People My Dog Would Like

This week I had a chance to speak with Dr David Chong, a brilliant paediatric plastic surgeon at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. David also works tirelessly in the charity space, including with Operation Smile and the Mercy Ships organisation. David commenced his training in Perth then went to North America for three years to further his experience. Over time he’s become a expert in Cleft Lip and Palate plus Craniofacial Surgery, bringing not only his skill but a real care for his patients that’s unique and touching and one I’ve been following for a number of years. I was particularly keen to talk to David about the incredible work he’s been doing with the Mercy Ships. David regularly volunteers his time and expertise on the Mercy Ships, an organisation that brings life saving medical assistance to developing countries irrespective of their socio-economic status. David’s schedule takes him abroad regularly, so I was grateful to meet up, and was surprised to discover just how much time he dedicates to helping the world’s poor, why it’s a priority for him, what led him to do the work he does today, both at home and abroad. I loved hearing more about the people making a difference on the Mercy Ships. It’s such a tactical, progressive model to bring medical care to the world’s poorest. Because over fifty percent of the world’s population lives within 160km of the coast, the charity is able to sail a modern hospital ship with a crew of 400 volunteers directly to people who lack access to first-rate medical care. What struck me the most about our conversation was David’s humility and joy for life. He talked about his upbringing and the challenges he experienced growing up in Perth like the casual racism that was a part of his childhood. David feels he has a lot in common with his patients and says children shouldn’t be judged by what they look like but who they are . So part of his mission is to do what he can, having chosen the profession he has, is to assist as many children as possible who come to him for help. His is a beautiful life. “Why do we assume so much from the way someone looks? And the ability to restore harmony to the face with its resultant effect on the way that life is lived seemed an amazing gift to be able to give.” David has specialised in craniofacial surgery and seeing the before and after photos of patients on his Instagram feed is pretty awesome. Smiles beaming, and usually a story included, about how the surgery has been a game changer for the patient, and a blessing for David. He believes the work he does has given him the opportunity to be invited into an individual and family’s life forever. The stories are always heartwarming, and at a time when there seems to be so much bad news in the world, they are joy to follow. We talk about the value of doing what you love, life changing mentors and the miracles he experiences in his everyday life. It was so brilliant to sit down and find out more about what makes David tick, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Shownotes Royal Melbourne Children’s Hospital Mercy Ships Dr Gary Parker Operation Smile Shenton College Dr Fiona Wood Gordon Baron Hay – paediatric surgeon

This week I had a chance to speak with Adelle MacDonald, Owner and Co-founder of Botanic Baby, a cloth nappy service in offering an ecologically sustainable nappy delivery service in Melbourne Victoria. Now, i’d normally not speak to an owner of a nappy business on the show. However this one is different. This service is the only one providing a service like this in Melbourne, delivering clean cotton nappies/biodegradable nappies in the city. Melbourne has a population of five million people. And only one nappy service using a circular economic model, with only 200 clients? I found that fact alone staggering. We need to do more. Sustainability Victoria report that up to four million disposable nappies are used each day in Australia and New Zealand, each nappy requiring approximately one cup of crude oil to make. 700kg of used disposable diapers go into the landfill per child annually and each nappy is estimated to take up to 500 years to break down. And even then, they only break down to microscopic plastic parts. Two billion, yes that’s right, two billion disposable nappies are being sent to landfill each and every year. Things have to change. At a time when retailers around Australia are charging for single-use plastic bags as customers increasingly voice concerns about excessive plastic packaging, particularly on fruit and vegetables wouldn’t it make sense for the public and supermarkets to target nappies too? Its a huge issue, and one that I think needs more attention in Australia. Can you imagine a world where there is no longer single use disposable plastic nappies? I’d like to think we could get there. MacDonald talks about her business, the hilarity of testing product and the challenges and wins of driving a business model that is light years away from the current take-make-dispose extractive industrial model of our past. There’s a world of opportunity to rethink and redesign the way we make our products. We talk about the need to transition to “decoupling” economic activity from the consumption of our finite resources, which is destroying our environment, and designing waste out of the system. Botanic Baby have partnered with Eenie Designs, who have a patented nappy system that’s a world first and unlike any other ordinary nappies. Together I hope they are on the path to greater sustainability in the nappy ecosystem in Australia. The Ellen MacCarthur Foundation work tirelessly to drive policy change and partnerships using a circular economic model: “Through a change in perspective we can re-design the way our economy works – designing products that can be ‘made to be made again’ and powering the system with renewable energy. We have the opportunity to create long-term resilience, generate new business and economic opportunities and provides environmental and societal benefits.” As an engineer working with DevOps teams, MacDonald is a champion of the no waste model, generating a new kind of business that I hope will...

