The Bleeding Edge Podcast Ralph Behnke

In this episode we talk to Katie Ledger.  As a corporate coach Katie  helps to develop leaders and teams that perform under pressure and consistently achieve inspirational levels of achievement.  With the team at Complete, Katie is bringing a new way for coaches to develop capability in their clients based on data, research and insight that has been built up over the last 70 years.

It is called the Complete Values for Practitioners and it step changes the nature and impact of coaches or consultants delivering team performance improvement by using a developmental approach.

Unlike traditional personality tests, the Complete Values Profile is a developmental assessment. It defines a leader’s current level of development and, crucially, where someone needs to focus to unlock a new level of performance. That means it’s perfectly suited to a coaching intervention.

Katie takes us through what the values system is and what role it plays in helping us understand the world.

If you are a coach then you will want to sign up for the Webinar on Values Profiling here.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn here

Many brands are closing stores and moving purely online, unable to bear the cost of expensive physical stores.  Simon Calvert sets out what retailers should be doing to win the battle of staying relevant and accessible to customers.

Connect with Simon here

We walk in the footsteps of a thousand generations…what sort of world are we leaving for the next generations?  This is the question that Jamie and Sara, founders of Wyapa Wuurrk, set out to answer and in the process created a movement based on the philosophy of earth connection practice.  It is all based on ancient Indigenous wisdom that focuses on taking care of the Earth as the starting point for creating Earth Mind Body Spirit well-being.    Living in harmony with their environment is what sustained Australian Aboriginal people to be one of the world’s oldest, continuous living culture – for over 100,000 years!  Jamie and Sara are clear that this practice can sustain us for another 100, 000 years if we just open ourselves to this lifestyle shift.

Jamie is a custodian of wisdom passed down from Aboriginal Elders and in his own journey he realised that every human being once lived on this earth in harmony with the environment.  Many cultures lost this way of life long ago. Aboriginal culture survived longer than most and this gives us the opportunity to recreate this earth connection practice.  I have personally sought out nature for most of my life, finding my happiest moments deep in a forest or a long way up a mountain.  This conversation with Jamie and Sara helped me make sense of this intense feeling I have to surround myself with nature and how to truly embrace this every day. Wyapa, means "connected country" and through a combination of Earth mindfulness, narrative meditation, a series of physical movements and taking action to look after the planet, Wayapa® provides a sense of belonging to the Earth while creating holistic well-being.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of the Wyapa experience is that you can do the mind, body and spirit work but if you don't connect to the earth then you will likely be living with a feeling that something is missing.  Our route to the future is through our past and I personally can't wait get around a campfire with Jamie and Sara.  I hope you enjoy this episode exploring what it means to be deeply connected to the planet and how this might just be the catalyst to bring all of our wellbeing practice to bear as we look to go beyond survival and actually thrive with the planet.

Connect with Wyapa here

In this episode we talk to Danijela Prahovic about the strength based approach to building resilient teenagers and helping them to find their inner spark and start their life into adulthood with purpose.  Danijela has devoted her life to helping teens and young adults navigate the complex transition into adulthood. She has founded InnerSparQ, a digital platform to provide a self-paced programme that teaches vital life skills to adolescents.  Danijela loves to talk and as she says, she can talk underwater but one thing she does even better is to listen to the problems and challenges teens and your adults are facing.  She has distilled her experience into tools and techniques and particularly strength cards to help then learn life skills through a process of positive reinforcement and blended learning all accessible through a series of online resources.  Danijela's mission is to make this content accessible in a low cost manner but to make sure that they can start to take accountability and choose the way they feel that best serves them.  With 50% of mental health issues surfacing in early teens it is easy to see what drives Danijela to help many to find a better way of growing up and showing up.

Connect with Danijela on LinkedIn here

Visit the InnerSparQ website here

In this episode we speak to Emma Buratti, defender of beautiful sound and voice coach extraordinaire.   Emma unveils that 38% of communication is in your voice, and most people are under investing in training their voice to truly unlock their charisma and communication potential.  

Are you spreading your e's and a's?  Apparently I do and I had no idea it was something I could control.  Emma sets out the 6 steps she uses to coach clients and offers a unique insight into the power of building a voice note by note.  What is the secret? Stop everything that impedes the voice of you mind by stripping back your dialect, cleaning your voice up to create an upright sound column instead of swallowing your own voice or pushing it through your nose.  Sound travels in the vowels, a, e, i, o, u.....  so flip the consonants and focus on your vowels as everything else is impeding your ability to communicate effectively.

Training your voice correctly is all about repetition, but you need have someone to help you interpret what good sound sounds.  Like any muscle you need to practice and warm up but you need to do it right to become a true athlete of the voice.  While it takes 6 to 12 months to really make an impact, Emma shares stories of helping podcasters and CEO's with tips and techniques that can shift your capability in just 2 hours. 

Emma spent 10 years of building her voice note by note to finally achieve an E flat.   She is carrying on the tradition of her mentor, Alma Caesari who is now 96 years old and she is sharing this skill with the world through her programme "the voice of your mind".

If you produce more air than sound and find your voice in strange places then you will now doubt find Emma's voice a delight to listen to and as intoxicating as I did.

Connect with Emma on LinkedIn here

For the The Voice of your mind website click here

Jennifer Letorneau is a relationship coach and she recently released her playbook for new dads that want a deeper connection with their family.  Life changes, limited time and lacking that deeper connection that you both crave? ....Jennifer has the answer and we explore the highs and lows of being a dad, family life and just what you can do to make sure you grow an even stronger family unit.

Jennifer talks about her own experience of success and failure in marriage and she has a hugely positive message about how being a dad is about having a profound impact on the generations to come.  As a father this really resonated with me and while I am not calling for a relationship coach just yet I think I would be very happy to set aside my own discomfort for the sake of building an environment that my wife and children can thrive in.   That is the power of Jennifer's message!

Contact Jennifer on LinkedIn here