorce, Mike's mother packed her sons into a Datsun station wagon and drove them to Guanajuato, Mexico, for eighteen months. He lived in a wealthy compound but crossed daily into a poorer part of town to play with friends who had dirt floors — an early, formative lesson in seeing people for who they are, not what they have.
The decision at the crossroads. Mid-route delivering a boat part to Salt Lake City, Mike faced a literal fork: turn one way back to his football team at Oregon, or the other way toward an America's Cup campaign in Australia. He turned toward the unknown — and has carried the guilt of leaving his team behind for years since, even knowing it changed the entire direction of his life.
The full circle nobody could have planned. Mike's America's Cup campaign brought him to Australia, where he met his wife. Decades later, he discovered that the same psychometric science used to help Australia win the Cup in 1983 had been pioneered by the man who would become his AbilityMap co-founder — a connection neither of them saw coming until it was already true.
Building lean, on purpose. AbilityMap ran for four years without sending a single invoice while Mike and his co-founder tested the science. They've taken minimal outside funding, survived a fifty percent revenue drop during COVID, and twenty-one months without income — choosing to do the job right over doing it fast.
Anchor Quotes
"There wasn't some huge spreadsheet that I used to weigh everything. I think I just looked at it and I felt what was going to be — I tend to do this, and it's definitely not always right."
"AI amplifies that which we have. If we have people who are misaligned from a capability standpoint, it's going to amplify that misalignment."
What stays with me from this conversation is how rarely the biggest decisions in our lives come with certainty attached. Mike didn't have a spreadsheet at that crossroads, he had a feeling, and the willingness to live with what it cost. If you're sitting at your own fork in the road right now, I hope this conversation reminds you that clarity often comes after the turn, not before it.
Connect with Mike Erlin: LinkedIn 
Connect with Ability Map: LinkedIn | Website 
Connect with Kirsty Ghahramani (Gee):  LinkedIn |  Instagram | Website
 

Jacqui Bloom: Showing Up

Most of us think reinvention happens in a single, dramatic moment. Jacqui Bloom's story proves otherwise. Hers happened in the kitchen, in hospital corridors, in a car stuck in traffic when she finally admitted she couldn't keep doing what she was doing. Across thirty years and multiple businesses, one question kept finding her: how can I help? This conversation is about what happens when you stop waiting to be ready and start answering it.
Jacqui Bloom started selling shoes at a Melbourne market at eight years old and was running her family's multi-million dollar fabric business by twenty-four. She has since built and lost businesses, walked through profound personal loss, and rebuilt herself into one of the most connected investors in the Australian startup ecosystem. Today she is Head of Investment at Backable and a Non-Executive Director at NASDAQ-listed Mobilicom.
Key Highlights
From the market stall to the boardroom. Jacqui's entrepreneurial instincts started at eight years old, selling shoes at her local market with her cousin. By twenty, she'd turned down a graduate role at a major bank to join her parents' fabric business instead. By twenty-four, she was running it.
The cost of carrying it all. At twenty-four, Bloom Fabrics went into administration. Jacqui talks candidly about what that meant for her father, the responsibility she carried as a young leader, and the perfectionism it left behind, the belief that there was no room to get things wrong.
When grief became the turning point. In the space of a few years, Jacqui lost her brother-in-law to cancer and watched her mother go through the same illness while she was having her own children. She talks openly about what it cost her to keep showing up, and how that experience became the seed of The Helping Hub.
Rebuilding an identity from scratch. Jacqui speaks with rare honesty about her divorce, what it meant to lose a twenty-year relationship and the version of family life she'd planned for her children, and the piece of advice from a school psychologist that changed how she carried herself through it.
Backing the next generation. From founding Shepreneur to building a fund inside Startupbootcamp to her current role at Backable, Jacqui has spent the back half of her career helping founders, particularly women, get access to capital. She shares an unflinching, sometimes provocative view on what is actually holding female founders back.
Two Anchor Quotes
"They decided that showing up was the credential."
"I couldn't ask people, can you come and wash my underwear? And that's where the idea for The Helping Hub was born."
What stays with me from this conversation is how many times Jacqui's life asked her to start again, and how many times she did. Not because it was easy, but because, as she told her own son during her divorce, we always have a choice in how we meet what happens to us. That's the thread running through every chapter of her story. I hope it gives you permission to find yours.
Connect with Jacqui Bloom: LinkedIn 
Connect with Backable: LinkedIn | Website 
Connect with Kirsty Ghahramani (Gee):  LinkedIn |  Instagram | Website