This week I had a chance to speak with Boyd Cohen, an author and urban strategist focused on the areas of urban innovation, sustainable development, entrepreneurship, smart cities and the Internet of Mobility. He’s lived everywhere, he’s published 3 books (Climate Capitalism, 2011; The Emergence of the Urban Entrepreneur, 2016; Post-capitalist Entrepreneurship, 2017) and speaks regularly in the smart city space globally. Currently based in Barcelona, Boyd co-founded IoMob in 2017, a blockchain startup seeking to decentralize the mobility sector by providing an open protocol for the Internet of Mobility (IoM). It was super interesting drilling down on his current project, IoMob, a tech mobility startup combining open source and blockchain technology to aiming to decentralise mobility. They are talking with significant players in the mobility services sector and are due to beta test in global blockchain mega hub, Singapore, later this year. My biggest take away was the optimism Boyd has that entrepreneurs now have the tools and technology to address some of our intractable urban problems, through collaboration and smart partnerships between city administrators, entrepreneurs, educational institutions, commercial players and civic organisations. Great ideas come and go, but Cohen says if we can work to nail the execution of ideas, encouraged by city leadership, who are in a position to create a framework for entrepreneurs to work with them and other partners, including private, to solve issues such as waste, congestion and climate change, we will go a long way to securing a better future. We talk about the challenges faced by urbanisation, and how these challenges can be met by local entrepreneurs who are now able to tackle current issues by tapping into hubs like FAB Labs, which inhabit cities globally. Fab Labs provide widespread access to modern means for invention. They began as an outreach project from MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA), and has now morphed into a collaborative and global network. All Fab Labs share common tools and processes in order to build a global network which has become a distributed laboratory for research and invention. Machines available to use by any team accessing the Lab include 3-D Printers, laser cutters, milling, scanning and digital sewing machines. Cohen brought up several interesting projects where local entrepreneurs are working collaboratively both locally and globally to solve local problems. His own start up is testament to this, and if successful, will be a game changer in the urban mobility issue. If they pull it off I have a feeling we’ll be hearing a lot more from Cohen in the future. He is also the current Executive Director of the Blockchain Cities Alliance which launched in June 2018. He’s coming to Australia and New Zealand in early September to give a keynote at the Melbourne’s Blockchain Centre, the details of which are in the show notes below. Any one who ones to touch base with Boyd,

This week I had fun speaking with Monica Kang, Founder and CEO of InnovatorsBox® based in Washington DC. For several years Monica has been a powerhouse of a creative educator, transforming today’s workforce through the power of creativity. She’s driven by the belief that everyone is innately creative and that creativity can be used to catalyze personal and professional change. Monica and her company work with some of the most innovative companies in the world, including Facebook, IBM, John’s Hopkins University, Booz Allen Hamilton and Georgetown University to name a few and her work has been awarded across numerous platforms including The White House, Women’s Business Enterprise National Council and Ashoka Changemakers. She also works as an adjunct professor at BAU International University where she teaches entrepreneurship and leadership. We talk about Monica’s upcoming book called “Rethink Creativity: How to Innovate, Inspire and Thrive at Work“ which has already received powerful endorsements from a number of senior leaders. It comes out this September and challenges the reader to access their creativity a little every day to help you transform. I can’t wait. At a time when innovation and strategy are the power metrics for future success, it’s great to drill down on just what some of the tools and activities are that you could apply to be more creative personally and professionally. Gallup estimates that actively disengaged employees cost the US up to $605 billion each year in lost productivity. In 2016 87% of the workforce survey said they felt disengaged at work. In Australia the percentage is similar. I know myself feeling disengaged at work is a serious drain on my productivity and ability to come up with new ideas. The stats indicate It’s a problem of epic proportions so I was pleased to spend some time talking with Monica, a game changer in our transitioning, fast paced economy, who shared some powerful tips on tapping into your creative self and why it’s becoming more and more important to do it. I was astounded Monica had been a nuclear nonproliferation policy expert in the past, yes that’s right…… so I was intrigued how she flipped her career and moved towards helping professionals be more creative. She’s experienced how transformative the power of creativity can have in a life when we take the courage to be more creative each day. She will share just what she went through before she started InnovatorsBox®. So much of what we talked about resonated with me, I really hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did. Laters! Show Notes: Monica’s contact: LinkedIn: Monica Kang Twitter: @monicahkang Rethink Creativity: How to Innovate, Inspire and Thrive at Work InnovatorsBox®

