The Osher Günsberg Podcast

Jamie Pride is a serial entrepreneur, Venture Capitalist and author on a mission to help shift the needle on startup culture. Find him on instagram @jamiepride   We've all heard the Cinderella story - two people create an iPhone app, sell their business to Google for $20M after 18 months and now everyone's taking baths in Lambos and Bitcoin taking Uber Jets to Burning Man.  However that's not the real story.  92% of startups fail.  And Jamie has a very real and personal experience of failure.  Jamie was formerly a partner at consulting firm Deloitte, and then the CEO of realestate.com.au.  He rode a rocket ship of success to the stars, founding more than six technology start ups, raising over $16M in funding and even listing his HR startup Refined on the ASX in 2015.  Refined listed and went through the roof, within 30 weeks the stock shot up to a Market Capitalisation of over $200M, and overnight dropped to $20.  He had investors who'd poured millions of dollars into his business turning up to his house in anger, and he even had to deal with death threats.  Jamie self-medicated and his health plummeted before he hit a dangerous rock-bottom both mentally and physically which he goes into in this conversation.   Now on a path of recovery, Jamie is committed to preventing other start-up founders from going through what he went through, by helping them not only understand the astronomical odds stacked against them - but also to help founders build resilience, so that they can fail, and then learn from that failure, then fail again and again until finally they succeed.  He's written a brilliant book on the matter - it's called Unicorn Tears which is out now, and it focuses on mental health and resilience in the start up scene. It's well worth a read if you're an independent business person, there's a lot of valuable content in there, I certainly resonated with the attribution of your product's success to your self-worth - which he and I discuss in this show.   We may not all be coders or tech start up geniuses - but all of us have ambitions and goals, and all of us can learn from Jamie's story.   He has a particularly excellent philosophy when it comes to mornings and about the use of his phone - I certainly have changed my game since I spoke with him, I hope that what he says can resonate with you too.   Enjoy this conversation with Jamie Pride.

Melissa Ambrosini is an Author, Podcaster and Motivational Speaker. You can find her on instagram @melissaambrosini. Her first book "Mastering your Mean Girl" was an absolute hit, and she's just released a new book "Open Wide".  We might not all be authors, we might not all reinvent ourselves and work hard to become authorities on self-help and self-love : but all of us have been at rock bottom, and Melissa's story of how she came back from a place of true darkness and peril is one that will move you.  This one gets dark. This one gets emotional, however it's ok. It has a happy ending.  Melissa's Podcast is a superb listen and you can find it where you found this one, just search The Melissa Ambrosini Show.  If you like this episode, go let her know online - my guests always get a kick out of getting feedback from you.  So let's not waste any time.  Settle in for a tale of coming into the light out of the darkness with Melissa Ambrosini. 

Simon Hill is an entrepreneur and advocate for plant-based eating. Originally from Melbourne, he's now based in Bondi Beach. You can find him on Instagram @plant_proof and online at plantproof.com - a guide to living a plant-based diet for people who like to be on the more active side of life.Simon's story is just remarkable.He is one of Australia's most successful young entrepreneurs, investors, and advisors.As we talked he was very humble about his businesses - just casually dropping that he started a "tea company" while he was working as a physiotherapist.The tea company he's referring to is the absolutely massive YourTea.com, giving people access to herbs and teas used in traditional Chinese medicine.But you'd never know he's one of my country's most successful entrepreneurs, he's also one of the people behind Organic Village Foods and Bean Body Care.Simon's a very smart, very humble man.Devastatingly handsome with eyes like turquoise tropical lagoons, Simon's focus now is on advocating for a plant-based lifestyle.If you look at a photo of him, you'll notice that he is cut like a chopped salad.The man works out.And Plant Proof was inspired by Simon's own experience with transitioning from eating animal foods to a plant-based diet.As we discuss, initially he shared many common fears among men and women, who are doing the same thing.If I stop eating meat am I going to lose muscle?With all those carbs will I gain fat and feel bloated? What about my iron?Will I get enough protein?There are answers to all of these questions, and we talk about most of them in this show.What I love most about Simon isn't just his inspirational journey - but that he doesn't throw health claims around willy nilly.He only talks about stuff that is backed up by hard science. He won't make a claim that isn't backed by a reference to a peer-reviewed journal study.And in this day of Instagram experts touting miracle cures - that is an important thing to have.To add even more clout to what he's talking about, Simon is currently studying a Masters in Nutrition so that he can come at anyone with cold hard facts at fifty paces.He's a great guy, I hope you enjoy getting to know Simon Hill.

