Speaker 1: And there's something in the energy of going. Let's just
Speaker 1: keep creating and see what happens. And yes, it's imperfect
Speaker 1: and it's messy, and every sentence is not going to
Speaker 1: be perfect, but it will resonate with the right people.
Speaker 1: I think when we're humbled and we don't know everything,
Speaker 1: there's often magic in that.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Sees the Yay Podcast. Busy and happy
Speaker 2: are not the same thing. We too rarely question what
Speaker 2: makes the heart seeing. We work, then we rest, but
Speaker 2: rarely we play and often don't realize there's more than
Speaker 2: one way. So this is a platform to hear and
Speaker 2: explore the stories of those who found lives They adore,
Speaker 2: the good, bad and ugly, The best and worst day
Speaker 2: will bear all the facets of seizing your yay. I'm
Speaker 2: Sarah Davidson or Spoonful of Sarah, a lawyer turned fu
Speaker 2: entrepreneurs What the Suits and Heels to co found matcha
Speaker 2: Maiden and matcha Milk Bar CZA is a series of
Speaker 2: conversations on finding a life you love and exploring the
Speaker 2: self doubt, challenge, joy and fulfillment along the way. Lovely yighborhood,
Speaker 2: we are back with another wonderful guest episode. But in
Speaker 2: the meantime, don't forget to submit your questions for our
Speaker 2: this Yea or that Yay segment that we spontaneously as
Speaker 2: always introduce to Yay's of our Lives. If you don't
Speaker 2: know what I'm talking about, you are in for a treat.
Speaker 2: Or we are covering life's great questions like do you
Speaker 2: face the showerhead when you're in the shower or do
Speaker 2: you face away so you can either validate your weird
Speaker 2: behavior or confirm that you are in fact the only
Speaker 2: one in the world. Head back to our latest episode
Speaker 2: of Yeas of Our Lives to find out more about
Speaker 2: the questions we're asking and what the segment is about.
Speaker 2: With and as always, it's absolute chaos pot full of
Speaker 2: laughs and hopefully brought some of you from YEA to
Speaker 2: your last week. As to our guest for today, I
Speaker 2: am so thrilled to have someone who may be a
Speaker 2: familiar face to you on the show, but whose full
Speaker 2: story you may not know about in as much depth.
Speaker 2: That is, of course, as you know, my favorite kind
Speaker 2: of episode. You might have seen Rachel Coops through her
Speaker 2: role in the Cult SBS series Life Support, The internationally
Speaker 2: renowned McLeod's Daughters or even All Saints or also as
Speaker 2: a regular presenter on play School, she has literally been
Speaker 2: all over our screens around Australia for many years. Talk
Speaker 2: about a diverse path yer. She is also an award
Speaker 2: winning playwright, a professional yogi which we barely even had
Speaker 2: time to touch on, and a published author with her
Speaker 2: brand new book Paris for Beginners coming out just recently,
Speaker 2: documenting her time at Get This, Philip Gorlier's renowned Paris
Speaker 2: clown School, which counts the likes of Sasha Baron Cohen
Speaker 2: and Emma Thompson among its alumni. You guys know, I
Speaker 2: absolutely froth a niche community and clown school is something
Speaker 2: I had many many questions about. Add to that single parenthood,
Speaker 2: taking time off after discovering a tumor, moving countries and
Speaker 2: every thing in between.
Speaker 3: Buckle in.
Speaker 2: This is a big, juicy one and I hope you
Speaker 2: enjoy as much as I did.
Speaker 3: Rachel, Welcome to CZA.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2: I am so so excited to have you. I've been
Speaker 2: reading over your story and the whole idea of this
Speaker 2: show is that no one has a conventional pathway or
Speaker 2: path ya. There's so many different dots that have to
Speaker 2: connect to lead you to where you are today, and
Speaker 2: you have so many chapters.
Speaker 3: It's amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been a ride, and I think sometimes I
Speaker 1: feel like I wonder, you know, if you go down
Speaker 1: one particular path a little deeper, what would have happened.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's been a very interesting kind of journey.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just kept reading and I was like, what,
Speaker 2: how is there an entire Like the chapters aren't logically
Speaker 2: necessarily linked to each other. I mean, you have such
Speaker 2: a breath of experience, so I've been so so excited
Speaker 2: to pick your brains. And I think one of the
Speaker 2: things that's quite common with people who we might meet
Speaker 2: as a star of play school and you know, you've
Speaker 2: had a twenty year career where you've written, directed, and
Speaker 2: performed film, TV and theater that you know you'd always
Speaker 2: been a media person. But like I read that you
Speaker 2: were born on a military base, Like that's just not
Speaker 2: what you'd expect. So take us back to very early
Speaker 2: years Victorian girl who then moved to New South Wales.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I was born on an air Force base
Speaker 1: in where I be Victoria, and my parents separated when
Speaker 1: I was quite young, and so mum ultimately came back
Speaker 1: to Canberra where her parents were, and we spent those
Speaker 1: first few years in Canberra. Moved to Sydney when I
Speaker 1: was in kindy and I lived in a suburb called
Speaker 1: Dremoine in Sydney, which back in the day was and
Speaker 1: it is quite different now, but it was you know,
Speaker 1: working class Sydney families who happened to have this incredible
Speaker 1: kind of harbor. For sure, blocks of a part it's
Speaker 1: like a row of different blocks of apartments and the
Speaker 1: kids we all knew each other and would just like
Speaker 1: hop from pool to pool, building to building. So that
Speaker 1: was kind of the early years. And we moved east
Speaker 1: when I was a year six and that's when we've
Speaker 1: kind of stayed in this area since then. I went
Speaker 1: to high school over on the East Side. But even
Speaker 1: yesterday I had a birthday party and a lot of
Speaker 1: the people there were from back in the Hunter's Hill
Speaker 1: public days, you know, primary school day. So I'm still
Speaker 1: very connected to everyone from my past. I'm very close
Speaker 1: to friends that I've had for you know, twenty thirty
Speaker 1: forty years, which I think is such a bonus of
Speaker 1: ending up back in Sydney because I didn't necessarily think
Speaker 1: I would be here, you know, at this age and
Speaker 1: this time in my life.
Speaker 2: I think that's such a beautiful part of listening to
Speaker 2: anyone's story is realizing that really no one kind of
Speaker 2: expected to be where they end up right now, which
Speaker 2: means that you also don't know where you'll be in
Speaker 2: the next chapter and more and more, that uncertainty is
Speaker 2: common in people's journeys, and I think encouraging you to
Speaker 2: lean into that, like it's very scary, but leaning into
Speaker 2: that means that you could end up in a place
Speaker 2: that you never dreamed of ending up, which is you know,
Speaker 2: I mean we'll.
Speaker 1: Get to the parish chapter.
