Seize the Yay

This episode has been a long time in the making and even longer since I’ve admired these two both separately and together. Guy and Jules Sebastian are two of the world’s biggest legends and the sweetest couple to have spent time with. With almost twenty years together, I thought they’d make the perfect guests for a power couple episode going all the way back to their teenage days when they met in little old Adelaide singing together. Yep, Jules sings too - one of many behind the scenes surprises - and while many of you know Guy as the winner of the first Australian Idol in 2003, he actually started out studying Medical Radiation before thankfully returning to his great gift for music.

Since Australian Idol, Guy is the only Australian male artist to achieve six number one singles and nine of his singles have been certified multi-platinum including the 11x platinum Battlescars, the beginnings of which you’ll hear him sing in the show. He even holds a record that Ed Sheeran is yet to beat and yet remains incredible humble, warm and grounded as you’ll hear. Jules is equally as grounded (and grounding of their beautiful family) while also forging her own successful career as a stylist, presenter, host of Tea with Jules and an incredible philanthropist (something they enjoy pursuing together, with the Sebastian Foundation) – I have so admiration for her and as you’ll hear Guy does too. You’re in for a ripper almost hour and a half with some deep behind the scenes reflections, random tangents about family, Uber Eats and Guy’s original demo CDs and of course signature Seize the Yay cackles.

Of course, knowing I would be recording this at their home studio with ALL the fancy equipment, I upgraded my usual set up with a new adapter so they wouldn’t have to share a microphone. The sound is a little different to usual – of course it happened with the Sebastians, I’m such a flipping noob – but hopefully you will enjoy it all the same.

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Welcome back to the second episode we recorded over in the West during our quick visit to Perth. In case anyone has been waiting for an example of someone who didn’t have to leave the law to find their yay, my dear friend Amy Barber is your woman. As you’ll hear, her legal career would have been my dream career if business hadn’t fallen into my lap and I am continually in awe of her resilience, open-mindedness and sense of social justice. While she too started out in corporate law at the same firm as two time Seize the Yay guest Samantha Gash for whom we were both recently bridesmaids, Amy shifted quickly towards the realm of international and humanitarian law to build one of the coolest careers I’ve encountered.

Amy’s first step out of corporate was a dramatic one into the United Nations as a prosecutor in the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. From there, she has worked in East Timor, Cambodia and Liberia and developed a keen interest in military law in the process. On returning home to Australia to settle down with her husband and start a family, she has also joined the Army Reserves part time as a legal officer (now officially Captain Barber) and works full time as legal counsel for the Australian Red Cross so also has some insights into the bushfire relief work the organisation has been doing. (In her spare time, she teaches yoga in a women's prison - I mean, seriously). She is endlessly fascinating and I hope you enjoy as much as I did.

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Thank you all so much to everyone around the world who participated in the Relief Run over the weekend. There were over 18,000 of us running in almost 200 countries and we raised over $1 million for the Red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery fund. Special thanks to those of you who joined our Seize the Yay community runs, this yayborhood continues to blow me away with your generosity and spirit.

This episode worked out with such perfect timing, I’m delighted to have our dear friend and legend Cam Cranley on the show to talk about his career as a firefighter. We’ve been trying to tee this up for months and months, but it worked out to align with a time when our interest in understanding the role of firies is more relevant than ever. I thought it would be good to get some understanding of what our firefighters have been facing, especially because we often take emergency services for granted until we need them most. And of course, we covered both the serious and the more lighthearted including Cam’s moment to shine as Mr May in the annual firefighters calendar and season 2 of the Bachelorette alongside former STY guests Georgia Love and Lee Elliott.

Cam is basically a human Labrador and is one of the few people who talks as fast as me, so I hope you enjoy as much as I did!

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I hope you all enjoyed last week’s early first episode and that Lisa, Samantha and I weren’t too delirious for you to take something from it. Since then, the Relief Run has raised over HALF A MILLION DOLLARS for the Red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery Fund with over 8000 people participating all over the world. Hopefully see some of you at our group runs this weekend, I’ll chat more about that at the end of the show.

For now, this episode is 2020's original first one back with the wonderful Jeremy Muijs (the pronunciation of which you’ll understand better after you listen). Unlike many of our guests, I hadn’t met Jeremy before our chat but as you’ll hear, we got along like old friends. Neither he nor his brother, Keston, started out in beauty or wellness but in true Seize the Yay fashion their way to yay took many unexpected twists and turns leading them to co-found one of my favourite beauty brands, Grown Alchemist. Despite beginning way before wellness was really part of our daily vernacular and natural beauty had become the booming trend it is today, they pioneered a holistic scientific approach to skin and beauty creating their “bio-compatible beauty” revolution.

With formulas based on a unique synergy between biology and cosmetic chemistry, they have made a name for themselves globally leading the way in anti-ageing technology with labs in London, Paris, Switzerland, Spain and Australia. I found Jeremy to be a wonderful storyteller and hope you enjoy hearing more through our chat.

+ Find out more about Grown Alchemist here

RELIEF RUN

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We’re back a little earlier than planned, given what I’m sure wasn’t quite the start to the year most of you envisioned. Our beautiful Australia is burning and the effects of the bushfires have been devastating and widespread. People have lost their lives, loved ones and homes as well as millions of wildlife and hectares of land being destroyed.

It’s been terrifying to see things unravel, especially as we have family in affected parts of Gippsland. If you’ve been directly impacted in any way, you have my deepest, most heartfelt sympathies. What has been uplifting to see though is the way the national and global communities have started to mobilise to offer as much support in as many ways as possible. Thank you all to everyone out there who is doing their bit in the best way they can.

