Brad Johnson: Bring What You've Got to the Table

Brad Johnson: Bring What You've Got to the Table

Brad Johnson holds the Western Bulldogs games record - 364 games. 558 goals, six All Australian selections, a Hall of Fame inductee. He is, by any measure, one of the greats of his generation. This is a beautiful conversation with a genuinely extraordinary person that still trains like he's trying to earn his spot - he drove an hour to be first at the track the morning this conversation was recorded. He's genuinely, almost inexplicably, one of the happiest people you'll ever come across - and, according to Luke, has been that way since he was seventeen years old. In this episode of Empowering Leaders, Luke Darcy sits down with his former teammate, and longtime friend for a conversation about what it actually looks like to give everything to something - in football, in business, in family - and still be standing tall on the other side. They talk about Brad's son Jack, who is chasing a career in motorsport at serious cost, and what it means to be a dad who shows up without getting in the way. About his daughter Ella, whose singing career paused through COVID and might just be starting again. About the eight years he and wife Donna spent building Zena [https://zenasport.com.au/] - a protective sportswear brand for women in contact sport - starting from nothing, holding strong through two years of dead ends, to now being stocked in Rebel Sport and sold internationally. Brad opens up about his cancer diagnosis last year - a lump under his arm, six weeks of radiation, an operation, and a first clear scan six months later. He talks about what it took to stop trying to work through it and about Donna telling him to for once in his life to focus on himself. You'll hear this brilliant past episode referenced: Paul Waterson: From intensive care nurse to running pubs with the Australian Venue Co. [https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/paul-waterson-from-intensive-care-nurse-to-running/id1579460058?i=1000675807798] Check it out or re-listen now. 01:49  AFL Legend Brad Johnson & Luke Darcy: 17-Year-Olds at the Western Bulldogs 03:49  The Athlete Brad Johnson Was — Endurance, Speed & Strength 04:52  Brad Johnson's Positivity: Natural or Performed? 06:02  Parenting Kids Who Chase Big Dreams — Ella's Singing & Jack's Motorsport Career 08:31  Supporting a Motorsport Career: The Real Cost of Jack Johnson's Racing Dream 10:33  Leadership Lessons from Jack Johnson's Pitch to Melbourne Business Leaders 12:01  Brad Johnson on Parenting Differently to His Own Father 14:34  364 Games for the Western Bulldogs: Habits, Discipline & the Scotty Wine Story 17:16  What AFL Players Underestimate When They Retire 18:42  Brad & Donna Johnson on Starting Zena Sport — Building a Business from Scratch 23:36  Finding Your Lane: Stop Chasing Everything (The Hedgehog Moment) 25:17  Brad Johnson on the Aleda Leadership Community 26:21  What Brad Johnson Is Most Proud Of at 50 31:10  Brad Johnson's Cancer Diagnosis: Radiation, Surgery & First Clear Scan 34:04  Brad Johnson's Daily Routine After Cancer — Walking, Sauna, Weights & Golf 35:24  Leadership Advice: Bring Your Quality to the Table 39:12  Collaboration, Paul Waterson & Learning Outside the Sporting Bubble 42:09  The AFL Premiership Brad Johnson Never Won — and How He Made Peace With It We are privileged to have Brad as part of our Aleda Connect community. Head here [https://www.aledacollective.com/program/leadconnect] to find out more about our signature, cross industry collaboration program, Aleda Connect. Curated and facilitated by experts, running for 8 fortnightly sessions, Aleda Connect is the learning experience of a life-time.   Learn. Lead. Collaborate. Start your leadership journey today. Meet [https://calendly.com/matt-1756/30min] with founders Luke Darcy, Matt Wadewitz or one of the amazing Aleda Connect facilitators to learn how you can grow alongside people like Brad within our signature leadership program. Empowering Leaders is proudly partnered with Victoria University. Find more information about studying at VU here [https://tinyurl.com/yzcchzea]. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Timmy Bristow: A Voice for the Voiceless

