Inside Influence

My next guest has been described as one-part pioneer, one-part entrepreneur and one-part magician.

With an ability to make the impossible possible – it was Richard Branson who said that, high praise, but thoroughly deserved.

Her name is Linda Cruse and she’s spent the last 20 years on the front lines of the world’s biggest disasters, doing what she can to help. But it’s her particular brand of help, that made me so determined to get her on the show.

Like many others, I’m frustrated that the world isn’t fixed yet.

I’m frustrated that, despite countless telethons, children are still starving, I’m frustrated that, despite brilliant ad campaigns, victims of war are still left hopeless and my heart breaks, often, at the realisation that despite charitable giving increasing exponentially year on year, over half the world’ population lives in poverty.

By harnessing the intellectual power of the most innovative leaders in the corporate space, and directing this brain power to answer the world’s toughest problems, Linda has had a hand in generating an impact that most not for profits could only ever dream of.

Linda flips the paradigms surrounding ‘charity’ on their head, and if you get one thing from this episode, let it be that the impossible is made possible, not by money, but by influence and collaboration.

And If you want to know more about the amazing work she does, and get notified about her upcoming book then head over to www.lindacruse.com and sign up to her newsletter.

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It’s been nearly 2 years since Donald Trump was elected, and however you feel personally about his time so far as president, we all have to agree, that on the day that an ex reality TV contestant got elected to the highest office in the world the rules of influence were officially rewritten. And so we thought now would be the perfect time to share a conversation I had a little while ago, with a woman who has more understanding of what it takes to make, or break a political candidate, than almost anyone else in the country.

Her name is Dee Madigan – you’ll know her from Gruen – she’s won pretty much every advertising award going, has been the creative brains behind 10 political campaigns and is the driving force behind Campaign Edge, a dedicated political strategy agency.

In this conversation we looked at what it takes to get someone elected, the impact social media has had on the process, the public’s exhaustion with perfection and polish and what these factors mean for our political leaders moving forward.

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My next guest is someone I have known for many years, Kamal Sarma. 

al is the expert in how to Develop the Focus of a Warrior and the Peace of a Monk - in fact that's actually the title of one of his critically acclaimed books.

It’s a big claim – but it’s one that he’s in the unique position to be able to make - because he was one, a monk that is, for 8 years in fact. And since then he’s used the skills around clarity, focus and resilience to dominate in the competitive and fast paced world of venture capitalism.  

I first met Kamal after a mutual friend introduced us over ten years ago. At that point he was new to the world of thought leadership – and I was new to the world of meditation. We swapped expertise and what followed was many beautiful peaceful evenings with a monk visiting my home. 

Since then he’s become an expert – and I’ve stayed a complete meditating novice. However I have been fortunate enough to access his brilliant insights on many occasions – all of which have been transformative in my own journey with influence. 

More recently Kamal has distilled everything he has learnt into his latest book… ‘The Art of Win-Win Conversations: How to Navigate Your Most Challenging, Complex and Critical Conversations Through Connection’ 

Anyone who has ever sat in a high stakes business conversation, or an emotion fuelled negotiation with a loved one, will know that a win win is the holy grail of conversation outcomes. It’s like the unicorn in the room – a way to get everyone’s needs met. 

Interestingly - Kamal defines a win/win best as a conversation where all parties have their needs met. 

And therein I think lies the key - so often we don’t get to the bottom of what our partner, client or colleagues actually need. Which when you think about it is a big ask – as more often we’re not even able to fully articulate our own. 

Have you ever had that situation – where you would ask for what you need – if only you knew what it was? We can always think of what we don’t want, a thousand way we want someone not to behave – a million situations we want not to occur. 

But what we actually want? A clean request we can make that would possible, reasonable and respectful – now that’s difficult. Actually no – sometimes that feels more like impossible. 

So now you can see why I so wanted him on the podcast. 

What Kamal and I explore in this conversation goes to the heart of what conversation is about - a desire to connect, and in order to connect, we need to feel heard. Once the other person feels truly heard, Kamal's belief (and increasingly my own) is that misunderstanding is often removed, conflict dissolves and the opportunity for connections becomes limitless. 

