Seize the Yay

2021 RE-RELEASE

To celebrate the launch of Flex's new book, The Success Experiment.

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The way that 2020 has unfolded has had a lot of us reflecting in ways we haven’t in years, but self-awareness, existential reflection and critical thinking about values, behaviours and perceptions has been this week’s guest jam since long before the pandemic. Few people get my brain gymnastics going like the inimitable Lillian Ahenkan, who you may know as Flex Mami, and the chat you’re about to hear was no exception.

While she is now changing how we think, do our make-up, and decorate our furniture as a self-dubbed professional opinion haver and slashie – DJ/TV host/podcaster/beauty guru/creator of Flex Factory – I loved chatting to Lil about the rollercoaster journey all of us go through finding our personal balance between conventionality and difference. As an Australian born Ghanaian woman, the societal projection of a homogenous Black woman’s experience is just one of the many layers of identity that we peel back with her incredible ability to articulate and guide multifaceted conversations. I was so captivated in exploring the different elements of our identity and the many snakeskins Flex has worn and shed herself that we went for almost two hours having a great laugh but I’ve cut the "best of" for you to enjoy. If you aren’t thinking fundamentally differently about things at the end of this, I’d be surprised!!!

Also we both used proper podcasting microphones but got VERY loud – someone mentioned the other day that sometimes my bursts of laughter deafen them a bit but someone else mentioned that sometimes the episodes are too quiet… so I’ve been doing a lot of tutorials on making the audio more even and pulling the extremes closer to the middle. As you probably know I do all the editing myself and am still learning some tricks, so thank you for the ongoing feedback and patience! Hope you enjoy!

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I don’t know if you guys experience this the same way I do, but I walk away from some episodes wanting to make lifelong friends with our guest just to spend more time around their energy and ideas. Morgan Mitchell is absolutely one of those people who is both everything you’d expect of an Olympic athlete and nothing you’d expect of an Olympic athlete all at once.

Once you hear Morgan’s incredible self-awareness, determination, and lifelong passion for sport, her success on the track makes so much sense with a string of accolades under her belt starting from the tender age of six. Two decades later, at just 26 years old, she is now preparing for her SECOND Olympics in Tokyo taking on a completely new focus swapping from the 400m to the 800m which, as she'll explain, is nowhere near as similar as you might expect. What might surprise you though is her refreshingly balanced approach to running, which makes up but one part of her identity and goals in life. In fact, it’s her commitment to maintaining interests and a busy schedule OFF the track that she credits for her success on it, encouraging all of us to remember that life is more than your career.

So you’ll hear about the Rio Olympics in 2016 but you’ll hear more about its afterparty as well as that time Shaquille O'Neil slid into her DMs, the James Cameron movie she featured in, the other forms of training she does including becoming an F45 ambassador and everything in between. I still don’t really believe she’s only 26 with such a wise and solid head on her shoulders! I hope you guys have as much of a laugh as I did!

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You may have heard me speak about Joshua Coombes in #yaysofourlives a few days ago and I’m so thrilled to say not only has his book Do Something for Nothing launched in Australia this week, he’s also joined us on the show for today’s episode. If you missed my intro on Monday, Joshua is a British hairdresser who took his skill onto the streets to give free haircuts to the homeless and, together with his passion and skill for storytelling, has created a global movement of kindness, connection and humanity.

His new book shares stories as well as before and after images of people he’s met from all over the world showing the confidence, hope and joy he brings them from taking a moment to connect. For people who often feel invisible and misunderstood in society, he’s shining such an important light on homelessness and helping break down the stigma it’s still surrounded by. He’s also encouraging us all to do something for nothing – for him, it’s by giving free haircuts but he insists that we all have a skill or talent we can share for free with others. I found him so fascinating and his stories even more captivating! Note: you’ll notice the audio changes about half way through when his airpods died with a bit of clicking just beforehand, so apologies for the glitches, but we still managed to have an amazing conversation across the globe so I’m pretty chuffed with that. I hope he makes you smile as much as he did for me!

