Curveball

Remember when Michael Fox first joined us on Curveball? He’d clawed his way back from a bruising collapse of his first start-up Shoes of Prey to build a new company.

Fable Foods creates a meat-alternative from shiitake mushrooms and Michael and his co-founders had convinced celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal to be part of their journey.

But Covid had hit and Michael wasn’t sure his newly-established food manufacturing plant would survive the pandemic.

Michael Fox is the ultimate optimist and since he last joined us on season 1 of Curveball, he’s secured more investment, scaled up his company, and now expanded into several fast food chains.

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Curveball is a production of Deadset Studios. Leaders reveal their darkest moments and share tips on how the deal with those things you just can’t see coming.

Keep up to date with Curveball by following @_deadsetstudios on Twitter and @deadsetstudios on instagram.

Want more from your leadership journey? To get more wisdom and life lessons from top leaders delivered to you directly, sign up to Curveball’s LinkedIn newsletter!

Find out more about the show or suggest a guest by visiting www.curveballshow.com

This was episode was produced Liam Riordan. Curveball’s executive producers are Rachel Fountain and Kellie Riordan.

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land on which this show was made.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Olivia Humphrey was having lunch in a Napa vineyard when a billionaire stepped in to help turn her genius start-up into a fully-fledged global streaming platform.

A former Village Roadshow employee, Olivia came up with the idea to streamline the way universities could secure rights for films and documentaries for students.

As streaming took off and Kanopy became a digital platform much like Netflix or Stan, Olivia took her Perth-based company to the US where she quickly stitched up libraries too.

The billionaire backer gave her the confidence to scale Kanopy beyond her wildest dreams.

But it’s what happened next that so few business owners discuss openly. Especially very successful founders. The sale. How exactly does that work? Who are the winners, what are the risks, and what should you look out for?

Listen to both episodes to hear Olivia’s rise to start-up superstar.

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Curveball is a production of Deadset Studios. Leaders reveal their darkest moments and share tips on how the deal with those things you just can’t see coming.

Keep up to date with Curveball by following @_deadsetstudios on Twitter and @deadsetstudios on instagram.

Want more from your leadership journey? To get hot tips from top leaders delivered to you directly, sign up to Curveball’s LinkedIn newsletter!

Find out more about the show or suggest a guest by visiting www.curveballshow.com

This was episode was produced and edited by Grace Pashley and Liam Riordan, with sound design by Krissy Miltiadou.

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land on which this show was made.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elizabeth Broderick has been fighting for equality since she was in utero.

Growing up with a twin sister helped instil a burning sense of fairness in young Liz. She’d go on to become a trailblazing lawyer, Special Rapporteur to the United Nations, and Australia’s longest-serving Sex Discrimination Commissioner.

Elizabeth Broderick is a leader who’s spent her whole career negotiating in hostile environments.

She’s been across the table from the Trump administration on reproductive rights, battled for paid parental leave, fought against sexual harassment and discrimination, and been instrumental in changing attitudes to family violence.

And through all that time negotiating in halls of power with important people, Liz Broderick has never lost her passion for justice, nor the unique understanding of the people for whom she fights.

Curveball is a production of Deadset Studios. Leaders reveal their darkest moments and how they keep going in the face of adversity.

Keep up with Curveball by following @_deadsetstudios on Twitter and @deadsetstudios on instagram.

Want more from your leadership journey? For more life lessons from top leaders, sign up to Curveball’s LinkedIn newsletter!

Find out more about the show or suggest a guest by visiting www.curveballshow.com

This was episode was produced and edited by Grace Pashley with sound design by Kristina Miltiadou.

The executive producers are Rachel Fountain and Kellie Riordan.

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land on which this show was made.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Covid restrictions meant an immediate intermission for anyone working in live entertainment, Jeremy Fleming made a phone call no 40-something likes to make. He called his parents to say the shutdown spelt the end for his business and he’d be moving his family of four in with his parents.

Staging company Stagekings lost millions in revenue overnight, when client after client called to cancel events.

But ever the innovator, CEO Jeremy Fleming was determined the show must go on.

With a warehouse full of semi-assembled sets and a country under house arrest, Jeremy saw an opportunity. Cue, IsoKing: flat-packed furniture built for lockdown. WFH? They’ve got desks! Play from home? Puzzle boards! Just at home, constantly, with no respite? Wine racks!

This risky pivot has paid off, but the ride has been anything but smooth. Diving headfirst into a new business (in the middle of a pandemic) had set the scene for likely disaster.

Luckily, Jeremy knows a thing or two about set design, and he’s sharing his toolkit with the rest of us.

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Curveball gives you a glimpse inside a company at a pivotal moment. Leaders share their stories of thriving in challenging times.

We love hearing your stories. How have you adapted on the run? What’s been your curveball moment? Use your phone to record a voice memo and email it to [email protected]

Keep up to date with Curveball by following @_deadsetstudios on Twitter and @deadsetstudios on instagram and you can also sign up to the Curveball newsletter on LinkedIn.

Find out more about the show at www.curveballshow.com

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where this show was made.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Think back to the toughest challenges you've ever faced - the longest grind, the lowest low... What would you do if, almost as soon as it ended, you were told you had to do it all again?

For Kath Koschel, former New South Wales cricketer, this question isn’t hypothetical. She’d already faced loss of her fiancé and was overwhelmed with grief. And after months of rehab following a debilitating back injury, she wanted to get back on the pitch, but couldn’t. She still wasn’t able to lift her toes, which means she wasn’t able to bat. So her doctor suggested she give triathlons a go.

So as if she hadn’t faced enough punishment yet, she fell headlong into training, eventually deciding that a normal triathlon wasn’t good enough. No, she was going to train for the ultrawoman event. WTF!

But as she crossed the Sydney Harbour Bridge on a morning training session, she was struck down by a passing car, and sent to surgery, yet again.

How do you face down the most brutal of curveballs, when you barely survived the first time?

Kath Koschel is the impressive force behind the not-for-profit organisation The Kindness Factory which has expanded to The Kindness Curriculum, available in many schools in Australia and beyond.

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Curveball is a production of Deadset Studios. On Curveball you get the lowdown on how people grow in extraordinary times. Host Kellie Riordan takes you inside the someone’s curveball moment. They’ve been thrown a challenge, dealt a tough hand, the stakes are high. A decision could change the course of their life.

Keep up to date with Curveball by following @_deadsetstudios on Twitter and @deadsetstudios on Instagram.

Want more from your leadership journey? To get more wisdom and life lessons from top leaders delivered to you directly, sign up to Curveball’s LinkedIn newsletter!

Find out more about the show or suggest a guest by visiting www.curveballshow.com

This was episode was produced by Rachel Fountain and edited by Liam Riordan.

The executive producers are Rachel Fountain and Kellie Riordan.

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land on which this show was made.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices