Seize the Yay

Lovely yayborhood we’re back into our regular recording schedule and I’m SO pumped to have an epic guest for our first episode back. I had the privilege of sitting down with D'Leanne Lewis, a real estate mogul and star of Luxe Listings Sydney – many of you have probably already binged the first two seasons showing the ins and outs of one of the most cutthroat real estate markets in the world (and some seriously insane properties) and Season 3 is NOW available on Prime Video from today September 30.

D'Leanne is a powerhouse in so many ways – not only is she widely considered one of Australia’s leading real estate agents with 30 years of experience under her belt, she was also a single working mother of two at the time of recording and in the week since then has become a mother of THREE at 50 years old!!! But in what you know is my favourite kind of pathyay, she never expected to become a celebrity real estate agent or TV show star… In fact, she spent her earlier years in Johannesburg before moving to Blacktown Sydney and had never heard of Double Bay until she applied for a PA job she saw in the newspaper with Laing + Simmons as a 20 year old. Now, she is a part owner and on the board of Laing + Simmons and absolutely tearing it up on our screens…

I’ll let her tell you the rest but what an incredible pathYAY from Blacktown to Bondi and beyond!!! Don’t forget to tune into the show from today on Prime Video!

WATCH LUXE LISTINGS SEASON 3 HERE

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LISTEN TO FEASTPOD HERE

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Welcome to September lovely yayborhood you made it through winter I hope you’re excited to come out of hiberyaytion! And I can’t think of a better story to help you spring into spring than this one.

Today’s guest epitomises the idea of seizing your yay having walked away from a booming career not only to take a new direction but to LITERALLY QUIT HER JOB ALTOGETHER, BUY A BOAT, LEARN TO SAIL IT AND THEN TRAVEL AROUND THE WORLD ON IT!!! Yep, Kristina Costalos and her pilot partner, John Tilley, packed up their lives in 2021 after Melbourne’s third lockdown, used their savings to buy a yacht, learnt to sail it with no prior experience and took the actual plunge.

You might recognise Kristina from her extensive career as a news reporter covering some incredible stories across states and networks, but may not have realised the extent of her sea change! You know I’m a HUGE fan of people trying out things they’ve never before and making big, scary leaps in their life so I ADORED picking Kristina’s brains about this epic journey. Perhaps your new season might not bring about a change this big but hopefully it sparks something within you to go after that thing you’ve been dreaming about! I hope you enjoy as much as I did!

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I am so excited about today’s episode, it’s a very special one on adoption following our anonymous Q&A. Some of you may remember I was at an event recently and was partnered with a legend named Matt Purcell from Sydney who I’d never met before and somehow we figured out we were not only both adopted and both from South Korea… but from the SAME orphanage around the very same time!

I often talk about my adoption but rarely with someone with the same unique cultural story and this was so special to realise things about how I felt that I didn’t even know myself. And to hear Matt’s perspective now that he has his own biological children blew my mind! He’s also got an amazing business and career pathYAY as well which you’ll hear all about but I’ll let you all hear it from the man himself. I hope you enjoy listening and that we answered all your questions from the anonymous Q&A but feel free to submit any more that you have. Introducing, Matt Purcell… 

FOLLOW MATT HERE

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WATCH THIRTEEN LIVES ON PRIME VIDEO

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Lovely yayborhood, I hope you’re surviving the final weeks of Winter - I can’t believe how fast the year is going, but I’m so excited we’re inching closer to Spring! Thank you for all the lovely feedback on the past few weeks of episodes and the anonymous Q&A – I’m so glad last week’s fertility and IVF episode helped some of you, wasn’t Erin just an amazing woman?

The adoption episode is coming to you next week, but speaking of incredible women, I’ve squeezed another amazing story in between this week. I heard about today’s guest through her brother who happens to be our editor here at Seize the Yay – HUGE shout out to Sam Blacker at the Podcast Butler if anyone needs anything audio related – he is literally a LIFE SAVER and one of my favourite people, so it's no surprise that his sister Aimee is just as much of a legend.

