Get Off The Bench Podcast

People ask how I got into woodworking, but, it’s been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My father is the kind of man who can do a bit of everything and knows a bit of everything (maybe a lot of some things, but I don’t want it to go to his head..). He was always working on something; a portable art gallery display for the local theatre, an elaborate plant stand for our orchard or a trailer BBQ for the local Rotary Club. I followed along, paid attention, helped where I could and tried to understand how this brilliant man’s brain worked (yeah, that’s definitely going to his head).

As I got older, I started planning my own projects. We would sit down together and throw around ideas of what was possible and, without fail, he would teach me something new every single time. I started to understand what went into planning a piece and learnt how to think a little more outside the box.

In 2014 I started a small business, AJ Artwork, which grew into Sarani Art & Events. I created rustic home decor, artwork and succulent stands, attending markets all across Gippsland every weekend. The woodwork skills that went into these creations were basic, but it sparked my creativity and love of all things timber. Unfortunately, after a couple of years I felt more like a production worker trying to keep up with the sheer number of items required to keep a stable income, and made the hard decision to cease this business.

In 2019 I needed a few things around my home - a custom bench, plant stand, dog lead holder, music stand etc. One thing lead to another, including taking an old potting table and making it into my new kitchen table, and The New Red. was born. I wanted to push my skills, to continue to challenge myself, to make things that I didn’t even know were possible.

It feels like riding a bike. If that bike was flying down a hilly road covered in large rocks. But, strangely, it feels like exactly what I’m meant to be doing.

Mentions:

The New Red - https://www.thenewred.com.au/

Squishy Face Animal Rescue - http://squishiesrescue.org.au/

Michelle is the founder of Advancing Women, an enterprise providing research and advisory services on equality, inclusion and gender diversity. She is also the founder of women’s network Women Who Get It, co-founder of social enterprise CDW (Culturally Diverse Workforce) and Co-Host of A Career that Soars! Michelle is determined to contribute to achieving global gender equality in her life time, especially through her research and advocacy about the leadership gender gap in the sporting industry.

Michelle is an experienced Non-executive director and is currently Chair of Speckle Financial Health and a member of the Wayfinder Steering Committee. She was previously a board director for Williamstown Football Club, Good Shepherd Microfinance, Gippsland Football Netball League and Business Without Borders. She is an Ambassador for Honour a Woman, Respect Victoria and Flexible Working Day. She has held executive leadership roles ASX & FTSE listed companies NAB, Telstra and Serco during her 30-year career.

Michelle was named City of Melbourne B3000 Female Entrepreneur of the Year (2019), is a proud recipient of the AFR 100 Women of Influence Award (2018) and was a finalist in the VicHealth EWN Community Award (2018) for her significant contribution to the AFL. She is a panel judge for the VicSport Awards and has been a long-term Telstra Business Women’s Awards judge. Michelle is a Graduate of the AICD (Australian Institute of Company Directors), holds an Executive MBA (Distinction) and hold various accreditations in organisational diversity and coaching.

Social Media

LinkedIn: Michelle Redfern
Twitter: @redfernmichelle
Facebook: @AdvancingWomeninBizandSport

Instagram: @advancewithmichelle

Mentions:

Michelle Redfern - https://michelleredfern.com/

Advancing Women - https://michelleredfern.com/services/the-advancing-women-formula/

Mind Tribes - https://mindtribes.com.au/

Culturally Diverse Women - https://mindtribes.com.au/culturally-diverse-women/

Williamstown Football Club - https://www.williamstownfc.com.au/

Change Our Game - http://changeourgame.vic.gov.au/

Office for Women in Sport and Recreation - https://sport.vic.gov.au/our-work/participation/women-and-girls-sport/office-women-sport-and-recreation

VicSport - https://www.vicsport.com.au/

Jessyca Mathews received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan-Flint in English, with a minor in history, with a Specialization in Secondary Education. She received her Masters in the Art of Teaching from Marygrove College. Along with these degrees, Jessyca attended Michigan State University and is a member of the Red Cedar Writing Project.

