The High Flyers Podcast with Vidit Agarwal

Welcome to episode #61 with Steve Solomon! Here are 5 key takeaways that I think you will learn from this episode today:Steve's advice to parents with kids showing athletic potential (context: Steve didn't consider Athletics seriously till ageCritical learning from not qualifying for the 2016 Olympics by 4/100th of a second that's now made him a better athleteWhy sport is the perfect vehicle to find yourself and developDealing with negative thoughts: Steve breaks down the psychology behind managing the lizard brain pre and during racesHow to Become your best self and why we should all have Olympic like goals. ***TIMESTAMPS03:42 - Steve’s quick facts 05:35 - High Flyer recognition 07:20 - Sunrise memories in Sydney 08:05 - Spark to follow Athletics 11:20 - Didn’t consider sport seriously 12:50 - Advice to kids with potential in sport 14:15 - posters on the wall growing up 15:50 - Wallabies v Springbooks in Rugby 16:20 - Success in professional sport 17:44 - Learning from missing out on Olympics by 4/100th of a second 21:40 - How to manage negative thoughts 29:15 - Systems and habits in the days before competition 33:00 - Periodising through the year: How he used the time between waking up and going to bed 35:25 - Difference in athletics between US and Australia 39:45 - Being the underdog in Australia 41:20 - stay amateur for as long as possible 46:40 - How the legendary survive the test of time 50:20 - The process, the first 5k and you get better at managing, not the task getting easier 54:20 - Sport being the vehicle for finding yourself 58:45 - final sprint***Subscribe to the Curiosity Center newsletter for articles directly in your inbox!Thank you for rating / reviewing this podcast on iTunes and Spotify, as it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show and grow the show with sponsors and partners. Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter for more!This show showcases relatable role models, re-imagining a high flyer to help you achieve your potential and be 1% better everyday!Contact Vidit at vidit@curiositycenter.xyz

Please do consider supporting the show with a rating and review on your Apple Podcasts or Spotify app so we can continue to have brilliant guests join us.Article 2 of my curiosity centre newsletter is live! I wrote about the power of play, and who can solve more problems: MBA’s, engineers or kids? Read here: https://vidags10.substack.com/p/the-power-of-play***Welcome to episode #60 with Josh Ismin! Here are 5 key takeaways that I think you will learn from this episode today:1. Reflections on growing up in New York and now living in sydney, how the cultures compare and what the US was like in the early 2000’s2. How Josh figured out what to do in his early career, specifically I asked him reflections about his first 3 years3. His most painful learning when he started own company in online video: meteoric rise and then industry changed, pivoted from sales led to a tech company, business partner had mental health issues and more4. How and why Josh and his wife decided to create a new last name when they married?5. How Josh became an angel investor and recently started Psylo, a biotech company exploring future medication based on the blueprint traditional first gen psychedelic molecules6. And a bonus, hear Josh educate us about the types of psychedelics and why we as a society may have the wrong thinking on this topic***TIMESTAMPS—————03:15 - Quick facts 05:30 - High flyer 06:40 - Sunrise, growing up in New York 09:10 - Learnings from New York 10:45 - Biggest influences 12:25 - Big tennis fan 15:10 - Success meant computer programmer and founder 17:30 - benefits of being in the US in the 2000’s 20:50 - early career learnings in fast growth and new countries 26:15 - Very painful learning 30:10 - Importance of failure, honesty and reflection 32:50 - Creating a last name with his wife 38:00 - Becoming an angel investor 44:08 - common advice he disagrees with 46:15 - Aha moment to start Psylo 49:35 - False connotations about psychedelics 52:00 - product psylo is building and application 55:00 - final sprint***Subscribe to the Curiosity Center newsletter for articles directly in your inbox!Always appreciate if you can help by rating this podcast on iTunes, as it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show.Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter for more!This show showcases relatable role models, re-imagining a high flyer to help you achieve your potential and be 1% better everyday!Contact Vidit at vidit@curiositycenter.xyz

