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Sounds of Eclat

Sounds of Eclat

di Eclat

Stagione 2

Leading From the Front: What Michael Voss and Rita Cincotta Know About Building Leaders Who Last

On this episode of The Sounds of Eclat, we sit down with Michael Voss Brisbane Lions triple-premiership captain and former Carlton coach and Rita Cincotta, author, leadership expert and executive coach, to unpack what real leadership looks like when the cameras aren't rolling. They trace their own leadership journeys (from a migrant household at age seven to being handed the captaincy at 21), get honest about their toughest moments a brutal first round of 360 feedback, losing a 22-year role at his boyhood club and share the frameworks they now use to develop the next generation of leaders. The conversation covers self-awareness as the real starting point of leadership, why coaching beats telling, the 5:1 rule for giving feedback that lands, and why the best leaders learn to make everyone around them better, not just themselves. It's also the launch of Eclat's new Executive Leadership Program, built specifically for emerging leaders and the business owners backing them.

Dr Lucy Maxwell: What Actually Makes Us Feel Safe?

What makes us feel safe isn’t always what actually keeps us safe. Criminologist Dr Lucy Maxwell on offenders, gendered violence and the psychology of fear. Criminologist, lecturer and Nick’s sister, Dr Lucy Maxwell joins Sounds of Eclat to unpack what her research into offender behaviour can teach us about public safety, gendered violence and the psychology of feeling safe. Drawing on years of research and interviews with offenders, Lucy explores how offenders choose targets, why psychological comfort often drives our behaviour more than objective safety and the small ways men can help reduce women’s everyday anxiety in public. The conversation also turns personal, from imposter syndrome and a paralysing fear of public speaking to the seven-year slog of completing a PhD and the daily reality of balancing motherhood, academia and advocacy.

Stagione 1

LEADING WITH CLARITY. HR WITH CLARITY. STRATEGY FIRST

The founder of Shift HR. A one-man show, why leadership problems are often clarity problems, and the uncomfortable questions AI is about to force the industry to answer. Founder of Shift HR, a strategic HR advisory and consulting business, Nick Gearen has built a career helping organisations commercialise their people function, from remuneration strategy to employee relations, workforce planning to culture. He shares what it's really like being a one-man show in a broad and reactive industry. Why most leadership problems come down to clarity rather than generation, and why AI is about to ask HR some questions nobody has good answers to yet.

Bec Ellis & Sarah Blackman - No Arsehole Rule

Two senior lawyers. One employer. Left on the same day. Built something of their own. Sarah and Beck didn't rush into this. The conversation about leaving corporate legal started almost as a joke, took years to get serious, and eventually became the only obvious next move. They left on good terms, split roles without having to negotiate them, and built a specialist employment law firm that now handles some of the most sensitive and complex people challenges in the market. What makes their story interesting is the partnership how naturally it functions, how clearly they balance each other, and what they've figured out about building a business together without losing the friendship underneath it. IN THIS EPISODE Why two senior in-house lawyers left corporate at the same time specialisation, ambition, and the quiet accumulation of a shared idea The early shock of cash flow not arriving when the work does and learning that billable hours and money in the bank are two very different things How they found their respective roles without ever negotiating them and why that's been their biggest structural asset The feedback that stung: over-servicing clients and giving too much away for free AI in employment law where it helps, where it doesn't, and why a workplace investigation is not a task you hand to a machine The no arsehole rule written into their values and why they'll walk away from a client before compromising the environment they've built

The Eclat Spitball #2

A candid conversation with Eclat CEO & COO. Why experiences, routines and traditions matter more than ever. In this special Spitball edition, ECLAT CEO Nick Maxwell and COO Lauren Blackwood pull back the curtain on running the business themselves. From the observations they've made watching members grow together, to the challenges of wearing too many hats, navigating HR as a former teacher, and the debate around work from home, Nick and Loz share what they've learned running a startup — and why experiences, routines and traditions matter more than ever. What Nick has observed from three-plus years watching small business owners come together at ECLAT. The power of a problem shared and different-industry perspectives Loz's transition from teaching and sport into people and culture, and the fine line between being a colleague's friend and making the hard HR call Why the experience economy has taken over since COVID and the story of the ECLAT member whose teenage daughter changed his life at a criminal psychologist talk The work from home debate, why both believe early-career growth is stunted without being physically present and learning from the people around you Nick's morning gym routine, accountability to self, and why traditions like the same camping weekend every year are non-negotiable Loz on the 5:30am start, kids' sport as the great equaliser, and why your friendship groups shift when you're deep in a startup An honest conversation about women in the workplace, the emotional strength often mistaken for weakness, the intuition that goes underused, and the self-doubt that holds talented women back

Shane Ward - The Long Game

Broke in Canada. Knocking on doors for a local rec centre. Thirty years later, still at it. Shane Ward spotted something in a door-knocking gig in Canada that most people would have dismissed as a summer job. He saw a model, a mindset, and eventually a business the Finn Agency, an outsourced sales force he's been running for over 30 years, with key staff who have been with him for much of that journey. He's a straight shooter and a deep thinker on leadership, people and the long game. His advice for business owners navigating a difficult 2026 is characteristically steady: stop thinking about today's problems and start mapping where you want to be in five years then work backwards. IN THIS EPISODE How a broke trip to Canada and a door-knocking job became the foundation for a 30-year business The shift from doing everything himself to working on the business and the time discipline that made it possible to scale The 'show don't tell' leadership philosophy, traced back to watching a gun tree planter silently double his output in two days Early feedback on the line between being approachable and being a leader people respect and how long it took to find it Why daily training not just onboarding is the single biggest contributor to the business working the way it does His advice for 2026: think in five-year blocks, work backwards, and don't be afraid to strip back and go again

