Anne-Marie Elias, the 261st person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, describes herself as a disruptor. Annie feels a sense of burning injustice that issues like homelessness, Aboriginal disadvantage and support for vulnerable women are getting worse, despite attracting bucketloads of funding over decades. Annie has worked as a government policy [...]
Craig Keary, the 260th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, was on the last flight out of Beijing in early 2020, back to his home in Tokyo, just before the country shut its border. It was a sign the world had changed forever. At the time, Craig was a frequent [...]
I didn’t realise the power of breathing until I met Thomas Beresford. Thomas, the 259th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, runs breathwork workshops, where he conducts breathing exercises and teaches proper breathing techniques. The breathing exercises have incredible mental and physical health benefits, with participants enjoying less stress, less [...]
To his friends, he's Matthew Erwin. But to his clients, he's The Cashman. Matt, the 258th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, is the owner of Cashman Consulting, a finance broking business that finds working capital and asset finance funding solutions for other businesses. Back in 1998, during Matt’s corporate [...]
Stephen Brookes, the 257th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, is a wonderful photographer who has turned himself into an excellent businessperson. Many service providers relish the job part of their business (e.g. photo shoots if you’re a photographer) but dread the business part of their business (the sales and [...]
I was introduced to Victor David by a mutual friend, who sent an email with the subject line “Linking two born networkers”. Victor, the 256th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, turned out to be a very good networker and excellent company. Victor grew up in Holland, before moving to [...]
When the pandemic hit a couple of years ago, Muriel Altink, the 255th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, was unsure what to do. Not because her career was damaged. But because she’d recently started exiting from a business she’d built and run for 17 years – and now that [...]
One way to appreciate the incredible fLorence Cotel, the 254th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, is to look at the distinctive way she spells her first name. fLorence adopted this spelling after completing her first iron man event (a race that involves a 3.9km swim, 180km cycle and 42km [...]
When Sanders Muleya was just 17, and living in a poor farming community in Zimbabwe, he did something that was so audacious and visionary, even a person twice his age would have struggled to conceive of the idea. Sanders, the 253rd person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, decided to build [...]
When Anthony Butler was in his thirties, he started to wonder – is that all there is? Anthony, the 252nd person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, had built a good career in technology sales and was quite happy. But he also had some nagging doubts. Do I really want to [...]
