Speaker 1: If you do something completely out of the ordinary, you
Speaker 1: don't know where it's going to take you. And for me,
Speaker 1: from that experience, I just started noticing more and more
Speaker 1: opportunities and then that's when everything started to come my way.
Speaker 1: It was one of those moments where I did wake
Speaker 1: up one day and I thought, no, this isn't me.
Speaker 1: I don't want to live for the materialistic liabilities. I
Speaker 1: want to live for the adventures and the experiences.
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, the.
Speaker 3: Good, bad and ugly.
Speaker 2: The best and worst day will bear all the facets
Speaker 2: of seizing your yay. I'm Sarah Davidson or a spoonful
Speaker 2: of Sarah, a lawyer turned entrepreneur who swapped the suits
Speaker 2: and heels to co found matcha Maiden and matcham Milk
Speaker 2: bar Cza is a series of conversations on finding a
Speaker 2: life you love and exploring the self doubt, challenge, joy.
Speaker 3: And fulfillment along the way.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I regret using certain phrases so much, because when
Speaker 2: I really want to hammer something home, I've usually already
Speaker 2: overdone it. So, for example, I really wanted to emphasize
Speaker 2: what an incredible breath of fresh air today's guest is,
Speaker 2: but I've probably said that many times before, So thank goodness,
Speaker 2: you're about to hear from her yourself. As I know
Speaker 2: you'll agree, she's truly one in a billion. If anyone's
Speaker 2: Parthia could be said to truly veer off in totally
Speaker 2: unexpected directions at every new chapter, it's Amy Stanton's. She
Speaker 2: has the most fascinating story so far, and she's not
Speaker 2: even thirty. If you've met her even once, she's someone
Speaker 2: you want to be around more and more, with the
Speaker 2: most energetic excess for life, for giving things a red
Speaker 2: hot crack, and being who you truly are. You'd expect
Speaker 2: that she's always been a confident and self assured, but
Speaker 2: I was surprised to learn that most of her earlier
Speaker 2: years were spent not only thinking, but being told that
Speaker 2: she'd never amount to anything, culminating in an expulsion from
Speaker 2: school and many years following not knowing where her place was,
Speaker 2: but after finding her feet as an award winning plumber
Speaker 2: and shaking up the industry as a Lady Trady walking
Speaker 2: on foot solo from Melbourne to Canberra simply because she could,
Speaker 2: competing on Survivor and House Rules, then starting an incredibly
Speaker 2: successful business, Tiny Stays, building tiny homes with her brother.
Speaker 2: Amy has well and truly proven her strength, talent and drive,
Speaker 2: and I bloody loved having her on the show. We've
Speaker 2: been in each other's orbit for a few years now
Speaker 2: through another regular podcast guest, Samatha Gash, and recently spent
Speaker 2: time together during our Northern Territory trip, getting to know
Speaker 2: each other even more. I hope you guys enjoy her
Speaker 2: company as much as I did. Amy Stanton, Welcome to
Speaker 2: CEZ Yay.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me. I'm stoked to be here.
Speaker 3: I'm so excited to see you guys.
Speaker 2: We have literally gone from being such a tight knit
Speaker 2: little family on our NTA trip a couple of weeks
Speaker 2: ago to just having such separation anxiety.
Speaker 3: I'm like, I miss your face so much.
Speaker 1: When I saw your face, it just lit off. I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, you were so warming on the trip,
Speaker 1: and I just want I love you, sir, I do.
Speaker 2: I love you Aimes love so many special moments together. Well,
Speaker 2: you have such an amazing story, and I loved our
Speaker 2: little like random chats we'd have throughout the day, on
Speaker 2: how long walks we shared, a bushwhee or two. So
Speaker 2: much great stuff came out. So I'm so excited to
Speaker 2: dive into it. But before we kick off every episode,
Speaker 2: I start by asking people what the most down to
Speaker 2: earth thing is about them to break through the kind
Speaker 2: of often glossy surface of our digital lives.
Speaker 3: But you are.
Speaker 2: Pretty real and exactly who you are in every single
Speaker 2: con that I've ever seen you or known you, and
Speaker 2: I think that's what I love about you so much.
