It's so important to surround yourself with amazing people that continue to not only inspire you, that back you and support you and give you that encouragement to say, hey, you can do this, this is pretty amazing. It's when you come into a role I think where you don't know and you pretend to know that you will fall flat on your face. It's about leveraging that incredible tapestry of talent that exists within the organization to become a stronger organization.
Welcome to the Sees the Yay Podcast. Busy and happy are not the same thing. We too rarely question what makes the heart seeing. We work, then we rest, but rarely we play and often don't realize there's more than one way. So this is a platform to hear and explore the stories of those who found lives. They adore, the good, bad and ugly, the best and worst. Day
will bear all the facets of seizing your yay. I'm Sarah Davidson or a spoonful of Sarah, a lawyer turned entrepreneur who's walketor suits and heels to co found matcha Maidan and matcha Milk Bar. Cca is a series of conversations on finding a life you love and exploring the
self doubt, challenge, joy and fulfillment along the way. Lovely Yighborhood, Welcome back to another guest episode of the show after last week's Yeas of our Lives download, with a thank you all so much for the beautiful feedback and support during this past couple of weeks and months since sharing our story and a little bit more depth and with a bit more rawness than normal, which is saying something
given that I already share pretty much everything. This has been a little bit more vulnerable than usual and very special, So thank you all so much for sharing in that journey with us. As to our guest this week, they epitomize why I love doing this podcast so much and for all its possible downsides, really embrace the potential for connection that social media allows us in this day and age. I think if you use it the right way, it can still be the most powerful and amazing platform. And
we actually met through the neighborhood online. After this guest became our number one purchaser of the Quote of the Day Flipbooks, and the support has been unwavering ever since. I don't know how he went from that to getting onto his incredible work. But it's somehow emerged through our chats that Simon went from being an architect to taking
all the different chapters and dot points. You know, we always talk about how the dot points don't connect when you're going forwards, but sometimes in reverse you can understand them better. Simon went from being an architect of becoming
the CEO of an incredible biotech company. And when I found out about his amazing work identifying diseases through a very simple, non invasive saliva based test called gene type, I just had to share that with you all, particularly given that he didn't come from a science background, and I love the idea that there is no conventional party ad to get to anywhere. After becoming friends over the interwebs four years, we finally sat down and chatted about
the incredible work that Simon is doing. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did. Simon, Welcome to CEZ THEA.
Thanks for having me excited to be here.
So this is a very special episode. Lovely neighborhood who are listening along because Simon and I have been Internet friends and Nick and Paul for like how many years now?
Do you think two or three years. I think I've seen probably at least two or three really really awkward Christmas jumpers in your life. So at least.
You're counting the number of terrible jumps.
If that's a passage of time, I think they could be at least two or three of those.
Yeah.
So, I mean, this is of all the things that are wonderful about creating this podcast, it's the people I've been able to connect with through the wonderful interwebs and the digital age that we live in today. And Simon and I connected through the show. And I mean, you, how did it begin? Was it you buying the flip books? I think was it? You know?
I think it was the books and the flip books, and I think I started buying them, you know what, for my daughters to be able to give out as gifts for friends. So I started buying the flipbooks and the books of yours to share with some amazing people in my network, for my daughters to be able to give away to friends as gifts, and for people that start here at the office and they can have the flip books on their desks. So they're a really great gift to be able to share with people.
Oh, Simon, You've been such a wonderful support, and it's just it's been so nice to connect. I think like your name kept popping up, and then we were following each other. And then it's only a little bit more recently that I started to hear more about what you actually do and the amazing journey you've been on. And then now we're here and we're like making bringing our friendship into like longer form.
It's so exciting.
Who would have thought that all those years ago that I'd then be published in some fashion magazine in the United States for some of the stuff that we do of that Ola league And there's a mile stone that's.
Right, Oh my god, you sent me the link. We've been like following each other's journeys.
Very closely, which is so nice.
And Nick actually just came in guys and interrupted our recording and they had a good old chat about their bikes. So there's just a lot of common ground going on in this friendship.
Yes, yes, not awkward at all.
Not awkward at all.
Alsoon it's so nice to finally be able to catch up properly. And I think one of the really cool things about episodes like this is when I mean, as you know, I like to research people to it within and inch of their lives, but sometimes it's really nice to also be hearing someone's story and the nitty gritty of sort of how they got there along with everyone for
the first time. Like I haven't heard a lot of this, so I would love to start by I mean, we'll get to the amazing things that you're doing right now, but I'd love to start all the way back at the very beginning, because I think it's so fascinating and also quite inspiring to hear where people began, what they thought their future would look like, and then how differently it often unravels. So take us back to maybe even
your childhood. What did you what was your first job and what did you think you'd be.
