• Glenn Wilson: Backing Himself — Building Digital Auto Finance in NZ and Australia
    2025/11/03

    Glenn is the Co-Founder of Simplify Holdings International, a company specialising in personal and automotive finance across New Zealand and Australia. Ten years ago, Glenn and his team spotted a gap in the New Zealand market—limited consumer finance options and an almost non-existent online experience—and built Simplify to solve it.

    Today, over 17,000 customers have used Simplify, and the business is on track to write over $150 million in finance volume this financial year. Glenn now plays a more strategic role in the group while the day-to-day is led by the team.

    In our conversation we talk about Glenn’s foundations: growing up just outside Melbourne, Australia, being told by a teacher at 16 that he’d prefer it if Glenn left school, and how he turned that moment into fuel. We revisit his early career in IT, leading teams older than him, and the leadership lesson that it’s more important to be respected than liked.

    We explore his move to BMW Australia, starting in customer service, building relationships across the organisation, and the practical value of curiosity. We discuss the impact of losing his mum, a period of travel and reflection, and the shift from finance broking as a sole operator to deciding—after a pivotal Tony Robbins event in Los Angeles—to build a bigger business.

    We then trace the path to Simplify: seeing the New Zealand opportunity, starting small, persevering through perceptions of being “too Australian,” growing a distributed team across NZ and Australia, installing a CEO, and stepping into a strategic role while keeping close to the team and partners.

    Connect with Glenn

    LinkedIn

    Website

    About Andy

    I’m a business leader, coach, and the creator of the Fulfilling Performance framework—designed to help people bring more of themselves to what they do and experience greater fulfilment and performance as a result.

    Over the past 25+ years, I’ve led and developed businesses including Alphabet UK, BMW Financial Services in the UK, Singapore, and New Zealand, and Tesla Financial Services UK. Alongside this, I’ve coached individuals and facilitated leadership development programmes in 17 countries across Asia, Europe, and North America.

    In 2016, I founded Aquilae to support leaders and teams in the mobility sector and beyond. Through workshops, coaching, and peer mentoring, we enable high performance that’s also fulfilling—for individuals, teams, and organisations.

    I’m also the host of CAREER-VIEW MIRROR, where I share the life and career journeys of key players in the automotive and mobility world to surface insights leaders can apply in their own context.

    Learn more about Fulfilling Performance

    Check out Release the Handbrake! The Fulfilling Performance Hub

    Connect with Andy

    LinkedIn: Andy Follows
    Email: cvm@aquilae.co.uk

    Join a peer mentoring team: Aquilae Academy

    Thank you to our sponsors:

    ASKE Consulting
    Email: hello@askeconsulting.co.uk

    Aquilae
    Email: cvm@aquilae.co.uk

    Episode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror

    If you enjoy listening to our guests career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app.

    Episode recorded on 23 October, 2025.

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    1 時間 22 分
  • Side Mirror: Four Real Stories of Handbrakes in Action
    2025/10/27

    When I introduce leaders to the Fulfilling Performance framework with its four Diagnostic Questions, they invariably appreciate its simplicity. They find Step 1 relatively easy. This is the part where we use the four questions to identify the most likely sources of unseen friction or handbrakes as we call them.

    I covered Step 1 in last week's Side Mirror episode where I explained how Fulfilling Performance is a simple tool we can use to act on engagement every single day.

    Step 2 is to consider options, decide on an action and create a plan to release the handbrake.

    Depending on the nature of the handbrake, Step 2 can be more complex and less straightforward. The options at your disposal and the quality of your plan will vary according to your level of leadership capability, experience and authority.

    When we get to Step 2 in our workshops, leaders often ask me to share handbrakes that I or previous participants have identified with examples of how they released them.

    So in this episode, I want to share four stories from my own career—each one showing a handbrake in action, linked to one of the Four Fundamentals: Clarity, Capability, Culture, and Purpose.

    They’re real examples of what happens when a Fundamental is lacking—and what could have been done to release the friction.

    About Andy

    I’m a business leader, coach, and the creator of the Fulfilling Performance framework—a simple, practical way to help leaders cut through silos, get people pulling in the same direction, and build ownership and accountability, so organisations perform better and their people thrive.

    Over the past 25+ years, I’ve led and developed businesses including Alphabet UK, BMW Financial Services in the UK, Singapore, and New Zealand, and Tesla Financial Services UK. Alongside this, I’ve coached individuals and delivered leadership programmes in 17 countries across Asia, Europe, and North America.

