One Question

Today, I’m joined by Thomas Nhan Tri Nguyen who has a fascinating story that I wanted to learn more about. From music halls to the battlefield and now boardroom, Thomas (or Tom’s) journey is anything but conventional. Tom is of Vietnamese heritage. He grew up in Adelaide, the only child of migrants who were fleeing war-torn Vietnam.

While his early years were filled with music and academia, he started his working life as a public servant in the Queensland Government. A desire for a greater challenge led him down an unexpected path: the Australian Defence Force.

Commissioned as an artillery officer in 2007, Tom served with distinction as a troop commander, navigating the complexities of field operations during a pivotal era in Australia’s military engagements. But Tom wanted more and it was then he discovered the world of management consulting and reinvented himself once again. An MBA from INSEAD in France launched him into the global stage with McKinsey, where he worked across 15 countries before returning to Australia to establish his own strategic advisory practice.

Tom’s story is one of curiosity, courage, and constant reinvention—a testament to the power of stepping outside your comfort zone. Today, he applies lessons learned from both the battlefield and the boardroom to help others navigate their own transformative journeys. Let’s meet Tom and find out more…  



For more information about Thomas, check out these places;-

Linkedin: Thomas Nhan Tri Nguyen

Instagram: @tomntnguyen

Head to michellejcox.com for more information about the ONE QUESTION podcast, your host or today’s guests

Connect with Michelle on Linkedin here:- @MichelleJCox

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AND, if you have a burning topic you’d love people to talk more about, or know someone who’d be great to come on the One Question podcast, please get in touch;- [email protected]

Hello, welcome to the show! I’m your host Michelle Cox and it makes me so happy you’re here with us once again to learn from another incredible guest that I’m about to introduce you to.

This episode is part of a ‘series’ we’re currently running on the show - where I'm talking to all guests about the same topic, and that topic is REINVENTION! 

And why are we doing this? Well, it’s a topic I get asked about a lot; how I reinvented myself, why, the process I went through, and I was keen to talk to others about their transitions and what they went through to create a new life for themselves. 

Today, I sit down with the wonderful Monique van Tulder who has been inspiring mid-life women to shake things up a bit and encouraging them to step into their ‘second-act’ where, after decades of looking after others, they now get to spend time and resources on themselves.

Authentically sharing her story of mid-life reinvigoration - her own Eat Pray Runaway & Return adventure (she abandoned her family for eight months) - Monique’s wisdom inspires other women to prioritise health & well-being, financial literacy, retirement or professional life, and of course, travel retreats and adventure also! 

Monique leads an engaged online community of like-minded mid-age women who want to regain control of their lives. Her mantra: “Now, is your time” sounds like just the antidote for many of us living a life seemingly for others & not ourselves. Let’s find out more from the wonderful Monique van Tulder. 

Her book ‘A Grown Ups Gap Year’ - The Guidebook for mid Lifestyle. Wellbeing.

Adventure. Chic (how to put YOU back in the picture).

For more information about Monique, check out these places;-

Website: https://www.moniquevantulder.com.au/

Instagram: @moniquevantulder

Head to michellejcox.com for more information about the ONE QUESTION podcast, your host or today’s guests

Connect with Michelle on Linkedin here:- @MichelleJCox

Connect with Michelle on Instagram here:- @michellejcox

Connect with Michelle on Facebook here - @michellejcox

AND, if you have a burning topic you’d love people to talk more about, or know someone who’d be great to come on the One Question podcast, please get in touch;- [email protected]

Hello, welcome to the show! I’m your host Michelle Cox and it makes me so happy you’re here with us once again to learn from another incredible guest that I will be ‘mining’ information from again this week. 

If you missed last week’s episode, go back and have a listen first as this is Part two! We are back with the Queen of Reinvention herself - the gorgeously talented Valerie Khoo. Valerie is the first guest in a ‘series’ we’re currently running on the show - where all guests will be asked to talk about the same topic, and that topic is REINVENTION! 

Why are we doing this? Well, it’s a topic I get asked about a lot;  how I reinvented myself, why, the process I went through, and I was keen to talk to others about their transitions and what they went through to create new lives for themselves. 

A recap on today’s guest; Valerie Khoo is an award-winning feature writer who is also CEO of the Australian Writers’ Centre - an organisation she founded over 18 years ago. Val does many things - some of which include podcaster, incredible artist and author of seven books. Val & I often have such incredible conversations in our studio and it was fitting that she kicks off this series about Reinvention as she’s had a fascinating journey that’s led her to where she is today. 

There was so much GOLD in the chat with Val that we split it into two parts.  Let’s dive in and hear more of the wisdom this incredible woman offers us. 