Ms. Mathews is a language arts teacher at Carman-Ainsworth High School and a Racial, Environmental Justice, and Institutional Racism activist. In 2017, Jessyca was named a finalist for the NEA’s Social Justice Activist of the Year for her work on the Flint water crisis. Jessyca has done national interviews, projects, protest, and community actions to speak out for those affected by the Flint water crisis. In celebration of her activism work, Jessyca was named the 2018 Secondary English Teacher of the Year from the Michigan Council of Teachers of English and the 2018 National Sanford Award Winner for being the most inspirational teacher in Michigan.

Recently, Jessyca was awarded Regional Teacher of the Year from the state of Michigan and was a finalist for Michigan Teacher of the Year 2019-2020.

Along with her activism work, she is a prominent member of the writing community. In 2013, Jessyca Mathews won a national contest sponsored by MANA Publishing and was named the 2013 Passion for Poetry writer. After winning this prestigious award, Jessyca was able to publish her first poetry collection, Simply: A Collection of Poetry. In 2015 she published her memoir, 318: A Chubby Chick’s Tale of Weight Loss Surgery. She co-wrote her first play, Appointments in 2017, which features a focus on the Flint water crisis. She also has been published writer in Nia Magazine, Pure Haiku, Mighty Magazine, and is now a blogger for Teaching Tolerance.

Mentions:

318: A Chubby Chick’s Tale of Weight Loss Surgery - https://www.amazon.com/318-Chubby-Chicks-Weight-Surgery/dp/1504984358

FB - Jessyca Matthews @JesTakeAStand

Insta - jes_the_activist

LinkedIn - Jessyca Mathews

Flint Water Crisis - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis

Katrina-Jane is a down to earth, ‘out of the box’ clairvoyant medium, multiple times award winning author, inspirational speaker, teacher and thought leader - who is dedicated to guiding people on your soul journey. Her specialities include death and dying, clairvoyant readings, support for sensitive children and empowering women with the steps to help find their purpose and live their dreams.

Katrina-Jane has a passion for helping people to deal with death, dying and grief - both nationally and internationally. Through her work she deals with the passing of loved ones on a daily basis. Her aim is to help people get over the fear and awkwardness of speaking about death, whether this is through her books, speaking arrangements, writings or social media.

She has authored 4 books, having won an international book award for her inspiration biography ‘Christian to Clairvoyant’ and 5 international book awards for ‘Where Did They Go’. The latter explains to children in a simple but clear way what happens when we die. It takes away the mystique and fear that currently surrounds death and encourages people to talk, and has attracted significant global attention.

Katrina-Jane has also appeared on radio, been featured in the local press on several occasions and often guest writes for a variety of online blogs and new age publications, as well as regular and high profile keynote presentations. She openly shares the things she has been through, both good and bad, in a ‘tell it like it is’ way of speaking which is highly appreciated on many levels.

Having overcome many of her own obstacles in life, Katrina-Jane speaks and teaches from experience. She spent over 30 years in the Seventh-day Adventist Church – when life sent her a curve ball and she realised she was clairvoyant. She then had the challenge of overcoming years of indoctrination to follow her soul’s destiny as a Clairvoyant Medium.

Mentions:

Website - https://www.katrina-jane.com/

The Motivational Woman - http://themotivationalwoman.com/

FB - Katrina-Jane More Than a Clairvoyant

Insta - katrinajane01

LinkedIn - Katrina Bart

Chris Hollyfield started out as a Pro Wrestler but his big break came when he was invited to join the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), bursting into the arena as Little Boogeyman.

He is also a radio and TV personality, appearing in 3 independent movies - ‘WWF SmackDown!’ (1999), ‘Hell Date’ (2007), and Festival (2011).

Chris has also appeared on talk shows including Maury, Sally Jessy Raphael, and Jerry Springer, as well as appearances on ESPN, 60 minutes, Dateline NBC, and Primetime Live.

He has also made the rounds of the reality show circuit, featuring in - Road Trip, Gamers, 5 Days in the ‘A’, The real World Extreme Challenge, and Miami Ink.

Chris is an African American born with dwarfism. An undersized man in an oversized world, very determined to succeed in life. Standing just 4 feet 4 inches, Chris never let anything get in his way and despite al the amazing accolades, Chris is most proud of being an awesome Dad.

