Josh Bio

Studied dramatic philosophy, techniques and elements with a focus on how to effect the emotions and perceptions of an audience. 

Extensive training and involvement in all aspects of Film and TV from grass root productions to working on academy award winning shows. Worked in a variety of countries including Hollywood for 4 years. Most known for expertise in broadcast infrastructure, motion graphics, compositing, colour grading, cinematography and editing. 

Been on the cutting edge of social media since it’s inception. Worked on social media accounts for celebrities such as Beyoncé and Justin Timberlake. Was myself one of the top 100 globally most followed Instagram accounts early on. Skilled at advising Influencers, commercial interests and non profits about how to be navigate the constantly evolving world of social media from an organic and paid perspective.   

Skilled in a variety of communication styles and mediums at both the strategic and implementation levels. Especially skilled at communicating technical concepts. Developing persuasive content. Creating, implementing and evaluating communication systems and practices. Tracking, understanding and addressing intentional and unintentional misinformation and propaganda. Skilled at emergency response communications and PR. 

Skilled at graphic design for advertising, print and signage with specialisation in logo and branding. 

Strong experience overseeing large events from global conferences with important delegates to massive stadium spectacles. Able to coordinate the complexities of event finances, legal, risk, production, talent and logistics to consistently achieve quality outcomes. Have also managed teams of experts specialising in niche areas such as aerial performance, rain walls, lasers and pyrotechnics. Also specialise in blending both pre-produced and live video with complex projection and on stage display methods to create powerful and immersive visual experiences.  

Skilled at both production and post-production photography activities. Extensive experience in portrait, journalistic and landscape photography. Have had my landscape photos exhibited in galleries and won international awards for my work. 

Experienced 2D animator and motion graphic specialist. Specialisation in building complex 3D worlds that blend video and graphic elements with strong lighting effects throughout. Special skill in compositing for special effects. 

Have graded for well known TV shows, films and global brands working at the height of the industry before Apple, Blackmagic and the writers strike changed the grading industry forever.

Developed expertise in creating brands that will effectively and sustainably achieve a desired outcome. My time tested custom tools, methods and techniques leverage my expertise in design, neurobiology and business strategy perspective to come up with optimal solutions. My approach to marketing combines these same skillsets and is additionally coupled with intimate knowledge of distribution methods and technologies. 

Basic certification in using infrared technology to take scientifically accurate and reliable thermographic readings.

Building on my strong background in understanding story from a dramatic, TV, film and psychology perspective - I studied the raw craft of story design, structure and treatment for 18 months under world experts such as Aaron Sorkin,  Ron Howard, Bob Woodward, Steve Martin and my favourite: Robert McKee. Developed a special interest in creating compelling stories relevant to improving technical communications as well as finding rich stories in the unplanned activities and events of day-to-day life.

Leveraging my broader design skill set, I am able to apply this to a web environment as well as understand design considerations unique to web. This includes consideration to how a design will change across different screen sizes and devices as well as how interactivity factors as a design element. I would never claim to be a leading web designer but I have decent skills with UI and UX design and have specialised in leading teams of experts in these fields for over 15 years. 
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On the development side I am unable to code professionally but have become a skilled prototyper able to quickly preview concepts or create basic websites (for example this website). Whilst my coding skill set will always stay minimal, I focus instead on having deep knowledge of what’s possible, what’s not, what’s involved to execute something, and how this is likely to change over time. This skill set has allowed me to successfully lead teams of developers to complete over 100 web projects. 

Established e-Commerce businesses in a variety of formats. Whether as a basic eBay store, using an existing CMS like Shopify and Magento, or custom coding a solution from scratch, I’ve lead these builds. In addition to this, I understand to do e-Commerce well means having strong skills in Photography, other Creative Content, Online Marketing, Product Sourcing, Fulfilment, Shipping and Logistics, Automation, Accounting and Inventory systems. I have enjoyed pursuing a deeper understanding of each of these knowledge domains in the unique context of e-Commerce and hybrid-online businesses. 

I have specialised in cloud software and online platforms for complex clients or solution requirements. My skills in this area focus on solution strategy, design, architecture and management. I will never learn how to the grunt work coding each site, but I have invested heavily to learn how to be the best manager of these type of projects.

