Episode 0 - Preview

Welcome to Curiosity, Unpacked.

This is Episode 0 — a short preview of what’s to come.

In this podcast, we go beyond the surface-level conversations and into the stories that shape who people really are. Each episode is an honest, open exploration of life journeys — the pivotal moments, quiet turning points, challenges, and decisions that don’t always make the highlight reel, but matter the most.

This preview gives you a feel for the tone, the intention, and the kinds of conversations you can expect. It’s a space for slowing down, asking better questions, and understanding how people become who they are.

If you’ve ever found yourself wondering “how did they get here?” — you’re in the right place.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Curiosity Unpacked is a conversational podcast about the stories behind the surface. Each episode sits down with people from all walks of life to explore the moments, decisions, and experiences that shaped who they are, not just what they do. From career pivots and personal challenges to quiet turning points that rarely get talked about. These are honest conversations that go a layer deeper. This isn't about highlight reels or polished success stories. It's about unpacking the journey, the doubts, the lessons, the unexpected paths, and understanding how people become who they are. If you've ever found yourself wondering how did they get here, this is a space for you. Slowing down, asking better questions, and staying genuinely curious. Welcome to Curiosity Unpacked. My name is Josh Flake. I'm 27 years old from Brisbane, Australia. And welcome to this new journey. This is a podcast that's going to spend the time wondering, asking questions and finding out about how people are who they are and the journeys they go on to get themselves into the situations they're in. I'm always someone who's spent time wondering about what's next, about why this has happened, about how this has happened, about what steps on the journey had to happen for those things to occur. Growing up, I was always a dreamer. I always had the next big thing that I was going to do in my life. A little bit of context about me. I grew up playing tennis. I started when I was 10 years old. Uh, took a liking to it right away. Um, it became my whole life, became my whole existence. Um, ever since I think I stepped on that court for my first ever session, I was going to be a professional tennis player. I put the work in every single day. It was my whole thing. I couldn't go out and do things. I couldn't really hang out with friends because I needed to be playing tennis, I needed to be training. That was going to be the next step of my journey. I was always going to become a professional tennis player. And then as I came further through the line, I was going to be a collegiate tennis player in the US. I was going to go over on a scholarship and spend four years over there experiencing what that was going to be. That was my euphoria. That was the end of my journey. That's what I was going to be able to achieve. And everything I did led up to that. Um, and as time went on, as I got closer and closer to finishing high school and becoming a young adult, that wasn't what I wanted anymore. I realized that having this one thing, having all of my eggs in the one basket was not sustainable. And it was not making me the person that I wanted to be. It was what I thought I wanted to be. And then everything changed. And from there it turned into I'm going to work in sports. So I went into university and studied uh Bachelor of Business with sports management. And that was my thing. Working in sports was going to be my thing. That was how I was going to be able to fulfill that lifelong dream that I couldn't be when I was a tennis player. I was going to go work in sports. And now I've pivoted and I've entered uh back towards the world of finance and back at university and working full-time in an accounting role. So everything that I thought I was going to be is not what I've ended up being right now. And as I went through my journey and become a young adult now into 27, I've realized that it's it's not about the end destination anymore, because it's about every little step along the journey that shapes you into who you are. Because at the end of the day, things are never going to be exactly what you thought they were going to be in any situation that you're in in your life. Um, whether that's your career, whether that's your personal life, uh, whether that's a hobby you're turning into a dream, whether it's a business idea you're gonna try and turn into a dream. Nothing is exactly as you thought it was gonna be. It's never going to go the way exactly as you thought it was gonna be. Um that's not a pessimistic outlook on life, that is a realistic outlook on life. And um, as I said, I've as I've gone through what I've decided now in my life is to follow every little step of the journey. I don't want to put a destination on anything, I don't want to put a goal on anything because I'm more into what you do along that journey gets you to where you want to be eventually, anyway, or you change your mind on what you want, and that's okay too. So, in a roundabout way, that is really what this podcast is going to be about. It's about having those conversations with people that it may not even about necessarily of them moving to go and achieve a dream. It's um what have they done in their lives? Um, where do they start from, where are they today, what's their psyche on things, what's their outlook on things, how do they choose to keep positive and go through bad times, go through good times, what's their outlook on everything? It's exploring that journey in a holistic view that we live with our lives. And that's something I'm really excited about because I've often found myself whether it's you know, say you attend a play, and there's obviously humans behind the people that are in that play, and you sit there for an hour, 90 minutes, two hours, and you experience that experience for what it is, but there is so much more beyond that that goes into getting to the point where that 90 minutes was put on for a crowd. That's just a very specific example, but it's it's main mainly why I've decided to start this podcast. But I think every person in the world has a journey like that, has a story like that, and none of them are more significant than anyone else's, but they're just as interesting because they're unique to the person that's telling it and the person that's living it. So that's what I'm really excited about is the chance to have those conversations with people and explore those things. Um, and I think it's really exciting, and hopefully it'll be content that um so many people are going to be able to resonate with. There'll be people that you'll be able to connect with, um, or people that you'll be interested in that you've never even thought