There's a moment in this conversation where Matt Wadewitz describes getting a phone call at 3am. He'd saved the name in his phone just in case - because he'd hoped it was coming. The voice on the other end had a beautiful Spanish accent. It was Mikel Arteta.

That call is a good entry point into who Matt is and what he's built. Because Aleda Connect - the global leadership program he co-founded with Luke - didn't find Mikel Arteta through a cold pitch or a clever marketing strategy. It found him the same way it's found nearly every one of its 700-plus members: through word of mouth, through one curious leader telling another, through the simple and powerful idea that great people want to be around other great people.

This is episode 250 of Empowering Leaders, and it felt right to mark it with the person who was there for episode one. Matt and Luke go back further than Aleda - further than podcasting, further than leadership development - all the way to a cold Saturday morning at South Adelaide when a tall kid showed up without having trained, nicked Matt's position on the team, and still somehow left with a new best mate.

In this conversation they go back to the beginning. The ankle injury that ended Matt's AFL dream the night before he was supposed to sign with Essendon. The year he took a group of disengaged kids to a beach in Adelaide and told them they were going to solve an unsolved murder. The conversation with Luke where he was expecting a high-five and instead got talked out of a job he was about to take. And the question Luke put to him that changed everything: why not just take it further?

Eleven years later, the answer to that question is a community of leaders spanning sport, business, the arts, and everything in between - connected not by industry or geography, but by the shared conviction that you can always be better for the people you lead.

People mentioned and their conversations with Luke on Empowering Leaders

• Steve Kerr & Mikel Arteta LIVE: The Leadership Playbook
• Emma Hayes LIVE from London: For Women, By Women, Football & Beyond
• Dr Troy Flanagan: Making history in the NBA with a 'no burnout' mindset
• John Bertrand - Achieving the impossible
• Eddie Jones - Striving to be the greatest of all time
• Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson - The Thinking Teacher (Part 1)
• Ben Northey — conductor, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
• Anna West — sleep specialist, Arsenal FC
• Craig McRae — Collingwood AFC head coach, Aleda member
• Stacey Morlang — Aleda team member
• Timmy Bristow — school principal, Aleda member, previous podcast guest
• Paul Waterson — founder, Australian Venue Co., Aleda member
• Luke Beveridge — Western Bulldogs head coach
• Neale Daniher — episode with daughter Bec Daniher — CEO of FightMND

Learn. Lead. Collaborate.

Start your leadership journey today.  Meet with co-founder Matt Wadewitz or one of the amazing Aleda Connect facilitators to learn how you can grow within our signature leadership program.

Head here to find out more about our signature, cross industry collaboration program, Aleda Connect. Curated and facilitated by experts, running for 8 fortnightly or monthly sessions, Aleda Connect is the learning experience of a life-time.

Empowering Leaders is proudly partnered with Victoria University. Find more information about studying at VU here.