Speaker 2: Yeah, going back to just in the younger years, I
Speaker 2: think it's fascinating to look back at what you wanted
Speaker 2: to be or what your idea of what your journey
Speaker 2: would look like was when you were younger and I
Speaker 2: was reading that, you know, you represented yourself. I was
Speaker 2: in gymnastics, you did an economics degree, Like you're the
Speaker 2: perfect example of a broad range of interests and none
Speaker 2: of them necessarily building on each other, and then sort
Speaker 2: of having to translate that into a life, like how
Speaker 2: did you figure out you know, what that meant for you.
Speaker 1: I think there's been a few threads that have always,
Speaker 1: you know, sat under everything, and one is I wanted
Speaker 1: to be a nun when I was little, and you know,
Speaker 1: I had a bit of an obsession with spirituality from
Speaker 1: very young and that has remained my whole life. I
Speaker 1: definitely have a desire to connect to something greater than
Speaker 1: you know, just this individual life experience that Rachel gets
Speaker 1: to have, but that great unknown, and call it faith
Speaker 1: or a belief in the unknown, you know, trust in
Speaker 1: the unknown. So that's remained, which I guess makes sense
Speaker 1: in terms of my pathways into yoga, study of the
Speaker 1: texts and also the physical practice. And I always told stories.
Speaker 1: I always wanted to tell stories. I wrote a song
Speaker 1: when I was eight. I still remember every word. Such
Speaker 1: a terrible song, and I wrote it and asked my
Speaker 1: mum to send it to Whitney Houston, Oh, because I
Speaker 1: wanted her to record it. Yes, Big Dreams, and the
Speaker 1: song is all about world peace.
Speaker 2: Right, that's so switch, little eight year old just wanting
Speaker 2: big changes for the world.
Speaker 3: That's so cute.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I definitely I think that I've always had
Speaker 1: those key things, like a hunger a curiosity for storytelling
Speaker 1: and for just knowing the world and also knowing what
Speaker 1: is beyond you know, this life, and those things are
Speaker 1: probably driven a lot of the choices that I've made.
Speaker 1: And I also have a you know, just a thirst
Speaker 1: and a hunger for discovery, self discovery, but also discovery
Speaker 1: of other people and their stories and art and nature
Speaker 1: and science, and I you know, I think if you
Speaker 1: look at my podcast listening or books that I read
Speaker 1: or shows that I watch, it's so diverse in range.
Speaker 1: There's not one kind of common you know, Fien. And
Speaker 1: so I guess curiosity has been the other thread throughout
Speaker 1: life that I'm inherently curious.
Speaker 2: That doesn't surprise me at all that your go to
Speaker 2: listening when you're not, you know, being forced to listen
Speaker 2: to anything in particular, is just a total patchwork of
Speaker 2: all different things that kind of reflects in your interest
Speaker 2: in life. How did you find yourself? So I'm really
Speaker 2: interested about economics at Sydney UNI, as the choice for
Speaker 2: someone who is endlessly curious ended up overseas in the
Speaker 2: media and in yoga and meditation, none of which kind
Speaker 2: of seems like the logical step from an economics degree.
Speaker 2: At that time, what was that choice based on? And
Speaker 2: you know, how did you then end up taking the
Speaker 2: step out of economics at Sydney UNI into what ended
Speaker 2: up being the first chapter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And again it's so interesting because I think the
Speaker 1: economics degree meant that it's really served me well right
Speaker 1: up until now. That economics degree has given me the capacity, interestingly,
Speaker 1: to live a very diverse life and to do lots
Speaker 1: of things that I wanted to do because it gave
Speaker 1: me a foundation in an area that I'm inherently interested
Speaker 1: in the world of business and world economics, and I
Speaker 1: think that was probably what drew me into it back then,
Speaker 1: or two things. The first was I felt like you
Speaker 1: couldn't have a career in performing and writing and it
Speaker 1: was a hobby. I perceived it as a hobby that
Speaker 1: I might always have and that I really loved, but
Speaker 1: I didn't think it was a career. And my parents
Speaker 1: were pretty much in agreement.
Speaker 2: Well, that's what I was going to ask, is was
Speaker 2: that because you thought you had to do something sensible,
Speaker 2: which a lot of people in the arts did as
Speaker 2: their first step because they've ruled out the possibility that
Speaker 2: it could become a career.
Speaker 1: Definitely, but I was not forced to do it. There
Speaker 1: is a part of me that is so practical. I'm
Speaker 1: a try and I'm a classictorian in the sense right
Speaker 1: like I like comfort, and I like nice things, and
Speaker 1: I like, you know, to have I experienced the world
Speaker 1: in a sensory way, and so the practicality is also
Speaker 1: very much part of me. And it's part of my
Speaker 1: nature to make sure that I have stable things around me,
Speaker 1: solid grounds, so I can constantly be growing and changing
Speaker 1: and just living there or doing all the unstable for
Speaker 1: lack of a better word, things that I like to do,
Speaker 1: it's not really the right word. But the other thing
Speaker 1: about economics that I really loved was that I didn't
Speaker 1: understand that I'd have to do econometrics and statistics and.
Speaker 3: All the other stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't think that was going to be such
Speaker 1: a big part of it. And I initially I was
Speaker 1: doing commercial law, and then I realized that law was
Speaker 1: not what I thought it was going to be, which
Speaker 1: was saying long speeches and standing up and debating that
Speaker 1: it was very methodical and boring. But the economics was
Speaker 1: the part I loved, and that drew me to it,
Speaker 1: and I did three in economics at school was the
Speaker 1: essay writing. I loved these big picture ideas about how
Speaker 1: really simple moments in history change the course of the world,
Speaker 1: because economics drives so much of what happens. So, for example,
Speaker 1: one of the things that we studied was how coarsets
Speaker 1: because of the industrial Revolution, it meant that coursets could
Speaker 1: not just be from whalebone and for the wealthy anymore.
Speaker 1: They were actually accessible for all women, which meant at
Speaker 1: the time when the industry evolution happened, there was this
Speaker 1: drop in birth rates, like how many people were giving
Speaker 1: birth and they credit it to while you know, men
Speaker 1: are going into the cities and so they're not at
Speaker 1: home as much and by making Yeah, but there is
Speaker 1: this case that it was a moment in time because yes,
Speaker 1: it was because of the industry evolution, but it was
Speaker 1: because of the creation of wire and metal and materials
Speaker 1: that meant and the court so when it was made
Speaker 1: from metal and it didn't have any give, you would
Speaker 1: literally be like, you know, locked into it, pulled into it,
Speaker 1: and you can imagine what it did to female organs.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, that's so interesting.
Speaker 1: Isn't that cool?
Speaker 3: I was like where is this going.
Speaker 2: Is it because like men couldn't get into like unlacing
Speaker 2: it was too hot.
Speaker 3: I was like, where's the barrier here?