Tracking with the industry since inception I have basic skills in UAV hardware and software. Advanced skills in UAV legislation and regulation. Training and assessment of UAV pilots. Establishment and certification of UAV Flight Companies. As well as UAV specific risk and safety processes, protocols and manuals. 

My focus in this area has been learning how to use VR and AR in training and educational contexts. Leveraging my skillsets in video, animation and 3D environments I was able to quickly pick up the production skills relevant to VR and AR. Blending my UI and UX skills garnered in my web design work I have been able to adapt many of these principles to a VR or AR experience. Leveraging my experience in offline training and neurobiology I am able to design VR or AR environments that can achieve stronger outcomes for learning or behaviour change. 

As with other technology areas my skills around Data have focused on being able to lead well in this space also with a focus on design. This includes the ability to run complex data-warehousing and management projects as well as data science initiatives. I have specialisations in health data as well as data in developing contexts. Marrying my communications skills with my data analysis skills I have a special interest in data visualisation and communication. I have therefore focused my Data + AI skillsets on being able to design great data collection and management systems. The ability to leverage AI to analyse datasets. And an ability to find the story in the data and communicate this in ways that are interactive and engaging. 

I have started a number of my own initiatives as well as been hired to help large and small businesses do the same. These have included both commercial and social initiatives. Of particular focus for me has been the system designs that encourage or prohibit entrepreneurial success. Effective concept validation and adaption techniques and values. And  the relationship between founders, their ability to manage themselves and the way they manage their creations. In these pursuits I have developed a number of my own unique frameworks and models to help startups avoid common pitfalls and find success. My experience includes work on over 100 startups or major internal initiatives. 

My training skills evolved organically first starting with a Media Training program I launched during my high school years. Two years after high school, I launched a similar program in two other organisations. Followed by a post-production training program for a companies media department. Since then I’ve created or run a large number of training programs including the curriculum overhaul for a 40 year old leadership program. I’ve also supported a number of companies with Learning Management Systems, been on the board for an Australian training company, overseen training specific to pilots and risk, and helped create a variety of innovative technology solutions to support teachers and coaches. 

Whilst familiar with a variety of approaches I have focused on Project Management as explored by the Project Management Institute (PMI) and I lead or coordinate projects in accordance with their Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK). I have developed extensive experience managing complex projects, with complex stakeholders, across multiple cultures and successfully navigating key domains such as: Timeframes, Scope, Budget, Risk, Stakeholders, Quality, Compliance, Procurement, Communications and Resources Management. I’m comfortable managing in both waterfall or agile formats and have strong experience experimenting with different project management approaches to best fit different project sizes and scales.

Although many finding accounting boring I actually love it. I like Buffets comment ‘Accounting is the language of business’. Whilst I leave the ever evolving details of tax to others, I’m well versed in all forms of other commercial accounting with a particular focus on management accounting. Experienced distilling financial statements I’m also comfortable setting up accounting systems and processes particularly to help startups scale. My accounting skillset combined with other technology and business management skills also gives me the ability to lead complex ERP projects for large companies. 

Whilst starting and scaling a company has taught me much about executive leadership, I have learnt the most about this from the clients I’ve worked for. Most of my projects involve working for senior leaders, their teams and their boards. This has given me unique access and insights into how hundreds of businesses are governed and lead across all sorts of different sectors and cultures. The nature of the projects I’ve worked on have involved a lot of implementation helping deepen my practical understanding of leadership beyond the theoretical, observational or strategy design layer. This includes establishing or managing things like governance, risk, internal and external political winds, legal, finance, HR, PR, as well as vision creation, validation, promotion and adoption. This project background, coupled with my broader exposure to senior leadership teams and boards, my penchant for reading leadership literature, and my activities running leadership training programs and forums, all contribute to a broad executive leadership skillset for someone my age. 

I’ve worked extensively in sectors where Risk is an important are. This includes manufacturing, construction, public events, pharmaceuticals, engineering, arborists and aviation. For many of these sectors I’ve helped organisations establish their own risk processes, plans and manuals or achieve their ISO 31000 in Risk Management. Risk is an important knowledge area and I’m able to couple my understanding of this space with my knowledge of technology and business management to create optimal solutions. 

