80 enquiries a day. From people dreaming of leaving South Africa. Less than 10% actually make it happen. What separates the ones who do... from the ones who don't?

Anton and Ben sat down with someone who's seen it all, not as someone who emigrated, but as the person sitting across the desk when families take the biggest decision of their lives.

Sean Kupferberg is the Managing Director of New World Immigration in Cape Town. Since 2016, he's helped hundreds of South Africans navigate the path to Australia — from corporate professionals to tradespeople — and he's watched the full spectrum: people who arrived and thrived beyond anything they imagined, and people who came back.

In this episode, Sean pulls back the curtain on things most people don't talk about:

What does immigration actually cost? (It's not what most people think.) Why does the process take so long and what can you do about it? Why a plumber or diesel mechanic might have a better shot at Australia than an accountant right now.

The biggest misconceptions that keep people stuck — and what clarity really looks like. The story of the butchers that changed everything.

If you're still sitting at the kitchen table wondering whether this is even possible for your family — this episode was made for you.

Tim did not just build mines in some of the most remote parts of the world…he built something far more lasting.

Tim Netscher’s story stretches across continents, industries and decades, but what emerges from this conversation is not simply a career in mining. It is something far more human, and far more enduring.

Growing up in South Africa, moving from one mining town to another, Tim learned early that stability is not something you are given. It is something you create. That pattern would follow him throughout his life, taking him across the world and eventually to Australia, where what began as a six-month assignment became a permanent chapter.

What stands out is not just the scale of what he has been part of building. Projects like the Gruyere Gold Mine, delivered in some of the most remote and complex environments, on time and on budget, are rare achievements in their own right. But that is not where the story sits.

It sits in how he chose to lead.

There is a principle that runs through everything Tim speaks about, and it is disarmingly simple. Leave every place better than you found it. Not only in terms of the asset or the outcome, but in the lives of the people around it. In the communities that exist long before a project arrives, and long after it leaves.

Listening to Tim, you begin to understand that leadership, at its best, is not about control or position. It is about contribution. It is about recognising the privilege of experience, of opportunity, and using that to create something that extends beyond your own success.

In a world where outcomes are often measured in numbers, this conversation is a reminder that the more meaningful measure is what remains when you are no longer there.

🎧 Listen to Episode 26 at https://3spod.com
Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

#Leadership #Legacy #MigrationStories #GlobalLeadership #PurposeDriven #3SPod

You don’t realise who you are…until you arrive somewhere you have to learn how to belong

In Episode 25 of A Stranger, A Suitcase, and A Story, Anton and Ben are joined by Paul Hanley - a story that moves well beyond finance and into something far more human.

Born and raised in Johannesburg, Paul built his career in one of South Africa’s most dynamic financial environments before making the decision, like so many others, to start again in Australia. But this is not a simple migration story. It’s a story about resilience — or as Paul calls it, vasbyt — and what it really takes to rebuild when everything familiar falls away.

From early lessons shaped in national service, to navigating identity, leadership and belonging in a new country, Paul reflects on the realities of being “the other” — in business, in society, and in yourself. His journey takes us through unlearning deeply held assumptions, confronting new environments, and ultimately building a life and business from the ground up.

What stands out is not just the success that followed, but the honesty of the process - the uncertainty, the pressure, and the quiet determination to keep going when nothing is guaranteed.

This is a powerful conversation about migration, leadership and the internal shifts that define who we become.

🎧 Listen to Episode 25 at 3spod.com
Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

#Belonging #Identity #Migration #LeadershipLessons #HumanStories #Resilience #3SPod

What does it feel like to arrive just in time to witness an extinction?

In Episode 24 of A Stranger, A Suitcase, and A Story, Anton and Ben are joined by Dr Jenny Gray AM, Chief Executive Officer of Zoos Victoria, whose journey spans Johannesburg, Durban and Melbourne, and whose leadership has reshaped conservation in Australia.

