You heard it here first: 2020 is going to be a big year for finance broker Trudy Ho. Trudy, the 46th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, is about to open her own business, Concept Funding. Trudy has committed to waking up 6am every weekday so she can exercise and [...]
Wow! Mel Armstrong-Jones, the 45th person I’ve met on my #500lunches journey, is one seriously impressive human. She’s a tech entrepreneur futurist. She’s a keynote speaker. She’s a trainer. She’s an author. She’s a mother of two. Oh, and she’s also an award-winning celebrant and yoga instructor, because it’s not like she’s got enough going on. [...]
A memorable incident occurred five weeks ago – one I’m convinced will be a milestone in my life. This incident occurred just before I met Cullen Haynes – the 35th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers. I arrived early for our lunch. I walked into the restaurant. I saw a [...]
“What are your strengths?” This was a surprisingly difficult question to answer for both me and Valerie Saindon, the 44th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers. Val quickly thought of a first strength – being good with people. That’s true: Val is fun and vivacious. However, it took Val longer [...]
Marietta Courtney is so passionate about education and children that she lights up when she’s talking about her school. Marietta, the 43rd person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, is principal of Cameragal Montessori School. I was really drawn to Marietta’s warm personality and the enthusiasm she showed for Montessori’s unique [...]
What do you do if you’re in sales and your customers are playing hard to get? That’s the challenge that’s recently fallen into the lap of Vien Luong, the 42nd person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers. After a successful career in operations and pre-sales, Vien was appointed sales director of [...]
Earlier this year, I read a profound quote from Michael Port: “Many business problems are simply personal problems in disguise.” This is something Shilpa Kulshrestha sees regularly in her work as a life and career coach. Shilpa, the 41st person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, says the reason people don’t [...]
I’m in the process of having lunch with 500 strangers for fun. But Peter Hocking, the 40th person I’ve met, does something similar for a living. The reason Peter is a prolific networker is because he owns the Australasian franchise for EGN (Executives' Global Network), an international organisation that holds tailored peer groups (similar to mastermind [...]
It was a real eye-opener to spend time with Tony Ferguson, the 39th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers. Tony, who’s been in the NSW Police Force since 1987, made me realise just how physically and intellectually demanding it can be to serve as a cop. The intellectual stimulation comes [...]
Scott McCallum, the 38th person I’ve met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, is doing retirement the right way. Scott retired from his university job in early 2019, after spending the previous 30 years teaching computing at Macquarie University – and the previous 25 in the same office! Despite officially leaving the workforce, [...]