Whilst my foundational BA skillset was based on the Business Analysis Book fo Knowledge (BABOK) put out by the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), my skillset and work experience as enlarged my approach to BA from this foundational work. Whilst many of the principles of BA such as Elicitation, Requirements Management, Solution Evaluation etc don’t change, how these outwork across different sectors and knowledge domains can vary significantly. As a result my approach to BA has increased in sophistication over the years and I am better able to tailor my BA approach to the project context rather than the other way around. I’ve also developed a large number of my own analysis techniques and models. This has helped me bypass weaknesses in other models as well as achieve more efficient and effective outcomes. 

Whilst I have a decent base HR skillset across the board, I’m best when it comes to recruitment, onboarding, incentives, culture, team design, staff retention and change. Of particular interest to me is systemising Culture, the HR opportunities during Mergers & Acquisitions or major restructures, and effective HR approaches in large non-profit volunteer driven organisations. 
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Building on these areas I’m also able to borrow from my other skillsets to provide various HR supportive structures such as project management and collaboration systems, training, psychometric models for large scale recruitment drives, and a variety of behavioural change interventions. 
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The basis for much of my HR work can be found by looking at related skills however I would add to this the fantastic work of Edgar H. Schein, John B. McGuire, Robert Kegan, and the synthesis of Daniel Coyle in his book The Culture Code.

I would be no means cast myself as an expert in this area but am comfortable at an intermediate level. I know enough to be able to analyse key sector specific financial ratios against industry norms and value a business using a variety of methods. I’ve been mostly heavily influenced by the Value Investing philosophies and so key influences are pretty classic - Damodaran, Klarman, Graham, Fisher, Buffett, Munger etc. I’m also able to leverage complimentary skills to improve my analysis. This includes understanding behavioural characteristics, management impacts and options, and marketing which can help with intangibles. These skills help me buy and sell businesses for decent prices, as well as help clients manage their businesses in a way that maximises value. 

With over a decade experience coaching leaders, I’ve coupled this background with my business management skillsets to offer business leaders individual support that can take into consideration their unique business context. This broader business awareness enables me to better support leaders in their goals by better understanding the resources they need access to and the unique pressures they face. I have a special interest in coaching founding partners. 

Whilst every persons trauma story is unique, a lot of common principles apply making effective interventions possible and scalable from the individual to the community level. Whilst I have volunteered supporting survivors of complex trauma for decades, I also have a particular interest in community level interventions to help entire societies process traumatic events as well trauma-informed campaigns targeting those currently stuck in a recurring traumatic situation.
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Common byproducts of traumatic events may include a person experiencing disassociation, hyper-vigilance, struggling to connect or ‘attach’ to others, self harm, lowered immune system, difficulty with emotional regulation, and reduced cognitive capacities. Each of these are natural ways the body, often quite ingeniously, tries to help process past events and keep themselves protected. The good news is that whilst the memory of events will never go away, the adverse effects coming from those memories can, and that process can result in a person who is incredibly resilient, confident, centred, creative, compassionate, connected and loving. 
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Whilst I’m happy to put myself forward as someone highly skilled in Complex Trauma, I am always clear to identify I am not a psychologist and I do not lead any treatment or psychological interventions. That said, my experience and training in the field coupled with my other skillsets give me a strong ability to work with and support those who do lead such interventions. This has lead me to work in a variety of trauma domains such as human trafficking, abuse (sexual, physical, emotional, spiritual), mind-control/thought-reform, loss, war and slavery. 
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By partnering with intervention experts I’m able to bring my own expertise to this complex field to help design trauma-informed organisations, trauma-informed communications and counter-programming, as well as online resources and other useful technology interventions. I’m also able to assist with HR initiatives to increase staff or industry Trauma Stewardship competencies and capacities for those who work supporting those experiencing or recovering from complex trauma. 
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Complex Trauma is a fascinating field and both research and treatment methodologies have evolved significantly over the last few decades where the field is now one of the pioneering areas of human psychology. Whilst my own approaches have been influenced by to many people to mention here, my favourites would be the work of Janina Fischer, Richard Schwartz, Steve Hassan, Janja Lalich, Peter Levine, Bessel van der Kolk, Dianne Pool Heller, and the Gottmans. 

Philosophy is one of those areas I’d love to spend more time pursuing. It’s endlessly fascinating with so much rich wisdom to be mined and applied to daily life. So far, most of my education in this area has centred around Epistemology and Logic with small smatterings of Ethics, Aesthetics, Metaphysics, Political and Legal Philosophy thrown in for fun. By no means am I a leading philosopher but I do pride myself in having good thought hygiene. These skills have helped me more easily distill complex social problems, work with people from a variety of backgrounds, and make good decisions. More personally, these skills have given me confidence in my own place in the world, who I am, what I value and a humility and acceptance for what can and can’t be known. 