you'd be interested in. Because as I said, I've grown so much along my life that I never would have thought I would be into the things that I'm into now or passions that I have now, way back when. I think that's really exciting thing about life, and I think that's really what I'm looking forward to exploring here. I do have a few guests already lined up for the early episodes of the podcast that are from different walks of life and live different journeys to what I have. So I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to be able to explore those further and selfishly, it's a chance for me to find out more about people. During these early stages, too, there'll probably be some guests too, as we're growing that I know a little bit more about personal family, friends, close, um, close people around me that I already know parts of their journey. But often the conversations that you have can be a little bit surface level or a little bit more in-depth, but never to the point of an interview-style podcast. So I'm excited to go on that journey with them too and explore that a little bit further to be able to have those conversations and indeed dive deep into some of those things. And there'll also be people that I don't know that are really excited to be able to find out more about um from so many different walks of life and so many different careers and passions and dreams, uh, which is really exciting because as I mentioned before, that's the reality of the life we live that everyone is completely unique. Um, and that's really, really exciting. So just to give you a little bit more um context behind me as well, um, I have had a podcast before. Um, in 2020 during COVID, I lived in Melbourne. Um, and early on uh in the pandemic, right around that sort of March period where everything started to shut down. And living in Melbourne, as I'm sure most people would know, that um had one of the strictest lockdown periods. So pretty early on, I lost my job. Um, I was working in a hotel chain in Melbourne, uh, working in the back end admin. Um, and because people couldn't travel, we were losing money pretty quickly. Um, and it didn't take long. I think it was potentially about four weeks since really the start of the pandemic. I guess you would classify that March period to be uh when I lost my job. Um thankfully one of the last people in the company um to lose my job. I stayed on a little bit and wrapped things up, I guess, with the company. But once I lost my job, it was now nothing to do because you couldn't go outside, you could only spend an hour outside every single day. So um thankfully I was with my um then fiance, now wife. But um, you know, you couldn't, it was very hard to have a purpose. It was very hard for every day not to turn into the exact same thing. And unfortunately, that thing was sitting at home because there was nothing else physically you could do. So um, and as I mentioned, I've got that sporting background. I'm a big sports fan, that's been a passion for a really long time. So that was what I decided to do. I I bought a microphone, I downloaded some audio software onto my laptop and decided that was what I was going to do was make a podcast and just use that as my outlet. I didn't necessarily care whether anyone was listening or not. It was just a chance for me to get some normality normality back in my life, some more structure and something to focus on on a day-to-day basis. And pretty quickly I went into making five podcasts a week, uh, Monday through Friday. Obviously, spending the time editing them, getting them uploaded was just a chance for me to feel like I had a job again, felt like I had that six to eight hours a day of something else to focus on and something else to do, which was really fulfilling. And as I mentioned, it didn't matter whether anyone was listening or not. In the end, it didn't grow too big. So it wasn't a situation where there was that many people listening, but um, it was just a chance for me to have something else to focus on. I did really enjoy it. Once life went to back to normal a little bit more in early 2021, I moved back to Brisbane and things fell by the wayside a little bit, made it a little bit hard that I just didn't have anyone else to do the podcast with because of a completely solo podcast. And you know, everything else just became a little bit more of a priority over the top of um doing the podcast. So it's fallen away for a few years there. But yeah, I think this was a chance for me. Things have opened up a little bit, as I mentioned, going through a little bit of a transition in my life, moving away from uh working in the sports industry, that I think it's just really opened up now for me to pursue um something a little bit different as well. So that's why I've decided to do this. Uh purchased a microphone again, got some equipment ready to go, and uh here we are with this podcast. So um, yeah, gonna be a little bit different now moving forward. For me, that I get the chance to sit down with someone or multiple people, depending on um the situation, where it's a little bit easier to commit to that podcast because I know that I'm gonna be able to have someone else to be able to go along the journey with, and it's keeping it interesting every single time because each conversation is gonna be unique, like what I mentioned. So I'm really excited about that. I think that'll be a really good opportunity for me. And yeah, as I mentioned, it's it's uh it's a really exciting journey that hopefully everyone will be uh looking forward to coming on the journey with me. Um the podcast will be weekly, um, at least during the early stages, and hopefully I can commit to that at least. Um, so yeah, this will be just a little preview just to introduce the podcast, introduce me. Um that'll come out on the 29th of April. And then moving forward every Wednesday will be a new episode. It'll hopefully be a little bit longer than this, as it'll be that real interview style. Um, but yeah, I'm really, really looking forward to it. I think it'll be really exciting and selfishly, if if all this is is just a chance for me to get to know some people a little bit more um and find about some really out about some really exciting journeys, then that's good enough for me. But hopefully we'll get a few people that'll be interested as well, and um, hopefully, yeah, can uh turn it into a little bit of a fan base that people want to listen to this podcast and and be able to get something out of it as well, whether that's a um understanding what someone's journey is, whether it's it's a journey that you want to go on as well, or it's a perspective change or uh whatever it might be. I I am confident that everyone will be able to get something from it. Um and yeah, hopefully everyone feels the same too. So bit of an introduction um to Curiosity Unpacked. Thank you so much for joining me, and I'll see you guys soon.