A CONVERSATION ABOUT IDENTITY, AMBITION, PURPOSE, AND BECOMING THE LEADER YOU CHOOSE TO BE
There are guests who arrive with charisma, and then there are guests who arrive with presence.
Dr. Yasser Zaki carries the second kind. He is thoughtful, elegant in the way he speaks, deeply self-aware, and anchored by a life story that reshaped him from the inside out. The conversation we had was rich, emotional, insightful, and full of the kind of truth leaders rarely say aloud.
Before we explored his childhood in Egypt, his immigration journey, his years of homelessness, his rise into leadership, and the global organisation he has built, we started with the drink, because the drink always says something before the person does.
THE DRINK THAT SET THE SCENE
Yasser chose a virgin pina colada, and it suited him in a way that almost felt symbolic.
A pina colada is sunshine energy. Warm, grounded, steady. Quiet confidence wrapped in a bit of sweetness. It is the kind of drink chosen by someone who trusts themselves, someone who enjoys the moment without needing alcohol to loosen their spirit or sharpen their edge.
Soli (our unofficial drink interpreter) described pina-colada drinkers as calm, intuitive, balanced, quietly playful, and emotionally intelligent, and Yasser laughed, but the accuracy was undeniable.
It is a drink for someone who has done the inner work and no longer needs external noise to feel complete.
THE STORY HE NEVER EXPECTED TO TELL
Yasser spoke openly about arriving in Australia with nothing but hope and pressure he wasn’t yet equipped to carry. Within months he found himself homeless, sleeping under a tree that later became the turning point of his entire life. That moment sparked a commitment he has never broken, a promise that he would rebuild himself with purpose, dignity, and discipline.
His life changed again when he met Margaret on a train, an older woman he supported for more than two years. Her death transformed him. He left a high-paying corporate career the same day and became a support worker because his heart needed something his bank account could never give him.
That decision became the seed of TLC.
THE MAN BEHIND THE ORGANISATION
TLC did not begin with money, investors, or privilege. It began with Yasser cleaning homes, cooking meals, walking alongside people who needed someone to believe in them, and building a model of care that centred dignity and opportunity.
He built businesses during COVID so his participants could work.
He created community initiatives around education, food access, and housing.
He reinvested profit instead of keeping it because he wanted his company to serve as many people as possible. Everything he built grew from four core pillars: health, education, safe housing, and meaningful employment.
What impressed me most was not the scale of what he has built. It was the discipline behind who he has become. He trained himself to be calm. He trained himself to lead without ego.He trained himself to hold emotional stability so his team could hold the community. He is a man who evolved deliberately, not accidentally.
THE HEART OF THE EPISODE
This conversation travelled through identity, leadership, cultural expectations, resilience, and the courage it takes to rebuild yourself when the world has already decided who you should be.
Yasser spoke with a softness that carried strength, and with a clarity that only comes from surviving what should have broken you.
WATCH THE FULL EPISODE
This episode will stay with you long after it ends.
