The Creator's Couch

William Trubridge is an 18-time world record and 6-time world champion Freediver, holding the current world record in his discipline - 102m/335ft and back on one breath, in the ocean, with no fins, and no touching the rope. There’s likely no sport in the world that demands the same set of physical and particularly mental skills as freediving. To pull off these deep dives, William’s essentially developed a mastery over what he calls our mental immune system, which relates to our ability to remain calm under pressure, stress, and fear. As a keynote speaker, William talks of how he neutralises stress and fear in his deepest dives; of how to go 'below the surface' of consciousness to access our intuition and creativity; and many more topics. On top of all that, he's a father of two and the founder of Vertical Blue, the most prestigious freediving event in the world, held annually at Dean's Blue Hole, Long Island, Bahamas. Plenty of gems in this one team. Enjoy!

Dua Lipa, Post Malone, Stormzy, Ice Spice... Bloody hell, even The Wiggles. Tom Grut has photographed shows from all of them and so many more, along with directed music videos for awesome local artists. He’s easily one of the best music photographers and directors in New Zealand, and has cemented himself as the go-to choice of Live Nation not only with his incredible work but also through being a fantastic dude. As far as young local creators go, this is a guy you can’t miss and whether or not you care about photography or director, there's value in here for you. Enjoy it, team!

Just a quick one today team - three questions which have been on my mind lately for you to think about. It turns out weekly interviews aren't easy to keep up solo on top of a full time job, but I'll have the next one for you next Monday and then fortnightly from there. Thanks so much for all the love so far, team! Truly appreciate you.

Jordan Gibson is the Founder behind Checks Downtown - a New Zealand clothing label with a global outlook. Sitting between street fashion, luxurious fabrication and tailored design, the brand has a playful, eclectic and relaxed attitude.Checks is defining a new generation of New Zealand design and lifestyle to the world from its flagship store on Auckland’s Pitt Street.In this early episode, we dive into everything from Paris Fashion Week through to the importance of local community and how to build a beloved brand that stands the test of time.

Petra Leary is an award winning New Zealand born aerial photographer, probably the best in the country, along with a NZ Ambassador for ADHD. Her ability to capture her subjects from unique perspectives has been groundbreaking, and likely made her Aotearoa’s greatest drone photographer. Her list of clients is incredible, including Nike, T-Mobile, Ford, SuperDry, Toyota, DJI, and many more. An intrepid world traveller, she hunts out unusual landscapes, captures them from her signature bird’s eye angle from above, and manipulates and accentuates colours to create incredibly striking work. This chat covers everything from commercialising your creativity, through to embracing your uniqueness and managing ADHD. Enjoy!

Jordan Rondel is the incredibly creative founder of beloved business, The Caker. You may also have seen her as a judge on the most recent season of The Great Kiwi Bake Off. Today’s chat with her covers the recipe for turning creativity into a career, and how a baking hobby turned into opportunities to make Miley Cyrus' birthday cake along with so much more. Jordan grew The Caker in Auckland, New Zealand, but is now living out in LA, growing the business with her sister and business partner, Anouk.Jordan’s such an incredibly creative human, a lovely lady, and frankly just cool as hell - another chat I absolutely loved. 🖤

Alrighty team, this is my first time interviewing anyone ever so go easy! It's with Jason Puma, the Brand Director for one of the biggest real estate agents in the entire world - Ryan Serhant and his team at Serhant. If you have a moment, check them out on YouTube selling some of the most incredible homes in the US, sometimes for over $100M. In this conversation, we discuss Puma's journey and progression in NYC, starting from his job at FlyNYON, a doors-off helicopter experience where we actually met, to where he is now. Puma also shares his experience of living in New York and some real, raw moments about overcoming huddles and burnout.

As founder and creator of one of New Zealand’s most successful ever start-ups, My Food Bag, Cecilia is one of New Zealand’s greatest entrepreneurs. A serial entrepreneur and innovator, Cecilia is now the Co-founder and Co-CEO of digital health start-up Tend Health – one of the largest primary healthcare companies in the country. Cecilia has won more awards than you can shake a stick at: - New Zealand Innovator of the Year 2024 - Supreme Winner 2017 Women of Influence Awards - Next Magazine Businesswoman of the Year 2014 - EY Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2013 - HER Businesswoman of the Year 2012 Along with so many more. Cecilia is also a founding trustee of the Prince's Trust New Zealand, as well as Director at Pie Funds and has rejoined the board of My Food Bag. On top of all that, she's a fantastic and dedicated mum to three young kids.