Two Roads

From Pro Rugby Player to Mental Health Advocate | Joe Williams - EP 17

This guy has lived enough for three lives.
Joe Williams has been a professional rugby player, a champion boxer, an author and is now the founder of a mental health education and suicide prevention business called The Enemy Within.
 
He is also a proud Wiradjuri, First Nations Aboriginal man and a leading mental health advocate.
 
I caught up with him for the latest episode of the Two Roads Podcast and had a beautiful conversation about finding purpose in your life.
On this episode, you can expect to learn;
How to make sure you're chasing the right thing in your career. And not just trying to fill a void
Two simple tips for finding purpose in your own life
The journey Joe went on from attempting suicide in 2012, to running an organisation that is making a massive impact in youth mental health
The role of trauma in our lives and how it drives our behaviour as adults
What we can do NOW do to help kids and the next generation, to have better mental health as adults.
Links:
The Dreaming Path: Indigenous Thinking to Change Your Life 
Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions  
Joe’s LinkedIn: 
Defying The Enemy Within: How I silenced the negative voices in my head to survive and thrive 
Follow me on socials:
LinkedIn
Instagram
 

My Story | Steve Duke - EP 16

On this episode, I'm switching roles and playing interviewee. Cameron Scott chats with me about my own story, how I went from Engineering, to McKinsey, to Startups. Hear about the highs and lows, the lessons I learned and how I made decisions along the way.We also chat about;
Why I started this podcast
What I want to do next in my career
Why I moved to Australia and the pros and cons of moving country
What it was like living out of a car for 3 months
And much more
Follow me on socials:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenduke1/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stories/tworoadspod/3109659312427892699/
 

From Investment Banker to Therapist | Markus Ahlber - EP 15

Today on the show I had Markus Ahlberg. And this guy has had a truly fascinating journey.
He is currently living in London and training to become a therapist. But his career started far from there.
He grew up in Venezuela before moving to Gothenburg to study business.  After uni, he took a job at Google - way back in 2007. He completed a masters at LSE and worked for 6 years in investment banking.
Then, he completely burned out.
He went through a difficult period that put a real strain on himself and his relationships. He knew he needed to make a change.
So one day he walked into his boss's office, and he quit.
Then started the next chapter in Markus' life, travelling south america, moving to London, starting a mental health app and now training to become a therapist.
He is incredibly open about how hard it is to figure out what to do in life and the battles he has faced along the way.
We talk about his family life and how he feels about welcoming his first kid into the world.
We cover a lot and I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

5 Lessons On Building A Life You love | Solo Episode - EP14

Using A Side Hustle To Leave Your Job & Life As A Solopreneur | Ash Read - EP 13

Ash read is what people now call a solopreneur.
This is someone who sets up and runs their own business. But does it on their own. He now runs a publication company called 937 media, which has really taken off.
But he's only been full time on 937 media since the end of last year. You see, he started it back in 2020 as a side hustle while still doing his full time job and it was only in November 2022 (when he was making more money from 937 than he was from his full time job) that he decided to leave and go full time.
On the episode we talk about.
Why he didn't go to Uni.
His 10+ years working in content and what he loved about that.
How to use cold dms and emails to land a job you love.
His framework for making career decisions (that ones right at the end)
How to start a side hustle while still working your main job.
What an online publication company is and how he has built it to be so successful.
How he learned to start putting himself ahead of his work and the benefits that has brought him.
How to decide when to leave and go full time on your own thing.
I try to chat with people who have live life love. People who have been conscious about building this life from themselves, learning how they figured out what they wanted, and also how they made that a reality.
Ash ticks all these boxes.
This was a fascinating conversation and I hope you enjoy it as much as a I did.Follow me on socials for more content on how to find a job and life you love.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenduke1/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tworoadspod/

From Finance to Mindset and Rugby Coach (And The Importance of Courage) | Brian Moylett - EP 12

Brian Moylett is a leading Mindset & Performance Coach who works with athletes, leaders and people on maximizing their performance & living their dreams. 
He is a former Irish age-grade International Rugby Player, MBA graduate, the Author of the #1 Bestseller 'The Book on How You Become A Pro Rugby Player’, keynote speaker and hosts The Off-Field Rugby Pod.Brian's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brianmoylett/?hl=enBrian's Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/all/?fetchDeterministicClustersOnly=false&heroEntityKey=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_profile%3AACoAAAv7naoBsqacV3Eafctbuur93o3rJhJ32sw&keywords=brian%20moylett&origin=RICH_QUERY_TYPEAHEAD_HISTORY&position=0&searchId=f8fd97fc-f538-4f6f-ba57-b09afda1ab16&sid=7J-

