Quit Your Day Job With Dan Brophy

My guest this week is Em Rusciano, who some of you may know as a top-rating breakfast radio host, a stand up comedian, singer, author, one time Australian Idol contestant and champion of all that is camp and glitter-encrusted.   Em and I go a long way back- like ‘90s' "a long way back" and when I first thought about doing a podcast, she was one of the first people I couldn’t wait to talk to because she is the living embodiment of so many of the ideals that I’m hoping to champion with this podcast.   In this episode we talk about: - Building your audience by getting really specific with who you are targeting and speaking directly to them; - Growing a viewership & fanbase online and then taking them with you to other projects. - The lack of self-censoring that has allowed her to move through so many mediums without hesitation around being the best at anything, but just to try it to see what sticks. It just so happens almost everything Em has put out there in the last couple of ye

I like to start by asking my guests, 'when people say to you 'what to you do', what do you tell them?’ because for many people what we do can come to define who we think we are. Not having a job is often considered worse than having a job that makes you really unhappy. The security and structure offered by a role or a company is valued so highly, many people are content to stick around long after realising it’s not for them.   After 17 years, rising up the ranks working in radio and network television, Naomi Shivaramen quit her day job. In the last month she has gone from 'network news Chief of Staff' -  to working behind the scenes at her local pub.    I was so interested in speaking to Naomi at this exciting time in her life, to find out why, after 11 years with Channel 7, she chose to take the leap into the great unknown. I wanted to know what that process looked like for her - and what she wants her next chapter to be all about.   This episode is particularly

My guest today is Reece Carter, AKA The Herb Nerd, who has taken his love of creating remedies from things grown in his garden to building a platform where he can share ideas via videos for social media, TV appearances, speaking gigs and now books.       Reece talks about his daily process, his mindset and even his fears in stepping out from his work as a naturopath working one-on-one with clients, into the media space where he is now sharing ideas with a much broader audience. This is one of my most favourite discussions I’ve had so far on the show because Reece is at such in interesting stage in his journey that many of the ideas he shares are directly relatable to anyone who is looking to turn what they love into what they do.   We discuss the benefit of making and sharing content for free in order to develop your tone of voice, your point of view, your ability to relay your message.    Another interesting topic that comes up is: in order to build your offering, you don&

This week my guest is Callum Francis, the star of Kinky Boots, which is just about to finish it’s Australian theatrical run after playing in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.   Kinky Boots is the Broadway & Westend hit musical about a guy who inherits a shoe factory and the drag queen who inspires him to think outside the box - and make women's shoes for men who dress as women. The show's themes of celebrating diversity couldn’t be more apt now. It’s almost as if it was meant to come into the mainstream when it did. The purpose of this interview wasn’t necessarily just for those who want to get into musical theatre - it’s about setting your sights on a seemingly unattainable goal - your dream job - or in this case, dream role, of which Callum has performed two musical theatre leads (that those in his industry would step over a bitch to get to play): Simba in The Lion King and now Lola in Kinky Boots.  What I wanted to find out in talking to Callum was the mindset and

Jess Harris is the co-creator of the 'Twentysomething' - now screening on Netflix. Born out of the fear of not knowing how to 'be good at life' in her twenties - she and creative partner in crime, Josh Schmidt wrote, directed and starred in a no-budget series that went from community TV to the ABC - and even to flirtations with Hollywood. I caught up with Jess - appropriately raspy-voiced on the Monday morning after a big weekend - to talk about the highs and lows on her continuing journey of learning how to turn what she loves into a career.

  When does time stop for you? When do you find yourself so deep in flow that an hour can fly by like a minute? Well that’s a great way to know that you are tapping your passions.    For my guest, who you may know as the wellness influencer Lola Berry, that feeling can come from cooking, writing about cooking - she’s now written 10 healthy eating books - teaching and practicing yoga and making video content.  She’s also a public speaker and TV presenter, she has a smoothie bar in South Melbourne called Happy Place, and she has leveraged her background as a nutritionist into being a brand ambassador and media personality.    Lola has taken what she loves and turned into a career and a personal brand.  The term personal brand seems to have a weird stigma around it, maybe because there are so many people trying to claim it, but when you are contributing as much to the health and wellness landscape as she is, I think it’s more than warranted.   I cou

My guest this week is Harvey Miller. He and Monty Morgan are the front men and masterminds behind Client Liaison, who have been carving a niche in the Australian music scene for over five years. What started as the most ‘Melbourne' of concepts: a party-band with an irony-infused, 80’s pop aesthetic, has since become a national - and now international - sensation. There is so much to discuss when it comes to the Client Liaison offering: the music, the videos, the theatre of their live shows, their extensive merchandise and designer clothing collection and now their chauffeur driven off-white limousine service. So if you’re interested in how to create and grow a brand from the ground-up - or to make a place in the market for yourself when one doesn’t currently exist, this one’s for you. Please enjoy my chat with Harvey Miller.  