And don’t forget - the One Question podcast now has a YouTube channel.  Please, go check it out here so we have more than 5 views!! :)

One Question Youtube

For more information about Valerie, check out these places;-

Websites: Valerie Khoo and Australian Writers Centre

Instagram: @valeriekhoo

Linkedin: Valerie Khoo

Head to michellejcox.com for more information about the ONE QUESTION podcast, your host or today’s guests

Connect with Michelle on Linkedin here:- @MichelleJCox

Connect with Michelle on Instagram here:- @michellejcox

Connect with Michelle on Facebook here - @michellejcox

AND, if you have a burning topic you’d love people to talk more about, or know someone who’d be great to come on the One Question podcast, please get in touch;- [email protected]

We are kicking off a ‘series’ for the first time on the show - where I bring on guests to talk about the same topic over the coming weeks, and that topic is REINVENTION! It’s a topic I get asked about a lot;  how I reinvented myself, why, the process, and I wanted to talk to others about their incredible transitions and hear about their reinvention stories too. 

So, our first guest in this series is my dear friend, incredible entrepreneur and fellow creative studio buddy, Valerie Khoo who I’m sitting with here in our joint creative studio, Atelier 9 in Avalon. Valerie is an award-winning feature writer who is also CEO of the Australian Writers’ Centre - an organisation she founded over 18 years ago. As you’re about to hear, Val does many things - some of which include podcaster, incredible artist and author of seven books. Her latest books are So you want to be a writer (co-authored with Allison Tait) and Power Stories: The 8 Stories You MUST Tell to Build an Epic Business. Val & I always have such incredible conversations whist we are painting and potting in our studio and it was fitting that she kicks off this series about Reinvention as she’s had a fascinating journey that’s led her to where she is today. 

There was so much GOLD in this chat that I’ve split it into two parts - let’s dive in and here some of the wisdom this incredible woman offers us in part one. 

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Also - HUGE News!! I’m excited to announce that the One Question podcast now has a YouTube channel. It will be wonderful to be able to bring you visual content of our interviews as well. This episode with Valerie will be the first to feature on the platform - so please, go check it out here so we have more than 2 views!! :)

One Question Youtube

For more information about Valerie, check out these places;-

Websites: Valerie Khoo and Australian Writers Centre

Instagram: @valeriekhoo

Linkedin: Valerie Khoo

Head to michellejcox.com for more information about the ONE QUESTION podcast, your host or today’s guests

Connect with Michelle on Linkedin here:- @MichelleJCox

Connect with Michelle on Instagram here:- @michellejcox

Connect with Michelle on Facebook here - @michellejcox

AND, if you have a burning topic you’d love people to talk more about, or know someone who’d be great to come on the One Question podcast, please get in touch;- [email protected]

Today I get the tables turned on me as we hit a wonderful milestone here on the One Question Podcast. I’m lucky enough to once again sit down with Helene Thomas, a Hobart based creative audio producer with a PhD in journalism.

You may recall that I had Helene on the show a few months ago - you can have a listen to that interview it’s #189 on the show - it’s such a great conversation. But this time I connect with Helene for a different reason. You see Helene considers every story as a living spirit. This is why she takes her time and goes deep into the lives of others as they share their life worlds with her. She has been producing audio features and documentaries for 17 years and learned very quickly that telling people’s stories carries a huge responsibility, so she decided to make this the topic of her PhD study. 

Through her research, she developed a practice that she calls Journalism of the Heart. It’s where you slow down and take the time to get to know people so that it leads to deeper human connections and better stories. Helene’s passion is crafting people’s stories into intimate audio experiences and this is precisely why I felt she would be the perfect person to interview me for this very special 200th episode.

It’s a frank and honest interview- I was a little nervous before we started as I know Helene has a knack for bringing out stories we often keep under wraps. And as you’re about to hear.. she certainly caught me off guard with a few of her questions. This is a conversation about life, love, and the love of life and it’s ultimately a story about living a life more aligned with self and creative reinvention. I hope you enjoy it. 

For more information about Helene, check out these places;-

Over the past year she has been engaged with a variety of storytelling projects with elders in the community and LGBTQIA+ folk (Pridefinder and working with academics on an Australian Research Council funded project).



• Website: https://www.thewayfinder.com.au/
• Instagram: @thewayfinderstorystudio/
• Linkedin: Helene Thomas

Head to michellejcox.com for more information about the ONE QUESTION podcast, your host or today’s guests

Connect with Michelle on Linkedin here:- @MichelleJCox

Connect with Michelle on Instagram here:- @michellejcox

Connect with Michelle on Facebook here - @michellejcox

AND, if you have a burning topic you’d love people to talk more about, or know someone who’d be great to come on the One Question podcast, please get in touch;- [email protected]

If there is one thing you think society should talk more about, what would it be?