Finding Meaning In Your Work & Life as A Startup Founder | Jack O’Meara - EP 11

If you're interested in starting a business but aren't sure where to start - this episode is for you.
Jack O'Meara is the Co-Founder and CEO of Ochre Bio, a successful biotech company who have raised over $40 million from the world's top investors.
He was also recently featured in the Forbes 30 under 30 and does stand up comedy to boot!
Jack tell his story from finishing university, to working in consulting, to co-founding Ochre Bio and raising funds from the likes of Y-Combinator.
We chat about the very first steps he took to start his business, through to what the day-to-day is like as a founder CEO.
Jack also talks about the skills needed to be a great CEO, how he thinks about work-life balance and the questions he asks himself when making a big decision.
Jack's mission with Ochre Bio is super inspiring and he offers up a lot of great thoughts on how to find a job and career that brings you meaning.
 
Social Links
Check out Jack on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackomeara/
The Two Roads on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tworoadspod/
Steve Duke on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenduke1/

Making a Social Impact In Your Career (Life at A Think Tank) | Ben Wakefield - EP 10

Our generation is full of people who want to make an impact, but can't find the right job to do so.We care about big problems, like climate change, mental health, homelessness, equality and so much more.There's all this energy. Energy of people wanting to make a difference.But we rarely get to have a job where we can work on the problems we care about it. We don't get to use all this energy!Here's what typically happens...We have a cause we really care about...We go looking for a job in this area...A few weeks pass, we don't find many jobs...We get offered a big juicy check to go work somewhere else...We take it. It's good work. It's fun...But it's not what we REALLY care about...It's not letting us have the impact we crave...This happens ALL. The. Time.But Benjamin Wakefield has taken a different path.He's found a career where he has makes a massive impact on problems he cares about.I spoke to him for episode 10 and it was so clear how much satisfaction he gets from doing this work. I was actually pretty jealous of him!So what does he do? Ben works at the John Hopkins Centre for Health Secutiry which is a think tank.Don't know what a think tank is? No worries, we go into ALL that in the episode.We talk about how to break into the industry, what life is like working at a think tank and much more.
 
Check out Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminwakefield/
The Two Roads on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7nnJGT64KWXO37ux3B8nwp?si=3e59a2cb786a44ad
The Two Roads on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tworoadspod/
Steve Duke on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenduke1/
 

Life as a CEO | Philip Doran - EP 9

I've known Philip my entire life.
He is CEO of Hello Fresh Ireland and also my best and longest friend.
He came on the pod for a chat about his career and life. It was so much fun chatting to someone I know so well and being able to ask him questions that have been on my mind. We laughed a lot and I learned so much.
If you know Philip, you'll know he isn't on socials much - which I respect a lot - so a lot of this content is brand new to the world.
We talked about;
The most important thing he thinks people should optimise for early in their career
Why he moved to Ethiopia and how it changed him
The number one skill it takes to get promoted quickly and land a job as a CEO
All his thoughts about stress, how he performs in stressful situations and what he does to make sure it doesn't impact his life outside of work
What it's like to work as a CEO (spoiler; it's not all corner offices and kissing babies)
The questions he asks himself before every big decision
How to not be reliant on your job as a source of happiness (even though he loves his job) and what you can do instead
Even though I've known him all my life, I learned so much from this conversation and am sure you will too.Follow me on socials:LinkedInInstagram

From Doctor to Investor (and the importance of trusting your gut) | Imran Mahmud - EP 8

This guy's CV is downright intimidating.
Imran Mahmud, MD studied medicine at Oxford, practiced as a physician, went to Harvard, joined McKinsey & Company and co-founded a successful startup.If that's not enough, he also is an angel investor and content creator...And he has young kids... which he homeschools with his wife....Crazy right?!I was lucky enough to chat to him for the latest episode of Two Roads.He is an incredibly humble dude and thinks deeply about crafting his life and making career decisions. We chatted about;- Why he left medicine- How to balance rationality with intuiition when making decisions- The surprising reason he does angel investing (it's not for financial reasons)- His advice for young people and how not to get "trapped" in a career- How medics can think about whether or not to leave their practice- Why he and his wife have chose to homeschool their kids and how they balance that with their careers- The hard skills you need to make career changes easierHe's such a good guy and I really appreciate him taking the time to chat to me about his journey._______Graph of who you spend time with over your life; https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/time-spent-with-relationships-by-age-us