Kate Kelleher Beitans is a sweet, kind, tolerant and incredibly accepting person. She's the kind of person that allows you to feel like you can be completely yourself when you are around her. A large part of her life story has helped shape her to be this beautiful person that she is.

Just before Kate's birth, her mother came to realise her true sexuality, that she was gay. This lead to a very standard, very 'normal' childhood for Kate, until she realised that it wasn't normal, and that not everybody was quite as accepting of homosexuality as her family was.

Kate's story takes us on a journey navigating her left-of-centre life through childhood and adolescence in a very conservative, gossipy and judging middle class Australian community. Experiencing confusion, bullying, isolation, shame and identity crisis, Kate's incredible story will have you feeling all the feels.

I couldn't be more proud of Kate for being so vulnerable and so brave sharing this story. Kate epitomises what "Valor" is all about.

Enjoy!

Jesse is a Valor member, local footballer, amazing musician, new dad and a year level coordinator and teacher of maths and science at a local secondary college. He also has ADHD.

Jesse shares his story of growing up through the Australian school system with ADHD in the 1990's and 00's. A story close to home with many, either as parents of children with learning and behavioural issues, or as someone who dealt with it themselves. It is certainly not a surprise to learn that Jesse was somewhat of a ratbag during his school years.

"Managed" by teachers, Jesse was rarely understood and found many aspects of the school system challenging. But despite all expectations, Jesse not only got through school, but excelled in maths and science, leading to him heading to university and gaining his degree is teaching.

Today, Jesse uses his experience as a young lad with ADHD to his strength. His ability to understand what kids are going through in school and the way they often see the world different to a grown up helps him to get the most out of his students in ways that suit them best.

Jesse provides some really fantastic and useful tools for all parents and teachers struggling to help their child/ren enjoy and excel in school, including some great advice for those navigating remote learning.

Andray Voronov is an Osteopath and Kristian Vidakovic is a Myotherapist (and studying Osteo). Put these guys together and you've got a tonne hilarious banter, quality dads jokes... and I guess a bit of knowledge and experience on how to manage and overcome injuries and chronic pain.

In all seriousness, this episode is fantastic. The boys share their wisdom on common issues people experience including back pain, inflammation and bursitis, as well as sharing incredibly interesting information about various interesting injury and pain related topics.

A massive thanks to these lads for creating a very enjoyable listen.

Enjoy!

Luke Spencer epitomises what it looks like to set a big challenging long term goal, put your head down and do the work, see it through until you see success...and then keep going.

Luke shares his story of unwavering dedication to his dream of competing at the top level in competitive CrossFit. He shares what it takes to perform at an elite level, and gives some of the most important lessons required to get there, including being an informational sponge and staying humble.

Enjoy this great and valuable chat with our larrikin, fun loving boy, Lukey Spencer.

Huge props to Chris for braving a tonne of vulnerability when sharing this story. It's not easy talking about your own personal mental health crisis to anybody, let alone on a podcast.

But this is what this story is about. Braving the fear and uncertainty and putting your hand up when all is not well. I'll leave you there, just get listening. We both hope this chat inspires even just one more person to shout out when all seems too much.

If you do need some help. Don't hesitate to seek help.

You can start with a mate or family member. But there is no shame in seeking a professional. Get to the GP and get yourself a mental health plan.

There are also a tonne of resources at the tap of a button away. If you are unsure, start here: Lifeline 13 11 14

Welcome to episode 1 of season 2!

Many many babies were born as a result of the COVID pandemic. Fair enough when there isn't too much else to do during a long lockdown!

Our gym has seen at least 8 babies born in the past 7 months, with many of the mums continuing their gym training throughout their pregnancy. We chat with Haley and Mardi about their experiences with exercising during their pregnancies, right from the early stages up until now, a few months post birth.

We chat about scaling and modifying their exercise, consulting doctors and specialists, the stigmatism surrounding exercising during pregnancy and their purposeful reasons for sticking with it that go well beyond physical fitness.

Enjoy the chat. And of course, if you are looking to exercise during your pregnancy, speak to your doctor and specialists, get a range of quality information and make smart decisions that support you and the health of your baby.

We are back (finally)!

Hit a few snags which slowed down the commencement of season 2, but hey, 'rona.

Here we are, we are back. Season 2 see's us focusing on you. And by you, I mean our members. You don't need celebs, sports stars and successful businesspeople for good storytelling and valuable lesson learning. We have it right here amongst the amazing people that make Valor what it is today.

This season the members of the immediate Valor community will share their stories of success, failure, and everything in between, with the goal of serving you, the listener. We will cover mental health, pregnancy and exercise, hard work paying off, turning your back on the $$ and so much more.

Strap in homies, we kick off on Monday! (5/6/21)

Struggles, challenges and suffering are an inevitable fact of life. 2020 can vouch for that. Yet despite this fact, many of us live with the aim to avoid all struggle and suffering. And of course, we eventually fail to dodge it.

When it does eventually come, we often lack the tools to cope with these struggles.

The legendary Lachy Wallace of Virtus Performance joins me to chat about struggle, how people view struggle, how to cope with it, and how to not only overcome it, but grow from it.

The final episode of season 1 has arrived a little late on your podcast apps, but I think it is more fitting for it to hit your phones in a fresh new year, with fresh new ears and hopefully following a little more reflection time on the past year (and when I say year, I mean shitshow).

Enjoy!

Stretching sucks! We all hate it, unless you're a yogi. We all hate stretching so much that you're probably umming and arring as to whether you will even bother listening to this episode!

It's boring, it hurts, we don't have time for it.

But man do we need it! And man do you need to listen to this episode!

Kristie and Stu chat about why having good mobility is so important, why we don't value it enough, why we put it on the back burner and how we can overcome all of these problems so we can move better, have less injuries, hit more PR's, be pain free at work or with the kids, for good!

In this ultra fast paced, must get ahead/must keep up rat racing world, so many of us experience or are experiencing burnout. Complete and utter exhaustion, brain fog and a loss of connection to our work, friends and family.

The COVID lockdown has helped a lot of people to stop for a moment and realise that they were way too busy in their former pre-COVID life. Committing to too much and never actually living in the moment.

On the flip side, many people have been working harder than ever during this lockdown and haven't truly been able to give themselves the opportunity to stop and process what the heck has gone on this year. That inability to process a significant change to our world, mixed with hectic overworking is an absolute recipe for potential burnout.

In this episode, Stu talks about what burnout is, what causes it, what typical human behaviours make it worse and how to get off the debilitating and never-ending merry-go-round of work, work, parent, commitment, work, work parent, commitment...