The High Flyers Podcast with Vidit Agarwal

WOW! Thank you for being on this experience to date.  A journey with this show that was born out of adversity and now hitting 40 episodes. How do you celebrate? I asked 2 of my good friends to join me for a chat! And this is a special chat with Flo, based in Melbourne & Ed, based in California in the US. Growing up in the Netherlands and moving to Australia 6 years ago to be with his girlfriend, Flo talks about the influence of his tight knit family being raised away from the big city, a trip to Norway and how that ignited a deep passion for the community, the environment and sustainable practices in design. With similar family values, Ed who grew up on the other side of the world in Geelong, in Australia shares his forming experiences including moving to Melbourne for university that allowed him to reset and start to really understand more. We also talk about: - our marathon running experience, - what we learnt from that 1 year journey, - our shared love for travel and culture, - the meaning of success in life and work, - intrinsic vs extrinsic motivators,  - Ed and Flo share insights into their field of work in industrial design and circular economy for Flo and open source mapping, startups and global adventures for Ed. Enjoy! -------- 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.

In this special episode, we wind back the clock and share some 'magic moments' from the episodes to date, in the countdown to episode 40! There are so many to pick from so keeping in line with the theme of the show of sharing diverse global experiences in life, and not just work - tune in to hear from: 1. Gen Hawkins from episode 7: personal board of mentors for the best possible you! - The spark mentor: go to for inspiration and energy when feeling down - The strength mentor: go to for getting back on the bike, reminding you what you are good at - The serious mentor: go to when you are on cloud 9, reminds you of pitfalls - The stair master mentor: go to to be held to account, like your personal training - The seear mentor: go to who’s been there and done that - The silly mentor: laughter, connect with someone when all else fails 2. Ridley Plummer from episode 3: Behind the scenes of the Super Bowl - enhancing the consumer experience in the stadium and at home - Activations with Budweiser in Toronto and New York - ice hockey and NFL 3. Ben Kende from episode 9: Life changing injury playing rugby that changed in life in a matter of seconds, how he came out the other side, his perspective now and the journey to get here 4. Ben Jesse from episode 4: Global sporting experiences Ben’s worked all around the world, in Australia, Europe and Asia in various commercial ventures in the sporting landscape. He’s also worked in 4 of Australia’s biggest sporting codes which is rare - Here he shares his experiences in each, starting with AFL, then cricket, then tennis and working with brands from China and India 5. Rob Hango Zada from episode 19: Leap of faith to co-found Shippit, one of Australia's biggest success stories - transitioning from corporate career to entrepreneurial venture - dealing with personal matters such as family and finances - building a logistics solution for e-commerce Enjoy! -------- 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.

  “A thousand people in the room, the music is on....I walk off the stage after introducing his name and he doesn't come out. This gave me the opportunity to go out and fill and test myself for 45 mins to train a thousand people...to hold a room. This was a pivotal moment to give me confidence, to belong in that world and get over the imposter syndrome." Take flight into Ryan's journey - humble upbringing in the UK with his mum being a cleaner and dad a factory worker. Starting off with his desire to be a footballer and then how seeing his dad have cancer made Ryan want to do more with his life. We talk about his introvertness, the 60 second legacy - what do people think of you 60 seconds after you meet then, how seeing a fortune teller led Ryan to pack up and move to Australia, failures, and how a job he hated turned into the best learning and led to him founding SWISH which eventually secured funding on the infamous show, Shark Tank and Ryan’s mantra in life - go to bed more educated than you woke up! Enjoy! -------- 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.  

“When we got to 4 shelters, was probably when people stopped saying that your model is never going to work...when we opened it, the wonderful manager rang me and said we've just taken in our first resident, it's a 17 year old women with a 6 month baby leaving terrible domestic violence. That was a full circle moment because this person could not have got in anywhere else." Take flight into Annabelle's journey - curious nature growing up despite her parents splitting very early with a roster of ideas and interests she explored. Hear about how the passion for social justice and equality originated through some trial and error, her expansive family being close with her grandparents and now children. We go in depth as Annabelle talks about leaving her secure job to join what was then a NGO start up that she now leads as CEO helping women and kids feel safe, find shelter and build a life and hear about the the role we can all play as a community to support the efforts. Enjoy! -------- 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.