Speaker 1: That's fascinating. So some of it is that, of course
Speaker 1: there's a barrier, there's a physical barrier where like you
Speaker 1: might be caught up in the moment and then you
Speaker 1: have to actually take this quite complex thing off. But yeah,
Speaker 1: they talked about how it literally would pressed all the
Speaker 1: internal organs down. Yeah, So whether it's you know, whether
Speaker 1: that is the whole truth of why birth rates declined
Speaker 1: back then. I just think things like that were what
Speaker 1: drew me into an economics degree, just understanding how this
Speaker 1: tiny little fashion item can, at the same time as
Speaker 1: a massive economic history shift, can change the course of
Speaker 1: what's happening in history. Its so things like that, I
Speaker 1: think is why I loved it, and I really love
Speaker 1: and this is the other thing that you can do
Speaker 1: in economics, And it's actually the same in everything I do,
Speaker 1: or what everything I love to do is taking like
Speaker 1: big complex things ideas, stories, concepts and filtering them down
Speaker 1: to understand them and then try to communicate them in
Speaker 1: a way that is engaging and gets people to think
Speaker 1: and feel and that's also what I was drawn to it.
Speaker 1: I knew that they were would be a lot of
Speaker 1: essay writing and understanding of those big concepts. But while
Speaker 1: I was at UNI, I got acting jobs, like professional
Speaker 1: acting gigs, and did my first film while I was
Speaker 1: at UNI. But even then, I still and I kind
Speaker 1: of paid my way.
Speaker 3: Was that still a hobby?
Speaker 1: It was still a hobby. Yeah, yeah, And it was
Speaker 1: not until I spent I got a full time job
Speaker 1: at Fairfax Publications in marketing and sales, and I spent
Speaker 1: six months full time working and my body was covered
Speaker 1: in psoriasis and I was so unhappy and I was like,
Speaker 1: maybe I do need to look at this whole acting
Speaker 1: creative thing. And that's the first time I went back
Speaker 1: to study with Philippe in London.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: Okay, So this is where I get so excited that
Speaker 2: in hindsight you can see the common thread of storytelling,
Speaker 2: distilling big stories and communicating them and now having written
Speaker 2: for every different media, like it's that that's your great
Speaker 2: gift to the world. And the strength that now is
Speaker 2: like you're ya, and that's the whole like cz the A,
Speaker 2: it doesn't it takes us all a little while to
Speaker 2: kind of figure that out, but at the time, I'm
Speaker 2: sure the dots didn't necessarily connect. And it's I think
Speaker 2: very reassuring for people to hear that there are big
Speaker 2: chapters of your life where you weren't even close to
Speaker 2: a media career like you were still like sales and
Speaker 2: marketing at Fairfax is like the opposite of what you
Speaker 2: do now, but still very transferable skills. And now, I
Speaker 2: mean we've got to the chapter where you went to
Speaker 2: Clown School, Like, let's distill how you get from sales
Speaker 2: and marketing at Fairfax to clown School in Paris, one
Speaker 2: of my favorite cities.
Speaker 3: I've also lived there as well.
Speaker 2: It made me so excited because I cannot wait to
Speaker 2: get my hands on your book. But I mean, your
Speaker 2: fellow alumni, Sasha Baron Cohen, Emma Thompson, like the biggest
Speaker 2: of the big wigs in film and media and acting.
Speaker 2: And that's very much high speed from hobby to my
Speaker 2: life which has then propelled you into that's been your
Speaker 2: career since then.
Speaker 3: Tell us how that materialized.
Speaker 2: Was it fate? Was it going with the flow? Was
Speaker 2: it seizing those opportunities? Like was it conscious? Did you
Speaker 2: fall into it like how did this all happen?
Speaker 1: So it's always a combination of those things, I think,
Speaker 1: isn't it Like we a whole lot of things lined
Speaker 1: up at that moment in time. But I had after Uni,
Speaker 1: I was acting professionally like it became a career through
Speaker 1: my twenties. And it was towards the end of my
Speaker 1: twenties that I felt like that really deep imposter syndrome
Speaker 1: because I had done an economics degree and I hadn't
Speaker 1: been to Nier and I hadn't been to Whopper, and
Speaker 1: I felt like I might get caught out very soon
Speaker 1: for not actually being an actor.
Speaker 3: Someone will realize I'll be added.
Speaker 1: I realized, yes, And I just I was always insecure
Speaker 1: about it that I hadn't done a you know, gone
Speaker 1: to acting school and done a drama school. And I
Speaker 1: had a nanny when I I was living in Rights Road.
Speaker 1: We had a group nanny. So she looked after a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of kids. And when I say, looked up
Speaker 1: like she would walk us all to school, bring us back.
Speaker 1: We were still running around like free as birds. But she, yeah,
Speaker 1: she would come and pick us up from school, sometimes
Speaker 1: dressed as a clown. I know, so cool. So she
Speaker 1: had gone to Golia's school, and she was such a
Speaker 1: pivotal person. From my youth, I was so obsessed with her.
Speaker 1: She was so fun, she was so full of joy.
Speaker 1: And when I was older, I had gone back to
Speaker 1: watch her do a one woman show at the Edinburgh
Speaker 1: Festival and I just remember sitting there watching her going.
Speaker 1: And this is before I'd decided I wanted to give
Speaker 1: the acting career a crack and not work full time anymore.
Speaker 1: And I just sat there watching her, going, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: that is amazing that she can do a one woman show,
Speaker 1: write this show, get it up, produce it. And because
Speaker 1: she was someone close to me in my life, it
Speaker 1: felt possible. It felt like, oh, I could do that too, potentially,
Speaker 1: So I studied. I did a workshop with Filipe when
Speaker 1: I was in London when I was you know that
Speaker 1: age where we go over and we're kind of doing
Speaker 1: the europe adventure. And I knew I wanted to go
Speaker 1: back and study with him one day, but I didn't
Speaker 1: know how or when, and his school was in London
Speaker 1: at that point. Then he moved back to Paris, and
Speaker 1: so at the end of my twenties, feeling a little insecure,
Speaker 1: and I'd always wanted to live in Paris. I didn't
Speaker 1: even know why. Since I was little, I had this
Speaker 1: thing about Paris, and like a series of things happened though,
Speaker 1: like I lost a very close friend and I had
Speaker 1: this moment of going, God, you know, you just don't know.
Speaker 1: Life is so uncertain. You just don't know what's around
Speaker 1: the corner, what's going to happen. I had no big
Speaker 1: commitments or responsibilities, and so I applied for a scholarship
Speaker 1: and I got it, which me I did not expect
Speaker 1: to get it.
Speaker 2: You still look surprised now, You're like, I I got it,
Speaker 2: Like what.