David Mann: Career Reinvention, Stewardship and Why the Path Doesn't Have to Be Linear

David Mann has never had a grand plan. What he has had is a willingness to follow the thread - to say yes to the next opportunity, trust the learning, and keep moving. From auctioneer to NSW Police Officer and court Prosecutor, to commercial lawyer, to 24 years leading billion-dollar consulting operations for Accenture across the UK, Asia Pacific and the Middle East, to CEO of Workplace Giving Australia, to now leading Tour de Cure as its CEO - David's story is one of the most compelling examples of career reinvention and non-linear leadership you will find. In this conversation, he takes us behind the decisions, the discipline, and the quiet conviction that has shaped a life built on purpose, stewardship and trusting the process.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
1. The police force was his first leadership school
Before any boardroom, David Mann spent six years as an NSW Police Officer and court Prosecutor. He credits that time with teaching him the fundamentals of human behaviour - how to read a room, how to negotiate without igniting a situation, and how to understand that people do not all think the same way. He describes the best police as those who can defuse rather than escalate - a philosophy he carried directly into his leadership approach at Accenture and beyond. It is not a background most senior executives share. And it shows in how he leads.
2. He has never had a grand plan - and that was the strategy
David said it plainly in this conversation: he has never had a grand plan. What drove every career decision instead was a simple filter - will this keep me learning and growing? He described his father's question that still shapes how he thinks: what is the point of working 48 weeks of the year in something you do not enjoy, just for four weeks of holiday? For anyone navigating their own non-linear career path, that question is a compass. Career reinvention, David says, is not a crisis. It is a choice.
3. Stewardship is the leadership principle he returns to again and again
After 24 years at Accenture, David left deliberately - not because he had to, but because it had become routine. He recognised that a leader who has stopped being energised is a disservice to the people around them. He described stewardship as making other people successful and then getting out of their way. It is the leadership principle he applied to leaving Accenture, and the one he now applies every day at Tour de Cure. In a world that celebrates holding on, David makes a quiet case for knowing when to let go.
4. Tour de Cure - from bikes to a national cancer research force
David joined the Tour de Cure board in 2014 as a volunteer, and became CEO in October 2024. When he arrived, Tour de Cure was built around one thing: riding. Bike tours were the centrepiece and the identity. Today, riding represents only about 10% of what the organisation does. Over 20,000 of its 25,000 annual participants now come through runs, walks, swims and gala events - a deliberate diversification David helped drive from the board before stepping into the CEO seat. Tour de Cure has funded over 1,300 research projects, contributed to more than 250 world-class medical breakthroughs, and currently sponsors approximately 130 PhD students. David is clear: researchers will find cures for cancer. The only thing that will stop them is lack of funding.
5. Kindness has been a thread through everything
When asked where kindness had shown up across his career, David Mann did not reach for a corporate example. He talked about his parents, his friends, and the people around him who were never just in it for themselves. He describes kindness not as a soft leadership idea but as a practical force - and it is part of why he joined My Acts of Kindness alongside his work at Tour de Cure. For David, leading with kindness and leading seriously are not in tension. They are the same thing.
 
David Mann did not set out to build an impressive career. He set out to keep learning, keep growing, and be around people who were doing the same. The titles and the scale came as a by-product of that orientation - not the other way around. What this conversation leaves you with is something quieter and more useful than career advice: the reminder that the path does not have to be linear to be right, that stewardship matters more than status, and that career reinvention is not something that happens to you. It is something you choose.
 