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My  next  guest  is Red Bull air racing pilot Matt Hall. Matt is a third generation pilot, a former RAAF Fighter Combat Instructor, which if you are a fan of Top Gun you’ll get just how impressive that is, he’s an international unlimited aerobatic competitor and in 2009 became not only the first Australian to ever compete in the Red Bull Air Race World Championship but also the first Rookie to finish a Red Bull race and indeed the entire season on the podium. We looked at what it takes to truly lead at speed. In particular, how do you put your trust in the skills and expertise of others, when one wrong call could end your career and quite possibly your life. And when the inevitable does happen, the crash occurs, and your faith is well and truly shaken, what do you do next? What checks, rituals, tools do you put in place to make sure that you don’t allow one mistake to impact the way you lead moving forward? So  this  is  me  and  Matt Hall talking the highest of highs, the lowest of lows, and how to lead at speed – enjoy!

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My next guest is the only person that has ever been allowed to go behind the curtain, to study what it is that makes the legendary All Blacks such an unrivalled force in the sporting world. 

James Kerr is his name and he has spent most of his professional career studying the culture, patterns and habits of the world’s top performers including the Navy Seals, Manchester City FC and The All Blacks, the fascinating insights of which have formed the foundation of his widely acclaimed book Legacy.

It’s his belief, that by unpacking what it is that makes these teams so extraordinary, we can all lead better teams, businesses and even lives that first made me sit up and take notice of this brilliant man.

think it’s pretty clear to anyone who has ever heard of the All Blacks, which let’s face it, is everyone, why I would be so keen to sit down with the man who’s spent more time studying them up close than anyone out there – as a team, they are the pin ups of high performance, from the moment they step onto the pitch, to the closing of the Hakka, to the end of the game, the influence they have over the pitch and over their opponents is mesmerising. That even I, someone who actively avoids sport, can understand that what they do and how they do it is truly special. 

But I found myself, in this conversation, being surprised by the layers of Influence these players master on a day to day basis. From self influence, not letting high stakes situations crush you, to the influence of the collective, working together towards a higher order purpose as a team.

James summed it up well when he said that the entire team has a mission that they strive towards that is talked about at every team meeting, and at every game and that is, to leave the jersey in a better place than when you first put it on.

It’s this that I think will be the most powerful takeaway as you listen to James talk – a higher order purpose, bigger than one individuals ego or performance, brought to life by captivating stories and delivered daily through habits and rituals is really the difference between an All Black, and every one else.

But how can you use this everyday to create a performance mindset within your own teams?

In this episode we dive deep into:

Intensity vs. hustle – how to shoot for your goals without your team burning out

Mental tricks for standing your ground – the tools players use to keep a cool head on the field and how these can work in your high stakes situations

The power of totems – why there are wine gums in every All Blacks locker room  

Fierce Rituals – how the Haka has never lost its spine chilling power 

Shared mission – why the man who lays out the jerseys is as important as the men who wear them

I’m confident that you’ll walk away from our time spent together today armed with the tools you need to set an intention, create a culture and operate at peak performance in a way that allows you to create your own legacy, worthy of any All Blacks team.

 So this is me and James, peeling back the curtain and giving you unfiltered access to the tools of the sporting legends that are The All Blacks team…Enjoy!

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My next guest has been called “the controversial leader of the new world order”, wow, what a title to live up to, but live up to it he does.  

Co-founder of citizen journalism site NowPublic - one of the largest news agencies in the world, Leonard is an award- winning entrepreneur, venture capitalist, bestselling author and a two-time Emmy nominated media visionary. In his talks — for clients ranging from the United Nations to Visa and Pepsi — Leonard Brody addresses the rapid pace of change, innovation, and disruption facing us all, and what to do about it. His expertise in this area is unrivalled, so much so that he's been invited to share his insight with the world leaders at the G8 summit and the UN.  

The old rules of influence just don't apply any more. The biggest brands aren't products anymore, they are people, the most trusted voices aren't journalists any more they are thought leaders, the biggest funders aren't banks any more they are crowdfunders – and with this democratisation of power, comes unprecedented opportunity, this man is the absolute authority on what this power shift means for us and for those seeking to take hold of their own influence and how to navigate this new world moving forward.  

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This week’s guest is legendary sportswoman, adventurer, speaker and author Jess Watson.