With an incredible career to his name, and with some differences to carry though life, Chris decided it was time to give back.

Chris wrote the book ‘Big Message Short Story’ to share the massage of anti-bullying. He certainly got his share of that over the years. He then created the ‘Got Respect Tour’, where he visits schools and organisations presenting as a motivational speaker on the topic of anti-bullying, with the tagline “I’m different to make a difference”.

Chris also gives back by coaching a Special Olympics Power Lifting team.

Physically Chris may be little, but the size of his heart is almost as big as him!

Mentions:

Chris Hollyfield - https://www.chrishollyfield.com/

Got Respect Tour - http://www.gotrespecttour.com/

WWE - https://www.wwe.com/

Jerry Springer - https://www.jerryspringertv.com/

Rachel is a bold woman who constantly pushes the limits of her own boundaries. As a solo world traveller over the last 10 years, Rachel has learnt through direct experience to communicate vulnerably, lean into the discomfort of fear, follow the innate guidance within and step into her leadership.

“It wasn’t a decision to be a mentor, it was part of my becoming.”

Whilst living in Spain in 2013, Rachel received her first healing session and from that moment, everything in her life changed and a whole new way of being opened up. To live life from the flow, rather than the hustle of trying to make things happen.

Rachel has organised events with up to 500 people around Australia, United Kingdom, Bali & [an island in] Costa Rica.

With a 20 year career spanning the globe, 17 of which were in the corporate world as an Executive Assistant and Project Manager for companies such as; PricewaterhouseCoopers (UK), Deloitte, Macquarie Bank, Telstra and Novartis.

With the transition out of the corporate world in 2017 a new direction was born; the merging of all Rachels skills in the corporate world, talents as an intuitive healer and passion to support Visionary Leaders to overcome fear, breakthrough limitations and bring their epic vision to life.

If you’re ready for rapid transformation and to step into your leadership, Rachel is the woman to work with.

Rachel is an acclaimed Reiki Master, Qualified practitioner in NLP, EFT, Hypnosis & Past Life Regression.

Mentions:

Rachel Clissold - https://rachelclissold.com/

Growing up dyslexic and dysgraphic, Hugo is a self-taught entrepreneur, but with a particular focus on finding solutions for challenges that come with dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyspraxia.

Hugo turned his own childhood challenges into a massive positive by creating efficient tools, specifically apps, that can be used for early detection of learning disabilities.

He had previously created an app Dyscreen, that screens for dysgraphia, and on the 1 June (just gone), Dyscreen was upgraded to include the ability to screen for Dyslexia as well.

There is also the app ‘Sliper’ that enable speech pathologists, specialised teachers and other professionals to support the kids they work with.

Hugo’s work includes the application of image recognition and natural language processing techniques, which he and his team uses to solve real-world problems.

He has worked on diverse Artificial Intelligence projects & startups in France, the UK and Australia.

Hugo is a co-founder of Dystech (who the apps are developed through) which has already gained support from the likes of Amazon and Dear Dyslexic.

The mission of Dystech is to help children with dyslexia to reveal their talents.

Mentions:

Dystech Australia - https://www.dystech.com.au/

Dyscreen (app)

Sliper (app)

Ask a Speechy - https://www.dystech.com.au/category/ask-a-speechy/

Jemimah Ashleigh is a global authority on positioning, an international keynote speaker, MC and podcaster.

Jemimah is an Australian set on world domination. After a decade long career in law enforcement, Jemimah now works exclusively as a positioning consultant and coach to reduce the alarming statistic that 97% of female owned start-up businesses fail within the first 5 years. Women are failing at almost twice the rate of men. Jemimah seeks to be part of the reason this changes worldwide.

Jemimah started her journey in entrepreneurship with the creation of Tangs Design, an ethical jewellery business and then soon after started The Business Experiment Podcast. Jemimah is now the co-founder of Who Run The World.

She has spoken in Indonesia, United States, Canada and Australia, and has had the opportunity to take the stage with the likes of:

Valerie Jarrett - Former Senior Advisor to U.S. President Barak Obama

Frank Shankwitz - Co-founder of the Make a Wish Foundation

Elizabeth Broderick - Australian Sex Discrimination Minister

Jemimah’s debut book ‘Position Me’ is an international best seller on Amazon, and her media coverage includes Huffpost, Thank You, Marie Claire, Qantas, Business Chicks, MamaMia, Financial Review - Women of Influence, and NBC News to name a few.

