Challenges That Change Us

Challenges That Change Us –

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Relationship breakdowns can have a huge impact on our lives, and while that might seem obvious, business relationships can have a much greater impact than expected.

So what happens when a business relationship, especially a partnership, turns sour?

Lora Starling is a creative logo designer known for crafting bold, memorable brand identities that capture a company’s essence at a glance. With a keen eye for detail and a passion for visual storytelling, she transforms ideas into designs that resonate and endure.

Her experiences have guided her personal and professional direction and one business partnership in particular taught her a lot when it ended unexpectedly.

In this episode she shares

-      Her career background

-      How her business partnership was sabotaged after becoming pregnant

-      What was it that pushed the change?

-      The t intersection when she turned 40 and what changed

-      How plants can teach us about the body/mind/spirit and connect us to the planet

-      What were her biggest lessons and learns that were pulled out of this experience

-      The inner work that's helped her get through her journey

-      Her insights on branding and logos

Key Quotes

“But it's giving the subconscious permission to change>’

“It’s not just make the world a better place, it’s make me a better place”

“I’d wake up and I’d either be crying or I’d want to bloody kill him.”

More About Lora

Follow her via her website, Facebook, Instagram or Linkedin.

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected]

Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website:

http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Try our FREE burnout quiz.

Grab your burnout workbook HERE. 

If you would like us to work with your team book a 30 min chat HERE.

I am fresh back from a life changing holiday and have some personal perspectives I want to share with you all.

In this solo episode, I’m diving into a space we don’t often talk about, that quiet, messy middle between who we were and who we’re becoming. You know, the moments after something ends but before the next chapter arrives, where life feels foggy, unanchored, and a little uncertain. I’ll share my own experiences of sitting in that in-between, explore why we tend to resist it, and offer gentle ways to navigate it without rushing through. If you’ve ever felt like you’re in limbo, this one’s for you.

In this episode I share:

-      What the space in between chapters can be for you

-      My experience in the ‘in between’ space

-      How I shifted from this in between space

-      CH - change rarely comes with a roadmap

-      What what shifted the way I see change

-      What ‘life quakes’ are and how they can affect you

-      3 strategies for life transitions you can use

-      How to navigate transitions and not just endure them

-      5 simple practices that can help to create shape and meaning

Key Quotes

“It wasn’t until I stopped pushing and started listening that things began to shift.”

“What if this space isn’t a problem to solve?”

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected]

Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website:

http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Challenges That Change Us –

Try our FREE burnout quiz.

Grab your burnout workbook HERE. 

If you would like us to work with your team book a 30 min chat HERE.

Depression is something that can linger in the background, unrecognised for a very long time, so it’s no wonder that many people live undiagnosed for years before finally seeking help. That was very much the case for Ann Marie Grace, who, after years of building businesses ranging from a fast food franchise to marketing consultancies, and a boxed wine venture, found herself at a turning point when she realised she had depression. That of course was only the beginning of the journey as she chose to step away from the pressure of doing what she “should” and returned to what her heart had always known: to create, to guide, and to live wholeheartedly. Today, Ann Marie is an artist, transformation coach, and podcast host of Breaking Free, Coming Back to Me. 

In this episode she shares:

• Why she didn’t pursue art and the negative patterns that influenced her
• The career and depression she moved into after giving up art
• Her experience seeing her friend calm herself using her breath
• What her depression experience was like over the 16 years
• How medication helped but didn’t fix things completely
• How she started to improve and change her experience of living
• The first steps she took to help herself and how sky diving was involved
• The differences she noticed after breath work
• What 'spirit' means for her
• How art re-entered her life
• How understanding the Human Design & Gene Keys frameworks has helped give Ann Marie permission to live the path her soul is calling her towards and why she now uses it with all of her clients 

Key Quotes

“Underneath it all, the current was, if I were to stop existing tomorrow, that would be ok, and that was just how I generally felt.”

More about Ann Marie

You can check out her website, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected] Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website: http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Try our FREE burnout quiz.

Grab your burnout workbook HERE. 

If you would like us to work with your team book a 30 min chat HERE.

Anxiety and depression can hit many of us, but for some, the symptoms can be masked by the high level stress of their work which results in them taking years to finally seek help. That was very much the case for Nick Gorman who suffered an period that severely damaged his mental health, but took him 3 decades to recover from.

Nick is a former Managing Director and Equities Trader at global investment banks like Citigroup and Merrill Lynch. Now, through his own battles with anxiety and depression, Nick founded Equilibrium at Work to provide personal coaching, organisational support, and keynote speaking aimed at fostering healthier, more fulfilling work environments while advocating for practices such as sabbaticals to prevent burnout

In this episode he shares:

• His early childhood and how happy it was
• How backpacking at 21 set up the problems that he has had ever since
• How he kept going back to the job that hurt him
• What happened after his backpacking holiday and why it threw him so badly
• How his struggle showed up on a daily basis
• Why the state he was in made him frightened and exhausted
• How a diary helped him
• What helped him after he left banking
• The journey he went on to heal after his ground breaking session with his therapist
• The moment he remembers finally feeling clearer
• Why people didn’t notice what he was going through
• What it was like exploring what was behind his mask
• How he was able to talk but never able to be clear on what was wrong
• How he's found society has changed in regards to men admitting weakness
• What he does now and how he helps others

Key Quotes

“When you don’t have any options you keep going back to what you know, even though you know it's not great for you.”

