Thrive TV Show

IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL DISCOVER:

1. The reality of NeuroDiversity.

2. How to be more inclusive and empower people.

3. The prevalance of later life diagnosis and how to navigate it.

ABOUT AISLING:

Aisling Smith is an international speaker and neuroinclusion specialist, and Founder of NeuroEmpowerment Solutions. As a late-diagnosed autistic ADHDer, she brings lived experience and enterprise expertise to her work at the intersection of neurodiversity in the workplace, leadership, and psychosocial safety.

Aisling supports organisations to understand how cognitive load, masking, and workplace design impact employee mental health, particularly for individuals navigating multiple identities. She has worked with organisations including Telstra, ANZ, IBM, and government departments, helping leaders move from awareness to practical inclusion.

Awarded Global Neurodiversity Coach and Trainer of the Year (2024 & 2025), Aisling is known for reframing inclusion as both a human and performance imperative.

CONNECT WITH AISLING:

Visit her speaker website and business website.

Connect with Aisling on LinkedIn and Instagram.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL DISCOVER:

1. Why “good service” is no longer enough

Discover why most organisations are settling for ordinary, and what it really takes to create experiences people talk about, remember, and come back for.

2. The real meaning of Human

Move beyond transactions and processes, and learn how small, intentional moments of care and curiosity can completely transform culture, leadership, and customer experience.

3. The hidden advantage most businesses are overlooking

In a world chasing efficiency, Peter reveals why the organisations that win are the ones that feel different, and how to bring that difference to life in practical, everyday ways.

ABOUT PETER:

Peter Merrett is a Hall of Fame keynote speaker and former chef and luxury hotelier who has spent 35 years defining what world-class hospitality truly looks like. 

Today, he helps organisations rediscover the human side of business, bringing wonder back to culture, service, and leadership, where culture isn’t a program, service isn’t a transaction, and leadership is felt, not just seen.

Known for his warmth, storytelling and straight-talking clarity, Peter challenges leaders to raise their standards, rethink what’s possible, and create experiences people never forget. In a world chasing efficiency, his message is simple: the real advantage has always been human.

CONNECT WITH PETER:

Visit his website.

Connect with Peter on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Here is Peter's book.

 IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL DISCOVER:

1. Why influence, not authority, is the defining skill of successful middle managers and where most get it wrong. 

2. How to confidently manage up, across, and down without overstepping or second-guessing themselves. 

3. Practical techniques to communicate with clarity and impact, even in high-pressure or politically complex environments.

ABOUT SALLY:

Sally Foley-Lewis CSP is a globally recognised leadership expert specialising in middle managers, the most overlooked and over-relied-on layer of organisations. With over 20 years’ experience across Australia, Asia, the Middle East, and North America, she has worked with companies including Coca-Cola, L’Oréal, and Microsoft. 

Sally is the author of The Middle Matters and is known for her practical, engaging approach to building confident, capable leaders who can influence without authority. 

As National President of Professional Speakers Australia, she is passionate about helping leaders thrive, not just survive, in today’s complex workplaces.

CONNECT WITH SALLY:

Visit https://www.sallyfoleylewis.com for leadership resources, programs, and insights.

Connect with Sally on LinkedIn for practical tips on leading from the middle.

Explore her online community, Lead From The Middle,  to learn how to lead with confidence, clarity, and impact.

 IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL DISCOVER:

1. A new perspective for why we must experience pain and hardship in our lives.
2. A look into how the Hero's Journey is speaking of a deeper mystery, and what that means for you.
3. We'll unlock the keys to taking back the pen and writing the story you desire.

ABOUT JASON:

Jason Blyth is a speaker and youth advocate delivering raw messages on resilience, personal responsibility, and the power of choice.

A former international athlete, he won multiple national titles, international medals, and placed top-10 at the Junior World Championships. As a musician, he collaborated with international artists and producers behind Ludacris, Linkin Park, and Snoop Dogg.

Born into extreme adversity and raised in darkness, Jason lived a life of destruction until rock bottom changed everything. Described as a once-in-a-generation speaker, his mission is to ensure every child grows up in a safe home, free from abuse and neglect.