Aimee Blacker started out as a paediatric occupational therapist even after not actually knowing what occupational therapy was until she finished high school. She’s one of those amazing examples of not really knowing where you want to end up meaning you’re open-minded enough to stumble upon where you were supposed to end up all along. She is the Co-founder and Director of Surfing the Spectrum, a not-for-profit Surf Therapy initiative working to positively impact the lives of families, and their children with Autism. In anticipation of their next fundraiser this Saturday 20th August, I just had to scream from the rooftops about the transformative work she and her team are doing so I hope you are as inspired and moved as I am.

Raffle Tickets: https://surfingthespectrum.rallyup.com/surfnturfraffle 

Donate/buy event tickets: https://surf-n-turf.raisely.com/ 

The website: www.surfingthespectrum.org 

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Lovely yayborhood, today’s guest is special for so many different reasons not least because we were born just three days apart and have so much in common. You’ll hear me say I think we’d be dear friends if we lived in the same city, and I’ve admired this amazing woman for many years from afar.

Like many of our guests, you may have first heard about Erin Holland as Miss World Australia 2013 but there is so much more depth and detail to her pathYAY that somehow flies under the radar. For example, she not only has an incredible voice she’s actually a classically trained soprano singer, graduated with a Bachelor of Classical Voice from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music is also qualified in clarinet, music theory, jazz, tap and initially dreamt of being on Broadway.

Also like many guests, she hasn’t ended up exactly where she expected but is seizing all her yay in presenting, TV, ambassadorships and the coolest role ever with the Pakistan Super League – her experience working in such a different culture deserves a WHOLE separate episode (which I actually think we’ll do next time she’s over there). But, as promised in the anonymous Q&A episode, it’s her journey with fertility and IVF that we’re here for today.

This is one of the only podcasts Erin has done on the topic since first opening up earlier in the year about her challenges with conceiving and the IVF process and I am so honoured she shares so openly and honestly about what it’s involved physically, mentally and emotionally. I’ll let you hear the rest from her, but I hope you learn as much as I did.

FOLLOW ERIN HERE

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I’m so excited to introduce you to Anna Podolsky for so many reasons – the parallels in parts of our stories, her amazing business because the products are actually incredible but also because her work involves floofy puppies and that’s just the biggest yay of all. After immigrating from the Ukraine, Anna has been a successful professional gymnast, an international management consultant with the prestigious Bain & Co around the world and now founder of a booming pet food start up, Lyka Petfood, changing puppers’ lives from the inside out.

She has some fascinating insights about the influence of immigrant parents on choosing your pathway, living and working overseas and a shared passion for languages, and starting a business when you stumble upon a gap in the market then grow to an empire of over 100 staff and counting. She is humble, intelligent and so interesting and I hope you enjoy as much as I did.

Anna has also generously given the yayborhood 20% off your first Lyka box if you’re keen to try it out which Paul highly recommends!!! Click below!

VISIT LYKA'S WEBSITE

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Thank you for your patience, yayborhood!! We're finally BACK after an unexpected break. I was so anal about having enough episodes pre-recorded to avoid any down time on the show while we were on the honeymoon but then ended up losing my voice as soon as we got back! It lingered much longer than I would have liked, so had to take a break anyway - really appreciate you waiting so patiently!

We had originally planned for this #yaysofourlives episode to cover the post-honeymoon reflections and some new yayborhood watch items, but I randomly did a little anonymous Q&A on socials over the weekend (you may have seen this new thing going around) and ended up with a lot of overspill. I count myself very lucky that you all ask such genuinely curious, kind and respectful questions (thank you all for being so lovely) and ended up with more than I could answer adequately on Insta, so I thought we'd finish those off in an episode then do an Egypt debrief next time.

In true Sarah style, I didn't even finish those off but got through 4/6 broader topics and this was one of my favourite "reflection episodes" to date - the questions were so thought provoking. I was going to just monologue, but Ang makes everything so much more fun and she brought much more depth to the responses adding her own insights as well.

I've listed the questions and grouped double ups IN THIS POST (it was too long to write here) that we did get to in this particular episode in order below, so you can skip ahead to yours if you want to (there are a few I've answered before but still get asked, so if you've heard it before just skip past). I'll also list the ones we'll cover next week and hopefully you find some interesting nuggets in there too.

Again, so grateful for the beautiful yayborhood you've all grown into - you are such a joy to create this show for and give me so many opportunities for growth and introspection. Hope you're all having a wonderful week and are seizing your yay!

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