Seize the Yay

I’m so excited about this week’s episode because, as most of you know, I’m a die-hard crime fiction reader so I’m fangirling a bit over our guest - the wonderful Harlan Coben. As much as I consume crime novels, movies and TV shows, I’ve never actually met or spoken to one of the many authors I admire so I was bowled right over when Harlan agreed to join the show from New Jersey.

To many of you, he probably needs no introduction, but if you didn’t already know, Harlan is the #1 New York Times author of thirty one novels with over 70 million books in print worldwide published in 43 languages around the globe. If you haven’t watched Netflix hits Safe or The Stranger yet, they’re up there with my favourite shows and both are from Harlan to add to the many other screen adaptions of his work.

As part of his 14 book deal with Netflix, he has another series coming, The Woods, so keep an eye out for that. I just finished his latest book too, The Boy From The Woods, in one day - I couldn’t put it down - and was thrilled to hear from the man himself about the many years it took to make it as an author, his process for writing, his dinners with American Presidents and his normal New Jersey life as a dad. I hope you enjoy!

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Welcome back beautiful people, hope you’re all keeping safe and well. I’m so glad to be joined this week by absolute legend, Moana Hope, to share her totally refreshing approach to life, undying dedication to her family and appreciation of the little things.

She has such an incredibly interesting story and such wise words for us all on embracing what makes us different, especially in a world where we so often feel pressured to be the same or do the same as others. I found our chat to be the most delightful distraction at this crazy time, covering everything from growing up as one of 14 children, balancing her AFLW career with full time work, marrying the love of life, caring for her amazing sister Vinny and of course her recent success on Survivor All Stars.

I’ll let her tell you the rest and apologise in advance for the slightly crackly audio in parts – I’m still experimenting a bit with using video and audio and how to maintain the same quality so appreciate your patience. I’m finding so much joy in keeping bringing you a dose of yay in lots of different forms, so hope this brightens your week.

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I hope you’re all keeping safe and well and getting through iso. I’ve got another episode that was recorded before things ramped up, so again, I hope it gives you a lovely little break from these crazy times. I’ve heard this story SO many times but it never gets old, I literally met Kate when I fangirled all over her way back at a women’s event before I’d even graduated. I never imagined I’d get to speak alongside her or chat with her on a podcast, but that’s just another example of how things might not always end up how you expect them – they often end up better.

Kate started her online store, Adore Beauty, pretty much before e-commerce was even a word back in 1999 at just 21 years old after working the Clarins counter at a department store and getting frustrated with how intimidating the beauty experience was. She has now grown Adore from a garage in Murrumbeena to a hugely successful multimillion dollar beauty destination with over twenty years under her belt. She is an expert in resilience and constant innovation, with Estee Lauder saying no for FOURTEEN years before she locked them in and continues to blaze a trail in the beauty industry. She tells it straight and I absolutely love her for it – introducing, Kate Morris.

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Another week of craziness, I can’t believe how quickly things are changing. I hope you are all looking after yourselves and finding ways to get through physical distancing and time at home. While it is a very grave time for so many of us, I have been finding so much comfort in laughter and focusing on the things we still have to smile about. So, I’m going to keep bringing you as much as yay possible and you might have seen I started on Wednesday with a little yay filled humpday live lunch hour with the wonderful Gemma Watts.

After a few hilarious technical hiccups, we managed to go live on Instagram although we didn’t make it to the Facebook group AND the comments didn’t work so we couldn’t even interact as we had hoped (which is half the fun of lives) but here is the resulting audio. Gemma is an absolute hoot (and totally refreshed me with our giggles), host of her own fabulous Glow Journal podcast, creative director at Glow Journal Creative with a STUNNING new website you can check out here, copywriter, MC and so much more. I’ll let her tell you the rest – Hope you enjoy!

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I can’t believe how much has changed just since our last episode. First and foremost, I just want to send out waves of love and support into your ears – we are all being impacted in different ways, but it’s a challenging time for everyone and these either bring out the best or the worst in us so let’s all focus on looking after ourselves and one another as best we can. I still think it’s hysterical that anyone needs to be reminded to wash their hands but stay vigilant in those small ways we can contribute to protect everyone. One of the things I can still do is put little doses of yay out there for you to consume, so hopefully that keeps you from going stir crazy if you’re staying at home.

This and the next few episodes were recorded before things really ramped up so we didn’t get the chance to address coronavirus or how people are coping, but perhaps after we publish these we can do a dedicated episode if that’s what you feel would help you yay. In the meantime, here’s my second chat with an absolute ray of sunshine, Rachael Finch, about female empowerment, fashion, and the dreaded self-doubt. Rach was the very first guest I ever recorded with so if you’ve got some spare time head back to our first episode for background. And then catch up on how she now has four businesses, has renewed her Myer ambassadorship, launched one of those businesses into Myer just a few weeks ago and somehow continues to be such a positive role model for balance, motherhood and appreciating the little things.