As well as being a global thought leader in over 70 countries and having a reach of 6.3 million through social media and podcasting, Jemimah was also named in the Top 10 female entrepreneurs in Australia. She is also a board member of The Hope Project.

Mentions:

Jemimiah Ashleigh - https://www.jemimahashleigh.com/

Tangs Design - https://www.tangsdesign.com.au/

The Business Experiment Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-business-experiment-podcast/id1134351825

Gary Vaynerchuk - https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/

Jim Rohn - https://www.jimrohn.com/

World Health Organisation - https://www.who.int/

Bossy Pants - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bossypants

The entrepreneurial dip

The 5 monkeys study

Who Run The World

Nicholas Domingo is certainly not your average superhero. Nicholas is a 29 year old entrepreneur, speaker, children's book writer and change maker obsessed with making strides towards creating a better tomorrow. He is currently the Co-Executive Director of the anti-bullying superhero non-profit, Captain Encouragement, an organization with the goal to cultivate the next generation of leaders. They do this by using early intervention leadership techniques combined with superpowers to work and inspire children in the Kindergarten to 3rd grade age range!

His story started in Ridgely Missouri, a town with a population of 64 people, growing up working random odd jobs Including: dishwasher, Server, rabbit farm worker, tobacco farm worker, furniture mover, landscaper and construction hand.

He Was a high school athlete with Years in the sports arena playing football, wrestling, mixed martial arts and briefly cage-fighting in the OFC based in Omaha.

He briefly stepped into acting and modelling, being on various shows including The Thundermans on Nickelodeon, Mighty Med on Disney and The Arsenio Hall Show.

His journey came to an abrupt halt due to a Subarachnoid Brain-Hemorrhage that nearly cost him his life. This life changing event sent him down a long path looking for answers and ultimately leading to self-discovery. This reshaped his focus to what was truly important, helping create a better world.

The program he currently runs has been to many schools around the United States and has gotten a lot of media attention and buzz, being featured in: The Boston Globe, The Rotarian Magazine, The Kansas City Star, The Union Democrat Newspaper, Action 41 news, among others. Through this program he has stretched his legs into children's book writing, live musical theatre, promoting and live acting, curriculum development, film production, video game development and more.

He continues to travel the country to help reach more children with a message of hope to create the next generation of leaders! He continues to work day and night until he works himself out of a job and we see an end to bullying and suicide.

Thanks to Rotary Club of Jackson (California), 101 Heroes, Paul & Debbie Sessa, Micro-Tronics, AutoTech & Tires, and Olga Jones for supporting these wonderful initiatives.

Mentions:

Call To Inspire - https://calltoinspire.com/

Captain Encouragement - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=captain+encouragement

David Johnson (videographer) - http://www.davidjohnsonproductions.biz/

Michigan State University - https://msu.edu/

Kate Austin is the founder of Australian Not-for-Profit, Pinchapoo. After living through many years of domestic violence, and eventually ending in a situation that almost cost her life, Kate decided that nobody should ever have to go through what she experienced.

What started out as a sneaky movement to get people to pinch their hotel shampoo, has see Pinchapoo grow to become the biggest national NFP supplier of personal hygiene products, to disadvantaged adults and children.

Pinchapoo works with over 500 leading organisations, community groups and government institutions as a total hygiene solution, providing a reliable source of customised packs to EVERYBODY in EVERY situation of need.

In the 11 years since the trailblazing inception of Pinchapoo, Kate and her team have distributed more than 5.5 million hygiene items in a bid to maintain the dignity of those less fortunate.

Pinchapoo utilises the services of thousands of volunteers; Kate insisting that every one of those amazing humans are considered family - even wishing they could all come over for a Sunday roast!

So with the strong, brilliant, compassionate and energetic Kate Austin at the helm, Pinchapoo is making one hell of a difference.

And the future looks like it might also turn some heads!

Mentions:

Pinchapoo - http://pinchapoo.org.au/