CONNECT WITH JASON:

Connect on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Visit his website: https://jasonblyth.com/

 IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL DISCOVER:

1. Why AI is a human decision, not a tech decision. 
2. What happens when you skip the human layer. 
3. How to build a workforce that thrives with AI, not just survives it. 

ABOUT TRACY:

Tracy Sheen CSP is an AI governance consultant, keynote speaker and two-time award-winning author with 30+ years in digital technology, including launching SMS and the original iPhone in Australia. 

She guides teams, leaders and organisations to build workforces that are genuinely human-led and AI-leveraged through her signature GIST Framework. Her book AI & U: Reimagine Business is the plain-language guide for anyone who wants practical Monday morning steps without the overwhelm. 

Tracy runs her entire business from a caravan, travelling full-time across Australia. Human-led. AI-leveraged. The Augmented Workforce.

CONNECT WITH TRACY:

Connect on LinkedIn.
Find out about here book: aiandu.com.au
Visit her website: tracysheen.com 

IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL DISCOVER:

1. Understand Fear
2. How to upgrade your core operating system.
3. Find the courage to live the life you always wanted

ABOUT STEVEN:

They call him ‘The Resilience Warrior.’ When you're needing change, a fresh perspective and a new way forward, he’s your guy. He understands what it means to live life face-on, full on, day in day out, no matter what the world throws at him. 

Born with a Nevus (Birthmark) on his forehead, this former Line Maintenance, Aircraft Maintenance Engineer, he has battled fear and challenges, every step of the way. Steven’s authentic vulnerability and thought-provoking insights captivate his audience to cultivate new ways forward. 

Feedback highlights his ability to empower individuals to embrace their uniqueness and awaken to endless possibilities.

CONNECT WITH STEVEN:

To find out more about Steven "Different- Coming Face-to-Face With Your Uniqueness" visit www.stevenbouris.com.

Connect on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL DISCOVER:

1. Diagnosing the negative side-effects of goals and targets.
2. Learning how to drive experimentation, learning, and adaptation in your organization through the OHLA methodology. It offers scaffolding for puzzle-setting and puzzle-solving.
3. How you and your terms can thrive by shifting focus from performance evaluation to performance development.

ABOUT RADHIKA:

Radhika Dutt is the author of Radical Product Thinking: The New Mindset for Innovating Smarter – which introduced a methodology that’s now used in over 40 countries.

She is an entrepreneur, speaker, and product leader who has participated in five acquisitions, two of which were companies that she founded. She is currently Advisor on Product Thinking to Singapore’s central bank, and consults for organizations ranging from high-tech startups to multinationals. 

Radhika has built products in a wide range of industries including broadcast, media and entertainment, telecom, advertising technology, government, consumer apps, robotics, and even wine. She graduated from MIT with an SB and M.Eng in Electrical Engineering, and speaks nine languages.

CONNECT WITH RADHIKA:

Connect on LinkedIn

Download the OHLs toolkit and start using it today to drive better business outcomes through puzzle-setting and puzzle-solving.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL DISCOVER:

1. How NITS turns vague communication into clear communication, in 30 seconds or less. No assumptions, no missing info, no “I thought you meant...”
2. How FFF helps you cut the noise, separate facts from feelings, and stop reacting on emotion.
3. How to use both tools anywhere - in a meeting, a crisis or a family argument, to stay calm, clear

ABOUT MICHELLE:

Michelle Huntington is a former airline captain, one of only 500 women in the world to hold that rank. After 20 years flying through storms, engine failures and high-stakes moments at 35,000 feet, she now shows leaders how to stay clear-headed when pressure spikes. 

Michelle teaches the aviation tools pilots use to communicate fast, make decisions when lives are on the line and avoid knee-jerk reactions that create chaos. She’s the author of Lady MacGyver: Unbelievable Stories with Altitude and co-host of the Captain & the Clown podcast. 

She’s on a mission to prove that pressure doesn’t have to break you, it can make you better, if you know how to think.