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This #yaysofourlives episode coming to you from lockdown for the FOURTH time. To my fellow Victorians, sending you ALL my love and if you’ve been reading my dear diary reflections on socials you’ll know that I as much as anyone need the reminder to be gentle on yourselves with your response to this round. Whether you’re swinging between productivity pressure or beating yourselves up for being the opposite of productive or between sadness or frustration and guilt for enjoying parts of it or even beating yourself up for having a reaction at all because it’s only seven days long, just let go of it all and remember it’s normal to respond to abnormal situations with abnormal reactions. And if the emotions you are sitting in are nonetheless starting to feel really overwhelming, this week’s quote of the yay is one I pulled from last week’s episode with Hugh van Cuylenberg (which I’m so pleased has had an outpouring of love):

"Let everything happen to you. Beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final" - Rainer Marie Rilke.

Another one I love is from Charlie Chaplin is "Nothing is permanent in this wicked world - not even our troubles", which I needed today because I’ve been pretty flat and tired and wasn't feeling the yay when I first tried to record this ep on my own... SO I put in a last minute call to two legends that I LOVED chatting with recently who I knew could lift the energy for this episode and I'm SO glad I did!!! Lachie Bradford and Robbie Hicks are the hosts of Funny Business - a cracking podcast for free thinkers and creators exploring business culture and performance in Australia. Such a great laugh and catch up - I hope it made you smile!

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So excited to finally have our #yaysofourlives recap for you from our incredible trip to the Northern Territory a few weeks back. You’ll hear all about it in the episode, but to quickly give you some background – eight amazing women (and two fabulous men to capture photos and video) spent three days hiking 55km with 2200m of elevation across three of the twelve parts of the Larapinta Trail led by Larapinta Culture, the only Aboriginal owned and operated touring company in the area. Jungala, the owner and an elder in the region, and his grandson Perrulle (along with Nick Fife, their mate who came to help out) gave us the most eye opening and immersive few days camping in the red dirt, walking through the oldest land formations in the world and sleeping under the shooting stars. I sat down with now three-time Seize the Yay guest Samantha Gash who organised the trip under the banner of her new female adventure group, Her Trails, and Jo Nevin (one of my amazing new friends from the adventure) to give you a little insight into what it was like.

As avid trail runners, these two are also heading back in a few months to run all twelve sections of the Larapinta Trail covering 250km in a row unassisted (so carrying everything they will need with them the whole way) just to give you an idea of the powerhouses you’re about to hear from. They’ll also speak to you about the return of Relief Run that they are both working away on furiously – you may remember that my husband, Nic, and Samantha pulled together a global virtual run last year to raise over $1 million for bushfire relief and it’s back again this year to support the terrifying challenge faced by India at the moment under the pressures of COVID 19. Samantha just incidentally has crossed the whole of India on foot giving it a special place in her heart, and we’ve set up a Yayborhood team which you can join from anywhere to run anytime with us between 11-13 June. I’d be so proud to have some of you on board with us too - links below. Enjoy the cackles and reflections, I hope it brings some yay to your week!

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So excited about our guest for this episode, you all know I love finding different and heart warming stories from around the world and this was one I found randomly on Instagram. I’m so thrilled that Rob Kenney kindly agreed to join us from Seattle to share his fascinating journey from college football to salesman to YouTube influencer extraordinaire!

You may know him simply as "Dad" from the wildly popular Dad How Do I? YouTube channel teaching you how to do everyday things you may have missed out on learning from your dad. Created during the pandemic last year following conversations with his 28 year old daughter and 25 year old son, the channel has exploded to nearly three and a half million subscribers who Rob calls hid “kids” from all over the globe. You’ll hear the story of how Rob’s own dad took custody of him and his seven siblings when his mother turned to alcoholism, only to leave the family when Rob was just 14 leaving Rob to grow up in his older brother’s small caravan. You’ll also hear his extraordinary empathy for his parents and refusal to dwell on the past leading a beautiful life with his own family before this incredible plot twist in his 50s.

His is such a cool story with so many important lessons on kindness, forgiveness, the different forms of ambition and the very seize-the-yay-appropriate reminder that you never know when a new chapter you could never have imagined lies just around the corner. Rob is also a published author AND has so many other exciting things on the horizon. I hope you enjoy as much as I did!

