A disaster brings out the best and at times, the worst in everyday ordinary people. Rarely is it something less polarizing. Thinking of devastating bush fires, major floods, or terrorist attacks and the raw, media images of what disaster looks like -- and the days that follow -- are pretty confronting for many people, let alone those experiencing the incident firsthand.

My guest today is Alison Covington, the woman who brought the 'Good360' charity to Australia.

Good360 is Australia's largest online marketplace, matching surplus brand-new goods to people most in need.  It offers the retail sector a sustainable, community-focused option to redirect surplus products from landfills.

In just six years, over 300 retailers and manufacturers have signed on and donated over $192 million in brand new products, including essential toiletries, household items, clothing, shoes, PPE, and stationery supplies to name a few. Their network of almost 3,000 member charities and disadvantaged schools Australia-wide, across 31 cause areas, order the goods they need from the Good360 website with the ease of 24/7 access, saving time and precious budget.

Thanks to Alison's business model and vision, more than 22 million brand-new items have been matched to people in need, helping to provide dignity and equality. Of this, due to back-to-back disasters over the last two years, including drought, floods, bushfires, and the ongoing devastation of COVID -19, 9 million items have been matched directly to assist communities in disaster recovery.

Good360 Australia is well on the way to achieving Alison's goal of matching $1 billion worth of brand-new goods to Australians in need by 2025. We are discussing the Politics of Disaster Recovery.

Here she discusses:

1. What makes disaster recovery easier - charity, government support, good systems or insurance, or solid communities that can help others? Explain your view.
2. Do disaster recoveries ever go wrong and why is that?
3. How has Covid19 changed perceptions of disasters and the steps needed to get our lives back on track? It is a two-year disaster with different strains of the virus and many unknowns.
4. How can leaders become better at disaster recovery say in a business or their own communities?
5. Take away: What is your final takeaway message for us on The Politics of Disaster Recovery?

To connect with Alison:

LinkedIn: (16) Alison Covington | LinkedIn

Website: http://www.good360.org.au/

The costs associated with turnover and lower productivity seen in burnout result in a loss of $322 billion annually according to the World Economic Forum stats from January 2021. There is a wave of burnout with many of us trying to stay afloat in a pandemic and find a way to recharge when many of the tools we use such as socializing, group exercise, and even holidays have been taken away.

Today, I am chatting to Wendy Nash, a Meditation and Wellbeing Accountability Coach. Her company name says it all: Kindly Cut the Crap. To avoid burnout, you need to make courageous inquiry but do it kindly. Her interest arose from experiences as a young child, growing up surrounded by family loss. This provided very early experience of situational burnout. Through her training and practice she has gone on to realize a deep understanding of this, and other kinds of burnout, including its ideological and personality-based forms.

In essence, burnout is what happens when we fail to pay attention to our psychological, moral, or physical wellbeing and the result is a 'crash and burn'. She has a four-year somatic psychotherapy diploma; her Bachelor of Psychology Honours thesis studied the effects of loving-kindness meditation on prosocial behavior, and she's been practicing loving-kindness and other meditations for almost 20 years. All of these have been profoundly positive on her wellbeing and relationships.

Hear from Wendy on:

1. So, what exactly is burnout, and how do you know if what feels like burnout has affected you enough to be real vs just a stressful week or two?
2. What are the best ways to recover from burnout especially if you can't afford to quit your job or run your own business? Some people may feel ashamed to say they are burnt out!
3. Your business is called Kindly Cut the Crap - what does that mean and how can you leverage that into the help you give people?
4. When does burnout usually hit people hardest?
5. Take away: What is your final takeaway message for us today on The Politics of Burnout.

To connect with Wendy Nash:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendy-nash/

Website: http://www.kindlycutthecrap.com/

Daisy Turnbull is the Director of Wellbeing at an independent girls' school in Sydney (in fact my own alma mater), where she has also been a teacher for eight years. She has taught across school systems including some time at a behavioral school, working with students from diverse backgrounds. Before going into teaching Daisy worked in interactive advertising as a producer and in strategy roles tapping into demographic changes and running nationwide qualitative surveys.

She is an accredited Lifeline Crisis Support counselor and regularly volunteers on the crisis support line. She is the mother of two children, holds a Combined Bachelor's degree in Arts/Commerce, a Graduate Diploma in Secondary Teaching, and a Master of Arts in Theological Studies.

Daisy is on the NSW board of the Australian Republican Movement. In January 2021 Daisy's first book '50 Risks to take with your kids' was released, providing a guide on developing independence and resilience in young children.

Hear from Daisy on:

1. Do you think we are less risk-averse as a society now than say when you grew up or just more aware of the risks around us in 2021? Especially with a pandemic! Explain your views.
2. As a teacher, what is your biggest challenge when it comes to encouraging sensible risk-taking if that is possible?
3. Why is taking risks so important to young people? Is there a cost to not do this? E.g. less resilience later.
4. Risky actions and rash thinking and teenagers seem to be Sympatico - the adolescent brain is evolving but has not fully developed into that adult brain and I have heard boys in their 20s are still not always 100% there yet. Do we need to rethink our expectations of teens and younger people and allow them risks but with consequences if they fail or do something foolish?
5. Take away: What is your final thought or message for us on The Politics of Taking Risks?

For more from Daisy:

LinkedIn: (4) LinkedIn

Twitter and Instagram: Ms_dzt