Often referred to as ‘The Queen of the Sciences’ I love how to do Theology well you have to combine so many other disciplines from both the hard and soft sciences. Sociology, archeology, exegesis, philosophy, biology, physics etc. Whilst most familiar with Christianity, I’ve also studied Islam, Buddhism, various forms of Paganism and a little Hinduism. Of course this has also included much exploration of various forms and degrees of atheism also. I’ve also spent a lot of time working with survivors of various cults. Whilst not all cults spring from religious texts, it’s important to note that most do, and I’m particularly interesting in how this occurs and how it can be prevented. The worst abuses I’ve witnessed have usually included significant spiritual themes. 
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I’m particularly interested in how world-views are formed and validated, as well as how societies can spiritually cohere. If I could attempt to delineate between ‘the spiritual’ and ‘the religious’ for a second, I’m also interested in how religious institutions are formed, governed and can bias their members towards physical and psychological thriving or withering. In a development context, I’m also interested in the impacts different world-views can have on a society, as well as the effects religious groups can have on developing populations. 

Ever since I could read I have been fascinated by understanding what a thriving society looks like, and how you progress countries in that direction. I remember in grade one making a list of past kings, whether they were ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and then trying to figure out why. I also enjoy the confluence of domain knowledge required to do development well. Along with many of the unique challenges that occur along that path. Whilst always reading on this topic, during my child and teen years I mainly read inspirationally. For example I read over a hundred biographies on the likes of George Mueller or on initiatives like the founding of World Vision, or on topics like Muhammad Yunus on banking or Jeffrey Sachs on poverty. It wasn’t till I finished high school and started getting work from development agencies that I started to think about development more critically. Initially sparked by the book ‘When Helping Hurts’, I have since proceeded to gorge literature on the topic of how to do development well. 
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Because of the nature of my work, I’ve been very fortunate to see behind the scenes in a large number of development organisations. This includes the United Nations and various UN bodies such as UNDP, WHO and UNICEF. This also includes development banks such as World Bank and ADB. As well as large development organisations such as World Vision and Oxfam. In addition to this I’ve worked for a host of mid-tier and small grass roots organisations.
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Beyond scale, I’ve also gotten to work across a variety of technical domains. These include WASH, Gender, UHC, SDG’s, Trafficking, Oceans, Health Law, Injuries & Violence, Allied Health, Health Workforce, Data in development, Research in development, Corruption, Health promotion, Rehabilitation programs, Patient-Centred Care and Equity.
 
Of particular interest to me is how development organisations are designed, managed and lead. I also have a passion for broadening the sectors focus on deliverables to also consider how the processes we engage in can be development interventions in and of themselves. I’m also interested in the role globalisations and commercialisation can play in sustainable development and societies in general. 

With breakthroughs in medical imaging has come so many fascinating insights into how the human mind works. The amount we have learnt abut the brain over the last two decades is incredible when compared to the centuries prior. It has enabled us to validate old theories and raised a slew of new exciting questions. Most of my learning in this area has focused on how individuals and groups make decisions and adopt behaviours. These areas dovetail well with my work. Whether it’s a community behavioural change strategy, persuasive communication deliverable, incentive scheme, HR initiative or stock price - neuroscience has much to offer each of these spheres. My own education in this area combines contributions from a variety of fields such as psychology, behavioural economics, sociology, biology and neuroscience. Moving beyond theory I’ve also had the opportunity to apply a lot of this research in my own work and have developed a number of my own models which have shown success across a variety of cultures and applications. 

I’m lucky enough to live a quick 5 minute walk from the Law Library of Victoria, a large beautifully architected old building with 4 floors of law related literature. For a year I would go once a week and spend a day reading through various sections of the library. It’s super nerdy but I love law, particularly legal philosophy. I’m particularly interested in IP, M&A, administrative, commercial, dispute resolution, privacy & surveillance, international, technology law, judicial systems, political systems, the law making process and law in a development context. 
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I’ve been fortunate to work creating a platform to help countries write better health legislation and navigate the law making process better. As well as on a variety of technical areas advocating for various policy approaches and priorities. I’ve also supported a number of clients through various legal situations and scenarios particularly in commercial, IP, privacy and aviation. 

