Challenges That Change Us

SINGAPORE workshop : Engagement and burnout in the workplace 

INDIA workshop: High Performance Leadership Summit

To sign up for our difficult conversations and workplace culture workshop go here.

Welcome to part 2 of my chat with Sarah Davis, the absolute powerhouse who went from working in banking to completely throwing herself out of her comfort zone.

In this episode we return to Australia to discuss what happened when she decided to cycle across Australia and how her decision to get out of her comfort zone made her decide to do 52 uncomfortable things in 52 weeks.

In this episode she shares:

-      The challenge of choosing her next adventure

-      Why she picked cycling across Australia

-      The purpose attached to her challenge of cycling across Australia

-      What went wrong during the cycle

-      Why road trains were the biggest risk and what they are

-      The challenge of losing Leif, the 21yo cyclist she met along the way

-      How losing Leif changed the trajectory of their trip

-      What she took away from this experience

-      Her next adventure

-      Her challenge to do 52 uncomfortable things in 52 weeks

-      What were her takeaways of this experience

-      What were the things she said no to

Key Quotes

“I noticed that being out of my comfort zone wasn’t as familiar.”

“My comfort zone had gone from the back garden to the size of a national park.”

“Failure isn’t fatal.”

More about Sarah

Find out more about Sarah via her website, Instagram and LinkedIn.

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected]

Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website:

http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

SINGAPORE workshop : Engagement and burnout in the workplace 

INDIA workshop: High Performance Leadership Summit

To sign up for our difficult conversations and workplace culture workshop go here.

Imagine being an introvert who works in banking and deciding to be the first women to lead an expedition down the Nile where you face attacks from crocodiles, hippo’s and more.

That’s what happened to Sarah Davis who, in her forties and in search of more out of life, she decided to step away from her corporate life & attempt to paddle the length of the Nile.

She survived hippo attacks, being arrested & detained in Burundi & running lethal rapids. Now, her expeditions in Oman, Australia and more have given Sarah insights into what it takes to overcome fear, thrive through uncertainty & succeed in challenging environments. Her best-selling book, Paddle the Nile: One Woman's Search For a Life Less Ordinary was published in July 2022.

In this episode she shares:

• How she was a desperately shy and quite child
• What brought her to Australia
• The vulnerability she felt from sharing her blog
• What happened when her passport got stolen
• Her experience going back into banking
• Why she decided to pursue an expedition
• The risks and preparation she had to learn about
• What she did in advance to mitigate the risks
• Seeing big white bags of contraband next to the river
• How the rapids worried her due to a near drowning experience
• Her experience being attacked by a hippo on day 6
• The pep talk she gave herself to get through
• The other challenges she encountered on the expedition
• Getting food poisoning the day before the last day
• The lessons she now carries with her

Key Quotes

“I felt like I had a really beautiful piece of clothing that just didn't suit me.”

“The intel we got was that they were going to detain me if I went there.”

“This huge hippo’s bitten into the back of the raft. I'd never felt real primal fear before.”

More about Sarah

Find out more about Sarah via her website, Instagram and LinkedIn.

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected]

Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website:

http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

SINGAPORE workshop : Engagement and burnout in the workplace 

INDIA workshop: High Performance Leadership Summit

To sign up for our difficult conversations and workplace culture workshop go here.

This episode is a bit different to our normal ones.

A lot of you have been repeatedly asking me to cover Imposter Syndrome and how to fight it, so I’m delighted to welcome back Clifford Morgan to get his expertise on the subject.

Cliff is a leadership expert and endorsed organisational psychologist with over seventeen years of service with the Royal Australian Air Force. His years of service leading and coaching people, both in uniform and out, bring a wealth of experience that provides a unique perspective to assist his clients. During this time he has trained hundreds of leaders to use coaching skills to develop people and lead more effectively. As a coach Clifford has worked with CEOs, military commanders, government executives and business and community leaders across a wide variety of industries.

