The Grace Tales

Today’s guest is Sarah Salmon. She’s an Australian writer who lived in Asia for fifteen years, during which time she and her husband adopted two children – two girls – from Cambodia. Her memoir is entitled The Red Thread and it chronicles her struggle to complete her family while living in India. A psychic once told Sarah that she’d have ‘a dark-skinned child, not by the man you marry.’ Adoption was always going to be her path. In today’s episode, we talk a lot about the adoption process – and you’ll hear about the many hurdles she faced – and how she overcame them.  

Early on in the book, Sarah writes that: ‘Orphanage babies don’t cry. There is no point in crying; they know no one will come for them, so they shut down… It’s the loudest silence I’ve ever heard.’ We speak about what it was like walking into an orphanage for the first time.  

We also talk about the shocking corruption that exists in Cambodia and how she navigated this – and the sickening fact that at least a third of Cambodian prostitutes are children and girls as young as five are sold into prostitution in Cambodia for less than one hundred dollars. I know this is uncomfortable to hear, but we need more awareness around this shocking situation.  

More than anything, I hope this episode will remind you that we all have our own unique path to motherhood – and rarely is it without twists and turns.  

You can purchase The Red Threadhere. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Now when my friend Reese Witherspoon describes a book as “Magnificent!” I pay attention. Ok obviously Reese is not my friend, but I wish she was because she has great taste in books. The book she’s talking about is called Find Your Unicorn Space and while I don’t have Reese on this podcast (yet!) I do have the brilliant author of this brilliant book Eve Rodsky.  

Eve argues that creativity is not optional – and as someone who is a true creative at heart and spends most of my life trying to tap into that creativity – it’s a message I strongly believe in.  

If you haven’t heard of Eve before, she made the New York Times bestseller list when she wrote Fair Play, a book which ignited a national conversation about greater equity in the home. She soon realised that even when the domestic workload becomes more balanced, people still report something missing in their lives - that is, unless they prioritise and devote time for activities that not only fill their calendars, but also unleash their creativity. She calls this vital time Unicorn Space - the active and open pursuit of creative self-expression in any form that makes you uniquely you.  

If you’ve ever felt like something is missing, keep listening. Her book is an inspirational guide for setting new personal goals, rediscovering your interests, cultivating creativity, and reclaiming your “Unicorn Space.” We are going to talk through exactly how to do that – and what “unicorn space” really means - in today’s conversation.  

Go to www.everodsky.com 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome back to The Grace Tales podcast. I’m your host, author and editor Georgie Abay. If you’ve been following over the last few weeks, you’ll know I’m running a mini-series with founders of SMES. Because whether you’ve launched your own business, or have a dream bubbling away in the back of your mind, I know how much hearing other people’s experience has helped me personally. Because launching a business – especially if you’re doing it solo – can feel lonely at times. But you’re not alone – more and more women are launching their own businesses. They’re looking for more flexibility, a better work-life balance, financial independence and also for meaningful work. I know after I had children, I wanted to make sure that when I was at work, it felt meaningful. If I was going to be away from my kids, I had to love what I was doing.  

And on the topic of passion, today’s founder is full of it. Today’s episode is a special one – you’re going to meet my friend Elise Pioch, who is the exceptionally clever French founder of homewares brand Maison Balzac. If you don’t know Maison Balzac yet, it’s a very beautiful brand which started with candles, later expanding into beautiful homewares such as colourful glasses, vases and candle holders. The thing I love about Elise’s imagination is she dreams up unique objects which you didn’t know you needed until she created it. But what I love most about Maison Balzac, is that Elise’s authentic and kind nature can be felt. She’s always followed her gut instinct, is not afraid to take risks and leads with kindness and compassion. It was a decade ago I turned up at her office and photographed her for The Grace Tales. She just launched the business, and she’d just had a baby. Her daughter LouLou was only 6 weeks old at the time and it’s still one of my favourite stories. In this episode, Elise shares how the business has grown organically – she now has two retail stores - and what has kept her going over the last decade.   

Let’s meet Elise!  

Go to maisonbalzac.com 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome back to The Grace Tales podcast. I’m your host, author, editor and the founder of The Grace Tales Georgie Abay.  

As you heard last week, I’ve kicked off a special mini-series where I’m interviewing female small and medium-sized enterprise founders. If you’re interested in maybe one day launching your own SME, or you’re already there and you want to hear how others do it, think of this series as your support and your inspiration. Today’s guest will certainly inspire you. 

I have known designer, creative director and writer Natalie Walton for over a decade – and I have loved watching her career (and family) grow and grow. Natalie’s a mother of four, lives in the Byron Bay hinterland, and has successfully continued to evolve her business. She does many things, which we’re going to talk about today, and one of those things is write books.  

I have her latest book, Style: The Art of Creating a Beautiful Home, on my coffee table, and it’s a joy to read.  

In this episode, Natalie shares her business journey – from launching her first workshop and wondering if anyone would turn up – to how she teaches people to live with style and simplicity in their homes.  

Let’s meet Natalie!  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome back to The Grace Tales podcast. I’m your host, author, editor and the founder of The Grace Tales Georgie Abay. Today I’m kicking off a special mini-series where I’ll be interviewing female small and medium-sized enterprise founders. As someone who 10 years ago, left her dream job to launch a small business, how to start an SME is something I love talking about. Mostly because it’s really, really hard. But like all hard things, it’s worth it. And to take the leap, we need support. So think of this series as your support – and I hope that what you hear in these conversations might inspire you to launch that side hustle. So currently, 30% of businesses in Australia are owned by women – and that number is rising. I’m always interested in how these women actually get going in the first place? What happens when they suffer a crisis of confidence? And what’s it like running your own business?  

These are all the questions I’m going to ask and I’m very excited to be kicking this series off with the amazing co-founder of furniture and homewares brand McMullin & Co Alice McMullin. A mother of two, she’s four years into her business – and why it looks like it all flows like clockwork from the outside, she’s worked hard to get where she is. There was the time her showroom was flooded. The time she lost all of her stock in a fire. And the time she was almost ready to quit, but invested her last 10K into a trade show. It turned out to be one of the best business decisions she’s made. She also used to get up at 5am with her baby and do a bread run to earn extra money while she was getting the business off the ground. So, it’s safe to say, founding her own business has been anything but straight-forward. Which is why I love the brand she’s created even more. I know you’re going to be as inspired by her determination, passion, and creativity as I am.  

Now before we get started and meet Alice, I wanted to share that I’ve written a book called Best Laid Plans. It’s my most personal piece of writing to date, but I’ve also brought in the wise words of many of the women and men I’ve interviewed over the last few years. It feels really quite wonderful to have all the lessons I’ve learnt over the last few years – and actually a lifetime – in one book. There’s not a lot I don’t cover – love, loss, birth, motherhood, career – and I ask the question – what happens when life doesn’t go to plan? What do we do next? I hope you all read it and would love to hear what you think. Writing a book was a rather enormous undertaking, but I’m so happy it’s out in the world.  

Ok, let’s meet Alice!  

Visit mcmullinandco.com 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome back to The Grace Tales podcast. I’m your host Georgie Abay. I’m the founder of The Grace Tales, a mum, an editor, author and entrepreneur. Today you’re going to meet Emma Carey, who is the girl who fell from the sky. And when she says she fell from the sky, she means it quite literally. It’s the name of her new memoir, which takes us through what happened when she jumped out of a plane when she was just 20-years-old and her parachute didn’t open.  

The day of the accident, Emma fell from 14,000 feet and she survived. She spent months in hospital as a paraplegic, slowing learning how to use her legs again. She also endured a six-year long court case. She’s courageous, resilient, and in this conversation, she shares her remarkable story.  

Now before we start, I have some news. I wrote a book! It’s called Best Laid Plans, and will be out on September 27. Over the last decade, something that I hear time and again in the interviews is: “it wasn’t the plan.” Our lives so rarely unfold as we expect to them – and we’re constantly faced with unexpected twists and turns. So what exactly happens when our life doesn’t go to plan? Well, I wrote an entire book about it. My book is deeply personal – but I also bring in the stories of men and women I’ve had the privilege of interviewing over the last few years. I’d love you to pre-order it and thank you for your support.  

Ok, let’s meet Emma Carey….  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today’s episode is one that I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I’m speaking to the very fabulous Pip Brett, the founder of much-loved homewares and fashion store Jumbled which is based in Orange, NSW. For those of you who haven’t experienced the word of Jumbled, it’s a colourful haven, bursting with inspiration and pure joy.  

Pip really is the most inspiring entrepreneur. She started her business in her early 20s, and has been running it for over 16 years. And while Jumbled is certainly the place to go for retail therapy, it’s also the place to go for community and connection. Pip also runs The Huddle, which she describes as a weekend of inspiration and learning for kick-ass businesswomen. She’s just run her most recent Huddle, and I know I’ll be joining the next one.   

In today’s episode, we start at the beginning, and end up to where she is now (that is, the owner of a thriving business and a mother of two). Get ready to meet the brilliant Pip Brett.  

Go to jumbledonline.com 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome back to The Grace Tales podcast. It’s been a while since I said hello, and I took a long break from recording. Mostly, because life got hectic, and I needed a break. I’ve never actually been good at knowing when to take a break. I’ll usually try and push through. But at the end of last year, I hit a wall. I needed to take some things off my plate. So I did, and this podcast was one of them. The break felt good, and I used it to finish a rather huge project I’ll be able to talk about very soon (spoiler, it’s a book out this year but more on that later!).  

Editing today’s episode, which was recorded a couple of months ago, reminded me why I started this podcast – to create connection through stories. Today’s guest is pretty damn special for many reasons. We first crossed paths a few years ago when I discovered her on Instagram (I’ll link her account in the show notes). She had been diagnosed with cancer. She ended up writing a story for the grace tales on what it’s like being diagnosed with cancer. Then she wrote another on why therapy isn’t a dirty word. Then another on her reflections from the year that was. I loved every word she wrote. And so did our readers. I am so excited to share she’s just published her first book, and not surprisingly it’s bloody brilliant. It’s called 27 Letters To My Daughter and I hope you’ll all read it, because there’s so much in each and every letter. Ok, back to it. Our guest today is Ella Ward. Let’s meet her! 

Purchase 27 Letters to My Daughter by Ella Ward 

Follow@_msellabella 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to the third instalment of our In Her Shoes series, in partnership with the iconic Australian footwear brand Wittner. This exciting new series gives us the rare opportunity to step into the lives of the women who inspire us and discover the strength, courage and ingenuity that has got them to where they are today... 

So, let’s meet the fabulous Rey Vakili. It’s hard to know where to start with Rey. You could credit her success to the fact that her parents taught her the importance of education and a strong work ethic from a young age. They clearly had an impact on her - at 18 years old Rey went to study Political Science at Yale and then later did an MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. But it was after Yale, that she landed a job as an assistant to the editor-in-chief of American VOGUE Anna Wintour. Her next career move was working for LTK (the largest Influencer Marketing community) after her friend and Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd introduced her to LTK founder Amber Venz Box. She’s now the managing director of LTK Australia. 

Want to step into her shoes and find out what makes her tick? And also, what shoes she’s coveting this season? Let’s meet the incredible Rey. 