Dovetailing with my background in behaviour, marketing, persuasion and management, psychometric profiling seemed a logical inclusion in my skillsets. Deciding to implement a profiling system at Lantern, I spent a year exploring and evaluating literally every psychometric systems I could find. It was a fascinating exercise giving me a complex understanding of the space and the various strengths and weaknesses that exist. Coupled with my broader work, I have mixed feelings about psychometric profiling and it’s use. That said I’m comfortable working with a number of models with a particular workplace preference for The Birkman Method. I’m able to apply these skills to support individuals, to help navigate group interactions, build teams, or understand cultures. Combining with my technology and HR skills I can also create recruitment pipelines that select for a certain personality. It would also like to mention, whilst I believe profiling works, I feel its application can often be restrictive in a way that can create its own set of problems. It should therefore be used and administered wisely as well as complimented with other activities. 

Growing up my dad ran his health practice from the back section of our house so I’ve been surrounded by healthcare my whole life. Of my four sisters, all of them chose professions in health. And my extended family includes an even larger cohort of various health professions. And most of the people I dated were health professionals. It was often a joke that I was the only one not working in health so it was ironic when I started getting a lot of health related clients and projects. One of my sisters, Penny, is herself a skilled public health researcher and leader and has lectured in public health at a variety of universities. She has taken it upon herself to teach me countless lessons from health financing to health promotion and the history of public health. I even have a large collection of placemats where she has scrawled various lessons as we’ve sat and had coffee. I’ve also been lucky to make many friends through WHO such as Prof. Vivian Lin who have taught me many important public health lessons. I’ve also enjoyed consuming a lot of health systems and health information literature. 
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Combined with my other skills, this has all enabled me to work across a number of areas such as health legislation, patient-centred care, tertiary centres, medical waste, WASH, environmental health, infectious diseases, health emergencies, primary care, allied health, health franchising, dental, psychology, medical imaging, pharmaceuticals, vaccination, antimicrobial resistance, health workforce management, health data & AI, ageing, UHC and so much more. 
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Of particular interest to me is health management and leadership, reducing incidents of complex trauma, health data analysis and insights, health workforce management, health systems in general, as well as the vision, structure and management of WHO.

Whilst I’ve long spent time studying the children disciplines to effectively understand misinformation, mind-control and thought-reform, it wasn’t till 2016 that I sought to understand these areas as their own distinct domains. This work has focused on a few applications including propaganda, counter-propaganda, deprogramming and influence campaigns. My interest is how these skills can be applied at the community level to de-radicalise or de-program groups remotely. How to create populations more resilient to propaganda campaigns and mind-control techniques. The roll of journalism in spreading misinformation. Technology and misinformation monitoring and interventions. And the ethics surrounding influence campaigns. This work took on unique significance during the American 2016 and 2020 election and COVID-19 pandemic as misinformation became an increasing theme.
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In this area I’m particularly thankful for the work of: Dr Robert Jay Lifton, Steven Hassan, Dr Nancy Ammerman, Dr Janja Lalich, Rachel Bernstein, Daniel Shaw, Dr Richard Schwartz and Dr Janina Fisher.

Currently in progress. More to be written, but by way of introduction - Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a psychotherapy developed in the 1980’s. The approach suggests the human mind is comprised of a number of discrete ‘parts’ each with their own unique desires and perspectives. Borrowing from Family Systems Theory, the therapy then seeks to help a person understand and interface with these Parts that form their internal system, and move towards a life lived from ‘Self’ instead of living out of a ‘Part’. To do this, IFS focuses on helping you ‘unblend’ from Parts, and then from a position of Self to work with Parts to unburden them from their stresses or unhelpful behaviours. Particularly useful in trauma therapy, IFS can do deep work without asking a person to repetitively talk through or re-live past memories. The therapy is also incredibly efficient by achieving a number of impressive neurobiological feats in a format easy to interface with. The more I’ve studied it the more genius I understand it to be. 

I'm particularly interested in how IFS can be applied to understanding communities and organisations. The COVID-19 pandemic provides a good example with misinformation spreading by a lot of common Parts. Leaders understanding and interfacing with these dynamics better can lead to better communication and more effective interventions. When these factors are ignored, Parts can become increasingly embedded leading to further social complexities and reduced outcomes long term.

This skill is in progress.