The Life:Optimised Show

This is a preview from episode 8 with Dr. Sapna Samant. To listen to the full episode, follow on SoundCloud or subscribe on iTunes at http://bit.ly/lifeoptimizedshow.

What does it take to be successful across cultures?

Why is this important in our increasingly global village?

How should we act to connect cross-culturally, and what are the benefits?

In this episode of The Life:Optimized Show, my good friend and cultural intelligence expert, Charlotta Öberg and I dive into exploring these questions, and figuring out how to optimize your business and leadership with greater cross-cultural communication and connection, and how in this day and age this is not a novelty but an imperative.

We also talk about broader social issues like racism, xenophobia, multiculturalism and inter-cultural relationships - both in terms of the inevitable challenges and the abundant opportunities that come with living in an increasingly global village, and making an active effort to engage with different cultures, around the world and in our own neighbourhoods.

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Charlotta Öberg has dedicated 15 years to responding to these questions, by equipping thousands of professionals around the world with Cultural Intelligence. She enables people who work across cultures, in multicultural societies and global business, to succeed and thrive. A sought after expert on cross-cultural matters, she is a keynote speaker, facilitator and writer. Originally from Sweden, she has lived and worked around the world, including Malaysia, China and the US. She now manages PRISMA Cross-Cultural Consultants, developing multicultural mindsets for organisations in Australia and beyond.

Most recently, Charlotta worked for the Swedish government as a cultural diversity advisor, where she was awarded an EU project on Cultural Competence and nominated for the annual Diversity Prize. She has also headed up the London office of training firm Aperian Global, now her international partner. Charlotta holds a Masters Degree in Social Science with a focus on inter-cultural communication, and is a certified coach. She enjoys living in the global village that is Sydney with her family.

You can learn more about Charlotta and her work at http://www.prismagroup.com.au.

In this episode of The Life:Optimized Show, I speak with my friend Deb Carr about her inspiring journey in life that has been scattered with traumas and hardships that would completely break and destroy many people's will to survive. Deb shares the lessons she's learnt along the way to optimizing her response to her difficult experiences and challenges, and as a result not just surviving them, but thriving in her business, leadership and life with great success.

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Deb Carr was born in Cardiff Wales to an Irish Father and Welsh mother. At the age of four her family migrated to Australia. Her father's work meant that they needed to travel a lot and as a child crossed the Nalabour Plains before it was tar-sealed. On this trip as a child of 6 she nearly lost her life.

At the age of 11 the family moved to New Zealand. Deb moved back to Australia when she was 19 and became a citizen in 1988.

When she was 37 Deb's life was turned upside when her brother committed Suicide. The impact and shock on her life was enormous and six months latter she was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease. Two years later her marriage failed and then life took on a roller coaster of events and hardships struggling to build her first business.

Today, Deb works as a blogger and Social Media Marketer and teaches others how to do the same. She has inspired many people with her story on how she survived through some very tough times which she puts down to Persistence, Courage and Self Belief.

In this episode of The Life:Optimized Show, I speak with Creativity Coach, Lisa-Maree Botticelli, about the social, political and business implications of creativity and art, the stigmas and expectations around these things, and how accessing and nurturing your creativity can actually help you in your business, leadership and life in many ways. Stick around for an amazing guided art-therapy meditation exercise in the last quarter of this episode too!

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Lisa-Maree Botticelli is a gentle force: a Creativity Coach, social activist, artist, photographer, curator, writer and humanitarian. Using the power of art, Lisa-Maree is re-writing Australian history by bringing to our awareness the need for everyone to express creativity in every day life.

Idealistic and socially aware, Lisa-Maree has emerged from the shadow of creatively stifling employment, to produce artworks of humanitarian triumph.

Lisa-Maree turned to making art and using her creativity, as a tool for healing, after suffering a huge loss in her life. She found expressing her creativity daily increased and optimised her potential, bringing her greater happiness and fulfilment in her life.

After taking retrenchment from work and finding more time on her hands, she began exploring her creativity and discovered this was the critical ingredient missing from her working life.

From her experience, being an artist and achieving financial success was not easy, especially compared with other careers. And yet, artists still have the same needs and desires, as other humans, in terms of survival and thriving.

