In this episode of the Authentic Leadership Podcast, Ivan Yeo sits down with Kevin McAfee, founder of Wellbeing Solutions, to explore his journey from Belfast, Northern Ireland, to New Zealand and the mission that now drives his work.

Drawing on his background in technology and his passion for helping others, Kevin shares how concerns about mental health and suicide led him to rethink how support systems are designed. From using football as a vehicle to teach resilience and belonging among young people, to developing innovative AI and text-based tools that place people before data, Kevin offers a fresh perspective on wellbeing and prevention.

In this special Pride Month episode of the Authentic Leadership Podcast, Ivan Yeo sits down with long-time Rainbow community advocate and media personality Steven Oates for a deeply personal conversation about identity, family, belonging and the changing landscape of LGBTQ+ communities. Moving beyond public achievements, Steven reflects on the influence of his parents, his journey through activism and media, and the values that have guided his life. Together, they explore themes of freedom, ageing, authenticity, community and the impact of social media on the ways we connect with one another. Warm, thoughtful and honest, this conversation offers a moving reflection on legacy, gratitude and the courage to simply be yourself.

From unemployment and years of struggling with mental health and addiction challenges, to becoming a leader in the lived experience workforce, Shelwin Khan shares his remarkable journey into peer support.

In this episode of the Authentic Leadership Podcast, Shelwin speaks openly about finding purpose through lived experience, the realities of rebuilding confidence after long-term unemployment, and why peer support has transformed his life.

From years of unemployment to becoming a peer support leader, Shelwin Khan shares how lived experience, recovery, and purpose shaped his journey and what it really takes to work in peer support.

A.K. has lived many lives. She grew up in poverty, survived a difficult childhood, became a national-level athlete, built a career in the music industry, started and ran her own successful business, left everything behind, became an international student at 40, and then rebuilt her life again in New Zealand.

From growing up in a one-bedroom flat in Kuala Lumpur to leading organisations in New Zealand, A.K. Yap's story is one of resilience, humility, and continual reinvention. In this episode, we explore migration, identity, burnout, leadership, and the courage to begin again. A conversation that reminds us that success is not just about achievement, but about finding meaning, balance, and becoming who we are meant to be.

What do migrants bring in their luggage besides clothes?

Migration is never just about moving countries — it is about carrying invisible luggage: identity, language, hopes, grief, values, responsibilities, and ways of understanding the world.

This workshop explores the migrant journey through a unique, practical lens of intercultural communication, helping participants better understand the hidden challenges many migrants face as they adapt to a new environment. Using powerful metaphors, real-life stories, and cross-cultural frameworks, the workshop unpacks how culture shapes the way we communicate, build trust, make decisions, seek support, and navigate belonging.

In this deeply moving and powerful conversation, I sit down with Kerri Butler — founder of Take Notice, mental health advocate, and lived experience leader — to explore a journey shaped by resilience, whakapapa, injustice, healing, and the courage to keep fighting for change.

Kerri shares her personal experiences navigating the mental health system, the profound impact of her beloved nana’s journey through institutional care, and how witnessing systemic harm ignited a lifelong commitment to advocacy and transformation. Together, we discuss Māori wellbeing, lived experience leadership, rangatiratanga, intergenerational trauma, compulsory treatment orders, restraint and seclusion, and what true healing and partnership in mental health care could look like.

In this deeply honest and reflective conversation, we explore what it means to leave home, search for belonging, and navigate identity as Malaysian Chinese queer migrants in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Together, we unpack the realities of migration, cultural identity, queerness, racism, belonging, family expectations, and the hidden emotional journey of building a life between worlds. From leaving Malaysia in search of safety and authenticity, to finding unexpected connections with Māori and Pacific values, this conversation explores both the struggles and beauty of living between cultures.

What happens when the system meant to help you cannot fully see you? In this deeply moving episode of the Authentic Leadership Podcast, I sit down with Tui Taurua, a respected Māori lived experience leader, advocate, speaker, and master’s student in Wairua, to explore her extraordinary journey through trauma, mental distress, recovery, and healing. Tui shares openly about childhood trauma, psychiatric hospitalisation, suicide attempts, hearing voices, and the long journey of finding healing beyond the limitations of Western systems. Through reconnecting with Mātauranga Māori, Wairua, whakapapa, physical movement, storytelling, and lived experience, Tui found a way not just to survive — but to thrive. This is an honest, emotional, and deeply human conversation about pain, resilience, and finding your way home to yourself.