Connect with David Mann: LinkedIn 
Tour de Cure: LinkedIn | Website 
My Acts of Kindness: Linkedin | Website 
This episode is brought to you by: Cell Wellness Co 
Connect with Kirsty Ghahramani (Gee):  LinkedIn |  Instagram | Website

Dr Kat Page: Why Fixing Work, Not People, Is the Leadership Shift We Need

Organisational psychologist Dr Kat Page has spent two decades researching workplace wellbeing and happiness at work. She is a Leadership Partner at ByMany, Adjunct Professor, and author of Good Work a book that makes the case that burnout is a design problem, not a people problem. In this episode of the Leadership Odysseys podcast, Dr Kat Page and Kirsty Ghahramani (Gee) explore what happiness actually means, how good leadership shapes the conditions people work in, and why designing better work is the most important lever any leader has.
From a Goat Farm to a Life's Work
Kat grew up on a 40-acre property in Benalla, Victoria, a writer from primary school age. When she landed on happiness research at Deakin University at 21, she knew immediately it was what she was meant to do. Two decades of organisational psychology research followed — and a book that needed all of it to be written properly.
"I was just in my happy place, no pun intended, studying happiness."
What Happiness at Work Actually Means
Most people sit between a six and eight on the happiness scale regardless of what happens to them. The deeper form of happiness, flourishing comes from living in alignment with your values and feeling like your life matters. Kat's practical tip for leaders and founders: do a values card sort, rank your top three, and use them to make decisions. At any point in time, she says, there are only three values you can truly live by.
"Happiness is really about having someone to love, something to do, and something to contribute towards."
Why Fixing Work, Not People, Is the Answer to Burnout
The central argument of Good Work is that poorly designed work not a lack of individual resilience is driving the workplace wellbeing and burnout crisis. Kat's Six Cs framework describes what good work looks like in practice: clarity, control, competence, connection, contribution, and care. Each one is a design choice. And each one, when absent, quietly depletes people who are trying to do a good job.
"Work is a social determinant of mental health. Fix work, and you improve outcomes at scale."
The Loneliness Nobody Talks About
Kat admits she has experienced loneliness herself, despite being surrounded by people constantly. In a world of Zoom meetings, Slack messages, and back-to-back calendars, genuine human connection at work is increasingly rare. The antidote, she says drawing on researcher Zach Mercurio's work on mattering, is not more contact — it is the feeling that you matter to someone.
"How rare it is to have someone say: I see you. I see how hard you have been working."
The Me, We, Us Framework for Good Work
Good Work is organised around three layers that every leader can act on. Me is your own energy, recovery, and non-negotiables. We is the space between people — connection, psychological safety, and how leadership is felt in the moments between conversations. Us is the organisational system: culture, work design, and the structures that either protect people or erode them. Knowing which level a problem lives at is the starting point for solving it.
"Good work is not a luxury. It is a design choice and a shared responsibility."
 
This episode of the Leadership Odysseys podcast was recorded 1 May 2025. Good Work by Dr Kat Page is available now in print and audiobook.
Connect with Dr Kat Page: LinkedIn | Website 
ByMany: Linkedin | Website
This episode is brought to you by: Naturally Glutenfree
Connect with Kirsty Ghahramani (Gee):  LinkedIn |  Instagram | Website
 
Mentioned in this episode:
Zach Mercurio — The Power of Mattering
Megan Wright — Spacious Mode
Craig Hassad — Punctuating Your Day
Sir Cary Cooper — Workplace wellbeing researcher and mentor
Amy C. Edmondson — Harvard Business School, endorsed Good Work
Life values card sort — search online for a free version

Stop managing your time. Start leading it. Mridu Parikh on intentional productivity for founders and leaders

Most leaders are good at filling their calendars. Far fewer are intentional about what goes in them. In this episode of Leadership Odysseys, Kirsty Ghahramani (Gee) sits down with Nashville-based productivity coach, speaker, and bestselling author Mridu Parikh, founder of Life Is Organized, to explore why driven, capable people still end the day feeling like they didn't do enough. Mridu shares the single question that replaces every productivity framework you have tried, why white space in your calendar is quietly deceiving you, and how to build systems that protect your focus without sacrificing the life you are building around your work.
 
