Varsha Kalra, the 276th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, has a brain for business and a heart for humanity. Varsha, who was raised in India but now lives in Dubai, contacted me after travelling to Sydney for business. “I stumbled upon ‘500 lunches with 500 strangers in 5 years’ [...]
Trudi Yip, the 275th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, has a surprising connection with potatoes. Trudi is a third-generation family member in Yep Lum & Co, a wholesaler of potatoes (and other vegetables) that was founded in 1940 and is the longest-running tenant at Sydney Markets. She grew up [...]
Emma Kirkwood, the 274th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, draws an important distinction between an idea being wrong and a person being wrong. The former does not equal the latter. So why can it feel so threatening to admit we might be wrong? Because if we attach our identity [...]
It says a lot about Trudy Witbreuk that she’s been to Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, but not Noosa, the Queensland holiday town. Trudy, the 273rd person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, is a career diplomat who’s run embassies and negotiated trade deals. After graduating as a lawyer and working [...]
Jonathan Sermon, the 272nd person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, believes life is a team game. His life – both professionally and personally – centres around meeting new people, building relationships and acting as a connector. Partly, this is because Jon is an extrovert and loves people. But it’s also [...]
Rachael Wass, the 271st person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, made me reflect on an unconscious bias I suddenly realised I had. Rachael, who is the CEO of Meaningful Ageing Australia, pointed out that when we see somebody with grey hair, we automatically make assumptions about that person and their [...]
Nass Aoun, the 270th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, has crammed an awful lot of living into his 27 years. Nass had always had an interest in business and personal growth. And he also knew he didn't want to work for anybody else. So, straight out of school, he [...]
When Belinda English was 19, and working in a menial job in a credit union, one act of courage changed her life. Bel, the 269th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, wanted to work in the home loans assessment department. So Bel's mum told her to march into the CEO's [...]
Anne Neilan, the 268th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, uses numbers to tell stories. Anne is an expert marketer with 15 years’ experience in data analytics. She crunches data from Google Analytics, social media, email marketing, customer databases and other sources to help businesses better understand their customers. That [...]
Chance encounters can change your life, provided you remain open to meeting new people and having new experiences. Jessica Robertson, the 267th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, is living proof. On Jess’s first day at her first real job, she met a woman who asked if Jess wanted to [...]
