Leaders were once paid the big bucks to come up with a long-term vision, a strategy that could carry a company for years. 

Now? The most successful leaders are those who can question assumptions, challenge the status quo, and completely reinvent a strategy on the run. 

World leading organisational psychologist Adam Grant once trained as a magician. He wants you to be equipped to pull a rabbit out of hat when you need to!  

As a top TED speaker, best-selling author, and leading researcher working with the likes of the Pentagon and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Adam studies the best leaders in the world. 

He says knowing what you don’t know is the leadership quality du jour. How ready are you to think again? 

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Curveball is the show where leaders are honest about their darkest moments. We take you inside a company at a pivotal moment, and share tips on how to thrive in challenging times.  

Keep up to date with Curveball by following @_deadsetstudios on Twitter and @deadsetstudios on instagram.  

Find out more about the show or suggest a guest by visiting www.curveballshow.com   

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land on which this show was made. 

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Borders shut? Planes unable to land? Quarantine bubbles needed in record-time? Duuuuude! No worries! 

The very future of the world surf pro is on Andrew Stark’s shoulders. He needs to pull off a record number of events and land a charter plane full of international surfers in Australia, so it’s going to take every ounce of his leadership capability to pull this off. 

Can he do it? 

If you’ve listened to the first episode with World Surf League boss Andrew Stark, you’ll know he’s not the kind of leader who could ever let one rip sweep him off course. 

In this bonus episode, Andrew updates us on the “biggest curveball of his career” - and if you haven’t listened to the full-length episode, it’s in your feed right now. 

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Keep up to date by following @_deadsetstudios on Twitter and @deadsetstudios on instagram.  

Find out more about the show and suggest a guest by going to www.curveballshow.com  or emailing [email protected] 

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land on which this show was made. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With his wetsuit zippers blown open, his flotation vest filling fast with water, and his diaphragm heaving, Andrew Stark thought his time was up.  But a monster wave on one of Hawaii’s most feared breaks was no match for Stark, a leader who thrives when faced with a threatening swell. 

Whether it’s mounting world-renowned events at Bell’s Beach or Sunset, or convincing the world that surfing is professional sport, Stark rides every wave all the way to the shore. 

A tragic family event when Stark was young forged a connection with the ocean that carries him through every tough challenge: “Surfing saved me. I could have gone in any direction, but all I wanted to do was go to the beach.” 

So with the pandemic threatening the future of all pro surfing events, he’s more determined than ever to harness that passion into a successful recovery. 

And he tells you more about that in a bonus episode, available in your podcast feed now. 

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Curveball is the show where leaders are honest about their darkest moments.  We take you inside a company at a pivotal moment, and share tips on how to thrive in challenging times.  

Keep up to date with Curveball by following @_deadsetstudios on Twitter and @deadsetstudios on instagram.  

Find out more about the show or suggest a guest by visiting www.curveballshow.com   

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land on which this show was made. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Covid restrictions meant an immediate intermission for anyone working in live entertainment, Jeremy Fleming made a phone call no 40-something likes to make. He called his parents to say the shutdown spelt the end for his business and he’d be moving his family of four in with his parents. 

Staging company Stagekings lost millions in revenue overnight, when client after client called to cancel events.  

But ever the innovator, CEO Jeremy Fleming was determined the show must go on.  

With a warehouse full of semi-assembled sets and a country under house arrest, Jeremy saw an opportunity. Cue, IsoKing: flat-packed furniture built for lockdown. WFH? They’ve got desks! Play from home? Puzzle boards! Just at home, constantly, with no respite? Wine racks!  

This risky pivot has paid off, but the ride has been anything but smooth. Diving headfirst into a new business (in the middle of a pandemic) had set the scene for likely disaster. 

Luckily, Jeremy knows a thing or two about set design, and he’s sharing his toolkit with the rest of us.   

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Curveball gives you a glimpse inside a company at a pivotal moment. Leaders share their stories of thriving in challenging times.  

We love hearing your stories. How have you adapted on the run? What’s been your curveball moment? Use your phone to record a voice memo and email it to [email protected]   

Keep up to date with Curveball by following @_deadsetstudios on Twitter and @deadsetstudios on instagram and you can also sign up to the Curveball newsletter on LinkedIn. 