Why did I choose to call this podcast ‘Quit Your Day Job’?

DJ and artist an club auteur Levi Cross - also known by the club moniker Salvador Darling - is riding a wave of Melbourne nightlife renaissance.  In a time when Sydney and Brisbane struggle to find their dancing feet amidst increasing government restriction, Melbourne’s nightlife is ever-diversifying, ever expanding. Levi has been a part of the Melbourne night-life scene for over ten years - since he was 16. In previous of this podcast episodes I have spoken to creatives whose canvas was the photograph, the TV series, the mantle-piece or the workshop. This week I speak to someone who’s platform is the dancefloor. A place very near and dar to my heart.  For those that have little tolerance to Melbournians talking about how great Melbourne is, this podcast is not for you. You have been warned. For those that are mutually sympathetic: come on in, and enjoy my chat with Levi Cross AKA Salvador Darling.

You may know her from her work as a national radio host on both KIIS and Nova FM (right now she hosts the 3PM pickup on KIIS with Meshel Laurie) or you may have seen on the ABC quiz show Tractor Monkeys or through guest appearances on shows like Talkin’ Bout Your Generation, The Project, The Today Show, Weekend Today orThe Circle. However, the endeavour I was most looking forward to talking to Monty about was a creation that was all her own: Show and Tell Online, which is a website, a podcast and a youtube series, which - in a world of click-bait and trial by likes -  has been steadily building its viewership on content that is inline with its values as 'the home of conversations that connect women'.   This is a great episode to listen to if you’re looking to build your own brand or platform - whether that be on radio, on TV - or in podcast or via Youtube, and a great reminder for those heartbroken by a creative industry to use

2016 has been a 'tipping point’ year for documentary maker and content creator Kirk Docker. After years of producing clever and subversive video and TV as a gun for hire, he has championed his own projects, making not one but two series for ABC. Earlier this year ‘Hello Stranger’, a beautifully shot vox-pops series, asked everyday Australians personal yet universal questions and then followed one of them home to document their life. This was followed by the release of 'You Can’t Ask That’, where in each episode, groups of marginalised Australians - like Indigenous people, transgender people, Muslims, obese people, disabled people and sex workers - answer audience-submitted questions traditionally deemed too un-PC. The intention: to de-stigmatise, to open a space for conversation and to give mainstream audiences a chance to see someone other than those that look just like them on TV.  It’s interesting to note also that You Can’t Ask That was originally created for

Shannon Dooley's weekly aerobics class Retrosweat gives patrons an authentic 80s aerobics workout - in multiple locations across Sydney each week.   Every class is an utterly immersive experience, from the choice of mirrored-wall dance studios where the classes take place, to the height of Shannon’s blonde mullet to the array of high-cut G-string leotards worn by teacher and punters alike.   Over the four years she has been leading the retro revival, Shannon has expanded her offering into collectible clothing, an international social media following, corporate and pop-up events and a regular spot on The Morning Show.   I talk to Shannon about her background studying at NIDA, and how her emergence from three years at drama school into a career landscape where she didn’t find she had a place, forced her to create one for herself.   This is a great interview for anyone who feels like they just want to dance their own steps.

  My guest is Lewis Hobba, whom some of you may know as one part of Veronica and Lewis - of the Triple J drivetime show. Lewis is a friend of mine, and the thing I enjoy most about him is his ability to balance his wit and cynicism with being absolute delight. In Lewis’ hands, humour is a sport where offers are returned with increasing abstraction. He is so quick, so innately funny - I love talking to him as much about philosophies as I do trivialities.  He is another candidate for someone I know who’s doing what many would consider to be a 'dream job’, so I wanted to find out what got him there and, now that he’s there, the process that allows him to continue mastering his skill in turning out a two-and-half-hour comedy radio show every day.   Not surprisingly there is a brilliant mind at work behind the lightness of his humour and although he wouldn’t recommend his own process to anyone, there is a lot to be learned from my conversation with Lewis Hobba. &nb

Emeli Paulo is a creative, but in different way to anyone else I’ve spoken to for The Naked Creative so far. She is the founder of Collective Potential – a social enterprise intent on creating change for individuals - and the world. Emily Paulo uses creativity as a tool to facilitate expression, exploration and breakthrough. This podcast was recorded before she launched the wildly successful ‘Collective Potential Podcast’, which has topped iTunes charts and not only shared the ideas of many dynamic disrupters within the personal development, wellness and spirituality fields, but also  given Emeli a platform to boldly shareso much of herself. In a recent podcast she broadcast a late night admission of grief that she had recorded while questioning her own self worth while home alone on a Saturday night. Like the name of one of her workshops suggests, she is Raw. She is bold and brave and unapologetically real - and in her workshops she creates a space for others to do the same.