Timmy Bristow was nine years old when he ruptured his pancreas playing footy at recess, crawled to the tap, and waited alone in a dark staffroom until his mum finished her shift. By the time she arrived he was blue. A few hours later he was on an ambulance plane to the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne with a thirty percent chance of surviving surgery.  While Timmy was in hospital, of the young AFL players who showed up on the ward to help cheer up the young patient was… Luke Darcy. But in that moment - neither of them could have possibly known they'd end up here, having this conversation today. Timmy grew up in country Victoria, excelled on the sporting field, and for twenty-one years carried the secret that he'd been sexually abused by someone in a position of authority and trust - in an institution that covered it up. He held it through his teens, through footy, through becoming a husband and a father. Until his sister said she'd tell their parents herself if he didn't. In this conversation on Empowering Leaders, Timmy and Luke talk about what that silence cost and what breaking the silence felt like. They talk about the 28.5% of Australian children who will experience sexual abuse before they turn eighteen, about Timmy’s mammoth effort to run seven marathons in seven states in seven days for Bravehearts, and about what Timmy has built on the other side of all of it - an incredible school he leads the way he wished he'd been led, a personal philosophy of connection, vulnerability and consistency, and a refusal to become a statistic. We are privileged to have Timmy as part of our Aleda Connect community. Head here [https://www.aledacollective.com/program/leadconnect] to find out more about our signature, cross industry collaboration program, Aleda Connect. Curated and facilitated by experts, running for 8 fortnightly sessions, Aleda Connect is the learning experience of a life-time.   Learn. Lead. Collaborate. Start your leadership journey today. Meet [https://calendly.com/matt-1756/30min] with founders Luke Darcy, Matt Wadewitz or one of the amazing Aleda Connect facilitators to learn how you can grow alongside people like Timmy within our signature leadership program. Empowering Leaders is proudly partnered with Victoria University. Find more information about studying at VU here [https://tinyurl.com/yzcchzea]. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Lexi Edmondson: Running Towards Danger, Finding Love - What Bondi Taught Us About Leadership & Life

When Lexi Edmondson walked down to Bondi Beach to celebrate finishing her master's degree, she had no idea her life was about to change forever. What began as a summer evening by the water for hundreds of people became one of Australia's most devastating acts of violence - and Lexi ran towards it. In her most in-depth interview since the December attack, Lexi sits down with Luke Darcy to take us inside the night itself. She talks about the chaos, the moment her training kicked in, and about how the iconic Bondi community responded in the aftermath. Lexi shares the healing power of reconnecting with the people she helped, and the extraordinary gesture from Rabbi Levi Wolf and the Jewish community that brought everyone together. Armed with fresh surf lifesaving training and sheer instinct, Lexi and fellow volunteer Jimmy McIntosh became part of the community of first responders who helped treat and carry 60 people to safety that night. In the days that followed - amid the grief, the trauma processing, and the slow work of rebuilding - Lexi and Jimmy fell in love. In the six months since Lexi has been able to identify what a tragedy like the deadly Bondi attack can strip away - the corporate ambitions, the performative rituals of modern dating, the conditions we place on living fully. Lexi shares why she has walked away from a path she thought she wanted, returned to clinical practice to help people one-on-one, and said yes to a relationship that moved at the speed of life. Plus: the ChatGPT proposal fail, the ring they promised not to buy (and then bought!), and the moment Lexi's mum clocked Jimmy before Lexi even had a chance. Lexi speaks beautifully about the importance of community, finding courage, championing feminine leadership, and finding the light when everything feels so dark. Learn. Lead. Collaborate. Start your leadership journey today. Head here [https://www.aledacollective.com/program/leadconnect] to find out more about our signature, cross industry collaboration program, Aleda Connect. Curated and facilitated by experts, running for 8 fortnightly sessions, Aleda Connect is the learning experience of a life-time. Empowering Leaders is proudly partnered with Victoria University. Find more information about studying at VU here [https://tinyurl.com/yzcchzea]. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Harry Moffitt: Former SAS Operator on High Performance & What We've Forgotten About Living Well