In partnership with Wittner | Go towittner.comto shop 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nikki Gemmell’s latest book Dissolve has been described as the book every woman on earth should read. But if you don’t have the time, you can start with this podcast. In today’s episode with Nikki we talk about some of the big moments in her life, from having to give evidence in court at age 10 during her parents divorce, to having her engagement broken off and becoming the wildly successful author of 13 novels. We talk about love, heartbreak, and creativity, and why she does so much of what she calls ‘angry writing’. And now the mother to teenagers, Nikki tells us what it means to ‘roar to life in a man’s world’. If you’ve ever dreamed a big dream, this episode will remind you of what’s possible. 

nikkigemmell.com 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Wittner CEO Catherine Williamson set herself the goal of becoming CEO by 35, she wasn’t counting on giving birth to twin girls shortly after her 34th birthday. Despite the vision board she’d created around that particular milestone, she accepted that it wasn’t going to happen. Or not on schedule, at least. But manifestation is powerful, she says. And get there she did – at 35 years old.

It had been a long road to CEO, with Williamson starting out at Wittner as a casual employee attracted by the staff discount. She was picked out for head office, and she remembers receiving the call while at a Ben Harper concert.

But while Williamson runs a tight ship, responsible for steering one of Australia’s beloved heritage brands and its 500 staff through Covid, and a new chapter in sustainability - never mind the responsibilities of parenting twin pre-schoolers – don’t for a moment think she’s having it all.

To kick off our In Her Shoes series, in partnership with Wittner, our founder Georgie Abay has interviewed Williamson. This exciting new series gives us the rare opportunity to briefly step into the lives of the women who inspire us and discover the strength, courage and ingenuity that has got them to where they are today.

Williamson tells us about her leadership style and why she thinks women make great CEOs, as well as the traits her best bosses demonstrated, and what she’s learned about the motherhood penalty. It’s safe to say, Wittner’s future is in good hands. And great shoes, of course.

Go to wittner.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Almost exactly a year ago, Allira Potter was working a corporate job, she felt burnt out and she knew she wasn’t living her purpose. 12 months on, she works for herself, she has built an incredible online following, she’s earning six figures, she’s working with major brands like The Body Shop, and she’s just announced a book entitled Wild & Witchy - so by all accounts, it’s fair to say she’s feeling much more aligned to her purpose. How did this happen? We’re going to find out today.  

Allira grew up with a single mum who worked multiple jobs to keep the family afloat. When she lost her mum at just 17, her life became a wild ride of ups and downs. She was married by the age of 22 and divorced only two years later, navigated mental health issues and financial insecurity, and contended with substance abuse and hitting rock bottom… until she came across a deck of oracle cards her mum had left her. It turned her life around.  

She’s now a manifestation and spiritual coach who strives to inspire body positivity and empowerment in her community. Today, we’re going to talk about her journey and making a difference in the world. Allira is incredibly open and really, a joy to speak to.  

Follow @allira.potter 

PRE ORDER WILD & WITCHY HERE  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have you heard the joke about how ‘next pregnancy, I want to be the dad’? Or perhaps you’ve laughed about needing an extra set of hands, or warned a pregnant friend to ‘sleep now, because it’s the last chance you’ll get’. It’s no secret that motherhood changes you forever, exhausts you, pushes you to your limits, and is often referred to as the hardest (but best) thing you’ll ever do. But if any of this sounds familiar, then you MUST listen to today’s episode of the podcast with Amy Taylor Kabbaz. She’s a matrescence expert and activist, and if you don’t know what that is, you’re about to find out.  

In her motherhood journey, Amy did what many of us do, burning the candle at both ends trying to maintain her commitment to the job she loved, while being the best mother she could be. When the stress sent her into early labour with her third child, she realised it was time to change. And in doing so, she discovered a whole new world of research that explained everything she had been experiencing. The exhaustion, the burn out, the anxiety, and the anger. In this episode, she tells us what it all means, and what to do about it. Prepare to feel seen. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Power Play by Julia Banks delves into the toxic workplace culture in Parliament House – and now is the time to read it. But before you do, listen to this episode.  

In today’s conversation, hosted by our managing editor Gemma Dawkins, you’ll hear how Julia was verbally abused and told she was a “pighead,” by a male Liberal staffer inside her own home. Her son was upstairs studying at the time. She was also told to “stop acting like a fucking CEO”.  

How did she react in these toxic situations? We asked her.  

Julia shocked Australia when she announced she would stand as an independent MP in 2018. Following her resignation, the PM’s office span a public narrative that she couldn’t cope and was emotionally unstable – today we talk about what it was like in the middle of a narrative so removed from the truth. We also talk ambition, motherhood and all the in-between and as always, don’t leave anything out.  

Purchase Power Play by Julia Banks 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bri Lee is a phenomenal woman. She’s an author and freelance writer. Her first book, Eggshell Skull, won Biography of the Year at the ABIA Awards, the People's Choice Award at the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, and was longlisted for the 2019 Stella Prize. She is also a non-practicing lawyer and continues to engage in legal research and issues-based advocacy. 

Today, I’m talking to Bri about her latest book, entitled Who Gets to Be Smart – a look at the role privilege, power and knowledge plays in our lives. She comes to the conclusion that far from offering any 'equality of opportunity', Australia's education system exacerbates social stratification. Today, we talk about what it’s like to not feel good enough – and what messages we need to be sending to young women today.  

Buy Who Gets To Be Smart here 

Follow @bri.e.lee 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today’s guest is the extraordinary Anjilla Seddeqi, a former lawyer turned fashion designer and mother. She was born in Kabul, and moved to Australia with her family. She studied law, and then went to work as a legal representative for asylum seekers. She started a couture line on the side which focused on modest dressing, as a distraction from her work as lawyer. Today, we will talk about her time spent with asylum seekers and also how it feels to be an Afghan woman, watching the horror unfold in Afghanistan. Like me, right now you’re probably wondering how you can help. 

Anjilla has teamed up UNHCR to raise funds for Afghan women and children, and is selling beautiful Arezu Dolls, which are handmade by Afghan women living as refugees in India from eco friendly Indian cotton that otherwise would have been discarded as waste. They are created with love, hope and a wish for a brighter future for the women and children of Afghanistan. 100% of the proceeds will go towards this goal via the UNHCR. I’ve linked these dolls in our show notes. Please all buy one – they’re a beautiful story telling tool for children, and a beautiful way to support women in need.  

anjillaseddeqi.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Currently, 3.2 million Australians live below the poverty line and more than half of those people are women and young girls. Being able to afford sanitary products is a basic necessity – but sadly one that not everyone can afford. Period poverty is something we can’t ignore.  

Which is why this week, we’re stepping into the shoes of two exceptional women – the Young Australian Of The Year 2021 Isobel Marshall and her best friend and business partner Eloise Hall. Together, they founded TABOO, a brand of menstrual health products that uses 100% of its profits to fund sanitary care and education programs. Did we mention that they founded the company while they were at school? 

Our new ‘In Her Shoes’ series, in partnership with the iconic Australian footwear brand Wittner, gives us the rare opportunity to briefly step into the lives of the women who inspire us and discover the strength, courage and ingenuity that has got them to where they are today. We want to inspire you, motivate you, and for those in lockdown, help to lift you up. We also hope next time you’re purchasing sanitary products, you’ll consider TABOO – a company driven by passion and purpose.  

In this episode, we ask the TABOO co-founders about how they’re tackling period poverty, making real change in the world, and building a brand from the ground up. 

Also don’t miss our photo shoot with Isobel and Eloise, dressed in the joyful new Wittner Spring/Summer collection.  

Go to tabooau.co | wittner.com.au 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Before I begin today’s episode, I just want to send my love to everyone in lockdown. I’m recording this on a Friday, after a week of trying to work while home-school my kids. It’s not fun and all I can say is, there’s sunshine ahead. We just need to wait. And be patient- something which doesn’t come that easily to me!  

Now, over the last few weeks, in lockdown, something that keeps coming up in the conversations I’m having is the mental health of teens right now. Which is why today’s episode is such an important one. In Dr Ginni Mansberg’s new book The New Teen Age, which she co-wrote with clinical psychologist Jo Lamble, she shares evidence-based strategies for raising today's tweens and teens to feel confident and strong. 

Dr Ginni asks the questions on everyone’s mind - Why are today's parents feeling like failures, worried that their teens will 'go off the rails', won't get through school, won't find a job or will be overwhelmed by stress? With so many experts out there offering conflicting advice, how do parents know where to turn and who to trust? 

Today’s conversation is eye-opening and one every parent of tweens and teens needs to listen to. Let’s get some answers.  

Purchase The New Teen Age here 

Visit drginni.com.au 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Viral video producer Briony Benjamin was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 31. Her debut book Life Is Tough (But So Are You) How to rise to the challenge when things go pear-shaped couldn’t have arrived at a more appropriate time. And I hope today’s conversation is a great comfort to our listeners, no matter what you’re going through. Because as we talk about today, you never know what is going on behind closed doors.  

Briony was a few months into a new job when she started feeling crappy. Doctors told her she was just stressed and should rest more and learn to meditate. But it turns out she had cancer all through her body.  

Turning the camera on herself, Briony started documenting her journey (from chemo to egg freezing) in the short video 'You Only Get One Life'. If you haven’t watched it, please do. I’ve linked it in the show notes. 

Her new book sharies wise guidance on how to navigate difficult times and will help you gain perspective on what's truly important in life - from a young woman who never expected to survive The Big C. 

Let’s meet the incredible Briony.  

Watch You Only Get One Life 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Becoming a mother is supposed to be a joyous time. But when Amani was 5 months pregnant with her first child, she was plunged into grief when her father murdered her mother in a brutal act of domestic violence.

As she tried to piece her life back together, Amani began pulling at the threads of her story, searching for answers. How had this happened? Where was the justice? Where did her maternal grandmother’s death, in a fatal airstrike in Lebanon only a decade prior, fit into the story? And most importantly, if trauma could be inherited, then why not joy, and hope?

Amani’s book The Mother Wound examines all of this and more, and our conversation today will stay with you long after the episode ends.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On The Grace Tales, we explore the ups and downs of motherhood – sleepless nights, toddler tantrums, teenage angst, but what happens when you’re raising kids alone? When you’re the only adult in the house. As a child of divorced parents, I’ve seen it from the perspective of a child. But what’s it like from the mother’s perspective?

Today’s guest is Journalist Jacinta Tynan, who has just published her new book ‘The Single Mother's Social Club - Inspiration and advice on embracing single parenthood’. As the mother of two young boys, she explores what life really looks like as a single mother – and why it has been the making of her.  

Jacinta talks about how, yes, it can be lonely and overwhelming. But it can also be liberating - not just adapting to your new normal, but wholeheartedly embracing it.

In her book, she interviews experts and single mothers, who share the best advice for thriving when you're the only adult in the home, along with her own experiences of making it as a single mum.

In her own words: “You can look back and lament. Or you can join the club.” 

Purchase: ‘The Single Mother's Social Club - Inspiration and advice on embracing single parenthood’

Follow: @jacintatynan 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Read Clem Bastow’s new non-fiction book Late Bloomer and it will change the way you think about autism.

Clem grew up feeling like she’d missed a key memo on human behaviour. She found the unspoken rules of social engagement confusing, arbitrary and often stressful. Friendships were hard, relationships harder, and the office was a fluorescent-lit nightmare of anxiety. It wasn’t until Clem was diagnosed as autistic, at age 36, that things clicked into focus.

The obsession with sparkly things and dinosaurs. The encyclopaedic knowledge of popular music. The meltdowns that would come on like a hurricane. The ability to write eloquently while conquering basic maths was like trying to understand ancient Greek. These weren’t just ‘personality quirks’ but autistic traits that shaped Clem’s life in powerful ways.