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Today’s guest is a little ray of sunshine – I can almost hear her smile coming through my headphones. Georgie Mankey is our first nurse on the show who absolutely dispels the misconception that nursing is just where you end up if you didn’t become a doctor sharing her long-time dream of nursing in ICU and how she worked her way up there. We also cover her little hiatus from nursing to complete her yoga teacher training leading to several stints in India and even a period juggling both full time jobs before ultimately coming back to nursing as her first love.

During that time, you may have known her as Fit with Georgie where she grew quite a considerable online community around her yoga practice and healthy lifestyle. She also shares openly about why she’s taken a step back from the online world going against the grain to find a balance that makes her yay. I hope you enjoy!

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Back after a short break while we were out in the Northern Territory hiking on country along the Larapinta Trail. Soooo much to share from our transformative week without signal or devices, but I probably need a bit longer to be able to find the right words, so I’ll kick off this week with a bit of a hybrid #yaysofourlives episode that we recorded before I left.

While I know I just set you up with the three sections for this segment, this week’s guest is so fascinating that our interview was almost as long as a regular episode (and probably should have been), so today’s episode is all about the Yayborhood Watch. Our wonderful yayborhood member, Stephanie Ippel, submitted the most amazing nomination for her fellow Phillip Island local, Mat Bowtell.

You may have seen the video already of our visit to his factory on social media (and if you haven’t, watch here), but Mat goes into more depth here about starting Free 3D Hands to make assistive hand devices using 3D printers at a fraction of the cost which he then provides FREE for children around the world. His aim is to make these items at 1/1000th of the cost changing the terrifying static that 90% of the over 1 billion people in the world who needed assistance devices aren’t currently able to access them. The factory is solar powered ad the printers use recyclable plastic, recently advancing to even producing a bionic arm that costs just $100 versus the $30,000 that some equivalents cost to make. And it all unravelled during a pivot from a redundancy - the best kind of yayborhood story. I hope you enjoy as much as I did!

And thank you so much again Stephanie for the nomination, I’m relying on you all to dob in your local heroes (especially those who would never nominate themselves for the spotlight they and their work deserves), so keep your eyes peeled! Please email [email protected] with your nominations...

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What a treat we have this week with the melodious voice of Julia Stone coming to your ears – even just her speaking is one of the most beautiful sounds. Unless you’ve literally been living under a rock, you will have definitely heard some of her work (even if you didn’t realise it) including, at the very least, the ubiquitous and ARIA award-winning single, Big Jet Plane, released with her brother Angus in the same year that they won five ARIA awards from nine nominations for their incredible work.

But what I’m thrilled to be chatting with Julia about today is her brand-new album, Sixty Summers, and this episode starts with a snippet of one of the featuring songs, Break, which gives you a taste of vibrant and distinctly different sound. Thi sis her third solo album but first that wasn’t launched in between Angus and Julia releases and with the most striking departure into new styles, partnerships and even supporting visuals including a music video with Susan Sarandon and Danny Glover. You know I love getting into conversations about identity, different chapters, outgrowing your past definitions of success and finding new metrics for your happiness so what a perfect time to sit down with this wonderful artist just before this new album comes into the world. As always, it was so enlightening to hear more about the human being behind the household name - I LOVE that part of this show so much. Hopefully you all learn as much as I did about her that you might not have known and you’ll also get a juicy sneak peek of some of the music to come.

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I’m thrilled to be joined by my dear friend, Melissa Ambrosini, to celebrate the launch of her FOURTH and very much needed book, Comparisonitis. In a time where the minute details of everyone else’s lives are more visible than ever, this book is MUST-have guide to arming yourself against the dangers of continual social comparison and self-doubt.

Melissa is one of the absolute OG leaders in self-development and wellbeing growing from a Blogspot newbie over a decade ago to multiple bestselling author, podcaster with over 16 million downloads, TEDx speaker and very soon-to-be new mama. It’s quite lovely now that enough time has passed since my move out of corporate to have been able to experience multiple chapters and stages in the lives of people I have been lucky enough to connect with since the early days and I actually interviewed Melissa for her very first book just as she was at my very first speaking gig ever.

Mel has taught me so much over the years particularly around self-awareness, boundaries and continual growth and she shares so many of those lessons today. We chat everything from her fascinating earlier days as a dancer at the Moulin Rouge to the weirdest health hacks we’ve tried, the challenges of getting pregnant, and trusting the process. I hope you enjoy!

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