Speaker 1: I know, I didn't expect to. You know, it was
Speaker 1: highly competitive, and so then I was like, oh, I
Speaker 1: guess I actually have to go now. And so I
Speaker 1: found myself in late twenties in Paris when a lot
Speaker 1: of my friends were starting to get a bit more
Speaker 1: responsible in their lives. And you know, when you're acting
Speaker 1: when you're younger and you're sort of eighteen nineteen, it's
Speaker 1: the stakes are pretty low, but as you get older,
Speaker 1: it constantly gets more and more apparent that you're not
Speaker 1: choosing a career like you're actually choosing a lifestyle, you're
Speaker 1: choosing a way of living because you're choosing never being
Speaker 1: able to commit to plans because you never know what's
Speaker 1: going to come up. And like the number of weddings
Speaker 1: I missed or events that I couldn't go to because
Speaker 1: you're shooting schedules, a shooting schedule, and I think going
Speaker 1: there at that time in my life where they call
Speaker 1: it satin return, which is the.
Speaker 3: First time twenty seven.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so from twenty seven to thirty yeah.
Speaker 3: Wild white Mine was wild times from Yeah, look it up, guys.
Speaker 2: If you don't know what a Saturn return is, it's like,
Speaker 2: it'll blow your mind. And if you look back at
Speaker 2: your if you're past your Saturn return, you look back,
Speaker 2: you'll it'll all make sense. If you're about to embark
Speaker 2: upon your Saturn return, things will also all make Just
Speaker 2: go read it.
Speaker 3: It's amazing.
Speaker 1: It's very interesting, isn't it. So it's a time of
Speaker 1: life where they say you step over into the threshold
Speaker 1: of adulthood, and so you start to get clear about
Speaker 1: you know, what you really want. And I did that
Speaker 1: on the other side of the world beginning again as well, right,
Speaker 1: like going to school when I was a professional and
Speaker 1: being a beginner again. And Philip's school is infamously brutal,
Speaker 1: Like it's no I like to say, clown school is
Speaker 1: no joke.
Speaker 3: No climbing around, it's not.
Speaker 1: There is no planning around. You're required to find a
Speaker 1: depth of vulnerability that you know most of us have
Speaker 1: not until we go through the process. So yeah, it
Speaker 1: was pretty amazing.
Speaker 2: It's really interesting that you've brought up how like the
Speaker 2: clean slate and the risk of doing that and missing
Speaker 2: the weddings back home and the pivotal time of life
Speaker 2: where you know a lot of your friends are on
Speaker 2: this joint parallel track with you, and then you kind
Speaker 2: of diverge off to go and do this you know,
Speaker 2: amazing thing overseas. But it's interesting to remember that, like
Speaker 2: one choice will often cost you other choices, and it
Speaker 2: can seem like, oh my god, you went to do
Speaker 2: this big, crazy, amazing thing, But those decisions are really scary.
Speaker 2: They take a lot of balls. There's a lot of
Speaker 2: in Boster syndrome involved, and so much discomfort, and I
Speaker 2: think it's amazing that you were willing to start again
Speaker 2: like that. I think the magic of so many people's
Speaker 2: stories is the minute, they don't mind being a beginner again,
Speaker 2: don't mind relinquishing everything they've built in one life to
Speaker 2: swap for a different one.
Speaker 3: And that's like it's.
Speaker 2: So hard and it's so scary at the time, but
Speaker 2: that's where all of the magic happens for so many people.
Speaker 2: It's when they go, you know what, this one track
Speaker 2: has been amazing till this point, but now, like it's
Speaker 2: not serving me anymore. I've got soriasis everywhere. My body
Speaker 2: and my brain are telling me this is not necessarily
Speaker 2: the path for me anymore. And there's this huge, uncomfortable shift.
Speaker 2: But then look what it's done. But I just think
Speaker 2: it's important to remember it's not always comfortable.
Speaker 1: It's not comfortable at all. And I think the other
Speaker 1: thing to remember is the world is changing at such
Speaker 1: a rapid rate now that I think this is the
Speaker 1: nature of you know, life now is that we all
Speaker 1: have to be flexible and adaptable. And the thing that
Speaker 1: got me through the pandemic financially was that I do
Speaker 1: so many things. So a lot of them fell away,
Speaker 1: like a lot of them disappeared, and it was incredibly
Speaker 1: stressful and heartbreaking. But at the same time I had
Speaker 1: a couple of things I could still do, like that's
Speaker 1: when I wrote the first book, was that the second
Speaker 1: lockdown Because I often have people go, when are you
Speaker 1: going to choose? Or they'll say polymath and all these
Speaker 1: kind of I guess everyone wants to label how we live.
Speaker 1: Our life has to be a particular way. But I
Speaker 1: think we all have to become polymaths. I think we
Speaker 1: all have to become embrace all of our skills. And
Speaker 1: if we are that way in clinent because some people
Speaker 1: do know what they want to do, they get really clear,
Speaker 1: really young, and there is very well laid out path.
Speaker 1: But I think we're seeing in recent years that even
Speaker 1: when that happens, imagine I think about all these poor
Speaker 1: students who got through law school just before the age
Speaker 1: where we're now going into AI and what AI is doing,
Speaker 1: and how much of it is they can put through
Speaker 1: computers now. And that's just one industry, but so many
Speaker 1: industries are changing and we have to I think we
Speaker 1: have to be on our toes. And I'm in my forties,
Speaker 1: but I plan on working for the rest of my days.
Speaker 1: I want to be stimulated, I want to be engaged
Speaker 1: in the world. I want to learn, keep learning and
Speaker 1: growing and contributing to whatever conversations people are willing to have,
Speaker 1: you know, so there's a part of me that just goes.
Speaker 1: I think it's the way forward. I think we all
Speaker 1: have to become a little more open to that, and
Speaker 1: as you say, be okay with becoming a beginner again
Speaker 1: and again and again and going instead of seeing it
Speaker 1: as like, oh, I have to start again. And I'm
Speaker 1: saying this as someone who has felt that deeply so
Speaker 1: many times, like, I can't believe I'm at this point
Speaker 1: in my life when I've worked so hard and I've
Speaker 1: been such a good person, and I've.
Speaker 3: Done all the right things.
Speaker 1: I've done all the right things. Why is it my turn?
Speaker 1: Or when is it going to be my turn? And
Speaker 1: the reality is it's just not way life works.
Speaker 2: And you make it your turn, right. I think we
Speaker 2: often wait for things. In the episode before this, we
Speaker 2: talked a lot about how when you work really hard
Speaker 2: and you do the right thing and you make good decisions,
Speaker 2: you kind of wait for someone out there to go, oh,
Speaker 2: I recognize that here is the thing you deserve, and
Speaker 2: unfortunately you can get it, but you have to reach
Speaker 2: out first and grab it, and you can you know,
Speaker 2: get the silver plate with all the beautiful things on it,
Speaker 2: but no one's going to just give it to you
Speaker 2: one day.
Speaker 3: You have to really go out and look for them.
