Peter Cook leads Thought Leaders Global. He is passionate about helping people get more money, more time and more meaning. In this show we dig into the DNA of thought leadership, and how we might achieve thought leadership as an individual or as a business leader.
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A master business coach, a serial entrepreneur, a best-selling author, a mentor and a highly sought after presenter, Peter has over 15 years experience as a consultant and business coach working with hundreds of businesses from one-man startups to some of the biggest companies in the world. He runs programs across the world to help thought leaders, business leaders and everyday people achieve business and financial mastery.  ​

Many of us have been in a situation where you check into a flight, only to find the seat you’ve got is a dud. Now, developed in Southern California is Seateroo, a seat swapper app that lets you swap your seat on commercial airlines with another passenger.

Most low cost domestic airlines will not allow you to change your seat allocation, but IOS app Seateroo circumvents that by allowing you to change your seat with somebody else in the plane, directly. Obviously there is always a risk that you may end up in a less desirable seat than you had in the first place! You can also request payment for your seat via electronic payments with Seateroo taking 15% of the negotiated price. 
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Interesting concept that we should take on board not only for the convenience as per the story at hand, but also in terms of thinking about our own customers or clients and if they started to take control of the buying cycle. 

Many of us coffee lovers appreciate a bit of art from the barista on top of our cappucino or latte. But it’s not that easy for most of us. Rest assured you are now going to be the envy of your neighbours with the Ripple Maker latte art machine.
 
The Ripple Maker is a full coffee machine using pods that places small drops on the foam once made, to allow the machine to intricately design detailed art in just seconds. The machine automatically recognises and adjusts the height and width of your cup and has a large LCD touch screen so you can pick out your desired design. 
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Though it's only available for commercial use at the moment, we're sure it won't be long before early adopters will be lining up for a home version.

Anyone who lives in an area of snow and below zero temperatures will be familiar with 'black ice'. That time when the bitumen is covered with ice and the roads become undriveable, unbearable and very dangerous. Each year many vehicles and trucks end up on their side, in an embankment after sliding on black ice.
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Now a team from Turkey's Koc University have developed a salt-embedded road that could keep roads from freezing and take away the danger of black ice. The material is a combination of bitumen, a major component of asphalt, salt potassium formate and polymer styrene-butadiene-styrene. This product apparently slows down the formation of ice by releasing de-iced salt for a period of 2 months. This is a fantastic breakthrough in the innovation of roads and we hope they’re able to bring it to life for a more sustainable product that will last for years.

Data, when used correctly, can open up true insights. Crowd-Sourcing has become a massive tool to enable us to access data, assistance, help or a sale. Smartfin is an attachment that sits on your surfboard like a regular fin but comes with data acquisition functionality. Essentially by crowd sourcing information from the ocean via the fin of your surfboard, technology experts can use everyday surfers to gain more knowledge about what’s going on in our vast oceans.
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The fin is equipped with sensors that monitor sea salinity, acidity levels, temperature and wave motion and can be a wonderful acquisition to help with understanding coastal ecosystem factors that can be affected by climate change. It's easy to use, uploads to your Bluetooth phone once you return to the beach and sync up with the Smartfin cloud. Pretty cool concept and we’re going to see more of this sort of crowd sourcing data analytics as this industry moves forward and it’s making use of people and resources that are there but aren’t being utilised. 

Sue Langley is a speaker, master trainer, global business consultant, researcher and leading advisor on the practical workplace applications of neuroscience, emotional intelligence and positive psychology. Sue has used her gift for synthesising science into simple, practical tools anyone can use to teach thousands of business leaders, HR professionals and consultants how to harness the brain’s potential. Sue works with top organisations such as Oracle, Schneider Electric and Wesfarmers to build positive workplace cultures, emotionally intelligent leaders and high performing teams. In this show we learn about the power that comes with being a leader who is emotionally intelligent.

There’s always a lot of talk about couples, particularly parents, making it a priority to set date nights where they can get away together, share and have no distractions or need for multi tasking.

Similarly, I recently listened to a podcast around having a date night with yourself. Essentially taking the same priority that you place on you and your partner but instead focussing on yourself. A quiet time for reflection, a hobby, to draw, exercise your creative spirit or simply recharge with a massage, meditation or yoga.

Unfortunately these days if an appointment is not in our diary it quickly gets overtaken by meetings, chores, media distractions or confusion about what’s next. However when it’s set in your dairy it seems to find it’s way to the top of the priority list. 
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So this year, whether it be each day, each week or at least each month, make a date with yourself where you can have guilt-free time to sit, ponder, reflect, think, draw, write or self indulge in a spa treatment. What you do with the time is up to you. The important thing is to spend time with yourself where you are in the headspace, relaxed, chilled and contemplative. ​

​For the person who has everything and for the red neck who’s dreamed of making their own moonshine, the Tabletop Moonshine Still is the perfect present and a great piece of design art. Made of beautiful stainless steel that's used in premium cookware, your brew is kept safe and you’ll be cranking out the nectar of the gods into mason jars before you know it. Available from Amazon (though currently out of stock) we think this is the perfect gift for the person who has everything. 