Episode Highlights
The Closet Was Never the Problem
Mridu began as a professional home organiser, but a pattern kept emerging. She could sort the garage and tidy the pantry, and clients would still come back overwhelmed. The real disorder was not in the spaces. It was in the calendar, the inbox, and the mental load of expectations people had never stopped to question. That shift became the foundation of everything she teaches. The physical and the organisational, she argues, operate by the same logic. If you can organise a cupboard, you can organise your priorities. You just need the right questions.
The Pillow Test
Mridu replaced the Eisenhower Matrix with one question asked at the start of every day: what two to three things will make me feel most successful when my head hits the pillow tonight? The phrasing is precise. It limits scope, grounds decisions in how you will feel rather than what looks urgent right now, and consistently surfaces what you have been avoiding. Those two or three things, she says, are almost always what you are procrastinating. It is also the question at the heart of her recent TEDx talk, How to Stop Feeling Like You Didn't Do Enough, which explores why we can work hard all day and still go to bed feeling like none of it mattered - and how purpose, presence, and relationships all hinge on getting honest about what we are actually working towards.
The White Space Trap
When we see open space between meetings, we believe we have more time than we do. Mridu calls this positivity bias, and high achievers are especially vulnerable. Her fix: schedule the work, not just the delivery. If a proposal is due Friday, Monday needs a block for the outline, Tuesday for team input, Wednesday for the draft. When you fill in those steps honestly, the calendar stops lying, and you stop overcommitting.
Schedule the Distraction
Willpower is not a strategy. We are wired for ease and the dopamine hit of a cleared inbox. Mridu's answer is to schedule distraction deliberately and use a timer without exception. The timer creates an external signal that breaks the pull of the scroll in a way that looking at a clock never will. She also notes that how we communicate our availability trains the people around us. Telling your group chat you will respond tonight removes the pressure, protects your focus, and costs almost nothing.
Purpose Before the To-Do List
When Mridu compares a client's stated priorities to their actual calendar, the gap is almost always startling. Health, strategic growth, family time. None of it on the schedule. Her point is not that people are dishonest. It is that intention without a calendar commitment stays intention. The calendar is not the last step in planning. It is the moment the plan becomes real.
Mridu's work is not about optimisation for its own sake. It is about alignment between the life you say you want and the days you are actually building. Her advice for founders: protect the morning, block strategic thinking, and come to a mutual agreement with your team that internal emails and meetings don't start before 10am - so everyone can protect their highest-value hours, not just the leader. The leaders who create lasting impact, she says, are not the ones who manage their time. They are the ones who lead it.
 
Connect with Mridu Parikh: LinkedIn 
Connect with Life is Organized: LinkedIn | Website 
This episode is brought to you by: Naturally Glutenfree
Connect with Kirsty Gee:  LinkedIn |  Instagram | Website
 

Tane Hunter & Dara Simkin: What It Actually Means to Stay Human While the World Speeds Up

Leadership Podcast | Workplace Culture | Play at Work | Intelligent Optimism | Full Stack Human Book
There is a question that most leaders are quietly asking but rarely say out loud: if I keep doing more, why does something still feel off? Not broken, not lazy, not wrong. Just stretched past the point where effort alone solves anything. This conversation sits right inside that tension. Two thinkers, two very different paths, and one shared conviction that the world has changed faster than the playbook we were handed, and that staying human is not a soft skill. It is the strategy.
The Guests
Tane Hunter grew up an outsider — a blonde-haired nerd in rural New Mexico, raised by a mathematician father and a counsellor mother, who found his footing on a mountain bike and then lost it again to a spinal injury that ended his national champion career. What followed was science, cancer research, sailing solo across the South Pacific, and eventually co-founding Future Crunch, a global platform built on intelligent optimism and the belief that the stories we tell about the world shape the world we build.
Dara Simkin arrived in Australia by winning a camper van competition, fell in love with Melbourne, and built a career from the inside out: coaching, mental health workshops, a summer camp nobody came to, and then the insight that changed everything. Play is not a reward for finishing the work. It is how the work gets done well. She is the founder of Culture Hero and Australia's leading voice on play in the workplace, a late ADHD diagnosis lighting up everything she always knew about herself.
Together, they wrote The Full Stack Human — a book for anyone who refuses to sacrifice their humanity for success.
 