Hear from Tyson Day, co-founder of Arrive & Thrive and welcome to episode 1 of Curiosity Center.Arrive & Thrive is a career education social enterprise, helping students set and achieve career goals with school based workshops, coaching and facilitation. Tyson and his team have worked with 53 schools and supported 12,000 students with their 12 programs.Today, you’ll learn about how this business started, how they found schools as their key market, the economics of building an education first business, who are the other plays that inspire Tyson and how COVID has changed the landscape for learning providers like Arrive and Thrive. Please enjoy exploring your curiosity as I did mine through this conversation!***KEY POINTS COVERED1. How did Arrive & Thrive start2. First 3-6 months: How did the idea become reality3. Starting a business to solve a problem first, rather than generate revenue first4. Finding your target customer5. Discovery conversations to understand marketplace6. How to create a career or startup in education7. Developing your skills  to become an educational facilitator8. Mentor vs coach9. What is your Identity capital?10. Economics of building a facilitation and coaching business11. Should you initially offer a free or paid service?12. How do you distribute programs and build reach?13. Who are the other players in the space that inspire Tyson’s work?14. What’s surprised Tyson the most about building Arrive & Thrive?15. How has education changed in the last 2 years due to COVID?***Find out more about Curiosity Center at www.curiositycenter.xyz Contact, Vidit at vidit@curiositycenter.xyz or via Linkedin 

Inspiring and raw conversation with Michelle Hu, founder of founder of Etoile Collective, online beauty accessories store with operations in Melbourne and recently New York.Hear Michelle share her sunrise with immigrant parents moving to Australia from China, and instilling the importance of working and studying hard. You will hear Michelle talk about how seeing her parents not have much inspire her to make the most of her opportunities and recently she was able to buy her parents a house, which is very inspiring.This show just last week ranked #16 (!!!!) in Australia in the careers category. I am still lost for words but a massive thank you to you for listening to the episodes, supporting the show and please continue to share your feedback by messaging us on Instagram or contact me directly on LinkedIn. ***TIMESTAMPS—————03:05 - Quick facts 03:48 - Sunrise 05:14 - Learning photoshop and marketing from games 06:40 - significance of parents bravery 08:06 - Secret that helped Michelle start her business, Etoile 09:14 - heroes growing up 10:05 - Parents work 10:35 - Buying house for parents 11:15 - success at 16 12:30 - reflections working in finance over law 14:00 - career pathways outside the traditional industries 16:12 - how to receive a yes to a cold message 20:35 - painful learning about mental wellbeing 21:40 - How to build a side hustle whilst working full time 23:50 - Turning idea into reality to start Etoile with no direct experience 26:15 - Learning revenue and inventory management 28:50 - Bootstrapping the business 32:30 - Moving to New York 34:45 - Differences between New York and Melbourne 36:01 - Daily Mail article 38:15 - social media vs physical marketing 40:50 - Discoverability on TikTok 41:50 - Podcast marketing tips 43:44 - final sprint***Read about our recently launched Curiosity Center business and subscribe to the newsletter for articles directly in your inbox!Always appreciate if you can help by rating this podcast on iTunes, as it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show.Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter for more!This show showcases relatable role models, re-imagining a high flyer to help you achieve your potential and be 1% better everyday!

Knowledge packed episode with the one and only Michael Batko! Batko was born in Vienna, Austria to polish parents and had quite a humble sunrise. His explorer love took him to Australia, where he’s been for the past 7 years in Sydney or Melbourne. A number of people I spoke to in the lead up to his recording spoke to Batko’s drive for excellence, his habits and routines and being a very reliable friend and colleague, hear about the secrets that have helped him become this person (worth noting, we can all do it, if we want to).I learn something every time we speak so please do enjoy and let me know your thoughts! ***TIMESTAMPS—————02:45 - Quick facts about Michael 03:40 - Re-imagining a high flyer 04:35 - Michael’s sunrise 06:00 - key influences 07:15 - Europe vs Australia attitude to life 08:44 - Heroes growing up 09:30 - Success in life at age 16 10:05 - Creating an impact on the world 10:50 - drive for excellence 11:36 - Brain use to process data, not store it 13:07 - Doing something new every week 14:01 - being lost in 2018 19:15 - painful learning 21:00 - 1%ers in last 2 years 23:25 - energy maintenance 24:50 - working with opposite personality 26:40 - great community building 30:20 - How does a startup accelerator make money? + Who does start mate help: 1) Work in a startup, 2) Found a startup, (3) Investors36:05  - Productive relationships w 1000’s of people 39:15 - Turning idea into reality 41:00 - Setting goals for new year 44:05 - Founder to know 45:15 - Final sprint***Read about our recently launched Curiosity Center business and subscribe to the newsletter for articles directly in your inbox!Always appreciate if you can help by rating this podcast on iTunes, as it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show.Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter for more!This show showcases relatable role models, re-imagining a high flyer to help you achieve your potential and be 1% better everyday! 

