The Truth about Ageing with Rose Herceg

Facilitation with Leanne Hughes

Leanne Hughes is an international facilitator, speaker and coach who loves creating unpredictable workshop experiences, that predictably work. 

She combines her experience in marketing with her education in human resources and psychology, to help leaders create engaging everyday experiences – that are so contagious they scale across teams, functions and regions.

Leanne has facilitated leadership, onboarding and team-development workshops across Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea and Singapore and believes in a strengths-centred approach to learning and development. She has over 13 years’ experience across a range of industries including mining, government and tourism sectors.

She’s the host of the First Time Facilitator podcast and popular Facebook group The Flipchart.

You can connect with Leanne via her website and on LinkedIn.

Listen to this episode via the link above, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or via the podcast app on your smartphone.

What Leanne Hughes and I talked about

• Bias and judgement when you meet someone
• Brené Brown
• True connection – how you turn up
• Having a QLC – Quarter Life Crisis
• Working for Wicked Campers
• Pat Flynn and his DeLorean
• Creating engagement over Zoom
• Books
  • It’s the Manager by Jim Clifton and Jim Harter
  • Pivot by Jenny Blake
  • Million Dollar Consulting by Alan Weiss.

Tech Girls are Superheroes with Dr Jenine Beekheyzen OAM

Dr Jenine Beekhuyzen OAM, is the Founder and CEO of the Tech Girls Movement Foundation and the CEO of Adroit Research. She is a futurist with international recognition for her advocacy and leadership, her research, and her university teaching through which she has impacted tens of thousands of students over the past 18 years. 

Jenine’s vision is to empower others to embrace technology, and to use it to their advantage. She is committed to creating a workforce capable of building the technology of the future and she doing this by mobilising a tribe of next generation leaders who are committed to solving real world problems with technology.

In the past six years at the helm of the Tech Girls Movement Foundation, she has engaged over 8,000 schoolgirls in STEM entrepreneurship across more than 1,000 schools, matched with 1,000+ mentors who have volunteered 7,500+ hours of their time. She has also distributed 80,000+ free Tech Girls Are Superhero books to Australian schools.

You can connect with Jenine on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and through her websites Tech Girls Movement Foundation and Adroit Research.

Listen to this episode via the link above, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or via the podcast app on your smartphone.

What Dr Jenine Beekhuyzen and I talked about:

• STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics
• Community – helping each other 
• working to our strengths 
• being one of few women studying IT 
• Giving girls choices in life 
• Tech Girls Movement Foundation 
• Encouraging all girls to find their superpower / strengths – 
• Being awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) 
• Jenine’s latest book – 5 Things you can do to engage girls in STEM 
• (A) Autonomy (E) Ethos (I) Involvement (O) Otherness (U) Usness 
• Experiment vs Pilot Program 
• digital literacy 
• homeless women over 55 years of age
• Books – The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle.

You can connect with me on  LinkedIn  or  Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #thisconnectedlife and tagging me @melkettle. I’m always happy to hear from listeners, and if you have a guest you would like to nominate or would like to nominate yourself, you can apply here. 

Also, if you enjoyed this podcast, I would love you to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or via the podcast app on your smartphone. If you REALLY loved it, please leave me a rating and review on iTunes. 

Connecting in court with John Cahill

John Cahill is a barrister from Brisbane. He works primarily in the areas of criminal law, family law and regulatory law. 

Prior to going to the Bar, he worked as a solicitor for the Aboriginal Legal Service in Sydney, for the state government in child protection and in corporate regulation at the federal government level. 

In his spare time, he’s a writer, primarily of poorly thought out Facebook updates and Instagram posts but every so often the odd column and web series. He lives in Brisbane and has one child, a 50 kg Labrador called Fred.

You can connect with John on LinkedIn. 

Listen to this episode via the link above, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or via the podcast app on your smartphone.

What John Cahill and I talked about:

• Criminal, Family and Administrative / Regulatory Law 
• Meeting on ABC Brisbane with Kelly Higgins-Devine 
• lawyers are trained to doubt everything 
• lawyers are paid to worry and to think the worst 
• looking for inconsistencies in your opponent’s case 
• a jury is like a small theatre – people can smell blood when things are not going right 
• An interesting start to law – via the Conservatorium of Music
• How journalism and law are similar 
• adrenalin keeps you going when you’re terrified
• anxiety means you have a greater level of care 
• Mentors and imposter syndrome 
• Tik Tok videos during Covid.

