Overview

Episodes

Details

For independent professionals building practice on their own terms.
Working lives have extended far beyond what anyone predicted.

Organisations need people who can navigate complexity and ambiguity—and increasingly, these professionals want to work independently.

Hosted by Nigel Rawlins, Wisepreneurs features conversations with experienced professionals about what it actually takes to build sustainable independent practice.

What we explore:
● Turning accumulated expertise into visible market presence
● Building business through partnerships and collaborative networks
● AI tools that amplify rather than replace experienced judgment
● Navigating the transition from employment to independence
● Sustaining cognitive capacity for the long term

80+ episodes of real conversations
Your accumulated expertise is your competitive advantage.
This podcast shows you how to systematically leverage it.

80+ episodes. Real conversations. No motivational fluff.

Find transcripts and more: https://www.wisepreneurs.au/
Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelrawlins/
Subscribe to the newsletter: https://wisepreneurs.com.au/newsletter/

Recent Episodes

Mark Trinham: Building Sustainable Art Practice Through Environmental Values and Collaboration

NOV 28, 2025

Mark Trinham: Building Sustainable Art Practice Through Environmental Values and Collaboration

Mark Trinham has spent 30 years building a thriving full-time art practice without formal business training—creating large-scale public artworks, running a successful collaboration company, and maintaining creative independence. In this conversation, Mark reveals how he moved from illustration and graphic design into public art and sculpture, developed a sustainable business model that keeps him booked 18 months ahead, and learned when to say no after decades of saying yes to everythin...

54 MIN

Jon Younger Why Keep Working at 73? On Talent, Wisdom, and Interesting Questions

NOV 14, 2025

Jon Younger Why Keep Working at 73? On Talent, Wisdom, and Interesting Questions

At 73, Jon Younger has spent his career understanding how talent evolves—from HR executive at Exxon to business builder to independent advisor on the future of work and AI. In this conversation, Jon addresses the positioning challenge experienced professionals rarely voice: how do you justify premium rates when younger consultants cost less and AI handles routine knowledge work? Jon explains why accumulated professional judgment creates diagnostic capabilities that remain valuable des...

67 MIN

Mayumi Kataoka: When Your Brain Needs Trees, Not More Productivity Hacks

OCT 30, 2025

Mayumi Kataoka: When Your Brain Needs Trees, Not More Productivity Hacks

In our hyperconnected world, we respond to time scarcity by optimising, accelerating, and implementing more productivity systems. But what if the solution isn't doing more—it's doing less? Mayumi Kataoka, a certified forest therapy guide based in Sydney, takes professionals on three-hour walks that cover barely 1.2 kilometers. Participants consistently report losing track of time and finding clarity they didn't know they were missing. In this conversation, Mayumi shares her journey from IT pr...

37 MIN

Anna Burgess Yang on Business Resilience and Smart Automation

OCT 16, 2025

Anna Burgess Yang on Business Resilience and Smart Automation

When Anna Burgess Yang was diagnosed with a brain tumor just weeks before surgery, her three years of systematic business building became the difference between collapse and continuity. In this conversation, Anna shares how strategic financial planning, smart automation systems, and operational frameworks allowed her FinTech writing business to run for two months without her active involvement. She reveals the specific tools, workflows, and thinking that transformed her solo practice from vul...

38 MIN

Michael Best on Career Reinvention, Cannabis Research, and Learning at 80

OCT 3, 2025

Michael Best on Career Reinvention, Cannabis Research, and Learning at 80

At 74, a routine phone call during COVID changed everything for Dr. Michael Best. After 50 years practicing medicine, he discovered the endocannabinoid system—a biological network in every human body that he'd never learned about in medical school. Now 80, he's writing a scientific book on the topic while mastering AI tools, Obsidian, and Zotero, proving that intellectual challenge sustains cognitive vitality rather than diminishing it. In this conversation, Michael reveals why mainstre...

44 MIN