In this episode, I reconnect with someone who deeply shaped my thinking — my former lecturer and now Professor, Camille.

What unfolds is an honest, courageous, and deeply human conversation about identity, justice, truth, and what it means to remain authentic in systems that often ask us to conform.

Camille shares her journey from chemistry to social science, the influence of her mother, challenging Western-centric thinking in academia, and why communities should not have to seek validation to exist.

This conversation touched me personally — especially as someone who has worked in community and mental health spaces and often struggled with systems that ask people to justify their humanity.

If you have ever questioned systems, felt unseen, or wanted to understand authentic leadership through courage and integrity, this episode is for you.

This episode of the Authentic Leadership Podcast explores the deeply personal and transformative journey of Michael Owen—a therapist whose work is shaped by lived experience, adversity, and spiritual discovery.

From an early life marked by instability, separation, and a sense of being an outsider, Michael shares how chronic illness became a turning point rather than an endpoint. Living with chronic fatigue syndrome for over three decades, he describes a life of constant recalibration—learning how to restore energy, listen to the body, and rebuild from within.

Through encounters with energy healing, meditation, and embodied practices, Michael’s path gradually unfolded into the work he does today. His approach is not based on theory alone, but on lived understanding—how the body holds tension, how emotions move, and how healing requires both awareness and presence.

This conversation moves beyond conventional ideas of wellbeing, offering a perspective where healing is not about fixing, but about learning to sit with, sense, and reconnect to what is already within. It is a story of resilience, depth, and the quiet, ongoing process of coming back to oneself.

MICHAEL OWEN~SHEN® THERAPIST/REALIZATION PROCESS TEACHER https://www.emotionalwellbeing.co.nz/

In this episode of the Authentic Leadership Podcast, I sit down with Arina Aizal to explore her journey of identity, culture, and finding her voice.

From growing up between Malaysia and New Zealand to navigating the challenges of language, belonging, and cultural expectations, Arina shares how these early experiences shaped who she is today. She opens up about a pivotal turning point during the Christchurch mosque shootings—a moment that challenged her sense of safety and identity, and ultimately led her to step forward and share her voice publicly.

We also dive into her leadership journey at university, where she became an international student advocate during COVID—supporting others through uncertainty while learning that even leaders don’t always have the answers. Through it all, Arina reflects on growth, boundaries, and the powerful shift from seeking validation to living in alignment with her values.

Today, she works in radio and community spaces, helping others find and share their voices—especially within multicultural communities.

This is a conversation about courage, culture, and what it truly means to lead authentically.

Poscast Hosted by Arina Aizal

The Arinality

https://oar.org.nz/shows/the-arinality/

Connecting Cultures Features

https://oar.org.nz/shows/connecting-cultures-features/

Muslim Chaplaincy Conversations

https://oar.org.nz/shows/muslim-chaplaincy-conversations/

Vibe Check on Youth Zone

https://accessradio.org/programme-page/0d258d34-8d23-4f1c-b252-d99ee15e7363

Growing up in New Zealand, Fahima often felt like she didn’t fully belong—navigating school and life outside the dominant culture, where understanding and inclusion weren’t always there.

Today, as an occupational therapist, she has found her purpose. But she hasn’t forgotten those experiences. She knows many young people are still walking that same path.

What began as a quiet, internal struggle has become something powerful. Fahima now champions youth from similar backgrounds—mentoring, supporting, and creating spaces where they can feel seen and belong.

Her story is one of transformation—turning lived experience into action, and ensuring others don’t have to navigate it alone.

This story follows a journey that begins in silence—shaped by hardship, responsibility, and experiences that were never given space to be spoken. Growing up in an environment where survival came before self, much was carried internally. What could not be expressed outwardly became an inner world that deepened over time. Rather than being defined by these experiences, they became a source of understanding. Moving through the mental health system, and later stepping beyond it, this path unfolds into one of contribution—helping to build peer-led spaces, shaping services, and influencing systems through lived experience rather than theory. There is no loud declaration in this journey, no need for recognition. The impact happens quietly—through presence, through creating spaces where others feel seen, and through shifting how people understand themselves and each other. At its heart, this is a story of living from the inside out—where what was once carried alone becomes something that transforms not only a life, but the systems around it.

