Humans Aren't Robots

Two founders. Zero filter. Eli Moulton started Plus One Dress Hire on maternity leave. What began as a practical idea became a movement - one built on sustainability, inclusion, and the belief that every woman deserves to feel extraordinary. Now she's building Em Body and redefining what it means to lead a brand with values at the centre.Justin James knew he wanted to be a chef at ten years old. From bussing tables in Michigan to Eleven Madison Park, Noma, and building Restaurant Botanic into one of Australia's most celebrated dining experiences - his career has been a masterclass in craft. Now he's doing the most ambitious thing yet: opening Restaurant Aptos, a 14-seat, 16-course, multiroom dining experience inside a 156-year-old converted church in the Adelaide Hills.They're also partners. Building three businesses and a family at the same time, under the same roof, with no real off switch.In this episode, they held nothing back - on what it actually takes to step out on your own, cultural shifts with fresh eyes and how you can build and be an entrepreneur while juggling a family.

A real conversation about what it takes to manage scale at speed, empower teams to perform at their peak and juggle ambition with family life.We sit down with Adam Koch to unpack what leadership looks like beyond the title.Adam does not lead by having all the answers. He leads by getting great people in the room, asking better questions, setting clear direction and then stepping back so his team can thrive.From years spent working and travelling the world to grounding himself back in Adelaide, we explore the experiences that shaped his leadership philosophy and ultimately led him to Sweat.We trace the evolution of Sweat, from static PDF workout plans to one of the most respected fitness apps in the world, and the pressure, discipline and clarity required to scale without losing focus or values.This episode explores leadership without ego, growth through chaos and the work of building systems while scaling. It is a perfect example of how the path is rarely linear, but that’s all part of the magic.

This episode is a deep dive into the 40 Under 40 program—what it means, why it matters, and why more young South Australians should back themselves and apply. Sam and journalist David Simmons (Solstice Media) break down what they look for as judges, from compelling storytelling to impact beyond revenue.They tackle the struggle many South Aussies have with talking themselves up (hello, tall poppy syndrome) and why Adelaide’s culture of underplaying success needs to shift. The conversation also swings into broader territory—how Adelaide stacks up on the global stage, why our food and drink scene deserves more credit, and the evolving state of journalism in an era of AI and media fragmentation.It’s a candid, thought-provoking chat about ambition, storytelling, and why putting yourself forward for opportunities like 40 Under 40 isn’t self-serving—it’s about building a stronger, more connected ecosystem.To apply for this years 40 under 40 head to - https://solsticemedia.com.au/40-under-40/nominations/nominate-someone/

This week Sam chats with entrepreneur, journalist and creator of Young Blood Men's Mental Health, Callum MacPherson. Young Blood is an amazing podcast all about men's mental health, challenging stigmas and striving for a world with less suicide. They chat about Callum's past in the media, how he is building his company, meeting amazing people and sharing life-changing stories. People's attitudes towards mental health has changed a lot over the past few years, Sam and Callum chat about what this means for workplaces, teams and how to create spaces where people can be open about issues. Links: Callum MacPherson Young Blood Mens Mental Health

In this episode I chat with Ben Colley who works for Teamgage and founded the GOOD Product community here in Adelaide. I've been keen to have Ben on the podcast for a while, he has a really interesting background and has some great experience working with startups and building diverse teams - something I was really keen to chat about.

At Digital Noir, we work in a creative environment and industry so creativity is kind of a given but creativity is in everyone, and in all industries. Creativity is how we approach problems, how we look at things, how we work with different skillsets to get to a common goal. So many business practices can really stifle creativity - we need to allow the time and the space for new ideas, creativity and ambiguity.

This season, each episode is a mash up of different conversations centred around a theme. This week's subject is Diversity. It's something we've been thinking about and discussing on the podcast for a while. Not just integrating diversity at a "high" level in a company, but actually looking at practicalities and some real issues faced by current and new staff. All these conversations were recorded live at SouthStart. In this episode I speak with Sally-Ann Williams - CEO at Cicada Innovations, Lauren Capelin - Principal at Starmate, Katrina Dunn - Global MD Impact Capital - Catalize, Sarah Nolet - General Partner at Tenacious Ventures

Craig described Southstart as a gathering of curious, creative chaotic individuals stumbling through the world trying to change the future somehow. I love that. Our chat focused on fostering that spirit and, more broadly, how we continue to do this outside of events like this. Some key areas of the conversation were: Southstart 2021 Community building How to have better (more meaningful) conversation Decentralisation and the future (and what it means) Blockchain technology The importance of hospitality and much more! Thanks so much to Craig for taking the time to speak, and we look forward to Southstart 2021 - GET YOUR TICKETS HERE.

It was a pleasure chatting with Cormac. He was speaking at Pause Fest last year and we sat down and had a wide-ranging conversation. Storytelling is at the heart of everything Cormac does and in our chat, I discoed it has been a constant thread in his life and career, starting from, his Punk Rock roots in Ireland and taking him around the world in a variety of roles.

On this weeks episode, we sat down with Trent Clews-de Castella - Co-founder of Phoria. PHORIA is a world-leading immersive tech studio that specialises in cutting-edge Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality (VR/AR/MR/XR) technology. Trent started the business with some friends from school and they have grown to a team of over 30 people in Melbourne. We met Trent as they were demoing some of their interactive experiences live from Pause fest earlier in the year. We discussed the real-world use cases of VR and AR and what the future of the space looks like. What it is like growing a business with three mates and some insights into fast growth.

I had such a fun time talking with Miles Orkin. Miles is a UX lead at Google and spends a lot of his time thinking about how he can empower teams. Miles started his career writing to Thrasher magazine. Which basically makes him my hero! Miles had some fantastic insights into how to create an environment in your workplace that is geared towards maximum happiness and success from teams.

It was an absolute pleasure to meet and chat with Kate earlier this year at Pausefest. Kate has followed her curiosity and passion and found herself the director of design at NEST which is now a Google company. She studied industrial design here in Australia and had dreams of designing more human connections with computers. She started her career at Emu design in Brisbane at a time when there were only a handful of serious product agencies here in Aus. Her career has taken her to Finland working with Nokia and to the heart of silicon valley with Twitter and Amazon. We spoke about some of the differences in culture across these companies and how they let their employees flourish at work. I am really interested in the bridge between industrial design and interface design. I think back to 2000 in my final year of high school, in my design class we worked on designing mobile phones, looking at new form factors (mine looked like a slightly slimmer 5210 🙂 I can't help but wish we had focussed on the interface design at that point in time. An industrial design ethos lends itself very well to UX / UI and Kate and I discuss these parallels and how they have helped shape her career across both hardware and software design. If you would like to find Kate you can on LinkedIn or Twitter and also check out Google Nest