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!

Elaine Li is an incredible Creative Director and Photographer in Sydney, whose amassed multiple awards and almost 250,000 followers. Today's chat with her is one of the very first episodes I recorded, and one that I'd been looking forward to for a long time. Since I first got into photography, I’ve been such a fan of Elaine work. On top of her talent, she's also simply an extremely lovely person who really cares about helping young creatives. She even gave a chunk of her time to have a coffee with me when I was visited Hong Kong 6 years ago, even though she had absolutely no reason to do so. This one’s a chill early episode with some solid creative gems. Hope you manage to take something away from it. Check out Elaine on Instagram: @lielaine

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!

Tony Bradbourne is the Co-Founder, CEO, and Creative Chairman of Special Group, an independent creative company doing outstanding work on the global stage. They've won multiple awards for Agency of the Year along with many other titles locally and internationally. While they began in NZ, they've now got offices in New York, LA, London, and Australia too. We cover so much in this chat around unlocking more creativity and how to approach effective world-class work. I can't wait for you to soak up some of the gems from our conversation. Enjoy!

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.

Dave Wood is the Founder & Head Trainer of Integrated Training, working as a specialist in stress mitigation, recovery and mental preparedness for athletes like Israel Adesanya and Joseph Parker, through to innovators, leaders and anyone in the pursuit of optimising their health and performance. Dave combines theory-based knowledge and practical experiences gained from 12 years as an Intensive Care Paramedic and Professional Ocean Lifeguard. His in-depth understanding of the human body systems and how they’re interconnected and the importance of balancing the body for sustainable peak performance is world-class. This is one you have to hear all the way through, team. In my opinion it’s easily one of the most impactful chats I’ve been proud to record! Hope you get as many gems out of it as I did.

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.

Brooke Roberts is the Co-Founder & CEO of the extremely successful investment platform named Sharesies, a joint winner of the 2020 New Zealand Woman of Business Awards, and a great mother. Kiwi entrepreneur and businesswoman - a pivotal part of helping Sharesies grow to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. We cover the most valuable aspect of money, the habits for successful saving, knowing when to take risks in life, and much more. Enjoy the chat team, and follow me on Instagram here.

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!

Otis Schapiro is the Executive Chef and Co-Owner of my favourite Auckland restaurant, Lilian. He’s also the owner of Schapiro’s, a one-of-a-kind sports bar in Eden Terrace. He’s worked at incredibly iconic restaurants, even briefly including the famous Noma in Copenhagen, along multiple other Michelin Star ones. For any of us, getting to where we really want to be takes a tonne of work but I think handling the years of the intensity and pace involved in becoming a great chef can be something else entirely. That’s part of the reason why I think there’s value in us hearing from a great chef like him, regardless of what creative field we’re in or what passion we’re pursuing. Bon appetit!