“There’d been a physiological change in me through spending 13 months not looking after myself.”

More about Nick

Check out Equilibrium At Work, or follow Nick via Linkedin.

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected] Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website: http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Try our FREE burnout quiz.

Grab your burnout workbook HERE. 

If you would like us to work with your team book a 30 min chat HERE.

Every time we talk about domestic violence and sexual abuse on this podcast the story is different, and this episode is no different.

Alyson Richelle is a former Senior Sergeant with the NSW Police turned lived-experience advocate, speaker, and founder of What They Don’t Tell You, a movement amplifying the voices of survivors and exposing the hidden impacts of coercive control, invisible disabilities, and systemic failure.

Alyson has lived both sides of the system, professionally as a frontline officer, and personally as a survivor of domestic abuse, chronic illness, and the relentless aftermath of post-separation trauma. She’s also a mother of three neurodivergent children and a tireless advocate for those navigating broken systems like Family Court, NDIS, Centrelink, housing, and worker’s compensation. Her work calls attention to the often-unseen abuse that continues after the violence stops through silence, disbelief, and bureaucracy.

In this episode she shares:

• What drew her to join the police force
• The biggest challenge she faced during her 15 years in the police
• What it was like being in a coercive and abusive relationship without realising
• Her story of sexual abuse and how it is often dismissed when it occurs in a marriage
• Why her abuse was dismissed and the flaws in the system preventing people from getting help
• What we need to change to prevent her story being repeated
• The meaning of coercive control
• What was the hardest part about being in these abusive relationships while still in the police force
• Her biggest lesson from this experience

Key Quotes

“Especially being a young female you became a real big target.”

“Sexual abuse in a marriage is so dismissed, it's like the other person has a right.”

More about Alyson

Follow her on Instagram, Linkedin and her community.

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected] Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website: http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Try our FREE burnout quiz.

Grab your burnout workbook HERE. 

If you would like us to work with your team book a 30 min chat HERE.

When trauma hits us, it can reverberate throughout our lives, echoing and causing more damage as time continues.

That’s the experience Andrew Draney had after surviving a tragic and fatal car accident as a child. The after effects of his accident caused resulted in further challenges later in life until it all finally came to a head and he was forced to make a change.

Now Andrew lives in Armidale with his wife Alex and youngest child, Ted where they have lived since moving from Sydney in 2017. Andrew has three grown children living and studying in Sydney whom he loves to visit. Andrew enjoys gardening and cycling and recently completed a half ironman with his daughter Georgina. 

In this episode he shares:

-      His early life as an adopted child

-      How he handled his mums Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis as a child

-      The accident that killed his grandparents and left is sister disabled

-      The aftermath in the hospital and why he was not treated for any psychological problems

-      How he progressively bottled down his pain to not be a problem in order to help his family

-      How he treated his girlfriend and now wife because of his trauma

-      How his trauma influenced him when his daughter was born

-      Why his work addiction grew and impacted his life and family

-      The moment he ended up in rehab

-      Why finding his biological parents made things worse

-      Why he still wasn’t ready even after his second rehab

-      The moment that things really started to turn around and how he did it

-      His biggest lessons from his major treatment at the meadows in Arizona

-      How he is trying to rebuild with his family

Key Quotes

“My grandfather had had a stroke and lost consciousness and crossed over the median strip of the road and hit this oncoming car.”

“I checked myself into rehab because I needed to escape from everything.”

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected]

Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website: http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Try our FREE burnout quiz.

Grab your burnout workbook HERE. 

If you would like us to work with your team book a 30 min chat HERE.

By now we know that society’s fixation with ‘body image’ can have a negative impact on our mental health, but just how crippling can it be?

Pete Winmill has over 20 years in the fitness industry, working as a personal trainer in London, Bali, and Australia, and spent 13 years managing 20+ staff across WA and SA for one of Australia’s largest fitness RTOs. He’s owned five gyms, still running one in Buderim, and is now studying psychology with plans to register as a psychologist.

After battling debilitating body image issues from severe acne, Pete found healing through ayahuasca. He now volunteers with WNOW, leads the Rainbow Bay Men’s Group, and founded Men Off the Meds to help men reduce reliance on medication through lifestyle change.