Wow, we're going back a while. The first job outside of while I was at school, it was stocking supermarket shelves. And you know what, it's when you get to meet some really cool people when you do those local community supermarkets and you're in the little grocery outlets and you're they're taking people's shopping out to their cars, and you get to really connect. It was not like a really
big bullwhurser of calls. It was a little independent supermarket where you could pack their groceries and you could actually walk it out to the front of their car because they'd parp so close to the shop. And you know what that's That was just such a buzz of a job. You're fifteen years of age, You're meeting some of the local people around there, and that was one of my first favorite jobs when I when I started growing up, so while I was while I was in high schoo still,
so it was really cool. From there, I went out and studied university and studied architecture and civil engineering, and well before that, I actually wanted to be a physio, but I wasn't smart enough. Very very clever people the people have become physios.
I mean, I think you've since proven that you're smart enough, but.
Smart in different ways. But from an academic point of view, I wasn't smart enough to get the masks to do to do physio. I loved sport when I was growing up, but from there I studied architecture, drafting, and civil engineering. I just loved building, a love construction, loved designing things. And from that it then morphed into being never became a job. It always became something that I loved to do.
So my wife and I build a few houses and renovated a few houses together, survived all of those renovations, survived all of those building projects together over the years, which was just awesome. But I then fell into when I was probably in my mid twenties, into healthcare and for many, many years I worked with an amazing Australian
business called for Black Maws. I worked with them for thirteen years, worked with the amazing Marcus Blackmoll and others would know the likes of Christine Holbate and a number of those really wonderful senior leaders in our community. And my love for preventative health, my love for health care and wellness really stemmed from there. From there, I went and then ran another company called Sonofi, which is a large pharmaceutical business, and again it was all about health
and wellness and preventative health. And that sort of took me another ten years and then stepped into probably one of the most purposeful roles that I'm doing right now, and that's in biotech, and that's around looking at things like genetics and looking at the onset of serious disease where there may be no family history at all. So my whole career has been more around healthcare, preventative health wellness, and I just love it. It's really really excited.
I think it comes through.
I mean, even in the small interactions we've had so far, just how passionate you are about what you do. And I'm so excited to sort of start to share some of that with our audience because I found it fascinating. But just before we get there, I think when you do, I mean how often I know I say this over and over again to all of you guys, but I think often when we meet someone at the chapter they're in now, like you know, we meet Simon Morris and
you're the CEO. You're the CEO of a genetic company that does this amazing, like crazily advanced innovative biotechnology work. And I would assume that either you've always known you were going to be a CEO, or that you always knew you were going to be in biotech or science, and that's kind of natural to you. But you just said to me that it was actually your wife who
was kind of in the sciences. And as you mentioned, you started an architecture, So for anyone listening who's sort of a bit lost on their pathway or who might not feel that they could ever like even the fact that at so Nofi you were in sales rather than in kind of executive leadership to begin with along the way,
how do you pivot into an entirely new industry? How do you go from architecture to healthcare and the sciences and deal with kind of like the self doubt that you didn't study that area, or the fear of change. I think we were really creatures of habit, and change is something that's scary but also something that obviously has led to you doing something you love.
It's a really good point because that fear of the unknown, that fear of failure, and that fear of change and always thinking you have to do what you've always done. It's a real challenge, and as you get older, you become more and more risk averse in many many ways. But it's so important to surround yourself with amazing people that continue to not only inspire you, that back you and support you and give you that encouragement to say, hey, you can do this. This is pretty amazing, And I
think it's an incredible network of key people. Not gone are the days of just having one mentor in your life. You can have so many different mentors in so many different aspects of your life. There's a role for lots
and lots of wonderful people to play. Some of them in your career, some of them in your family, some of them your friends and networks, and some of them are just completely outside of that and just completely independent, and they give you that inspiration, that encouragement, and that confidence to make some of those life changing, life altering and career defining changes in your life. And I'm very fortunate that I've got those in my life and in
my career and some incredible people. And I continue to meet some incredible people in my life and try and learn from them as much as I can, because it's just such an exciting journey that we're on.
I think that's such a good point that you know, now it's sort of as a CEO, there's only one of you, and it seems like you know you're kind of you know that you didn't need anyone to get there. But I think it's such a good point that no one kind of gets anywhere without a whole village of people behind them, encouraging them and pushing them and telling you that.
You can actually do this, because that's half the.
Battle, I think, is not the doing, it's the believing you can do it and then taking the step to do it. So having gone from I mean, you mentioned that you fell into healthcare, So was that an accidental kind of shift?
Did that?
Was that just an opportunity that came up, or were you like, no, I am going to change. Architecture is not my vibe anymore, and I'm going to this is what I'm going to do.
