Seize the Yay

This week’s guest epitomises why I LOVE doing this podcast so much and, for all its downsides, embrace the potential for connection that social media allows us in this day and age. We actually met THROUGH the yayborhood after this guest became our number one purchaser of quote of the day Flip Books and the support has been unwavering ever since…

I don’t know how we actually got onto his incredible work, but it somehow emerged that Simon Morriss went from being an architect to becoming the CEO of an incredible biotech company and when I found out about his amazing work identifying diseases through a very simple, noninvasive saliva-based test, called geneType, I just HAD to share it with you all. After becoming friends over the interwebs for years we finally sat down and chatted about the incredibly work that he is doing. I hope you love it! 

The GRAZIA ARTICLE

Find out more about GENETIC TECHNOLOGIES

+ Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah

+ Join our Facebook community here

+ Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

+ Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah

+ Join our Facebook community here

+ Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I am so excited about this week’s guest having followed her story (and had her on our ultimate wish list) for many years now. Some of you may already know her, but if not, Sam Bloom is a world champion surfer, adventure traveller, best-selling author, neurology nurse and mother of three boys whose story also became a global hit movie, Penguin Bloom. That heartbreaking story begins in 2013 when Sam was paralysed in a terrifying accident in Thailand when she fell through a rotting balcony and it was the unlikely arrival of a beautiful magpie chick, Penguin, that helped her gruelling recovery back in Australia. The photos captured by her photographer husband, Cameron, were later made into a book written alongside legendary author Bradley Trevor Grieve and then became the basis of Penguin Bloom starring Naomi Watts.

Having pored over Penguin Bloom many times, it was surreal to be able to hear Sam chat so candidly about grief and redefining joy in real time – she is so refreshingly honest about the defining trauma in her life and that the challenges endure everyday. But what I also loved was having the chance to also ask Sam about all the other parts of her life that perhaps don’t relate so much to the story many know her for. I could go on forever but I’ll let Sam tell you the rest herself – this is one of my favourite chats to date and I am so grateful for her time. I hope you enjoy as much as I did!

Follow Sam Bloom here

+ Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah

+ Join our Facebook community here

+ Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

+ Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah

+ Join our Facebook community here

+ Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lovely yayborhood, I am SO excited about this week’s episode – you’ve probably seen snippets here and there of our recording and filming day, but our full chat is finally ready for you. As you’ve heard me say many times, the thing I love most about Seize the Yay (and the random collection of things I get to call a job) is the people I’m lucky enough to meet and one I’m still pinching myself about is today’s incredible guest – Rodrigo Pizarro, the CEO of L’Oréal Australia and New Zealand.

Wayyy back in the lawyer days, if you asked me what my ultimate dream job would be, I always said I’d love to go in-house at somewhere amazing and dynamic like L’Oréal. In true Seize the Yay form, 10 years later I did end up getting to spend time at HQ and work with this amazing business but just not quite in the way I’d expected and I never dreamed I’d get to whisk the CEO away for a whole day to share a day in his life with the yayborhood.

And yet here we are sitting down with one of the most interesting people I’ve ever chatted to who is, in so many different ways, the opposite of what you might expect of a high-flying corporate running a traditional, heritage brand – the first time I met Rodrigo I was seated next to him at an event and was SO nervous but we ended up gas-bagging about our travels and favourite languages like old friends. From his life of working around the world to his passion for motorcycling and then his baller tattoos to his refusal to wear ties to the office, Rodrigo pushes the boundaries in the best kinds of ways and continues to lead some incredible innovations and new directions for L’Oréal Australia and New Zealand that you’ll hear all about.

You can watch the day in the life video on socials, which we had so much fun making, but I also hope you enjoy getting into the nitty gritty of what a CEO actually does, the rollercoaster of a journey to get from a product sales position all the way up the ladder, parenting, travelling and everything in between! Huge thank you also to his right hand woman, Kelly Fallarmytage, for making it all happen. Ladies and Gentlemen, Rodrigo Pizarro…

WATCH THE DAY IN THE LIFE VIDEO HERE

+ Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah

+ Join our Facebook community here

+ Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

+ Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah

+ Join our Facebook community here

+ Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are sneaking another guest episode this week, as it is currently Men’s Health Week from 13th to 19th of June 2023. As you know, while men’s health, women’s health or anyone’s health (and the surrounding conversations) are important every day of the year, we do a dedicated episode each June to specifically remind us all of some of the major men's health statistics, challenges and resources and they’ve been so helpful to me even as a woman – as a wife, sister, friend, colleague, the list goes on…

I don’t think we could be graced with two better guests for the occasion than the absolute legends we have with us today, both of whom have been on the show before but who are on together this time because they have since become friends AND co-authored a BOOK! Back for his third appearance is psychiatrist, mental health advocate and former calf club member, Dr Kieran Kennedy and for his second appearance, publisher, author and former editor of Men’s Health Magazine, Scott Henderson. 

