EPISODE OVERVIEW

What does leadership look like when everything is on the line?

In this deeply moving episode of For Love & Money, I’m joined by Peter Baines OAM — humanitarian, leadership expert, founder of Hands Across The Water, and author of the powerful new book Together We Can (his fourth book).

Peter’s career began in forensic policing, investigating homicides and leading international disaster victim identification teams following events such as the 2002 Bali bombings and the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. But it was his work in Thailand after the tsunami — and a chance meeting with children who had lost everything — that set him on a completely different path.

Twenty years on, Hands Across The Water has raised more than $40 million, supporting children and young people through long-term care, education and opportunity.

To mark the 20th anniversary of the tsunami, Peter undertook an extraordinary 1,400-kilometre run across Thailand in just 26 days — the equivalent of 33 marathons — an experience that he captures in his latest book, Together We Can.

But this conversation isn’t really about endurance.

It’s about collective effort, presence, belief, and what becomes possible when people come together around a shared purpose. Peter shares the leadership lessons forged through crisis, the power of community, and why doing hard things — together — matters more than ever.

IN THIS EPISODE, WE EXPLORE

• Why Peter believes love has a role in business and leadership
• What two decades of forensic and disaster work taught him about presence
• The moment that led to the founding of Hands Across The Water
• Why charity growth is not the ultimate measure of success
• The story behind Together We Can and the Run to Remember
• What it takes to lead when success is uncertain and failure is possible
• How leaders “bring the weather” — and why that matters
• The cost of doing big things alone, and the power of doing them together
• Peter’s vision for the next five years of Hands Across The Water

ABOUT PETER BAINES OAM

Investigating homicides, leading international teams into scenes of crisis and disaster is not your normal path to global keynote speaker and business consultant. It was this unique path that provided insights into leadership which are so different yet offer relevant reflections and learnings to businesses facing change, growth or challenges of their own. Peter worked in countries following major crisis including Indonesia, Japan, Thailand and Saudi Arabia. His grounding came from two decades as a forensic investigator that saw him unravel the mysteries and discover the secrets of criminals thought rested solely with them. Prior to finishing his career as a forensic investigator he would spend time working with both Interpol in Lyon, France and the United Nations Office of Drug and Crime advising on Counter Terrorism and capacity building. But it was the work in Thailand that brought the biggest change. In response to the needs of the children left without a home or parents he would form Hands Across the Water and commence fundraising in Australia to build them a home. Almost twenty years after starting the charity, he now spends much of his time helping other charity and business leaders on how they can and indeed should benefit from their engagement with their community partners through corporate social responsibility programs.

In 2024, to acknowledge the 20th anniversary of the 2004 tsunami he ran 1400km’s in just 26 days in Thailand averaging 60kms a day in the heat and humidity of Thailand the equivalent of running 33 marathons in 26 days.

When he is not engaged in work, you will find him driving his tractor on the farm where he lives with his wife, Claire, raising cattle and nurturing the ground on which they live. His other interests that he embraces with a passion is as a helicopter pilot flying at every opportunity he gets and crossing the finish line of ultra marathons with his dogs Burton and Frankie.

In 2025, Peter was identified as one of the top five most influential Australians working in Thailand.

LINKS & RESOURCES

Together We Can — Peter Baines: Buy the book, buy the audiobook, get a sample chapter.

Hands Across The Water website

Peter Baines — Leadership & Speaking

Watch a short video about Run to Remember

Episode Overview

What if the stories we watch could help rebuild the social fabric?

In this episode, I’m joined by Elizabeth Tyler — co-founder and CEO of good.film, a platform using film and television as a catalyst for connection, empathy and real conversation.

With declining social cohesion, rising loneliness and increasing polarisation across Western democracies, Elizabeth believes film offers something we desperately need: a shared narrative space where we can explore complexity together — not through debate, but through emotion, curiosity and story.

Elizabeth’s career began far from entertainment. From early student activism at UTS, to working on one of Tasmania’s most consequential political campaigns, to shaping creative-led advocacy for major nonprofits, her path has always centred on one thing: bringing people together around a vision of what’s possible.

Today, through good.film, she’s building a new category she calls Impact Entertainment — ambitious stories (from blockbusters to indie documentaries) that reveal something meaningful about the world, and help us see one another more fully.

We explore how she’s turned this mission into a business model, the hidden work of rebuilding social trust, and why film is uniquely positioned to spark the conversations we’re no longer having.