    In 2016, I founded Aquilae (The Fulfilling Performance Company) to support CEOs and senior leaders in the mobility sector and beyond. Through workshops, peer mentoring, and coaching, we help reduce the unseen friction that drags on performance — and create teams where people deliver, grow, and work constructively together.

    I’m also the host of CAREER-VIEW MIRROR, where I share the life and career journeys of key players in the automotive and mobility world to surface insights leaders can apply in their own context.

    Learn more about Fulfilling Performance

    Check out Release the Handbrake! The Fulfilling Performance Hub

    Connect with Andy

    LinkedIn: Andy Follows
    Email: cvm@aquilae.co.uk

    Join a peer mentoring team: Aquilae Academy

    Thank you to our sponsors:

    ASKE Consulting
    Email: hello@askeconsulting.co.uk

    Aquilae
    Email: cvm@aquilae.co.uk

    Episode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror

    If you enjoy listening to our guests career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app.

    Episode recorded on 21 October, 2025.

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    16 分
  • Side Mirror: A Simple Tool to Act on Engagement Every Single Day
    2025/10/19

    I was listening to an interview with Ellyn Shook recently. Ellyn is the Chief Human Resources Officer of Accenture where she is responsible for 774,000 people. She told Michael Gervais on his Finding Mastery podcast that if companies could figure out how to give their leaders tools to act on engagement every day they would see a big difference.

    The Fulfilling Performance framework is that tool and in this Side Mirror episode I share how I introduce leaders to how it works and get them up and running with it in just a few hours.

    About Andy

    I’m a business leader, coach, and the creator of the Fulfilling Performance framework—designed to help people bring more of themselves to what they do and experience greater fulfilment and performance as a result.

    Over the past 25+ years, I’ve led and developed businesses including Alphabet UK, BMW Financial Services in the UK, Singapore, and New Zealand, and Tesla Financial Services UK. Alongside this, I’ve coached individuals and facilitated leadership development programmes in 17 countries across Asia, Europe, and North America.

    In 2016, I founded Aquilae to support leaders and teams in the mobility sector and beyond. Through workshops, coaching, and peer mentoring, we enable high performance that’s also fulfilling—for individuals, teams, and organisations.

    I’m also the host of CAREER-VIEW MIRROR, where I share the life and career journeys of key players in the automotive and mobility world.

    Learn more about Fulfilling Performance

    Check out Release the Handbrake! The Fulfilling Performance Hub

    Connect with Andy

    LinkedIn: Andy Follows
    Email: cvm@aquilae.co.uk

    Join a peer mentoring team: Aquilae Academy

    Thank you to our sponsors:

    ASKE Consulting
    Email: hello@askeconsulting.co.uk

    Aquilae
    Email: cvm@aquilae.co.uk

    Episode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror

    If you enjoy listening to our guests career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app.

    Episode recorded on 15 October, 2025.

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    17 分
  • Side Mirror: Uncertainty High, Morale Low — Providing Clarity When You Don’t Have it Yourself
    2025/10/12

    In this Side Mirror, I share a recent frustration that a leader presented to me in a one to one and I use it as an example of how we can apply the Fulfilling Performance framework to a real world business issue - specifically a dip in engagement and morale caused by an impending organisational restructure.

    About Andy

    I’m a business leader, coach, and the creator of the Fulfilling Performance framework—designed to help people bring more of themselves to what they do and experience greater fulfilment and performance as a result.

    Over the past 25+ years, I’ve led and developed businesses including Alphabet UK, BMW Financial Services in the UK, Singapore, and New Zealand, and Tesla Financial Services UK. Alongside this, I’ve coached individuals and facilitated leadership development programmes in 17 countries across Asia, Europe, and North America.

    In 2016, I founded Aquilae to support leaders and teams in the mobility sector and beyond. Through workshops, coaching, and peer mentoring, we enable high performance that’s also fulfilling—for individuals, teams, and organisations.

    I’m also the host of CAREER-VIEW MIRROR, where I share the life and career journeys of key players in the automotive and mobility world.

    Learn more about Fulfilling Performance

    Check out Release the Handbrake! The Fulfilling Performance Hub

    Connect with Andy

    LinkedIn: Andy Follows
    Email: cvm@aquilae.co.uk

    Join a peer mentoring team: Aquilae Academy

    Thank you to our sponsors:

    ASKE Consulting
    Email: hello@askeconsulting.co.uk

    Aquilae
    Email: cvm@aquilae.co.uk

    Episode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror

    If you enjoy listening to our guests career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app.

    Episode recorded on 9 October, 2025.

