Habit Nerd

Today’s guest is an absolute powerhouse, and to say I am excited about this conversation is a massive understatement. Joining me on the podcast today is Liz Watson, the extraordinary captain of the Australian Diamonds Netball team and the Sunshine Coast Lightning, and one of the world's absolute leading netballers.

Liz has represented Australia at the highest level since 2016, racking up Commonwealth Games and World Cup success, along with receiving netball's highest individual honor—the Liz Ellis Diamond—not once, but twice.

But beyond the glittering accolades, what I truly wanted to unpack with Liz are the foundational habits, the mental frameworks, and the team-first mindset that underpins her incredible consistency over time. If you’ve ever wondered what it actually takes to sustain excellence over a long career when the stakes are sky-high, this episode is your ultimate masterclass.

We dive deep into how she structures her elite morning routines, why she completely ditched the habit of comparing herself to others, and a brilliant team-culture framework her squad uses to manage stress and fatigue on the court.

🔗 Follow Liz on IG @lizzy.watson

If this episode resonated with you, I'd love for you to join me in the Tiny Habits Reset — my 17 day challenge where we slow things down, notice what's running on autopilot, and make tiny intentional shifts that actually stick.

Registration is officially open and we kick off July 1st. One short daily lesson, for just $1 a day.

👉 Grab your spot here → https://www.knowyourwhylearning.com.au/tiny-habits-reset-official

Join the conversation in my weekly newsletter.

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Before we dive into today’s topic, I wanted to take a quick moment to express my immense gratitude. Our community is growing significantly, and we are officially being listened to in 90 countries across the globe! Whether you are a brand new listener tuning in on your morning walk, or a loyal member of our community who joins me every single Monday morning in the car or while doing the dishes, thank you for choosing to have me in your ears. I am so deeply heartened by your engagement.

In today’s solo masterclass, I am unpacking a major theme that has come up repeatedly in my recent 1:1 coaching work with busy professionals. When I find myself returning to the same conversations and research over and over with my clients, it's a clear cue that these insights have a wider effect and need to be shared with our broader community.

Most of what we do each day isn't driven by big, conscious decisions; it's driven by habits—quiet, repeated patterns that act as the silent architects of our lives. Today, we are exploring four overarching principles of behavior change that will help you shift those patterns with intention, stop relying on willpower, and create change that actually sticks.

Think of this episode as your ultimate shortcut to collapse time and skip years of trial and error.

If you love the actionable tips in this episode, you won't want to miss my upcoming 17-Day Tiny Habits Reset dropping this July. It's a short-form, daily experience designed specifically for busy high-performers who want zero drama and maximum results.

🔗 Click the link below to secure your spot on the private VIP Waitlist!

⁠⁠⁠https://www.knowyourwhylearning.com.au/tiny-habits-reset-waitlist⁠⁠⁠

Join the conversation in my weekly newsletter.

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Follow me on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@habitnerd

If you’ve been hanging around my corner of the internet for a while, you know one of my ultimate core pillars in life is simplify to amplify. We have an absolute knack for overcomplicating everything, especially when it comes to our health, fitness, and nutrition. We tell ourselves we need to cut out entire food groups, sign up for three different gyms, or wait for the "perfect emotional mood" to strike before we can finally get healthy.

Today, I am joined by the incredible Vanessa Panella, founder of DVP Fitness, to completely dismantle those myths. Vanessa is an elite coach who specializes in helping busy women and couples strip away the toxic, restrictive diet cultures of the 90s and build bulletproof, realistic health structures instead.

Vanessa is deeply passionate, beautifully honest, and incredibly time-poor herself, running multiple businesses while raising her family, so she knows exactly what it takes to make habits stick when life gets completely chaotic.

In this episode, we dive deep into why relying on motivation is a trap, how to manage your health when a busy schedule or new job flips your life upside down, and the exact biochemical trifecta to eliminate your mid-afternoon snacking habits for good.

Connect with Vanessa Panella:

Instagram: @dvp.fitness

Website: https://www.dvpfitness.com.au/

Free consultation link: https://consult.dvpfitness.com.au/booking

If you love the actionable tips in this episode, you won't want to miss my upcoming 17-Day Tiny Habits Reset dropping this July. It's a short-form, daily experience designed specifically for busy high-performers who want zero drama and maximum results.