Stephanie Waters - Strategy That Lives

An integrated agency. A rare edge in the Chinese market. And a deep frustration with brand strategy that lives in a PDF. Steph built Mulberry Marketing on the belief that brand is a system of belief not a logo set, not a colour palette, and definitely not a document that sits unopened in a Google Drive folder. Her edge is real: one of the only Australian agencies with genuine reach into the Chinese market through WeChat and Little Red Book. Her obsession is making sure strategy actually lives in the businesses she works with, not just in the work she delivers. She's candid about the harder parts of the journey. Growing a team, losing clients, scaling back, and sitting across from people she'd invested in and letting them go. She learned to separate ego from decision-making. She's still curious about everything. IN THIS EPISODE How Mulberry works as an integrated agency and the specialist Chinese marketing capability that almost no Australian agencies offer The hardest decision: letting go of her team when the pipeline dried up and learning that success isn't measured by headcount Why curiosity is her core hiring criteria and how it drives fresh thinking across industries she hasn't worked in before Using AI to automate her weekly client update process what used to take 90 minutes now takes minutes The brand strategy failure that shaped her most: a well-resourced client back to clunky messaging within weeks of delivery What she's teaching her kids: empathy and compassion because in a world increasingly shaped by AI, the human skills are the ones that will matter most

Eliza Vesey - The Buck Stops Here

The Cadel Evans homecoming. The Queen's visit. Seven days notice to close St Kilda Road. Eliza Vesey has spent over 20 years producing events that most people only ever read about. She now runs Moments Made, her own events business, and the conversation about what it takes to do that alone where the buck stops with you in a way it simply never does inside an agency or a club is refreshingly honest. Her real currency is relationships. Her real superpower is knowing exactly who to trust, paying for that trust, and building events around it. The feedback that landed hardest came from a close friend who told her she was trying to do too many things at once and not doing any of them properly. She used it. IN THIS EPISODE A career that started with 10,000 cancer survivors forming a pink ribbon on the MCG and never looked back Working on the Queen's visit, Oprah, Princess Mary, and a Cadel Evans homecoming parade with a jersey nearly printed 30 centimetres instead of 30 metres The real challenge of going out on your own and why thinking at the bigger-picture level is harder when the detail keeps pulling you back in Why supplier relationships are the most underrated currency in events and why she'll pay more for complete trust The feedback from a close friend and client that shifted how she thinks about taking on work Event depression the real, flat feeling that follows every adrenaline crash and what that feels like as a founder

Jeremy Nichols - Lifting Potential

Thirteen years. One clear purpose. Two words: lifting potential. Jeremy Nichols founded Composure after a career that took him from young consultant to firm owner to the executive team of an ASX-listed business. He knows what good organisations look like, and he knows what gets in the way. His view on culture change is unsentimental: the clients most ready to do the work are usually the ones already performing well who want to go further not the ones in trouble, because those leaders often created the culture they're now asking him to fix. It's an honest lens, and it runs through everything in this conversation from feedback at the senior level to the work-from-home debate and the generation that's never quite sure what they're missing. IN THIS EPISODE The journey from consultant to owner to ASX-listed executive and why he launched Composure to give others the development he was given Why the best clients are often the ones who are already good and why shifting a culture a previous leader built is the hardest assignment there is The habit of making the call how reaching out consistently has compounded into what people mistake for luck Building trust before delivering feedback to senior leaders and why the Enneagram creates the personal language that makes hard conversations land A clear position on work from home: leadership is a contact sport, and the nuances of trust simply don't build over a screen His concern for the generation who have only ever known the post-COVID working world and whether they know what they're missing

Brad Ebert - After the After

260 AFL games. Two new careers. One very clear sense of what comes next. Brad Ebert spent the better part of two decades at the elite end of Australian football West Coast, Port Adelaide, 260 games. What he's built since says as much about his character as anything that happened on the field. Hey Diddle Wines started as a pipe dream with a Port Adelaide teammate. Phillips Coaching is where his purpose in the athlete transition space really comes alive. Together, they paint a picture of someone who made the most of football and was equally ready for what came after which, it turns out, is a far less common combination than it should be. IN THIS EPISODE The origin of Hey Diddle Wines pipe dreamer conversations, a winemaker from Rockford, and the decision to build something real rather than just lend a name to it The humility of moving to Melbourne and realising nobody knows or cares who plays for Port Adelaide and why that was exactly the grounding he needed Why footballers are better equipped for business than they think but need to slow down for collaboration His uncle's advice: 'Remember the ones on the way up they're the first ones you meet on the way down' Phillips Coaching's work across the full athlete journey from school-age development to the entrepreneurial mindset course for players stepping out of sport The motivation shift: from self-focused to genuinely wanting to give back including making space for his wife's career after 15 years of following his

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