Harry Moffitt spent decades inside one of the world's most demanding institutions - Australia's Special Air Service Regiment. He's served in conflict zones across the Middle East including Afghanistan, lost friends, mentored some of the country's most elite operators, and now works as a corporate psychologist helping leaders, athletes, and organisations perform under pressure. He's also the author of Eleven Bats and The Fourth Pillar, a book about a pillar he believes most high performance programs are missing entirely. In this conversation on Empowering Leaders, Luke and Harry explore what it means to train the whole human. Not just the body or the mind, but the philosophical and moral interior that most people never think to tend to. Harry traces the idea back to a remarkable Australian coach named Percy Cerutty, who in the 1950s and 60s built what might have been the world's first institute of sport from a tin shack on the beach at Portsea. His STOTAN philosophy blended the best of the Stoics and the Spartans into a radical approach to resilience and human performance. Harry also speaks candidly about the Ben Roberts-Smith war crimes case, one of the most significant and divisive legal proceedings in Australian military history. Harry has worked closely with people on both sides of the investigation and brings a perspective that is measured, informed, and unflinching. He talks about what the case has done to the SAS community, why he believes there is worse yet to come, and what integrity looks like when loyalty and accountability are in direct tension. Harry speaks with the kind of hard-earned clarity that only comes from actually living what you're writing about - the cost of being away from home, what he now understands about presence, about community, about the difference between chasing things and building a life.  He talks about grief for his friend Lochlan Muddle, about leadership under pressure, about walking the floor as a leader, and about why talking to yourself out loud might be one of the oldest and most powerful practices a human can cultivate.   03:29 The four pillars of high performance 05:50 Percy Cerutty and the STOTAN philosophy 09:33 The whole human: Ancient wisdom and modern performance 14:46 A philosophy for living a meaningful life 18:41 Absence, regret and family 20:45 The SAS brotherhood 22:33 Lochlan Muddle: loss and pride 25:42 Ben Roberts-Smith and a divided community 31:51 Fog of war, moral armory and where the line is 35:17 Afghanistan: did we win? 40:37 What great leaders do consistently 45:50 The ancient art of talking to yourself 51:15 Routines, habits and self first 57:05 Walk the floor: the one piece of advice 1:00:14 Who would Harry collaborate with? 1:04:34 The greatest leader in Harry's life   Learn. Lead. Collaborate. Start your leadership journey today. Head here [https://www.aledacollective.com/program/leadconnect] to find out more about our signature, cross industry collaboration program, Aleda Connect. Curated and facilitated by experts, running for 8 fortnightly sessions, Aleda Connect is the learning experience of a life-time.  Empowering Leaders is proudly partnered with Victoria University. Find more information about studying at VU here [https://tinyurl.com/yzcchzea]. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Phil Hopley: The Burnout Tipping Point Every Leader Needs to Recognise

What separates the leaders and athletes who perform under pressure from those who crack? According to Dr Phil Hopley, it comes down to one overlooked discipline: daily recovery. Phil is a consultant psychiatrist and one of the world's leading experts in mental performance. Through Cognacity - the specialist psychology organisation he leads - Phil has worked inside elite sport, global boardrooms and high-performance teams across Premier League football, Formula One, rugby and Olympic sport. His organisation was the appointed specialist team for the London Olympics and Paralympics. In this conversation with Luke Darcy, Phil unpacks the science behind sustainable high performance, the hidden cost of distracted working, and why the greatest predictor of long-term leadership success isn't intelligence or ambition - it's self-awareness. Phil explains the "tipping point" that separates productive pressure from burnout, shares what Kenyan distance runners can teach every corporate leader about recovery, and reveals the Big Five personality assessment his team uses to identify high-risk hires before catastrophic cultural damage is done. He also talks in-depth about building psychological safety, dialling up kindness in competitive environments, and why the greatest leader in his own life is his 90-year-old father. Learn. Lead. Collaborate. Start your leadership journey today. Head here [https://www.aledacollective.com/program/leadconnect] to find out more about our signature, cross industry collaboration program, Aleda Connect. Curated and facilitated by experts, running for 8 fortnightly sessions, Aleda Connect is the learning experience of a life-time.  Empowering Leaders is proudly partnered with Victoria University. Find more information about studying at VU here [https://tinyurl.com/yzcchzea]. See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.