Back in 2016, Jacqui Carias, a professional violinist, was upgraded to first class on an international flight and seated near a high-profile couple. The man, noticing Jacqui’s violin, covertly explained that he was planning to pop the question to his girlfriend during the flight and asked if Jacqui would perform during the proposal. Jacqui said yes [...]
Alvin Rajakumar, the 383rd person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, has a revealing insight into business, which is that most companies – even mature ones with seven-figure revenues – don’t have a marketing plan. Alvin is the owner of a full-service digital marketing agency, Your Business Live, so this is [...]
While I’m having lunches with strangers, Antonia Ruffell is having coffees with tech start-up founders. Antonia, the 382nd person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, is CEO of StartGiving, a not-for-profit that encourages and supports successful tech founders to establish their own charitable foundations. Antonia is an active networker partly because [...]
Rachel Waterhouse, the 381st person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, is a go-to expert for journalists who want quotes about stock market-related matters. Rachel, who is CEO of the Australian Shareholders' Association, is regularly asked to comment on regulatory policy, corporate governance and the actions of individual companies. That puts [...]
David McCrae, the 380th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, knew from the age of five that he was going to be an architect. David’s paternal grandmother would speak regularly of how she wished she could’ve been an architect, but had been denied admission to university due to her gender. [...]
Richard Telleria, the 379th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, asked me for three big lessons I'd learnt from my previous 378 lunches. One of them, I told Rich, was that most people are reluctant to lead, because they're worried about other people's judgements; it feels safer to be positioned [...]
Gabrielle Morrissey, the 378th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, is invigorated by her work, which gives her the chance to help vulnerable people and put her lived experience to use. Gabrielle is the CEO of Women & Children First, which offers specialised support for women and children experiencing domestic [...]
If you want to bond with Mark Zigouris, talk to him about history. Mark, the 377th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, is very knowledgeable about both modern and ancient history, and how this has influenced contemporary culture and politics. I share Mark's love of history and foreign affairs, so [...]
Jordan Knight, the 376th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, has a cool business with a cool name. Spicy Pineapple Marketing specialises in using LinkedIn outreach to help businesses attract clients and referrers. Jordan's clients lack either the time or the nerve to contact strangers on LinkedIn. So Spicy Pineapple [...]
Matthew Kline, the 375th person I've met on my quest to have lunch with 500 strangers, believes in seizing opportunities when they appear – which is how he unexpectedly became the owner of an aviation business. In 2012, Matthew and a flying buddy, Mark, were looking to buy a small plane they could fly on the [...]
