Three decades ago I was building a career in banking in Europe. Then I moved to 200 acres of ancient bushland in a World Heritage area just north of Sydney.

I was curious to see what would happen if I let go of everything I knew. That curiosity became a physical move — we left the city and headed bush.

The timing was… interesting. A month after stepping away COVID hit. Then came lockdowns, a world on edge, bushfires after years of drought — and then floods. Everything arrived at once, externally and internally.

Out here there's a lot of space, not much distraction, and no familiar rhythm to hide behind.

This land is quiet. The stillness is almost deafening. And it does something to you. At first I did what any sensible modern person does in the face of stillness: I kept busy. Building, fixing, clearing, repairing. Weeding, planting, taking down old fences. Learning the land — its seasons, its trees, its wildlife. Slowly understanding what had been here long before me.

But there's a point where the land stops letting you stay occupied. You slow down. You start listening. And then, annoyingly, you're left with yourself.

For me, that brought up the stuff I'd been stepping around — feelings I'd kept contained, ways of being I'd stopped questioning, things I'd learned to carry without noticing their weight.

I didn't shift any of it by thinking harder. (I tried.) What helped was simpler: staying with what I was actually feeling. Not solving it. Just letting it be there.

The stillness didn't hand me a new identity. It just stripped away some noise. Things that no longer belonged started dropping off. Bit by bit, what was underneath showed itself.

Simple. Not always easy.

What showed up underneath wasn't new. It had always been there — a quieter, truer version of myself, waiting for some space.

What the stillness gave me wasn't a new identity. It gave me a clearer eye. For what's actually happening underneath — in people, in teams, in organisations. That's what I bring..

Background

Before the break, thirty-plus years across banks, fintech, and platform businesses in Australia and Europe. Turnarounds, growth roles, interim leadership, and ventures — including Credit Savvy, a startup I founded that scaled to over a million users, backed by Commonwealth Bank.