In this episode of Connect with Confidence, I’m joined by Tim Walmsley - recently named 2025 Defence Executive of the Year.

What unfolds is a conversation about impact, perspective and how both can shift when you step away from the familiar and into something that asks everything of you.

Tim shares the work he’s doing to connect Australia’s defence industry through new digital portals - alongside the “heart work” that runs in parallel: supporting This Story Australia to capture veterans’ stories before they’re lost and helping deliver practical support to vulnerable veterans through the Vulnerable Veterans Solar Program.

And then we head to Papua New Guinea.

Tim takes us onto the Kokoda Track, a trek he assumed would be straightforward (100km over eight days) until day two arrived with heat, humidity, steep jungle mountains, and a very quick reality check. What changes everything is the moment he stops pushing and starts watching; learning from the local porters who take tiny, steady steps that allow them to move for hours without exhaustion.

Along the way, we explore:

• ​what hardship reveals about people and how groups help one another through it
• ​the deep spiritual responsibility many Papua New Guinean porters feel for the track and its history
• ​Tim’s powerful remembrance on Brigade Hill, honouring his grandfather and the “unfinished” story he carried
• ​an unexpected moment of clarity - a reset that shifts his priorities at home, at work, and within himself

This episode is a reminder that sometimes the biggest perspective shifts don’t come from grand gestures.

They come from tiny steps, taken steadily, in the company of others, through places that hold history, sacrifice, and meaning.

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