Jess has navigated some of the world’s most remote oceans and has spent 210 days alone at sea where she became the youngest person to sail solo, nonstop around the world. And if that wasn’t enough to convince you of her awesomeness, she did it at 16, an age when I know I was busy trying to grow out an 80's perm. 

I’m not going to spend too long in this interview delving into the physical details of her journey, there’s many an article, documentary and book on that (and I hear rumours a motion picture is in the works). Instead I’m way more interested in hearing from this extraordinary women, about the mental side of tackling such a monumental task.

So, in the next hour, you are going to hear us go deep on a few key areas:

-          How do you build and then lead a crew when it’s your life on the line? And when they are infinitely more experienced than you? 

-          How do you find the courage to voice an audacious dream and shut down the critics? Even when that critic is you. 

-          How do you get buy in from people when what they are buying into seems impossible?

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Do you think advertising is only focused on brand awareness? You’re not alone.

However Creative Director of Google’s Unskippable Labs, Ben Jones, believes the key to influencing consumers these days lies in storytelling – thanks to our intense relationships with digital platforms.

Ben has spent decades creating advertising campaigns and, on a hunch, performed a brief experiment that uncovered something astonishing. The industry didn’t really understand viewing habits anymore. In fact, despite our demand for content, it’s surprisingly one of the most challenging times for advertisers.

I caught up with Ben to talk about his discovery that consumer habits have changed, and we are hungrier than ever for stories. In one hour he shared with me how the rise of mobile has given us the space to explore passions beyond what we could have dreamed, how Netflix has become the master of catering to our attention spans and recognising choice points is vital in the creation of compelling content.

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For those of you who have listened to this podcast before, you'll have heard me talk about an unhelpful belief that so many of us around the people who can and can not influence. 

This belief is that only the extroverts, the ones who are completely at home in front of people, whose voices do not wobble when they speak, can really create change. And certainly owning your own voice on stage or in a meeting is a vital component of become an authority in your space, but it's not the only thing. 

In this episode, we are going to turn the volume down a little, and we are going to go deep on listening deeply.

Have you ever been in the company of someone who has mastered this skill? It's magnetic. When someone truly shuts down their own ego, their own internal monologue, and focuses single-mindedly on your story, or your truth, it's hard not to fall in love with them.

You walk away feeling seen, you bare things to them that perhaps you've barely allowed yourself to acknowledge until that moment. 

Now imagine that skill being applied, not at a dinner party or at a boardroom, but in aboriginal communities with men and women who have experienced real trauma. Who have been forcibly removed from their homes and alienated from their culture, and their families.

That's where my next guest started her journey, working with the disenfranchised, the over looked, who had been so deeply abused that the only way to communicate their suffering was through violence because nobody has taken the time or had the capacity to listen - deeply.

She found a way to connect to them in a trans formative way through deep listening - to heal, not just them, but their entire communities as well.

In so many ways, if we all became better listeners, we'd hear the problems that need solving, whether on a global scale or in our own families and we'd gain a clearer understanding of how to solve them. 

I'm Julie Masters and Welcome to Inside Influence, the podcast where it's my job to talk to interesting and influential people about what it takes to create change, a movement, gain traction behind an idea and then extract these lessons so we can begin to use these in our own lives and on our own paths of influence.

This week's guest is Judy Atkinson - and it's safe to say, and you'll hear this in my voice throughout this conversation, I m in quiet awe of her.  Judy  is an expert in understanding healing and recovery from trauma in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

At the core of her approach to healing is her focus on listening. She understands that, In order to heal, the stories behind the trauma must be heard.

Because of this skill she was an integral part of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Task Force on Violence Report, for the Queensland government. She's an author, a retired lectured, a TED speaker and she continues to receive humanitarian and academic awards for her transformational work including the 2011  Fritz Redlich Memorial award for Human Rights and Mental Health from Harvard University.

In this conversation - which, by the way, happened in a car park in boiling hot Lismore because this was the only way I could make this happen, and it really needed to happen, - I wanted to talk to Judy about the process of listening deeply - how do get yourself in the mindspace to absorb someones story.

· Once you are in that mindset - how do you stay there?

· How do you ensure you are creating a safe space for the other person to open up?

· And what do you do if you don't necessarily like, or feel comfortable, or feel qualified to deal with what comes out?

· And what do you do next? 

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