It's funny when architecture at the time. I still love building, I still love design, I still love construction, but I never saw myself as sitting there drawing, designing in the isolated world of say an architect. I'm someone who loves to interact with people, and I had to get out of that. Even though I still love building, I still love designer, still love all of those aspects of it. But I needed to be with people and I needed
to get out there. And it was just through sport that a friend of mine worked for a company in healthcare, and I just through a throwaway line, we were going for a run together, and I was just a simple throwaway line that says you could do with someone like me and your company. And then from there it simply went from there to hey, you're right, and within I
reckon a month. It started in this very very simple, basic grassroots job as a sales rep for a company, and then just continued that journey from there and it all came. I remember vividly the day that I was we'd finished a swimming training session, We've dis gone for a basic run together. He was the boss of this company, and I thought, I'm gonna try something different, and I just threw out this line, and then within a month it had started, and then that was it was about
I think it was sort of December. I'll give him my age way here, nineteen ninety six. We're looking at some years ago now. It was just such a throwaway line that he bought it, and the rest is history. I've been a proponent of healthcare ever since since that dime, and I think one of the connections that you have on one of your other shows that you general quickly. I met him in December nineteen ninety six when I first started a blackmore and have just loved his journey
ever since. So one of my very first people I got to meet from a healthcare perspective that continued to give me that inspiration and the education and teach me so much was was Gerald back many many years ago.
Oh, we love Gerald.
Guys. For those who don't recall who Gerald is, he's the incredible, incredible co host of mine on the House of Wellness. Who actually we also do a lot of work with Sophie and Blackmore's just incidentally, and Gerald and I do the radio show together as well with Joe for House of Wellness.
He is just a gem. I love him so much.
As a gentleman, absolute gentleman.
So I love that you even use the word throwaway line because I think a lot of the times when we want to make a big change in your life, you think it's going to be this big momentous move that you know, like a movie scene. It's kind of like a clue that there's a big new chapter coming.
But I think it is often in the throwaway moments, like the chance meetings or you know, I always call them like the sliding doors opportunities, or the moment where you just you just put yourself out there and you just say something kind of casual and it doesn't necessarily have to be a big thing. I think it's often in those just random conversations where you just put out
an idea and that plants the seed for something. So once you did kind of make this shift and you started again, Like I think the other thing I love about this story is you have to not be afraid to be a beginner at something, Like you went in in sales and you went into a whole new industry. You are now a CEO. So what is that progression? Like,
like how do you work your way up? And maybe another way to phrase this is you have daughters now if you were giving them advice on the way to make yourself I don't know whether it like scene, but how do you put yourself forward in a position to go from sales rep to CEO?
Like?
How did you do that?
Yeah? I think a lot of experience is putting yourself in positions where it opens the next door for you. I think being good at something and then being accomplished at that and then wanting to move on a case of doing it through speed and accomplishment versus haste. And I think that there's a couple of things that's really interesting about these days is kids are far more confident these days than what we were when we were kids earlier on. And they back themselves into situations even more
confidently now in many instances as well. My daughters do anyway, which is are awesome. I love it. And they put themselves out there and say I can do this, and they do, which is really really cool. But from my perspective, it's about putting yourself into positions where you think I really want to have a go at that, backing yourself into that. And you talked about throwaway lines before. Don't
over engineer things, don't overorchestrate things. Don't overthink things. And if it's meant to be or be, but back yourself into a situation and where you think I can do that. Have the confidence to back your own talent, back your own ability, and you'll get it ninety percent right. Don't wait to try and be perfect at something before you take that next step, Otherwise in many instances, nothing will happen.
So I think that from that perspective, I got to experience so many different aspects of the Blackmaw's business, the Sonofi business, and when I got asked to be a part of this organization now as the CEO, it's a biotech business. I'm not a clinician. I'm not a medical professional. I'm not a healthcare professional or a doctor or a scientist in any way, shape or form. And I looked quizzically at them and I said, what do I have to offer that you don't have it? I said, please
help me understand this. So they said, we need a commercial guy because we've got all the smart people, and we do. That's some wonderful smart people, super talented people in the business. All clinicians, scientists, epidemiologists, doctors, you name it. We've got them all and they're super clever. But translating that into a story that people can relate to and understand to become a commercial business is what they needed. And that's where I came into the business, not through
my medical background or anything like that. And that's how I came to the see of this business. And now see of a publicly listed company comes with an incredible amount of fans out there. They're called shareholders, and you've got them in the US, we've got them here in Australia and they're incredible supporters of us technology in our business. But you've got the team to look after, to grow and to develop. We've got the patients to look after.
We've got shareholders to look after. We've got an amazing stakeholder group that we actually have to continually consider and be focused on making sure that we address and look
after all of those people. But that journey from starting with a carrying the bag, if you like, as a sales rep from a pharmacy sales rep at Blackmore, say twenty five years or so ago, into being the CEO of a publicly listic business to really help improve the health of populations worldwide with some of the things that we do is just what I find is my absolute purpose in life and a healthcare journey for me. It just continues to grow and I continue to learn every single day.
I love that so much, and I love particularly what you said about not over engineering things like don't overthink it, because once you give yourself too much time to overthink an opportunity, like you think yourself out of it, you just have to kind of rip the band aid and just do it and figure it out.
You'll come up with reasons why you shouldn't do it. If you can't do overthink it.
Yeah, absolutely, and.
That's what You've just got to back yourself and have a go, and you'll fall flat on your face from time to time. But what you just said before, the village of people that actually help pick you back up again. If you've got the right network, you can safely fall beat a safe zone. You can safely fall on your
face and then get back up and go again. It's that network of people that you have around you that won't blindly lead to it to the wrong path, but will be there to support you if you have a red hot go at something and fall over and then trip and then get back up and back on track.