If you’ve been listening for a while, you’ll already know what amazing work they are each doing for men’s health (and health generally) as well as being fabulous role models in the realm of redefining modern masculinity and men’s mental health conversations. But now, they have collated it all into the handbook we’ve literally talked about the world needing –perfectly titled, The MANual: a practical guide to life, health and happiness. From the science behind nutrition and training to the anecdotal surrounding relationships, body image, sexuality… they literally cover it all. I’ll let them tell you more about it themselves because I’m already not doing them justice. This was SUCH a delight – funny, moving, reflective… I hope you enjoy as much as I did.

>>> GET YOUR COPY OF THE MANUAL HERE <<<

+ Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah

+ Join our Facebook community here

+ Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!

Thank you to this week's partner in yay, HP Australia!

* Disclaimer Never Run Out: Based on plan usage, Internet connection to eligible HP printer, valid payment method, email address, and delivery service in your geographic area.

**Instant Ink Savings (ink): Based on monthly subscription cost of HP Instant Ink 700-page plan without purchase of additional sets of pages compared to cost per page (CPP) to print ISO/IEC 24711 pages on most HP, A4 colour inkjet cartridge printers and MFPs. Comparative printers are priced at or below the most expensive HP Instant-Ink eligible printer in each country using local currency, as of September 2022. Sale prices not considered for this study. Average CPP per country used to determine percent savings versus CPP for HP Instant Ink. HP Ink Advantage printers, printers sold through contract, and other printers which only use XL cartridges excluded due to non-standard hardware & supplies model. Keypoint Intelligence October 2022 study commissioned by HP. Printers selected by market share in IDC Quarterly Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker – Final Historical 2022Q2. www.keypointintelligence.com/HPInstantInk.

HP offers a free trial for Instant Ink, CLICK HERE.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I’m so thrilled to have someone who may be a familiar face to you on the show this week, but whose full story you may not know in as much depth - my favourite kind of episode. You might have seen Rachael Coopes through her role in the cult SBS series Life Support, the internationally-renowned McLeod’s Daughters or All Saints, or even as a regular presenter on Playschool. Talk about a diverse pathyay, she is also an award winning playwright, professional yogi which we barely had time to touch on, and a published author with her brand new book Paris for Beginners coming out just recently documenting her time at, get this, Philippe Gaulier’s renowned Paris clown school, which counts the likes of Sacha Baron Cohen and Emma Thompson among its alumni!!!

Add single parenthood, taking time off after discovering a tumour, moving countries and everything in between.., buckle in this is a big juicy one and I hope you enjoy as much as I did!

Follow Rachael here

>>> GET YOUR COPY OF PARIS FOR BEGINNERS HERE <<<

+ Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah

+ Join our Facebook community here

+ Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

+ Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah

+ Join our Facebook community here

+ Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lovely yayborhood, this episode has been a long time coming with a guest I’ve admired for many years now. We have one of those relationships unique to our modern digital life where we haven’t actually met in person but have followed each other’s work and lives for some time, share many mutual friends and had just SO much to talk about… 

As you’ll hear, that means I strayed all over the place from my usual structured thinking I just had so many questions on so many topics and once you learn a bit more about Tarang Chawla, you’ll understand why. Tarang is not only a fellow former lawyer but also an author, keynote speaker, anti-violence campaigner, gender equality and mental health advocate, former political candidate, and even a Commissioner at the Victorian Multicultural Commission, so it was impossible to feel like I did anything more than scratch the surface and I suspect this won’t be our only chat on the show. 

Just a content warning, we also cover one of the catalysts for his incredible activism being the tragic murder of his younger sister Niki at the age of 23 by her then-husband as well as the impact of this on his own mental health briefly discussing suicide, so please take care while listening. How Tarang has come through this horrific tragedy and dedicated himself to Nikki’s legacy with anti-violence campaigning is nothing short of inspiring and opens up a much more layered and complex conversation about joy in life than is usually the case on the show, which I hope lands in the ears of those who might need to hear it.

Follow Tarang here

Find out more about L'Oréal's Stand Up Against Street Harassment campaign

RESOURCES

Lifeline 13 11 14

1800RESPECT 1800 737 732

+ Announcements on Insta at @spoonful_of_sarah

+ Join our Facebook community here

+ Subscribe to not miss out on the next instalment of YAY!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.