With wit and warmth, Clem reflects as an autistic adult on her formative experiences as an undiagnosed young person, from the asphalt playground of St Joseph's Primary School in Melbourne to working as an entertainment journalist in Hollywood. Along the way she challenges the broader cultural implications and ideas around autism, especially for women and gender-diverse people. Deconstructing the misconceptions and celebrating the realities of autistic experience, Late Bloomer is as heartbreaking as it is hilarious, and will stay with you long after the reading. 

Purchase Late Bloomer here 

Visit www.clembastow.com  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I’m so excited to introduce you to today’s guest, who I first interviewed for the grace tales over 5 years ago when she was travelling around Australia on holidays. It was on that trip that she decided Byron Bay was where she wanted to call home and not long after, she began the process of making the move to Australia a permanent one.  

If you’re one of Courtney Adamo’s 276K followers on Instagram, you’ll know she became a “parenting influencer” long before anyone had even heard of the term. The American mother of five moved from London to Australia’s Byron Bay after an 18-month stint spent travelling the world with her children and husband Michael. Given she’s the mother to five children ranging from toddler to teen, it’s no wonder she’s built a hugely successful career on doing what’s most important to her: being a mother. 

In this episode, we’re going to talk about her career journey from launching babyccino to most recently, launching a series of e-courses called In The Loop. Registrations are now open for Courtney’s most recent course on tweens and teens which starts on August 2. The link to sign up is in the show notes. We’re also going to look at navigating criticism, the harder parts of motherhood and what keeps her grounded.  

I also wanted to invite you to a live AllBright event we’re doing with Courtney on Wednesday 28th July. You’re all invited, so sign up for free via the link in our show notes.  

Sign up for Courtney’s new In The Loop course on Tweens & Teens here:  

https://intheloop.courtneyadamo.com/ 

RSVP for our free AllBright event with Courtney Adamo on Wednesday July 23rd at 8pm AEST here 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Yumiko Kadota was every Asian parent's dream: model student, top of her class in medical school and on track to becoming a surgeon. A self-confessed workaholic, she regularly put ‘knife before life’, knowing it was all going to be worth it because it would lead to her longed-for career.  

But if the punishing hours in surgery weren’t hard enough, she also faced challenges as a young female surgeon navigating a male-dominated specialty. She was regularly left to carry out complex procedures without senior surgeons’ oversight; she was called all sorts of things, from ‘emotional’ to ‘too confident’; and she was expected to work a relentless on-call roster – sometimes seventy hours a week or more – to prove herself. 

Eventually it was too much, and Yumiko quit. 

In her new book ‘Emotional Female’ Yumiko Kadota refers to herself as a recovering doctor. In today’s fascinating and eye-opening conversation, you’ll hear why. She’s also reclaiming the term emotional – and turning it from a negative to a positive. You’ll hear why she believes that: “Being emotional makes us human, and I’m certain that it made me a better doctor to my patients. Keep being emotional, it’s a beautiful thing.”  

Yumiko’s new book is an honest account of the toxic culture of bullying and overwork that junior doctors can experience in the workplace as part of their training. 

Emotional Femaleis her account of what it was like to train in the Australian public hospital system, and what made her walk away. 

Buy Emotional Female here  

Follow @mindbodymiko, @yumikokadota 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As someone who spent most of her career in fashion magazines, I loved interviewing today’s guest not only because she’s someone I admire but because she’s always kept it real and honest. Today you’ll meet the former editor of Australian ELLE magazine Justine Cullen who has just published her first book, Semi-Gloss, which through a collection of essays, takes us on a hilariously candid exploration of her life so far - and all the mistakes she's made along the way. It’s a reminder that no matter what our lives look like on Instagram, every single one of us makes mistake.  

Her new book Semi-Gloss is an intimate, sharp and witty look at growing up and growing older from the kind of woman who seems like she has it all together - the glamorous job, the perfect family, the killer wardrobe. But, chipping away at that shiny, sparkly surface, Justine reveals the beautiful mess that lies beneath. 

As always, we talk about Justine’s incredible career, and how she’s done it while raising 4 boys. We talk about the big topics – from marriage to miscarriage and also get a glimpse into justine’s former life as a WAG, a beauty editor and more. 

Let’s meet Justine.   

Buy Semi-Gloss 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you love flowers, you’ll adore the joyful Willow Crossley. You’ll also love the way she talks about passion, purpose and happiness.

I first had the pleasure of interviewing the British floral artist and author over a year ago (you can see the story photographed by Helene Sandberg here). I’d followed her on Instagram and as a creative, fell in love with her wild and free floral extravaganzas. In her own words, her unique signature style encompasses “a riot of colour, pattern and texture”.

Willow grew up in the countryside in rural Wales, where she was drawn to nature. She dreamt of being a fashion designer and would spend hours dreaming up outfits. Willow went on to become a fashion journalist, before moving into floristry.

She’s since written four books, works on commissions for the royal family and some of the world’s biggest brands such as Mulberry, Jo Malone and Liz Earle.

Willow is a mother to three boys, and talks honestly about motherhood – from the isolation of the early days to what it’s like raising young men.

I’m so thrilled that The Grace Tales Editor-At-Large Emily Armstrong who is based in the Cotswolds with Willow, is interviewing Willow for this podcast today.

Emily and I have worked together for a long time, and she’s also one of my dearest friends – and favourite interviewers.

willowcrossley.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Melissa Doyle needs no introduction. For many Australian women, she feels like a good girlfriend and certainly a friendly face. She’s one of Australia’s most loved morning TV presenters who has had an incredible 30-year-long career. Last year, she left Seven after 25 years. At the time she wrote that every ending is a beginning – and I speak to her today about that new beginning. During Mel’s time at Seven, she became a mother, and raised two children – Natalia and Nick who are now 17 and 18 – while navigating a hugely successful career in television.  

She also wrote a book entitled TheWorking Mother'sSurvivalGuide – based on her lessons learnt as a working mother.  

Today, we talk to Melissa about new chapters and navigating change in our careers, raising a family, the power of women and how she gets it done.  

 www.melissadoyle.com.au 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What do tickling, swimming lessons, haircuts, and medical treatments have to do with consent? Well, more than milkshakes, apparently. When she started writing her latest book, Welcome to Consent, Yumi Stynes had no idea that she’d be releasing it the midst of a national conversation about sexual assault. But, she says, this conversation has "always been urgent". It’s just that now, finally, we’re actually talking about it. 

For the Millenials listening, you’ll remember Yumi as the host of Channel V, starting back in 2000. She’s since forged an incredible and varied career as a TV and radio host, podcaster, and cookbook author. And you’ll probably know her co-author, Dr Melissa Kang, by her very famous pseudonym: Dolly Doctor. The two have paired up to write this incredible guide for children and their parents, about how to talk about consent.  

As adults, we have a hard enough time saying no - so how can expect our kids to do it? And does a culture of ‘niceness’ make it even harder for them to advocate for themselves? In this episode we ask Yumi all of this and more. She tells us why her family have a safe word, why people pleasing is dangerous, and why it’s so important to get in there with the conversations before the puberty hormones kick in. And given she has her own podcast titled ‘Ladies, We Need to Talk’, we’re doing just that. Let’s talk... 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today’s conversation was such a joyful one for me. I first spoke to Annabelle Hickson over a year ago about having her as a guest on our podcast. Annabelle is a writer, photographer, florist, podcaster, author and now magazine publisher – she recently launched Galah magazine which is dedicated to celebrating regional Australia.  

One thing I love about Annabelle is her grit. In today’s episode we’ll take you back to how she landed her first job at the prestigious newspaper The Australian through sheer willpower. So when she fell madly in love with a pecan farmer from regional NSW, and gave up the dream job to start a new life with him, she was prepared to work hard. What she wasn’t prepared for was how surprising her new life was. And while there was plenty of elbow grease, she says, she was taken aback by how much joy, beauty, and opportunity she found. In contrast to the stories we all hear about farm life, of shortage and lack, Annabelle found inspiration.  

She taught herself photography, published a book, started a podcast, freelanced as a writer, oh, and had three children. And Annabelle wants to do away with the myth of ‘simple country folk’. Her magazine Galah already has over 80 stockists around Australia as well as being available via her website galahpress.com. It’s shot in the most beautiful vivid colours - and if you’re one of her over 70 thousand followers on Instagram then you’ll know and love her eye for breathtaking images and lust-worthy interiors - and it’s printed in real, hard-copy form. Remember that?  

In this episode you’ll be inspired and reminded of the beauty in slowing down, whether it’s via the art of letter writing, or flower arranging, or simply being in nature. 

If you’ve ever dreamed of a tree change, this episode might push you over the edge. Or onto a pecan farm. 

www.annabellehickson.com 
Follow @annabellehickson 
Purchase Galah  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today’s guest is mum of two Jules Sebastian – a TV presenter, stylist, public speaker and philanthropist who has captured the heart of Australia through her warm, relatable and honest approach to life. So, no wonder her debut book is called Tea & Honesty, inspired the endless learnings she’s gathered while creating her much-loved Tea With Jules programme on YouTube.  

Today we talk about career highs such as being Mel B’s stylist and of course, writing her first book, and we also talk about life’s biggest lows. It was when Jules was on her honeymoon with her husband Guy Sebastian that her dad called her with news that her big brother – a husband and father of two girls – had taken his own life. News, she says, that will never really sink in.  

Jules also talks about the decision to slow down her styling work when she was at the peak of her career and why good communication is the one thing every marriage needs.  

As always, Jules’ vulnerability is not only inspiring, it’s also incredibly comforting. 

Purchase Tea & Honesty here 

Visit www.julessebastian.com 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Before Covid changed life as we know it, there was nothing unusual about a young British woman taking a year off to backpack around Australia. So when her 21 year old daughter Mia did just that, British mother Rosie Ayliffe could never have dreamed what lay ahead.

A Visa requirement meant that Mia had to find 88 days of work on a farm in order to stay in Australia, and so she made her way to a hostel in Queensland to work on a sugarcane farm. 

There, she was brutally murdered. 

Her single mother Rosie flew to Australia to retrieve her only child’s body, and in the process began to uncover a horrific culture of mistreatment and abuse of young workers like Mia. As Rosie tried to face her grief, she found herself heading up an international campaign to change the 88 day rule. She’s now the author of Far From Home, which is part memoir, part expose. 

In this conversation she tells us her devastating story, and how she’s honouring Mia’s short life by bringing attention to this shocking issue. And while Rosie’s story is incredibly sad, it’s an important one - not to mention inspirational.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“We all have the power to be heroic”. Activist Khadija Gbla believes that culture is not a defence for child abuse, and she’s doing something about it. 

Her story is shocking - at just 9 years old her mother took her to a hut in West Africa, where she was pinned down as her clitoris was sawn off with a rusty knife. And although her mother says she did it out of love, Khadija has spent her life fighting against what was done to her, which she now knows as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).  

In this episode Khadija tells host Georgie Abay about growing up caught between two cultures, about the way female empowerment is perceived, and about how FGM is a symbol of sexism and misogyny in Australia (yes, it happens here too). And although her story is horrific, Khadija is warm, funny, and passionate about her message.  

You’ll hear how the sealed section in Dolly and Girlfriend magazines started Khadija’s journey to self-discovery. You’ll hear about how FGM affected her pregnancy and birth, and how she’s grappled with her identity, culture, and disability. Most importantly, you’ll hear about her incredible advocacy and how she hopes to change the future for girls.  

This is a moving and unmissable episode. 