Oh we love that, the red hot go.
And just favorite statement in life is just give things a red hot crack and think about the rest later, like you don't need to worry about it right now, before we get into the position you have now and the work you guys are doing. This is just such a random tangent, but it just came up as well speaking because I think you'd add such an interesting perspective to this. So something I speak about a lot on
this show. In the you know, there's the n ATA like all the big challenges that you have along your journey, and one of them is obviously, you know, self doubt and confidence and imposter syndrome and all of that kind of thing.
There's of course burnout.
There's all kinds of barriers that we face in achieving our best life. But we speak about self doubt a lot in particular because it tends to be a bigger barrier than anything else. It's not really people's qualifications or abilities, it's their lack of belief in their abilities. And a statistic that I always talk about, but this is more focused towards women, is that Hewlett Packard's study about the idea that men will apply for a promotion when they
have about sixty percent of the criteria. This is a mass generalization, but this was based on a study about applying for promotions. And you know, they'll apply at sixty percent knowing very logically that they can learn the other forty percent on the go, Like if they were at one hundred percent, you know, you don't wait until you're readywise why would.
You need the promotion?
Whereas women will wait until they have sort of ninety one hundred, one hundred and ten percent of the criteria before they even apply, and then they've lost the opportunity because time alone has meant they haven't applied. So in your experience, have you seen that kind of behavior in putting yourself forward for things? Do you see it in your daughters versus how you have applied yourself. Have you struggled with self doubt in that same way or not struggled as much?
Like?
How have you found in your progression from the sales rep to the CEO that those kind of dynamics are putting yourself forward from things in a more gendered way, especially in STEM.
I think that that mass generalization that you talk about there is absolutely alive still today. So you get two regimes for the same job, for a man and for a woman. For example, You're absolutely right. A guy will look at that and say, you know, I can do
most of that, I'm going to have a go. A woman will look at that particular resume and they'll look for the thing that they can't do and then talk themselves out of applying for the job, which is really wrong because they'll probably be more qualified than the guy. In fact, ninety percent of the title. In that way,
I've done that even with my wife. For example, she was applying for a role only two years ago and I looked at the position description, I think, wow, this suits you so much, and it's in animal health and she's in healthcare as well, it's animal health, and I said, this is just such a wonderful role for you should have a go at this, you should go for it. And then she looked and found the thing that she
didn't think that she could do. I said, well, that's so far down the list that I don't think it's one of their biggest priorities. Because if you look at the top four or five things that someone writes on a position description, that's what they truly value is the most important there. So that thing down to the bottom there, I don't ever worry about it. Have a go. Two and a half years later, she's wonderfully successful in that job.
But I think that that's not just a generalization. Women tend to look at things about what they can't do and sometimes talk themselves out of it, when again, I just encourage them to look for all the wonderful things that they can bring to a role, and even the that aren't on the position description that they can bring to a role because I had so much value and diversity and capability to many many teams. So I don't
think it's a generalization at all. I think it's still sadly is alive and well in the progression of people in organizations.
And then it's interesting that yourself, when you came to the most recent position, that you were then pointing out the things that you didn't think you had for the position a CEO, that you went straight to that mentality of like, well, I don't have a background in biotech. I don't have blah blah blah blah blah, Like how did you circumvent that?
Well, it was more about trying to understand, well, what are they looking for? This is a biotech company. I thought this was this mythical creature that actually I thought it was so different because pharmaceuticals and vitamins and supplements and healthcare I understood that, but I didn't understand medtech or biotech. I thought that there was something quite different.
And then when I got asked to have a to be put in the position of applying for this particular role and going into the selection process, I looked quizzically and said, well, what is it about me that you're looking for in this particular role. And until I understood what they really wanted, I then I didn't. I didn't
back myself. And when I knew what they were looking for, I thought like, I'm in right, I'm all in, And I didn't worry about the science part because I knew I had a whole lot of people that could teach me. It's when you come into a role, I think, where you don't know and you pretend to know that you
will fall flat on your face. It's about leveraging that incredible tapestry of talent that exists within the organization to become a stronger organization and the fabric of the capabilities and competencies that exist that the team becomes so powerful and so high performing. Knowing your role and doing your role and doing it very very well is key, and not pretending to be able to do someone else's role very very well. Get the person and recruit that person
for that team, for you and that team. That's what I look for. As soon as I understood what they were looking for, I.
Was all in, Yeah, that's so interesting. And I think in that moment where you know, women in particular. But many people get crippled with self doubt when they're about to apply for something new. I think that's such a good attitude. You just be like, Okay, well, those are the things I'm not, but these are the things I am. These are the things I do bring to the table. And this is where I feel a gap for the existing patchwork. I think that's just like, it's so straightforward,
but it's just not what your brain automatically does. You automatically go to the fear kind of center. But I think that's so so refreshing, and obviously you've gone on to do incredible things with it. So tell us about the company, about what it does, about the amazing I mean, these non invasive saliva genetic tests like tell us everything. Tell us the science, tell us how it's come about and what it can do.
