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Read more →Every few months, the Verifly leadership group stops selling for a day and works on itself. For most of those days, the people running the room have been Dirk Gardner and his team at Embrace Consulting. They were there as we launched Sydney, there again as we opened our New Zealand office, and most recently with the Auckland crew on a team-building day in September. This post is about who they are and why we keep going back.
Who Embrace are
Embrace is a team-development business based in Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast. Its one-line purpose, in its own words, is "we accelerate the development of teams". Dirk grew up on a dairy farm, came up through elite sport, and has spent years working with professional sporting teams, schools, universities and corporate groups. By Embrace's count he has worked with hundreds of teams across more than 50 countries, among them the Wallabies, the Queensland Reds, the Fijian sevens, Suntory Sungoliath in Japan and the Chennai Bulls, as well as Olympic pathway programs and corporate clients from PwC to Surfing Queensland. Verifly is on that client list too.
The method is simple to describe and hard to copy. Every session blends three things: physical movement, team support and individual challenge. Nothing is off the shelf; each day is designed after a discovery call, delivered by facilitators who adapt in real time, and followed by a debrief and next steps. The line on their website that best explains why it works for a sales crew: "shared experiences build trust faster than conversation."
What that looks like at Verifly
Our business runs on small, close teams of four or five who spend their days in the field together, and on leaders who are promoted from within. That only works if the core team trusts each other before the pressure comes. Embrace's development days are how we build that trust on purpose rather than hoping it arrives.
The days are built around hard physical and mental challenges that a group can only get through together. The point, as we wrote after the Auckland day, is not the obstacle course. It is watching a team work through adversity, celebrate at the end, and bring that energy back to the field on Monday. We used the same approach to rally the core team as Sydney opened in 2024, and again as the New Zealand office found its feet in 2025.
Why we recommend them
"Dirk and the team come in and run development days and team-building that really rally our core team. It supported the launch of Sydney and the launch of our New Zealand office, and I couldn't recommend the work they do more." Ben McMillan, Managing Director
Three things stand out. Embrace meets a group where it is: a new Auckland team and a Sydney leadership group two years in do not get the same day. The facilitators are high-energy without being gimmicky; the challenges are real, and so is the debrief afterwards. And the work lasts, because it is tied to how a team behaves on an ordinary Tuesday, not just how it felt on the day.
If you run a team that has to perform together under pressure, you can find Embrace at embrace.global and on Instagram at @embrace__consulting. If you want to be part of the next Verifly team day, join the team.
Details about Embrace Consulting and Dirk Gardner are taken from embrace.global as at 22 October 2026.
Want to be part of the next one?
Every Verifly leader started as a Sales Associate. Paid training, hourly pay plus bonuses, and a published path up.