My guest today is elite cyclist Shane Perkins, you can find him on twitter @perkoperkins.  Shane is an Olympic Games Bronze Medalist, a world champion team sprinter and a former Keirin track world champion.   Shane's story is one of coming out from under his father's shadow, committing to a goal and striving for what he wanted.  We might not all be track cyclists capable of exploding an astonishing 2500w of power out of our legs, but we all have something that we want to get done.  Shane's story is so great because for him, those few seconds standing on the podium while the anthem plays - that's not what he's doing this for.   He's doing it for the journey.   He's doing it for what he'll learn about himself on the way to stepping up on that small piece of oblong carpentry that stands on the edge of the track.  That to me is the most inspiring part of Shane's story - that the journey itself IS the reward.  We caught up over Skype, thanks for allowing me to do more Skype chats guys.  Enjoy this conversation with Shane Perkins.

Fraser Bayley is a bodybuilder and trainer originally from NZ and now living in New Orleans, Louisiana. You can follow his adventures at @evolvingalpha on Instagram or FB.  Fraser's story is a heroes journey if ever there was one.  From an unwell butcher who lived with a diagnosis of ADHD and then bipolar disorder, to a powerful bodybuilder who has achieved an incredible physique on a vegan diet.  However, Fraser's transformation is way more than physical. The way he describes the dark place he was in during his teenage years, how he escaped a pattern of negative behaviour, how he identified ways to start to feel better and then simply worked on them every day, building momentum until he emerged from the chrysalis as a new man - this is a story that will show you the true gift we have as humans - the gift of being able to choose our next response and choose our next action.  That Fraser is a bodybuilder may not be something you aspire to - however, it is a physical manifestation of the focus and commitment he has to not only feeling better in his mind but also creating a new life for himself unrecognisable from his troubled past.  If you add on to that the extraordinary shift from being a butcher who did work in slaughterhouses, who worked every day cutting up animal carcasses for a supermarket meat section - to becoming the epitome of what masculinity celebrates when it comes to the "alpha" type - a fiercely competitive bodybuilder with an intimidating physique who trains and maintains that physique on a plant-based diet, that is truly astounding.  So much of the communication around health and fitness, and particularly muscle gain is all about eating meat - either the paleo diet or the keto diet - and when it comes to being a man, to expressing masculinity, one display of that we as a culture look toward is muscle.  Muscle that comes from eating animal products.  It's touted as the only way to get that physique.  I'm here to tell you - it isn't.  And Fraser is here to tell you too.  We caught up on Skype - so there are a few drops, but I hope you forgive the glitches and enjoy the inspiration that will come from this conversation with Fraser Bayley.

Brett Robinson, or Robbo to his athletes and clients, is a high-performance coach who worked for years with the Australian Paralympic team.  He's since branched out into the wider community, hoping to bring his concepts and ideas that he learned and developed over the course of his incredibly successful career with elite athletes, and share them with the wider community.  He has an excellent podcast that I highly recommend - Your Life Of Impact, which you can find wherever great podcasts are heard.  Brett's story does take some darker turns, but it's ok, I promise he's ok and found his way to Ok in a way that will inspire us all to live a life with more intentionality than before.  I'm so grateful we got the chance to chat and to former podcast guest Rachel Neylan who made the introduction.  Enjoy this introduction to the inspirational world of Brett Robbo.

