#012 Ft. Zack Bryers, Young Australian of the Year ACT 2018, Gridiron World Cup Athlete & Founder

The Campus Experience with Josh Farr

Our next guest is Zack Bryers, Young Australian of the Year ACT 2018. After going through his own personal journey of struggles, including experiences homelessness, PTSD & receiving more than 250 rejections from job applications, Zack’s ability to develop himself is remarkable. He served in the Australian Armed Forces in Afghanistan (2011) and only a few years later trained himself to play professional level American Football by watching Youtube videos and in just 17 months, earned his place in the #52 jersey on the Australia Team for the 2105 IFAF Gridiron World Cup. Zack then worked in youth outreach with homeless or at risk youth to help find them security, purpose & hope in life through Youthcare Canberra for 4 years before finding himself in 2018, starting his own business, Bryers & Associates Social Innovation Design. It was my absolute pleasure to interview Zack on The Campus Experience. Top quotes: “You don’t actually know what your limits are until you test them.” “Coming back from Afghanistan was way more intimidating than being in Afghanistan because you can’t control a lot of things in everyday life.” “I think the biggest challenge in life is not knowing where you’re going to end up.” “The conversation you have with yourself is often the hardest.” “After 170 [job rejections], I didn’t really know where I was going to end up. I forgot about my process. I had to rediscover that. Instead of playing the victim, instead of going, ‘Oh, I can’t get a job,’ [I started] doing something proactively to change my situation.” “Doubt creeps in even more when you’re not being genuine to who you are.” “I wanted to be as real as I could… but I also wanted to be employable… being stuck in those two worlds I did neither.” “I may go through this hard time but I can control my smile because that makes somebody else’s day better as well.” Resources: S.M.A.R.T. Goal Setting: S = Specific M = Measurable A = Actionable R = RECORD BREAKING T = Time-bound Dr Van Der Kolk: https://besselvanderkolk.net/index.html Connect with Zack at Bryers & Associates Social Innovation: https://www.bryersandassociates.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/zack-bryers-18799975/ For more interviews with leaders like Zack, make sure you follow Campus Consultancy. Website: www.campusconsultancy.org/podcast Facebook: facebook.com/campusconsultancyAU LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/campusconsultancy/ Join us again soon!