What We Get Into
The myth of discipline and resilience
Dara reframes one of leadership's most overused words. It is not that high-achievers lack discipline or resilience. It is that they are operating beyond their capacity. When you are running on empty, no amount of grit closes the gap. The real question is not how hard you push but where your energy is going and whether you are getting any of it back.
What it takes to rebuild when the thing you love is taken away
Tane's spinal injury did not arrive as a single moment. It arrived slowly, until he could barely walk. He talks honestly about grief, misdiagnosis, and what happens when your identity is wrapped up in something your body can no longer do. His answer was not to power through. It was to go back to his first love: science. That decision changed everything that followed.
The child void, success amnesia, and the addiction to achievement
Dara introduces the concept of the child void — that liminal space between achievements where high-performers feel most lost. She and Tane explore how success amnesia keeps driven people from celebrating anything before chasing the next thing, and why the messy middle is not a problem to be solved but a fertile space to be inhabited. Comprehension, they argue, is what creates compassion.
Why the most dangerous leadership strategy right now is control
In a world moving this fast, risk aversion is itself a risk. Tane and Dara dismantle the lie that seriousness equals success and make the case for the yes-and leader — someone who creates conditions for their people to bring their real thinking, not their polished version of it. Psychological safety is not about being nice. It is about building cultures where people can say this is not working and feel safe doing it.
Play is not the reward. It is the on-ramp.
The most common mistake leaders make with culture is treating play as a treat you get after the real work. Dara makes a different case entirely. Play, in its truest form — curiosity, flexibility, permission to experiment — is what expands capacity. You cannot force a frazzled nervous system to rest. But you can give it an on-ramp. Recovery and rest are not the same thing, and knowing the difference might be the most practical leadership insight in this whole conversation.
Quotes From the Conversation
"It's not resilience or discipline. It's capacity. When we are up to our eyeballs, we have very little capacity to navigate our lives. Where is my energy going, and am I getting it back?"
— Dara Simkin
"Don't treat hope as a noun or a hashtag. Treat it as a verb. Create strong pathways, your people's ability to imagine solutions. And couple it with agency — the belief that those goals can actually be obtained."
— Tane Hunter
A Note From Kirsty
What I keep thinking about after this conversation is how much we have confused being stretched with being strong. Tane and Dara gave me a different frame: that the most human thing a leader can do right now is not grind harder, but genuinely ask where their energy is going — and whether any of it is coming back. That is not softness. That is strategy. And if you have ever crashed on a holiday because your body finally got permission to stop, this one is for you.
Links & Resources Mentioned
The Full Stack Human — Book Website
https://www.culturehero.co/full-stack-human-book
Future Crunch
Tane Hunter's platform exploring the frontiers of science, technology and intelligent optimism.
futurecrunch.com | LinkedIn: Future Crunch
Culture Hero
Dara Simkin's workplace culture and play consultancy.
culturehero.co | LinkedIn: Culture Hero
Connect with Dara: Linkedin 
Connect with Tane: LinkedIn
This episode is brought to you by: Naturally Glutenfree
Connect with Kirsty Gee:  LinkedIn |  Instagram | Website

Jeremy Senior: Building Strong Teams Through Clarity, Not Comfort

What happens when leadership is tested not in theory, but in the moments where everything is on the line?
In this conversation, Jeremy Senior takes us inside the reality of leading in high-pressure, high-stakes environments. From early personal loss to navigating corporate hierarchy, retail collapse, global culture clashes, and burnout, his story is not linear. It is shaped by tension, responsibility, and the quiet decisions that define who you become as a leader.
This is not a conversation about titles or outcomes.
It is about clarity when others stay silent.It is about leading people through uncertainty when the system is bigger than you.And it is about what it costs to keep showing up when performance is public and pressure never switches off.
Jeremy’s odyssey reveals a truth many leaders feel but rarely say.
Leadership is not just about results.It is about how you hold yourself, and others, when things get hard.
Key Highlights
~ Clarity is everythingAcross every role, culture, and company, one principle held true. If people do not understand the why, they disengage, resist, or stay silent. Leadership starts with making things clear, especially when they are uncomfortable.
~ Silence is where businesses breakAt Dick Smith, Jeremy saw what happens when people stop speaking up. The warning signs were there, but fear and culture suppressed them. The result was not just commercial failure, but a leadership failure in communication and trust.
~ The reality of leadership lonelinessAt Samsung, Jeremy experienced something many leaders never admit. Isolation. The higher you go, the fewer people you can speak to honestly. His lesson is simple. Every leader needs someone they trust. Without it, judgment suffers.
~ You cannot lead without radical candourKindness is not about being nice. It is about being honest, with care. Avoiding hard conversations does not protect people. It limits them. The best leaders say what needs to be said and stay to help improve it.
~ Burnout does not arrive loudlyIt builds quietly. For Jeremy, it was only visible when everything stopped. After years of constant pressure, he found himself unable to get out of bed. Not from exhaustion, but from depletion. A reminder that recovery is not optional, it is essential.
Jeremy’s story is not defined by the companies he worked for, but by how he chose to lead within them.
In systems built on hierarchy, pressure, and performance, he chose clarity over politics.He chose conversation over silence.And he chose to stay human in environments that often reward the opposite.
This episode is a reminder that leadership is not about having all the answers.
It is about creating environments where truth can be spoken, people can grow, and clarity replaces confusion.
Because in the end, the strongest leaders are not the loudest.
They are the clearest.
Connect with Jeremy Senior: LinkedIn 
Channel Axis: LinkedIn 
This episode is brought to you by: Naturally Glutenfree
Connect with Kirsty Gee:  LinkedIn |  Instagram | Website