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International Women’s Day is coming up this Sunday 8th March and I thought we’d dedicate both this episode and next to two women who embody female empowerment, equality and achievements. To be fair, every woman AND man who has generously come on the show has been incredible in a different way making it pretty much impossible for me to ever have themed “special guests” – they’re all so special. But particularly as a woman who has grown up taking the dialogue about women’s rights largely for granted and benefiting from the fight of earlier generations like my Mum’s, I always take a moment to appreciate International Women’s Day and, even if there is still work to do, how far we’ve come towards gender equality.

So, who better to join us this week than Emirates pilot, Dominique Cotte? Growing up in a town of 180 people, aviation isn’t exactly the industry you’d expect her to gravitate towards but her first flight had her hooked. The thing is, she was set on being an air hostess until her school friends suggested she set her sights on the cockpit surprising her one birthday with a flight lesson. She’s never looked back and is now an absolute boss flying for Emirates across the world.

As you know, I get SO fascinated by the details of other pathways and I LOVED finding out about qualifying on different aircraft and the first time you fly a jet. Dom shares openly about the highs and lows including the huge financial commitment of becoming a pilot, the many challenges she faced as a female in an industry that lags behind in equal representation and going from trying to blend in to wearing her red lippy and make up to fly with pride. I hope you enjoy as much as I did

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If you were following our wedding last year, you probably saw the fun we had with our amazing wedding dance choreographer Jarryd Byrne who we then passed on to Samantha Gash and Mark Wales for their wedding. He very generously organised tickets for the four of us to the second episode of the new season of Dancing with the Stars on Channel 10 where he is the professional partner to Celia Pacquola and it was an absolute BLAST, it’s such an amazing show to watch and to see it in studio was even more impressive. I was lucky to follow up a few days later with one of the judges and fellow professional dancer, Sharna Burgess, for this week’s episode.

Sharna is the fiery red head among the judges for this year but has also come from 12 seasons of Dancing with the Stars USA as a professional partner to a Backstreet Boy, an NBA player and everything in between, taking away the winning spot with Bobby Bones in season 27. Dancing since the age of five, she has lived and danced in the UK, the USA and now back home to Australia and is an absolute force to be reckoned with. She’s open, honest and refreshing reminding us yet again that things are rarely an overnight success with lots of despair, hardship and challenge along the way. But her way to yay has led her to the life of her dreams and I loved having her on to chat through it all. Hope you enjoy!

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This week’s guest is neither our first doctor nor our first guest who has experienced war zones, but is definitely our first war zone doctor to join the show. With 11 honorary doctorates, an order of Canada, and an incredible career as a physician and philanthropist, Dr Samantha Nutt is one of the most interesting and articulate people I’ve had the pleasure to chat with.

From starting out in Somalia in her early 20s with UNICEF to founding War Child Canada to help children and women affected by war through education, economic opportunities, and legal support, Samantha is an absolute force to be reckoned with and I was so delighted to have met her on Necker Island with Business Chicks last year. If you’ve been listening a while, you’ll know my interest in crime is rivalled only by my quirky interest in war, so I have been fascinated by her career and, while war is a little anti-yay on its face, you’ll hear that her pathYAY is far from it.

I also think it’s important to use the platforms we have to confront the biggest nays to yay for humanity and shine a light on those who are fighting against it so passionately. I hope you are as inspired and mobilised by Dr Nutt as I was.

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This episode has been a long time coming, but I finally sat down with my wonderful manager and absolute girlboss, Genevieve Day, founder of her own trailblazing agency, Day Management. If you’ve ever wondered about how things work in influencer land, we cover it all in this episode right back from those very early days when the market was emerging and Gen saw an opportunity to jump right in leaving her PR career behind to start her own business.

From one sole talent on her books to now a whole Day Management family, including Nic and myself, Gen has pioneered, pivoted and paved the way for incredible partnerships, campaigns and careers. There’s a lot about her way to yay that even I hadn’t heard before and plenty of behind the scenes nuggets about everything from self-doubt and the sceptics being so young and successful to buying the whole office building when things took off financially. I hope you enjoy as much as I did.

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I am SO excited about this week’s guest – I know I say that every week, but this one is truly still blowing my mind. I don’t think there are many people in Australia or anywhere for that matter who haven’t heard of the stunningly beautiful Miranda Kerr and it’s an absolute honour to have her join us from her home in LA. While she grew up in a small country town as a bit of a self-professed tomboy, Miranda started her modelling career at 13 when she won the Dolly Magazine model search in 1997 and quickly rose to prominence becoming a Victoria’s Secret Angel in 2007 as the first Aussie to earn her wings among many other career highlights that are too many to list here. In 2009, she stepped into her entrepreneurial shoes founding KORA Organics blazing a trail for over a decade now in natural beauty as well as having three beautiful children.

You’ve probably noticed I’m a long-time customer of KORA with many favourites among the certified organic face and body care range. You’ll get a complete run down of how Miranda keeps her skin so stunningly beautiful in the episode, and also hear about one of the key ingredients of the range – Noni Extract whose juices and oils Miranda has been using since childhood. I was very lucky to get an early sample of the Noni Bright Vitamin C Serum, which I’ve been using for months but I’m delighted to share that KORA Organics has also launched its powerful night equivalent, Noni Night AHA Resurfacing Serum, just last week. I’ll let Miranda tell you the rest in more detail, hope you enjoy!

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