Well, let me get tell you when I'm not not a doctor or scientist, so I'm going to the science. I won't go deep into the science. I'll keep it simple. I'll keep it relevant for what it's all about. But okay, it looks at an individual's risk of getting a serious disease where there may be no pathogenic mutation and no family history, because in many instances you find that in say some of the cancers that we talk about, eighty five percent of the cancers that are diagnosed or discovered
each year with the individual are random or sporadic. So, for example, if we talk a little bit about say breast cancer, breast cancer and the Bracker gene, that many people would know about it bake famous through the likes of Angelina Jolie where she discovered she had bracco and then had the double nystectomy as a prophylactic surgery. That only accounts for about five percent of the cancers diagnosed anially, when you look at things like familial history, that only
accounts for about ten percent. The other eighty five percent is random. So that's consistent with maybe cholorectal cancer, avarian cancer,
breast cancer, and a number of other serious diseases. So the team have actually developed a combination of not only genetic markers beyond Bracker for example, plus clinical risk questions like your age mis BMI, things like menopausal status for example, that gives you that with the genetics as your own individual risk in the next five years or lifetime of getting that serious disease and the team have developed these tests through a saliva test and a simple questionnaire, so
you can work with your doctor to create a really wonderful, proactive surveillance program for you if you're at high risk of any of those diseases. So I think one of the things that we're trying to do is making sure that we break down that fear of oh, I'm at
high risk of getting breast cancer. Okay, if you're at an elevated risk of getting breast cancer, you can have an annual MRI, a mammogram, an ultrasound, and you can catch it early at stage one, where there's something like a ninety eight percent survival rate, Whereas if you didn't know that and it came on on st later on in life, stage three, stage four, this survival rates diminished so much so from our team, our science team, they've developed this wonderful tests which tests for a range of
serious diseases approase, cancers, and cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, where you can create a really proactive and preventative health plan with your doctor around these serious diseases and catch it early, so then early detection will ultimately save lives. And that's what we're about the test itself is not a diagnostic. It's not going to tell you whether you've got cancer
or not. It's going to tell you your risk. This is the population and that's really what the wonderful team have done here develop these in My job now is to tell everybody about it so that they can take a really proactive approach to managing their health, which is ultimately what we want to do.
Oh my gosh, it's absolutely incredible, and increasingly you see that half the battle in a lot of these areas and a lot of these cancers is the awareness like late detection is often part of the problem because people haven't you know, known that there was access to earlier kind of tests that you could do that could help
manage things earlier. And I was particularly I mean, you know, I'm adopted, so I was particularly fascinated by this because I've always thought I don't have any family history, like I don't know anything about my family background, thinking that
that was a huge disadvantage. But learning that family history is really only ten percent of those cases anyway, and it's kind of tests like this that allow you to find out a full picture of your health regardless of what your family history is I think that it just fascinated me so much that this technology is even possible and with a saliva test as well, like something as simple as that is just remarkable. So I mean, how long has it been in the works and is it
available to consumers? Like how can you go and get the tests?
So the tests been developed over the last set of teen years from the team. We launched this new version of the test probably in about May last year, so just on twelve months ago, and we keep adding to tests. So this year we'll be adding probably three new tests through melanoma which is a really big important one, hand created cancer, and atrial fibrillation vessel no way, so we'll
order that. We've got currentra uy diseases in there as well, prostate cancer for men as well chlorectal which is now becoming increasingly so the screening age of colorectal cancer in Australia is about fifty, but we can start to identify risk from the ages of forty about elevated levels of risk from about the ages of forty through this test. Talking to your doctor ordering this test online that can do it via our website to order that. We'll get in touch with them that results have to go back
to an individual via their physician. We can't find somebody at a high risk of a serious disease and give them back the results and say, oh, good luck with that. It's just completely irresponsible. So you can order the test directly through us, give us your doctors details, the reports will go back. There's simple reports, there are a couple of pages, and I think most importantly, there's actionable outcomes. They're easy to understand the results, and if you're an
elevator risk, there are things that you can do. And that's probably the fundamental philosophy behind all of the tests that we do. Every test that we do has to have an abilit bloy of action to be taken if somebody is at a high risk, whether it be increased levels of surveillance, increased levels of screening, potential with your doctor, risk reducing medications, whether it be breast in ovarian cancer, there's a number of different options that can be taken.
I think one of the biggest misconceptions out there is that if I'm at high risk, there's nothing that I can do. In fact, there is. There's lots of things that people can do to minimize or reduce their risk, whether it be lifestyle changes, whether it be medication, and it's up to them. And they're doctors to talk about anything Bible radical with regards to say prophilactic surgeries and things like that where it becomes the breast of of
aerian cancer. But yeah, with your doctor, with your doctor's consent, we can do the test. And there's actually our laboratory for all of our samples in the United States and in Australia are done here locally in Melbourne, so the tests are actually all done in our lab here in Melbourne. So it's really cool. The facility that we've got that we can do all these tests yet is really cool.
