Creating Synergy Podcast

Aga Bajer is an expert in corporate culture and is currently the Founder and CEO of CultureBrained® Which is a one-of-its-kind, virtual community of leaders looking for new ways of cultivating remarkable cultures at scale in this brave new world of work. 

 On top of this, Aga runs her own consultancy firm, is an author, a keynote speaker, and a fellow podcast cast host, where she runs the world-renowned podcast The Culture Lab where every interview is of the highest level, and where she has interviewed World Leading thought leaders such as  Simon Sinek, Frances Frei and Seth Godin. 

Aga is one of the foremost experts in Corporate Culture and over the past 20 years, she has been helping companies pay attention to their culture in a way that produces desirable results. From VC-courting startups to Fortune 500, she has worked on cultivating remarkable cultures that scale and that help people do the best work of their careers first, as part of consultancies such as HayGroup, Korn Ferry, and PwC – and later as the founder of her own consulting firm, Aga Bajer & Associates.  

On today’s show, Aga shares her journey from founding and leading an Ice Cream company, to consulting, and now becoming the CEO of CultureBriains and Host of the very well known podcast The Culture Lab.

We deep-dived into a range of topics such as:

• Her podcasting journey
• Her love for learning and reading books
• Aga's thoughts on the area's leaders and organisations should concentrate on first when looking to embark on the large scale change
• The three pillars to a thriving culture, based on Aga's research:  Fun, Meaning and Belonging  
• How to deal with that Brilliant Jerk that you see in lots of teams
• Statistics on the Returns on Investment if you decide to invest in your organisation's culture, and how to actually manage a culture transformation if you are about to embark on that change

Books  mentioned in this episode:

•  Building and sustaining a Coaching Culture - By David Clutterbuck, David Megginson, Agnieszka Bajer
• Free time - By Jenny Blake

Where to find  Aga Bajer:

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Website

Join the conversation on Synergy IQ on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram (@synergyiq) and please support other leaders by liking, subscribing and sharing this podcast. 

Access SynergyIQ Website to get to know more about us. 

Say hello to our host Daniel Franco on LinkedIn.

Dan made over 150 appearances for Richmond Footy Cub throughout his career, otherwise known as the Tigers, #yellowandblack picking up various accolades along the way. In 2013, he won the Jack Dyer Medal, making him the oldest player to win the Tigers' Best and Fairest for the first time since Great Matthew Richardson in 2007. He also won the club's Jack Titus medal for runner-up Best and Fairest in 2009. 

Dan has continued to go strength to strength since his playing career – gaining an MSc in Performance Psychology at the University of Edinburgh, working as the Director of his own company, Integrative Performance, and excelling in his role as Leadership Development Manager at the Adelaide Crows Football Club. 

In this episode,  Dan Jackson shares his Journey through his AFL Career, travelling the world and stumbling into a corporate world he finds himself in. He also shares his thoughts on Culture and Leadership in sport and how it applies to the corporate world, and much more:

• Mindset- resilience and Dealing with stressful situations  
• Box breathing and how to calm down your nervous system 
• How to deal with hotheads  
• Creating positive habits 
• The work he is doing  with Crows and how the players of today are much different to the players of yesteryear 
• Culture change, vulnerability,  connection and Leadership 
• How to build a culture in a high-performance team 
• Vision and mission 
• Recruitment and how character is fundamental 

Books  mentioned in this episode:

• Prisoners of Geography - Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics - By Tim Marshall
• Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain -  By Lisa Feldman Barrett
• The Power of Habit - Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change - By Charles Duhigg
• Atomic Habits - An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones
  By James Clear
• Man's Search for Meaning - By: Viktor E. Frankl
• Smarter Faster Better - The Secrets of Being Productive - By Charles Duhigg

Where to find  Dan Jackson:

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Website: http://foundationpf.com/

Join the conversation on Synergy IQ LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram (@synergyiq) and please support other leaders by liking, subscribing and sharing this podcast. 

Access SynergyIQ Website to get to know more about us. 

Say hello to our host Daniel Franco on LinkedIn.

Grant Kelley joined Vicinity Centres in January 2018 and has over 30 years’ of global experience in real estate investment, corporate strategy, funds management and private equity.

Grant was formerly CEO at City Developments Limited, a Singapore-based global real estate company with operations in over 20 countries. Prior to this, Grant was the Co-Head of Asia Pacific for Apollo Global Management, leading their real estate investment activities in the region. In 2008, Grant founded Holdfast Capital Limited, an Asian-based real estate investment firm, which was acquired by Apollo in 2010.