Speaker 2: But just in case people have only seen you on
Speaker 2: TV or only know you as a really successful businesswoman
Speaker 2: and speaker and all the wonderful things that you are, Like,
Speaker 2: what's the most down to earth thing about you?
Speaker 1: You've definitely given me a big head. I could just
Speaker 1: feel it go, like bigger and bigger my head right now,
Speaker 1: You're talking about me the most down to earth thing
Speaker 1: about me. This is really random, you know, And I've
Speaker 1: been trying my hardest to do it so well lately,
Speaker 1: but I just can't. I take probably about three and
Speaker 1: a half weeks to transfer my washing from the washing
Speaker 1: machine to the dryer and then but by that time
Speaker 1: it's too late. So I don't really want to admit it,
Speaker 1: but I'm going to. But I think there's been times
Speaker 1: where I've had to rewash it like four times because
Speaker 1: I've haven't transferred it. Is that.
Speaker 3: So relatable?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 3: Absolutely not.
Speaker 2: I am absolutely one of those people. And it's so
Speaker 2: weird that you said that because in literally the episode
Speaker 2: just before this one, I asked a psychiatry doctor what
Speaker 2: the most down to thing is about him and he
Speaker 2: was like, I think I take like five or six
Speaker 2: washes before I remember to get my clothes out of.
Speaker 1: The washing machine. I was like, are you serious?
Speaker 3: Yes, literally, literally yesterday we recorded it.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say. I'm like, I haven't just heard
Speaker 1: your podcast and just copying the person before.
Speaker 2: It came out like two hours ago. I'm like, Amy, mate,
Speaker 2: we need original content on the show.
Speaker 1: I feel horrible now list if that one isn't good enough.
Speaker 2: Well, your whole story is amazing, Like the way you
Speaker 2: tell it is just so beautiful and so like you
Speaker 2: just can instantly tell from the way you tell it.
Speaker 3: How down to earth and lovely and relatable and just
Speaker 3: easy to be that you are.
Speaker 2: So let's jump straight into that. The first section is
Speaker 2: your wayta where we kind of go through from you know,
Speaker 2: childhood Amy to now to remind everyone, particularly people who
Speaker 2: know you now, where you've got a really successful business
Speaker 2: and a clear passion for speaking and sharing stories. You know,
Speaker 2: people forget that most of us went through huge phases
Speaker 2: of our life where we had absolutely no idea where
Speaker 2: we were going.
Speaker 3: And I know.
Speaker 2: Parts of your schooling and earlier life were quite lost,
Speaker 2: and that you did struggle with where you were going
Speaker 2: to end up and what your purpose was. So maybe
Speaker 2: take us through all the chapters as you see your
Speaker 2: life having, you know, unraveled in those chapters, and starting
Speaker 2: with young Amy and what you were like as a
Speaker 2: kid and what your first idea of a career was
Speaker 2: and where you wanted to go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. I think the funny thing is when
Speaker 1: I was really young, I was really shy, and I
Speaker 1: just never talked, and I was always a person standing
Speaker 1: back and like fully introverted, and I'd be like yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and then going on into high school, I started to
Speaker 1: form this thing in my head that I just had
Speaker 1: to impress people, and oh, to stand out, I have
Speaker 1: to be cool, I have to drink alcohol, I have
Speaker 1: to do all this crazy stuff. And then literally when
Speaker 1: I was in about year ten, I was getting really
Speaker 1: depressed because I knew I just wasn't myself deep down inside,
Speaker 1: and I didn't know which direction I could head. And
Speaker 1: I was always trying to do things to either be
Speaker 1: in the cool group, fit in and all that, and
Speaker 1: it just kept getting me more depressed because like, for instance,
Speaker 1: i'd be on English too, so I would think, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm so stupid. I can't do anything. I'm not like
Speaker 1: the cool kids. I'm good at nothing. I'm just kind of,
Speaker 1: you know, just floating around. And I just I'm never
Speaker 1: going to be anyone. And that is what kind of
Speaker 1: made me do all this really stuff that wasn't me.