There are many of us who don’t like the dentist and avoid it like the plague. Well here’s something that may relieve the tension and all you need to do is eat an apple! The Dentapple is a Fuji apple with a QR code sticker that when scanned, links to an associated app. All you need to do it take four bites of the apple, take pictures of the bite marks, upload them to the app, then answer a short questionnaire about the quality of your gums. Within a day you’ll receive a free dental report from a qualified dental hygienist. 
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Only available in Japan, I'm sure for many it's a very attractive alternative to visiting the actual dentist, but the Apple Association cautions that it isn't meant as a replacement for a full dental assessment. This could be the start of something great.

​Dr Carmel Harrington is a sleep research scientist and an internationally recognised sleep expert. Carmel researches the true science behind sleep and explains the critical link between sleep, health, performance and creativity. Drawing from the latest sleep research, she reveals the science behind what happens to our bodies when we don't get enough sleep, and how this critically affects our hormones, our metabolism and how we think and feel. 
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Dr Harrington has been working in the world of sleep for nearly 20 years. A former lawyer and educator she has a PHD in Sleep Medicine from Sydney University and consults with companies and educational institutions both here and overseas on sleep health. Emerging research clearly shows that sleeping well is a key component to optimal performance and health and if we want to be at the top of our game we need to ensure we get the best sleep possible.  Carmel has written two books "The Sleep Diet" and "The complete guide to a good night's sleep".

​The world is constantly challenged to find sources of energy that won’t disrupt our environment and wind is one of the innovations to be explored. However many people are against wind turbines because of both the visual aspect and the supposed disruption to the environment. What if you combined the attributes of the Dyson bladeless fan with the current bladed wind turbine?
The Saphon Energy bladeless wind turbine is exactly that. The bladeless wind turbine has replaced the turbine blades with a sail-shaped body that enjoys high aerodynamic drag co-efficiency. Essentially, it is a conventional wind turbine with no blades. The zero blade device is supposedly capable of capturing twice as much wind kinetic energy as conventional bladed wind turbines for the same swept area.
Whether this solves the problem for everybody or not, we don’t know, but we do like the fact that someone took a problem that many had with the conventional turbine and looked at a different way to do it. We understand it’s not available yet but it’s one to keep an eye on.

Anyone who lives in a small flat or apartment and enjoys road or mountain biking will know how hard it is to keep your bike in your living space with you. Chilean designer Manuel Rossel has designed a line of furniture called Chol1 that doubles as a bike storage space, essentially turning your bike into art. 
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This beautiful minimalist piece of furniture allows you to store your bike out of the way up off the ground and keep it on the pedestal it so rightly deserves. This may not appeal to every cyclist, but many of those who love their ride believe it’s a piece of art and would be quite happy to look at it all day. It's currently only available in Chili, but keep an eye out because the designers are set to ship internationally shortly.

Most people start their day with a cup of coffee but imagine if you could get the same caffeine hit simply by brushing your teeth? Power Toothpaste is a caffeinated toothpaste that is said to absorb caffeine much quicker through the gums and mouth than through drinking coffee which can take up to 35 or 40 minutes to be absorbed. This toothpaste has created a new brand category in toothpaste. Colgate fight cavities, Macleans give you a great smile, Sensodyne is for sensitive teeth and now Power Toothpaste are the world's first caffeinated toothpaste.
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You can quickly separate yourself from your competitors by creating a new brand, finding a territory in the market that no-one else has, and these guys have certainly done that. Power Toothpaste will be available on Indiegogo from 19th January so if you’re an early adopter and like the idea of getting a kick from your toothpaste, get on board.

As we rock into 2016 I’d firstly like to thank everyone for their lovely feedback, comments, well wishes and contributions to The Espresso in 2015. It’s still overwhelming to hear the impact that our newspaper has on people around the world. If you’ve sent us a note, commented to us, posted something or even forwarded an idea from The Espresso onto someone else, we thank you. In fact, if you’ve ever opened The Espresso, we thank you! This year we promise to bring you more cool ideas that you can adapt and use in your world. Feel free to let us know your thoughts, any ideas that you’ve got, anything we can add or subtract, as we genuinely try to make a difference in your world and help you unlock your great ideas.

At this time of year most people have made their resolutions. And generally these promises we make to ourselves tend to fall by the wayside as we get into the grind of the new year. One tool that I’ve found to be powerful and useful to have longevity for the year ahead is to choose a word that will be your theme for the year. I recently heard someone say their word was ‘contribution’. This would be their year of contributing to themselves, to the planet, to their family and friends, and to the community. For me, last year was about agility. Not only training for the Tour De Cure but also focusing on stretching, mobility and all round strength, wellness, endurance and balance.
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By focusing on a word, you can then work out the pieces that need to be pulled together in order to achieve that word. It’s yours, it doesn’t need to be broadcast, but it gives you a focus. Gary Keller wrote in one of my favourite books of last year, The One Thing, “What’s the one thing I can do, such that by doing it everything else is easier or unnecessary?”
Choose your one word and put it front of mind. Write it on the mirror of your bathroom, use it as a desktop screensaver, in the front of your journal or the dashboard of your car. Put it somewhere you’ll see it regularly, break it down into smaller pieces and do one thing each day to move you towards your theme, motto or word for the year ahead.