Bernie Black is the CEO of Brave Foundation, and the author of the book "Brave Little Bear: The inspirational Story of a Teenage Mother".  Bernie's story is not uncommon, but it's something we don't really speak about still.  Teenage pregnancy.  I know that Bernie's story will resonate with many people listening, and I am sure it might even be confronting to some people listening.  Bernie has not only built an incredible life for her son, and now larger family - she's risen to create an incredible career for herself as the CEO of Brave Foundation - and you'll hear how she's making a massive difference not only with stigma reduction and support for teenage parents, but on a broad policy level here in Australia.   You might not be trying to tackle a powerful social issue like teenage pregnancy, you might just be trying to tackle getting your kids to ease up on screen time and engage more in real time - it doesn't matter, Bernie's story will leave you inspired about what is possible no matter what circumstances face you. And that with support and a solid reframe, many situations can turn out way better than you thought in the first place.  You can find out more about the incredible work that Brave Foundation does for expecting and parenting teens at http://bravefoundation.org.au/  Enjoy this conversation with Bernie Black.

Luke Heggie is a comedian from Sydney Australia. I've known Luke since we were eight and growing up with him and watching his career flourish has been one of the true pleasures of my life.  One new year's day he decided he'd give stand up comedy a go. Less than a month later he'd won his heat in JJJ's high-profile national Raw Comedy competition, and soon after that had won the whole thing.  Since then he's worked tirelessly to hone his writing, his delivery and his work.  He regularly tours internationally and is launching into his new show for 2018 "Tiprat" at the MICF.  You can get tickets to the shows lukeheggie.com, and look out for shows in Sydney and Perth too.  When you do go to his show, have a listen out to the intro voice over guy.  He's pretty good I reckon.  Talking with Luke is always wonderful, and usually it takes place on the back of small folding bicycles as he and I ride around the south eastern suburbs of Sydney looking for a cafe to play some scrabble in, yet today you're able to hear one of these chats and I couldn't be more happy about it.  Luke regularly gets 4 & 5 star reviews, and I would encourage you to go and see why.  The thing about talking to comedians is that the conversations sometimes aren't 100% funny from front to back - that's because the things that they say on stage are meticulously crafted to be a precise delivery of thoughts and ideas to make you react in a certain way. This is more a chance for you to get to know what makes up the man that is selling out shows from coast to coast, and rightly so.  Please enjoy this conversation with Luke Heggie.

My guest today is Michael Cassel.   He's an internationally acclaimed theatre producer - when you see Lion King or "Beautiful" the Carole King musical - he's the man who put everyone together in the same place to make the show happen.   Hundreds of people didn't suddenly decide to learn the same songs and dance routines and turn up in a theatre to perform them in synchronicity with thousands of people deciding to sit in that theatre - he's the man that makes those moments happen.   And he's been making those moments happen since he was fifteen years old.   Even if musical theatre is the furthest thing from fun in your mind, Michael's Story of how he just saw what he wanted to do and went after it with a relentless passion is the stuff I love to soak up.   I need to hear stories like his, to get reminded of how success can work. To be reminded of how focus can work.   Now you and I might not be aiming to put on the most ambitious musical productions of our time - we might be just hoping to lose a few kilos, feed ourselves and our family a little healthier, or maybe get a little further ahead at work - regardless of  your goal - hearing Michael's story will put the fire under your feet to get focused on what you want in life, and you might even do it with a song & dance routine to make it a moment.   Michael's current production "Beautiful: Carole King Musical" is playing in Melbourne until at least June, you can get tickets at beautifulmusical.com.au   As Michael describes, it's nothing but hits.   Enjoy this chat with Michael Cassel.  

