I am so excited about our guest this week (although I know I say that every time), but I'm especially excited about this one as we’ve been trying to line this up for a long time and I’ve been fangirling over her for even longer. But as always, the universe in its infinite wisdom worked out the perfect timing for us in the end so that this chat would come out the same week as her very first book.

You’ll probably already know Ellie Cole as one of many things - our most decorated Australian female Paralympian of all time, sought after public speaker, talented TV presenter, and, for around the same time as me, boy Mum, which I’ve loved bonding over during these past twelve months or so. But as of this week, she can add published author to the line up releasing Felix and His Fantastic Friends into the world.

With the main character based on her son Felix, the book was born out of Ellie’s passion to change the way we think about difference and follows able-bodied Felix through the playground teaching him how to make playtime magical with all kinds of friends. It’s such a heartwarming, powerful extension of Ellie’s already passionate advocacy and you’ll hear more about it in the episode.

I also love that instead of recording during her decorated swimming career like we originally planned, we ended up chatting after her retirement turned reinvention which touches on all the themes we love about identity, definitions of success and finding happiness. I had about two hours of sleep the night before and you’ll hear me apologise a few times for not doing her justice, but luckily she’s as eloquent as she is talented easily overcoming my babbling questions with incredible answers so I hope you enjoy as much as I did.

GET YOUR COPY OF FELIX AND HIS FANTASTIC FRIENDS HERE.
Follow Ellie here.

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Following on from last week, here's a little (very unedited, stream of consciousness style) dear diary reflection episode on the top ten things I've learnt in our first year of parenthood. If you've listened to last week's throwback, you'll remember the crazy timing of all our birthdays meaning I got to it down to record this one on the morning of my own 36th birthday. The perfect moment to think about the passing of time, the things that have changed me, the things I'll be taking onwards and the things I'll be leaving behind.

As I say in the episode, I'm not really sure who this one is for and I didn't plan or script as much as I usually would for a solo episode. But I've always used this show as a platform to share our life in real time - highs and lows - and if anyone else out there happens to find comfort, revelations or solidarity in even a tiny part of it, that's a huge bonus. Do let me know if you found anything helpful or comforting, it means so much to hear how things reach you all. And in the meantime, I hope you're having an amazing week and are seizing your yay!

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It is such a great privilege to have a community (or a yayborhood) sharing in our big life milestones and moments (especially over many years for some of you who have so kindly stuck around) and I’m sure it will shock you just as much as me to hear that this week marks ONE YEAR since Teddy came into the world. Weirdly it feels like I’ve been his Mum for both a minute and a lifetime all at once, but either way I can barely remember the person I was before and I think you can all tell it’s been my favourite chapter by far.

If you follow on socials, you’ll know the first birthday milestone has come along with a very timely twelve month regression so we are back in the thick of sleep deprivation in another twist of the rollercoaster of parenthood... but it’s equally felt like a privilege (and a safe space to be honest) to share the tougher times over the past year as much as the good ones with you all. Teddy's actual birthday is tomorrow at the time of recording and we’re having a little party on the weekend, so you’ll get bombarded on all fronts with his sweet little face!

As you know I love to do, I’ll be marking the occasion with a bit of a dear diary reflection episode on the biggest things I’ve learnt over the past year and taking stock of how it all feels, but that will be coming next week. Because I’ve had a few DMs asking about our birth story (plus I personally don’t really remember much of that episode having recorded in the thick of the newborn haze), I thought it’d be a nice throwback moment to re-release this one first to see what’s changed, what hasn’t and how far we’ve come.

I don’t know if any other parents experience this, but I still can’t quite believe he’s real life and I look back at all the photos and videos of those very early days ALL the time, so can’t wait to re-listen to the chat we had with Sophie from Australian Birth Stories. If you have any questions for the next episode, feel free to shoot me an email or DM as always. Thank you again for embracing this new chapter with us and celebrating our little almost one year old! Hope you enjoy.

