The Journey

"If you're unhappy about something in your life then do something about it. Err on the side of action and not inaction." - Fab Mackojc Two years ago I had the pleasure of being interviewed by my good pal Zezan Tam to share my story and last year we sat down again to recap my own journey during 2017. We decided to continue the tradition again this year and share what my journey during 2018 has taught me. This is another long episode but worth a listen if you want an unfiltered view of how this year helped me make some big changes in my life. You can find the show notes here: http://fabsays.com/podcast/episode-74-fab-recaps-his-own-journey-during-2018

“I really love being a beginner at things and diving into a new culture.” - Kyla Gardner After graduating college, Kyla Gardner worked as a journalist in her hometown of Chicago for three years, first reporting on crime and then quirky human-interest stories. Dissatisfied with only being allowed two weeks of travel per year in a full-time job, Kyla sought something different: A job that would allow her to work while traveling. She got hired by a remote software startup after seeing the job ad on Reddit, and was flying on a one-way ticket to Vietnam soon after. In Asia, Kyla met real-life digital nomads, people she wasn’t sure actually existed outside of Business Insider articles. Inspired by the people around her building businesses from their laptops, in 2017, she set out to start her own. Kyla now runs a publishing company, writes, and continues to travel with no fixed address. She looks forward to completing her second novel in 2018. We talk about journalism as a tool to explore the world, moving to Asia, the importance of exercise, doing 80 fitness classes in 17 days, presence, the downsides of trying different things and much more. You can find the show notes here: http://fabsays.com/podcast/episode-73-kyla-gardner

Just like I did last year, what better way to end 2017 than to highlight some of the best moments from the podcast this year. This is a clip show episode with highlights from the 10 most listened episodes in 2017. I won't spoil the order, if you want to know who made the cut you'll just have to listen. You can find the show notes here: http://fabsays.com/podcast/episode-72-highlights-from-the-top-10-2017

“Everyone is on their own journey.” - Fab Mackojc One year ago I had the pleasure of being interviewed by my good pal Zezan Tam to share my story. I wanted to recap what’s happened since then and what I’ve learned from my own journey during 2017. This is a bit of a long episode but it’s well worth a listen if you want a unfiltered view of what I took away from a year in which a lot of things didn’t go to plan or turn out how I would have liked. You can find the show notes here: http://fabsays.com/podcast/episode-71-fab-recaps-his-own-journey-during-2017

“Everyone is on their own journey.” - Fab Mackojc One year ago I had the pleasure of being interviewed by my good pal Zezan Tam to share my story. I wanted to recap what’s happened since then and what I’ve learned from my own journey during 2017. This is a bit of a long episode but it’s well worth a listen if you want a unfiltered view of what I took away from a year in which a lot of things didn’t go to plan or turn out how I would have liked. You can find the show notes here: http://fabsays.com/podcast/episode-71-fab-mackojc

“What is the opportunity that won’t be there ever again?” - Sarah Holloway Sarah Holloway started her career as a mergers and acquisitions lawyer at a leading international law firm. Early on however she realized that the corporate life wasn’t for her as the profession and its lifestyle didn't easily reconcile with her personal passions for health, wellness and creativity. After a fateful trip to Hong Kong and a recommendation from her doctor not to drink coffee, Sarah stumbled onto matcha green tea as an alternative and wanted to buy some after returning to Australia. With plenty of low quality matcha powders on sale and all the high quality ones being sold in big quantities she noticed a gap in the market and founded Matcha Maiden with her partner Nic in late 2014. Her chance to leave her law job came up sooner than expected when this “side project” that was started as a creative outlet grew into a booming business. Within six months they had grown big enough to draw attention from giant US retailer Urban Outfitters, who placed a recurring order that could only be fulfilled if one of the partners went full time. Three years later, the matcha business has a suite of products and has taken on a physical embodiment in a Melbourne café called Matcha Mylkbar that serves a variety of plant-based dishes. We talk about starting a business off a Google search, turning a side hustle into a real business, why not everyone needs to be an entrepreneur, "seizing the yay", balancing work, fun and rest, being a bit "woo-woo", sound healing, fully surrendering to an experience and much more. You can find the show notes here: http://fabsays.com/podcast/episode-70-sarah-holloway

“If you put in a lot more effort than anyone else you’re gonna have good results.” - Laura D'Asaro Laura D'Asaro is the co-founder and COO of Six Foods, a company that specializes in making food from cricket flour which is a much more sustainable source of protein than beef. Laura's journey in social entrepreneurship began at age fifteen, when she raised $14,000 through her lemonade stand to build a playground for her community. She has also broken multiple world records, including the longest book domino chain and fastest time to crawl one mile. We talk about eating insects, being rejected by 400 manufacturers, getting an investment from Mark Cuban, breaking world records, creating 100 ft slides, bringing things to life that don't exist, talking to yourself for 5 minutes straight, having a life manual and much more. You can find the show notes here: http://fabsays.com/podcast/episode-69-laura-dasaro