Speaker 1: And I think humility is such a great place to
Speaker 1: create from. I think when we're humbled and we don't
Speaker 1: know everything, there's often magic in that and even in
Speaker 1: everything I do. And I was reflecting on it the
Speaker 1: other day about the book, like people go, oh my god,
Speaker 1: you write your book so fast. Part of it is
Speaker 1: having a deadline, for sure.
Speaker 3: I had no choice, guys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well but I did have a choice, because there's
Speaker 1: always a choice, and I could have said no, and
Speaker 1: I could have pushed back. But part of it is
Speaker 1: I think it's just the way that I work. And
Speaker 1: I know that neither of the books are perfect. None
Speaker 1: of the plays that I've written are perfect, none of
Speaker 1: the articles I've written are perfect, but I get them done,
Speaker 1: and there's something in the energy of going, let's just
Speaker 1: keep creating and see what happens. And yes, it's imperfect
Speaker 1: and it's messy, and every sentence is not going to
Speaker 1: be perfect, but it will resonate with the right people,
Speaker 1: and it will start a conversation with whoever needs to
Speaker 1: hear that conversation, and it's okay for us to not
Speaker 1: be the best at everything. Because I also think there's
Speaker 1: this obsession now with I want to make impact, especially
Speaker 1: for young people. I want to make impact, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: what does that mean?
Speaker 2: Or I want.
Speaker 1: To live from my purpose? Awesome, that's great to get
Speaker 1: really clear about what your purpose is in life, But
Speaker 1: we've lost that thing of going, what about being a
Speaker 1: really great person in my community? What about you know,
Speaker 1: instead of creating big impact in the world, how can
Speaker 1: I be a better parent, daughter, friend? Like, that's where
Speaker 1: I can make impact. So I think too just I
Speaker 1: never dreamed of writing books. I knew I wanted to
Speaker 1: tell stories. I would have loved to be an actor,
Speaker 1: you know, long term, sure, But at the same time,
Speaker 1: once I had my son and that wasn't a possibility
Speaker 1: like single parenting and being on a long running TV
Speaker 1: show or theater at night, it just the economics don't work,
Speaker 1: and either did the energetic economics, and I had to
Speaker 1: step back from that and go, okay, so that framework
Speaker 1: doesn't work, what does and staying open to possibilities that
Speaker 1: did present themselves, and still, of course, as you say,
Speaker 1: driving it. There is an element to I always knew,
Speaker 1: especially with the first book, as I knew I wanted
Speaker 1: to write that book for a long long time. I
Speaker 1: didn't know how or when, but it was permeating and
Speaker 1: I worked really hard to try and get it to happen,
Speaker 1: and it didn't, and then it sort of fell on
Speaker 1: my lap. All that work paid off way after I
Speaker 1: thought it was going to pay off.
Speaker 3: That's so interesting.
Speaker 2: There's a quote that I love. The day you plant
Speaker 2: the seed is not the day you eat the fruit.
Speaker 2: And I think with that instant gratuity thing, it's like, well,
Speaker 2: I'm working hard now, so I want the results within
Speaker 2: six months or a year or like a really traceable
Speaker 2: amount of time. But often you're really laying foundations like
Speaker 2: decades sometimes before the benefits are reaped, which means patience
Speaker 2: will get you a really long way in this day
Speaker 2: and age. And also I think that really shows through
Speaker 2: your story as well, that you were willing to put
Speaker 2: in yards in like in Paris, for example, you went
Speaker 2: back to the start at school. You did clown school,
Speaker 2: which I want to ask you a little bit more about.
Speaker 2: But you lived in Paris, you did a stint to
Speaker 2: like read qualifying something, then you came back. You've done
Speaker 2: an enormous amount of time in play school, Like you've
Speaker 2: done big chapters. There's not been any kind of two
Speaker 2: to three year itch bortom. You'll like commit fully to
Speaker 2: a chapter and know that you know it won't be
Speaker 2: the right chapter forever. But I think one of the
Speaker 2: things that's really hard for people is knowing when a
Speaker 2: chapter is coming to an end and being okay with
Speaker 2: like the evolution, and it seems like you've been very
Speaker 2: good at putting all of yourself into one chapter, but
Speaker 2: then being like, okay, evolution, time is it?
Speaker 3: Because you feel the creep.
Speaker 2: Of something new, Like how did you know that it
Speaker 2: was time to leave Paris? How did you know that
Speaker 2: it was time to step back from play school?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 3: How do you work that out?
Speaker 1: You know? I don't learn things gracefully, Definitely not someone
Speaker 1: who's like gets a little tap on the shoulder from
Speaker 1: the universe like hey, it's time to change No, it's
Speaker 1: I get a tap, I ignore it. Then I get
Speaker 1: like a smack smack, and I ignore it, and then
Speaker 1: I get hit by you know, the bus going change course,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, okay, there's been really, I guess,
Speaker 1: monumental things that happened where I was thoughced to change.
Speaker 1: Like I said, you can't be a single parent and
Speaker 1: continue to live the way that you did when I
Speaker 1: was single, traveling the world doing what I wanted, and
Speaker 1: you can't. I think you can knock on doors, but
Speaker 1: at some point there's this marriage of you know, call
Speaker 1: it destiny or fate or the randomness of life, whichever
Speaker 1: it is, and all the work and effort that we
Speaker 1: put into things, and they collide in ways that for
Speaker 1: me have definitely not been graceful. And I I haven't
Speaker 1: even decided in many of those moments. It's been things
Speaker 1: that catalysts that what was an idea becomes very apparent
Speaker 1: that yeah, you actually have to do that thing. And
Speaker 1: you know, even leaving Paris was torturous because I left
Speaker 1: and then I went back, and then of course when
Speaker 1: I went back it wasn't the same, and then I
Speaker 1: probably stayed longer than I should. But I didn't leave
Speaker 1: until I went to La and then I was going
Speaker 1: to like do the stint in LA, and I got
Speaker 1: a job back in Australia within like three months, which
Speaker 1: brought me back to Australia, so I kind of ended up.
Speaker 1: I was trying to stay in Paris, but I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I should still be an actor. Maybe I can live
Speaker 1: between La and Paris and then But it's so funny
Speaker 1: how I just kept getting pulled back to Australia and
Speaker 1: a job brought me back here. I didn't choose that.
Speaker 1: I never would have chosen to come back at that
Speaker 1: moment in my life, but I McLeod's daughters offered me
Speaker 1: role and I was like, oh, well, I guess I
Speaker 1: meant to be acting. So that's what I was. That's
Speaker 1: what all this is for, isn't.
Speaker 2: It Like and it's a huge show, Like, well, that's
Speaker 2: a huge opportunity.