Speaker 1: I turned into a really naughty girl in year ten.
Speaker 1: And like this explains when I say like I would
Speaker 1: just do whatever people told me. So I went to
Speaker 1: Luther College and I was in the science room. I
Speaker 1: think this was actually year nine. So it just started
Speaker 1: that I was trying to fit in and be that
Speaker 1: cool person. You know, you're nine and you start kind
Speaker 1: of playing up a bit. And we had these big windows,
Speaker 1: and the windows look out to the whole courtyard of
Speaker 1: Luther College. And what happened was, do you know when
Speaker 1: parents take their kids on tours of schools to see
Speaker 1: if they want to go to those schools?
Speaker 3: An amazing story coming on.
Speaker 1: Well, So there was about I'm going to say twenty
Speaker 1: kids with their parents, so about twenty parents as well.
Speaker 1: There's probably about twenty teachers as well. Nearly one hundred
Speaker 1: people were walking along and I remember one of my
Speaker 1: friends in my class, a science teacher, had just walked
Speaker 1: out and she turned to me and said, oh, Amy
Speaker 1: wou you wouldn't moon them? Mooning like pulling your pants down.
Speaker 1: No one knows what mooning means, that's what it is.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, why would I do Why would I
Speaker 1: do that? I'm not going to moon all these kids
Speaker 1: in their parents like And then someone came in and
Speaker 1: said the old Amy Wood And I'm like, oh, like,
Speaker 1: you can't be doing that. Yeah, it is their fault.
Speaker 1: So I pulled down my pants. I put my butt
Speaker 1: up against the window. The whole of these kids and
Speaker 1: their parents and everyone looked up at me. My science said,
Speaker 1: you came in kind of got dragged out of the class,
Speaker 1: and I had to go to her once a week
Speaker 1: to have meetings about how not to give into peer pressure.
Speaker 1: So I aim, do.
Speaker 3: You know what's so interesting?
Speaker 2: You actually kind of touched on that a little bit
Speaker 2: when we were away, about how much you've gone through
Speaker 2: phases of your life where you've really felt pressure to
Speaker 2: conform to certain ideas of success or behaviors or identity,
Speaker 2: and even the fact that on your about me section
Speaker 2: of your website you're like, Hi, I'm Amy, I'm a hairdresser. Kidding,
Speaker 2: but that's what everyone has always assumed that you were.
Speaker 2: You know, you've always been the subject of such expectations.
Speaker 2: But I see you as someone who represents such free
Speaker 2: spiritedness and such confidence in who you are, and such
Speaker 2: a strong passion for helping others not cave to those
Speaker 2: But it's really interesting that that usually comes from having
Speaker 2: experienced that pressure yourself, and people forget that.
Speaker 1: I think, oh, that is so true. So like that
Speaker 1: and that was the stage I wasn't at, and I
Speaker 1: didn't know in my head that I would one day
Speaker 1: turn in to this amazing human being. I literally just
Speaker 1: thought of myself as nothing and going through a school
Speaker 1: that I can't even say the word academic, academic, like
Speaker 1: I'm so not good at that, and I know you're
Speaker 1: probably the complete but I am hopeless and that kind
Speaker 1: of thing. And I just had this brand that you know,
Speaker 1: you have to do well at school and you have
Speaker 1: to go to UNI. And I thought, well, if I
Speaker 1: don't have that, I don't have anything. So I started
Speaker 1: getting naughtier and trying to probably express myself in a
Speaker 1: different way. I remember my mass teacher told me I
Speaker 1: was going to end up as being a prostitute and
Speaker 1: a stripper. No, and this is how I felt about
Speaker 1: myself at the time. I replied to her, and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: both of them, you have high hopes for me. And
Speaker 1: that was literally I'm all good now, Sam, I know.
Speaker 2: I know, but that's even more of a testament to
Speaker 2: you that you have such a strong sense of self now.
Speaker 2: But knowing that, like I think people look at you
Speaker 2: and you're so personable and such a fun loving, like
Speaker 2: free spirit that people would go, oh, she just breezed
Speaker 2: through school, Like I imagine you being such a popular
Speaker 2: kid that just had such a is your time because
Speaker 2: you know what you want, you just go and do it.