“Physical exercise is by far the most effective and practical thing that anyone can do.” - Josh Quigley After a dark and painful battle with depression, Josh Quigley lost all hope and attempted suicide by intentionally crashing his car at over 80 mph. He miraculously survived this suicide attempt and walked away with no physical injuries. After realizing he’d been kept alive for a reason he decided to grab hold of his 2nd chance at life and raise awareness of mental health issues. On the 1 year anniversary of his suicide attempt he set off from Scotland by bike attempting to cycle around the world as The Tartan Explorer. After cycling for 10,000 miles through 14 European countries Josh decided to return home to Scotland and continue his journey to happiness. Now based in Edinburgh, he is an ultra endurance athlete who attempts global cycling challenges. His long term dream is to make another attempt at cycling around the world. We talk about deciding to cycle around the world, getting "out of the trenches", eating only bread and bananas for 6 months, why he changed his mind on ending The Tartan Explorer, how meditation cured his anxiety, what spirituality means to him, doing a life audit and much more. You can find the show notes here: http://fabsays.com/podcast/episode-68-josh-quigley

“When you work hard the universe will acknowledge that and people will see that as well.” - Reese Lansangan Reese Lansangan is a 27 year old singer-songwriter, visual artist, graphic designer, fashion designer, and published author. Reese’s first love is music and she believes in telling compelling and informative stories through her songwriting. Her debut album, Arigato, Internet! features 13 original songs + 5 remixes by renowned indie musicians from the Philippines. Her body of creative work is heavily influenced by childhood, science, Asian iconography, and pop culture, branded with a hint of humour. In both her art and music, she is keen on dissecting and shedding light to everyday phenomena that are commonly overlooked. Her hit single Home, written to be performed at a celebrity wedding in the Philippines, has been listened on Spotify over 4.2 million times. We talk about how the Internet helps regular people get discovered, her 'camp rock' experience, recording her first album, creating a song for a celebrity wedding, making time for supporters, the importance of hard work, how it's ok to be passionate about many things and much more. You can find the show notes here: http://fabsays.com/podcast/episode-67-reese-lansangan

“Just be open to everyone.” - Rabia Sitabi Rabia Sitabi’s life started in tough circumstances: she lost both her parents by the age of 16 and had to become a mother for her younger siblings. Since then she has taken a very unique journey through her career working across a range of different industries and professions. Rabia is now a international culture ambassador who aims to connect the East to the West through events and education. During the week she runs strategy and operations for two international marketing and consultancy agencies, and in her spare time she collaborates with the likes of the South Korean government, Chinese writers, Pakistani LGBTQ groups and Indian Art collectives to expand intercultural awareness in Europe. Her fields of expertise are mostly marketing, branding, social media, and strategy. We talk about becoming an orphan at 16, beta testing Facebook in 2006, being a coloured female in tech, working in 10 different industries before turning 30, meeting Adele before she was famous and much more. You can find the show notes here: http://fabsays.com/podcast/episode-66-rabia-sitabi

“With the right amount of time and focus and the right tools there are many more things that you can do than you think you can do.” - Nick Jaffe As a teenager Nick Jaffe started working in software development before deciding to study photography at the Victorian College of the Arts. He soon after went overseas and started hitchhiking through Europe before falling in love with sailing. From 2006 to 2009 Nick sailed solo across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in a small 26ft boat. This adventure was the subject of a feature length film called Between Home. He later returned to Australia and started a number of businesses, namely Serversaurus, a web hosting company and Electron Workshop, a co-working space. We talk about hitchhiking to the Arctic Circle, buying a boat over the Internet, having a sense of autonomy & freedom, self-sufficiency, living in a shipping container, Beat Generation literature and much more. You can find the show notes here: http://fabsays.com/podcast/episode-65-nick-jaffe

“Whatever you do, just keep walking. Don’t actually ever stop.” - Alexandra Clark After working at an ice cream shop at age 14, Alexandra Clark fell in love with the interaction that people have with sweets. Her curiosity took her to Michigan State University where she studied Hospitality Business & Food Processing Technology. After receiving her chocolate certificate from The French Pastry School of Chicago, she left the country on a full scholarship to New Zealand’s prestigious Massey University to complete a degree in Agricultural Commerce and continue her research on value chains in the cocoa and chocolate industry. She then worked for a number of chocolate makers before eventually deciding to launch her own venture. Bon Bon Bon went from dream to reality in 2013 when Alex returned to her home state of Michigan with the goal of launching a chocolate studio and store that challenged the industry’s status quo with enthusiasm, experimentation, and creativity. The store crafts chocolate candies called “Bon Bon Bons” with a classic French technique in conjunction with a little Detroit ingenuity to create flavors that range from classic to bizarre and everything in between. Alex opened a second store in downtown Detroit in 2015 and is looking to add a third location very soon. We talk about being a "non-illicit drug dealer", the benefits of hippie parents, studying in Norway and New Zealand, saying 'yes' to the best opportunity, turning down a PhD in chocolate, outrageous chocolate flavours, the changes happening in Detroit and much more. You can find the show notes here: http://fabsays.com/podcast/episode-64-alexandra-clark