Today's show is with Dr Elise Bailylew, founder of Mindful in May and you can find out about her work at Mindfulinmay.org (https://www.mindfulinmay.org)  It's no mistake that Dr Bailylew is on the show today, as you know I've been trying to work a mindfulness-based meditation practice into my day as a way to help me deal with life now I'm off meds. It is certainly not enough in itself, but it's one of the things that I use to help my brain work things out.  I wanted to get Dr Bailylew on to maybe help you understand a bit more about why mindfulness works and the science behind it.   And I should state my position pretty clearly here - I've done my time with people who are called "healers". I've shown up to a granny flat out the back of a house near Byron Bay and made my way through the wind chimes to have someone lay hands on me while I inhale plumes of patchouli.  While that may have been ok for me in the past - now I've gone through what I've gone through, now I've had the experience through psychosis of having my ability to perceive reality correctly dissolve into a shimmering mess around me - nowadays I can't just go with faith and placebo. That might have worked for me in the past - but now for the most part, I need to know that what I'm doing is backed by research.  And for me, Mindfulness Meditation has enough scientific clout behind it to warrant me using it as one of the tools that I have when it comes to living with the brain I've got.  It's important to tell you that for a long time I wasn't well enough for this meditation to help, or even work.  It was only after being on meds for a long time that my brain healed enough so that now I'm able to start to train my brain to use these techniques.   It's hard work, not unlike training a puppy - but I am making progress.   When I was really sick - meditation didn't make things better for me, in fact they made things worse because then I'd be trapped in this rumination spiral in a state of consciousness that I'd deliberately put myself into.  It was not ok.  So let me underline that - don't just stop taking your meds and download an app and think you'll be right.  You won't.  Everything I do that I tell you about it something that I've talked with my doctors about first, and that's what I must insist on. I am no better at treating my own mental health as I am fixing a mechanical fault with my car. I know nothing about psychology or psychiatry - so I leave those decisions to the people who have studied and practised for years.  Like I've said before - trying to make a decision about how you're thinking using the thinking you're thinking with is like trying to bite your own teeth.  Clear? Clear.  Ok.  If you want to find out more about Dr Elise Bailylew and the work she's doing, Mindfulinmay.org is the website.  She's a great human with a great story and she's really helping a lot of people doing what she's doing.  I hope you enjoy the show.

Geoff Wilson is a noted figure in the Australian Finance industry, he's the founder and chairman of Wilson Asset Management. In the last year Geoff was named an officer in the general division of the Order of Australia for services to the business and finance sector, professional financial bodies and the community as a supporter of charitable foundations.  I never grew up knowing anything about finance, the stock market, investment - it just wasn't around me. It was only later in life that I started to meet people who actually knew what all the little numbers and charts in the stock exchange mean. It was only later still that I started to realise that these were jobs that people had, that they worked their way up to, that they could make careers out of.  And Geoff is one of those people.  I wanted to talk to him because I was fascinated by not only his career path and how a life in the finance world can build into an incredible career - but also because of how he and I met.  Geoff is the founder of a number of managed funds - we will get into the terminology in the chat - but two of the funds particularly, Future Generations and Future Generations Global, are ways for investors to not only see a return but also give back to the community.  As Geoff explains - the way fund managers get paid is usually a percentage of the fund and a performance bonus.  So Geoff created the Future Generation Investment company and the Future Generation Global Investment Company model as a way for the funds management and finance industry to make a significant and ongoing impact to the community.  How it works is that The Future Generation fund managers do not charge management or performance fees, allowing the companies to donate 1% of assets to the supported charities each year.  What that does is provide an ongoing source of funding for Australian charities, with a focus on children at risk (Future Generation Investment Company supports 14 charities) and youth mental health (Future Generation Global supports 8 charities including SANE Australia, which is where I met Geoff).  Listening to Geoff's story and how he built a career in an industry that I knew little about was fascinating to me. But then hearing how he was affected by time spent working as a Lifeline counsellor - that was truly the most incredible part of this conversation.  He's clearly a very successful man, he's worked very hard to get where he is today - and yet he still found time on a weekday morning at 9am to come over to my apartment to talk about his career, his work, and why he does what he does.