In This Episode We Explore:

• Why Elizabeth believes love has to be the starting point for meaningful changemaking – whether it’s love of your work, your collaborators, or even those you’re “working against”.
• The fundamental truth that sits under good.film: that stories move us emotionally first – and emotion is what opens us up to new perspectives.
• How good.film works in practice: from their “impact entertainment” category and recommendation platform, to partnerships with cinemas where every ticket purchased through good.film also donates to a cause.
• Elizabeth’s experience in the Tech Ready Women program, and a gorgeous story about a stranger at a pitching event who changed her trajectory with one handwritten note.
• Her personal journey from priding herself on not needing help… to intentionally building an advisory board and a community where asking for help is a strength, not a weakness.
• And her bigger vision: a future where once a month, most of us head to our local cinema – alone or with friends – to watch ambitious stories together and have the kinds of rich, complex conversations we can’t have in a comments thread.

Across each of these threads runs a single question: how do we rebuild meaningful connection in a fractured world?

This is a conversation for anyone feeling the fractures — and looking for hopeful, human ways to stitch connection back together.

About Elizabeth Tyler

Elizabeth Tyler is the co-founder and CEO of good.film, a platform bringing people back together through film and television. With a mission to counter declining social cohesion, loneliness and political polarisation, good.film curates ambitious stories — from blockbusters to Oscar winners to indie documentaries — and builds community around the conversations those stories spark.

Elizabeth’s career began in politics, where she worked on two successful election campaigns and served as an adviser to a Tasmanian Member of Parliament. She later led creative-led advocacy campaigns as Strategic Director at the Motion Picture Company, working with major charities across Australia. Internationally, she has contributed to global environmental politics through the Global Greens, supporting more than 100 Green parties worldwide.

She holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson, where she was awarded the Cockrum Fellowship for social change and the Wolfen Fellowship for entrepreneurship.

Her leadership philosophy centres on creating community, naming a bold vision, and reverse-engineering it into practical, scalable outcomes.

Connect with Elizabeth

Website: good.film

Linkedin: Elizabeth Tyler

• Explore good.film: Sign up to build your watchlist and join the community

• Learn more about the Scanlon Foundation Social Cohesion report

• Information on the Impact Investment Summit (Sydney)

What does it mean to redefine wealth — not as accumulation, but as enoughness? And what happens when you build a life and a career around community, purpose and shared humanity instead of individual achievement?

In this profound and compelling conversation, I speak with Sandy Blackburn, one of Australia’s leading voices in social impact and the founder of Social Outcomes and Impact Culture Australia.

Sandy spent 15 years living and working in South Africa during the final years of apartheid and the emergence of democracy — years that shaped her identity, worldview and lifelong commitment to social change. She shares the lessons those years taught her about community, belonging, and Ubuntu — the African philosophy meaning “I am because we are.”

We explore what Western cultures have lost in their worship of individualism, how business can rediscover its collective heartbeat, and why “enough” might be the most radical idea in the purpose economy.

Sandy also takes us inside her new venture, Impact Culture Australia, and the next frontier for purpose-driven organisations: embedding impact deeply into their culture, systems and ways of working.

This is a rich, layered, deeply human conversation about what really matters in business — and in life.

• Sandy’s perspective on whether there is a role for love in business
• Her extraordinary journey living in South Africa during the last violent years of apartheid
• How Ubuntu reshaped her understanding of identity and connection
• What Western cultures lose when individualism is elevated above community
• The deep lessons she learned about privilege, belonging and bearing witness
• How South Africa taught her the real meaning of “enough”
• Why so many corporate leaders privately feel unfulfilled
• The “golden hour” of township life — and what it reveals about authenticity and humanity
• The origins of Social Outcomes and the creation of Impact Culture Australia
• Why impact measurement is no longer enough — and why culture is the next frontier
• How flexible, trust-based business models can create richer lives
• What Sandy hopes the sector will look like in the next three years

Sandy Blackburn has four decades of experience working in social change, organisational development, capacity building and culture change in Australia and internationally, including extensive work in community and organisational development in pre- and post-apartheid South Africa. Her autobiographical book, Holding Up the Sky: An African Life, captures her 15 years living through one of the most tumultuous and transformative periods in South Africa’s history — a journey that profoundly shaped her identity, worldview and commitment to social justice.

She is one of Australia’s leading thought leaders in social impact and is the founder of Social Outcomes, and more recently Impact Culture Australia.

Before founding these organisations, Sandy was Head of Social Innovation at Westpac, where she created the Organisational Mentoring Program — mobilising hundreds of employees to support for-purpose organisations to build their capacity, a systemic need that is notoriously underfunded. Through this work, and through Social Outcomes, Sandy has worked closely with many hundreds of for-purpose organisations, developing a deep understanding of the sector’s strengths and development needs.

Sandy is also co-founder of Impact Investing Australia, sits on the NAB Foundation’s Investment Committee, and serves on multiple for-purpose boards. She is a sought-after speaker, bestselling author, and holds a Masters Degree in Adult Education.

Website: Social Outcomes Impact Culture Australia LinkedIn: Sandy Blackburn