Speaker 2: But I think it's maybe even more reassuring for people
Speaker 2: listening that really people don't start that way. And most
Speaker 2: of the time that strength now comes from kind of
Speaker 2: challenge earlier on. I can't believe that you had to
Speaker 2: deal with that at school at such a young age.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I kind of think about it now and
Speaker 1: as you know, like all these things form your identity,
Speaker 1: they form your story. And without going through that struggle
Speaker 1: of trying to find my identity in high school and
Speaker 1: then thinking I'm hopeless, and then from there I went
Speaker 1: on to get expelled. So I got expelled about a
Speaker 1: year later. That stage Mum was real, real, real annoyed
Speaker 1: with me, to say the least. That was a big
Speaker 1: point in my life where I'm like, oh, I'm definitely
Speaker 1: useless if I'm getting expelled from school. But from being
Speaker 1: at Luther College and knowing I was an academic and
Speaker 1: I didn't fit into going to a school which was
Speaker 1: Boux Hill Senior. That was all about, you know, trying
Speaker 1: your hardest but being more hands on. I started to
Speaker 1: slowly grow more and more each time being like, oh,
Speaker 1: maybe I'm all right at this life thing, like I'm.
Speaker 3: Not too bad, but this life thing.
Speaker 1: In the back of my mind, I'm still thinking, Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm still not good at anything. I don't know what
Speaker 1: I want to do, and I'm still trying to impress
Speaker 1: people all the time. After I got expelled, then I
Speaker 1: moved to Boux Hill Senior. My cruise teacher was said
Speaker 1: to me, Oh, I'm what do you want to do?
Speaker 1: And you know what, parents and teachers alike, it's the
Speaker 1: same question, what do you want to do? What do
Speaker 1: you want to do when you're older, and kids kind
Speaker 1: of think, oh, I've just got to do one thing
Speaker 1: stick with it for the rest of my life. And
Speaker 1: I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I
Speaker 1: saw all my friends doing beauty therapy and I thought, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know. I think her name was
Speaker 1: Karen or something like, I don't know Karen.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying it was because you got to call
Speaker 2: them by their first name.
Speaker 1: So I just took advantage of that so much.
Speaker 3: And Floody love you.
Speaker 1: Karen was kind of looking at me like, what do
Speaker 1: you mean. You need to have this future? You need
Speaker 1: to have a goal all this stuff and when you're
Speaker 1: in you're eleven yearn I just don't know when secretly
Speaker 1: in my head, and people don't like to really believe
Speaker 1: me when I say I literally I wanted to be
Speaker 1: the Red Wiggle. Like I thought, if I'm not good
Speaker 1: at anything in life, I'm gonna be the Red Wiggle.
Speaker 3: And I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1: Hasn't happened yet.
Speaker 3: But there's still time. I believe there's still time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Look, Karen didn't believe that there was time for
Speaker 1: me to become the Red Wiggle. So I went down
Speaker 1: the road. I'm like, I'll just do beauty therapy. My
Speaker 1: mates are doing it. It will shut my parents up,
Speaker 1: it will shut my auntie up, it will shut everyone up.
Speaker 1: I'll do beer by therapy. And I was hopeless that
Speaker 1: I could not paint nails to save my life, Like
Speaker 1: just absolutely hopeless. And at this stage I'm thinking my head,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm not academic. I can't I'm not good
Speaker 1: at beauty therapy. There's no point, there's nothing. Maybe I
Speaker 1: should be a prostitute. I didn't actually think that, but
Speaker 1: I thought, well, there's nothing I could do. No one
Speaker 1: has any hope I'm rd as stuck, and at that
Speaker 1: point I was still very depressed. I didn't really have
Speaker 1: a vision in life, and I remember I started thinking
Speaker 1: to myself, I'm like, well, maybe one day I could
Speaker 1: like do a business thing, do something in business. I
Speaker 1: don't know. At that stage, Instagram wasn't around, but I
Speaker 1: think I would have had that feeling in my head
Speaker 1: of like, I want entrepreneur in my Instagram name. That is,
Speaker 1: that is what I want. I might have been my
Speaker 1: space back then, but I thought that was my God.
