Bryn Edwards at The WA Real

#110 Nicola Adams – Let’s talk about your death

There’s one common event that we will all face – our own death – yet how often do we truly engage with this fact and what are the implications to how we live our life?

Opening up the conversation about our own death while we have the space to do so that is the focus of this week’s guest Nicola Adams.

Nicola, an intensive care nurse, talks about her own direct experiences of death through her life and work as an ICU nurse and the implications of not facing this beforehand. She also talks about her own relationship with death and how she personally moved from not wanting to be here to wanting to enjoy life.

This is an easily accessible and far ranging conversation with a wonderfully engaging lady. Whether you believe we go on after this life or whether you think that this is it, the conversation challenges you to consider ‘how you want to die’ and how settling on your own truth on this matter that can actually reduce fear and bring a sense of ease to your life.

#109 Paul Newsome – The balance between passion and burn out

This week we welcome back WA Real’s first ever guest Paul Newsome, founder of Swimsmooth, who opens up on his recent experience and realisation of being a workaholic.  

Paul, a very driven and competitive man, very candidly shares how the re-occurrence of a major back injury minutes before departing on a family holiday was the entry in a very dark period that has brought about some very significant revelations about the manner in which he has been living his life and the required changes that he’s beginning to make.

We cover a variety of topics including the importance of sleep, how we carry stories from our childhood that shape how we live as adults, the nature of being very achievement focus and how we don’t necessarily listen to those closest to us.

The beauty of this conversation is that it freshly captures a superb example of someone waking up to the control and impact of the events and stories that lie deep within us. It captures how if left unchecked these events and stories can such a grip on us that it takes something major to bring them to light and shake us out of it. 

What is clear by the end of the conversation is how this may just be the best thing to happen to Paul and his swim coaching despite being such a personally painful experience.

#108 Pieta Sharpe – The integrity behind Perth Happenings

Delve behind the scenes of Perth’s most prominent ‘What’s On?’ website, Perth Happenings, and into the stories of founder Pieta Sharpe.  

With a focus on building a more connected community across WA, Pieta tells where the idea for Perth Happenings came from, how she has grown the platform and how she likes to champion small local events.

Pieta goes on to tell how she has found ‘her voice in the world’ through Perth Happenings and how she now expresses that more through her own personal social media channels. She talks about the state of social media, how she deals with haters as well as providing a fascinating example of the workings of mass media to present a rather singular view of society by excluding those who don’t fit their shape.  

In addition to being super insightful from a business sense, this is a superbly authentic conversation with a very real lady who is at ease with owning where she is in life, sharing her observations and ‘going there’ to speak up to champion causes and challenge stereotypes.  

#107 Paul Holliday – The Human Excellence Project

This not only did I get the honour of listening to the story and lived knowledge of Paul Holliday but I also experienced firsthand the magic of his creation The Human Excellence Project.

Starting at 5.15am, I joined a large group to enjoy meditation, cold water exposure and then real conversations over a coffee.

Paul tells of how a culmination of losing his wealth in the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 and the terminal cancer that took his father cracked him open to truly living life and serving those around him to reach the potential that lies within.

He shares the story of how the Human Excellence Project came to be, his coaching with men and the current state of ‘being a man’.

This podcast is truly packed full of golden life nuggets that are so beautifully and simply put forward by Paul who himself is a wonderfully magnetic character – something you’ll feel from the minute he begins to speak in this conversation!!

#106 Jeremy Ingram – Taking control of your health

LEARN ABOUT THE ROLE OF EXERCISE IN THE TREATMENT OF CANCER AND OTHER SERIOUS HEALTH DIAGNOSES.

This week I was super fortunate to spend time talking with physiotherapist & exercise physiologist, Jeremy Ingram. Jeremy is deeply passionate about improving the health-related quality of life for those who are dealing with chronic pain, disease or cancer treatment and has created Western Integrated Health to meet this aim.

Jeremy tells of how he began his career with a focus on professional football, working with Claremont Football and the West Coast Eagles, before ‘out of left’ field a side role in a clinic focusing on pain management started the trajectory to where he is today.

Jeremy superbly presents a wealth of information of evidence and knowledge in an approachable manner about the role of exercise to counter the physical side effects of cancer treatment and how it plays a key role in improving survivorship from these episodes.

 But despite the science research and stats, there’s a real key point that Jeremy makes which is that despite the situation there always something you personally can do to improve your health and in that turn the snowball effect of a significant life event, such as cancer treatment, upwards instead of downwards.  