This Podcast explores the lived experience of growing up between cultures as a second-generation Asian in New Zealand. It reveals the tension of navigating different cultural expectations—balancing expression and restraint, belonging and difference—while trying to make sense of identity.

Alongside these challenges, it touches on mental health struggles that are often unspoken or misunderstood, both within families and communities. Seeking support becomes a personal journey, not only of understanding emotions but also of bridging the generational gap through communication and education.

At its core, it reflects the process of accepting complexity—learning that identity need not fit into a single category but can exist across multiple worlds, shaped by both culture and personal experience.

What does it really mean to grow up as a 1.5 Asian migrant in New Zealand? In this episode of the Authentic Leadership Podcast, Wendy Su shares her deeply personal journey navigating identity, responsibility, and the unspoken pressures many Asian migrants carry but rarely talk about. From the invisible “contract to succeed” that many immigrant children inherit, to taking on adult responsibilities at a young age, Wendy opens up about the hidden realities behind the “model minority” narrative. This is a conversation about sacrifice, burnout, family, love, and the courage to define your own path. We explore: The unspoken pressure to succeed as an immigrant child Growing up between cultures and identities Early responsibility, burnout, and emotional impact Family expectations, sacrifice, and healing Setting boundaries while still holding love Redefining success on your own terms This episode speaks to anyone who has ever felt the weight of expectation, navigated cultural identity, or tried to honour both family and self at once.

This episode follows a journey from academic exploration into cultural psychology to a deeply personal reflection on identity, emotion, and the immigrant experience. It reveals the tension of living between cultures, carrying unspoken expectations, and navigating early responsibility, pressure, and burnout.

Through self-reflection and conversations with family, new understanding emerges—acknowledging both pain and growth across generations. At its core, it is about shaping a self-defined identity while transforming past experiences into strength.

Tricia reflects on a life shaped by service, faith, and profound loss after her husband Michael died by suicide in 1996. Through grief, she chose honesty and understanding, later supporting others through education, writing, and advocacy. She sees grief as a lifelong “patchwork,” where pain and joy coexist, and reminds us that small acts of kindness and authentic support can help people find their way forward.

In this special episode, Shelwin Khan flips the script. Instead of hosting, I step into the guest seat and share the story behind the voice of this podcast.

We talk about my journey from Southeast Asia to New Zealand, navigating identity, sexuality, culture, and belonging. I open up about my first love, growing up with childhood trauma, and what it was like having a father who is a gangster. I reflect on how studying sociology as an international student changed the trajectory of my life and helped me see the world — and myself — differently.

We also explore my path into mental health, becoming one of the first paid peer support professionals at Mind and Body, and what that experience taught me about recovery, resilience, and authenticity.

This is a candid conversation about identity, survival, burnout, forgiveness, and the ongoing journey of finding who Ivan truly is.

In this heartfelt conversation, Michael—community theatre veteran and current president of The Centrestage Theatre—shares how performing helped him move from a shy, bullied teenager into a lifelong creative force. From his first productions in Hamilton to choreographing, directing, producing, and mentoring new talent, Michael reveals what theatre really demands: discipline, teamwork, chemistry, and heart. He discusses the influence of mentors, the superstitions of the stage, the emotional power of shows like Rent, and the deep personal connection between art, grief, and legacy. Along the way, he highlights why community theatre matters so much: it’s a place where people find confidence, belonging, and the courage to be fully themselves. The episode wraps with honest reflections on leadership, sacrifice, passion, and the unforgettable (often hilarious) moments that only live theatre can create. More information about Centrestage Theatre visit https://www.centrestagetheatre.co.nz/

An incredible and ever-evolving journey through mental health and addiction recovery — the story of Shelwin Khan. From an adolescent first exposed to addiction at 13, through despair and hardship, to becoming a leader in lived experience, Shelwin’s path is one of hope, resilience, and transformation. Today, he brings forward the voices of many — those still navigating recovery and those who have lost their lives. This is a story you won’t want to miss.

Sometimes leadership begins with collapse.

In this opening segment of the Authentic Leadership Podcast, Lisa shares a raw turning point — depression, serious injury, chronic pain, and a spiritual awakening that dismantled her business identity.

What started as a Kundalini practice for “better flow” became a reckoning: sobriety, surrender, and choosing healing over hustle. From letting go of expansion and ego to moving through grief, ADHD, and dark nights of the soul, this conversation explores what it means to rebuild from truth.

A powerful reminder that authentic leadership emerges when life strips away who you thought you were.