Speaker 1: But it was not. It was not on my plan,
Speaker 1: is what I'm saying. So it's not like I I
Speaker 1: don't know. I think for some people they're very good
Speaker 1: at hearing those cues and in the within themselves. But
Speaker 1: for me, it's always been like I am forced a
Speaker 1: kick in the butt.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So I think one of the things that's so
Speaker 3: interesting is when.
Speaker 2: People like you have had such a breath of experience,
Speaker 2: like the vast majority of us are not going to
Speaker 2: go to like a Parisian clown School. So while I've
Speaker 2: got you, I would love to just pick your brain
Speaker 2: about what you actually do there. Like I think one
Speaker 2: of the beautiful things now that you have given us
Speaker 2: with your amazing new memoir Paris for beginners is that
Speaker 2: we can get lost in the City of Lights with
Speaker 2: you and like get into the.
Speaker 3: Nitty gritty of what your day to day life was.
Speaker 3: But for anyone.
Speaker 2: Who's you know, want to give them a taste of
Speaker 2: kind of what your life was like there, Like what
Speaker 2: are you doing cloud?
Speaker 3: Do you juggle?
Speaker 2: Like you actually doing clowny things? I know I read
Speaker 2: that you had to learn to act like you were
Speaker 2: at gunpoint and like about to be murdered.
Speaker 3: Like is it just being.
Speaker 2: Broadly in it's call clown school or are you fully
Speaker 2: wearing clown outfits and being a clown?
Speaker 1: So the school works in modules. Fundamentally, it is a
Speaker 1: theater school, and Philip Guilliere came from a school called
Speaker 1: Jacques Lecoq, which is a very famous physical theater school
Speaker 1: which still exists, and in fact, the Lecoq students and
Speaker 1: the Golier students we spend a lot of time together.
Speaker 1: But Philip left because he has. He had more of
Speaker 1: an interest in working with texts, so like within lines,
Speaker 1: and he felt that there were things that he couldn't
Speaker 1: do it Lacock that he tried to bring to his school,
Speaker 1: and it is centered around the whole premise of his
Speaker 1: school is centered around the first module, which is leisure,
Speaker 1: which is the game or to play. So he is
Speaker 1: it sounds funny, right, because he's brutal and he's tough
Speaker 1: on you learning to play and have fun and find pleasure.
Speaker 3: You will have fun, right.
Speaker 2: So I do that to myself to be fair. I'm like,
Speaker 2: I need to have a day off. You will enjoy yourself,
Speaker 2: you will rest.
Speaker 3: It's like just fucking chill man.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And when you think about it and you see
Speaker 1: someone who has not been chilling, when you see someone
Speaker 1: who has not had pleasure, we see it, right, We
Speaker 1: see in our friends and family when someone's under the
Speaker 1: pump and they just have not had any joy for
Speaker 1: a long time. So his perspective is you have to
Speaker 1: be alive with play every time you get up on stage.
Speaker 1: So that's at the heart of the school, right. But
Speaker 1: to find that that there's a whole bunch of games
Speaker 1: that he gets us to do, and the one that
Speaker 1: you were describing was, in fact, we were trying to
Speaker 1: find that moment where which, from his perspective, you should
Speaker 1: always have on stage, which is the audience watches and goes,
Speaker 1: oh my god, that moment. And I think we've all
Speaker 1: had that experience of listening to a song or going
Speaker 1: to the theater or watching a show where you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: the moment and that actor lifted their hand up, or
Speaker 1: the moment when you hear that note and it takes
Speaker 1: your breath away. And so that exercise was an exercise
Speaker 1: in getting us to because you know, the tendency was
Speaker 1: fresh to get up and be like find our way
Speaker 1: into the scene. And he's like, no, you have to
Speaker 1: get up and you have to be there and you
Speaker 1: have to So yes, we had to stand in a line.
Speaker 1: He would say ready, aim, and we'd have to start
Speaker 1: speaking text so you might be saying some Shakespeare or
Speaker 1: Chekhov or and if he banged his drumma meant that
Speaker 1: you were shot.
Speaker 3: You just had to die on the spot.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, but to die is in like stop talking.
Speaker 3: Oh, not actually die, not actually die.
Speaker 1: He's just like every time you get on stage, it's
Speaker 1: like you're trying to save your life, so in order
Speaker 1: to do that, you have to find an impulse. Every
Speaker 1: time we got up, so a lot of the time
Speaker 1: was a group of us getting up. He would give
Speaker 1: us an exercise. Sometimes he would give us lots of instruction.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they'd be very little. Intentionally, we would do the
Speaker 1: exercise and if he banged his drama meant you all
Speaker 1: had to stop. You were boring and you had to stop.
Speaker 2: I see, Okay, So you're trying to captivate him, yes,
Speaker 2: until Yeah, you're trying to avoid the drum.
Speaker 1: You're trying to avoid the drum. So there's a level
Speaker 1: of adrenaline and imagination that you're constantly try to bring
Speaker 1: to yeah, to get one little smile from him. And
Speaker 1: the beauty of the school is that every single person
Speaker 1: that I was at school with they had their moments,
Speaker 1: like so many moments where because the stakes were always
Speaker 1: so high, they would find something magic, you know, something
Speaker 1: so that moment that we would all be there watching, going,
Speaker 1: oh my god, and you'd feel such relief and joy
Speaker 1: that your friend had done well right.
Speaker 3: They didn't get killed in the lineup.
Speaker 1: Yes, And what's so funny about it is a producing
Speaker 1: part Natasha and I and we've been working on developing
Speaker 1: the series, developing the book as a series. Part of
Speaker 1: the problems, She's like, surely there was drama between the
Speaker 1: students in like we need to find some drama between
Speaker 1: the students of school. And I'm like, we genuinely just
Speaker 1: wanted each other to do well. There was not one
Speaker 1: iota of competition in that room. There was just this
Speaker 1: level of if someone did well, it was like, oh,
Speaker 1: so I'm so happy for them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have this like Juilliard image where everyone's like
Speaker 2: fighting to the death and like there's one Sasha Baron
Speaker 2: Cohen then every cohort and like you'll tear another down.
Speaker 3: But that's so beautiful.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was pretty magic. And he's you know, like
Speaker 1: the first time I got up, he and I'm like
Speaker 1: doing my thing and then he bangs his drama and
Speaker 1: he was like, well, why did you get up? Did
Speaker 1: you think what they do is saw amazing? There's the
Speaker 1: audience going to love me legsies blah blah, or did
Speaker 1: you think I am boying like a boying seven for seven? Almost? Aliah,
Speaker 1: never in my life I want to see this woman.
Speaker 3: So that's so friend.
Speaker 1: He would do it always with he would like tear
Speaker 1: you down, but with so much humor. And he was
Speaker 1: so joyful when someone did well, you know, to see
Speaker 1: as student find something incredible. He was just as you
Speaker 1: could just see the joy on his face. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it was brutal. And yes we do dress up for
Speaker 1: some of the modules, so for Buffon, which is very
Speaker 1: similar to clown, but it's more it's what Sasha Barankhan does.
