September 1
Life Is Like A Jigsaw Puzzle
Meet Our Storytellers
Amanda Morey
Amanda Morey is the Founder and Owner of NewThink, a business dedicated to helping leaders unlock their own and their team’s potential to drive measurable results. With over 26 years of experience across the technology, finance, education, and telecommunications industries, Amanda equips organizations with the tools to overcome challenges, embrace change, and achieve their goals. Through her signature programs, Level Up Your Team™ and The Clarity Advantage™ Amanda partners with leaders to uncover individual and team strengths using the HBDI® survey. She introduces the power of whole brain thinking to boost team engagement, improve communication, and foster collaboration. The result? High-performing teams equipped to solve problems, make decisions, and navigate change with confidence and purpose. Organizations that work with Amanda experience tangible benefits, enhanced productivity, stronger team alignment, and sustainable growth. As a former corporate executive, Amanda understands the complexities leaders face. Her journey of overcoming personal and professional challenges, losing a loved one to cancer and battling her own cancer diagnosis during COVID-19, has shaped her approach to leadership. Amanda knows firsthand what it takes to build resilience, embrace change, and thrive, and she inspires others to do the same. Amanda’s workshops and coaching sessions are more than just learning experiences, they are transformative opportunities for leaders and their teams to gain clarity, find focus, and take action to achieve their full potential. Her clients leave equipped with practical strategies, renewed confidence, and the ability to turn obstacles into opportunities. As a passionate advocate for women in STEM, Amanda mentors’ future talent through programs at Macquarie University Business School and the UTS Lucy Mentoring Program, ensuring the next generation is prepared to lead with impact. She holds a Bachelor of Business from the University of Technology Sydney and a Master of Business Administration from the Australian Institute of Business. Amanda is also an Internationally Accredited Results Coach, HBDI® Thinking Coach, Elite Consulting Sales Trainer, and Certified IAmRemarkable Facilitator. Outside of her professional endeavours, Amanda lives in Sydney with her husband, two teenagers, and their beloved dog, Buddy. She enjoys Sydney’s vibrant outdoor lifestyle and takes every opportunity to reflect, recharge, and embrace the beauty around her.
Nilesh Nadanapatham
Nilesh is a speaker, storyteller and facilitator who finds creative ways to share knowledge. It all started in the Future Minds Lab at UNSW, where Nilesh created his first piece of social impact: a blogpost on biohacking, targeted at school and university students. Since then, he’s constructed wellbeing surveys and suggested action steps for thousands of school students, helped design an app to inspire university students to look after their body and mind, created a podcast that was streamed in 15 countries, and currently, he leads workshops on leadership, emotional intelligence and public speaking. Using his degree in psychology, and experience crafting compelling content, Nilesh helps people to see the world differently, and challenges them to grow: one step at a time. If this had all been straightforward, Nilesh wouldn’t be speaking here today. He’s had to put aside his dream to be an organisational psychologist, turn down the chance to be mentored by leading researchers, and grapple with the fear things would never work out the way he wanted. His life has been a jigsaw puzzle, and when all the pieces seemed like they were scattered across the floor, he found a way to put them all together, to make one big picture.
Nicole Peterson
Nicole, a Northern Beaches mother, saw her life shift in an instant when her teenage daughter first attempted to take her own life. Her survival was nothing short of miraculous, and Nicole moved from caring for a critically injured child through physical recovery to navigating the complex, often overwhelming mental health and education systems as her daughter continued to struggle. Ultimately, Nicole faced the devastating loss of her daughter to suicide—and now, she is learning how to live in the aftermath of that unimaginable grief.
John McMillan
I’m a trauma-informed peer leader, coach, and long-time recovery advocate, mission driven about creating authentic spaces for healing, self-acceptance, and real connection. Through lived experience and ongoing inner work, I guide high-functioning adults—especially those navigating life transitions—toward coming home to themselves. My calling is to help others remember their innate wholeness, rediscover self-trust, and find belonging, even in the midst of struggle or uncertainty. I believe that healing isn’t about fixing what’s “broken,” but about reclaiming what was always there: worthiness, courage, and the safety to be fully human. Drawing on modalities like somatic regulation, presence, and compassionate inquiry, I facilitate small group programs and share daily notes of encouragement to remind others they are not alone and don’t need to have it all figured out. My newest focus is “The Coming Home Collective”—a community space for people ready to move beyond coping and towards deeper self-understanding. I’m not a therapist; I’m someone who’s walked the path, still learning, and committed to leading with empathy, honesty, trust and hope. Above all, my mission is simple: to create a world where we can show up as we are, honour our stories, and grow together—one gentle, courageous step at a time.
Pod (Padraig) O’Sullivan
Pod O’Sullivan has been fascinated with transitions and personal reinventions for most of his life. His career has seen him in the medical industry, in sales and marketing, consulting industries, being self-employed, being an entrepreneur who successfully sold businesses, being an educator at Sydney Business School, an author, an Executive Coach to 100’s of CEO’s all over Asia, a podcaster, the owner of a failed tech start up and now the co-founder of The Wisdom Vault and host of the Don't Let The Old Man In, podcast. Migrating from Ireland and England to Australia taught him many lessons. Divorcing with two young kids threw a few more his way. Remarrying and creating the ‘Brady Bunch’ with Carole, his two children and three new daughters, topped off many great life lessons. Pod knows the harsh reality of life’s ups and downs and firmly believes that mid-life, whilst tough on many levels, lonely on other levels and downright confusing on even others, can also include the best stages in life. He is here to explore and find those!
Adam Axford
Adam Axford is a magician and wordsmith on a mission to reconnect people with what makes them feel fully alive. Challenging audiences to turn awe into action, he’s currently capturing 1,000 real moments of magic with strangers on the street—showcasing authentic human connection whilst reminding us what’s possible.