🔗 Click the link below to secure your spot on the private VIP Waitlist!

⁠⁠https://www.knowyourwhylearning.com.au/tiny-habits-reset-waitlist⁠⁠

Join the conversation in my weekly newsletter.

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Follow me on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@habitnerd

If you’ve opened Instagram or TikTok recently, you’ve probably seen a lot of people talking about "regulating your nervous system." They’ll tell you to sip herbal tea, lie on a yoga mat, stare at a sunset, or pat a cat. Now, look—I’m not against any of that. I can absolutely get around a weighted blanket and a warm drink. But today, I want to strip back the surface-level trends and look at the actual physiology underneath, because it dictates exactly how you show up as a leader, a partner, and a human being.

If you’ve ever walked away from a chaotic moment at work thinking, “That is not how I wanted to show up just then,” I want you to hear this loud and clear: that is not a character flaw. That is a nervous system state.

In this episode, we tackle why your brain treats a stressful email exactly like a tiger attack, why you can’t intellectualize your way out of burnout, and how to start leading your life from a place of physical regulation.

If you love the actionable tips in this episode, you won't want to miss Bree’s upcoming 17-Day Tiny Habits Reset dropping this July. It's a short-form, daily experience designed specifically for busy high-performers who want zero drama and maximum results.

🔗 Click the link below to secure your spot on the private VIP Waitlist!

⁠⁠https://www.knowyourwhylearning.com.au/tiny-habits-reset-waitlist⁠⁠

Join the conversation in my weekly newsletter.

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Follow me on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@habitnerd

Have you ever found yourself trapped in the exhausting start-stop-repeat cycle? You know exactly what I mean, the classic diet-mentality conditioning where one bad day or a chaotic week makes you feel like you’ve completely failed, forcing you to wait until Monday to "start over."

In this episode, I sit down with health and self-leadership coach Courtney Townley to completely dismantle this toxic cycle. We dive deep into why high-achievers constantly experience burnout and how to replace rigid, outsourced protocols with an internal framework built for real, messy, human lives.

Health and wellness isn’t a rigid binary of being on or off the wagon. It is fundamentally an exercise in stress management. Courtney shares her incredible "Consistency Code" framework, teaching us how to move away from chaotic reactivity and step into radical self-leadership by insourcing our own authority, parenting our brains, and befriending our emotions.

Connect with Courtney Townley:

Website: graceandgrit.com

Get the Book: The Consistency Code by Courtney Townley

graceandgrit.com/book/the-consistency-code

Grab the Freebie: Want a taste of the book before committing? Download or listen to the first chapter for free at

graceandgrit.com/programs/midlifemagic/

If you love the actionable tips in this episode, you won't want to miss my upcoming 17-Day Tiny Habits Reset dropping this July. It's a short-form, daily experience designed specifically for busy high-performers who want zero drama and maximum results.

🔗 Click the link below to secure your spot on the private VIP Waitlist!

⁠https://www.knowyourwhylearning.com.au/tiny-habits-reset-waitlist⁠

Join the conversation in my weekly newsletter.

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Follow me on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@habitnerd

Have you ever closed your laptop at 5:00 PM, looked at your messy desk, and realized that despite being completely exhausted, you didn't actually move the needle on any of your important projects?

We have all been there. But lately, I’ve been paying close attention to those rare, beautiful days where I put my head on the pillow feeling genuinely satisfied with my output—no lingering sense of doom, no late-night panic loops. I wanted to unpack exactly what characterizes those high-impact, low-stress days, and bring you 8 evidence-based, research-informed tips so you can have that gift too.

Before we dive in, let's establish a foundational boundary: A to-do list is not a wish list. A true to-do list requires discipline. It means the tasks actually need to be done, they need to be done by you, and the due date is soon.

Pop your headphones in and let's talk about how to power through your day on your own terms.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. It helps me reach more Habit Nerds across the globe!