Go to khadijagbla.com.au 

About AllBright
Welcome to your global sisterhood - the leading career network for women, online and IRL. AllBright champions women in all fields to supercharge their careers and change the game, with daily events, training, networking, and coaching opportunities. From our world-class clubs around the world, to our incredible online membership platform, AllBright is here to celebrate working women worldwide. Sign up for a membership and find support, inspiration, encouragement, and maybe even your next collaborator through our Sisterhood Matching. We're here for you. Visit digital.allbrightcollective.com to claim your 14 day free trial and see why the future looks AllBright. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As many of you know, The Grace Tales, the company I’ve spent the last seven years building was recently acquired by AllBright, the career network for women. After an incredibly challenging 2020, I couldn’t be more excited about my next chapter. I launched The Grace Tales when my firstborn was a newborn, and at the time, I was also the deputy editor at Australian Vogue. The Grace Tales was almost like therapy for me, it gave me so much insight into the world of motherhood. I spent many years attending fashion shows all over the world, but I’d swap those shows any day for a Grace Tales shoot where I’d meet and connect with so many women.  

Connection is at the heart of what AllBright stands for. And today, I am so excited for you to meet Debbie Wosskow OBE, who along with Anna Jones, founded AllBright and I have the extreme pleasure of now working for. Debbie is, by her own admission, a serial entrepreneur. And an incredibly successful one at that. She sold her last business - subscription-based home exchange business Love Home Swap to Wyndham for $53 million.  

Aside from being a fierce supporter of women, she is a Member of the Mayor of London's Business Advisory Board and sits on the Board of the Women’s Prize for Fiction. In 2016 Debbie was awarded an OBE for her services to business. She won the Evening Standard’s Business Award for ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ 2018 and was shortlisted for City AM’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2017. 

In this conversation we talk about the three ‘g’s’ which every entrepreneur needs, the ‘why’ of AllBright and how 80% of success is about turning up.  

AllBright Australia has now launched (make sure you check it out at allbrightcollective.com) and I can’t wait for you to get involved in this incredible platform – let’s meet Debbie Wosskow. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Having interviewed and photographed both Teresa Palmer and Sarah Wright Olsen before, it is always such a joy to speak to them, especially together. If you follow their platform Your Zen Mama or their Instagram accounts, you’ll know they radiate positive energy and – along with their myriad endeavours from acting to being entrepreneurs - have devoted so much of their time to simply supporting and nurturing other mothers. No wonder American paediatrician Dr Harvey Karp who I interviewed in a previous episode has said they both “always keep it practical, purposeful, and very, very real.” 

Last year, they launched their book Zen Mamas which has been read by women all over the world. This month, they launched a US edition of the book, entitled The Zen Mama Guide To Finding Your Rhythm In Pregnancy, Birth, and Beyond. Just like the Australian version, it’s filled with practical and informative advice on all facets of motherhood.  

This conversation is a recording from a recent chat with Teresa and Sarah for a live digital AllBright event (make sure you sign up to AllBright so you can attend these amazing daily events – we’re giving our Grace Tales community three months free, so you won’t be charged for the first three months).  

In this conversation, we discuss:  

Purchase The Zen Mama Guide To Finding Your Rhythm In Pregnancy, Birth, and Beyond here. Go to www.yourzenmama.com 

About AllBright Australia  

Have you heard the news? AllBright – the leading global women’s networking platform founded by former Hearst CEO Anna Jones and Love Home Swap co-founder Debbie Wosskow OBE – has landed in Australia, and we’re thrilled that The Grace Tales is now powered by AllBright.  

AllBright brings women of all ages and stages of career together through its thriving online community, daily engaging events, online courses and physical clubs in London and LA. Because together women can do powerful things. 

To celebrate the launch of AllBright Australia, we’re inviting you to become a member of AllBright and experience our incredible digital offering (think daily events, hundreds of courses and a global community to network with). Sign up now for AllBright Digital and you’ll get three months free.  

Go to www.allbrightcollective.com 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Given how much I love the Australian-beauty-brand-turned-global-beauty-empire Frank Body, I’ve wanted to interview their co-founder Bree Johnson for a long time. So today, I’m so excited to be in conversation with Bree. She’s a mother to a 15-month-old, and just weeks away from giving birth to her second child, so we’ve got this podcast in just in time.  

If you know Frank Body, you’ll love everything about their story. They started with a brown paper bag of ground coffee beans and they’re now a multi-million-dollar global beauty brand. So where did they begin? Well, I really love sharing founder stories for so many reasons, but mostly because they’re a reminder that we all need to start somewhere and help to take all the glamour and perceived overnight success hype away. In the case of Frank Body, they launched with less than $10,000 in capital and a single coffee scrub and the founders made this scrub by hand for the first six months.  

Given the team came from strong content backgrounds (they also run a content agency called Willow & Blake), they used content to grow the brand and here, we will talk about how important content is in brand building and why it’s often overlooked.  

Having experienced incredible success with a single product, the company grew. And grew. In fact, one of their products – the Frank Shimmer Scrub – had a wait list of almost 100,000 people prior to launching.  

We also talk about their latest innovation, the Everyday Range, which is incredibly exciting because clean beauty is a completely new category for Frank.  

Frank a great example of the power of execution – anyone can have any idea, but executing it is an entirely different thing altogether. They’re also a fantastic example of the power of community, the importance of building a strong director-to-consumer business and making sure your customer experience is truly unique.  

Let’s meet the incredible Bree Johnson! 

Go to www.frankbody.com 

About AllBright Australia

Have you heard the news? AllBright – the leading global women’s networking platform founded by former Hearst CEO Anna Jones and Love Home Swap co-founder Debbie Wosskow OBE – has landed in Australia, and we’re thrilled that The Grace Tales is now powered by AllBright.

AllBright brings women of all ages and stages of career together through its thriving online community, daily engaging events, online courses and physical clubs in London and LA. Because together women can do powerful things.

To celebrate the launch of AllBright Australia, we’re inviting you to become a member of AllBright and experience our incredible digital offering (think daily events, hundreds of courses and a global community to network with). Sign up now for AllBright Digital and you’ll get three months free.

Go to www.allbrightcollective.com 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Miranda Kerr needs no introduction. She’s the supermodel-turned-super-entrepreneur who was one of the first women to speak up about the importance of clean beauty (and in her case, organic), way back when no one thought much about what they were putting on their skin.  

In 2009, she took a bold, courageous step and launched her now beauty empire Kora, a certified organic skincare line which she still owns 95% of (we talk about why she’s retained such high ownership of the company in this conversation and still puts every dollar back into the company).  

Kora turns 12 this year and what journey it has been. We talk about this journey, along with a new product launch (which as someone who only uses oil cleaners, I’m particularly excited about), the KORA Organics Milky Mushroom Gentle Cleansing Oil.  

Miranda shares her ‘why’ for launching Kora and how it was when her mum was diagnosed with cancer in her spleen that she really started looking into what most women were using on their skin and body. We also talk about the key qualities which every entrepreneur needs to make it. And of course, being a working mother and all the juggling that’s involved in keeping the wheels turning each day. She also shares some boundaries her and husband Evan Spiegel (the co-founder and CEO of the American social media company Snap Inc.) have put in place around work-life balance.  

As always, Miranda is such a joy to interview and her real and honest approach to life is just one of the reasons we love her so much. Other than the fact that she makes sensational skincare that works.  

Go to www.koraorganics.com | Follow @mirandakerr 

About AllBright Australia

Have you heard the news? AllBright – the leading global women’s networking platform founded by former Hearst CEO Anna Jones and Love Home Swap co-founder Debbie Wosskow OBE – has landed in Australia, and we’re thrilled that The Grace Tales is now powered by AllBright.

AllBright brings women of all ages and stages of career together through its thriving online community, daily engaging events, online courses and physical clubs in London and LA. Because together women can do powerful things.

To celebrate the launch of AllBright Australia, we’re inviting you to become a member of AllBright and experience our incredible digital offering (think daily events, hundreds of courses and a global community to network with). Sign up now for AllBright Digital and you’ll get three months free.

Go to www.allbrightcollective.com 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Trigger warning: Before listening to this podcast, please be aware that it contains descriptions of childhood rape and sexual assault. 

In January of this year, an extraordinary young woman and sexual abuse survivor named Grace Tame was awarded Australian of the Year. And while there’s likely not a single person in Australia who now hasn’t heard her story, it wasn’t always this way. Yes, her story had already been told by many people - journalists, commentators and even the maths teacher who groomed and molested her when she was just 15 – yet Grace had never been able to publicly speak out and was known by the pseudonym Jane Doe. By law, she was silenced.

The sexual-assault victim gag laws that existed in Tasmania, Victoria and the Northern Territory meant that Grace wasn’t allowed to tell her story – as the victim, she was prevented from ever speaking about her experience, even if she wanted to.

Grace’s silenced sparked a fierce determination in her. She wanted to make real change. She wanted to give others the chance to speak up. Her case was the catalyst for the #letherspeak campaign which was created by journalist Nina Funnell. In 2019, Grace along with 16 other survivors of the #letherspeak campaign, succeeded in overturning Tasmania's archaic gag law. Their advocacy has resulted in 4 law changes across 3 jurisdictions. Grace was no longer silenced. She could speak. And so too, can other victims of sexual abuse.

On International Women’s Day 2021, Grace took part in AllBright’s 24 hour global Step Forward Summit, sharing with AllBright her journey of standing up, fighting for what she believed it, and overcoming unthinkable trauma.

In this conversation, we talk about:

About AllBright Australia

Have you heard the news? AllBright – the leading global women’s networking platform founded by former Hearst CEO Anna Jones and Love Home Swap co-founder Debbie Wosskow OBE – has landed in Australia, and we’re thrilled that The Grace Tales is now powered by AllBright.

AllBright brings women of all ages and stages of career together through its thriving online community, daily engaging events, online courses and physical clubs in London and LA. Because together women can do powerful things.

To celebrate the launch of AllBright Australia, we’re inviting you to become a member of AllBright and experience our incredible digital offering (think daily events, hundreds of courses and a global community to network with). Sign up now for AllBright Digital and you’ll get three months free.

Go to www.allbrightcollective.com 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome! This is our last episode for 2020. We made it - just! This has been such a surreal year and staying connected to you all through this podcast really has kept me going. The conversations I’ve had each week have reminded me time and again that human connection is how we thrive. As mothers, it’s so easy to feel isolated, but the more we keep talking and listening to one another, the less alone we all feel. When I started the grace tales, I was a new mother. I had a premature baby who wouldn’t stop crying and I have so many memories of feeling utterly helpless - I couldn’t see a way out of the sleep deprived state I was in. Everything felt too hard. I remember night after night my husband and I would bounce up and down on a fit ball willing our newborn girl to fall asleep.  

So, this episode is a really special one because I’ve interviewed one of America's most-trusted pediatricians and child development experts Dr Harvey Karp who is the founder of The Happiest Baby and also the lifechanging SNOO. The first smart cradle, the SNOO, designed to swing and calm babies from crying, as well as to allow babies to sleep safely on their back. And it has been so well received that the SNOO has attracted investors such as Gywneth Paltrow, Leonardo DiCaprio and Justin Timberlake.  

Harvey’s bestselling book The Happiest Baby on the Block (or Baby Bliss as it’s called in countries like the UK and Australia) has been described as the most important parenting book of the decade. Harvey has also written a book called The Happiest Toddler On The Block.   

In today’s conversation, we talk about:  

Go to The Happiest Baby here  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We first interviewed today’s guest at a GRACE Talks event in London a year ago. Little did we know what 2020 had instore for us. The next time we spoke, the world would look very different.  

At the time American in London Kenya Hunt had just left ELLE UK where she was deputy editor to move to GRAZIA UK as the fashion director. This month has been an incredibly big one for Kenya, she has been promoted to deputy editor and she has also just published her first book – Girl: Essays on Black Womanhood, a collection of original essays on what it means to be black, a woman, a mother and a global citizen in today's ever-changing world. 