You’ll probably have seen we’ve been doing bits and pieces with our businesses, particularly with the Relief Run that my dear friend Samantha Gash and husband Nic have started. With the universe working its magic, Sam and I had planned an escape to Bangalow with our wonderful friend Lisa Messenger who has also been working furiously with Food Bank Australia and we ended up in throes of a non-stop bushfire relief working bee. As we have been struggling against the density of information despite the brevity of social media, I thought a podcast episode would give us a longer form chance to discuss what’s been happening but also to touch on some broader important themes on new beginnings, getting started and breaking through action paralysis. Lisa was our very first guest and Sammy joined last year, so it was a delight to get on the mics again to bump brains.

Warning – It’s not particularly polished and there’s some delirium in the air, but hopefully there’s some useful parts and some lighter giggles too.

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Last episode of the year, and what a year it’s been! I’m absolutely buzzing from all the amazing things we’ve done with Seize the Yay this year and every day I’m so grateful for you wonderful listeners for being part of the yay-borhood and making it possible. Not gonna lie though, I’m definitely feeling the exhaustion and am ready for a little bit of time off – don’t forget that a big part of seizing your yay is taking time to rest, rejuvenate and PLAY while you let your mind and body recover. So while I pushed through last year, we’re taking a little break for a few weeks but I’ve triple dosed over the last week so that should keep you going!

Before we sign off, I’ve got one last episode with one of my dear friends and huge inspirations, Michael Ramsey. Like many of these chats, I’m not only honoured to be sharing his amazing story but also got to find out a heap of things I didn’t know before! You might have encountered Ramsey before through one of the six F45 studios he once owned including the world’s #1 studio in Port Melbourne. You could have also seen the buzz created by his amazing Journey retreats that have collaborated with the Keep It Cleaner Girls, Simon Hill from Plant Proof and many more to come next year. Or it could be his brand new venture, Strong, bringing the rowformer to Australia for the first time that caught your eye. And that’s only a few of the many facets of this fascinating human.

But of course, there have been so many diversions and learnings along the way and as I always love to remind you the way to yay is never linear. Before he shot to fame in the fitness world, Ramsey started his career in the oil and gas industry and also had a boating technology start up among many other things that belied the success he’d later have in a completely different world. Such a great story to finish with showing again the patience and resilience it takes to finally find your yay. Hope you enjoy!!

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Welcome to our second last episode of the year!!! As we approach the height of the silly season, you might be feeling like it’s all a bit too hectic so it’s the perfect time to introduce you to the wonderful Bloom App and its co-founders, Chloe Szep and Molly Jane. These two started off as country town girls but ended up riding the original waves of social media from the early days and crafting careers for themselves.

While they both might have felt something was still missing, those initial careers led them to each other through Bondi Sands and ultimately resulted in the birth of their baby, the Bloom App. Designed to help you bloom into a better version of yourself, Bloom focuses on reducing stress levels, overactive minds, and positively impacting mental and physical health. It has guided meditations, movements, mindful colouring, journaling, music and so many other tools with much more to come – hope you enjoy finding out more!

DOWNLOAD THE BLOOM APP HERE

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Beautiful people, this is the audio from our first ever LIVE show, so for the first time you’ll hear some giggles from the audience. It was SO surreal but incredible to actually see some of you face to face, thank you all so much for coming and packing out Mercedes Me Melbourne for the occasion. I’m sure our guest needs no introduction, but just to reiterate, the gorgeous Olivia Molly Rogers won all our hearts when she was crowned Miss Universe Australia in 2017. Before you let any beauty pageant stereotypes creep in, Olivia is far from just a pretty face and is also a qualified speech pathologist specialising in paediatrics and an incredibly talented artist. She has also become a keen ambassador and advocate for body positivity and mental health awareness using her social media influence as a platform to create change for the causes closest to her heart. I’ll let our chat unveil the rest, so hope you enjoy!

I can’t wait to do more of these next year, so if you missed out don’t worry we’ll be doing it again! I‘ll be sending around a follow up email with links for the Butterfly Foundation, the photos and more in the coming week.

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Even though we have our first ever live event this week, I’ve got a fresh new episode for you that I’ve had up my sleeve since my LA visit a few months ago. I was so lucky to catch our legendary friend, Lincoln Younes, for a chat about his amazing journey from country Victoria to the bright lights of Hollywood where he is fooling even his co-stars with his American accent. I recorded this almost straight off the plane after 24 hours of transit and was a little jet lagged so while I’m usually not terrible at managing time and guiding our conversation through each segment, I’d say I was a little less on the ball this one and got carried away in the way to yay more than usual (which is still fascinating and filled with chuckles) so apologies there. Linc is incredibly ambitious, switched on and humble and I hope you enjoy this chat as much as I did.

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Having been a Carman’s muesli nut since back in my school days, it was such a pleasure to join the wonderful Carman’s Kitchen founder, Carolyn Creswell, at her offices for this instalment of yay. Especially since we entered the world of food businesses and FMCG with Matcha Maiden, Carolyn’s story has been an ongoing inspiration in our scale up. Despite the giant it is today, Carman’s began back when Carolyn was only 18 when she bought the hand-made muesli business for just $1000. Within a few years, she grew it to national ranging in Coles followed soon after by Woolworths and now it boasts over 1000 products in over 35 countries including 1000 outlets in China!

As you will have heard before, I love seeing businesses grow to the point where they can use their network and influence to give back and Carman’s is doing this in a big way. This Sunday 1 December, the annual Carman’s Women’s Fun Run is back again seeing 6000 participants run, fun run or fun walk at Catani Gardens in St Kilda to raise funds for the Breast Cancer Network Australia. There are 5km, 10km and 21km options and I’ll be joining the 10km to get the running legs going again. See link below to join and I'll let Carolyn tell you more about it. Enjoy!

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