“The Power of Play. The Elixir of Life - Eternal Youth. We spend billions of dollars every year trying to make ourselves look and feel younger and yet the solution is staring right at us. PLAY! For some reason, we dismiss it as childish, not important to our life's goals and conquests or we are just too busy. And yet, when we look at the science behind play the only word I can use to describe its effects on our wellbeing is POWERFUL.”

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"We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing" George Bernard Shaw".

Imagine if your whole idea for existing as a business is to measure and improve Australians' wellbeing! Pretty cool mandate, huh?! Well, that’s the aim of my guest today and he’s well on the way to having an incredibly positive impact on Aussie lives. 

The Elixir of Life - Eternal Youth. We spend billions of dollars every year trying to make ourselves look and feel younger and yet the solution is staring right at us. Apparently, all we need to do is re-introduce PLAY back into our daily lives! 

Tim Jack Adams is a thought leader and speaker in the Wellness Industry. He founded GreenX7 in 2012, an innovative company that created an overarching framework for wellbeing that enables leaders, teams and organisations to thrive sustainably. 

Tim works with the likes of Six Senses, Alila, Australian Defence Force, Red Bull, Olympians and many of the world's top companies.  He is an international keynote speaker, workshop facilitator and expert advisor on wellness for corporations in the Asia Pacific region.

Though Tim's passion is PLAY! Tim founded the company Watersports Guru in 2009 in Kingscliff on the Tweed Coast. It's an ecotourism company inviting people to play in the great outdoors through fun adventures like Snorkel with the Turtles and Mindfulness in the Mangroves. Tim's mission through his companies is to improve the wellbeing of Australians and he believes PLAY plays a big part! His greatest feats of PLAY are with his wife Carly and two kids, Sonny and Frankie. Let’s meet this wonderfully enthusiastic human. 

For more information about Tim, check out these places;-

Websites: GreenX7  and Water Sports Guru  and Tim Jack Adams

Instagram: @timjackadams

Linkedin: Tim Jack Adams

Head to michellejcox.com for more information about the ONE QUESTION podcast, your host or today’s guests

Connect with Michelle on Linkedin here:- @MichelleJCox

Connect with Michelle on Instagram here:- @michellejcox

Connect with Michelle on Facebook here - @michellejcox

AND, if you have a burning topic you’d love people to talk more about, or know someone who’d be great to come on the One Question podcast, please get in touch;- [email protected]

If there was one thing you think society should talk more about, what would it be? 

“Perinatal mental health and postpartum psychosis”

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Ariane Beeston is a child protection worker and newly registered psychologist when she gives birth to her first child – and very quickly begins to experience scary breaks with reality. Out of fear and shame, she keeps her delusions and hallucinations secret, but as the months pass Ariane gets worse. Much worse. Finally admitted to a mother and baby psychiatric unit, the psychologist is forced to learn how to be the patient.

With medication, the support of her husband, psychotherapy and ultimately, time, Ariane rebuilds herself. And she also begins a new chapter working in perinatal mental health, developing resources to support other new mothers.

Ariane has been a staff writer at Fairfax Media's Essential Baby and Essential Kids and has also published articles in The Sydney Morning Herald, Daily Life, Babyology and Mamamia. She recently released her first book, Because I'm Not Myself, You See: A memoir of motherhood, madness and coming back from the brink is an incredible story of the impossible pressures placed on new mothers and how quickly things can go wrong during 'the happiest time of your life'. 

Ariane currently works for Australia's peak body in perinatal mental health, The Centre of Perinatal Excellence (COPE), as their communications and content manager. She is also a dancer and choreographer - one fascinating woman.

For more information about Ariane, check out these places;-

Find her book here: Because I'm Not Myself, You See

Website: https://www.arianebeeston.com/ 

Instagram: @arianejbeeston

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arianebeeston 

Head to michellejcox.com for more information about the ONE QUESTION podcast, your host or today’s guests

Connect with Michelle on Linkedin here:- @MichelleJCox

Connect with Michelle on Instagram here:- @michellejcox

Connect with Michelle on Facebook here - @michellejcox

AND, if you have a burning topic you’d love people to talk more about, or know someone who’d be great to come on the One Question podcast, please get in touch;- [email protected]

If there was one thing you think society should talk more about, what would it be? 



“I’d like people to understand the complexity and challenges for parents and carers looking after neurodivergent children.”

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Today you’ll meet a truly beautiful and inspirational person. Her work has positively impacted so many kids and families trying to overcome some extra challenges that life has thrown at them. Her name is Michelle Mennillo and she’s spent the past 20 years building a globally recognised occupational therapy business that has transformed the lives of over 10,000 young people and counting.