Kenya looks at how black women have never been more visible or more publicly celebrated. But for every new milestone, every magazine cover, every box office record smashed, the reality of everyday life remains a complex experience. 

Now, there’s more. And yes, as you can tell Kenya is incredibly dynamic, ambitious and passionate about making a difference in this world. Kenya is also the founder of R.O.O.M. Mentoring, which advocates for greater diversity within the fashion industry by providing a supportive network for some of the many talented aspiring designers, journalists and image-makers of colour London has to offer. She also sits on the British Fashion Council’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee and is a mother of two.  

We recorded this interview a few months ago and I can’t tell you how excited I am to share it with you. As always, we talk about it all today. Childhood, career, motherhood and more. Her book launches this month so add it to your holiday reading list.  

Find out more about Kenya at kenyahunt.com 

Purchase Girl: Essays on Black Womanhood 
Follow @kenyahunt 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What’s it like packing up and moving your family to an island? This is exactly what Lindy Rama-Ellis did with her ex-husband Olympic Games swimming champion Michael Klim. The pair moved to Bali for a change of pace and ended up staying. While they’re no longer married, Bali is now where they are raising their children.  

Lindy has openly spoken about going through a divorce with young children and how hard that was. she now has an open dialogue with Michael and talks about what it took to get there.  

In our conversation today, she talks about finding love again, having her fourth child at 40, and her new women’s wellness brand Fig Femme, which is skincare for down there. Lindy wants to foster a self-care culture that’s honest, nurturing and empowering. She recently launched the brand with a vulva mask and has just expanded into a daily wash and hydrating mist. She talks about her journey as an entrepreneur, and how she handled the negative criticism she got when she launched.   

In our conversation, we talk about: 

To find out more about Fig Femme, go to fig-femme.com. Follow @lindyklim 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you haven’t seen the 2016 Oscar-nominated film LION, please watch it before you listen to this episode. Based on the 2013 non-fiction book A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley, it’s one of the most powerful biographical drama films I’ve ever seen. It retells the story of Saroo, who was lost to his family in India at age 5 after ending up on a train bound more than 1,000 kilometers away from his hometown. After living on the street and then an orphanage, he is adopted by Tasmanian couple Sue and John Brierley.  

A year into his life with them, the couple adopt another boy, Mantosh, who due to the trauma he experienced in the Indian orphanages he was in, has a lot of trouble adjusting to his new home and this is one of the many heartbreaking parts of the film. 20 years later, using Google Earth Saroo remarkably finds his hometown. The film ends with Saroo's return to India in February 2012 and being reunited with his biological mother, and we learn that his brother Guddu was killed by a train the same night that they were separated as children.  

While we learnt a lot about Sue in the movie, who is played by Nicole Kidman, I was left wanting to know more about this extraordinary woman who knew from a young age that adoption would always be her path. There’s a moment in the film where Saroo learns that sue is not infertile, and that she chose adoption because it was what she wanted. It was her path. And Sue is our guest on the podcast today.  

She has just written the most powerful memoir Lioness, which is out now, and I hope you will all read. This is a beautiful story of family in all its forms, and the quest of one woman to better the lives of children in need.  

In today’s conversation, we talk about:  

Purchase LIONESS here   

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Here’s something that will stop you in your tracks as a parent: A significant portion of Australian children as young as four (I repeat: four) are experiencing negative body image issues with research showing that over a third of four-year-old girls are dissatisfied with their bodies*. Research also shows** that body image perceptions form in very early childhood and unhealthy body image or body dissatisfaction can lead to young girls developing low self-esteem, or be at increased risk for disordered eating in the future.  

This is why today’s episode is so important. And why educational tools such as books are key in creating a strong foundation for a positive body image in children. ‘Charlie’s Tales: The Sprites and the Heart Flower’ is a new children’s book from the Pretty Foundation, a leading Australian not-for-profit focused on the prevention of negative body image issues in two to six-year-old girls. 

Hannah Jarman – a body image expert, PhD candidate and researcher for the Engaging Minds in Body Image and Eating Disorders (EMBodIED) Research team at LaTrobe University in Australia - is one of the women behind the new children’s book and our fantastic guest today.

As you’ll learn, it doesn’t matter if you’re raising girls or boys, today’s conversation is such an important one for all parents. We live in a body obsessed world and as Hannah points out, our children are growing up in a vastly different world to the one we did. We’re image obsessed. We’re selfie obsessed. We edit, tweak, preen and filter so much of our lives. And as we talk about today, multiple studies have found a strong link between heavy social media and an increased risk for depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm, and even suicidal thoughts.  

Today, we talk about:  

To find out more about the Pretty Foundation, go to prettyfoundation.org 

Purchase Charlie’s Tales: The Sprites and the Heart Flower here  

* Damiano, S. R., Gregg, K. J., Spiel, E. C., McLean, S. A., Wertheim, E. H., & Paxton, S. J. (2015). Relationships between body size attitudes and body image of 4-year-old boys and girls, and attitudes of their fathers and mothers. Journal of Eating Disorders, 3, 16. doi:10.1186/s40337-015-0048-0 

** Paxton, S.J., Damiano, S.R. (2017). The Development of Body Image and Weight Bias in Childhood. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 52. pp. 269-298 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For Australian director, writer and producer, Tahyna MacManus, finding out she was pregnant for the first time was something she’ll never forget. It was 2015, and she was in LA. For 10 days after she’d done the test, life was bliss. Until suddenly she started cramping and bleeding, and at hospital, she heard the brutal words: “there’s nothing here”. You can’t possibly understand what it’s like to have a miscarriage unless you’ve gone through the experience yourself. Just the other day I read a comment on Instagram which I felt was so accurate – one woman wrote how missing someone you never got to know is one of the most piercing aches that can’t fully be quantified. I do want to say that I’ve never had a miscarriage - my pregnancy complications happened at the end of my pregnancies – both my girls were premature. But I have been there as a support for many of my friends who have had one, and I really am trying to understand what it is like to be in their shoes. Or in the shoes of 1 in 4 Australian women, because that’s how many women will experience pregnancy loss.  

Tahyna who is now a mother of two children, experienced three miscarriages, and it inspired her to create a film called MuM misunderstandings of miscarriage. It’s an incredibly emotional film, but such an important one. And in it, she interviews women and men, fertility specialists, obstetricians and organisations such as The Pink Elephants Support Network. There’s a moment in the film where a doctor she interviewed talks abvout about how it might be cells to everyone else, but to the individual woman, it’s her baby. And these words are so powerful. 

Today’s episode is a really important one, however it might be triggering for women who have experienced pregnancy loss. But more than anything, I hope it makes you feel supported.  

Watch theMuM trailer here 

Follow the documentary on Instagramhere 

Follow @tahynamacmanus 

For support, reach out toThePink Elephants Support Network 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Many women of a particular generation will hear the name "Trinny" and will be met with a raft of positive memories and emotions. As one half of the "Trinny and Susannah" duo, she graced our television screens while delivering hard truths about outfits, always in a kind manner that left the women she styled - and all of us at home - feeling infinitely more confident and inspired about the power of an outfit.

In 2017, at 53, Trinny Woodall turned her eye for entrepreneurialism to her first love – makeup. And in a market that is certainly not quiet, Trinny has managed to carve out a whole new space of her own – personal makeup kits to help women feel their best. her niche is a portable, versatile range of stackable makeup pots, with colours to suit every woman.

I use her makeup daily and as someone who isn’t into makeup and particularly bad at applying it, I can confirm it’s easy to use, fuss free and makes me feel human again. Today I talk to Trinny about her latest launch, a tinted serum called BFF De-Stress, which works to fight the signs of stress on the skin. We also talk a lot about motherhood and her difficult road to conceiving. And also, her relationship with her teen daughter and why they are so close.

Trinny is one of those women who you could talk to for hours – and for me, interviewing her was such a joy. Let’s meet the one and only Trinny Woodall.

To find out more go to trinnylondon.com

Purchase Trinny London BFF De-Stress here

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today’s special episode is supported by Guardian Childcare & Education, a place that families can trust, where educators thrive, and children grow. Our guest today is Margie Cohen, an early childhood teacher mentor who talks about how to support meaningful learning and a confident transition from childcare to school.  

Preschool programs are primarily for children in the year before they start full time schooling and in our conversation, Margie discusses why preschool and kindergarten programs are so beneficial. We look at how children learn in those early years, and what we can do as parents to help them get ready for that huge transition to big school.  

In on our conversation, we look at: 

The Guardian ‘Moving on Up to School’ Preschool Program is led by teachers with specialist early childhood university degrees. Guardian’s contemporary approach gives your child the full benefits of a structured daily learning program while you are supported with the longer care hours we provide. That means your child gets the best start to their schooling, while you’re able to better juggle the day-to-day thanks to longer care hours than those provided by community-based preschool and kindergarten programs. 

For more information on Guardian’s ‘Moving on Up to School’ Preschool Program, go to guardian.edu.au 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I first interviewed Vashti Whitfield over two years ago for The Grace Tales, and it’s still one of our top performing pieces of content on the site.

Last year, on International Women’s Day, Vashti spoke at one of our GRACE Talks events and the way she spoke left many of our guests in tears. But that’s Vashti – she has a powerful effect on people, and the ability to spark change in people. And really, that’s the thing so many of us find hard - The ability to change. Vashti is an internationally renowned transformational facilitator, executive coach, documentary maker, sought after MC and global speaker. She’s a British Sydney-based mother of two children.

Nine years ago, Vashti lost her husband – British actor Andy Whitfield. And while Vashti’s story is full of heartbreak, as she’ll tell you today, there is opportunity for growth in any given situation. It was after the passing of her husband, that Vashti chose to convert her own tragic loss into a catalyst to educate and inspire millions of people around the world. Vashti now works with people all over the world on how to harness human potential through purpose, passion and potential.

In today’s conversation, we look at what genuine connection looks like, the power of listening, dealing with unimaginable grief, and the importance of reframing situations in life and the power of our mindset.

In today’s conversation, we cover:

To find out more about Vashti, go towww.vashti-whitfield.com

Follow@vashtiwhitfield

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our guest today is Sarah Wilson the author of the New York Times bestsellers first, we make the beast beautiful: a new story about anxiety, which Mark Manson described as 'the best book on living with anxiety that I've ever read', and I Quit Sugar, along with eleven cookbooks that have been published in fifty-two countries. Her latest book, This One Wild and Precious Life, explores the truly overwhelming times in which we’re living. And opens our eyes to how we got here and offers a radically hopeful path forward.

In today’s conversation, I speak to Sarah about the issues she tackles in the book which range from moral asleepness to breaking the cycle of mindless consumption to the power of hiking. She also opens up about her personal fertility journey and the decision to become a foster parent.

Sarah was previously the editor of Cosmopolitan Australia, host of MasterChef Australia and founder of iquitsugar.com, an 8-week program that has seen millions worldwide break their sugar addiction. In May 2018, Sarah committed to giving all proceeds from the business to charity. She now builds and enables charity projects that engage humans with one another, and campaigns on mental health, consumerism, racial injustice, and climate issues. Sarah lives in Sydney, is an obsessive hiker and spent eight years travelling the world with one bag – and it’s during these hikes that she wrote her newest book.

Go tosarahwilson.com

BuyThis One Wild and Precious Life

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Turia Pitt says her story is forever divided into two parts: before the fire, and after the fire. In 2011, at the age of 24, her life was turned upside down. While competing in a 100km ultra marathon in the Australian outback, she encountered an out of control grass fire. Trapped by the blaze, she suffered full thickness burns to 65% of her body.

