Seize the Yay

Do you ever meet someone and just know in your heart that they are pure goodness all the way to their bones? If you know anything about Tim Conolan’s work you could probably already guess that he's one of those people, but meeting him in person last year absolutely confirmed it and I’ve continued to be in awe of him ever since.

Tim is one of those people whose why has always been the same but whose how has evolved through MANY different amazing iterations (like all the best ways to yay do) from a fashion label all the way through to a decade long and very successful career as a DJ. You might not expect that he’d end up founding a children’s charity but once you see the common thread of his deep desire to make people happy, it all makes sense as it always does in the end.

In 1998 he founded TLC for Kids after an incredibly moving encounter (that brings me to tears that you’ll hear about in the episode) seeing that many sick kids fell through the cracks left by other organisations. TLC now gives relief to sick children and their families with no restriction on particular illnesses or conditions and has created life changing Distraction Boxes to see children through uncomfortable or frightening procedures, an incredible TLC Ambulance and rapid response service that have been used over 8 million times.

If you listen to Tim and don’t want to help him change the world and donate all your money to him I’d be surprised, and I hope that some of you do - he’s a truly extraordinary human recognised by so many accolades but also by the impact he’s making on millions of Aussies. I hope he inspires you as much as he inspires me.

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Our fourth instalment of Yays of our Lives reflecting on time, pace and prioritising.

As mentioned in Yayborhood watch:

• Find Vinspiration Foundation here
• Find Reid William waterbottles here

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Today’s guest was actually a yayborhood nomination from one of our most active contributors affectionately known as Dana Saurus or Dana Pham. Dana so generously sent a whole list of suggestions for guests a while back and this is one that has finally come to fruition. She is the founder of Junior Doctor’s Corner and is a doctor herself working to provide much needed support to junior doctors entering the world of medicine and discuss important topics that are often dismissed or taboo. JDC also has its own podcast so make sure to check that out if there are any other young doctors listening in.

Her nomination also hails from the medical world but is not only a doctor, he is one of those rare species who has completed degrees in both medicine AND law – the holy grain combination that very few globally dare to tackle. And if that weren’t enough of a superhuman feat, Dinesh Palipana is also a quadriplegic and disability advocate becoming only the second person with quadriplegia to graduate as a doctor in Australia and the first with a spinal cord injury. Despite a life changing car accident in 2010, Dinesh now works in the Emergency Department of Gold Coast University Hospital and has co-foundedDoctors with Disabilities with two of his colleagues. He tells the story so beautifully himself so I’ll stop there but I hope you find his zest for life and indelible positivity as uplifting as I did.

Ps The audio is a bit dicky at times – the joys of Zoom strike again – so excuse a few spots where it’s a bit muffled.

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Third episode of Yays of our Lives this week and we have our first actual member of the yayborhood join us for a Yayborhood Watch chat. The wonderful Kate Rider shares her journey with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) which led to her founding The Orange Elephant to help her and others redefine productivity, success and the concept of "small" achievements.

Getting more into a flow with this new yayborhood segment each week, thank you so much to everyone for your contributions - please keep them coming! I'm so used to writing and editing it all myself and it's been LOVELY having you all involved in editorial decision - I can't wait to watch this segment continue to grow.

>> COMPLETE THE SURV-YAY IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY <<

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Hello lovely yayborhood, coming to you from back in lockdown but the yay lives on in your ears! So, glad you’re enjoying the first versions of Yays of our Lives, I can’t wait to see it blossom as a product of this beautiful community! Our plans have been a little delayed AGAIN now that I can’t be on the road this week recording some of our yayborhood heroes in person, but if these crazy times are teaching us anything, it’s to be flexible and open minded so we will get there in the end!

Meanwhile, back with another guest, and this one was requested by several different people in the Surv-yay. And it was super convenient for me that you all wanted to hear from a ballerina because as many of you know I was a ballerina I my first life and have actually followed this particular dancer all through her career so it was pure joy to pick her brains about going pro. Yep, we are lucky enough to have Principal Artist, Amy Harris, joining us on the show - that’s the highest rank you can get at the Australian Ballet of which there are currently only 12 in total. You’ll probably be able to hear how magical it was for me to be transported back into the world of ballet and I hope you share some of the magic learning about its workings too.