In this episode he shares:

• What is imposter syndrome?
• The archetypes of imposter syndrome
• How to differentiate the archetypes
• What does 'overwork' mean and look like?
• What are the basics of your life to be brilliant at first?
• Some coping mechanisms
• What it means to adopt a mask
• The difference between adjusting and masking
• What is happening in the brain with imposter syndrome
• Why building a body of evidence can help
• How finding strong allies can help combat imposter syndrome
• How to intercept your negative thoughts
• Ways to reframe failure

Key Quotes

“A lot of high performers have imposter syndrome.”

“The more social groups that we're a part of, the less likely we are to be depressed or have mental health issues.”

“Are you doing it from a place of fear or for the benefit of someone else?”

More about Clifford

Find out more with Clifford via his website.

For Cliff's course on Impsoter syndrome go here.

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected] Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website: http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

SINGAPORE workshop : Engagement and burnout in the workplace 

INDIA workshop: High Performance Leadership Summit

To sign up for our difficult conversations and workplace culture workshop go here.

Trigger warning: Domestic violence, PTSD, child deaths

’Domestic Violence does not discriminate, and sadly the systems and law enforcement don’t always protect us.

One person who knows that all too tell is Courtney Burchard. 

Courtney is a former Forensic Scientist and Queensland Police Officer with 15 years of service. After being medically retired in 2024 following a complex PTSD diagnosis, she has embraced her lived experience as both a survivor of Domestic Violence and institutional betrayal. Courtney now uses her voice to raise awareness around trauma, resilience, and mental health, sharing her journey through the power of poetry.

In this episode she shares:

• Her experience joining the police
• Her experience working in forensics
• The lead up to having PTSD
• Her experience with DV and how dangerous it got
• How she was experienced with DV applications and hers still didn't go through
• The symptoms of trauma she experienced
• How working on Hannah Clarke's case triggered her PTSD
• How her career ended
• Her panic attack
• What happened when she saw a doctor about her PTSD
• The process of starting medication and therapy
• Her healing journey
• The grief around leaving the police force
• What has surprised her about this process
• What needs to change around DV

Key Quotes

“I had to tell my male boss intimate details.”

“He still has access to a firearm.”

“After the relationship had ended there was an incident where this person has broken into my home.” 

More about Courtney

Follow Courtney on Instagram

You can find Small Steps 4 Hannah, the charity started by Hannah's parents on Instagram here.

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected] Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website: http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

SINGAPORE workshop : Engagement and burnout in the workplace 

INDIA workshop: High Performance Leadership Summit

To sign up for our difficult conversations and workplace culture workshop go here.

Coming back from a deadly illness and stroke is big enough challenge in itself, but the equal challenge that many don’t think about is having to survive with the disabilities from that incident, in a world that does not make any space for disability.

That is what Lisa Cox has had to do and not only has she manage that, she has made it her mission to remove the barriers and systemic injustice faced by people with a disability,

Lisa Cox OAM is an author, university researcher, TEDx speaker and internationally awarded thought leader. Her work is focused on changing social attitudes about disability using world's most powerful industries - like media.

In this episode she shares:

• Her early life
• What happened when she had a stroke at 24
• Her first memories of this experience
• How she found out her leg would be amputated
• How she had to relearn how to do basic everyday tasks
• Her worst day in recovery
• The process of coming to grips with what happened
• What happened once she was out of hospital
• Getting back into the gym
• The process of balancing grief and gratitude
• How because of her disability she met her husband
• Teaching herself to type again with her new fingers
• Having perspective
• Getting back on the dating scene
• The social expectation that she had to lower her standards to find someone
• What shopping for a wedding dress with her disability was like
• The ableism she encounters in life now
• How her now husband was patted on the back for proposing to a disabled woman
• What life looks like now
• Her work in rebranding disabilities

Key Quotes

“There's this idea that once you acquire a disability your life will be tragic.”

“All of my organs shut down and every cell in my boy died.”

“I realised I had a tonne of internalised ableism.”

More about Lis

Find out more via her website.

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected]

Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website: http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

SINGAPORE workshop : Engagement and burnout in the workplace 

INDIA workshop: High Performance Leadership Summit

To sign up for our difficult conversations and workplace culture workshop go here.