Speaker 2: I can't even imagine what your MySpace would have looked
Speaker 2: like as a beauty therapist.
Speaker 3: Like that just makes me laugh so much.
Speaker 2: I can't even imagine you that did beauty therapy, which
Speaker 2: is what I love, because most people can't. And yeah,
Speaker 2: there's so much in people's stories that you just could
Speaker 2: never imagine. But this formed who you were, and it
Speaker 2: just like it breaks my heart thinking about how if
Speaker 2: your intelligence or your particular type of intellect and talent
Speaker 2: is not the same as what everyone around you happens
Speaker 2: to be valuing at the time that you happen to
Speaker 2: go through school, people could literally spend their whole lives
Speaker 2: thinking they're stupid and just without you know, whatever comes
Speaker 2: next in your story, that did push you towards finding
Speaker 2: what you are really good at you might never have known,
Speaker 2: and that just it hurts so much thinking of how
Speaker 2: many people would have just taken other people's opinions as final,
Speaker 2: as like, really, I will never amount to anything.
Speaker 3: So you're such an inspiration for that.
Speaker 1: Oh thank you. Yeah, And you're so right there. And
Speaker 1: I think back, well, maybe if I stayed at Luther
Speaker 1: College and I didn't get expced, I might have just
Speaker 1: ended up, you know, doing something, just working nine to five,
Speaker 1: doing something I hated, and I just never really got
Speaker 1: to find my true potential in life. So I'm so
Speaker 1: blessed that that journey did happen. And then that I
Speaker 1: went to box Hill and I started to realize maybe
Speaker 1: this business thing, maybe I should give it a crack.
Speaker 1: And what I did. I started trying more at schools,
Speaker 1: and then literally within a year my report from Luther
Speaker 1: College when I was doing business there, it was, you know,
Speaker 1: E fail ff all that kind of thing, amy blah
Speaker 1: blah blah blah, Amy's basically crap. And then shifting my
Speaker 1: complete mindset of you know, maybe I could do this thing,
Speaker 1: maybe this could be me. It completely changed and within
Speaker 1: twelve months I was going from a's and a's pluses
Speaker 1: in business management. I'm just absolutely loving it and I
Speaker 1: have those reports there and I love showing people that
Speaker 1: just if you completely change your perspective. And the same
Speaker 1: thing goes for when I was in math class, I
Speaker 1: thought I was really bad at mass and I'm like, nah,
Speaker 1: I'm hopeless at Mass. I can't do Mass. And I
Speaker 1: look back on it now, I'm like, well did you
Speaker 1: even go to mass class? I'm like, well, I didn't
Speaker 1: even go to mass class. I didn't rock up. I
Speaker 1: didn't I didn't study, I didn't like try in classes.
Speaker 1: And then I go say, see, guys, look I'm hopeless.
Speaker 1: I'm crap at Mass. Look but really I wasn't trying
Speaker 1: in the class. So it's like, well, no, shit, Amy,
Speaker 1: that's why you weren't that good at it.
Speaker 2: And so how do you did you end up from
Speaker 2: beauty being the first kind of career pathway you'd settled
Speaker 2: on it as like a goal, how did you then go, actually,
Speaker 2: I'm going to be a plumber. I am going to
Speaker 2: be a lady Trady. What a like?
Speaker 3: What a twist of events. How did that happen?
Speaker 1: Well, one way that happened that I've only just realized
Speaker 1: over the last few months. So my dad he used
Speaker 1: to take me to the servo and asked after we
Speaker 1: went camping and to get an ice cream, and I
Speaker 1: picked out a Magnum once, you know, like the expensive
Speaker 1: ice creams. I'm like, I get a Magnum, fancy, and
Speaker 1: I remember distinctly my dad turning and looking at me.