CONNECT WITH MICHELLE:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-huntington/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stories.with.michelle/

Let’s be honest – leadership can be lonely.

The weight of decisions. The pressure to perform. The balancing act of keeping people motivated, focused, and performing at their best.

And yet, you’ve probably had a leader in your life who made all the difference. Someone who saw you. Who helped you grow. Who made work a place you wanted to be.

What if you could be that leader for someone else?

Here’s how you can be the leader everyone wants to work with – based on everything I’ve learnt over the last two decades working with leaders and focusing on building a thriving team culture.

1. Start with Self-Leadership

You can’t pour from an empty cup. How you think, move, eat, and breathe profoundly impacts how you lead.

The foundation of powerful leadership is personal wellbeing. When you’re energised, clear-headed and resilient, you can lift others too.

That’s why I teach leaders to embody the Live Well Principles – to Uplift your thoughts, Nourish your body, Invigorate your life with movement, Strengthen your mind and relationships, and Restore to keep everything in balance.

I once worked with a senior leader – let’s call her Sarah – who was concerned her team weren’t dealing well with stress at work. She wanted them to have better energy and better balance. 

What I quickly discovered, was that Sarah wasn’t demonstrating much balance herself. She was constantly running on empty. She stayed late, constantly tried to multi-task which left her overwhelmed, she skipped meals, and rarely moved from her desk during the day.

Her energy was low, she found it hard to feel optimistic, she felt flat and frazzled on a regular basis and her team started mirroring that fatigue.

When she finally implemented just two things – walking meetings and a proper lunch break – everything changed. Her team said she seemed more present, and that they felt “permission” to take care of themselves too.

We often underestimate the power of modelling. Your team don’t want to just do what you say – they want to see a great example to follow.

It’s the unwritten rules – the way you show up – that really matters.

All leadership begins with self-leadership. The way you show up creates a ripple that flows on to everyone around you.

2. Build Trust and Psychological Safety

Want to know the one thing top-performing teams have in common? Psychological safety. What builds it? When leaders cultivate a high-trust environment.

Great leaders build trust – both of themselves and amongst their team members.

Psychological safety is so important. When people feel challenged but not threatened, they can be at their best. It’s a leader’s job to foster a culture where people feel safe.

Psychological safety isn’t about being soft. It’s about being real. When people feel safe at work, they innovate more, engage more, and stay longer. They bring fresh ideas, try new things and own their mistakes (rather than covering them up which helps no one). 

Simple ways to build psychological safety:

1. Listen without interrupting.
   • Great leaders are fantastic listeners.
   • Be the leader who people feel they can come to with anything.
2. Admit your mistakes.
   • Own them, speak up and apologise when necessary.
   • Set the example for others as well and focus on a “What can we learn from this?” attitude.
3. Start meetings with check-ins.
   • On a scale of 1 to 10, how’s your energy today?”
   • Or a constantly changing question such as; What did you love doing as a kid? What’s something you’re grateful for? Where’s one of the most beautiful place you’ve visited? These questions build connection and trust. 

3.  Lead With Vision, Not Just Metrics

Numbers matter, but purpose matters more.

People want

IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL DISCOVER:

1. Why mindset is key to success
2. The difference mindset makes in your life
3. The best mindset books

ABOUT AARAN

Aaran McLeod is the founder of Advanced Accounting. First and foremost Aaran is a child of God, married to Tracey, they've got 4 amazing children. He loves people and loves business.

Advanced Accounting's goal is to help passionate business owners achieve their goals doing what they love. Aaran brings curiosity and optimism to every situation.

CONNECT WITH AARAN

Visit the website: advancedaccounting.co.nz 

Connect with Aaran on LinkedIn.

Books mentioned by Aaran:
The Power to Change - Craig Groeschel
The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg
Atomic Habits - James Clear
Soundtracks The Surprising Solution to Overthinking- John Acuff
Buy Back Your Time - Dan Martell

Books mentioned by Lauren:
Physical Intelligence - Claire Dale and Patricia Peyton
Your Brain at Work - David Rock
The Compound Effect - Darren Hardy