You only need to google Ed Cowan to find out about his accomplishments on the sporting field, transitioning to becoming an investor at TDM Growth Partners which meant working with his older brother, Tom + founding Tripod Coffee and hosting his own podcast! This is a candid, self reflective and inside the mind of the former Australian Cricket player — his journey to that goal, only playing cricket from age 13, that too with his brothers and dad, waking up at 5am to train and juggle study and work. We cover much more: see timestamps below for specifics. Without a doubt, one of the top 5 episodes of the show so far so please do enjoy!***TIMESTAMPS—————03:30 - Quick facts about Ed 07:50 - High Flyer 09:47 - Ed’s sunrise growing up in Sydney 13:35 - Focus on education and learning business in additional to sport from day 1 15:28 - Learning cricket in the backyard with family at only age 13 17:40 - heroes growing up 18:50 - Success in life at age 18 20:15 - dedication to cricket at young age 21:36 - Working to be the best cricketer he could be + studying and working 24:00 - Combination of hard work and talent 24:51 - painful learning 26:15 - Dealing with being dropped from Australian cricket team 28:40 - first 3 months of dealing with public failure 32:30 - favourite 6 or 12 month period 34:10 - seeing superstar athletes and learning their 1% habits 37:00 - the cake recipe 38:30 - Athletes that inspire Ed today 40:00 - Athlete transition out of sport 43:40 - Publishing ‘In the firing line’ Ed’s cricket journal - available on amazon! 46:00 - Founding Tripod coffee 49:00 - satisfaction with a physical product vs a software 50:10 - conviction in the All Birds business 53:35 - final sprint!***Read about our recently launched Curiosity Center business and subscribe to the newsletter for articles directly in your inbox!Always appreciate if you can help by rating this podcast on iTunes, as it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show.Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter for more!This show showcases relatable role models, re-imagining a high flyer to help you achieve your potential and be 1% better everyday!

The brilliant and inspiring Michael Fox  and I chat about his sunrise in broken hill NSW with dad being a mining engineer and mum a part time accountant who went back to uni later on to do a masters and PHD!Hear about the importance of optimising for rate of learning, particularly early in your career: as Michael shares his experiences in law, retail and tech which then led to founding Shoes of Prey, a women's fashion company which Michael ended up closing after 10 years of operation. Which is a big step to make so I asked Michael about how he kept the trust of his employees (some of them work with him now at Fable), the importance of systems and routines particularly in the first 3 months after closing the business.Michael is now the founder and CEO of Fable Food Co, providing delicious food that is plant based and on a mission to reduce industrial animal agriculture, help you live longer and make the world a better place! You’ll hear a number of confronting facts including one where 95% of Aussies don’t get enough fiber in their diet, wow! And as a bonus, I asked Michael about his 41 acre property in the sunshine coast and his personal interest in social communal living, growing fruit and veg and more.Enjoy!***TIMESTAMPS03:31 - Quick facts about Michael 05:20 - High flyer in Michael’s life 06:30 - Sunrise 08:40 - Early childhood influence to figure out new environments 09:15 - early influencers 10:50 - posters on the wall growing up 12:08 - fitting into school being entrepreneurial kid 14:10 - view of success in life at age 16 15:15 - Biggest painful learning 16:00 - Closing shoes of prey after 10 years 17:15 - mental transition & support 19:00 - belief to found 2 businesses 20:20 - focus on rate of learning in career 22:20 - optimising for learning from Mike Cannon Brookes (co-founder Atlasssian) 23:10 - attracting talent and building trust 28:05 - first 3 months after shoes of prey: building systems and routine to reset 32:40 - living and breathing the Fable mission 34:40 - Purpose for 41 acre property on the Sunshine Coast 39:10 - Unknowns about industrial animal agriculture 40:25 - surprising facts about pigs and social acceptance 42:08 - Industrial animal agriculture responsible for 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions 44:05 - 95% of Australian’s don’t get enough fibre in their diet 47:20 - Goals for Fable’s success at the end of 2022 49:41 - final sprint***Read about our recently launched Curiosity Center business and subscribe to the newsletter for articles directly in your inbox!Always appreciate if you can help by rating this podcast on iTunes, as it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show.Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter for more!This show showcases relatable role models, re-imagining a high flyer to help you achieve your potential and be 1% better everyday!