Speaker 1: He's like, Amy, you can't get a Magnum. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: what do you mean. He's like, they're plumbers ice creams,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, what does that mean. He's like, only
Speaker 1: plumbers can afford magnums. In this house we eat frosty fruits.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, so, I feel like, always in the
Speaker 1: back of my head I had this thing like, oh,
Speaker 1: plumbers can afford magnums. But I think that's the reason, well,
Speaker 1: that's half the reason that I think I went down
Speaker 1: the road of plumbing. But the other half was so
Speaker 1: like doing things with my hands. And I remember someone
Speaker 1: kind of turned to me once and we were talking about,
Speaker 1: you know, women being trades and me being stubborn. They
Speaker 1: were like, oh, women can't be traders. I'm like, yo
Speaker 1: can like and from there I was like, maybe I
Speaker 1: could go down this path. So I started. I started.
Speaker 1: I had a spark inside of me. I'm like, you
Speaker 1: know what, I'm going to give it a crack. And
Speaker 1: I applied for over one hundred and twenty jobs, like yeah,
Speaker 1: I got this, I've got this, and basically I heard
Speaker 1: back from one out of one hundred and twenty and
Speaker 1: I'm like oh, And I kept thinking my head, Oh,
Speaker 1: it's because people don't want women as trades. And I
Speaker 1: was all real spite full of my head. But then
Speaker 1: I looked back on my resume a few years ago.
Speaker 1: I had about twenty thousand spelling mistakes. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that was probably.
Speaker 3: No magnumbe, no magnetum.
Speaker 1: So I got the job as a plumber, and I
Speaker 1: was like so excited. I was so excited to do
Speaker 1: something new. I'm like, I don't know, maybe I could
Speaker 1: be good at this. And then within my first week,
Speaker 1: I got my head stuck in a scaffold. I crashed
Speaker 1: my car through the job site fence. This is the
Speaker 1: first week, like, and then I fell for a roof
Speaker 1: and I landed on some guy eating a sandwich and no, yeah,
Speaker 1: and then I got a piece of metals stuck in
Speaker 1: my butt. Literally that happened in the first week.
Speaker 3: I was like, fuck, that's amazing.
Speaker 2: I love you so much because you're just like, I'm
Speaker 2: still gonna do it. Nah, I'm still gonna do it
Speaker 2: like whatever. I'm just gonna push through.
Speaker 1: And that's what it's all about. And that's why I'm
Speaker 1: so big on failing, because if I just called the
Speaker 1: quit zera, who knows where I would be. But I
Speaker 1: kind of thought to myself, this makes me more determined
Speaker 1: that I've had such a horrible first week. No one
Speaker 1: believes in me. I rock up on site with pink socks,
Speaker 1: the blonde hair extensions, and then they hear me talk
Speaker 1: and I'm like, hey, you mate. They're like, all right,
Speaker 1: I see where she's coming from. We'll give her a crack.
Speaker 1: And it just made me more and more determined to,
Speaker 1: you know, keep going, and as anything happens when you
Speaker 1: try hard and you persist day and day and day.
Speaker 1: By the end of it, I turned out an alright plumber.
Speaker 1: So that was a really good for like just doing
Speaker 1: my apprenticeship. It was really good for me. But I
Speaker 1: kind of got to the end of my apprenticeship and
Speaker 1: I kind of looked at the older guys I was
Speaker 1: working with, and they were grumpy. They just didn't look
Speaker 1: like they were enjoying life as much as they might
Speaker 1: have used to be. And I thought, you know what,
Speaker 1: I don't want to turn out like them. I know
Speaker 1: plumbing is an awesome job, but I think I can
Speaker 1: take this and do something else with it and go
Speaker 1: in a do a different direction.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I think like, there's just so many
Speaker 2: parts of your story that I think are so important
Speaker 2: for people to hear, because so many other people are
Speaker 2: kind of like, Oh, I ended up in plumbing because
Speaker 2: I woke up when I was five and I was
Speaker 2: passionate about plumbing, and I followed my dad around to
Speaker 2: his plumbing job. You know, Like, but you just kind
Speaker 2: of stumbled into it after a few false starts and
Speaker 2: then made the most of it and then just kept
Speaker 2: going until the next chapter sort of arrived on your lap.