#105 Willow Francis – The Science and Wisdom of the Heart

ACCESS GREATER LEVELS OF WISDOM - THERE’S SO MUCH MORE TO YOUR HEART THAN YOU EVER WOULD IMAGINE

Jump into the science of your heart and the surprisingly greater effects it can have on your everyday experience with HeartMath trainer and mentor Willow Francis.

Unwittingly, moment to moment, we bombard ourselves with judgements and negative thoughts that can leave our bodies a stress hormone cortisol waste ground.

Willow provides a wonderfully entertaining and detailed explanation about the importance of heart rate coherence and how, through scientific biometric feedback lead techniques, anyone can enjoy the benefits of this state which brings about improved physical and emotional well-being and resilience to everyday life – in fact Willow also puts forward that the state of heart coherence can also bring about access to  greater levels of wisdom from within.

This is episode is packed full of fascinating nuggets that leave you with the realisation that the heart may be just as, if not more, important than the brain to the quality of our everyday experience. You will also realise just how your own heart is impacting your family, friends and community in ways you have not considered before.

#104 Elaine Olsen – Creating the Changemakers of Tomorrow

DEVELOPING THE SKILLS TO SHAPE AND CHANGE TOMORROW

Journey into the process of creating tomorrow’s changemakers with Elaine Olsen, founder of Fourth Space which creates space and guidance to shape the changemakers who will shape the world we will live in.

Elaine tells of the 3 pivotal events that influenced her awakening from her 20-year career in public sector government to work in a manner that made her feel truly feeling alive and creative and in turn lead to her focus with Fourth Space.

Elaine beautifully explains how the key elements to future changemakers rest with deeper levels of listening, questioning and connection to those around you in such a way that you are more open to new ideas, collaboration and actually feel moved to want to change from the inside out. It is focusing on the actual experience, letting go and leaning into what presents from the unknown that yields the most pertinent learnings and solutions rather than an overemphasis on results and outcomes.

This is a super powerful conversation from a wonderfully grounded lady that contains a deep sense of knowing about where we as human beings need to truly focus to yield the real answers that will shape a fundamentally different paradigm for a different tomorrow that is very required right now.

#103 Richmond Heath – Tremoring: releasing trauma

Learn about impact of the tension we store in our bodies from our past and how to release it with Richmond Heath - the man who brought the Trauma Release Exercise Tremoring to Australia 10 years ago.

Richmond talks about his own chronic pain and fatigue that resided in his body and how he was thrown out of 10- day vipassana meditation retreat when is body literally re-awoke and began to move by itself – thus beginning his quest to understand more as to why this occurred.

Richmond is a hugely energetic and entertaining man who provides a wonderful mixture of technical knowledge with real lived examples and stories. He goes super deep and vulnerable to provide some very personal insights as to how he tracked the onset of physical patterns in his own body to past traumatic events and how he overcame the impacts.  

Richmond also puts forward a fascinating concept of where our subconscious truly resides.

This is a gamechanger of a tool and one that is just as powerful as talk based therapy, so it is well worth listening and learning more.

#102 Adam Jorlan – Engage with the Future

Truly engage with the future with Futurist and Innovation Strategist Adam Jorlan, who is also a leader of the Enkel Collective, which provides events and workshops for people to engage in a deeper level with the future and how it can change Western Australia.

Adam tells of how he became a futurist, how it is more of a calling than a career choice and provides insight into the actual work and the typical clients he works with. 

Adam eloquently provides some simple models of relating to human learning that provides great context for deeper understanding of how we deal with change and therefore the future. He also talks about the barriers and frustrations that he sees individuals have in interacting and engaging with the future through his work.

What becomes clear from this conversation is the cyclical non-linear journey of growth and learning that underpins the human journey and how that growth will accelerate faster when we become more accepting of this truth and act in line with it.

Adam is a wonderfully deep-thinking man who is content to sow the seeds of change that may well only truly blossom after his own time has passed – which is the highest level of service.

#101 Tazz Wright – The Real Life of a Social Media Influencer

Ever wondered what it’s like to be a Social Media Influencer?

This week we go behind the scenes with Tazz Wright – prominent Perth influencer – who provides and very real and honest insight into the life behind the posts.

Tazz shares how, as a mother and model, she became a social media influencer and how she built her following to make an income from it.

Tazz also goes deep on how her life began to significantly differ from the one she was portraying and the impact it had on her personally which forced her to step away from social media for 2 years – highlighting one of her key points that influencers themselves are not exempt from the challenges of life regardless of what their profile might look like.

This is a very brave share from a wonderfully passionate woman who has to date kept her private life private. What is most interesting from the trials of her journey is the realisation of an inner need to return to something authentic and to have real connections to people beyond the output of a keyboard.