Find out more about the show at www.curveballshow.com   

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where this show was made. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There’s a scene in Sex and the City where Sarah Jessica Parker gets to ring the famed opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange. Naturally, she’s wearing Jimmy Choos and a Chanel lipstick. 

Kate Morris dreamt that one day her company Adore Beauty would float on the stock exchange. She got there, but ringing the bell over Zoom from her lounge room? Well that wasn’t quite what she’d imagined. 

For years Morris slogged it out packing cosmetics in her garage. 

But with profits plateauing, Morris was advised to write a letter to herself from the future. “It was like turning all the lights back on.  Suddenly the whole path was illuminated for me”. 

A risky high-growth strategy landed the e-retailer Adore Beauty an Australian Stock Exchange float of a reputed $600+ million, inspiring thousands of women to invest in the share market for the first time. 

Kate’s willing to share the ride, warts and all. 

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Curveball is the podcast that takes you inside a company at a pivotal moment. Leaders share tips with you on how to thrive in challenging times.  

And we adore hearing your stories. What’s been your curveball moment? Use your phone to record a voice memo and email it to [email protected]   

Keep up to date with Curveball by following @_deadsetstudios on Twitter and @deadsetstudios on instagram and you can also sign up to the Curveball newsletter on LinkedIn. 

Find out more about the show at www.curveballshow.com   

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live and work. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Mother Cricket calls, Justin Langer answers. 

With Australian cricket in crisis, imploding amid the ‘sandpaper scandal’, Langer was offered a leadership role many considered a poisoned chalice, but the lure of rebuilding the sport he loved was too strong. 

His tough-love leadership style doesn’t always win him friends, but the former batsman is determined to see his vision through. 

Still, nothing quite prepares you for the pressure of a leadership role under this much scrutiny... and the next curveball would be a health scare of a huge magnitude. 

Langer credits mindset, meditation and a trusted network of mates and mentors with giving him the tenacity to turn things around. 

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Curveball’s the podcast that takes you inside a company or a leadership team at a pivotal moment. Leaders share tips with you on how to thrive in challenging times.  

And we love, love LOVE hearing your stories. How have you adapted on the run? What’s been your curveball moment? Use your phone to record a voice memo and email it to [email protected]   

Keep up to date with Curveball by following @_deadsetstudios on Twitter and @deadsetstudios on instagram and you can also sign up to Curveball’s LinkedIn newsletter! It's a weekly dose of the best advice leaders have that helps you with your own career. Subscribing is totally free. 

Make sure you leave us a review for the Curveball podcast in your podcasting app.  There’s more about Curveball at www.curveballshow.com or you can follow @_deadsetstudios on Twitter and @deadsetstudios on instagram.   

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live and work. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have you had days when you’ve wanted to shut yourself off on a deserted island, where you could happily work and eat coconuts and speak to no one? Hell yes! Good. It’s not just me then! 

But truly great leaders understand that without a solid team, without developing and investing in your people, it’s going to get pretty tough to achieve anything. (Also, there’d be no office cakes... and that would be VERY sad!) 

Managing people is one of the hardest parts of being a leader. But you know what the truly exceptional bosses say? It’s ALL about the people. They remember who was in the room on the bad days... and who was by their side to celebrate the exciting moments too. 

So before you buy that one-way solo ticket, we have some tips from top leaders who know how to build a team culture. 

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And did you know you can become part of a community of like-minded people just by signing up to Curveball’s LinkedIn newsletter? It's a weekly dose of the best advice leaders have that helps you with your own career. Subscribing is totally free and we'd love you to be part of the TEAM! 

Make sure you leave us a review for the Curveball podcast in your podcasting app. 

There’s more about Curveball at www.curveballshow.com or you can follow @_deadsetstudios on Twitter and @deadsetstudios on instagram.  

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live and work. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“FAIL AND FAIL FAST” – it's the catch-cry currently echoing from Silicon Valley to entrepreneurial kids trying to make a buck with their latest dance routines on TikTok.

