RelyOn podcast

Adam Ferrier is the founder of Thinkerbell, an Australian creative agency where marketing sciences meets hardcore creativity. He is a consumer psychologist, an author, and one of Australia's most recognised voices on brand behaviour and creativity.

Across his career advising CEOs, boards and marketing leaders, Adam is one of the few practitioners in this country who treats brand not as a marketing function but as the operating system of the entire organisation. In this conversation, he lays out the case for the CEO as Chief Brand Officer and introduces the idea of the brand as a behavioural contract that governs how every part of the business shows up.

What We Cover

In this episode, we examine what changes when a brand stops sitting with the marketing department and starts setting the behavioural standard for the whole organisation. Adam brings the frameworks, the agency-side experience from working with some of Australia's most recognisable brands, and a clear view on why most brand work fails to translate into internal action.

We discuss:

• Why brand should be understood as a behavioural contract that sets the tone for the organisation
• The case for the CEO as Chief Brand Officer
• Why the gap between what a brand promises and what its people deliver is wider than most CEOs realise
• How Thinkerbell built its internal operating system, including the rituals, language and roles that bring "Measured Magic" to life inside the agency + more

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This episode is powered by Rely, the all-in-one employee relations platform helping Australia's best known organisations turn hazards and people risk into organisational strength.

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Mentioned in This Episode:

• Thinkerbell's "Measured Magic" operating model
• Mark Ritson on brand simplicity
• Gonzo Marketing and the idea of business as marketing
• Thinkerbell and PwC

Where to find Adam (guest):

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamferrier/
• Thinkerbell: https://thinkerbell.com

Where to find Nathan (host):

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanluker/

Where to find Rely:

• Website: https://relyplatform.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/relyplatform/

Keith Govias is a Vincent Fairfax Ethics Fellow and the Workplace Safety and Risk Principal at EML, one of Australia's leading workers' compensation and personal injury claims managers.

With over two decades working at the intersection of mental health, workplace design, and risk, Keith is one of the few practitioners in Australia who brings genuine depth to the evidence, ethics, and organisational dimensions of psychological safety. He recently partnered with Monash University's Healthy Working Lives Research Group to produce Inside the Minds of Australia's Workplaces, one of the most comprehensive examinations of worker mental health ever conducted in this country.

In this episode, we examine what the data is actually telling us about the state of mental health in Australian workplaces, and what leaders, managers and organisations need to do about it. Keith brings the evidence, the lived experience of burnout, and the nuance that this topic demands.

We discuss:

• Why 4.1 million workers are living with mental ill health but only 13,000 are claiming, and what that gap means for every employer in Australia
• The most vulnerable cohort ever to enter the workforce, and what organisations need to do differently to retain them
• Why job design is the most underused lever in workplace mental health, and how to start using it
• What the data reveals about the serious decline in wellbeing
• The three to five year horizon for meaningful culture change, and the simple metrics leaders can start tracking today

--This episode is powered by Rely, the all-in-one employee relations platform helping Australia's best known organisations turn hazards and people risk into organisational strength.--

Research & Reports Referenced in This Episode:

• Inside the Minds of Australia's Workplaces (EML x Monash University)
• HILDA Survey, University of Melbourne
• Australia's Mental Health Check Up (KPMG x Council of Australian Life Insurers)
• The Gender Wellbeing Gap 2025 (GLWS)
• Women Speaking Up (Human Rights Law Centre)

Where to find Keith (guest):

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-govias-93195639/

Where to find Nathan (host):

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanluker/

Where to find Rely:

• Website: https://relyplatform.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/relyplatform/

Anne-Marie Paterson is the Chief Risk Officer (acting) at Medibank and one of Australia's leading risk transformation executives, having led enterprise risk programs across AMP, Commonwealth Bank, Colonial First State and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank. A lawyer by training who built her career at the intersection of employment law, whistleblowing and people risk, Anne-Marie has spent over two decades helping ASX-listed organisations translate complex regulatory expectations into cultures where people actually feel safe to speak up.

What We Cover

In this episode, we explore an underestimated challenge facing organisations: non-financial and people risk. From psychosocial hazards to compliance culture, Anne-Marie brings sharp, practical insight to help HR leaders, operations teams, and executives think and act like genuine risk owners.

In today's episode, we discuss:

• Why the Banking Royal Commission changed everything about how we should think about risk
• The "liability chill" and why leaders avoid words like "burnout" and why that silence is itself a risk
• How psychosocial hazards hide inside fast-growth cultures, often worn as badges of honour
• Why a mature risk culture is a driver of high performance, not a constraint on it
• What HR professionals need to do right now to start owning their role as risk practitioners

-- This episode is powered by Rely, the all-in-one employee relations platform helping Australia's best known organisations turn hazards and people risk into organisational strength. --

Where to find Anne Marie:

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-mariepaterson/

Where to find Nathan:

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanluker/

Where to find Rely

• Website: https://relyplatform.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/relyplatform/

Megan is Professor of Leadership and Dialogue at Hult Business School and Founder of Reitz Consulting. She is listed on the Thinkers50 ranking of global management thinkers and HR Magazine Most Influential Listing. She has previously appeared on Brene Brown's podcast, Dare to Lead.

In this episode of RelyOn, Megan talks to host, Nathan Luker, about creating a culture where employees feel safe to speak up, and leaders know how to listen.

Host, Nathan Luker, talks to Dr. Adam Hall, a strategic employee experience expert at global risk and people firm, WTW.

In this illuminating conversation (35 mins) they discuss:

• What are the pressing issues for People & Culture leaders in 2023 in terms of delivering an exception employee experience?
• How are People & Culture leaders using data to assess their culture and identifying ways to improve the employee experience?
• What happens when the employee's lived experience of the workplace doesn't match the promises made?
• What is the link between people, purpose and performance?
• Why are People & Culture teams lagging when it comes to using technology to do the grunt work, so they can focus on more strategic priorities?

Host, Nathan Luker, talks to strategy and transformation advisor, Kristy Fotiadis, about boards, governance and data, including why boards need the view from dancefloor as well as the balcony, how board are using data to track culture and why the Head of People & Culture should report directly to the board.

Today's conversation is a little bit different. We've partnered with Australia's GRC Institute to bring you the latest in governance, risk and compliance. Each quarter, we'll be joined by the GRC's CEO Naomi Burley to discuss the hot topics in risk management.

Host, Nathan Luker, talks to National Manager of Play by the Rules, Elaine Heaney, about integrity in sport. In Australia, 80% of adults and 40% of kids play sport (outside of school), and that doesn't include spectators! Nathan and Elaine discuss how to influence such a large population to be 'good sports'.

Host, Nathan Luker, talks to child safety expert and lawyer at Moores, Skye Rose, about child safety, how leaders can best protect children and how kids are leading the way in speaking up about safety concerns.

Host, Nathan Luker, talks to Chief Accessibility Advocate Department of Transport and disability advocate, Tricia Malowney OAM, about the discrimination disabled people face at work and what each of us can do to create welcoming workplaces where disabled people feel the same as everyone else - a valued member of the team.