Seventeen episodes in, it's finally time for the CEO tosit down.

Mark Woodland is the CEO and founder of Kismet, and thisconversation goes places most founder interviews don't.

He talks about losing his brother Ben and about losing hisson five years ago during COVID and going to work the next day.

About the three problems he needs to solve before he's done: healthcare, education and housing.

And the one after that. Politics.

Plus vision boards, a taxidermy Bigfoot head stuck in customs,why Xplor should have failed 100 times and didn't, and the challenge he is about to issue to the entire Kismet team.

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The tables have turned. This week, our host Carina Waye takes the guest chair, and Kismet CEO Mark Woodland takes the mic.

It turns out Carina has quite the story. Musical theatre degree, rejection from WAAPA at 18, Channel 10, New York, Jim Henson's carriage house, catering for billionaires in the Hamptons, and then coming home during COVID to start fresh in tech with zero experience and a very aggressive LinkedIn strategy.

They also get into goals, luck, gratitude, other people's fear and the five-year plan she was nervous to say out loud.

Plus conspiracy theories, obviously.

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Meet Simone Weston, Chief Performance Officer at Kismet,obsessed with the Navy SEALs, powered by a 5am ritual, and one of the most extraordinary people to sit down in the studio yet.

Mon's episode covers a lot of ground. Her lived experiencewith domestic violence and the healing journey that followed. The power spectrum she created to diagnose where we all sit at any given moment. What we are not teaching men or women about power, and why that gap is costing us. How she was meditating one day and received a very clear message about a job that did not yet exist, and then manifested it into being.

Plus: why people-pleasing is actually a form of disempowerment, soul-aligned goals vs ego-driven goals, and how to regulate yourself and a dysregulated room using only your body.

This one is direct, honest and deeply generous. Mon holdsnothing back.

In this episode we cover:

• The Navy SEALs metaphor and what Kismet is actually trying to build

• Power literacy: the gap in corporate Australia no one is talking about

• The power spectrum from disempowered to overpowered and how to stay in conscious power

• Domestic violence, PTSD and defying the odds on a healing timeline

• Healing is a choice: going head on and finding the root cause

• You have to feel it to heal it

• Regulating yourself and a dysregulated room

• Ego and ego: why dropping your energy wins every time

• Raising boys with power literacy: critical thinking, boundaries,leadership

• Soul-aligned goals vs ego-driven goals and how aligned ones feel like a pull not a force

• Manifesting: Mon has a gift and she is the first to admit she cannot explain it

• Luck: it is not what happens to you, it is what you make of it

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In this episode of The Kismet Podcast, Carina sits down with Shanti Dhanaraj, who looks after Compliance and Systems at Kismet, for one of the most joyful, wide-ranging conversations the pod has had yet.

Shanti is a theatre kid turned data nerd turned book obsessive turned flower person, and somehow all of it makes complete sense.

They talk about growing up painfully shy and how drama class changed everything, the unexpected connection between theatre ensemble and social justice, what it actually means to make choices for yourself for the first time, and the power of a library card.

Plus: a Schitt's Creek rewatch, why Fleabag is always the answer, a strong case for going to shows alone, and the philosophy of flowers.

This one is warm, funny and easy to love, just like Shanti.

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In this episode of The Kismet Podcast, Carina sits down with Nat Kramersh, Kismet's Chief Operating Officer and our first exec in the room.

Nat's path to COO wasn't exactly direct. After five years at a high-performing consulting firm, she made the deliberate decision to step back, take time off, and figure out exactly what she wanted next, on her own terms. 

No job lined up. Just a vision board, a LOT of intentional networking, and a very well-crafted LinkedIn message to a CEO who rarely checks his inbox.

They talk about what it means to be intentional about your career, the women's leadership program that had Nat doing one leap a week, navigating imposter syndrome as a first-time exec, and why hard work feels different when you're genuinely aligned.

Plus: manifesting, Freida McFadden's Hannah Montana double life, and the great shoes-on-or-off debate that has divided the entire Kismet leadership team.

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Nadine Nasser-Eldin was 20 years old when she took on one of the worst performing stores in OPSM's national network, in the middle of a pandemic, and turned it around in ten months.In Episode 12 of The Kismet Podcast, Carina sits down with Nadine to talk about ambition, community, cultural identity and the kind of care that changes people's lives.Nadine grew up navigating the balance between a traditional Middle Eastern family culture and her own drive to build something for herself. In this episode they cover building community from the ground up, upskilling herself to upskill others, running workshops for managers decades her senior, what it actually looked like to turn a struggling store around through word of mouth and genuine connection, finding Kismet, navigating cultural expectations with grace and boundaries, solo travel to Korea and Japan, a national advertising campaign she almost said no to, and a story about a little boy with autism that will stop you in your tracks.🎧 Also available on YouTube and Apple Podcasts.Chapter Timestamps: 00:00 — Welcome & Intro00:45 — Nadine's Role at Kismet01:30 — Starting Out at 1902:00 — Health Science & the Optometry Plan02:30 — Eight Years at OPSM03:00 — Stepping Into Management03:30 — Taking On the Worst Store in the Country04:30 — Turning It Around in Ten Months05:00 — Embracing New Technology06:00 — Running Workshops for Senior Managers07:00 — Building Community Through Word of Mouth08:30 — Flowers, Chocolates & a Community That Cared Back09:30 — Knowing When to Move On10:30 — Managing the Biggest Store During Reopening11:30 — Having a Cry in the Back and Getting On With It12:30 — The Team That Kept Her Grounded13:00 — Finding Kismet14:00 — The Seven O'Clock Phone Call15:00 — How Mon Found Her16:00 — People First, Numbers Second17:00 — The Transition to Working From Home18:30 — Learning the NDIS19:30 — Unreasonable Hospitality at Kismet20:30 — The Calm Carry Story23:30 — Small Things, Big Impact24:00 — Growing Up Between Two Cultures25:00 — Get the Key in Your Hands26:30 — Breaking the Cycle27:30 — Blocking Out the Noise28:30 — Boundaries & Confidence29:30 — Solo Travel to South Korea30:30 — Japan & Seeing the World Differently32:00 — Travel Tips & What She Loved33:30 — Taking Your Leave34:00 — Bali, Fiji & What's Next35:00 — On Goals36:00 — Investing in Personal Life36:30 — Pilates, Walks & Exploring the City37:00 — Lucy the Ragdoll & Olive the German Shepherd39:30 — On Luck40:30 — Hard Work vs Being Handed Things41:00 — The National OPSM Campaign43:30 — Say Yes Anyway45:00 — Goals for the Next 12 Months46:00 — What She Hopes People Say at Her 50th47:00 — Advice to Baby Nadine47:30 — ClosingFollow us!Instagram: @kismethealthyLinkedIn: @kismethealthcareYouTube: @KismethealthcaredApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kismet-podcast/id1872529224Kismet: https://www.kismet.healthcare/Contact us 📥[email protected]