This week I had the BEST time catching up with Genevieve Leveille, Founder and CEO of Agriledger. Agriledger is a social impact startup creating crypto ledger and mobile technology solutions for agricultural providers globally. Genevieve is also Co-Chair of the UK’s Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) working group. She’s an ex-banker and identity management professional, she has been a major change agent throughout her career and as such has super useful insights on how DLT can solve current problems in both agriculture but throughout other industries. In our chat Genevieve talks about how important it is to get your head around the language of new technologies as a first step to learning more and to potentially be a dynamic player in the new economy, irrespective of the industry you’ve come from or what skills you have. AI, the Internet of Things, blockchain technology and a tokenised market will have a huge impact on our culture and economy, the way we interact and the way we transact. So we both talk about the value in learning as much as you can about it, to participate and also to invest. A couple of useful examples were discussed to explain how it will apply in our daily lives, and where there are live applications of it globally. It was really interesting to hear about new innovative models were being applied in the agri industry, ultimately improving the producers’ liquidity, thereby creating more resilient, sustainable businesses on the supply side and transparency and legitimacy for customers across the supply chain. What I loved about our conversation was the pragmatic way Genevieve explains the tech. It’s well reported that farmers can suffer dire outcomes due to the inflexibility of traditional financial/banking lending cycles. Potentially, through companies like Agriledger, farmers will be in a position to generate income through the creation of their own futures market providing great liquidity when they need it most. Having worked in the banking sector for many years, I found it really interesting to hear Genevieve’s take on the future of finance in the the economy, and explains why she feels they will still have a major role to play. And brokers too. We talk partnerships, the 4th industrial revolution, husbands who support us and so much more. Unfortunately my cat Alfie cut the conversation short, I’m really going to have to put the animals away….. such a distraction

This week I had a chance to chat with Jennifer Sertl, an internationally recognized influencer in social media. She is President and Founder of Agility3R, a leadership development company dedicated to strengthening strategic skills and helping leaders become more resilient and responsive and she’s a respected thought leader in the emerging field of corporate consciousness. Such a joy having her on the show. We talked about a few things that excited us and troubled us. Jennifer shared some insights that were big take aways for me. “Our issue today is not information overload….it is filter failure.” So true. “Life is a blood sport and truth telling is hard.” “You are not a node, you are a frequency.” I just love her leadership framework using your ‘Elite 18’: “Every single person has a leadership model. They just need to be asked their elite 18 are and from there create their leadership model – if they emulate who they admire they will actually act in a way conducive to progress, collaboration, and be their personal best.” It made so much sense – it really blew me away. Jennifer even worked on me during our chat. A value I hold dear is generosity – and it was so uplifting to drill down on what to do with that quality – exploring what journaling and expressing being generous every week could do to enhance my life, my relationships, my work and my ability to lead. Pretty inspiring and made me think of how much I could achieve if I started to apply this kind of practice in my life. Really cool. We talk about her own elite 18. She includes Elinor Ostrom in it who’s acclaimed work outlines brilliant frames for organizing commons. Jennifer’s ‘capacity model’ is brilliant too. She’s impeccable in how she uses her ‘wattage’. Honestly, this woman is on fire. So many people she mentioned in our chat, I am going to spend some time myself learning more about who they are and what makes them part of her story and world. It would be worth it. I love how she feels the work I’m doing is “the compassionate use of wisdom at scale.” Honestly, Jennifer needs to move into branding, she’s sharp and characterises so fast its breathtaking. We talk about the tokenised world, even down to Mark Pesce and his PAT token – a wild idea, but one that sounded feasible. Super interesting. She threw it out there that if David Bowie was still around she was sure he would have tokenised himself in much the same manner. And we all know how ahead of his time Bowie was. God I loved that man. Love her ‘reading model’ – she says choose books across all genres – business, philosophy, history, fiction/poetry – shake it up but make sure you read one book a month and stay diverse to keep interested and open. Sage advice. So loved having Jenn (yeah I’m feeling she’s a soul mate already) on the show, speaking to people like her restores my faith in humanity. She’s a good one, doing good things, Hope you enjoy the show! Show Notes Best way to connect with Jennifer is twitter Here’s a David Bowie post about token...