"If I don’t buy this $200 plane ticket and miss the Egyptian revolution I’d never forgive myself." - Anna Therese Day Anna Therese Day is an award-winning independent reporter with her main focus being the Middle East. After graduating from college in Wisconsin she went to Israel to do a Masters degree. During her winter break she heard rumors of a revolution mounting in Egypt and jumped on a plane to see the action in person. Sure enough, she was in Tahrir Square during the Arab Spring to witness the beginning of the end of tyrannical rule in Egypt. She posted some of her photos from the event online and was soon contacted by a number of media outlets to use her as a source, kickstarting her career as an independent journalist. She’s since spent an evening with ISIS fighters before ISIS was widely reported on, she and her team narrowly escaped a terrifying two-year prison sentence in Bahrain, and she’s lost colleagues to horrific murders by ISIS. Her work has been featured in a variety of big media outlets including CNN, Al Jazeera, Newsweek and many more. We talk about the downsides of being independent, not wanting to miss a revolution, fmeeting ISIS before they were well known, sneaking into Syria, taking care of yourself, having contingency plans for kidnapping, the difference between charity and justice and much more. You can find the show notes here: http://fabsays.com/podcast/episode-63-anna-therese-day

"I didn’t just want my career to be based on income, I wanted to have an impact." - Charlene Rhinehart Charlene Rhinehart has spent a decade working as a Certified Public Accountant in corporate America. What makes her story interesting is that she had the unique personal and professional development goal of competition in a pageant. In 2015 she won the title of Ms. Corporate America and soon after decided to quit her accounting job and travel the world. She went on a six-month world tour with Up with People, a performing arts group that also participates in community service. She wouldn’t have had the courage to deliver presentations with limited Spanish speaking skills or sing in Danish in front of hundreds of people if her pageant experience hadn’t given her the confidence to do so. Nowadays she is self-employed as a speaker, actress and business coach. We talk about corporate pageantry, being a role model, having a sense of direction and purpose, hiring a coach, why you need a "Plan B" if you want to be self-employed, asking for what you want, dancing internationally, not doubting your abilities, the two definitions of fear and much more. You can find the show notes here: http://fabsays.com/podcast/episode-62-charlene-rhinehart

"You don’t have to agree 100% with the people that inspire you." - Una Gašparovi? Una Gašparovi? used to be a music teacher and a conductor. Soon after completing Bachelor studies in the field of Ethnomusicology she founded a ladies choir and taught other people how to sing. Despite the success and joy of working in music, she didn’t feel a sense of fulfillment. She spent years in a quest to find her “true calling”, exploring interests through hobbies and jobs: making jewelry, learning programming, working in HR, even completing a cooking course and working as a chef. In 2016, she launched a blog / coaching practice, HerHappyHormones, based on her own transformational health experience. While trying to develop this business with practically no resources, she discovered the strategies of digital marketing and dived into webinars, courses, articles and case studies. Eventually she decided to take up a full-time job working in the digital marketing industry and is now a writer at RankingPress. We talk about feeling like a visitor in your own life, hormones, finding ways to give value to other people, location-independent employment, the limitations of formal education, distancing yourself from conventional influences, breaking free from other people's opinions and much more. You can find the show notes here: http://fabsays.com/podcast/episode-61-una-gašparovi?

"You do a lot of things in your life that are so different to where you end up but it’s important to remember those things because they shape you, even if it doesn’t seem obvious." - Bryce Adams Bryce Adams decided to attend university after high school but within a week realized that it wasn’t what he wanted to do. He took a year off to go travelling before giving university another shot: he lasted less than a month before quitting for good. A friend from his travels contacted him and asked for help funding a bar in Vang Vieng, Laos. Bryce returned to Laos to visit the bar and was shortly offered an opportunity to open and run a nightclub at the age of 19. He eventually returned to Australia and started working for WooCommerce, a company that makes a popular eCommerce platform for Wordpress. The nature of his job allowed him to work remotely and continue travelling even after the company was acquired by Automattic, the makers of Wordpress.com. Last year Bryce quit his job to start his own company, Metorik, an analytics tool for WooCommerce. We talk about online poker, dropping out of uni twice, opening a nightclub in Laos, swapping roles within a company, a desire to have control, not trying to emulate someone else and much more. You can find the show notes here: http://fabsays.com/podcast/episode-60-bryce-adams