Michelle has dedicated her career to helping others overcome self-doubt and learn how to master their universe. An entrepreneur, mother, and now leadership coach, Michelle understands firsthand the challenges of balancing ambition with authenticity. Through her latest venture, MLM, she shares her proven strategies to help professionals unlock their limitless potential, embrace their true selves, and leave an indelible mark on the world.

For more information about Michelle, check out these places;-

Website: https://otfcgroup.com.au/

Instagram: Michelle Mennillo

Linkedin: Michelle Mennillo

Head to michellejcox.com for more information about the ONE QUESTION podcast, your host or today’s guests

Connect with Michelle on Linkedin here:- @MichelleJCox

Connect with Michelle on Instagram here:- @michellejcox

Connect with Michelle on Facebook here - @michellejcox

AND, if you have a burning topic you’d love people to talk more about, or know someone who’d be great to come on the One Question podcast, please get in touch;- [email protected]

If there was one thing you think society should talk more about, what would it be?   

“I wish people in society would speak more openly about their dreams and desires rather than allow society to dictate what they should be doing and how their career should look like.”

_________________

Throughout your life have you ever felt the need to do something just because someone else wants you to? Perhaps it’s wearing something that makes you feel uncomfortable, or going to a party or an event you really don’t want to.. but how would you feel if that was your career?

Something you spend most of your waking hours doing, and it was a job you hated. You only really got into it because you felt the pressure of others convincing you that’s what you needed to do with your life. There’s a growing trend with professionals across many sectors - law, finance and medicine who are disillusioned with their career choice and feeling the pull toward doing something they love, vs what they feel everyone else wants them to do.

My guest today works in this space every day and she’s making a change in helping those who feel the pull to do more of what they love and move away from what others tell them to do. Marija Duka is a speaker and workshop facilitator who works specifically with lawyers helping them to uniquely design their careers. She is a commercial lawyer, with both in-house and private practice experience, having previously worked for renowned Australian brands.

Marija is also the host of The Career Confidence Podcast, designed for those in the legal profession looking to step out of the traditional path and build fulfilling and purposeful careers. Whilst I have a bit of experience in re-inventing yourself, this is a topic I’m keen to hear more perspectives about, so let’s meet Marija. 

For more information about Marija, check out these places;-

• Website: https://marijaduka.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marija-duka/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marija.duka/

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Head to michellejcox.com for more information about the ONE QUESTION podcast, your host or today’s guests

Connect with Michelle on Linkedin here:- @MichelleJCox

Connect with Michelle on Instagram here:- @michellejcox

Connect with Michelle on Facebook here - @michellejcox

AND, if you have a burning topic you’d love people to talk more about, or know someone who’d be great to come on the One Question podcast, please get in touch;- [email protected]

If there was one thing you think society should talk more about, what would it be? 

“Creating better habits isn't just about exercising more or eating healthier, or having a great bedtime routine. It's not about external achievements like making more money, getting fit or losing weight. While habits can and do lead to these outcomes, the real value of habits lies in their power to shape who you become. They mold and reflect the person you aspire to be, telling the story of your life. Ultimately, you become your habits.”

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If you’re anything like me, you are constantly working on habits…breaking those bad ones you’re not proud of and trying to replace them with the good habits that (supposedly) make our lives better and make us overall better humans. But it often gets all too hard… I wanted to talk with something that’s an expert in this field - and has done (and continues to do) the research to back her findings. 

Meet Dr. Gina Cleo, who is one of the world’s leading experts in habits and is passionate about translating scientific evidence into simple, actionable strategies to help improve health, wellness, mindset, and lifestyle-related habits – long-term. Gina has a PhD in habit change, is an Adjunct Professor at Bond University and an Accredited Practicing Dietitian. 

Gina’s habit change research has been published in medical journals globally and she has appeared for over 250 news outlets including many of Australian’s major television networks; ABC News, Today Show & Studio 10. She is also a regular keynote speaker and expert panellist at national and international conferences. When she’s not geeking out on new habit research, Gina is running courses through her Habit Change Institute and obsessing over chai lattes. She has also recently published a book, ‘The Habit Revolution’. I have soo many questions…let’s dive in!

For more information about Gina, check out these places;-

Website: www.drginacleo.com 

Free Habit Course: habitchangeinstitute.mykajabi.com/masterclass 

Book: ‘The Habit Revolution’: www.drginacleo.com/book 

IG: www.instagram.com/drginacleo

Head to michellejcox.com for more information about the ONE QUESTION podcast, your host or today’s guests

Connect with Michelle on Linkedin here:- @MichelleJCox

Connect with Michelle on Instagram here:- @michellejcox

Connect with Michelle on Facebook here - @michellejcox

AND, if you have a burning topic you’d love people to talk more about, or know someone who’d be great to come on the One Question podcast, please get in touch;- [email protected]