In this episode he shares:

-      His early years and what led him to where he is now

-      How severe acne as a teenager changed how he saw the world and himself

-      The habits and thoughts he developed to cope through this period and how it impacted relationships

-      His challenges with intimacy and why he used alcohol as an escape

-      His life post uni and what led him to working in Bali for 4 years

-      The critical last 3 years and his experience with ayahuasca

-      How Ayahuasca made him sick and how he worked through it

-      What he did next after this and how he managed his life and work balance

-      What he does now for work

Key Quotes

“They could always find someone better.”

“What I thought to myself was, that makes you look like a monster.”

More about Pete

Follow Pete on Instagram, Facebook and his Website. And the charity he supports When No One’s Watching

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected]

Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website: http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trigger warning: Child sexual abuse, PTSD, Suicide

Try our FREE burnout quiz.

Grab your burnout workbook HERE. 

If you would like us to work with your team book a 30 min chat HERE.

Child sexual abuse destroys lives and it can take a long time for survivors to return to a life where they feel safe and stable, if they ever do at all.

Jacqueline Brooker suffered incredibly traumatising sexual abuse during her childhood and the effects of it reverberated well into her adult life.

But she has gone on to do extraordinary things and overcome so many challenges.

Now, she holds the global designation of Certified Speaking Professional, and is renowned for breaking the mould in speaker training. With a reputation for turning experts and entrepreneurs into paid, in-demand speakers, Jacqueline has personally coached thousands to step into their power and deliver unforgettable, high-impact presentations. Her deep expertise spans TEDx coaching, Keynote speaking, corporate storytelling, and sales psychology.

In this episode she shares:

• What Complex PTSD is and what she has to deal with by having it
• What dissociation is and how it shows up in her life
• Her early childhood and the years that led up to her abuse
• The abuse she experienced
• How her teenage friends supported her without her even knowing
• How her trauma grew and cost her the life and career she was aiming for
• Why the police didn’t help when she tried to report her abuse
• How her name and reputation was ruined after she convinced her psychologist she was telling the truth
• The destructive patterns and behaviours she started experiencing because of her trauma
• Her experience of teenage pregnancy and giving her daughter up for adoption
• How she lost her close friend and coworker to suicide and was blamed for it
• The strategies and tools she has developed to grow and heal

Key Quotes

“From the age of about 11 to 16, I was sexually molested by my step-father.”

“I’m 53 and it’s the only the last 12-18 months that I've let people in.”

More about Jacqueline

Follow her on Instagram or Linkedin.

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected]

Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website: http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Try our FREE burnout quiz.

Grab your burnout workbook HERE. 

If you would like us to work with your team book a 30 min chat HERE.

I have spoken frequently on this podcast about the power of therapy and why it can help with resilience and trauma, but I understand that a lot of people who have never done it are often blocked from trying because they just don’t know what to expect.

That is why this is a very different and special episode of Challenges That Change Us.

We have brought back our in house psychologist Vanessa De Sauty to demonstrate what an actual therapy session looks like.

In this episode I’ll be in the patients seat and working through things with Vanessa so you can get a real idea of what to expect.

In this episode we share:

-      What the counselling process actually is

-      The repercussions of withdrawing from relationships to ‘protect yourself’

-      The challenge of reconnecting and asking for help

-      That I am able to show up in the thick of adversity but not when it passes

-      Filtering this through a CBT lens and finding strategies to work on

-      The core beliefs that happen on childhood that could lead to patterns in behaviour

-      Cognitive flexibility and strengthening underused mental muscles

Key Quotes

“ I feel like I'm pulling from an empty bucket and I don't actually have anything to offer or give to other people.”

Vanessa

To find out more about Vanessa, check out her website HERE.

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected]

Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website:

http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Try our FREE burnout quiz.

Grab your burnout workbook HERE. 

If you would like us to work with your team book a 30 min chat HERE.

The environments we grow up in have an enormous impact on us, and while some destructive childhood environments are easily noticeable, the subtle control of a strict religious group can be just as damaging.

That was the case for Rachel Pietsch whose controlling upbringing reached a climax when she and her husband chose to leave the church group they were a part of.

Now, Rachel is a voice specialist with over 30 years’ experience helping people unlock the full power of their speaking voice for greater impact and confidence. With a background in education, performance, and advanced vocal training, she transforms how clients use and perceive their voice through practical, inspiring, and comprehensive coaching.

In this episode she shares:

-      Her childhood and how religion was there at the start of her story

-      How she rebelled against her strict religious upbringing as a teenager

-      How she had to learn about her period from a friends m

-      The high level of control she experienced from her church

-      Why and how she and her husband finally left the church

-      How her religious community reacted to her leaving

-      The consequences with her family and community for her leaving the religion

-      Why going through therapy afterwards was so hard for her

-      What she learnt about herself in therapy 

-      Her diagnosis of hearing loss and the impact it had on her

Key Quotes

“From a very young age I learnt that how I felt and how I thought was not important so why bother.”

“I was told by my mother, your selfish, you've always been selfish.”

More Information about

Follow her on LinkedIn, or her website for her vocal coaching or her speaking training business.

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected]

Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website: http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.