Oh my gosh, it's so cool.
I don't actually think I mentioned at the start, guys, but the name of test is gene Type and I'll make sure to put all the links in the show notes as well so you can find out more about it. But another thing, like, I'm sure if you google it, guys, you will also find that Simon has been in Gartia, which is the fashion magazine feature that we were talking about.
So in your role as CEO, what is I mean for people who I think we hear the word CEO all the time and kind of understand that it's a big executive role and you make big scary decisions and you're responsible for a lot of stuff. But a lot of people don't actually understand what you do day to day, Like if you're not doing the science and you know that wasn't why they kind of came to you.
What are you doing? What are you doing day to day? What are your responsibilities?
There's probably plenty of people around here that ask the same question.
Yeah, inside the company, what are you doing all day?
What do you actually do?
Yeah?
What does a CEO do?
So I've just gome back from an amazing trip in the United States. We went to Boston, New York, and DC over the lastly eight days. It was a whirlwind trip and it focuses on probably four cay areas. Partnership opportunities with large biotech companies, meetings with doctors and physicians whether they be integrative and functional medicine doctors, meeting with investors, and a number of prs. So there's really four key
areas to what we do with that. It's all about business development, whether they be near bestor community in the community with clinicians to talk with patients, hartnering opportunities with large biotech or farmer companies as well, and those investors there are critical to the support and advocacy of the
brand and of the products out there. So that's my primary role is to set the strategy for the team and help the team execute the strategy as best they can by resourcing them with finances, the capital markets or through partnership opportunities out there, whether they be in the
US or here in Australia. We focus on those two markets predominantly because that's where we need to get that right first, and then we'll expand up into other regions such as Europe and Southeast and some other countries as well. But at the moment, we've got to work cut out for us educating the likes of the United States and Australia first, get that right, and then we'll continue to
lock it into other markets. But from a CEO's perspective, it's all about setting the direction and building the team around us to execute that plan as best we can in every aspect we can.
Yeah, Oh my goodness, that's a huge, huge responsibility for you to be making, you know, those big directional decisions and guiding the company to where you want it to be. What is kind of the big vision, like what would you ideally like to see, like, for example, at the moment that you're testing for an increasing number of different conditions, what the ultimate goal to have it accessible to a certain amount of people or in a certain amount of markets.
There's a few one is ultimately getting this as part of the standard of care. So at the moment we get at the age of fifty, they give you out an envelope for colorectal cancer to screen to see your risk of the color rectal cancer, we want to make sure that this particular test could be part of the standard of care from the ages of thirty or thirty five onwards for all of those diseases, so that we can then screen appropriately for those people that need the
right surveillance. Because at the moment we're told that everyone
has to screen and be protected against every disease. But if we can actually identify who's actually at the high risk of what disease, we can actually spend that taxpayers health care money much much better and far more targeted and to be far more efficient, because they need to save money somewhere, so we can say this group of people need an increased level of screening for breast cancer, these people need an increased level of screening for correctal
cancer because we've stratified the population, and that means that even though there are average risk doesn't mean there are no risks, which is that their normal protocols will follow. But if you get an increased level of risk and then you then increase that level of surveillance, you're going to catch it early. Essays, you're going to be a cheaper cost to treat from a medication point of view, so we can actually add an amazing amount of efficiency
to the healthcare systems around the world. The power is not just also in the test. The power is also in what you would do with your physician with that information. So the power is about what you do with your doctor about levels of surveillance and measurements and tracking your own health over the course of your lifetime with that based on your knowledge of what you're potentially at risk of.
That's where we then have a true opportunity to increase the health of populations worldwide, and that's the ultimate vision. Have it as part of the standard of care stratify the population, make sure we screen the right people for the right diseases, have a better impact on the health systems around the world, and improve the health of populations worldwide.
I mean, it's a very very big goal, but it's one worth striving for because I think there's the tool and the technology not just with us, but there's so many smart, amazing people out there. When I mentioned before going to the biotech conference in Boston, there's just an amazing talent to people out there that you get to net with and collaborate with and link your tests with some other people outstanding talents out there. That's for sure.
Oh my gosh, big, big goals, but incredible world changing goals and life changing goals. And I know that there's also, I mean, if you're comfortable to talk about it, a personal motivation as well in this kind of passion for screening for tests.
Yeah, I mean, from my perspective, I have an incredible motivation to have a positive impact on the health of the community's worldwide. Eye my family, we lost my sister at the age of forty through an aggressive malamona. Very very sad this type of test could actually identify her risk that an elevator is and maybe we could have actually intervened and screened more, screen more often, picked it up earlier, and then her survival would have been as
a positive outcome of that. So from our perspective, this is where, regardless of the disease, the early detection, that provactive approach to surveillance and that saving of lives is something that's deep personal purpose for me with regardless regardless of which disease we're talking about, YEA as a heavy motivation for me to get this message out there for as many people as we possibly can, and I think that we can do it, so that its a massive
motivation for me to make sure that we can improve the health as many times as we can.