From 2004 to 2008, Grant was the CEO of Colony Capital Asia where he guided acquisition and asset management activities in Asia. From 2002 to 2004, he was based in New York, where he was a Principal at Colony with responsibility for US and European investment opportunities.

Grant holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Adelaide, a Masters in Economic Sciences from the London School of Economics, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

Grant is Chairman of the Adelaide 36ers, Chairman of Holdfast Assets, a Director of the Shopping Centre Council of Australia, Deputy Chair of the Board of Governors of Pulteney Grammar School, a Council Member of the Asia Society Policy Institute, and a Member of the Premier’s Economic Advisory Council (South Australia).

In this episode, Grant and Daniel talked about:

• his journey, career and how he found himself owning the National Basketball Team, the Adelaide 36's. 
• key influencers throughout his life and factors for his personal and professional success, and he dedicate a great deal of his learning to the amazing relationship he has with Mother.  
• His thoughts on the traits of a great CEO and described to us how a remarkable and high performing team work together.  
• We deep dived into performance, and the areas he places his focus for business to be successful  
• Grant provided his thoughts on how to manage family and business - we can't be workaholic, prioritise the family, how something as simple as walking with your dog brings can bring alot of joy and escape 
• We also discusses the the world of basketball and why he decided to become to be the owner of 36ers 
• How he manages all of his work and emotions of it all and how he has the ability to compartmentalise it all. 
• I also asked a big question of When does enough becomes enough ? 

Books  mentioned in this episode:

• Leadership - Lessons From My Life in Rugby  By Eddie Jones
• Good to Great - Why Some Companies Make the Leap... And Others Don't - By Jim Collins

Where to find Grant Kelley

• LinkedIn

Join the conversation on Synergy IQ LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram (@synergyiq) and please support other leaders by liking, subscribing and sharing this podcast. 

Access SynergyIQ Website to get to know more about us. 

Say hello to our host Daniel Franco on LinkedIn.

Bek is a fitness industry professional, a former physiotherapist, a professional public speaker, psychology educator, wellbeing advisor and coach. 

Bek Smith enables transformation by teaching a layered psychological skillset we need to perform at our best. She is a former researcher, physiotherapist and sponsored athlete, who now uses applied neuroscience and psychology to build high-functioning individuals, teams and organisations. Bek loves working with out-of-the-box thinkers and guiding them to build the confidence they need to challenge the status quo and make a real difference in the world. 

Bek's purpose is to expand awareness and elevate consciousness so we can love ourselves, each other and the planet more. The vehicle she uses is mental fitness, where she teaches practical "bite-sized" psychological exercises which help to shift mindsets and behaviours. 

Bek and Daniel Franco went deep in this conversation and just dived straight into it. They talked about Bek's feeling of not belonging to a community or group and feeling as though she was a fringe dweller. They also talked about the idea of being normal, what is considered normal, and who actually decides what is normal. 

Bek shares her thoughts on the realism of burnout, the negative mental health effects of working from home, how we can fill up our own cups by designing circuit breakers in our lives and much more about Psychological Fitness.

Books  mentioned in this episode:

• Daring Greatly - How the Courage to be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead - By Brené Brown
• Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention - By Johann Hari
• Lost Connections - Why You're Depressed and How to Find Hope - By Johann Hari
• Atlas of the Heart - Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience - By Brené Brown
• A New Earth - Awakening to Your Life's Purpose - By Eckhart Tolle
• The Power of Now - A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment - By: Eckhart Tolle

Where to find  Bek Smith

• LinkedIn
• https://www.smithandwellness.com/

Join the conversation on Synergy IQ LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram (@synergyiq) and please support other leaders by liking, subscribing and sharing this podcast. 

Access SynergyIQ Website to get to know more about us. 

Say hello to our host Daniel Franco on LinkedIn.

Carmen Garcia is the CEO and Founder of national award-winning diversity and inclusion certified social enterprise, Community Corporate. Operating in the niche space of corporate social responsibility, they specialise in recruitment with a social conscience and corporate volunteering. 

In 2021, Community Corporate won National Social Enterprise of the Year at the Australian Small Business Champions Awards. Fondly known by her peers as the Diversity and Inclusion Warrior, Carmen is a well-regarded social entrepreneur driven to make a profound economic and social impact through work. Based in Adelaide the social enterprise operates nationally. 

In 2021 Carmen received the Women in Innovation Award for Social Impact and was listed as one of the Top 50 Small Business Leaders in Australia by Inside Business. In 2020, she received an Australia Day Commendation Award for Inspiring SA Women, was also jointly awarded the Governor’s Multicultural Award for Individual Outstanding Achievement and her business was listed as one of SA’s Fast Mover companies in 2020. She is also an inaugural winner of the 40 Under 40 Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs in SA

This episode was so inspiring, as we learnt about some of the amazing work Carmen and the team at Community Corporate are doing, making a profound social impact on the community. 

