In this episode of Out of Plaece, hosts Ann Luong & Paul Elderkin speak with Claire Alvis, writer of The Quiet Expert on Substack, founder of The Secret Sauce, and creator of the Free to Lead Framework.
Claire shares her journey from working in high-growth startups to starting her own business, discussing the challenges and lessons learned along the way. The conversation explores the importance of authenticity in social media, the significance of personal branding, and the necessity of aligning one's business with its purpose.
Claire emphasises that success is a journey, not a destination, and encourages listeners to embrace their unique voices in the entrepreneurial landscape and stay true to their why.
In this episode of Out of Plaece, hosts Ann and Paul interview with Dr. Christopher Jones, aka Dr. X, a Vice Principal at Durham University, UK and activist, discussing his journey from professional basketball to academia to championing why “everyone has to matter”.
We explore themes of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Love (EDIL), emphasising the importance of rehumanisation in society.
Dr. X shares insights on navigating personal identity, relationships, his connection to spirituality and the impact of historical erasure, especially on the black community.
The conversation highlights the significance of self-discovery and the core value that “everyone has to matter”, advocating for a more compassionate and understanding world.
In this episode, you’ll find out:
Why is he called Dr. X
What ‘rehumanisation’ means and how you can practice it
Why does he include Love at the end of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion or EDIL
The importance of understanding your own history and how historical erasure has impacted awareness of black contributions to society
His spiritual beliefs and how changing religious beliefs can leave you feeling out of pla(e)ce
Why does “everyone has to matter”, especially when you disagree with their point of view
It’s a brilliant conversation and a great way to start our series of guest interviews.
We’re also moving to a fortnightly cycle for our episodes, so keep an eye out every two weeks.
Thanks for listening and watching,
Ann & Paul
Trigger Warning: This episode contains discussion of suicide, which may be distressing. Listener discretion is advised.
In this deeply moving episode of Out of Plaece, we explore the profound impact of suicide on personal identity through the eyes of co-host Paul, who shares his journey of loss, grief, and healing.
Paul opens up about the day that changed his life forever, the complexities of navigating trauma following the loss of his partner, and the struggle to reclaim his sense of self amidst a society that often misunderstands such experiences.
This episode is a heartfelt exploration of vulnerability, the burden of performance in healing, resilience, the impact of COVID-19 on his recovery and the ongoing journey to find one's place in the world.
Join us for an honest conversation that sheds light on the often unseen layers of grief and identity transformation.
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicide loss or suicidal thoughts, please reach out to your respective crisis support:
Australia: Lifeline 13 11 14
United States: Suicide & Crisis Lifeline 988
United Kingdom: Samaritans 116 123
Additional Resources
Breathwork Organisations (both the organisations below provide accredited practitioners using science-backed and safe practices):
For more on Paul's personal journey, you can read it on Substack.
My childhood reads like a textbook case of early athletic specialisation.
Father: professional basketball coach and general manager.
Environment: front-row seats at professional games, discipline drilled in from a young age.
The pathway was clear, anticipated, inevitable.
"Everything around me was basketball. School didn't matter because I wasn't interested in it. I was going to be as good as Michael Jordan."
When you build your sense of self around one pursuit, psychologists call it "identity foreclosure", a premature commitment without exploring alternatives. For me, basketball was the pursuit. It wasn’t one that my parents pressured me to pursue; it’s the one I believed in.
Research shows that 20% of elite athletes experience clinically significant depression during career transitions.
The transition from sporting excellence to corporate life is rarely straightforward. When I made the move to Australia, there was pressure to think about the future, which eventually led me to the business world. But when I entered, I brought with me the mindset of an elite athlete: the drive, the hunger for achievement, the expectation of excellence.
I was still wired to be elite. Athletes are conditioned for immediate feedback, clear metrics, and physical expression. But corporate environments don't always reward the same intensity that creates champions on the court.
"The corporate world is about numbers and ticking boxes, and I don't work that logically."
As someone who is very emotionally driven and often told I’m “too deep”, communication has usually been a challenge. How can I convey my feelings to someone, rather than just what makes cognitive sense? Neuroscientist Matthew Lieberman's research shows that social rejection activates the same brain regions as physical pain.
Basketball was my outlet because I just had to show up physically. I could use the anger and frustration from being misunderstood into shots on the court. But what happens when that disappears?
I believe this conversation touches on something many of us can relate to: feeling out of place in environments that don't align with how we naturally see and navigate the world.
But this episode isn't just about career transitions. It's about the deeper wounds we carry, like my core belief of feeling "misunderstood" and "unheard" throughout my life. It's about how trauma and challenging experiences can strip away the identities we've carefully constructed, leaving us questioning who we are when the thing that defined us is no longer the centre of our world.
This is part one of my story. The next episode will centre on a moment that shattered everything I knew.