Trigger warning: suicide, domestic violence, depression

Intergenerational trauma can be an incredibly hard cycle to break, especially if it forces you to live through verbal abuse, manipulation and torment for your entire childhood. For Yummii Nguyen, this was her reality, yet her story is not just one of survival, but of learning to love herself and breaking generational cycles so her children could inherit freedom instead of pain. What makes her story extraordinary is not what she survived, but what she built. She is the founder of Meet Fear, with Love and a guide to leaders, entrepreneurs, and parents who appear to have it all, but quietly know, “I’m not free.” . Through her Mastermind, Higher Self Mastery program, and private mentorship, Yummii helps people who have already done the work finally soften their nervous system, meet fear with love, and live from wholeness and their Heart.

In this episode she shares:

• Growing up as the child of an affair and being told she was unwanted
• Reconciling a father who was revered in the community but violent and emotionally troubled at home
• The mental health battles that began at 12, when she no longer wanted to live
• The moment she first experienced unconditional love
• How the birth of her son became a turning point in her healing
• What it takes to love yourself when your body and mind only know survival

Key Quotes

“Freedom isn’t what you achieve. Freedom is who you are when there’s nothing left to prove.”

“I realised the cost of not loving myself was going to be carried by my children. That’s when everything changed.”

More about Yummii

Find out more about Yummii via her website, Instagram, Facebook and check out her free training for parents.

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected] Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website: http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Try our FREE burnout quiz.

Grab your burnout workbook HERE. 

To sign up for our difficult conversations and workplace culture workshop go here.

I’m so excited to be welcoming back Allan Parker to share his personal story of overcoming an extraordinary challenge to being able to learn, and to also share some amazing pearls of wisdom on neuro plasticity and learning.

Alan Parker OAM is a distinguished micro‑behavioural scientist, negotiator and educator whose major achievements include developing Australia’s first tertiary degree in negotiation, serving as an adjunct professor on the University of Western Sydney’s Master’s program in Dispute Resolution, and being awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2020 for his contribution to business and dispute resolution. He is a bestselling author (Switch On Your Brain), author of The Negotiator’s Toolkit and Would Could Might (2024). On top of this he has presented and facilitated in 60+ countries, and has led influential, large‑scale negotiations and sector reforms while also building a long‑standing practice delivering practical brain‑health and negotiation training across corporate, regional and rural communities.

In this episode he shares:

• His eye impairment that made learning difficult as a child
• How his parents alcoholism affected him growing up
• How he learned to listen and compensate for his inability to read
• How vision work and training unlocked his reading and learning.
• The neuroscience of breathing, oxygen, hydration and their effect on attention, emotion and memory.
• Peripheral vision as a tool to reduce internal narrative/default-mode thinking and improve presence.
• Stress as a social risk and why he thinks we are addicted to adrenaline/dopamine/drama.
• His practical behaviour tips to improve brain health
• The importance of communication and leadership

Key Quotes

"I was born with an eye condition that meant I didn't read until I was 30, and yet I'm a terminal enthusiastic learner."

"I remember the very moment, Ali, that I watched my father beating my mother. And I made a conscious decision in that second that I would never violate, hit another human being. Ever."

"I had to sit down and explain him that I couldn't read."

More about Allan

You can find out more about Allan here.

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected]

Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website: http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Try our FREE burnout quiz.

Grab your burnout workbook HERE. 

To sign up for our difficult conversations and workplace culture workshop go here.

Trigger warning: Domestic violence

Many of us have heard how hard it can be to live in a domestic violence relationship, but not all of us realise just how hard it can be to leave.

And by ‘leave” we mean how to financially and emotionally stay alive with no support or home while a violent partner tracks you down.

This is part 2 of our chat with the incredible Diana Connell, who escaped a long term domestic violence relationship with her two children.

Diana has dedicated her life to pushing for systemic reform in housing, domestic violence, and women’s economic security. Through her work with Global Sisters, she is involved in the Little Green Houses project, making home ownership a reality for women who have experienced domestic violence. Through McAuley Community Services for Women, she has been deeply involved in the co-design of the ground breaking Safe at Home trial in Geelong.