Her passion to bridge the gap for Refugee and Migrant people helping to secure them work in corporate Australia is prevalent through this conversation. Statistics such as on 6% of refugees have worked after 6 months being in Australia, and still, only 25% after 2 years is a damming statistic that Carmen is feverishly trying to fix. 

She shares some great insights for corporate leaders in how to improve their social impact and diversity and inclusion within their organisations and how we can recognise our unconscious bias and reprogram our brains. 

We also discuss the challenges of being an entrepreneur and dive into her experiences along the way.

Books  mentioned in this episode:

• Social Impact Investing -  An Australian Perspective - By Stewart Jones, Helena de Anstiss, Carmen Garcia

Where to find  Carmen Garcia

• LinkedIn
• [email protected] 

Join the conversation on Synergy IQ LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram (@synergyiq) and please support other leaders by liking, subscribing and sharing this podcast. 

Access SynergyIQ Website to get to know more about us. 

Say hello to our host Daniel Franco on LinkedIn.

🎙The Synergy IQ female team took over the Creating Synergy Podcast from Daniel Franco to talk about the International Women's Day 2022 campaign theme:  #BreakTheBias

Hosted by Michelle Holland, listen to each one of the women on the Synergy IQ team discuss what this theme represents and the stories they have to share that impacted them when trying to break the bias.

We are working together to #breakthebias

Guests:  Sophie Bretag , Fiona McAllister,  Kylie Morton,  Roxy Wardle FCIPD, FCPHR,  Paula Jacques,  Gabriela Vasconcelos,  Jane Russo,  Jane Miller and  Skye Browne.

Learn more about the campaign  here: https://www.internationalwomensday.com/

Join the conversation on Synergy IQ LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram (@synergyiq) and please support other leaders by liking, subscribing and sharing this podcast. 

Access SynergyIQ Website to get to know more about us. 

Jindou Lee is the CEO and Co-Founder of HappyCo, a software company that builds mobile and cloud solutions to enable real-time property operations. Prior to his current role, Jindou also founded and exited two previous tech companies. Jindou spent most of his adult life growing up in Australia and graduated from the University of South Australia with a Bachelor of Visual Communications (Design). After that, he worked at Midway Games where he led the User Interface team to work on classic titles such as Mortal Kombat, Gauntlet and Dukes of Hazzard. Besides his love for technology, Jindou is also an avid real estate investor, ex-semi pro soccer player and speaks five languages.

In this episode,  Jindou shows us that success comes from being vulnerable, not being afraid to just have a go, and putting yourself into uncomfortable situations.

Jindou and Daniel went down many rabbit holes, but some of the topics we explored were:

• Recently seed funding where HappyCo raised $72 million in seed funding
• How to attract investors and funding
• The ups and downs of growing and scaling a business, dealing with knockbacks uncertainty and all the ambiguity of being an entrepreneur
• The importance of creating a culture where people want to work
• Recruiting people who share the same core values and behaviours
• Time vs energy allocation - how the things you love doing don't suck up the energy 
• How and why he decided to scale outside of Australia and into the US 
• What the future holds for HappyCo and much more. 

Books  mentioned in this episode:

• Rich Dad Poor Dad - What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!  - By Robert T. Kiyosaki
• The Richest Man in Babylon - By: George S. Clason
• The Hard Thing about Hard Things - Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers - By Ben Horowitz

Where to find Jindou Lee

• LinkedIn

Join the conversation on Synergy IQ LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram (@synergyiq) and please support other leaders by liking, subscribing and sharing this podcast. 

Access SynergyIQ Website to get to know more about us. 

Say hello to our host Daniel Franco on LinkedIn.

Bruce Djite is currently the CEO of Committee for Adelaide, a membership-based and non-sector specific company, that brings together diverse organisations to drive economic, social, cultural and community growth in South Australia.

In an earlier life, Bruce is a former Socceroo who has played football for clubs in several countries including, Turkey, China, South Korea and Indonesia. Business has always been a passion for Bruce, and during his time playing, he spent over 4 years on the Executive and Governance committee of Professional Footballers Australia. He has also held other positions, at PKF Adelaide, Fox Sports Australia and most recently was Adelaide United Football Club’s Director of Football.  

He is a current board member of the South Australian Multicultural Commission and the Australia Day Council of South Australia, as well as being a member of Welcoming Australia’s Sports Advisory Committee. You can also see his face commentating on the A-League on Network 10 and Paramount Plus.  