She was choppered out of the remote desert barely alive and wasn’t expected to survive. She lost seven of her fingers, spent over six months in hospital, underwent over 200 operations and spent two years in recovery.

Against overwhelming odds, she defied every expectation placed on her and rebuilt her life.  

Over the years, she has written multiple books, been honoured with multiple awards, mentored thousands of people to achieve their greatest goals through her online programs and joined one of her personal heroes, Tony Robbins, as a headline speaker at the 2018 National Achievers Congress.

Her fourth book has just launched. It’s called Happy (and other ridiculous aspirations) and in it she explores something we’re all seeking: Happiness. Turia dives into this idea, and also interviews high-profile athletes, comedians, scientists and world experts to explore how everything from money to our relationships has an impact on how happy we can be.

In today’s conversation we talk about:

Purchase Happy (and other ridiculous aspirations) here.

Find out more about Turia Pitt atturiapitt.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Vanessa Kingori MBE is nothing if not extraordinarily impressive

In 2016, in recognition of her incredible career, she was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. She’s the first female publisher in British Vogue’s 103 year-long history (she’s the commercial counterpart to the magazine’s first male editor, Edward Enninful). She has a degree on management and sociology. She’s worked everywhere from Matches to the Evening Standard to GQ (where, in fact, she became the youngest and first female publisher of GQ, and Condé Nast UK’s first black publisher). She was named one of Britain’s overall Most Influential Black Britons for the past five years by Powerlist magazine, and she was appointed to Sadiq Khan’s Brexit Expert Advisory Panel.

Yet, before all of this, Vanessa says the only role she was ever sure she wanted was to be a mother (her own mother is a celebrated midwife). Yet, her journey to motherhood was not without its challenges. She suffered a series of miscarriages, at a time where her career was taking off, and she suffered in silence. It wasn’t until her son Charles, now 14 months, arrived, that the full impact of her grief was felt.

Vanessa is our guest this week on The Grace Tales Podcast, in conversation with our founder Georgie Abay, and there are so many fantastic takeaways from the episode, and one of them is the importance of meaningful, impactful work. And no one is more placed to talk about this than Vanessa, who alongside Edward, has transformed the British Vogue business, championing more diversity and inclusion, both within the office and on the pages of the magazine.

Perhaps one of the most warming things about Vanessa, is that nothing feels off limits. Whether you’re talking about the big issues - leadership, anti-racism, making real change – or the little things like avoiding a toddler’s puree covered hands when you’re trying to get out the door to work, she’s an open book. This is one of our favourite episodes to date.

In today’s conversation, we talk about:

Follow@vanessakingori

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sam Bloom is one of Australia's most remarkable and resilient women.  

Her life-changing story begins with the blink of an eye, a heartbeat, a split second in time. That’s all it took for Sam’s life to change forever. Sam had everything she had always dreamed of. She’d travelled extensively, fulfilled her childhood dream of becoming a nurse and was a happily married mother of three young boys. She spent her time raising her family on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, and ran, swam, biked and surfed every chance she had. Life was bliss. Without warning, the dream turned into a nightmare.

Back in 2013, while on a family holiday in Thailand, Sam leant against a rotten balcony railing and fell through it, crashing six metres onto the concrete below. She was lucky to be alive and had suffered devastating injuries, including severe damage to her spinal cord that left her completely paralysed from the chest down. Broken and hopeless, Sam reached her outer limits of physical and mental suffering. And then Penguin arrived. Penguin was a baby magpie who fell from a tree and was rescued by the Bloom family who cared for her until she was strong. Yet while free to leave, she didn’t. she lived with the Bloom family for two years and in that time, gave Sam the sense of purpose, hope, and courage she was missing. This little bird changed Sam’s life. The incredible story of Penguin Bloom was turned into a book and is soon to be a major Hollywood movie, starring Naomi Watts and Andrew Lincoln.

Now, Sam has just shared her story for the first time in a new book, Sam Bloom: Heartache & Birdsong. In the book,she writes about what it is really like to face life in a wheelchair. The new book is humbling, heartbreaking and uplifting in equal measure. You can purchase the book here.

In our conversation today, we talk about:

To purchaseSam Bloom: Heartache & Birdsong,click here. To find out more about Sam, go tosambloom.com.au

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Can sex survive monogamy? This is a question Manhattan sex therapist Dr. Stephen Snyder explores in his book Love Worth Making: How to Have Ridiculously Great Sex in a Long-Lasting Relationship.

He looks at how there's no shortage of books these days on sex technique, but that's not what most people are interested in. What they really want is to have great sex in a committed relationship, in which case all the technical expertise in the world won't help you very much. For that, you need to understand sexual feelings - how they operate, what rules they follow, and how they connect to the rest of who you are.

Dr. Stephen Snyder's unique approach has helped over 1,500 individuals and couples master the erotic challenges of long-term relationships. Integrating the latest research on human sexuality with compelling stories from his 30 years of experience working with over 1,500 individuals and couples, Love Worth Making will help people of all ages and backgrounds master the erotic challenges of long-term relationships, understand their sexual feelings, and enjoy them for life.

In this episode we talk about:

Purchase Love Worth Making: How to Have Ridiculously Great Sex in a Long-Lasting Relationship here

Go to www.sexualityresource.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As my children get older, I often think about what’s ahead of me. And with a 6 and 7-year-old it’s the tween and teen stage. Just as I used to say to my parents “you don’t understand what it’s like to be young”, I now no longer understand the world my girls are growing up in. But today’s episode isn’t about girls, it’s about boys. But even as a mother of two girls, I took so much away from today’s conversation.

Our guest today is the fantastic Maggie Dent, a well-known Australian author, parenting and resilience educator, and one of Australia’s favourite boy experts. Maggie is a mother of four now grown up boys and she has just published a new book entitled From Boys to Men: guiding our teen boys to grow into happy, healthy men.

In her new book, Maggie explores how for boys, adolescence can be a confusing minefield and parents are often bewildered as to how to best guide their precious sons. She looks at how many parents wake one day to find that their beautiful little boys have grown into silent, withdrawn, sometimes angry and often unmotivated tweens and teens.

Today we talk about so much – from how teens are defined by their relationship with the online world to how children are experiencing digital abandonment from their parents (this really made me stop and think) to mental illness to violence.

We cover some big topics today:

To buy Maggie’s book, go tomaggiedent.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1999, Sierra Leone was in the midst of a brutal civil war where mindless violence, vicious amputation and the rape of young enslaved women were the everyday weapons of bloody conflict.

It was also where rebel soldiers snatched 18-year-old Aminata Conteh-Biger from her father’s arms, then held her captive for months.

After she was released, the UNHCR recognised that her captors still posed a serious threat to her safety. So, still in her teens, she was put on a plane and flown to Australia to start afresh as a refugee in a land she knew nothing about.

It is here that she has proudly built a life, while never allowing her trauma to define her. Yet it was a near-death experience she suffered during the birth of her child that turned her attention to the women of Sierra Leone - where they are 200 times more likely to die while having a baby than in Australia.

So she set up the Aminata Maternal Foundation, then returned to the land of her birth to help. In today’s episode, she shares her life story, which she has written a book about, entitled Rising Heart, which launches today.

Aminata is now an author, inspirational speaker, performer, mother and wife, and former refugee turned Founder and CEO of the Aminata Maternal Foundation.

Please buy the book and spread the word about her foundation. Here, I have the privilege of sharing her story.

In today’s episode, we talk about:

For more information, go to aminatamaternalfoundation.org

To buy Rising Heart, click here

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

London-based Editor, writer, brand consultant, lover of bows, soon-to-launch stationary brand Memo and mother to Honour and Kit, Alice Edwards is an incredibly remarkable woman.

When we interviewed her on the grace tales over a year ago, I was blown away by her openness and honesty. She showed vulnerability, which isn’t always easy to do.

Alice is used to feeling vulnerable. She has experienced more grief in her lifetime than any person should ever be forced to endure. Having lost her mother, sister and grandmother in the Boxing Day tsunami in Thailand in 2004, she, understandably sought solace in keeping a firm grip of control on her life, terrified that if she lost control, another tragedy would occur. She was just 17 years old at the time.

In today’s conversation she talks openly about grief, and the role it continues to play in her life. She also talks about her experience with post-natal depression, which she battled with after both her children arrived, why talking about mental health is so important and also how her children helped her to see life in colour again, after a long period seeing life in grey. Alice also recalls her mother’s infectious laugh, and how the way her mother navigated work and motherhood is such an inspiration to her.

Alice has had an incredible career, from her role as the jewellery editor at the Sunday Times Style and Times Luxx to working on jewellery brand Jessica McCormack, to now working on the launch of her business, which will be revealed next month.

In today’s episode, we talk about:

 Follow Alice on Instagram@alice.j.edwards

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Like so many women, British celebrity nutritional therapist and best-selling author Amelia Freer just assumed she’d one day be a mother. But as she ended her thirties, she suffered a spate of miscarriages - including one that occurred while Freer was appearing on live TV, promoting one of her best-selling books - and doctors told her to prepare for a life without children.

Her chances of becoming pregnant, they said, were incredibly low. “It was quite brutal to accept that my future was going to look different to how I had imagined,” she says. “But I don’t think I really accepted it or gave up, I just quietly hoped for a miracle. I saw it as yet another of life’s hurdles and I do have an attitude of just seeing how things turn out.” It’s this attitude – and a healthy dose of reproductive luck, of course – that saw Freer fall pregnant at 41 with her first child. Her beautiful daughter, Willow, is now two and a half.

During her pregnancy, Freer’s attitude to health stayed as sensible as it has always been. With a focus on gut health, vegetables and good fats, Freer has always steered away from fad diets and trend-based superfoods when it comes to her clients (who include Victoria Beckham, James Corden and Sam Smith, among others). Victoria Beckham has said Freer taught her “so much about food; you’ve got to eat the right things, eat the right healthy fats.”

She’s written four books (her fourth book Simply Good For You celebrates the joy and the nutrition of food, and features over a hundred delicious, quick and non-nonsense recipes that are as healthy as they are tasty). Her third book, Nourish and Glow: The Ten Day Plan was borne of Freer’s no-nonsense approach to nutrition. Based on a modified version of the Mediterranean diet, Freer says the book is a great place to start for anyone looking to improve their nutrition. As in all of her work, there’s an emphasis on fresh fruits and vegetables, healthy fats and complex grains.

We caught up with the inspiring Freer to talk motherhood, the experience of miscarriage and more. In our conversation, we cover:

To find out more about Amelia Freer, go to ameliafreer.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The tiny habits that we do everyday have the power to change our lives. Whether it’s getting up early, so you have a moment to yourself before the kids wake up or making time to exercise or meditate or something as simple as a cup of tea in silence, these habits have a profound impact on our wellbeing and also our mental health. Yet, with small humans to care for, so many of us find it hard to start a new habit and stick to it. And we find ourselves in a rut which we can’t get out of.

In his book ‘Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything’, world-renowned behaviour scientist FJ Fogg looks at how we’re approaching habits the wrong way. He says we can all change, but we need to start small. He also looks at how simplicity lies at the heart of behaviour change and how starting a habit begins with looking at the sequence of events surrounding this one tiny habit.

BJ says that when it comes to change, TINY IS MIGHTY. Start with two sit-ups a day, not a two-hour workout; or three deep breaths each morning rather than 20 minutes of meditation. Start your day with one glass of water, and build up to more. Before you listen to this episode, think about some of the things you want to change in your life or habits you want to create. He’ll help explain how to make these things happen. And remember, it’s all about starting small and building from there.