I think it's beautiful that that's it's kind of a legacy that's tidy in as well with your motivation to make these tests available and more widespread so that people do have early detection and earlier plans and don't feel like they can't do anything with that information. I think it's like knowledge is power when it comes to your health, and it's absolutely amazing what you're doing. But I'd also love to touch on I think it's when you're extremely passionate.
I mean it's hard anyway, but when you're extremely passionate about what you do, especially if there's some kind of deeper personal motivation behind what you're doing, that then the inability to switch off, the lack of desire to switch off when you've got these big global goals and you know that the outcome is positive for people all around the world. Like, why would there be a motivation for
you to sort of slow down or shut down? How do you bring yourself back to take a break when you know that every minute you put in is kind of actually changing lives at the other end, do you rest?
Ever? Yes? Have to? You have to because burnout is key. I mean, when you work in a business that sort of transatlantic and you're across multiple countries, the desire or the risk of starting early in the morning from a different time zone, finishing late at night at a different time zone, and then working through the day, burnout is real. So switching off and I don't want to sort of
throw away the line of balance. The balance is key, and I'm very fortunately we talked earlier about the sort of the commonality between Nick and I and bike riding and things like that exercise is key. Exercise is key, and I've got a wonderful group of mates who we come from all walks of life and we just enjoy each other's company out there on the bike, whether it
be coffee or a beer or a ride. But that to me is critical from a switch off perspective, and I value that incredibly, whether it be a couple of mornings a week with the guys, have a very very social ride with them and a coffee before work, or a longer ride on the weekend or a weekend the way a couple of times a year, those types of things are just so important because you're in an area where work doesn't matter, that your make to do and
those families do. And I think that's something that's really important. So whilst balance is overused so often, it is something that's really really important. So be able to switch off and do that that's incredible.
I also think it's like the irony of working in healthcare and wellness for a lot of people, is it that they get so passionate about the work they're doing that then their own wellness and health care kind of just like falls to the bottom of the list because you're just you know, you're doing something so meaningful, it's like, well, I don't want to stop because I'm helping other people
get well. And I think, like, you know, that was us at the start of match Imaden was I was trying to be a healthcare you know, wellness warrior and like burning myself into the ground ironically doing that. But I'm very, very glad that you found a plata in something that kind of gives you some semblance of balance. But I also think tied in with that is people's ability to kind of separate their identity from productivity and success.
And like success is this huge buzzword that we've become obsessed within our modern society in a really good way, Like there's so much hustle. People are so ambitious and gold driven, and really the possibilities are endless. At the moment, you can kind of be anyone and do anything. But I think it's very hard to put in boundaries that stop the incessant pace of life kind of eating you up. What is your relationship to success? Is that the measure of kind of do you measure your life by success?
Or what are your life metrics? And have they changed over time? Do you have a good relationship to success or do you not even use that word, Like, how do you kind of assess yourself?
First and foremost, it's not about me. It's about what we can do to me, regardless about the organization. It's about what I can be for the organization. There's a work part of it, and then there's a home part of it. One of the things that I truly value in my life outside of work from a balance perspective, which I meet sure as a milestone of success, is that I take my middle daughter to school every day and we have a hot chocolate or a coffee on
the way to school. Now sometimes I'm lucky enough to get a conversation now. Other times she's just sitting there, not so much sitting there right beside me. Sometimes she's just sitting there. But I see that as a wonderful to me. It's a personal and career and a life success that I prioritize making sure that we drive to school together. She'll get the bus home because I can't
manage to figure up from school. But if I need to get up early, I'll do a couple of meetings beforehand, but I'll always have that half an hour with her on the way to school. We'll get a hot chocolate or a coffee on the way to school, and that's something that I think is to me an intangible measure of success for me personally, and I really enjoy value
that time. Of really value that time. From a work perspective, the amount of it's a really interesting dynamic at the moment because we're seeing an incredible amount of staff turnover
in organizations around the world at the moment. Turnover of organizations has probably never been so high, but it's something that from my perspective, when I look at the amount of people that have left our organization over the last two years, the amount of people that have gone on to more successful career moves and their motivations to move is wow. I've just been given this once in a lifetime opportunity and we've had a part to playing growing
that person professionally. To me is an incredible, powerful and proud success moment of the organization because you're helping people become more to another organization and you've had a part
to play in that. So there's some really important measures of success from me in my role and they're not about me, but they're about the people around us and the overall success of the older Now they're regrettable loss sometimes because they're such talented people, but you know that they're going on to do something so wonderful and so powerful, and for them it's a personal milestone that they've achieved, and for me you have played a part in that
to help grow them, to get them to that position. I take that as a real badge of honor and a real proud moment there that they've become sort of successful. So from my perspective, there's a couple of measures of success in life that I hold very vdi from a family perspective and from a career at a work perspective. But setting people up for success and their next role
in life. For work, to me is really what the purpose is My role is and to continue to grow that talent pool, whether they're my kids or whether they're people that work with me here at the office.