Tess Haubrich is an Australian Actor who you can find on instagram @tesshaubrich (https://www.instagram.com/tesshaubrich).  She's currently starring in Wolf Creek 2, available on demand on Stan in Australia - she's also in the Ridley Scott film Alien Covenant and  kicking ass and taking names in the Jackie Chan film Bleeding Steel.  She's an absolute badass and proved this by showing up at the apartment with her 2yr old when the sitter didn't eventuate.  So, through this show you'll hear the occasional interruptions of Tess' kid who was a delight to have around - and you'll probably hear a few sounds of parenting that occur as she effortlessly kept her child occupied while she and I talked.  It would have been easy for Tess to cancel the chat - but she didn't.  She came around and we had a great chat and I can't thank her enough for that. It speaks volumes to the kind of person that she is, and I can't wait for you to get to know her.

Sandra Sully is Australian Journalism Royalty.  She's the Senior News Editor for Network Ten News and has been the Anchor of their afternoon bulletin for more than a decade.  She's on Twitter @sandra_sully (https://twitter.com/Sandra_Sully).  Sandra is an astonishingly focused person, her dedication and drive to do great work is undeniable as you'll hear in this conversation.  In a time when news of varying reliability is coming at us from every angle ten times a minute through our phones, the role of a legitimate and well-resourced news anchor is in my opinion has never more important. And that's where Sandra comes in.  De-legitimzing news sources is a tool that politics has used for decades - and in these times of Fake News being thrown about any time there's a critique of policy, it's never been more important to have staunch and solid news sources.  That means -​​ not Facebook.  So  - without any delay, come to the boardroom at Network Ten in Sydney across from the fish markets to have a chat with the incredibly powerful person that is Sandra Sully.

Beverley Mirolo OAM is the chairman of the Leukaemia Foundation Australia and she's participating this year in the world's greatest shave.  Bev's got an incredible story - she grew up in country Queensland, trained as a nurse from the age of sixteen and is still a RN now in her 70s.  Through her work she had first-hand exposure to the challenges faced by people living with blood cancers. She started working at the Royal Brisbane Hospital in 1980 where she played a major role in the planning and development of the Leukaemia Foundation Bone Marrow Transplant Unit there.  Beverley has dedicated her life to helping and caring for people living with these diseases, elevating through her career to be the CEO Haematology Oncology Clinics of Australasia before she retired. And then in a strange twist - was diagnosed with a blood cancer herself.  Her story is incredibly moving, and I hope it moves you do support her doing the 20th anniversary of the World's Greatest Shave - you can support her http://osh.is/worldsgreatestshave  I hope you enjoy this conversation with the wonderful Beverly Mirolo.

Yumi Stynes is a Radio & TV Presenter, Podcaster, Photographer and writer from Sydney, Australia. You can find her on twitter and instagram @yumichild.   She and I have known each other for 18 years now, and I get a bit teary at the end of this one when I start telling her how happy I am that she's still in my life.   Yumi and I got together at the house where she lives with her wonderful family, to talk about her new book.   Look, there's a lot of swearing in this episode - but we're all grownups, and my download stats show me that you're probably listening to this alone, with headphones. So no-one need to know why you're giggling when she uses the C-word.  So now you've been warned, let's talk about Yumi's new book. It's called  Zero Fucks Cooking.   Best Food, Least Effort.   Anyone that heard Yumi's brilliant podcast "Ladies We Need To Talk" will know that Yumi is a powerhouse when it comes to keeping her family running.   And anyone that knows her knows that she lives a life of Zero Fucks. The cookbook is wonderful. And for me, it's just the front door into how this incredible woman has created a life that is full of joy, laughter, children, happiness and a career to be proud of.   Yumi's book is out on March 1st, buy it where you buy books.    If you've never bought a cookbook - this book is for you.    If you are intimidated by TV cooking and think you can't do that so I won't even try? This book is for you.   If you'd like to live a life where you give zero fucks?   Get on board.   So, throw a Zucchini on the barbie and enjoy a glorious hour around the dinner table in the home of Yumi Stynes.