In this episode, Bruce and Daniel touch on Bruce's new CEO role at Committee for Adelaide and the great work they are doing, Shaping the future of Greater Adelaide.  

• Transition to his new CEO role
• What is it that the Committee for Adelaide actually does? And the benefits of being a member? 
• All things South Australia, Leadership, Politics and much more. 
• He believes in how South Australia can become a powerhouse State
• The release of the Committee's new policies, which include: the creation of a high growth fund for South Australia, policy settings that support population retention and growth and promoting the States competitive advantage.

Book mentioned in this episode:

• Audacity of Hope - Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream  By Barack Obama

Where to find Bruce Djite

• LinkedIn

Join the conversation on Synergy IQ LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram (@synergyiq) and please support other leaders by liking, subscribing and sharing this podcast. 

Access SynergyIQ Website to get to know more about us. 

Say hello to our host Daniel Franco on LinkedIn.

Trevor Cooke is one of the State’s most highly regarded property and finance leaders and has an outstanding track record in funds management globally, and a wealth of experience in the property and health sector. In his role as CEO, Trevor provides Commercial & General with a competitive advantage as the company continues to expand its national footprint.  

He is an experienced operator with a diverse skill set which enables C&G to deliver a truly unique and complete business solution across funding and investment models, design and development, program and project management, feasibility analysis, building, marketing and sales. Trevor’s portfolio of projects includes Calvary Adelaide Hospital, 88’O’Connel Street and the Australian Bragg Centre for Proton Therapy & Research.   

Further to this Trevor sits across multiple boards for Junction Australia, Asia Pacific Real Estate Association,  Committee for Adelaide  and is division councillor for property council of Australia.  

In this episode:

Listen to Trevor as he spoke in detail about his journey which started where he was born in Canada, then all around the world to where we find him today as the CEO of Commercial & General.  Daniel and Trevor also deep dived into:  

• His personal life, how he manages his time having so many roles 
• The importance of the values and how it drives behaviour  
• His beliefs in 'Open doors Culture' and 'Meritocracy Culture' 
• The culture of Commercial & General that allows him to balance business and family time 
• Characteristics to be a great CEO
•  What it means to lead with integrity  
• Commercial & General history, journey, purpose and projects
• Trevor's thoughts on South Australia,  attracting investors and capital to Adelaide
• His expectations coming out from the omicron situation 
• How the pandemic has been handled politically 
• Mental health, meditation and mind mapping  

Books and Podcast mentioned in this episode:

• Rapid Transformation - An Outcomes-Baed Approach to Drive Results - By Ali Davachi
• The Moral Landscape - By Sam Harris
• Doom - The Politics of Catastrophe - By Niall Ferguson
• The Ascent Of Money - Financial History Of The World - By Niall Ferguson
• Hitch-22 - A Memoir - By Christopher Hitchens
• Making Sense Podcast 
• Between the Lines Podcast
• Saturday Extra

Where to find Trevor Cooke

• LinkedIn

Join the conversation on Synergy IQ LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram (@synergyiq) and please support other leaders by liking, subscribing and sharing this podcast. 

Access SynergyIQ Website to get to know more about us. 

Say hello to our host Daniel Franco on LinkedIn.

With over 20 years of experience and as a leader in creating business excellence through people, Michelle has helped thousands of leaders to build their confidence and skills in change. She is an experienced culture change expert, a certified Dare to Lead™ facilitator, and a strategic advisor to some of Australia's largest businesses and corporations. The author of 3 books, including the best seller “Culture Inc”. Michelle speaks at conferences, runs workshops, advises and consults, challenging the thinking of some of Australia's greatest leaders. Not only is she a regular on this podcast, but She can also regularly be seen and heard as a guest on podcasts, networks, and interviews. Checker her out at Michelle T Holland on LinkedIn. 

In this episode, Michelle and Daniel had a great conversation on the challenges businesses are facing and how they can bring optimism and pragmatism to tackle the brand-new year ahead of us. 

We also deep-dived into:  

• The learnings of 2021 
• The uncertainty and the dilemmas business are facing due to the current circumstances such as this Omicron Variant 
• How the language we use on a day to day basis can shape who we are and what we believe to be true. 
• Optimism and how reality can distort our outlook and what we can do to overcome this 
• The importance of clear communication in a workforce and how we all can communicate better 
• The challenges around workforce shortages and creative ways to deal with them.
• Expectations for 2022. 

Where to find Michelle T. Holland

• LinkedIn

Join the conversation on Synergy IQ LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram (@synergyiq) and please support other leaders by liking, subscribing and sharing this podcast. 

Access SynergyIQ Website to get to know more about us. 

Say hello to our host Daniel Franco on LinkedIn.