Speaker 1: So it's satire. It's the people who are the rejects
Speaker 1: of society coming back to make fun of. You play
Speaker 1: someone of an elevated status in order that they will
Speaker 1: see them and have a heart attack because they they
Speaker 1: laugh at the person and then they go, oh my god,
Speaker 1: they're walking me.
Speaker 3: And then they're exposed.
Speaker 1: Yes, so Befon and clown are the last two modules
Speaker 1: you do because they're the hardest. And clown you find
Speaker 1: a clown and then you dress up as that clown.
Speaker 1: So my clown thought she was Bridget Badou, she thought
Speaker 1: she was very sexy. That was not at all.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: Okay, So in this scheme of like people's when they
Speaker 2: hear clown school, in this scheme of their expectation of
Speaker 2: like literally twenty clowns in a room with like a
Speaker 2: red nose and white face paint. How much of your
Speaker 2: course was that versus like theater generally.
Speaker 1: Most of the year is look at such a mishmosh,
Speaker 1: because he would just pull, like even when we did
Speaker 1: Shakespeare modules, he'd pull some elements of other modules in obviously,
Speaker 1: because we're constantly overlapping with ideas and characters. And however
Speaker 1: we would improvise to a character. So say we were
Speaker 1: doing Shakespeare Chekhovs and we'd do different exercises, and maybe
Speaker 1: someone is pretending to be a spider. I was a
Speaker 1: terrible spider, okay, right, someone's pretending to be a spider,
Speaker 1: and he's like, okay, like this, you're going to play
Speaker 1: leading with.
Speaker 4: Beth as a spider, yes, in that kind of way
Speaker 4: with their body, right, So then the next day they
Speaker 4: would come dressed as Lady m with and have learned text.
Speaker 1: So we would find the character first with that, with
Speaker 1: play and with improvisations. Then we'd add the layer absolutely
Speaker 1: of dressing up in that character. But with clown you
Speaker 1: really only had one chance. I had two, and I
Speaker 1: failed at both of them. He gave me a second
Speaker 1: one and they were both a disaster. I just lost
Speaker 1: my ability to fail by the end of the year,
Speaker 1: and you have to fail in clown and then you
Speaker 1: get to dress up as whatever. So we'd improvise and
Speaker 1: say I did something where I pretended to be a giraffe,
Speaker 1: and so when I try to be sexy, people laugh.
Speaker 1: So he's like, all right, your clown is Bridget Buddo.
Speaker 1: She thinks she's sexy. So I wore a towel and
Speaker 1: a big blonde wig and the nose. That's when you
Speaker 1: put the nose on. But it's only after you've sort
Speaker 1: of found all the elements of your clown that then
Speaker 1: we would get dressed up and play.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, I know that's so cool.
Speaker 2: I feel like people in their mind think that you're
Speaker 2: just literally qualifying to just be a clown at like
Speaker 2: a circus.
Speaker 3: But there's like Shakespeare involved. It's like so.
Speaker 2: Much art that goes into this. And it's so interesting
Speaker 2: that we've touched on play because a big part of
Speaker 2: this show is the idea that everyone needs play in
Speaker 2: their life, and particularly play outside of what's productive for
Speaker 2: you or what's your career, because if you're always just working,
Speaker 2: even if you love it, and even if it's playfull,
Speaker 2: you burn out. Like it's impossible to do only one
Speaker 2: thing in your life without enjoy it. Like we're not
Speaker 2: here to work and die, We're here to also have
Speaker 2: some fulfillment and enjoy our relationships. And you know, you're
Speaker 2: living in the most one of the most beautiful cities
Speaker 2: in the world, and then you've come home to one
Speaker 2: of the most beautiful countries in the world. And I
Speaker 2: think we can get very bogged down in the hustle
Speaker 2: and forget to play. But you've gone from a clown
Speaker 2: school to coming back to a role in play school.
Speaker 2: Like the word is play. It's child's play. You're encouraged
Speaker 2: to be in the child's mind. But that's your job.
Speaker 2: And I think sometimes when you make joyful things your job,
Speaker 2: it can make it very hard to get joy elsewhere
Speaker 2: because like the lines are so blurry. So how have
Speaker 2: you managed to keep the joy and the art of
Speaker 2: what you do alive but also find a you that's
Speaker 2: not part of that identity, that productive working identity, and
Speaker 2: that can find play outside of you know, the media.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a really really good question, and I think
Speaker 1: It's something I struggle with, you know, that finding a balance,
Speaker 1: and I recognize I'm in such a position of privilege.
Speaker 1: There's so many people who are in you know, have
Speaker 1: way more challenges than me, who have experienced levels of
Speaker 1: prejudice and trauma that I have not, and so I'm
Speaker 1: always really conscious of that. But actually, at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, I have a roof over my head
Speaker 1: and I'm relatively healthy, and so I'm grateful that I
Speaker 1: have the ability to play and the ability to be
Speaker 1: joyful out of what I do, out of the work
Speaker 1: I do, but also in the work I do, because
Speaker 1: for me, I was really like, it's not an easy
Speaker 1: road doing different things. It's not an easy road being
Speaker 1: an actor. It's not an easy road writing all the
Speaker 1: creative things I've done, and actually also you know, teaching yoga,
Speaker 1: which is a whole other part of my life. None
Speaker 1: of those paths provide any kind of stability or great
Speaker 1: economic reward, Like you really have to be in it
Speaker 1: for the love of it, and the way that say,
Speaker 1: for example, teaching yoga trainings or classes, I always was like,
Speaker 1: I don't ever want to be counting numbers in my class.
Speaker 1: I don't ever want to be relying on students for
Speaker 1: me to make a living, which has meant that I
Speaker 1: have to always have other ways of earning money outside
Speaker 1: of acting, writing and my world of mindfulness and yoga.
Speaker 1: I've had to make sure that I can, especially being
Speaker 1: a single parent, that I can afford so we have
Speaker 1: a home and we don't want for a lot, and
Speaker 1: that those things can be fun because I'm doing them
Speaker 1: because I still love them. There's no point in me
Speaker 1: showing up to play school or showing up to a
Speaker 1: yoga space and go accounting how much money I'm going
Speaker 1: to earn that day. There's just much better ways of
Speaker 1: making money, right, So you have to be there for
Speaker 1: the love. You have to be there for the For me,
Speaker 1: I'm like every time I go into play School, I
Speaker 1: remind myself of how excited I was the very first
Speaker 1: time I found out that they were giving me a
Speaker 1: chance to do a couple of apps. I was just
Speaker 1: beside myself. It felt like such an honor and such
Speaker 1: a privilege to be part of this institution and I
Speaker 1: don't ever want to lose that, and as soon as
Speaker 1: I do, I will stop doing it. It can't be
Speaker 1: and it's hard work. Like learning the lines for play school.