That is such an incredibly well adjusted answer. I love that so much because most people like, it's a mess work life. It's all the same. It's tangled, bro, You're like, no, these are my delineated reasons in each area.
I love it so much.
I still get home, and it's a bit of a basket case at home too. It's a bit of a circus.
Oh good, Okay, we love to hear this.
It's still a circus. Welcome to the circus. But it's a couple of pretty exciting moments anywhere. And then when your eldest staugh is now so she's my eldest is nearly twenty. She's off overseas and she's over with a girlfriend.
And I think another proud moment is when she's not afraid to send me her late night drunken videos from the nightclub and facetiming when she's at the clubs and loving her You know what, that's a pretty successful moment when she's very comfortable and happy to share that those types of videos with you, I think, I mean, that's good.
Oh that is a great fatherhood success right there.
I don't mind them my favorite videos. I'd rather get them than not get them.
One hundred Oh that's lovely.
Well.
I think the last thing that we usually finish up on is getting people to reflect on, you know, outside of your productive self and your successful self and you know, work identity, the things that just are your joy and it's beautiful that I haven't even had to ask you that question for quite a few of them to have already come out, because they are, you know, at the forefront of your priorities, like spending time with your kids and getting out and going for a ride. Is there
anything else that helps you just switch off? Are you a Netflix binger? Do you watch TV at all? Do you read books like What's Your Just Downtime?
It's funny, it's my I'm not a Netflix finger and I've never really got into that a lot from shows from time to time. I'm a bit of closet f one fan.
Oh I do.
And in fact, I've just booked a trip this week with my dad to go to the Singapore Grand Prix in September later on this year, stop it so he and I go into that race later in the year. We've done it a few times together. But I'm a big sort of Formula one fan.
Don't tell Nick because he'll turn up.
So I did, and I try and go and do a different race each year. So we're really fortunate over the years to have I did take my wife to Milan. It was for a birthday one year, and it just so happened that the Mon's of Grand Prix was on the same day.
It just so happened.
Surprise, I'd seen my life into my own hands. I said to her, you can go shopping in Milam while I go to the Grand Prix for the day and then we'll meet up for dinner. It was her birthday and we keep that one there a couple of years ago. But she came to the least you didn't go shopping, so good idea. So that's one of the things I'd like to do as a bit of a treat to myself, a bit of a ward for hard work, is to go and enjoy the f one around the world and do a couple of cool races from time to time.
So so it's the jewel in the crown would have to be the Monaco race. That was just pretty incredible.
Oh I love that.
Well, yeah, I won't mention to Nink about Singapore because he might just turn up and be.
Like, oh, Simon, I'm joining in on the tree.
Well, very last question for you today, which I'm sure you knew, I was going to ask, what is your favorite quote? Oh, it doesn't have to be from the Flip books, by the way, because I know you've read them all.
It's funny. I go back to that relationship moment that I have with my daughter and she only asked me this last two days ago. She said, Dad, give me a quote that I can get tattooed right hot, here we go, so open fatherhood moment there. So I think, and I think to myself, and we were just chatting about what could you write which is sort of indelibly
linked on your body forever? And I think it was through very simple you are enough because she went through a challenging times that everything to me was one of those moments where yeah, you are enough, was where I think kids put themselves under so much pressure these days to benchmark themselves against everything else. Now, I think that probably not my favorite quote, the one that's favorite and most relevant to my kids, regardless of what life stays
they're at. So she only asked me that two days ago. So let's see if she comes back from Bali with anyone, and I'll report.
Back, Oh my god, they gave me goosebumps though, because I think that's all anyone needs to hear from anyone who loves them, you know, like that's the I think the root of a lot of most kind of issues, the self doubt, the lack of confidence, the fear, the uncertainty in life. Like someone who you love, just telling you that you are enough is truly the greatest affirmation
I think you could you could ever give. So I'm almost about to go and get that tattooed on myself now because I think it's just such a beautiful, beautiful quote.
You want to say, I'm enough.
Yes, so I'm not constantly telling everyone else that they are enough. It's a selfless tattoo. Oh, Simon, thank you so much. This was absolutely amazing. It's been just so nice to chat with you, and I think you're doing such amazing work and it's a privilege to be able to share that with the neighborhood. I'll make sure to include all the links in the show notes to gene type and everything else that you're doing.
Thanks so much for having me appreciate it.
Wow. Wow, Wow, isn't Simon just amazing And the world of medtech and biotech, it's just people are literally saving lives. What an incredible, incredible story. I hope you guys enjoyed listening to this week's episode with Simon. You can find
out more about his work in the links. In the show notes, I'll put all of the links to the information the Grazzia articles that you can read about that, and we will be back very soon with the next Yays of Our Lives episode with my favorite human in the whole entire world, who might have actually helped write this script as I'm just reading that right now, and she is my life.
She is my life. I love her.
That is literally the script she wrote for me. This is the first week that she's written my script and I kind of like it. So I hope that you guys are having an amazing week and are seizing your yay