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    13 分
  • Side Mirror: When the Thing is Not the Thing
    2025/10/06

    In this Side Mirror, I want to talk about “the thing is not the thing.” It’s about those situations where what looks like the issue on the surface turns out not to be the real issue underneath.

    For the amusing bit on how the UK has been shaped by immigration over the years:

    Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle, S03E02

    About Andy

    I’m a business leader, coach, and the creator of the Fulfilling Performance framework—designed to help people bring more of themselves to what they do and experience greater fulfilment and performance as a result.

    Over the past 25+ years, I’ve led and developed businesses including Alphabet UK, BMW Financial Services in the UK, Singapore, and New Zealand, and Tesla Financial Services UK. Alongside this, I’ve coached individuals and facilitated leadership development programmes in 17 countries across Asia, Europe, and North America.

    In 2016, I founded Aquilae to support leaders and teams in the mobility sector and beyond. Through workshops, coaching, and peer mentoring, we enable high performance that’s also fulfilling—for individuals, teams, and organisations.

    I’m also the host of CAREER-VIEW MIRROR, where I share the life and career journeys of key players in the automotive and mobility world.

    Learn more about Fulfilling Performance

    Check out Release the Handbrake! The Fulfilling Performance Hub

    Connect with Andy

    LinkedIn: Andy Follows
    Email: cvm@aquilae.co.uk

    Join a peer mentoring team: Aquilae Academy

    Thank you to our sponsors:

    ASKE Consulting
    Email: hello@askeconsulting.co.uk

    Aquilae
    Email: cvm@aquilae.co.uk

    Episode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror

    If you enjoy listening to our guests career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app.

    Episode recorded on 29 September, 2025.

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    9 分
  • Side Mirror: Releasing Handbrakes - Don't Try to Boil the Ocean
    2025/09/28

    In today’s Side Mirror, I reflect on a week working with three different teams in Melbourne—one was a peer mentoring group and two were the leadership teams at automotive OEMs. It was a fulfilling week, and their feedback reminded me how quickly people can grasp the Fulfilling Performance framework—and how much more they want time to practice releasing handbrakes once they’ve spotted them.

    So I want to share how you can move from identifying friction to defining practical actions—and why those actions need to be big enough to make a difference, but not so big that you try to “boil the ocean.”

    About Andy

    I’m a business leader, coach, and the creator of the Fulfilling Performance framework—designed to help people bring more of themselves to what they do and experience greater fulfilment and performance as a result.

    Over the past 25+ years, I’ve led and developed businesses including Alphabet UK, BMW Financial Services in the UK, Singapore, and New Zealand, and Tesla Financial Services UK. Alongside this, I’ve coached individuals and facilitated leadership development programmes in 17 countries across Asia, Europe, and North America.

    In 2016, I founded Aquilae to support leaders and teams in the mobility sector and beyond. Through workshops, coaching, and peer mentoring, we enable high performance that’s also fulfilling—for individuals, teams, and organisations.

    I’m also the host of CAREER-VIEW MIRROR, where I share the life and career journeys of key players in the automotive and mobility world.

    Learn more about Fulfilling Performance

    Check out Release the Handbrake! The Fulfilling Performance Hub

    Connect with Andy

    LinkedIn: Andy Follows
    Email: cvm@aquilae.co.uk

    Join a peer mentoring team: Aquilae Academy

    Thank you to our sponsors:

    ASKE Consulting
    Email: hello@askeconsulting.co.uk

    Aquilae
    Email: cvm@aquilae.co.uk

    Episode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror

    If you enjoy listening to our guests career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app.

    Episode recorded on 25 September, 2025.

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    8 分
  • Richard Savoie: Intentional Choices and Pragmatic Turns on the Road From Corporate to Startup
    2025/09/21

    In this episode of CAREER-VIEW MIRROR, we’re celebrating the career to date of Richard Savoie.

    Richard is the co-founder and CEO of Adiona, which uses AI to power millions of efficient, lowest-carbon deliveries around the world for brands such as Coca-Cola and Amazon. He’s a sought-after speaker and thought leader on transport, mobility, and AI.

    His career has taken him from New Hampshire to Boston, and eventually to Sydney, Australia, through roles at EMC, Smiths Medical, and Medtronic. Along the way, he’s gained experience across engineering, medical devices, and entrepreneurship — building resilience, adaptability, and the insight to eventually launch his own business in sustainable technology.