“I learnt so much from talking to young aboriginal people about their vision for Australia and their own communities. That flies in the face of the negative discourse we are fed…all these negatives about young aboriginal people and that is absolutely not the case.” Take flight into Holly's journey - Growing up in Sydney, Australia with socially conscious parents driven to do good with a big influence of music, scholars and authors in her living room! Holly is widely regarded as having a deep and broad understanding of integral progress (and challenges) in spaces including Child rights, Aboriginal freedom and Human rights to play and work. Holly shares her learnings and experiences in Australia and overseas, including her experiences working with UNICEF in Fiji, spending time in Japan as a cabaret lead singer and her first hand insights about the potential for young Aboriginals, the positivity they show and the book Holly is currently writing for release soon.  Enjoy! -------- 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.

“I went to university for one day, which was orientation day. And then this company asked if I wanted to work for them so I deferred University for a year, to get some work experience and then go travel. I never went back to University, I absolutely loved the work I was doing ” Take flight into Adam's journey - upbringing in Melbourne, Australia - view of his life as an adventure that has taken him all over the world - Europe, China and more recently Dallas in the USA. Hear about so many aspects, turning points, stories in his life including the desire for travel stemming from seeing his parents jet around, taking a break from school to go be a chef, working in the events business where he now runs a big chunk of the worlds largest events company. Some super cool magic moments in his journey including producing the 2006 commonwealth games in Australia and moving to Beijing to play a big role in the 2008 olympics.  Enjoy! -------- 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.

“Ask yourself this - how am I doing as a learner? It is existential, it’s like standing on the balcony of your own life and asking am I learning, how am I doing and at times being vulnerable, saying I don’t know, it’s not knowing. This can be quite challenging if you feel you need to be the leader who has to know everything.” Take flight into Conor's journey - upbringing in Europe with a Scottish father and an Irish mother, moving to Australia at a young age, the want to be a leader and setting milestones for his life. Conor candidly shares some of his painful learnings and also best moments, a major tipping point that led to moving into his  Coaching venture and hear about his latest book Trust, begins and ends with self - what that means, how it applies to everyone of us and a number of specific applications to ones life. Enjoy! -------- 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.

“Through the power of collaboration, I could yield such a benefit. If i had used paid advertising to generate the 7,000 members it would have costed me $10k plus. I replicated this approach and allowed me to build a community of 150,000 mothers.” Take flight into Katrina's journey - growing up in Perth, Australia being shown the ropes by her mum including a big focus on financial learnings and dreaming big. Hear about Katrina’s time from being in the corporate world to how starting a family led her to this exciting new adventure building a business centred around Marketing to mums. Being a mum herself, book author, business owner and global speaker, Katrina shares her learnings in life, painful moments , taking big leaps of faith and more! We also spend some time on mothers - How corporates are changing their view of parental leave, Katrina’s own experience, The Key trends with mums as consumers and a segment of the population critical to shopping behaviour - Fun fact: The average age of a mum is 25 in US and 31 in Australia. Enjoy! -------- 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.

“China had a lot of freedom to try new things, meet people & start ideas - I found it quite liberating and different to the narrative the world has of....China." Take flight into Ayesha's journey - growing up in Trinadad & Tobago in the Caribbean and interest in the sciences and journalism through her childhood and early years. Ayesha shares her global experiences in the foreign service which included 4 years in South Africa and 8 years in China - hear about global diplomacy, government relations and also how these workings are involving in this new covid world. Enjoy! -------- 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.

Welcome to episode 1 of a new segment on the show of short, sharp bonus episodes to provide original insights, in depth perspectives on topics and experiences you may not hear about everywhere. To kick us off, delighted to have Matt Dwyer join us, the Chief Tennis Officer at Tennis Australia and he shares how they managed to put on a global event with fans during a pandemic - hear about a number of aspects before, during and after the Australian Open that you may not have yet heard about. Some of the points covered in this conversation include: 1200 players & support staff from 100 cove affected countries to the most conservative city in the world (at that stage), coming in on 17 private jets. 14 day quarantine in Melbourne, 8 events in 1 week leading to the Australian Open main draw. Considerations prior to event? What went better than expected? Learning & sharing with other sports - the connected world of sport Differences in quarantine for individual athletes vs teams coming in as a group The psychology of players and how the leading players dealt with it vs the others How did the Tennis Australia organisation and their own people deal with putting on this event whilst being a member of the community and dealing with the public scrutiny? The TA executive team not being able to be together due to risk of speed of the virus Matt’s experience as an individual, tennis executive and sports lover Learnings for future events - appealing to at home fan, use of digital etc Let us know what you think - I’m excited to share these bonus episodes intermittently over the coming months alongside our normal episodes. ---------- 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.