"The money has got to be the enabler of freedom and not a goal in itself. You could be on a massive salary but you’re not necessarily free because you don’t choose how you spend your own time." - Jodie Cook Jodie Cook founded a social media marketing agency, JC Social Media, back in 2011. Since then she has grown the company to a team of 15 and now runs the social media campaigns for 500 clients across the world. Jodie has also written five books on digital marketing as well as developed Flaunt, a Chrome extension-based social media reporting tool for agencies. Whilst running her agency Jodie started exploring the reasons why some people find it easier to start their own business than others. Her conclusion: entrepreneurial role models. Jodie and her husband then decided to create Clever Tykes, children's storybooks that introduce positive, enterprising role models. Earlier this year Clever Tykes books, resources and a digital enterprise portal were delivered to all 23,500 primary schools in the UK thanks to sponsorship from Lloyds Banking Group. Jodie is also the co-founder of MODL, an app that enables business to book a professional model in under an hour without the cost of using an agency. In her spare time, Jodie is a competitive powerlifter. We talk about work that doesn't feel like work, using simplicity as a business strategy, entrepreneurial role models packing your own suitcase from a young age, deciding to spend money to save time, being aware of your own mortality, becoming the best version of yourself and much more. You can find the show notes here: http://fabsays.com/podcast/episode-59-jodie-cook

"If you have the mindset to say ‘I am the person to do this’ or at least ‘I am the person who can try and learn it and give it a go’ I think that can get you very far." - PJ Murray PJ Murray started his professional career in civil engineering and spent some time working on a mining site before quickly making the shift to software engineering. A self taught programmer, PJ quickly found his feet working at ThoughtWorks before founding online web development marketplace Tweaky.com with cofounder Ned Dwyer. They soon raised capital from the the guys behind 99designs, Blackbird Ventures and later rebranded the company to Elto. The company grew to 25,000 customers before being acquired GoDaddy in 2015. After recently wrapping up a two-year stint at GoDaddy PJ is taking his time to work out what’s next. We talk about moving dirt around, doing contract work after you quit your job, being 100% responsible, dev ops, input/output based rewards, choosing what to read, artificial intelligence and much more. You can find the show notes here: http://fabsays.com/podcast/episode-58-pj-murray

"No one’s written your book. No one’s written ‘How do I define success?’" - Drew Corby This episode is an experiment of sorts. This is the first time where I’ve brought on a subject matter expert to chat about a specific topic related to personal development and career growth. In this episode Drew Corby is sharing a framework with us as to how we can better understand ourselves. Drew spent 10 years coaching frontline teams in sales, marketing, operations and internal communications. He coached a lot of young people in this role and found that every one of them was sure of one thing: they didn’t know what they wanted to do with their lives, but they knew it wasn’t this. Drew would then work with these individuals to help them understand who they are, how to define success and then pursue it. Defining success is something that we have not been very well trained how to do. Society has established some ideas as to what success looks like but these are very generalized pathways that are not unique to the skills and personality that each of us has. Drew is also the host of the Pathways Podcast which gives people a unique window into the inspiration and aspiration we have inside all of us. Alongside that he has founded Pavrr.com, a community built to connect people with purpose and impact-driven work. We talk about the end of 'paying your dues', how to define success for yourself, understanding who you are, the different types of feedback, the signal to noise ratio of good communication and much more. You can find the show notes here: http://fabsays.com/podcast/episode-57-drew-corby

"It’s never the situation but your thoughts about it." - Pixie Weyand Two years ago Pixie was still cleaning toilets at a mine in rural Queensland. With a head full of ideas and the drive to do something with her life she has since worked tirelessly to create The Lost Collective, an umbrella for several businesses she is in the process of growing. These include: Lost Boys, a small, organic vegetarian, carbon-neutral café in the Brisbane suburb of Fortitude Valley; The Tree House, a bar offering local, natural, and organic drinks; The Zoo, an iconic live music venue; and Feed Music, an app connecting touring musicians with local cafes and restaurants across the globe to provide affordable healthy meals. Although she has no formal degree or training in business Pixie has learnt everything she knows through perseverance, surrounding herself with the right people and having a belief that she’s capable of making her dreams a reality. We talk about buying a live music venue, recognising herself as a "business woman", why you can't plan everything that happens, how it's okay to be scared, firing all her staff at the same time, running a café by herself for a whole week, dealing with criticism, creating happiness and much more. You can find the show notes here: http://fabsays.com/podcast/episode-56-pixie-weyand