Jenny grew up between Johannesburg and Durban, immersed in storytelling, public service and a deep familiarity with wildlife. Early in her career, she found herself leading Durban Transport during South Africa’s political transition, learning resilience, humility and stakeholder leadership under extraordinary pressure.

But it was a moment in 2009 that changed everything.

Jenny and her team arrived on Christmas Island to try to save the pipistrelle bat. They recorded what turned out to be the final individual of the species. Within days, it was gone. They had arrived in time to document an extinction. That moment became a line in the sand.

Zoos Victoria made a commitment that no Victorian terrestrial vertebrate species would go extinct on their watch. Today, they work with 27 critically endangered species. Sixteen years later, not one has been lost. From rediscovering the Victorian grassland earless dragon after 54 years, to breeding programs, reintroductions and engaging children in conservation, Jenny’s work is not about spectacle. It is about responsibility.

Her migration story is just as powerful. Head-hunted to lead Werribee Open Range Zoo, Jenny rebuilt her professional network from scratch. She learned to soften her directness. She sought coaching. She consciously travelled light, knowing that what you carry in your suitcase can either strengthen you or weigh you down.

Her advice to young people is clear:

Work hard. Take opportunities. Learn to lose. Build resilience. Do hard things. Because the glory is not on the easy road.

If you had to start again in a new country, what would you carry in your suitcase — and what would you be brave enough to leave behind?

🎧 Listen to Episode 24 at 3spod.com
Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

#AStrangerASuitcaseAndAStory #3SPod #Episode24 #DrJennyGray #ZoosVictoria #Conservation #MigrationStories #Leadership #Australia #SouthAfrica

What if the advantage isn’t being the smartest person in the room… but being willing to break things until they work?

Anton speak to Dawid Naudé, whose story moves back and forth between Australia and South Africa with five years of childhood in Australia, then back to the Eastern Cape, and later a deliberate return to Australia on his own terms.

This episode starts in the real places that shape a person: Grahamstown and the National Arts Festival, where Dawid helped turn a local computer shop into an internet café by renting unused school computers and making it work, because mobile internet wasn’t a thing and journalists needed a place to file their stories.

Then Rhodes: computer science… and the College House pub, where he ran it like a business (spreadsheets, inventory, beer counts) and learned early that “running something” teaches you things lectures don’t.

But one of the most defining moments is surprisingly simple: Dawid describes his mum giving him permission to play with the family computer to “break it,” get it fixed, and learn by doing. That permission became a way of operating: resourcefulness, curiosity, and tinkering over overthinking.

From there, the arc keeps unfolding: a restart at James Cook University, hard work on his dad’s prawn farm in North Queensland, a finance detour (including passing CFA Level 1) before taking a big leap, a 50% pay cut to move into tech at Accenture, then Cloud Sherpas, then back to Accenture where he became a Managing Director.

And then the moment that changed his direction again: ChatGPT. Dawid shares the “tinkering” story that sparked Pathfinder, using AI to make sense of legacy code and turning a painful, slow documentation task into something dramatically faster.

For him, “AI for good” is not a slogan. It’s practical: AI as a universal tutor and a way for anyone, anywhere, in any language, to learn faster and better.

If you’re building a business (or thinking about it), Dawid’s advice is refreshingly direct: create demand first, make it easy for people to “window shop,” and become known in a niche by translating AI into something specific and useful for real people doing real jobs.

If tinkering is the real edge, what would you start testing this week?

🎧 Listen to Episode 23 of A Stranger, A Suitcase, and A Story at https://3spod.com
Also on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.

What happens when a career built on facts, figures, and investigations collides with the very human question of where, and how you want to raise a family?

Anton and Ben sit down with Paul Fontanot, whose journey spans forensic accounting, partnership, migration, and a surprisingly memorable introduction to Australian wine.

Paul grew up in Germiston and built his career in forensic accounting, work that demands precision, judgment, and the ability to sit with uncomfortable truths. That path eventually led him to Australia, where he rebuilt from scratch and went on to become a partner in a leading law firm, proving that starting again doesn’t mean starting small.