In today’s conversation, we talk about:

To find out more, go to www.tinyhabits.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

British mother of two Anna Jones was the first woman appointed to the role of CEO at media company Hearst UK in 100 years. Now given that the company publishes magazines such as Harper’s BAZAAR and ELLE, and women are at the heart of Hearst is all about, this is staggering. Almost as staggering as when she’d later launched her own company AllBright, and was sitting in meetings with potential investors who made comments such as: “There is no such thing as a great female entrepreneur” and asked questions such as “what does your husband do?”. She tells us about those first meetings today.

In our conversation, we talk about her time as CEO, and how everyone, no matter how high up you are, has self-doubt and she concedes to still feeling it daily. We also look at how it’s better to be decisive, and why that’s a key trait of leaders.

The beginning of Anna’s career transition from CEO to entrepreneur happened when she met her now-business partner Debbie Wosskow – who is the founder of Love Home Swap - at a party and the two of them talked all night. It was the beginning of All Bright – a company founded in 2017 which supports women at all stages of their careers, with a particular focus on skills, events and space. The name Allbright is a nod to Madeleine Albright, the first female US Secretary of State whose famous maxim was “there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women”.

All Bright now has three private member clubs – two in London and one in LA – which are focused on creating networking opportunities for womenin business – and there are more to come. They also offer fantastic online education through both the AllBright Academy and AllBright Digital, which launched recently.

I love hearing from incredible women like Anna – who are open and honest about the reality of climbing the corporate ladder with young children, and also what it’s like going from a big corporate to an entrepreneur and building a business from the ground up.

In today’s conversation, we talk about:

To find out more, go to www.allbrightcollective.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I don’t think I’ve ever covered off so many topics in one interview before, but when I knew I had an hour on the phone with Oprah favourite, internationally renowned expert and best-selling author Julie Morgenstern’s on time management, productivity and organising, I didn’t want to miss a thing. You might want to listen to this episode a few times, and take notes!

One of the most interesting things we speak about today is how much time we actually need to spend with our children and what that time together needs to look like. This question is so important, because so many of us carry around bags and bags of mother’s guilt. Listen to what she says, and I guarantee you’ll drop the guilt instantly. We also talk about how to get organised and practical tips around where to start (hint: you don’t need to rush out to Ikea and buy a mass of containers until the very end of the process), and why organisation is different from decluttering. We talk about how to get kids involved in being organised, why checking your inbox at the beginning of the day is detrimental to your productivity and what her number one time management tip is.

For over 30 years, Julie has been teaching people all around the world and at all stages of life how to overcome disorganisation to achieve their goals – and her methods work. In her latest book, Time to Parent, she introduces a completely novel way of organising your time as a parent that is truly life changing and liberating. It will help you balance raising a human, with beinga human, and create the space for true quality time with your kids and for yourself.

In today’s conversation, we talk about:

To purchase Julie’s books or find out more, visit,www.juliemorgenstern.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is there anything more chic than a bunch of single-bloom flowers displayed in a beautiful apothecary-style vase? The answer is undoubtedly no, and a style that American in London Whitney Bromberg Hawkings champions on a daily basis through her company, FLOWERBX... 

As someone with an undeniable sense of style that was honed through working for Tom Ford for 19 years, Whitney saw a gap in the market for a high-end (but accessible) shopping experience online, not dissimilar to Net-a-Porter, but solely for flowers. By sourcing blooms direct from the growers themselves, Whitney and her team have cut out the middle man and are able to produce fresh, long-lasting bunches that are all about quality and simplicity. This is a new flower movement that speaks to customers and businesses that have a discerning eye and crave the ease and reliability of online delivery, all wrapped up in a signature brown grosgrain ribbon.

As a mother to three children, Whitney juggles the demands of a start-up business with prioritising the needs of her two sons and daughter. “Having children has changed everything about the way I approach life and my career. My children are, by far, my biggest priority, so from that, I have to work backwards and re-prioritise everything else.”

For more from Whitney on personal style – from pounding the pavements in Paris searching for that first job to how beautiful blooms are such a connector – to women in business and expansion, listen to this episode and prepare to be inspired, enlightened and eager to get your hands on some fresh (single-bloom variety) flowers, immediately.

In today’s conversation, we cover the below and so much more :

To find out more about FLOWERBX, go to www.flowerbx.com
Follow Whitney on Instagram @theflowerbmb

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you thought there were only three trimesters, well, prepare to think again. While the newborn phase is often referred to as the fourth trimester, former New York-based Glamour editor Lauren Smith Brody took it one step further when she trademarked the term ‘the fifth trimester’. She was referring to the birth of the working mother – the time when new mothers return to work and undergo a radical transformation in so many ways. She’s written the book (literally) on this phase and it’s full of insights and advice.

The Fifth Trimester is based on interviews with over 700 candidly speaking mothers in carried fields and expert advice, and answers to many of our burning questions. When will I go back? How should I manage that initial "I want to quit" attack? Flex-time or full-time? What's the best option for childcare? Is it possible to look like I slept for eight hours instead of three? And why is there never a convenient space to pump?

In today’s conversation, host Georgie Abay talks to Lauren about all of the above and more.

To find out more about The Fifth Trimester, visit www.thefifthtrimester.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Australian model, brand ambassador, entrepreneur and actor Megan Gale is one of Australia’s most adored personalities. Born in Perth, her career began when she won a modelling competition at 18 in her hometown. The winner was told they would not only grace the cover of the now defunct CLEO magazine, but also feature in an eight-page fashion shoot inside the magazine. When the issue came out, Megan wasn’t on the cover. And there was no eight-page shoot. It was a defining moment in her life and a reminder that the life of a model or celebrity isn’t always as glamorous as it seems. But she did exactly what her mother taught her to do – she picked herself up, got on with it and never looked back.

Megan recently wrote the foreword for a powerful new book about self-love and acceptance called THIS IS ME, by photographer Julie Adams and our host and founder Georgie Abay. In it, she opened up about how we all have moments of self-doubt. “When you’re someone in my position, you are more prone to being criticised by the public and being put under a microscope… Yet, my feelings about it are still the same as the average person. In that, you feel very vulnerable, and very exposed… I'm not superhuman or immune to those kind of feelings,” she tells Georgie.

Today, she talks about the inspiration for her lifestyle company Mindful Life, which launched one year ago, and how the foundation of her business was not wanting to wish away those early months of motherhood away, as hard as they can be. To Megan, being mindful means “being absolutely present” and essentially, she wanted to create products for children and their parents, which would inspire us to be more mindful in all that we do, whether that’s give our child a bath and really be in the moment, or give our baby a massage and get lost in their heavenly gurgles and giggles.

In today’s conversation, we explore:

To visit Mindful Life, go tothemindfullife.com. Follow@megankgale

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Latham Thomas describes her work as her ‘calling’ – and with a spot on Oprah’s Super Soul 100, two best-selling books to her name, a host of celebrity clients and a global following via her Mama Glow brand, there’s no doubt that she’s living her purpose. Known on Instagram as Glow Maven, and as co-founder of the wildly popular Continuum Conference, Latham is an advocate for reproductive justice. As a doula, her work centers not only around birth but around supporting women through all points of the reproductive cycle. And with a deep respect for the traditions around divine femininity, the ‘village’ and sacred rituals of self-care, her holistic approach to caring for women is both modern, and informed by history.

“If you think about what happens when the baby arrives here”, she tells our host Georgie Abay, “they are born but the mother is also born. And it's a rebirth for that person. Who she once was is no longer; she's someone new.”

Latham is outspoken about the failings of our maternal health care systems – particularly when it comes to the disproportionate rates of maternal morbidity for Black women who are “four to five times more likely than white women to die during childbirth or due to childbirth-related causes”, she tells us. “The reasons for these deaths, it's not because of race, it's because of racism. There's nothing wrong with Black people.”

In this potent conversation we speak to the self-care advocate about:

Follow Latham on Instagram at @glowmaven

Visit Latham’s website Mama Glow

Find out more about The Continuum Conference

Read Own Your Glow

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“The night before I felt dreadful, waiting for something I didn’t necessarily want to happen” – these are the words Alexandra Shulman wrote in her personal diary when she was offered the position of editor-in-chief of British VOGUE, a position she held and adored for over 25 years.

Alexandra was awarded the CBE in the 2018 New Year's Honours list and she is currently a columnist for the Mail on Sunday, a contributor to a variety of newspapers and magazines and a Vice President of the London Library. She has written two novels, Can We Still Be Friends (2012) and The Parrots (2015) and Inside Vogue: The Diary of My 100th Year(2016). In her most recent book, Clothes... and other things that matter, shedelves into her own life to look at the emotions, ambitions, expectations and meanings behind the way we dress.

From the bra to the bikini, the trench coat to trainers, the slip dress to the suit, she explores their meaning in women’s lives and how our wardrobes intersect with the larger world - the career ladder, motherhood, romance, sexual identity, ambition, failure, body image and celebrity.

In today’s conversation we discuss:

You can purchase Alexandra’s brilliant new book Clothes... and other things that matter here and follow Alexandra on @alexandrashulman

Please take a moment to rate and review our Podcast – your support is greatly appreciated!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“If we talk about women and a glass ceiling, we're talking about mothers” Darcy Lockman tells us in today’s episode. It’s something she’s experienced herself, but she’s not asking you to take her word for it. As a journalist turned clinical psychologist, Darcy is uniquely placed to understand the complexities of relationships within their context as part of a broader conversation about the way our society approaches gender, parenting, and the division of labour in the home.

For her book All The Rage: Mothers, Fathers, and the Myth of Equal Partnership Darcy interviewed over 50 women about their experiences managing work, parenting, and domestic duties. “I started out wanting to interview 100 mothers”, she tells our host Georgie Abay. “That was my initial idea. By the time I got to 50, I realized that all of the interviews were exactly the same. The women that I was speaking to, they were from all over the US, they were from different economic classes, different ethnicities, races. But every interview was just an angry, frustrated woman who tried to communicate to her partner and hadn't been able to get through. And it was a constant fight in their relationship. So, I stopped at 50.”

The biggest commonality? “A lot of men”, Darcy explains, “my husband included, will say, ‘Well, I'll do whatever you ask me to do’. But the knowing is such a big part of the work, the knowing and the planning. And so often, the women who I interviewed for the book would be frustrated with their husbands who would just say to them, ‘I don't know what you're talking about. I'll do whatever you ask’. As if that were being a co-parent.”

If you’ve ever felt frustrated, overwhelmed, or fed up when it comes to the never-ending work of motherhood, this interview is incredibly validating. And Darcy gives us the tools to have fruitful, calm conversations about how to rectify these issues – and do away with the nagging woman stereotype for good.

We speak with Darcy about:

Find out more about Darcy at darcylockman.com

Purchase Darcy’s book All The Rage

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“I realized in 2016, when I came back to the US after 10 years in Asia, how different a lot of my parenting philosophies were. For example, my kids had a lot more freedom because at six-years-old in Japan, they were already completely independent… my six-year-old was taking the bullet train, which is the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Osaka on his own. It’s a very safe country.” That’s New York-based Teru Clavel, a comparative education expert, bestselling author, and speaker sharing a glimpse into her experience educating her children in Asia. Clavel shares her insights on education and globalization in her book, World Class: One Mother’s Journey Halfway Around the Globe in Search of the Best Education for Her Children, which chronicles her experience over a decade raising her children in the local public schools of Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo and Palo Alto. Written with research, personal anecdote and takeaway, World Class offers real-world solutions to the toughest education dilemmas we face here and abroad. 