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Given International Women’s Day fell on a Saturday this year, consider this week’s conversation our annual dedication episode. And I don’t think we could have a more perfect guest for the occasion than the woman currently holding the highest position that exists in one of the most traditionally male dominated landscapes in Australia… the AFL.

We are so lucky to have Laura Kane with us today, the Executive General Manager of Football at the AFL since August 2023. We so often talk about how you don’t need to know where you’ll end up because the job you’ll have might not even exist - well, Laura’s did exist only just not for women until she became the first woman to take the reins then build an executive team around her that’s 40% women and counting.

Getting her Mum to write a letter to her school so she could play Auskick and not netball, Laura’s love for footy has been longstanding but coming up before women could play football professionally, she started her career in law instead. This was not the only thing we had in common either - with a career as stellar as hers, I expected her to be much older but we both grew up in the 90s era of Nokia 3310s and it humbled me immensely to realise we’re the same age.

As a powerful, intelligent, but incredibly down to earth woman (who I actually met through Ang so that gives you an idea of the kind of legend she is), I was and still am fangirling hard so I’ll stop myself there before I read out her entire life story and she tells it way better herself. I hope you are as inspired by Laura as I am.

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Welcome to part two of our very hotly awaited episode of Seize the Bebe on starting solids. In this part, we cover one of the most overwhelming parts of the process - introducing allergens - with Nourishing Bubs founder and paediatric dietitian, Olivia Bates, who answers your questions in such great detail sharing her wealth of knowledge to put our minds at ease. If you haven't listened to part one, we cover all the introductory basics there (when do we start? how many meals? how much food? what is baby led weaning?) so I recommend you listen to that first. Hope you enjoy as much as I did!

LINKS

Visit Nourishing Bubs here.

Use the code TEDDY10 for a discount if you are interested in ordering!

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Welcome to a very hotly awaited episode of Seize the Bebe and by hotly awaited, I mean we had SO many submitted questions from you guys but possibly even more from me. Pretty much every area of parenting is overwhelming, sometimes confusing and energy intensive but starting solids is right up there at the top of the list in the early days so it’s one of the first topics I wanted to cover.

Most of you also follow along on socials, so you will probably already have heard about Nourishing Bubs and how game changing it has been for Teddy’s introduction to solids but if you don’t know, it’s a beautiful Australian business using 100% Aussie fruits & veggies to create individually portioned frozen baby food purees and foods plus a groundbreaking allergen intro pack. They’re delivered to your door and make it SO easy to start the process of introducing foods, taking away so much stress and freeing up your time.

But possibly even more stressful is also wading through timing, volume, methods and so much other information - even now I still have so many questions on a daily basis. SO I am THRILLED that the incredible Nourishing Bubs founder, paediatric dietitian nutritionist Olivia Bates joins us for this episode to share her wealth of knowledge.

As always, every baby is different and every family has different preferences, priorities and needs so we’ll be talking general information but of course it will vary for each individual. I’ll also include links to everything we mention in the show notes but in the meantime I hope you find this as useful as I did!

LINKS

USE THE CODE TEDDY10 FOR A DISCOUNT.

Visit Nourishing Bubs here.

 
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Many of our guests on the show tell incredible stories of trying lots of different things they don’t really love before stumbling on a particular yay that changes their life. What has fascinated me about George Hartley since the day we first met is that he’s loved then left lots of different yays to end up in his current chapter in an industry he originally knew absolutely nothing about. I was first introduced to George as the co-founder and Chief Marketing/Product Officer of Bluethumb, Australia's largest online art marketplace, which he describes as “Soundcloud but for art”. Launched in 2012, Bluethumb connects over 20,000 Australian artists with collectors, facilitating the sale of more than 100,000 original artworks to date with around half a million dollars worth of art currently for sale.