Introducing Curiosity Center!Listen in to find out:Show highlights of 2021Why, How and where for Curiosity Center Subscribe to the curiosity center newsletter here to receive every article directly in your inbox: https://vidags10.substack.com/welcomeFollow Curiosity Center on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/curiositycentre/Follow Curiosity Center on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/curiositycentre/Contact Vidit to share your thoughts, questions or advice at vidit@curiositycenter.xyzAs we get into 2022, I’ll leave you with this: Humility is the soil of knowledge. Curiosity is the water that helps it grow. Empathy is the sunlight that shows us which way to bend. I’m excited to go on this journey together to learn, grow, and feed our curiosity. Together we will figure out what we enjoy, and who we can be. Let’s always stay curious, young or old. Fly high,Vidit 

Thanks to Chloe Temple for inviting the host of this show, Vidit Agarwal on the Leadership Confidence series!*****Points covered/ timestamps:02:10 - celebrating 50 episodes of The High Flyers Podcast02:55 - Did Vidit start the podcast with a goal to do 50 episodes?04:10 - Release pattern of episodes: weekly vs fortnightly05:35 - what is the definition of a high flyer and how did Vidit choose the podcast name?08:04 - How relationships have improved thanks to the podcast09:35 - Podcast recognised in the top 20 shows10:35 - Best leadership lessons from show to date17:05 - Most memorable guests26:26 - Advice for creating podcast or content online34:40 - Whats coming in 2022 and the launch of Curiosity Centre38:50 - Domain name choice to stand out40:00 - Dream guests for future episodes Enjoy! Follow Chloe here: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/chloe-templeFollow Vidit here: https://au.linkedin.com/in/viditagFollow POPP here: https://popprovides.com/Follow Curiosity Center here: https://www.instagram.com/curiositycentre/ OR https://au.linkedin.com/company/curiositycentre********Stay tuned for the launch of CURIOSITY CENTER, coming in early 2022! I would really appreciate if you can help by rating this podcast on iTunes, as it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show.Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter for more!This episode & show is to inspire all us to be high flyers in any aspect of life & flip the notion of a high flyer, learning from value creators to help us all be 1% better everyday, together.

Take flight into Tom's journey - Sunrise in Melbourne, with Italian influences including how his parents meeting at an Italian restaurant, his dad being a chef, and early memories of working in his family’s restaurant business learning how to take orders, process bills and more.We go into Tom’s time working as a doctor including his- reflections on spending 10 years in the public health system and advice to future medical students- The moment that sealed the realisation that its time to go all in on Oscer, the company he’s founder and CEO at, building the next step in clinical training.- Secrets picked up from treating patients for living a healthy lifeand if you have an idea and not quite sure on how to turn it into a business - we spend 30 mins spent on how Tom started the business, Oscer whilst being a doctor, learning how to build a no code platform, finding engineers, learning about investment and how VC’s work through podcasts and online content and more! TIMESTAMPS02:48 - Quick Facts about Tom 05:45 - Tom’s sunrise in Melbourne (Italian heritage, family restaurant business) 09:33 - Heroes growing up 12:20 - Meaning of success at 16 15:00 - The decision to study medicine 18:00 - Realising it was time to change and go all in on Oscer 21:20 - Reflections on 10 years in medicine and if anything would have been different in hindsight 23:00 - Advice for future medical students 25:00 - most memorable experience as a surgical registrar and personal impact 29:40 - Secrets picked up from treating patients for living a healthy life 33:45 - how Tom started Oscer the business having mainly Medical experience, not commerce 34:20 - Creating the first online prototype with low or no code options 38:55 - ignore the business and focus on the problem and customer 41:20 - How Tom balanced doctor hours + building a business on the side 44:00 - Adding 1 to a measure of time, putting in the time to reach product market fit 45:40 - How to find engineers to build product and when to bring them into business 53:00 - The decision to consider VC funding and learning business metrics coming from a medical background 55:00 - Learning pitch process and VC funding through podcasts and online content (All in Podcast + The Pitch are Tom’s favourites) 57:00 - Investing time horizons and securing capital at early stage 1:01:17 - Biggest difference between surgeon and entrepreneur 1:03:45 - final sprint and parting thoughts Enjoy!------------------------Stay tuned for the launch of CURIOSITY CENTER, coming in early 2022! I would really appreciate if you can help by rating this podcast on iTunes, as it helps others find us and convince guests to come on the show.Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter for more!This episode & show is to inspire all us to be high flyers in any aspect of life & flip the notion of a high flyer, learning from value creators to help us all be 1% better everyday, together.