In today’s conversation, we talk about:

Find out more about Teru and her book at www.teruclavel.com

Follow Teru on Instagram @teruclavel

For more, visit The Grace Tales Podcast page

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“You can only see something's missing if you are the thing that is missing”, Candice Brathwaite tells us in today’s episode. The influencer, blogger, and author of I Am Not Your Baby Mother knows a thing or two about being the missing piece. As the founder of Make Motherhood Diverse, and with a background in Marketing, she found she was consistently seeing the same faces in the online motherhood community – and none of them were black. So, she took it upon herself to spark real change.

Her new book documents her experiences as a black mother in the UK, backed up with research and data that paints a picture of some of the larger issues involved. And it’s a first: in the UK, she tells us, “a black parent has never written a book from their perspective of raising children”.

Despite launching in the middle of a pandemic, after five pitches to publishers, and a difficult writing process, I Am Not Your Baby Mother is an important, timely piece of work.

Now the day we had this conversation, ended up being the day that George Floyd was tragically murdered. Neither of us knew, the world as we knew it was about to change forever. We need change. And it’s shocking that it takes the brutal murder of a black man in broad daylight for change to be actioned.

Our conversation with Candice covered everything from:

Find out more about Candice and her book at www.candicebrathwaite.com

Follow Candice onInstagram

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"Mackenzie isn't a sad story. She's incredible.” So says today’s extraordinary guest Rachael Casella. She’s describing her beautiful daughter Mackenzie, who tragically passed away at seven months after being diagnosed with the fatal genetic disorder Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA).

Despite experiencing the most traumatic, devastating thing a parent could ever endure, Rachael and her husband Jonny are determined that Mackenzie’s life will not be defined by her loss, but by everything she brought to the world. "By experiencing and witnessing the end of someone's life, you can enhance your own,” she tells host Georgie Abay. “I am a better person because of her”.

Since Mackenzie was first diagnosed at just 10 weeks of age, Rachael and Jonny have been a force in campaigning for access to genetic screening for parents. Their incredible dedication to the cause ensures Mackenzie’s legacy lives on, via their successful campaign Mackenzie’s Mission.

And with the release of her new book, Mackenzie’s Mission, Rachael hopes that sharing her story will continue to drive the change needed to ensure that more families don’t suffer needlessly.

Since losing Mackenzie, Rachael and Jonny have undertaken nine rounds of IVF, hoping to avoid another SMA diagnosis. They’ve had two further pregnancies which, excruciatingly, they have had to medically terminate due to genetic and chromosomal conditions.  Mackenzie’s siblings Bella and Leo now join her as angels.

In today’s emotional, but uplifting conversation, we speak to Rachael about:

You can find Rachael on Instagram at @mylifeof_love and purchase her book here.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr Oscar Serrallach is the Australian author of The Postnatal Depletion Cure - A revolutionary postnatal care handbook which shows mothers how to reclaim their health and energy up to ten years after giving birth. In our conversation today, we look at why mothers need more support than ever, not just in the beginning of their motherhood journeys, but throughout the years that follow, and also look at his research and insight into what happens to both the mind and body when a woman becomes a mother. 

As mothers, so many of us are tired. We are overwhelmed. We ignore pains and ailments in our bodies, and we often put our family’s self-care over our own. Treating our mind and bodies as if we didn’t have children or experience childbirth is to the detriment of society, and Dr Oscar knows all too well of the consequences of mothers – new or old – running on empty. Postnatal depletion can present itself outside of the 6-month mark, even 7 years after birth of a child. His holistic and medical research into the postnatal period is what the world desperately needs to hear and understand. 

Dr Oscar believes that “Motherhood is a learned skill” and it’s this simple reminder that one of the hardest jobs in the world doesn’t necessarily come naturally which has shifted our entire perspective on, pretty much, everything. 

In today’s conversation, we cover:

To find out more about Dr Oscar Serrallach, book a consultation or buy his book The Postnatal Depletion Cure, go oscarserrallach.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Whether or not you’ve read one of her New York Times bestselling books, you’re probably familiar with Rosalind Wiseman’s work – you just might not know it. That’s because Rosalind is the author of Queen Bees and Wannabees, the book upon which Mean Girls is based.

It’s hard to believe, but the book is now 20 years old, and as relevant as ever. For many of us who watched Mean Girls as teenagers, we’re now preparing to parent adolescents ourselves. In today’s podcast episode, Georgie spoke to Rosalind about what it means to parents teenagers in today’s world, how the issues they face have changed (and how they haven’t!) and how we can support them through this rocky period of their lives.

Rosalind is now the founder of Cultures Of Dignity, working with communities to shift the way we think about young people’s physical and emotional wellbeing. She’s also a sought-after speaker and presenter, and the author of multiple books about parenting, bullying, adolescence, and more.

She spoke to us about:

You can find out more about Rosalind and her work here.

Follow Rosalind on Instagram @culturesofdignity

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“I'm not all hippy mung beans, and hand hold-y kumbaya”, Jacqui Lewis tells Georgie Abay in today’s episode. Jacqui is co-founder of The Broad Place, a global school teaching meditation and ‘higher grade living’. But as they say themselves, they’re into meditation for modern living. That means making meditation accessible – online, rather than a remote monk’s cave – as well as approachable, useful, and yes, scientific. So it makes perfect sense when Jacqui tells us the two biggest misconceptions about meditation. Firstly, that you need to stop thinking while you meditate, and secondly, that you need to change your whole lifestyle in order to meditate.

Instead, Jacqui believes that the key to ‘getting’ meditation is in finding a technique that aligns with and supports your every day life. And in founding The Broad Place, that’s exactly what she’s done.

Jacqui is a mother, the author of Mother’s Mind Cleanse, and a highly-sought after speaker. She’s been featured in Vogue, BRW, Harpers Bazaar, and more, and hosts The Broad Place retreats around the world.

In our enlightening, but down-to-earth chat, Jacqui tells us:

Connect with Jacqui via The Broad Place or on Instagram

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Parenting isn’t easy, but parenting in a pandemic takes this job to a whole new level. Which is why right now, we’re bringing you advice from the world’s best parenting experts. Today’s guest is Michael Grose who is one of Australia's leading parenting and educational writers and speakers. He is the author of seemingly countless books for parents, including the best-selling Why First Borns Rule the World, which has sold more than 23,000 copies. He’s also written ‘Anxious Kids How children can turn their anxiety into resilience’ and ‘Spoonfed Generation: How to Raise Independent Children’. Today, he dives deep into why parents in western countries such as Australia currently do too much for their kids (albeit with good intentions); why terms such as 'helicopter parents', 'bubble-wrapping kids' and 'over-parenting' are now common place and the importance of children's independence and the vital stages to letting go. He also gives a new perspective on children's anxiety, encouraging them to view each episode as an opportunity to empower their kids with the skills to manage anxiety, and thrive.  

In our insightful conversation, we look at:  

Plus, he talks us through parenting during the Coronavirus pandemic, and how we can try to create some calm amongst our chaos.  

Michael is the founder of Parenting Ideas where you can access his books, guides, webinars and online courses.  

You can follow him on Facebook  

Find links and other show notes at www.thegracetales.com 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The life story of India Hicks – so far – reads like an epic novel. The granddaughter of the Earl and Countess of Burma, she is the goddaughter to Prince Charles, and daughter of Lady Pamela Mountbatten and famed interior designer David Nightingale Hicks. And despite a traditional English boarding school upbringing, and being bridesmaid to Princess Diana in 1981, for the last 25 years she’s lived a somewhat unconventional life in the Bahamas with her husband and five children.

From modeling, to interior design, to bestselling books and running her own business, India’s career has been as vibrant as it is successful. She’s fascinating to listen to, which is just as well – she’s been a Royal commentator and a TV host – and our conversation with her covers everything from her childhood to her take on ‘failure’.

India spoke to us about:

Visit India’s blog or follow her on Instagram

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If there’s one word that probably sums up 2020 so far, it’s stress. From bushfires to pandemics, redundancies to homeschooling, it’s been a rocky road (and not always the delicious kind). Today’s podcast episode with Dr Libby Weaver helps us to unpack all the different ways we’re unknowingly adding stress to our lives, and how we can change our behaviour and attitudes to help alleviate that.

Dr Libby is an internationally acclaimed Nutritional Biochemist, author of 13 books, and highly sought after speaker. She’s an expert on women’s health, in both the mental and physical sense, and her latest book The Invisible Load is a must-read guide to overcoming stress and overwhelm.

We’ve been lucky enough to have Dr Libby speak at past Grace Tales events, and her impact was so powerful that our founder Georgie even gave up her 20-year coffee habit the day she first heard Dr Libby speak – she is just that good!

In today’s timely episode, Dr Libby Weaver tells us:

You can find out more about Dr Libby Weaver via her website, Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube channel.

Read her latest book, The Invisible Load, here.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Caitlin Cady is the author of Heavily Meditated, a down-to-earth guide to meditation. She's a dedicated yogi, living and working in Byron Bay with her husband and three children. But she wasn't always a zen goddess. She jokes that learning to meditate from someone who's naturally calm is like learning to cook from a skinny chef - which is the perfect analogy when you discover that Caitlin's journey with meditation started with an eating disorder, depression, and chronic Lyme disease. Caitlin is about as far away from the typical meditation master as you can imagine - she's bright, bubbly and energetic, and that energy has seen her tackle this strange new world with an unshakeable positivity that we could all use a dose of.

In today's episode she tells us:

She's refreshingly realistic about what meditation practice really looks like for mothers, and passionate about getting it done (imperfectly, with distractions), anyway. 

You can connect with Caitlin, find her meditation resources or buy her book Heavily

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr Justin Coulson has so many qualifications and accolades to his name they're almost impossible to list - but if we were going to try, number one on the list would be the fact that he has six daughters - yes, six! Throw in a PHD in Psychology, several parenting books to his name, and a spectacular career including delivering keynote speeches, acting on advisory boards, and consulting for the Federal Government, and you might start to get a little insight into why we are so incredibly excited to be chatting with him today.

In this insightful but reassuringly realistic interview, we cover everything from parenting without shouting (yes, it’s possible), to why children don’t make us happy – and why they shouldn’t. He talks us through:

Plus, he talks us through parenting during the Coronavirus pandemic, and how we can manage homeschooling and working from home, without losing our minds.

Justin is the founder of Happy Families https://www.happyfamilies.com.au/

You can follow him on Instagram @drjustincoulson or tune into his podcast here https://www.happyfamilies.com.au/podcasts/

Purchase his new book Miss-Connection here https://www.happyfamilies.com.au/shop/

Find links and other show notes at http://thegracetales.com/podcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fittingly for someone who embodies characters for a profession, Australian actress Teresa Palmer slips easily into many titles. Golden girl, Hollywood starlet, Earth Mother – they’ve all been used to describe the warm, open, and unassuming Palmer. From humble beginnings in the Adelaide Hills to the glittering success of Hollywood blockbusters, you can’t help but feel that Teresa Palmer is the same woman she’s always been. Our conversation with the founder of Your Zen Mama was like chatting to an old friend. With the launch of her book Zen Mamas this month, the timing was perfect to talk about life juggling filming schedules, book writing, and of course her three children and step-son. We discuss:

Visit Teresa’s website Your https://www.yourzenmama.com/ Purchase her book Zen Mamas https://www.yourzenmama.com/new-blog/2020/4/15/our-zen-mamas-book-is-here

You can connect with Teresa via Instagram @teresapalmer and find her Lovewell smoothies @lovewell.earth

Find links and other show notes at http://thegracetales.com/podcast

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.