My Migrant Soul | Episode 08 - Martin Probs
Vision Without Action Is Just a Dream
Martin Probst on Cruise Ships, Covid, and Fifteen Years of Leading Leaders
Martin Probst didn't set out to become a leadership coach. He set out to see the world.
Growing up in Switzerland, he had one clear picture in his head: travel, work on cruise ships, and one day own a property with palm trees. It's an unusual dream for a Swiss kid, and he'll be the first to say so. "That's quite unusual coming from Switzerland," he tells Imran, laughing about it now. But he chased it anyway, and all three pieces of that dream eventually came true. The cruise ship years are what brought him to Australia in the first place, and hospitality is where he spent the first stretch of his working life.
Somewhere in that stretch, though, something started to shift. Martin describes going into workplace training and formal education thinking he might find his purpose there, and quickly realising he felt "too boxed in." What kept pulling his attention instead were the conversations that had nothing to do with the curriculum — business owners who wanted less paperwork and more of the interpersonal side, the leadership side. "I started to realise that there's a big part missing in the training packages," he says, "and that's the interpersonal skills, the leadership part." That gap became the opening. Fifteen years ago, it became Profound Leadership.
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Building Something You Don't Fully Understand Yet
Ask Martin what it took to get the business off the ground, and he won't dress it up. "People asked me at the time when I started, they said, Martin, you know what you're doing? And I said, sure. I had no idea." He calls it ignorance being a bit of bliss — not because not knowing is a strategy, but because waiting until you have all the answers means you never start. "The more we know, the more we start to realise how little we know," he says. "We don't have to have all the answers. We need to start somewhere."
That mindset was tested in a way nobody could have planned for. Martin walks Imran through March 2020 in specific, almost cinematic detail — having lunch with friends near South Wharf in Melbourne, confused about why crowds were gathering there instead of at Albert Park for the Formula 1. It took a moment before he realised the race had been cancelled altogether, and that something much bigger than a race was unfolding. "The week after, we went from being really well booked to having no engagement whatsoever," he says.
Listening His Way Back to Zero, and Past It
What happened next is one of the more concrete, useful stretches of the conversation. Rather than pitching new offers or waiting the crisis out, Martin made a quiet commitment to keep checking in with his existing clients — not to sell them anything, just to stay in the conversation. What he heard shaped everything that came after. Clients were asking practical questions: how do I stay in touch with people working from home, how do I keep a team motivated, how do I give people a sense of certainty when nothing is certain.
"While I was listening, I actually received the answers from my clients on where I need to shift my services, my products," Martin says. Webinars, short workshops, and new formats came directly out of those conversations. Within four to six weeks, a business that had gone quiet was busy again — not because of a clever pivot dreamed up in isolation, but because he'd paid attention to what was actually being asked for.
The Mindset Factory
A recurring image Martin returns to throughout the episode is what he calls the "mindset factory" — the idea that your mind is producing thoughts constantly, tens of thousands a day, and the real question is what ingredients are going into that production line. "Are we using fresh ingredients, are we using critical, healthy thinking, or are we creating fear, doubt, regret?" he asks. He and Imran also trade a running joke about BS — which, Martin clarifies for listeners, stands for belief system, not the other thing.
That same lens shows up in how he talks about obstacles and innovation. Negative things you can't control, he says, should be treated like Teflon — they slide off. Opportunities and ideas worth pursuing should be treated like Velcro — they stick. It's a simple way of describing something that's genuinely hard to practise, and it comes up again when he explains his definition of innovation: not some grand reinvention, but the discipline of listening closely enough to a real problem that the solution becomes obvious.
Interested, or Committed?
If there's a single line that captures the spirit of this episode, it's the distinction Martin keeps drawing between being interested in something and being committed to it. "We are interested in so many different things," he says, "but are we really committed?" It's a question he puts to his own clients regularly, and it's the same question that shaped his own path — from a childhood dream of palm trees, to a hospitality career, to building a leadership business from a gap he noticed nobody else was filling.
By the end of the conversation, Martin is talking about what's next: a new book called Very Simple Shine, built around the idea that most people aren't actually short on confidence — they're just not sure what they're confident in. It's a fitting note to end on, from someone whose whole career has been built on turning uncertainty into forward motion.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode
Why Martin calls himself a "Chief Energy Officer" and what fifteen years of Profound Leadership actually looks like day to day
The three childhood dreams he set out to achieve, and how a cruise ship job brought him to Australia
The moment he realized formal education wasn't where he'd find his purpose
How "ignorance is bliss" carried him through the early, uncertain years of starting a business
What happened when his business dropped to zero bookings in the first weeks of Covid
How listening to his existing clients rebuilt the business in under six weeks
His concept of the "mindset factory," and the difference between thoughts that help you and thoughts that hold you back
Why he treats setbacks like Teflon and opportunities like Velcro
His honest take on work-life balance, and why he prefers to call it work-life harmony
A first look at his upcoming book, Very Simple Shine
His view on what's missing from leadership in the world today
Key Takeaway
"Vision without action, that's just a dream. Action without vision, it just passes the time. But if we combine the vision with action, that's where we turn dream into reality."
About the Host - Imran Abul Kashem
Imran Abul Kashem is the founder of Westend Business Hub, Westend Photography, Westend Digital, Westend Podcast, and Wyndham Entrepreneur Connect. An award-winning photographer and serial entrepreneur, Imran brings ideas to life at the intersection of creativity and business. As an author, investor, business advocate, and cultural ambassador, he is passionate about building platforms that empower communities and spark meaningful conversations.
About the Guest - Martin Probst
Martin Probst is an award-winning leadership expert, author, speaker, and entrepreneur whose journey from Switzerland to Australia is a story of reinvention, resilience, and purpose-driven leadership. He brought with him a strong European work ethic, deep hospitality experience, and a passion for personal growth, and like many migrants, faced the challenge of rebuilding networks and creating opportunities from the ground up.
Today, Martin is the founder of PROfound Leadership, where he works with leaders, businesses, and organisations to strengthen communication, emotional intelligence, leadership capability, and workplace culture. With more than 20 years of experience across hospitality, leadership development, coaching, and training, he has become a respected voice in Australia's leadership and personal development space. He is also the author of several leadership and mindset books, including Master Your Mind and Leadership Journal, and continues to mentor leaders and entrepreneurs while advocating for personal transformation through mindset and meaningful leadership.
If this story resonated with you, share it with someone who needs the reminder: a dream only becomes real once you act on it.
Special Thanks to Our Partners
This podcast is proudly supported by our incredible partner businesses, whose ongoing support helps bring these conversations to life:
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