Kupono is a dancer for Madonna. I know. He has performed with through two world tours, three major music videos and her monumental SuperBowl performance of 2012, which is where it all began for his working relationship with one of the world’s longest standing, most successful pop stars. Kupono - or Pono for short – has finally landed back home in Hawaii after 15 months on the road with Madonna’s Rebel Heart Tour, in which he performed over 80 shows in over 25 countries. I was interested in what it was like to be in the coveted roll of ‘back up dancer’ for an international popstar – since for so many it is a ‘dream job’ - and what it was about his process that he believes got him there. There is so much legacy surrounding the Madonna world, I just wanted to know what it was like for him to be working so closely with someone who so many people – myself included – admire so greatly.  

My guest is Natalie Harris, a stand up comedian who has been making a name for herself on the Melbourne comedy scene. For her comedy wasn’t a latent discovery - she has long thought it was “the only thing she was good at” - but the decision to act on that impulse to follow her creative pursuits has only come about towards the end of her twenties - and only now, a few years in, is she discovering her voice.  Nat is one of a handful of people in the world that makes me literally LOL whenever I am in her presence. We first got to really know each other while working behind the scenes on the ABC TV series Twentysomething around the time she was beginning to make inroads into stand-up. An ongoing theme - one that seems to have popped with my last couple of guests - is the discovery of passions either later than they expected or while in the pursuit of something else entirely. For Nat, it was as if she always knew this is what she wanted to be doing, but she was just waiting for… permi

Lachy Rose is the singer/songwriter and core member of the band Cousin Tony's Brand New Firebird which has been feted by Triple J and currently playing shows around Melbourne.    Lachy is someone who I love to get together with to talk about creative process. He is a master of observing and fostering his artistry and it’s evident in his music: which is rich, varied and textured and wise beyond it’s years. It was conversations like the ones I would have with him that made me want to start this podcast in the first place - where I would think: people could benefit from hearing us talk like this: about what we are inspired by or consuming, how our work flow has been affected by different influences - it’s the first thing I want to talk about when I get together with most of my friends -  so it is my absolute pleasure to sit down and make it offical with Lachy Rose, who is truly a Naked Creative.  

Greg Waters has been an executive producer, writer and show-runner on a number of great Australian drama series. His credits include: Rake, Anzac Girls, Janet King, Paper Giants, Devil’s Dust, An Accidental Soldier, The Straights, Crownies and Dance Academy. Yet up until his early thirties he was working in politics - until he decided to defect to study at AFTRS, the Australian Film Television and Radio School. His most recent achievements are the second series of the tripped-out sketch comedy series ‘Soulmates’ starring Christiaan Van Vuuren and Nick Boshier (aka The Bondi Hipsters) as well as what is sure to be one of the countries biggest TV events of the year, the political drama Secret City which premier’s on Foxtel’s Showcase this Sunday, June 5. Though he is incredibly modest, I did get him to open up about his process - some of which I witnessed first-hand as Greg and I have been housemates over the past few years. An absolute culture vulture, Greg is constantly absorbing

Tom Blachford and Kate Ballis are one of my favourite creative couples. They are both photographers, though this hasn’t always been the case. For the first few years of their relationship, it was only Tom who was the photographer, while Kate was working as a lawyer. Yet what started as a shared passion between them has grown into a thriving art practice and ever-expanding commercial endeavour. They have built a highly successful wedding photography company, RaspberryRobot, which allows them to support their travel adventures - and it was on one such journey that Tom fell in love with the architecture of Palm Springs, which led him to create the Midnight Modern series, which opens in Sydney this Thursday, May 26 at The Black Eye Gallery in Darlinghurst in Sydney. Of all the insights into their life and process that they shared, it was the way in which they combined their strengths to maximize both of their offerings as artists that I really admired. I was very excited to sit down and chat with Tom &ndash

Megan Morton is a hero of mine - not only for her tremendous creative output across a number of mediums, but because she has developed a career around her passions -  one that allows her to share and further cultivate them.   Megan’s work as a stylist unique and intuitive and inclusive. According to her website, she makes atmospheres that make people extremely happy, which could be experienced via ad campaigns, magazine covers, when she decorates glamorous homes - or if you were to come to her Studio and School in Rosebery in Sydney’s inner west in order to learn how to do it yourself. For our chat, Megan welcomed me into her home, poured me tea, lit insense and regaled me with her philophy on style and styling.