Authentic leadership doesn’t start on a stage — it starts at home.

In this episode of the Authentic Leadership Podcast, Ivan and Eva Chen explore the unseen leadership of parenting as a migrant mother: navigating culture, exhaustion, racism, and advocacy in systems that don’t always listen.

From pregnancy and birth to school and identity, Eva shares what it means to raise children between worlds — and why a 52% maths result can be a win.

A powerful reminder that leadership lives in advocacy, emotional safety, and protecting wellbeing.

This video features an intimate, honest conversation between Ivan and Chris, exploring how lived experience of trauma and survival shaped a lifelong commitment to suicide prevention, education, and social change. Chris reflects on creativity as an early lifeline, his unexpected path into teaching and research, and his work around adolescent suicide, men’s mental health, grief, and male survivors of trauma. Together, Ivan and Chris challenge assumptions about masculinity, therapy, and help-seeking, highlighting the power of presence, companionship, and lived experience. The conversation calls for more humane, gender-responsive approaches to mental health—grounded in reality, choice, and the simple truth that healing often begins by not suffering alone.

Ivan talks with Scottie about her journey representing New Zealand in women’s football, including a dangerous post-match incident overseas. They reflect on the early days of the women’s game, the lack of recognition, and the passion, resilience, and pride that came with playing for love of the sport.

Dr. Alexander Stevens II joins Ivan for a deeply human conversation about purpose, identity, and service, beginning with the story behind his name and the journey to completing his PhD. Drawing on lived experiences of violence, trauma, and recovery, Alexander reflects on what shaped his commitment to supporting others through healing and change.

The episode explores racism and bias in Aotearoa, the strength of dignity and mana, and the challenges of doing kaupapa Māori work within Western systems. Alexander also shares how his research led to the creation of StandingTallNZ, a culturally grounded resource supporting men who disclose sexual harm. The conversation closes with reflection, humour, and a grounding karakia on resilience, care, and hope.

Ivan and Dan explore the hidden cost of mental health misdiagnosis and how diagnostic labels can fracture identity without resolving distress. Together, they examine why healthcare systems often treat people in isolation, leaving individuals to rebuild their sense of self alone when diagnoses change but symptoms remain.

The conversation moves into the tension between personal responsibility and collective care, highlighting the limits of clinical solutions without relational support. Drawing on lived experience, they unpack the value of peer support, co-design done with care, and why meaningful mental health recovery must be social, emotional, and community-based—not just clinical.

A young, anxious introvert throws himself into acting, chasing the ego-hit and visibility of performance, only to discover he’s technically not a strong actor but gifted at something else: holding space. That realisation nudges him into directing and facilitation, where he can shape kinder, safer environments for others than the harsh, high-pressure auditions that once shredded his nerves. Theatre leads him to a deeper fascination with storytelling as a tool for connection, advocacy, and influencing the world — a skillset that ultimately proves more valuable to his mental health work than his formal sociology training. While studying a master’s in Text and Performance in London, he’s mugged at knifepoint in a park. The incident unleashes severe anxiety, voice-hearing, and an experience later framed as psychosis. Within weeks he’s cycled through several clinicians and given a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. With little information and no lived-experience stories to draw on, he chooses not to leave his studies but to make his unfolding mental health crisis the subject of his thesis and a touring theatre show. Returning to New Zealand, he enters early psychosis services, begins advocacy and poetry around mental health, and builds an identity around the schizophrenia label—only to be told years later that it was likely a misdiagnosis. The misdiagnosis shatters his sense of self and brings waves of guilt, anger, and confusion, but it also pushes him to re-examine power, diagnosis, and stigma—especially the way labels like schizophrenia, bipolar, and personality disorders get entangled with distress, gender, and “monstrous” media narratives. Over time, he shifts from seeing himself as broken or dangerous to using his experiences to design spaces where others who feel monstrous, anxious, or out of place can be held with honesty, agency, and dignity.

In this powerful and deeply honest conversation, James opens up about his journey from surviving childhood abuse, addiction, and mental health struggles to discovering purpose, healing, and hope. Together, we explore the realities many men face but rarely speak about—shame, silence, anger, anxiety, and the long road toward recovery. James shares how peer support, lived experience, community, and one person believing in him changed the direction of his life. From battling trauma to becoming a co-facilitator helping other men, his story is a testament to resilience, courage, and the strength that comes from speaking truth.