But as the great philosophers Chumbawamba sang, if you get knocked down, you can get back up again. How do you fail, but more importantly, recover?

Curveball’s the podcast where leaders tell you how they’ve dealt with huge challenges and crises – and you’d better believe these people have pretty impressive failure resumes!

But there’s owning your failures, and then there’s the really tricky part. Getting past them. Moving on. And maybe even getting back on the horse.

It’s time to learn from the leaders who’ve been through it all, how they bounced back and what they learned doing it.

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And if you haven’t yet signed up to Curveball - Australia’s first LinkedIn newsletter, then don’t beat yourself up! Just acknowledge your mistake, then sign up and learn from it! It's a weekly top up of the best advice and stories leaders have that will set you on the right path. Subscribing is totally free, so do it now for tasty inbox goodness.

Say g’day by leaving us a review for Curveball in your podcasting app, and if there’s a leader you think we could all learn from... get in touch! [email protected]

Keep up to date with Curveball by following @_deadsetstudios on Twitter and @deadsetstudios on instagram. 

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live and work.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As a new year dawns, are you feeling ready to tackle the year head on? Want a little fresh perspective to help you get ahead? 

If there’s one thing that sets the greatest leaders above the pack, it’s the mindset they carry through challenging times. 

Curveball’s the podcast where you learn how to thrive when you’ve been thrown a curly one. But how exactly do you cultivate a positive mindset? How do you create that voice inside that tells you “keep going, you can do it!”?  

The masterful leaders – the top athletes, successful artists, and the sharpest business owners – will tell you it’s a discipline. It doesn’t happen by magic, but is does create a little magic if you stick with it. 

And guess what else? This sense of stoicism, the idea you can have courage even when facing obstacles – is an ancient philosophy that was first coined during, wait for it, a pandemic. Yup, really. For more on stoicism, I recommend both Ryan Holiday’s book The Obstacle is the Way and the Tim Ferriss podcast. 

We’re bringing you some short tips and hacks from exceptional leaders that will help frame your 2021. So hit download on this bite-sized episode for a quick dose of energy. It's basically a short black with a dash of inspo. 

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Wait, you say you want more? Guess what friends? Curveball is now the home of Australia’s first LinkedIn newsletter! I know, right? More wisdom than you can handle. It's a weekly top up of the best advice and stories leaders have that will help set you on the right path. Subscribing is totally free, so do it now for tasty inbox goodness. 

Make sure you leave us a review for the Curveball podcast in your fave podcasting app, and if there’s a leader you think we could all learn from... get in touch! [email protected] 

Keep up to date with Curveball by following @_deadsetstudios on Twitter and @deadsetstudios on instagram. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live and work. 

This episode was produced by the stoic Rachel Fountain. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pivot. Adapt. Resilience. There's a reason we've heard those words so often in 2020.

Curveball is the podcast that gives you an inside look into how top leaders cope with unexpected challenges. 

And as we settle up the books on a year that’s brought so much risk and uncertainty, those lessons on how to deal with change have never been more welcome! 

In this special festive season Curveball bonus episode, Smart Company Editor Eloise Keating tells you why her publication pivoted (there it is again) away from its usual ‘Smart 50’ awards and instead, singled out the country’s most resilient businesses for their annual accolades. 

And the adaptations have been incredible.  From stage-builders who now do a mean line in flat-pack home office furniture, to workplace clinicians who turned their skills to research.  A café which used all that shut-down time to help their community stay connected, and a lolly shop that realised people needed joyful Instagram stories just as much as sugar.  

Don't forget to subscribe to Curveball (for free!) in your favourite podcast app, so you don't miss a single hint or hack from our guests. Annnndddd Curveball also now has a LinkedIn newsletter so please sign up for useful tips and strategies the best in the biz use so you too can thrive like a MOFO in 2021! (We're generous like that).

We’d love to hear how you’ve adapted on the fly. Use your phone to record a voice memo and email your curveball moment to [email protected]   

Keep up to date with Curveball by following @_deadsetstudios on Twitter and @deadsetstudios on instagram. Find out more about the show, and even suggest a guest by going to www.curveballshow.com   

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live and work. 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.