How he has completely revolutionised a whole industry and grown the business to extraordinary heights just recently launching in the USA is a fascinating story in itself. I did not, however, expect to ask about his background in the art world and hear him say, “oh no, I know nothing about it”. While I’ve always been a proponent of finding a business idea out of a gap in the market that you experience yourself as a consumer, George is an amazing example that you can absolutely reverse engineer a business without any prior connections, qualifications or a foot in the door (and that this can often be an advantage). Instead, he began by studying marketing and accountant at uni, had a whole marketing career which he then left to do music full time, which he in turn left to do a Master’s in computer science and work in UX design all before Bluethumb began… I LOVED our first chat at a founders dinner and have been wanting to continue it, so you guys just happen to benefit too! I hope you enjoy as much as I did.

LINKS

Visit Bluethumb here.
Follow George here.
Listen to Art in My Home podcast here.

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It’s not the first time we’ve touched on this week’s topic or guest on the show, but you’ll all remember how absolutely CAPTIVATED I was by the Thai cave rescue when I first read Against All Odds, so I am SO excited to be able to revisit it again. Our conversation with Dr Richard Harris a few years ago is still one of our most popular episodes ever, so I’ve been hoping to get his friend, diving partner, co-author and co-Australian of the Year on the show for a while and I'm thrilled to have Craig Challen here today.

Just as Harry was, Craig is wildly humble about his pivotal role in one of the most incredible stories in recent human history. It's as mind blowing as ever hearing the details of how the unique combination of his passion and profession was just what the world needed to pull off the impossible - I don’t think you can ever hear this story enough times or be any less inspired by its details!

As always, while many of us met Craig through the media during the time, I also loved going through the journey it took to get him there from country WA through a career as a vet before finding his love for technical cave diving. As you’ll hear, he truly epitomises many themes we love to explore on Seize the Yay with such an interesting perspective on what he considers to be a necessary divide between work and hobbies. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did!

LINKS

You can book Craig Challen to speak here.
You can buy Against All Odds here.

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Welcome to BIZ - the podcast that's rewriting the rules of work for a new generation.

Join Em Vernem (ambitious but efficient), Michelle Battersby (launched Bumble APAC) and Soph Hirst (ex-Google) as they tackle everything from dealing with difficult bosses to knowing if your side hustle can become your career.

In this first episode:

Asking for a pay rise is about as comfortable as explaining to your boss why you've been late three times this week. But what if there was a way to do it that actually works?

Biz career coaches Michelle Battersby and Soph Hirst to share their proven framework for getting what you want at work (spoiler: don't mention your expensive oat latte habit). 

Plus, they bust the myths about asking every year, using other job offers as leverage, and what to do if you get a 'no'.

Consider this your cheat sheet to having the money conversation - minus the awkward sweating.

Sign up to the BIZ newsletter here 

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I mentioned the crazy revelation in our last episode that our first was back in 2018 making 2025 our seventh year. And that makes this one of many beautiful full circle moments as we welcome back our first guest EVER, the inimitable Lisa Messenger, without whom the show would not actually exist. I so often talk about sliding doors moments and sometimes those come in the form of a person taking a leap of faith on you that changes your life forever. Lisa said yes when we hardly knew each other, I had zero proof of concept, and was so green in business so I’ll always be grateful to her and just reminding all of you to always ask because you never know who might say yes…

What’s even more special about this one is that while Lisa has been back a few times, we’ve now added motherhood to the bonds of our friendship AND pathways to family that transcend DNA. Lisa was just 3 years into trying when we first spoke, but 18 rounds of IVF would follow until, 2922 days after starting trying, Lisa welcomed her beautiful son Hugo into the world via surrogacy. Being adopted, I have always been so invested in making less traditional pathways to family more accessible, so PORED over the incredible book Lisa and her wonderful surrogate, Sarah Megginson, co-authored, The Power of Two. They broke their hearts all the way open to share every detail of their experience and we are SO lucky to have them BOTH on the show today.

I’ll let them tell you more themselves but I personally was so curious about the mechanics and logistics of surrogacy with it still being rarely spoken and perhaps a bit stigmatised. On the chance it might reach even one or two of you who needed a scrap of new information or a glimmer of hope, it felt perfect for Seize the Bebe and I hope you enjoy as much as I did


LINKS

You can follow Lisa here.
You can follow Sarah here.
You can buy the book here.

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