This week I had the opportunity to sit down and speak with Dr Nicole Lee. Dr Lee is an expert in alcohol and other drug treatment and policy. She is Director at Australia’s leading alcohol and other drug specialist consultancy, 360Edge,

Wow, what a crazy few weeks I’ve had. I recently found out I had cancer (BCC) and as the situation unfolded I was told I needed to go under the knife asap – so I did – not pretty

This week I had the chance to sit down and have a chat with Jan Owen, CEO of the Foundation for Young Australians. We talk the future of work, education, dogs, cats, and have a laugh. A remarkable woman, doing pioneering work with youth in Australia and globally. We talk about her lifelong passion for young people and their vast potential and creativity and her desire to tinker with the current education system and economy so we can pivot into a smarter, sustainable world with better social outcomes – a generative, compassionate and fulfilling world that young people want and need and ultimately what society needs too. FYA has the largest platform for young australian’s to advocate for their needs in the country. 150,000 members. We talk about her background in social enterprise and the future of work – how the it’s the WAY of learning that will change. She talks of the future and that there will be a new arrangement between employers, employees and educational institutions. Powerful stuff. Loved hearing about the FYA program $20 Boss – in schools now – providing a new way of learning which is so needed – “You may do a digital platform one year, a service provision into the community in another year. You might do an online advocacy campaign the next year. You learn A LOT of skills. A school in Christmas Island set up 25 businesses in one term.” Seriously cool. So whether its young people interested in social entrepreneurship to solve local problems (including naming a few bright sparks, although admittedly she said they are all pretty amazing) or young people setting up business through the $20 Boss program, FYA’s work and the platforms and programs they are building to support our next generation of learners, scientists and entrepreneurs are gaining huge momentum and will have an impact on education and young people’s relationship with work and how they engage with their learning. She encourages our youth to get their degree or diploma, get into a ‘cluster’ they are interested in and start working a way through that. FYA’s research has found there’s up to 13 other jobs available in front of them that have the same skills and capabilities needed for the job they have gone into. A liberating thought. Jan Owen is relentlessly optimistic about our youth, but more than anything, deeply committed to work out what society can do to support, assist, and GET OUT OF THEIR WAY (regulation can you hear us?) – to actually enable them to create the world THEY want to live in. Because all their thinking, all their smarts and all the skills and capabilities they have in spades will be for naught if we don’t support them by rethinking learning to create more opportunity for them to succeed. And when they succeed, we all succeed. We talk about so much, this is just a smattering of our chat. Enjoy! Show Notes Lifeline International Women’s Development Agency Inspire Foundation School for Social Entrepreneurs Social Ventures Australia CREATE Foundation Young Social Pioneers Lucinda Hartley UN – Habitat Advisory Board Chris Raine

This week I had the chance to speak with Dr Jemma Green, Co-Founder and Chair of Power Ledger, a Perth based blockchain energy trading company. It was really interesting to hear Jemma’s journey from Perth to London and back to Perth to ultimately form ...

This week I had the opportunity to post my conversation with Greg Bernarda, co-author of Value Proposition Design, where I would go so far as to say there is a copy of on every successful company’s desk. Greg now works with individuals, teams and organizations on strategy, creativity and innovation. His call is to work collaboratively to design a future that employees, customers, and communities can all recognize as their own. He has a very human approach to work, to business and to relationships. I loved what he had to say about the future of work, collective collaboration and being centred or grounded which is so important to him to be successful. Before setting up his own practice, Greg worked at the World Economic Forum from 2000 to 2008, engaging members into initiatives to address global and industry issues. He is a leading thought leader in design thinking theory, it was a pleasure to have him on and talk through his recent trip to Australia, his current ventures and the what he feels the future holds for us in the space we call work. Show notes World Economic ForumProgramme NoéLiftGlobalNick GrossmanEckhart Tollé

This week I had the chance to speak with Dr Jane Thomason, a global leader driving the application of for positive social impact. Global Ambassador for the British Blockchain Association and CEO of ABT Associates, a global consultancy of “bold thinkers driving real-world impact”, Dr Thomason is working with the UN and other organisations to drive economic and social inclusion for the world’s most vulnerable. Dr Thomason’s focus is on last mile populations and emerging economies. We talk about how the use of blockchain technology has the potential to create life changing micro economies in locations where people are not connected to the internet – which effectively will facilitate access to a global economy. She believes that the cryptocurrency conversation often gets in the way of more important societal conversations she would prefer to be having with policy makers globally. Too true. There’s a huge amount of education needed for people to understand the importance of new and emerging technologies and what we can achieve as a society with their acceptance and uptake. So we talk about education and the disruption to come. We talk about crypto philanthropy – a new kind of impact investing – where the new wealthy wanting to invest ethically, wanting to see the world as a better place. We touch on the potential of a new societal structure – organised into decentralised autonomous communities – that are emerging using blockchain and tokens serving to connect people around a project or issue. It could bring on major social restructuring allowing people to move beyond the boundaries of our traditional sovereign state governments. Where people are aligned on values and beliefs. Projects that focus on mitigating climate change – it’s pretty inspiring. Dr Thomason is an advocate for women getting into STEM – in both schools, college and through working collaborations, and she shares the advice she wished she had when she had her own kids at school. It’s clear and education revolution needed and soon. I hope you enjoy the chat, she’s a remarkable woman, I can’t wait to have her back on the show to discuss her inspiring projects changing the lives of people who really need the help. Just brilliant.