You can connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #thisconnectedlife and tagging me @melkettle. I’m always happy to hear from listeners, and if you have a guest you would like to nominate or would like to nominate yourself, you can apply here.

Also, if you enjoyed this podcast, I would love you to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or via the podcast app on your smartphone. If you REALLY loved it, please leave me a rating and review on iTunes. 

Talking tech with Dr Catherine Ball

Associate Professor Catherine Ball is a scientific futurist, speaker, advisor, author, founder, executive producer, executive director, company director and charity patron working across global projects where emerging technologies meet humanitarian, education and environmental needs. 

Catherine also likes to create businesses and champion movements, collaborate with peers, and advise game-changers.

A sought-after voice across the start-up, futurist and tech world, Catherine works globally across a wide range of projects from creating documentaries and world leading conferences and events, to advising on the use of novel approaches (e.g. drones) across environmental and humanitarian projects. 

Catherine is a proponent of community engagement with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), likes to demystify emerging tech and has recently been named as the official 2020 Patron of the Tech Girls Movement Foundation. 

Catherine lives in Queensland with her husband and two sons.

You can connect with Catherine through her website, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. 

Listen to this episode via the link above, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or via the podcast app on your smartphone. 

What Dr Catherine Ball and I talked about:

• Zoom throat – too many zoom calls and meetings 
• Self-care 
• Our mutual love of and obsession with Suncoast Fresh fruit and vegetable boxes 
• Australian Survivor’s Tarzan and his lime farm on the Sunshine Coast 
• Your network is your net worth
• Connection is everything 
• Dr Genevieve Bell at the Australian National University 
• 2020 for World of Drones and Robotics Conference in Brisbane 
• Science communication, science engagement and science empowerment 
• TED Talk – Talk Nerdy to Me by Melissa Marshall
• Feeding our bodies and our brains
• Currently writing 5 books 
• We choose how we consume 
• Girl Geek Academy and Sarah Moran 
• 2020 Patron for Tech Girls Movement Foundation, founded by Dr Jenine Beekhuyzen.

You can connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #thisconnectedlife and tagging me @melkettle. I’m always happy to hear from listeners, and if you have a guest you would like to nominate or would like to nominate yourself, you can apply here. 

Also, if you enjoyed this podcast, I would love you to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or via the podcast app on your smartphone. If you REALLY loved it, please leave me a rating and review on iTunes. 

Loneliness at work

One of the biggest challenges we face in society today is loneliness. 

Even before we were locked down due to coronavirus, loneliness was at epidemic levels, with 1 in 2 Australians saying they are lonely at least once a week.

Feeling disconnected and lonely has the same health risks as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, obesity and high blood pressure. Loneliness also leads to depression and anxiety, which are now the leading cause of long-term sickness absence at work as well as a major cause of presenteeism in the workplace. 

Dr Vivek Murthy, (19th Surgeon General of the United States, from 2014-2017) in his new book Together, describes loneliness as “running like a dark thread through many of the more obvious health issues such as anxiety, depression, violence and addiction”. 

Loneliness isn’t only a problem in our community. It’s also a growing issue in the workplace, at all levels. 

Loneliness at work is something I’ve previously experienced, and I know it’s not only me who has – or is – going through this. 

In this episode I talk about:

• New research from Cigna that shows a clear connection between work and loneliness
• How many CEOs feel lonely in their job and how it hinders their performance
• The correlation between work exhaustion and feeling lonely 
• The impact of loneliness on our cognitive performance, executive function, health and general wellbeing 
• Why leaders need to pay attention to loneliness in the workplace 
• Suggestions to reduce loneliness at work.  

Loneliness is one of the most horrible feelings we can have. What can you do today to reach out to someone who might be feeling lonely? Or, if you’re lonely, what can you do to connect with someone in your world? 

Finally, if you or someone you know needs help, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit Beyond Blue’s website. For crisis assistance, call 000.