Speaker 1: I've never found learning lines easy, and you have to
Speaker 1: learn a lot for play school, and you have to
Speaker 1: be on your game and give a lot of energy.
Speaker 1: And in fact, in most things I do, you have
Speaker 1: to like, you have to give a lot, right, you
Speaker 1: have to be generous, and that can only come from
Speaker 1: a place of joy with what you're doing.
Speaker 3: One hundred.
Speaker 2: I love that you mentioned the idea that one day
Speaker 2: when you don't appreciate it and you don't feel that
Speaker 2: same sparkle, that that is usually the sign that a
Speaker 2: chapter is kind of coming to a close for you.
Speaker 2: But I love also reminding yourself of how you felt
Speaker 2: the first day that you got the job. I think
Speaker 2: it's very easy to forget the gratitude, the immense gratitude
Speaker 2: you have for something. If you get to do it
Speaker 2: for a long time, it can feel like, oh, it's
Speaker 2: rinse and repeat. But like if you just go back
Speaker 2: to that sparkle you had when you first found out, like, that's.
Speaker 3: A really beautiful exercise to do.
Speaker 2: And also I love that you've explained I think you
Speaker 2: assume a children show would be easier, but like, I
Speaker 2: can't imagine how difficult it is to maintain that level
Speaker 2: of energy on TV and re remembering your lines and
Speaker 2: doing it to you're doing it to a camera, you're
Speaker 2: not doing it to an audience like that is skill.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's ultimately the thing about being a play school
Speaker 1: presenter is it's about the relationship with you and one child.
Speaker 1: And I think that when that's what the gift that
Speaker 1: Gauliere gave me was. He was so passionate about it
Speaker 1: is all ways about your relationship with the audience, whether
Speaker 1: they're physically they're in the theater or not like on
Speaker 1: the screen, that you have to always have a game
Speaker 1: in your head and joy. And he also said your
Speaker 1: only job as an actor is to show your soul, right,
Speaker 1: And I'm like, yeah, to find a way to keep going.
Speaker 1: How do I stay light and joyful enough so I
Speaker 1: can just keep peeling back the layers and show up
Speaker 1: and show my soul and be vulnerable again and again
Speaker 1: and again and again. But I also think you, like
Speaker 1: you said, play also involves a bit of work. I
Speaker 1: think there's a lot to be said for discipline, because
Speaker 1: discipline and having a foundation in your life where whether
Speaker 1: it's you have rituals or for me, it was making
Speaker 1: sure that I have that financial security outside of the
Speaker 1: things I love doing and not relying on them to
Speaker 1: make money, and also knowing that I am I'm not
Speaker 1: someone like I don't love the social media thing. I'm
Speaker 1: not someone who's going to build a business on that
Speaker 1: kind of platform. It's not so recognizing that's not joyful
Speaker 1: for me. And I tried it, Like I tried for
Speaker 1: a minute, you know, doing some stuff, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: it's not joyful for me. So just going, yes, following
Speaker 1: the joy, but also having the discipline in place so
Speaker 1: that you can And I think we often feel when
Speaker 1: things are a bit chaotic, we can often feel like
Speaker 1: we can't play because when you're in survival, you can't
Speaker 1: play when you're in And Elizabeth Gilbert talks about that,
Speaker 1: you know, the woman who eat prayer.
Speaker 3: I love her so much.
Speaker 1: Yes, And she's like, I do not suggest you give
Speaker 1: up your day job to write a book.
Speaker 2: Oh money, there are fills like the yeah, but like
Speaker 2: also you got to eat, so like it's okay if
Speaker 2: you have to do a job that you don't love
Speaker 2: all the time, Like there's a reality yeah one d
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, Rachel, I literally I can't leave.
Speaker 3: It's been fifty minutes. I am.
Speaker 2: We haven't even touched on your yoga cred Like, I
Speaker 2: can't even There is so much I cannot wait to
Speaker 2: get into your book.
Speaker 3: Where can we find it?
Speaker 2: I know you're not doing the social media as much,
Speaker 2: but like, can we follow you?
Speaker 3: Is that where we can get more information? Where can
Speaker 3: we find you?
Speaker 1: Yes, you can find me on mainly on Instagram. I
Speaker 1: don't really do the Facebook thing so much. It's just
Speaker 1: my name on Instagram is my handle. The book is
Speaker 1: available in all good bookstores, so.
Speaker 3: Clari's the beginners.
Speaker 2: I miss Paris so much and I can't wait. I
Speaker 2: feel like it's just going to take me through the streets,
Speaker 2: as if I'm shadowing you in your life there.
Speaker 3: I can't wait.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you have to send me a message when you
Speaker 1: start reading, because I can't wait to hear like your
Speaker 1: response to the places and the peaking.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: Well, I always finish with a favorite quote, so can
Speaker 2: you leave us with some words of wisdom to finish up?
Speaker 1: One of my favorite sayings comes from my yoga teach
Speaker 1: them a norma and she says pad pa day, which
Speaker 1: is paday is like step by step, or how you
Speaker 1: walk along your path. So because I always used to
Speaker 1: be like, oh, but Ma, what about this? And I'd
Speaker 1: ask these big questions and she'd be like, pa, day,
Speaker 1: pa day, Like you just put one foot in front
Speaker 1: of the other.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, I love that.
Speaker 2: The one that I like shove down people's throats is
Speaker 2: you don't have to see the whole staircase.
Speaker 3: You just have to take this first step, like.
Speaker 1: One at a time.
Speaker 2: Like relax, guys, you don't have to get to the end.
Speaker 2: We've got time. Oh, Rachel, this was so wonderful. Congratulations
Speaker 2: on the book. I will of course put links in
Speaker 2: the show notes for you all so you can grab
Speaker 2: a copy.
Speaker 3: Highly recommend it. Let's get lost in Paris together.
Speaker 1: Yay, thank you so much for having me. It was
Speaker 1: such a joyous conversation. Thank you.
Speaker 2: This was another one of those episodes where I feel
Speaker 2: like there are still so many dot points of Rachel's
Speaker 2: life that I didn't even get to. The question list
Speaker 2: was pages long. She just has so many facets of
Speaker 2: life to explore, so I'm sure she'll be back, and
Speaker 2: having lived in Paris myself for many years, I can't
Speaker 2: wait to pore over the pages of her book and
Speaker 2: get lost in that beautiful city again. I've popped the
Speaker 2: link to Parispot Beginners in the show notes so you
Speaker 2: guys can grab it your own copy too. As always,
Speaker 2: please shower Rachel with love if you enjoyed listening along,
Speaker 2: tagging her at Rachel Coops on Insta. That's Rachel al
Speaker 2: and Coops with an es at the end, I hope
Speaker 2: you are all having an amazing week and are seizing
Speaker 2: your ya.