But this conversation is not just about professional success. Paul reflects on the decisions behind the move — weighing responsibility to family against familiarity, choosing long-term stability over short-term certainty, and learning that belonging takes effort, not entitlement. Australia didn’t hand him a life; it invited him to build one.

And then there’s the wine. A vineyard in the Hunter Valley, a father-in-law with strong opinions, and a lesson in humility that says more about migration than any spreadsheet ever could. It’s funny, grounding, and deeply Paul - a reminder that no matter how serious the work, life has a way of keeping you human.

This episode is about competence without ego, ambition without noise, and the courage to rebuild with your values intact.

🎧 Listen to Episode 22 of A Stranger, A Suitcase, and A Story at https://3spod.com
Also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.

#AStrangerASuitcaseAndAStory #3SPod #Episode22 #PaulFontanot #ForensicAccounting #MigrationStories #StartingAgain #Belonging #Leadership #Identity #SouthAfricansAbroad #Podcast

What happens when your big adventure finally arrives… fourteen years late and just weeks before the world shuts down?

Anton and Ben sit down with Kevin and Romaine Mackenzie, a Johannesburg-born couple whose migration story is as much about partnership as it is about place. After waiting 14 years for a US visa to come through, they packed up their lives and arrived in Chicago in January 2020, driving into the city on a cold, dark, rainy night, only weeks before COVID changed everything.

This is a story of starting again together. Of leaving behind family, familiarity, and identity and discovering how much migration reshapes not just where you live, but who you become. Kevin reflects on rebuilding from scratch as an entrepreneur with no network, no shortcuts, and a restless need to stay bold. Romaine shares the emotional cost of leaving a life she deeply believed in, and what it means to re-anchor yourself when safety, trust, and certainty fall away.

At the heart of this episode is family. Watching their son Max navigate a new country, a new school, puberty, and lockdown until a chance baseball try-out at Oz Park changed everything. Sport became community. Community became belonging. And slowly, Chicago started to feel like home.

This episode is about mindset over nostalgia. About not trying to replicate your old life but re-engineering it. About resisting self-sabotage, choosing boldness, and learning to live forward without comparison.

If migration doesn’t just change your address, but your identity, who do you become on the other side?

🎧 Listen to Episode 21 of A Stranger, A Suitcase, and A Story at https://3spod.com
Also on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.

#AStrangerASuitcaseAndAStory #3SPod #Episode21 #MigrationStories #FamilyJourney #StartingAgain #Identity #Belonging #Chicago #SouthAfricansAbroad #Podcast

What if success is not measured by what you accumulate, but by what lets you sleep at night?

Anton and Ben sit down with Dr Manny Pohl in Episode 20 of A Stranger, A Suitcase, and A Story. Our first episode of 2026, and a fitting one to begin the year.

Manny’s story starts on the Blyvooruitzicht gold mine near Carletonville, a place defined by hard work, hierarchy, and deep community. It’s where he learned early that who you are, and how you treat people, matters long after the mine closes.

Manny did not migrate chasing adventure. He moved for his three sons to give them opportunity, stability, and a fair shot at the future. Australia was a deliberate choice. What followed was a leadership journey shaped less by titles than by principles: courage to make hard calls, humility to start again, and an unwavering belief that relationships are built by how you show up when no one is watching.

Along the way, Manny became a Freeman of the City of London and was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia, not for self-promotion, but for contribution. Yet when asked what he carried with him, Manny does not talk about awards. He talks about a simple rule that guided every decision: it’s better to sleep well than to eat well.

This episode is about community, ethics, and the quiet moments that define a life - treating everyone with dignity, pulling the trigger when your values demand it, and understanding that success without integrity costs too much.

When faced with a choice that advances your career but compromises your values—what would you do?

🎧 Listen to Episode 20 at https://3spod.com
Also available on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.

#AStrangerASuitcaseAndAStory #3SPod #Episode20 #DrMannyPohl #Leadership #Values #Integrity #MigrationStories #Community #SleepingWell #OrderOfAustralia #Podcast