As always, I love to dive into a world that might be new to some of you and leave you with some new knowledge of how it works and terminology BUT I fear I may have slipped too easily back into some things forgetting that it’s not common knowledge so if I did leave anything out, please excuse me and shoot us any DMs to clarify. There's some footage of her dancing below too, so you can truly appreciate the absolute athleticism, grace and beauty of Amy dancing and really appreciate the art form that I can’t WAIT to see return to the stage this Feb. Assuming things go to plan, the Australian Ballet will be back for its first show in a year with Summertime at the Ballet on 25th Feb at Margaret Court Arena (so cool!!) - link to tickets is below. I hope you enjoy as much as I did!

>>> WATCH AMY DANCING HERE <<<

>>> BUY SUMMERTIME AT THE BALLET TICKETS HERE <<<

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Your second instalment of Yays of Our Lives (which is still taking shape week to week) chatting about the importance of baby steps and going gently on yourself in the process of something new (i.e. a pep talk to myself about getting a new segment off the ground).

While we iron out the process of taking submissions for Yayborhood Watch and then collating those community hero stories to share with you, we also threw in a few uplifting stories from the news to keep the ball rolling. (Please send any submissions and requests to [email protected])

And finally, another pulls-on-your-heartstrings Recommen-yay-tion that reminds you why humanity is so beautiful. If you're a fellow Melbournian and freshly back in lockdown this week, use it on this movie!

>> COMPLETE THE SURV-YAY IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY <<

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Well, it’s our second episode back and the first one I recorded for this year and I can already say (like I’ve said many times before) that making the show has helped me so immensely that if none of you listened it’d still be so worthwhile. And that’s something I’ve found so liberating about podcasting not being so visibly measured as social media – you just make the content you find valuable and the engagement is a bonus rather than reverse engineering what you think will go well (which can be tempting to do)…

EXCEPT for our guest this week who is one of my favourite people on the internet – mine and the favourite of 14 million other people in her community and for good reason. Without looking further into it and perhaps because of the way the landscape has evolved since she started out (back on blogspot in 2011, mind you), you might assume Emily Skye’s great success was overnight and accidental, but you’d be terribly mistaken. From the way she has navigated her still ongoing postpartum journey with her second child (but really from how she approaches everything she does), her refreshing approach to authenticity, balance and strength stands out from the rest (and has just been channeled into her brand-new postpartum program that you’ll hear all about). Diving a little deeper into her story reveals the decades of challenge, grit and hard work that has led her to where she is now.

I was so fascinated by how much I hadn’t heard even after viciously scouring the Internet from her younger years in commission housing and severe bullying to the arsenal of skills she has across make up, hair, photography, editing and everything she uses in her business today and she laughed about how often she shares her earlier years, but how only the glossy later years seems to stick. So, I thoroughly enjoyed hearing more about her resourcefulness, endearing self-awareness and delightful self-confessed weirdness. She also happens to be the co-founder of James Cosmetics, my FAVOURITE EVER eye masks among the many over things she has going on. I hope you enjoy getting to know her as much as I did.

USE THE CODE SEIZETHEYAY to get ONE MONTH FREE on Emily Skye Fit's app

Well, it’s our second episode back and the first one I recorded for this year and I can already say (like I’ve said many times before) that making the show has helped me so immensely that if none of you listened it’d still be so worthwhile. And that’s something I’ve found so liberating about podcasting not being so visibly measured as social media – you just make the content you find valuable and the engagement is a bonus rather than reverse engineering what you think will go well (which can be tempting to do)…