She founded Pure Creativity Coaching to help others combine their creativity, with making more money, while making a difference in the world.

From her research and working with clients, Lisa-Maree found many people are unfulfilled in their money-making activities, working for an organisation can be creatively stifling and it's time to find more meaning from life, while being paid well, doing what you love.

In 2006 Anfernee left a treadmill job at an IT company, after a traumatic brain surgery experience, to pursue a life worth living. He’s lived in 3 different countries, launched a successful online marketing business that has trained over 1,000 business owners across the globe, and empowered over 200 students in Laos.

He currently teaches people how to live confidently and passionately at his Release Your Inner Confidence retreats and through his online community at Confidentpreneur.com. Anfernee has appeared on Network Ten, Vibewire FastBREAK and is a blogger for Huffington Post.

In this episode of The Life:Optimized Show, Anfernee and I talk about the practical and emotional challenges of transitioning from a traditional career-based lifestyle to the life of an entrepreneur. We discuss some of the things that don't usually get talked about, including the challenges and strain that come with balancing the need to appear successful with the desire to be honest and authentic even when you're struggling; we talk about the difference between confidence and ego, and how to keep a check on it; and we also talk about relationships and how confidence and entrepreneur lifestyle can impact them.

All in all, I enjoyed getting super authentic with Anfernee to make sure we dived deep into the psyche of a rising star, and there were some seriously profound highlights too when we started talking about our respective experiences with death and loss of loved ones, and how that's been a motivator in doing what we do. Keep your tissues handy, just in case!

David Sokol has been in the management workforce for over 20 years. In between a corporate IT management career in the insurance and finance sector and Regional management experience in the community services sector David spent 10 years as a counsellor, both in Sydney and in the Central West of NSW.

In his personal life David has lived a life that mirrors so many others in the community - two marriages, two daughters, and most recently his first grandchild.

But David's interest in working in areas of grief came from his own experiences - he is the first generation of parents who came to Australia as a result of the Holocaust when most of his extended family were exterminated, he has been retrenched a few times in his work life, and his second wife died of cancer when she was aged 34.

But David was so busy working and being a father he never realised how all of these life experiences and circumstances were adding up.

Then, in 2013, after his first trip to Israel, which turned out to be a very emotional trip, things began to fall apart for him.

Now, after 8 months on antidepressant medication he can talk about his recent experiences and how many men he has met along the way who were also seeing the life slide downwards - some of whom are still not at the point of going to the doctor.

David and I dive deep into a profound conversation about the stigma around mental health, especially amongst men, and how this manifests in the workplace in areas as seemingly diverse as business, leadership and personal relationships.

Rossco Paddison is the founder of Heart Centred Money Makers and is quite regularly referred to as the “Business Oracle”. He has helped hundreds of people to discover their true soul’s calling, package it and then monetise it.

When Rossco was five years old he was asked what he wants to be when he grows up. Instead of saying he wanted to be an astronaut, or any specific role, he simply said, “I want to save the world”.

After owning multiple 6 & 7 figure businesses he got his “wake up call” to what it really meant to be a human.

Enter the inception of Rossco’s love-child: “Heart Centred Money Makers”. He now spends his days helping others to heal their relationship with money, so they can heal the world with their unique gifts.

Rossco and I talk about the timeless debate of capitalism vs. ethical living, and we explore some really interesting things like how to consolidate making a lot of money with being a heart-centred human being; what capitalists can learn from hippies, and what enthusiastic activists might be able to do differently to have a bigger impact in their missions; and even Rossco’s attitudes towards and lessons in parenting his adorable 4 year old son.

Rossco opens up like he rarely ever does, and this interview may well have your mind on the verge of exploding!

Benny Fergusson started off in fitness, playing elite level volleyball, and through some very interesting adventures along the way that you'll hear about on the very first episode of the Life: Optimized Show, Benny went on to co-found the very first Cohesion Gym and the Cohesion Training System in Melbourne, Australia.

Benny and I talk about the importance of looking at the body as an integrated and cohesive unit, and how traditional approaches to fitness have often become outright dangerous and detrimental.

We also chat about how optimizing your mind and spirit goes hand in hand with optimizing your body, and the tangible effect that living with cohesive integrity has on your personal and professional life.

Now, welcome to the very first episode of The Life:Optimized Show.