How I Work

My favourite tip from my chat with Marcus Buckingham was about why work-life balance is a useless concept - and how we should think about it instead.

You can find the full interview here.

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My guest today is Wendy Stops. Wendy is a Non Executive Director at the Commonwealth Bank (Australia’s largest bank), Coles Group, and Fitted for Work. Prior to her board career, she spent sixteen years with Accenture, most recently as the Senior Managing Director for Technology in Asia-Pacific.

I was really keen to have Wendy on the show to understand more about what it’s like to have such high profile board positions. If you have ever wondered what it’s like to be a board director, or perhaps you are considering this kind of career for yourself, I think you’ll get a lot out of this interview with Wendy.

We cover:

• How to get onto a high profile board
• The recruitment process for becoming a board member
• How Wendy coped with being on the board of Australia’s biggest bank during the royal commission
• Wendy’s surprising approach to managing stress
• Wendy’s approach to protecting her personal time
• How Wendy makes sure her voice is heard in amongst the other confident, capable and dominant personalities on the boards she sits on
• Wendy’s approach to influencing people
• The role of intuition versus data in making big decisions
• Wendy’s “should we” test for ethical behaviour
• Wendy’s experience with Imposter Syndrome, and her approach to overcoming it
• The most challenging thing about sitting on a board
• Wendy’s top tips for having a great career.

Connect with Wendy on Linkedin.

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My favourite tip from my chat with Clinical Psychologist Dr Doris Brett was on how stories can help us deal with failure.

You can find the full interview here.

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My guest today is Scott Young. Scott is a writer who undertakes interesting self-education projects, such as attempting to learn MIT's four-year computer science curriculum in twelve months and learning four languages in one year. Both of which he did successfully.

Scott is a fascinating person who has basically dedicated his adult life to hacking learning and challenging a lot of the assumptions and beliefs that are held about how best to learn something. Scott is a science nerd like me and one of the many things I loved about Ultralearning is that it pairs a lot of scientific research with some fascinating real world case studies of ultralearners.

If you have ever wanted to get better at learning something, or if perhaps at this point in your life you are looking at getting better at a new skill or maybe taking up a new project or hobby, I think you will find my chat with Scott incredibly helpful. We unpack quite a few different learning strategies that Scott has applied in his own life, and which after reading Ultralearning, I’ve now been applying to my own life.

We cover:

• Why Scott spends time learning skills that he has already mastered
• Why retrieval is a critical skill for learning, and how to get better at it
• Scott’s approach to reading non-fiction books to optimise learning
• The importance of “directness” when it comes to learning a new skill
• The big problem with many training programs
• The best way to start a learning project
• How Scott mastered portrait drawing
• The importance of creating procedural memories and how to do this
• How Scott has improved his ability to stay focused
• Why focus comes down to managing emotions and developing good habits
• Scott’s tips to push through difficult tasks when you just want to give up
• The keys to giving effective feedback - and why most people who ask for feedback don’t actually want it
• How to solicit useful feedback
• How Scott decides which feedback to take on and which to ignore

Find out more about Scott right here, and grab a copy of Ultralearning here.

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My favourite tip from my chat with Broad City co-creator and star Abbi Jacobson was on why imposter syndrome can be a good thing.

You can find the full interview here.

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My guest today is Sandra Sully. Sandra is one of the most recognised and respected faces on Australian television. A journalist, senior editor and presenter with Ten Eyewitness News First at Five, she has been part of the TEN News team since 1990. Since 2018, she has also been the Managing News editor at ten daily. And she recently launched a podcast called Short Black through Network Ten, where she chats to various women who have something interesting to say.

We cover:

• How Sandra manages her calendar and why she puts exercise time in her diary
• How Sandra decides what to say yes to and what to say no to
• Sandra’s strategy for saying “no” politely
• Sandra’s approach to social media, and which channels she finds the most useful
• How Sandra gets across the news in the morning
• Sandra’s cure for insomnia and winding down from the rush of reading the late news
• The hardest part about reading the news
• Why Sandra watches most of her news reading “performances” back
• Why being as inoffensive as possible is critical when it comes to visual appearance on television
• How Sandra manages criticism on social media
• Sandra’s approach to preparing for interviews
• How Sandra builds rapport quickly with her interview subjects

Find Sandra on Twitter and check out her podcast Short Black.

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My favourite tip from my chat with New York Times editor Tim Herrera was on his strategies for beating procrastination.

You can find the full interview here.

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today’s show was recorded live in Melbourne in October at Inventium’s HQ in Melbourne. And it was with Adam Ferrier, someone who I have known for over a decade and I was very excited to have on the show. Adam is a consumer psychologist and the co-founder of Thinkerbell - an agency that fuses together marketing sciences and hard-core creativity – or as they like to put it – ‘Measured Magic’. Thinkerbell also happens to be the current 2018 Adnews' Creative Agency of the Year.

Adam is also the author of 'The Advertising Effect: How to change behaviour, sits on the boards of Tribe, Good Thnx and PIJI.

Where you might have seen Adam is on your TV set because he is a weekly guest on Australian national TV shows Sunrise and Your Money, and regular panellist on others such as Gruen and The Project.

I found this chat with Adam an absolute delight. Adam has very contrarian but also very useful views on things. And if you have ever thought about your own personal brand (and if you haven’t, you probably should), I think you’ll find this chat incredibly helpful in refining what it is what you stand for.

Follow Adam on Twitter and Linkedin, and check out Adam's agency Thinkerbell.

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My favourite tip from my chat with Psychology Professor Elizabeth Dunn was on her strategies for using money to buy time (and happiness).

You can find the full interview here.

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

David "Kochie" Koch is one of Australia’s most recognised faces, because he is on TV every morning as the co-host of Seven Network's Sunrise, a job he has had for the last 17 years. And for most of those 17 years, Sunrise has been Australia’s number one rating breakfast show. Kochie is also the Chairman of Port Adelaide and is the director of Pinstripe Media. And a Reader’s Digest survey found that Kochie is one of the top 25 most trusted people in Australia.

I was keen to have Kochie on the show because I wanted to understand how he balances his world as a breakfast TV host with his other business commitments. In person, Kochie was exactly how you expect him to be - super friendly and chatty, and also very thoughtful.

If you have ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of breakfast TV, and how the rest of the working day fits in around this commitment, then I think you’ll enjoy my chat with Kochie.

We cover:

• Kochie’s morning and evening routines
• How Kochie prioritises his health
• What goes on behind the scenes at Sunrise
• Kochie’s go-to news sources
• The hardest thing about doing breakfast TV
• Kochie’s least favourite day of the week
• Why Kochie still gets nervous before big interviews
• Getting behind the facade that celebrities put up in interviews
• How the Sunrise team maintain energy for the 3.75 hours they are on air every morning
• How Kochie “decompresses” after going off-air
• Kochie’s approach to email, Slack and social media
• Why Kochie will stay off social media for several days after a Port Adelaide football loss
• Kochie’s campaign for optimism

Follow Kochie on Twitter and check out Sunrise here.

If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work, I write a short monthly newsletter that contains three cool things that I have discovered that help me work better, which range from interesting research findings through to gadgets I am loving. You can sign up for that at http://howiwork.co

Visit https://www.amanthaimber.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.

Get in touch at [email protected]

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.