Paul x
If you'd like to connect with me, you can find me on Instagram @paulelderkin_
In this deeply personal episode of Out of Plaece, Ann, opens up about her journey from a bullied Vietnamese child to finding her authentic voice as a corporate leader. She shares the exhausting reality of code-switching between cultures, the toxic masculine leadership style she adopted to survive in male-dominated industries, and the breakthrough moment that changed everything.
What You'll Learn:
Connect with us:
Instagram: @outofplaece (P-L-A-E-C-E)
Do you have your own "out of place" story?
Please share it in the comments below.
#OutOfPlaece #authenticleadership #immigrantexperience #corporatelife #leadership #diversityandinclusion #workplaceculture #personalgrowth #podcastinterview #inspirationalstory
"OMG, I would love that. That's a dream of mine".
This is what someone said to me when I said I work with Paul, my partner, podcast co-host and business partner.
Quick note before we get to the episode. Yes, we did record this as episode 3 but then pushed it out to episode 5.
In this episode, we break down what it's actually like working with your partner and discuss how sometimes social media can make it seems like this aspirational thing.
In this episode, we talk about:
1. How Personal Triggers Show Up in Business - Processing conflict with curiosity instead of defensiveness when working with your partner
2. Essential Boundaries for Couples in Business - Protecting creative flow, maintaining individual identity, and separating work from relationship space
3. The Unsustainable Truth About Hustle Culture - Why 10 days of non-stop work taught us to create our own rules for success
4. Independence Within Partnership - How encouraging each other's individual growth strengthens both relationship and business decisions
5. Heart-Centered Leadership - Rejecting traditional CEO blueprints to lead from personal values and authentic community building
So a question to those considering it:
"If everything in your life came crumbling down tomorrow, do you and your partner have the tools to stand together and navigate that challenge, or would you start to fray apart?"
We've all seen the Instagram posts: laptops on beaches, sunset co-working sessions, the #digitalnomad lifestyle that looks effortlessly perfect. But what's the real story behind leaving everything behind to work remotely from paradise?
In our latest episode of Out of Plaece, we pull back the curtain on our own journey: from the years of planning and sacrifices, when we discovered we were both planning to flee to different countries, to the reality check that hit us hard overseas.
Watch or listen to find out what we actually learnt.
After years of sacrifices, planning, and finally leaping into location-independent life, the biggest lesson wasn't what we expected.
It wasn't about Instagram-worthy laptop-on-beach moments.
It wasn't about "finding ourselves" in some exotic location.
It was about something much more fundamental—and much harder to achieve than we thought.
If you'd like to connect with us, you can follow us on Instagram:
Paul - https://www.instagram.com/paulelderkin_
Ann - https://www.instagram.com/itsannluong
Or on Substack where we dive into each episode, share more honest takes and behind the scenes.
This is precisely what happened to us when we started talking about the aftermath of our accident in Thailand: the recovery, the family dynamics, and that brutal question that made us examine everything we thought we knew about our relationship.
What You'll Hear:
Why This Episode Matters
This isn't just another recovery story. It's about what happens when you're forced to examine your relationship under the most vulnerable circumstances possible.
We open up about the emotional complexity of trauma recovery—not just the physical healing, but the psychological work of processing what happened while building something stronger together.
This episode is dedicated to our families for being there when we needed them the most and for helping us navigate difficulties with love and unwavering support.
If you'd like to connect with us, you can follow us on Instagram:
Paul - https://www.instagram.com/paulelderkin_
Ann - https://www.instagram.com/itsannluong
Or on Substack, where we dive into each episode, share more honest takes and behind the scenes.
When your body breaks: Our story of trauma, resilience, and the power of being truly seen
Picture this: You've sold everything, packed your life into a suitcase, and finally embarked on that digital nomad dream you've been planning for years. You're living in a villa in Koh Samui, signed up for Muay Thai lessons, and settling into your new paradise lifestyle.
Then you wake up to fluorescent hospital lights, the sound of beeping machines, and your partner calling your name from the bed next to you.
This is exactly what happened to us.
In our latest episode of Out of Plaece, we share the unfiltered story of how our location-independent adventure came to a "screeching stop" with a motorbike accident that changed everything.
In today's minipod (mini episode), we share the story of how this podcast came to be and why we called it Out of Plaece.
Discover what the phrase ‘out of place’ means to us, how that feeling can follow you through life and why it inspired us to create something. While Paul was on a trip to Bali, writing a book, Ann had an idea that was sparked by a conversation about community and how, sometimes, it’s not about finding it but about creating it.
We’re not just partners on a podcast; we’re also business partners of a tech startup called Plaece, hence the funny spelling of the name.
We're starting off with a series of minipods, bite-sized episodes to give you an insight into who we are, why we do this and how we ended up here. We'll give you a hint: it was a near-death experience.
And, yep, we forgot to edit the outro on this one. Not an intentional cliffhanger at the end 😂