If you love the actionable tips in this episode, you won't want to miss Bree’s upcoming 17-Day Tiny Habits Reset dropping this July. It's a short-form, daily experience designed specifically for busy high-performers who want zero drama and maximum results.

🔗 Click the link below to secure your spot on the private VIP Waitlist!

https://www.knowyourwhylearning.com.au/tiny-habits-reset-waitlist

Connect with me:

• Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@habitnerd⁠⁠⁠⁠

• Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.knowyourwhylearning.com.au/signup

Let’s be completely honest for a moment, we are living in some incredibly shaky financial times right now. Between the skyrocketing costs of fuel, grocery price creep, and global economic uncertainty, it is so easy to feel a sense of breathlessness or even lose sleep at night over money stress.

If that is you, I promise you that you have landed in the absolute right place today.

In this episode, I am joined by the wonderful Gemma Mitchell. Gemma is a financial coach, podcaster, and the brilliant author of The Money Reset. She brings over 20 years of professional expertise and raw, lived experience as a mum and entrepreneur to help us build resilient, values-aligned money habits that can actually stand up to life's inevitable curveballs.

We peel back the layers on why we get stuck in obsessive mental loops about our finances and how the simple act of "brain dumping" can completely quiet a busy mind. Gemma also calls me out big time in this episode about the clever stories we tell ourselves to justify our discretionary spending!

Connect with Gemma Mitchell:

Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@gemmamitchell.finance
Website: ⁠⁠https://www.gemmamitchell.com.au/

Podcast: Australian Finance Podcast

Join the conversation in my weekly newsletter.

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Follow me on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@habitnerd

Hello there, and welcome back to The Habit Nerd! I am delighted to have your company today.

Usually, we talk about the science of habits and evidence-based strategies, but today, things are getting a little... "unhinged." I’m sharing four slightly unconventional, uncommon beliefs that I am deliberately teaching my girls. While these might seem a bit out there, I truly believe they are the "secret weapons" that give them (and us!) an unfair advantage in a busy world.

Whether you’re a parent, a leader, or just someone trying to navigate your own habits, these lessons are all about shifting from a "reactive" state to an "intentional" one.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. It helps me reach more Habit Nerds across the globe!

Connect with me:

• Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠@habitnerd⁠⁠⁠

• Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.knowyourwhylearning.com.au/signup

Today, I’m sitting down with the woman who quite literally gave me the confidence to hit "record" on this show in the first place: the incredible Madelyn Carafa.

Mads is the host of the wildly popular Healthy Hustlers podcast and a living example of what happens when you’re brave enough to listen to that small "inner knowing." In this conversation, we pull back the curtain on the things you don't see behind the big download numbers—the intentional sacrifices, the spiritual "breadcrumbs," and the beauty of unlearning the rules that no longer serve us.

Whether you’re feeling overwhelmed by your phone, struggling with "mom guilt," or waiting for permission to chase a long-held dream, this episode is your reminder that the magic is waiting for you just on the other side of discomfort.

Connect with Madelyn Carafa:

Instagram: ⁠@madelyncarafa

PodcasT: ⁠Healthy Hustlers Podcast

Join the conversation in my weekly newsletter.

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Follow me on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@habitnerd

Hi there, Habit Nerds!

Welcome to another episode. I am so thrilled to share that we are now being listened to across 72 countries. Whether you’ve been here since Episode 1 or you’re just joining the community today, I am so grateful to have you here.

As we move into a new season here in Australia, many of us are feeling that "New Year, New Me" energy start to wane. But today, I want to introduce you to a psychological concept called the "Fresh Start Effect." It’s the idea that we can use "temporal landmarks," like the start of a new quarter or a new week, to draw a line in the sand and course-correct.

In this episode, inspired by an essay by author and former Googler Jade Bonacolta, I’m breaking down five small habits that require minimal effort but offer a massive "compound interest" return on your life.

Remember: Consistency beats intensity. It’s not about doing all five perfectly tomorrow; it’s about choosing one that resonates and proving to yourself that you are the person who shows up.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. It helps me reach more Habit Nerds across the globe!

Connect with me:

• Instagram: ⁠⁠@habitnerd⁠⁠

• Newsletter: ⁠⁠https://www.knowyourwhylearning.com.au/signup