Future-Fit Leadership: Why Most People Aren’t Doing Their Best Work | Cherie Mylordis

There’s a quiet truth sitting inside many workplaces right now.
People are capable.They care.They want to do great work.
But something is off.
In this episode, Cherie Mylordis takes us deep into that tension. From shaping strategy and workforce for the Sydney Olympic Games to leading transformation across some of Australia’s largest organisations, she has spent decades inside complex systems, watching what helps people thrive and what slowly breaks them down.
What she found is confronting.
It’s not that people aren’t capable.It’s that the way we work hasn’t kept up with the world we live in.
This is a conversation about rethinking leadership, rebuilding workplaces, and asking a simple but powerful question:
What if the problem isn’t the people, but the system they are operating in?
Key Highlights
~ Only one person out of 200 leaders said they were doing the best work of their lifeCherie’s global research revealed a hard truth. Most people are constrained by culture, not capability. Even high performers are held back by outdated structures and unclear purpose.
~ The Olympic Games changed everythingWorking on the Sydney Olympics showed what is possible when purpose is clear, hierarchy is removed, and people are trusted. No playbook. No legacy systems. Just collaboration, ownership, and a shared goal that mattered.
~ The modern workplace is still built on a 100-year-old modelCommand-and-control leadership was designed for factories, not thinking humans. Yet many organisations still expect creativity and innovation inside rigid hierarchies. That tension is where disengagement begins.
~ The 3D framework: Dare, Ditch, DialA simple but powerful reset for any team or organisation:
Dare: define a bold purpose people can rally behind
Ditch: remove what slows you down
Dial: increase autonomy, trust, and better ways of working Small shifts here create meaningful change.
~ You don’t need a title to leadLeadership is not a position. It is how you show up.Curiosity, intention, and small daily actions can shift culture more than hierarchy ever will.
This episode stays with you.
Because it challenges something most people accept without question.
Work shouldn’t feel like survival.
It shouldn’t drain your energy, limit your voice, or make you question your value.
And yet, for many people, it does.
Cherie reminds us that there is another way.One built on purpose, trust, and the belief that people are capable of more when given the space to step into it.
Not someday.Now.
And maybe the real shift begins with a simple decision.
To stop waiting for permission.And start leading from where you are.
...
Connect with Cherie Mylordis: LinkedIn | 
Nextgenify: Website | nextgenify academy | Whitepaper
This episode is brought to you by: Cell Wellness Co
Connect with Kirsty Gee:  LinkedIn |  Instagram | Website
 

When Fear Is Real: Mark Mathews on Leadership, Fear, and Performance

There are moments in life where fear arrives without warning.Not the kind you can ignore. The kind that asks something of you.
This episode is not about big waves.It is about leadership when the stakes feel real.
Mark Mathews is an Australian big-wave surfer who built his career in some of the most dangerous conditions on the planet. In that world, hesitation costs oxygen. Ego costs lives. And psychology determines survival.
But what makes this conversation powerful is not the ocean.It is what Mark understands about fear, pressure, and human behaviour.
From near-fatal wipeouts to rebuilding after a career-ending injury, Mark shares what it takes to stay composed, make decisions under pressure, and lead yourself through uncertainty.
Because whether you are leading a team, building a business, or facing a personal challenge, the question is the same.
How do you respond when fear shows up?
Key Highlights
~ Leadership starts with how you handle fearYou cannot think your way out of fear. You build confidence through experience, repetition, and preparation.
~ Preparation changes performance under pressureMark shares how training for worst-case scenarios allows leaders to stay calm and make better decisions when it matters most.
~ Your brain treats business stress like physical dangerWhether it is financial pressure or a critical decision, your mind responds the same way. The answer is not avoidance. It is building skill and clarity.
~ Identity is tested when everything is stripped awayAfter a career-ending injury, Mark was forced to rebuild not just his body, but his sense of self. A powerful lesson for any leader navigating change.
~ Gratitude is a leadership advantageSmall actions can shift perspective, strengthen connection, and improve performance across teams and individuals.
 