EXCEPT for our guest this week who is one of my favourite people on the internet – mine and the favourite of 14 million other people in her community and for good reason. Without looking further into it and perhaps because of the way the landscape has evolved since she started out (back on blogspot in 2011, mind you), you might assume Emily Skye’s great success was overnight and accidental, but you’d be terribly mistaken. From the way she has navigated her still ongoing postpartum journey with her second child (but really from how she approaches everything she does), her refreshing approach to authenticity, balance and strength stands out from the rest (and has just been channeled into her brand-new postpartum program that you’ll

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You may have seen we did a little SURV-YAY at the end of last year to make sure I could take into account your feedback, suggestions and requests during the break while planning this new year's show. It was so delightful to hear that a) most of you are happy with exactly what we're already doing and b) your favourite guests were all completely different proving my very point that seizing the yay looks different for everyone. Two things that did recur a few times though were requests for more community interaction and a few more stories of people earlier on in the journey or more locally focused. So, in addition to our regular schedule, a second YAYS OF OUR LIVES segment is coming to the yayborhood.

While I got pretty bogged down working out the details and logistics, I realised the most important thing for a community episode is COMMUNITY INPUT - I really can't bring this segment to life without you guys being involved. So, instead of launching a completed concept, this episode is to run you through the ideas so far with a little preview of some of the sections to see what you think AND start getting your submissions. There's a QUOTE OF THE YAY, YAYBORHOOD WATCH and RECOMMEN-YAYTIONS all of which depend on you being involved. So please have a listen, take some notes, and flick them over to [email protected], via Instagram DM, or in the yay-borhood Facebook group to get this ball rolling!

>> COMPLETE THE SURV-YAY IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY <<

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Welcome back lovely yay-borhood! I won't talk too much as we have the first of a new more conversational segment coming soon when I’ll have many more words for you about the new year, so allow me introduce our first guest for 2021, Donald Betts – our first guest with a political background as well as the first who moved TO law to seize his yay rather than away from it. We recorded just before the break last year and I’m so glad I waited to edit and release this one because I too needed to hear this (with fresh ears) to get my motivation back and I can’t wait for you all to as well.

I am inspired by all of our guests in different ways, but occasionally I get truly bowled over and there are SO many reasons why I think Don will do the same for you – from his resolve to escape the life of gun violence and gang wars he grew up in (which very few of us can comprehend), to becoming the youngest Senator to serve in the history of Kansas, and from leaving politics to find his yay in law to the RIDICULOUSLY romantic way he speaks about meeting his wife…. But he tells it so beautifully himself with remarkable humility, self-awareness and the manners of an absolute gentleman, so I’ll stop myself there and let you listen for yourself.

>>> LISTEN TO GREENLAND THE PODCAST <<<

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RE-RELEASE - As you know, we're re-releasing a few crowd favourites from last year to keep you going during the break in case you missed them. So please ignore any time specific references, although most of our yay is evergreen so hopefully you enjoy as much as I did!

>> COMPLETE OUR 2021 SURV-YAY <<

I know some of you will be eye rolling when I say that this is one of my favourite chats to date, but I think you might agree once you actually have a listen. I’m going to have to cut myself short in this intro because there is SO much I could say about why Mark Manson is one of my favourite people in the world but the episode itself makes it clearer than I could here.

Best known as the author of ground-breaking NY Times Best Seller, The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck, I once mistook Mark’s refreshingly anti-self-help approach to life to be the opposite of seizing the yay. In fact, it’s not that he thinks we should give no fucks at all, but choose our fucks more carefully and it’s no surprise that his witty, no bullshit delivery has taken the world by storm. Like all our guests, however, Mark’s way to yay has been anything but predictable going from feeling misplaced in his Texan hometown, getting a compete ego breakdown at music school, starting his working life as a pick up artist all before becoming an author was even on the table. And yet, he’s now sold over 10 million books, changed millions of lives AND has been trusted with writing the autobiography and first ever full account of the life of Will Smith!!!

Mark is a personality of so many contrast and facets and is open about every one of them including WAY more than I probably needed to know about his bodily functions. I dare you to listen without laughing, you can definitely tell we both lost our marbles more than a few times. In between the hilarity though, there are so many deep, insightful reflections on life that I hope are as groundbreaking to you as they were to me!

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