In this episode she shares:

• Why St Vincent’s and McDonalds were how they survived in the early days after leaving
• How she got out of the dire situation they were in
• The difficult moment where she had to make her kids get work for them to survive
• How they ended up in a safehouse in Melbourne
• Her fear that he would find them and what happened when he did
• The disappointing charge her ex faced even though her son had filmed the attack
• The way her ex tried to intimidate them after he tracked them down  
• Her life now and how she got out and things got better
• The sad truth about recovering from this kind of abuse
• How a lawyer helped her out from the debt her ex had left her with
• What she does now to help others in similar situations

Key Quotes

“ We were homeless for a good 6 months...We’d say, well this place isn’t used, so we’d live there. I guess we were squatters.”

“He tracked us down there…he made sure we knew he was there, he took our spare key. It’s all that thing about scaring the living shit out of us.”

More About Diana

Follow Diana on her art instagram

Find out more about how Global Sisters can women here.

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected] Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website: http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Try our FREE burnout quiz.

Grab your burnout workbook HERE. 

If you would like us to work with your team book a 30 min chat HERE.

Trigger warning: Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is a scourge on our society and the brave survivors who have lived through it are some of the strongest in the world, and that can definitely be said for Diana Connell.

Diana is a survivor advocate, speaker, and ceramic artist, passionate about creating change for women and children. After surviving more than two decades of family violence and homelessness, Diana has dedicated her life to pushing for systemic reform in housing, domestic violence, and women’s economic security. Through her work with Global Sisters, she is involved in the Little Green Houses project, making home ownership a reality for women who have experienced domestic violence. Through McAuley Community Services for Women, she has been deeply involved in the co-design of the ground breaking Safe at Home trial in Geelong.

In this episode she shares:

-      Her background, where she grew up, and what it was like in her family

-      What it was like meeting her ex-partner, the initial phases

-      When she got pregnant with her first child and everything changed

-      Post-childbirth and time in a mental hospital

-      Birth of her second child

-      Staying on the farm

-      How the isolation increased after he moved her to an Australian farm

-      What her life looked like in Australia

-      How things escalated once in Australia

-      How she tried to keep it from her children and protect them

-      How the abuse escalated against her son

-      How her husband and how it led to more abuse for her son

-      The medical complication that made leaving even harder

Key Quotes

“Everything that I did or said became something for him to put me down about.”

“If I had said something I'd hate to think what would have happened.”

More About Dianna

Follow Diana on her art instagram

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected] Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website: http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Try our FREE burnout quiz.

Grab your burnout workbook HERE. 

If you would like us to work with your team book a 30 min chat HERE.

There is a general belief that ‘life on the land is tough’, but many of us don’t realise just how tough it can be, and the toll it can have on the lives of the individuals and families who work the land. That is an experience that Tina Kendall-Davis knows very well. Tina is the founder of Anytime Counselling, a mental health service dedicated to delivering accessible, stigma-free support across Australia, with a deep focus on rural and regional communities. Her mission is personal. Growing up on a farm her father was everything to her, but like many men of his generation, he carried the weight of financial pressure, isolation, and unspoken stress. He never sought help, and when Tina lost him to a stress-induced heart attack, her world fell apart. She is determined to shift the mental health conversation from reactive space to a proactive one, because we all deserve to live our best lives every day.

In this episode she shares:

• Life growing up on the farm
• The darker side of living on the farm
• The negative impact of farm life on her family
• Losing her dad to a heart attack and her belief that the farm life stress influenced it
• The financial stresses of farm life
• How she responded to her father’s death
• The biggest impact on her life about losing her dad
• The disappointment of friendships that didn’t help her when she needed them
• Why she became a counsellor
• How she made her unique therapy service
• The difference between proactive therapy and reactive therapy
• The importance of tools in your toolbox

Key Quotes

“If he had had counselling, we'd still have hi.”

“We don’t prioritise ourselves the way we prioritise other stuff and it costs you your life.”

“Stress is human rust.”

More about Tina

Find Tina on Linkedin or check out the Anytime Counselling website.

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected]

Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website: http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.