Leadership is not built in calm moments.It is revealed under pressure.
This conversation is a reminder that fear is not something to eliminate.It is something to understand.
Through preparation.Through perspective.Through the people around you.
Mark’s story shows that the edge you are standing on is not the problem.It is the opportunity to lead yourself differently.
Connect with Mark Mathews: LinkedIn | Instagram | Website 
This episode is brought to you by: Naturally Glutenfree
Connect with Kirsty Gee:  LinkedIn |  Instagram | Website

From Corporate Career to Industry Leader: Camilla Bullock on Leadership, Trust, and Building the Payments Ecosystem

Some leaders build companies.Others build rooms where progress happens.
Camilla Bullock is one of those rare connectors.
Born in a small working town in Sweden and now CEO and co-founder of the Emerging Payments Association Asia, Camilla sits at the intersection of banks, fintechs, regulators and global innovators shaping how money moves across the Asia-Pacific region. But her story is not about payments. It is about people.
In this conversation, Camilla shares the unexpected path that took her from corporate life at Thomson Reuters to building one of the region’s most influential industry communities. Along the way she speaks openly about impostor syndrome, redundancy during maternity leave, founding an industry body almost by accident, and the quiet leadership required to bring competitors into the same room.
This is a conversation about trust, resilience, and the courage to step forward before you feel ready.
Key Highlights
From a small town in Sweden to the global payments stage
Camilla’s journey began far from boardrooms and industry conferences. Growing up in a small Swedish town, she developed a curiosity about the world early, travelling abroad, studying financial services, and eventually landing in London where a “banana peel moment” dropped her into the world of financial data and markets.
The unexpected lessons of corporate life
Fourteen years inside Thomson Reuters shaped Camilla’s leadership philosophy. Working in sales taught her that influence does not start with pitching a product. It starts with listening deeply and offering value first. Relationships, curiosity and trust became the foundations of everything she built later.
A moment that changed everything
Redundancy during maternity leave, combined with serious health challenges within her family, forced Camilla to pause and reassess her life. Instead of retreating, she chose to give back. For her 40th birthday she raised close to $50,000 for charity by organising eleven community events. In the process she discovered something powerful - when people gather around a shared purpose, extraordinary things happen.
Building an industry community almost by accident
The Emerging Payments Association Asia was never part of a grand master plan. What started as a side project alongside a boutique consultancy quickly grew into a full-time mission. Today the organisation connects banks, fintechs, policymakers and innovators across one of the most complex payment ecosystems in the world.
Camilla’s role is not to be the smartest voice in the room.Her role is to build the room.
Leadership without ego
One of Camilla’s greatest challenges came when her co-founder stepped away from the organisation. Suddenly she had to claim the title of CEO and lead the industry body on her own. It took time and courage to step fully into that role. Her approach since then has remained simple: surround yourself with brilliant people, stay curious, and keep moving forward.
What makes Camilla Bullock’s story compelling is not the scale of the industry she works in. It is the humanity behind how she leads.
Payments may power economies, but progress happens through relationships. Through listening. Through creating spaces where different perspectives can meet without conflict.
Camilla reminds us that leadership does not always begin with confidence. Sometimes it begins with a small step, a willingness to connect people, and the courage to build something meaningful before you know exactly where it will lead.
And often, the most powerful thing a leader can do is simply bring the right people into the room.
Connect with Camilla Bullock: LinkedIn 
Emerging Payments Association Asia: LinkedIn | Website
This episode is brought to you by: Cell Wellness Co
Connect with Kirsty Gee:  LinkedIn |  Instagram | Website