This week I had a chat with Adam Jacoby, Entrepreneur, Activist, Co-Founder and Chief Steward of the global democracy movement, MiVote. MiVote at its heart is a community decision making and voting platform where everybody has a say on the decisions th...

This week I had a chat with Alex Lubinsky, co-founder and CEO of Rentberry, a decentralized long-term rental platform that has been disrupting the rental industry since 2015. Rentberry’s platform has been a game changer through automating steps within ...

This week I chatted with Toni Lane Casserly, Co-Founder of CoinTelegraph and more recently of the virtual blockchain nation movement, Culture.re. A fab conversation, I didn’t realise Toni was a singer so having her on next time with a cool tune in mind...

This week I spoke with John Lyotier, co-founder of Left, and it’s recent offshoot, Rightmesh. The tagline for Left is We do things right. For Rightmesh, Changing the way the world connects. And they will. Without hooking into the internet.

“Disrupt or Be Disrupted” This week I had the opportunity to speak with Lance Rubin, Founder of Model Citizn and CFO of Banjo. He’s one of the best financial modellers out there, but what he talks about is strategy.

This week’s episode I get to chat with one of Australia’s experts in VR and AR – or if you’ve been living under a large boulder for the last decade, virtual reality and augmented reality – Associate Professor Ben Horan.

This week on People My Dog Would Like I had the pleasure of speaking with Professor Sohail Inayatullah, a leading political scientist and futurist who was awarded UNESCO’s first Chair of Future Studies. Inayatullah speaks globally addressing government...

This week I was keen to discuss the topic of blockchain technology and the potential is has in store for us all and invited two women on the show as my guests. Katrina Donaghy, co-founder of Civic Ledger, has so much energy and I hope provides you all with some clarity on blockchain tech. Civic Ledger is an Australian startup that uses the best of emerging technologies to transform a wide range of business process challenges faced by public sector regulated markets. I also invited Akasha Indream into the conversation who is founder and Chief Editor of Miss Blockchain, an online news and technology portal, actively embracing social enterprise, sustainable development and gender equity. I’m fascinated by the opportunity blockchain technology opens up for women and those who have been on the fringes of society. The possibilities opening up to individuals, startups, business, governments and organisations to solve problems and bypass our legacy systems are huge. Adding blockchain as a tool in our toolkit is going to change the world. Creating greater efficiencies, solving what have been considered intractable problems, providing startups with an alternative to raise their own capital to build their business faster with community support is now on the agenda. And believe it or not, startups are helping to shape our world into a better place. Both Katrina and Akasha outline how useful the technology will be by creating new forms of value in our future economies, which will have significant impact on not only our lives, but particularly those in developing countries. Imagine providing 2.3 billion people currently unbanked with an opportunity for the first time participate in the economy through having a wallet with cryptocurrencies in it? Through their phones, through the apps on their phones and through blockchain technology. They will be able to reorganise into new economies and that is incredibly powerful and that will change the world. For good. It was gorgeous listening to Akasha talk about blockchain the way she did. As a ‘beautiful field’. It’s incredible technology and one we need to be across. Fast. A short episode, Katrina had to dive back into the Intersekt Festival where we met, but hoping you find it useful enough to decide to spend some time exploring what blockchain is and where it is being applied. Will be revisiting this technology as a topic regularly with a view to talking to specific startups working with the technology, so watch this space. Shownotes Don’t forget you can contact Akasha or Katrina directly through the links above – LinkedIn or through their business’ websites. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to get in touch and of course, click on any of the links below to get clarity on the definitions of some of the content brought up in the show. Civic Ledger Miss Blockchain Fiat System Altcoins Gig Economy ICO ClimateCoin EarthCoin GitHub ERC-20 Token