Josh Coulson has worked at some of the biggest tech companies in the world. LinkedIn. Deloitte. Atlassian. And then a redundancy opened a door he didn't even know he was knocking on.

In Episode 11 of The Kismet Podcast, Carina sits down with Josh to talk about a career that has taken him from a printer desk at WorkCover QLD to building a team of 23 at LinkedIn, from consulting at Deloitte to leading data and analytics at Australia's fastest growing startup.

Josh stumbled into analytics via a six week unpaid internship that turned into six years, built his career across Silicon Valley, Singapore, Hong Kong and Sydney, and eventually made the call to come home to Brisbane for family.

They get into what he learned about leadership at Atlassian, why transparency should always be the default, how AI cost him his job and why that doesn't scare him.

🎧 Also available on YouTube and Apple Podcasts

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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kismet-podcast/id1872529224

Kismet: https://www.kismet.healthcare/

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Jack Bennett did his job interview from a hostel bunk bed in Sydney. Three days later he got the call.

In Episode 10 of The Kismet Podcast, Carina sits down with Jack Bennett, one of Kismet's earliest team members, for a conversation that travels from Zimbabwe to Cork to South Africa to Sydney to Cairns to Brisbane — and covers a lot of life along the way.

Jack has been in Australia for over three years, has seen almost every corner of the country through his work with Kismet's community team, and has built a life here that started with a job interview he took on a hostel bunk bed.

Jack grew up in Zimbabwe, moved to Ireland at five, spent a gap year in South Africa and eventually landed in Australia — where a low moment in a Sydney hostel almost sent him straight back home. In this episode he talks about the advice that kept him going, three years at Kismet, homesickness, learning Spanish for love, country music, Lord of the Rings and what luck actually means.

🎧 Also available on YouTube and Apple Podcasts

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kismethealthcare/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/ ⁨@Kismethealthcared⁩ 

Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kismet-podcast/id1872529224

Kismet: https://www.kismet.healthcare/

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In this episode of The Kismet Podcast, Carina sits down with Ross Widdows — product designer at Kismet — for a conversation that wanders through art, craft and the kind of creative restlessness that leads someone to build a pool cleaning business, invent a float tank ventilation system, run a furniture company and end up in tech — sometimes all at once.

The thread running through all of it is the same: a love of making things and a curiosity that doesn't switch off.

They also get into AI, the future of creative work, Huon Pine, MONA and why the best buildings are the ones that take a lifetime to build.

Chapter Timestamps:

00:00 — Welcome & Intro

00:45 — Ross's Role at Kismet

01:30 — Growing Up Creative

02:00 — Visual Arts Degree

03:00 — The Kinetic Sculpture That Changed Everything

05:00 — A Creative Household? Not Quite

05:30 — Life After Uni

06:00 — Roscoe's Pool Services is Born

07:30 — Negotiating His Own Rate

09:15 — The Float Tank CO2 Problem

11:00 — Inventing a Solution & Selling It Nationally

12:00 — Into Medical Technology

13:00 — What is Industrial Design?

15:00 — From Medical Tech to Making Furniture

16:30 — The Commission-Only Furniture Business

17:30 — Life in the Garage Workshop

18:30 — When Passion Becomes Obligation

20:00 — Joining Kismet

22:00 — What He Loves About the Role

23:30 — AI & the Future of Design

27:00 — Protecting the Creative Industries

31:00 — On Goals

28:30 — Half Marathon in Progress

31:00 — The Dream Workshop

32:00 — Hand Tools & the Art of Joinery

36:00 — AI & the Arts

39:00 — Travelling for Inspiration

40:00 — Huon Pine & Tasmania

42:00 — MONA & Dark Mofo

43:30 — Architecture & Buildings With Stories

45:00 — On Luck

47:30 — Gratitude & Feeling All the Feels

48:30 — What He Hopes People Say at His 50th

49:30 — Don't Be Afraid to Fail

51:00 — The Teacher Who Almost Said No

52:30 — Closing

Also available on YouTube & Apple Podcasts.

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kismethealthcare/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Kismethealthcared

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kismet-podcast/id1872529224

Kismet: https://www.kismet.healthcare/

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The Kismet Podcast is a show about the careers we build, the detours we didn't expect, and the quiet moments of fate that end up changing everything.

Hosted by Carina Waye, each episode goes beyond the job title — into the real stories of ambition, pivots, purpose, and the hard-won lessons that only come from taking a leap.

Whether you're deep in your career, starting over, or building something entirely your own — these are the conversations you didn't know you needed.