    In our conversation, we talk about Richard’s early years in Nashua, New Hampshire, where family challenges and early responsibilities shaped his determination. He shares how severe asthma inspired him first toward medicine, then pivoted him into engineering after falling in love with physics.

    We follow his path through Northeastern University, internships with Panametrics and EMC, and his transition into medical devices with Smiths Medical and Covidien. He reflects on career setbacks during the financial crisis, lessons from mentors, and the importance of empathy and relationships in leadership.

    We also talk about his relocation to Australia, his experience running a small medical device company, and the difficult decision to leave after equity disagreements — a setback that ultimately led him into entrepreneurship. Richard describes how Adiona’s optimisation technology, developed through a partnership with Coca-Cola, delivered dramatic reductions in emissions and on-road time, and how branding, support structures, and resilience are critical to startup success.

    Connect with Richard

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richsavoie/

    Website: https://www.adionatech.com/

    About Andy

    I’m a business leader, coach, and the creator of the Fulfilling Performance framework—designed to help people bring more of themselves to what they do and experience greater fulfilment and performance as a result.

    Over the past 25+ years, I’ve led and developed businesses including Alphabet UK, BMW Financial Services in the UK, Singapore, and New Zealand, and Tesla Financial Services UK. Alongside this, I’ve coached individuals and facilitated leadership development programmes in 17 countries across Asia, Europe, and North America.

    In 2016, I founded Aquilae to support leaders and teams in the mobility sector and beyond. Through workshops, coaching, and peer mentoring, we enable high performance that’s also fulfilling—for individuals, teams, and organisations.

    Learn more about Fulfilling Performance

    Check out Release the Handbrake! The Fulfilling Performance Hub

    Connect with Andy

    LinkedIn: Andy Follows
    Email: cvm@aquilae.co.uk

    Join a peer mentoring team: Aquilae Academy

    Thank you to our sponsors:

    ASKE Consulting
    Email: hello@askeconsulting.co.uk

    Aquilae
    Email: cvm@aquilae.co.uk

    Episode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror

    If you enjoy listening to our guests career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app.

    Episode recorded on 09 September, 2025.

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    1 時間 47 分
  • Side Mirror with James Warren: Empathy at Scale - Unlocking Insight through Storytelling and AI
    2025/09/14

    In this Side Mirror episode, I’m joined by James Warren.

    James Warren is the Founder and CEO of Share More Stories, a human experience insights company. The company’s primary offering is the SEEQ Platform, which helps organizations and brands uncover the emotional drivers behind employee and customer experiences. James is a researcher, strategist, writer and facilitator who blends storytelling, AI, and insights to help companies better understand themselves, their customers, and their communities. With nearly 30 years of experience in marketing, insights, strategy, and innovation, he is passionate about the intersections of humanity, technology, brands, communities, and culture. An active community leader, he volunteers on several boards. He studied economics and literature at Princeton, and creative writing at Columbia. Originally from New York, James now calls Richmond home.

    In our conversation, James shares his journey from corporate life at Altria to creating a storytelling platform that helps organisations uncover the emotional drivers behind customer and employee experiences. We talk about vulnerability, leadership, and how creating space for people to share their stories can deepen connection and engagement. James also introduces SEEQ GPT, a new tool that uses generative AI to analyse stories and deliver context-rich insights while preserving human nuance.

    Connect with James

    Connect with James on LinkedIn

    Connect with Share More Stories on LinkedIn

    IG + YT: @warrenjwric

    IG + YT: @sharemorestories

    Web: sharemorestories.com | SEEQPlatform.com

    About Andy

    I'm an experienced business leader and a passionate developer of people in the automotive finance industry, internationally.

    During over twenty years, I have played a key role in developing businesses including Alphabet UK, BMW Corporate Finance UK, BMW Financial Services Singapore, BMW Financial Services New Zealand and Tesla Financial Services UK.

    At the same time, I have coached individuals and delivered leadership development programmes in 17 countries across Asia, Europe and North America.

    I started Aquilae in 2016 to enable “Fulfilling Performance” in the mobility industry, internationally.

    Learn more about Fulfilling Performance

    Check out Release the Handbrake! The Fulfilling Performance Hub

    Connect with Andy

    LinkedIn: Andy Follows
    Email: cvm@aquilae.co.uk

    Join a guided peer mentoring team: Aquilae Academy

    Thank you to our sponsors:

    ASKE Consulting
    Email: hello@askeconsulting.co.uk

    Aquilae
    Email: cvm@aquilae.co.uk

    Episode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror

    If you enjoy listening to our guests career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app.

    Episode recorded on 08 September, 2025.

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    49 分