Speaker 2: And I love that about you because it doesn't have
Speaker 2: to be like you wake up with a lightning strike
Speaker 2: of purpose and then you love every minute of your
Speaker 2: career and the surest side that maybe it is time
Speaker 2: for a new chapter is when you do look at
Speaker 2: someone more senior than you and you don't want to
Speaker 2: be them. And I like that you took that as like, hmm,
Speaker 2: maybe like I don't need magnum, maybe I can go
Speaker 2: do something else. And you're just such a great role
Speaker 2: model for like giving things a red hot crack. If
Speaker 2: you don't know what you're gonna you know what you
Speaker 2: really want to do, You've got to do something in
Speaker 2: the meantime. And I love that you just kept trying
Speaker 2: stuff and doing different things, and even now you still
Speaker 2: continue to do that. But you back then could never
Speaker 2: have imagined what you would end up achieving. And that's
Speaker 2: like I love that this is almost a way for
Speaker 2: you to talk to people who are at old you
Speaker 2: stage in their life and remind them like you can
Speaker 2: get there. It just takes a lot of patience, a
Speaker 2: lot of like growing a thick skin and living through
Speaker 2: some really shit bits where you're like, wow, I've got
Speaker 2: metal on my butt and everyone already thinks that a
Speaker 2: lady trade is going to suck. And I like drove
Speaker 2: through the fence in my first week.
Speaker 1: I got a lot of women drivers. I know a
Speaker 1: lot of that on site that day.
Speaker 2: So was it something that you kind of loved when
Speaker 2: you were there, but then got to the point where, like,
Speaker 2: what drew.
Speaker 3: You out of that chapter? Even if you had.
Speaker 2: Fallen into something that you were good at, because I
Speaker 2: know you were really good at it. You became like
Speaker 2: an award winning plumber, You won awards for your skills.
Speaker 2: What made you think, actually, I'm agitating for something new.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's a great question. I think a few
Speaker 1: years after I started, I kind of thought to myself, look,
Speaker 1: I'm going to get an apprenticeship under my belt and
Speaker 1: then go out and chase my dreams. And as bad
Speaker 1: as it as is, and I know people don't like saying,
Speaker 1: at least you have something to fall back on, my
Speaker 1: mindset at the time was like, at least I can
Speaker 1: do the walk of shame back to plumbing if all
Speaker 1: else fails. And I've only done it twice, but I
Speaker 1: don't think I'm going back ever again now. So, and
Speaker 1: that's the whole thing about growing and learning. It's like, well,
Speaker 1: sometimes you start up something and you do have to
Speaker 1: go back for a solid income to you know, get
Speaker 1: a house, sloan or something like that. In your first
Speaker 1: years which is completely fine. It doesn't mean it's the
Speaker 1: end of the day journey. It just means don't get
Speaker 1: comfortable in that job. And for me, after I finished
Speaker 1: my apprenticeship, I was still very materialistic. I was still
Speaker 1: trying and that was to impress people. And I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, being a plumber earning good money, and you know,
Speaker 1: I was getting magnums every day, and I I was like,
Speaker 1: I had a parlo like a forty grad car loan,
Speaker 1: which obviously came with a forty grad you know car.
Speaker 1: And then it got so bad, like I think I
Speaker 1: was twenty one at the time when I bought my
Speaker 1: first house with my ex partner, and I literally bought
Speaker 1: it because I thought, in my head, oh, people are
Speaker 1: going to think, oh, look at Amy's She's so cool.
Speaker 1: She has a house. No one once said that, No
Speaker 1: one must say that because she has a house, I said.
Speaker 2: Everyone was finding like, holy shit, she's twenty one with
Speaker 2: a mortgage, Like where is no more magnums for you?
Speaker 1: And then yeah, and it was kind of at that
Speaker 1: stage of my is this the end? Like what now? Kids,
Speaker 1: Like I've got you know, what do I do now?
Speaker 1: I had, you know, a beautiful car house. I haven't
Speaker 1: had a pet pig named Constable crackles.
Speaker 3: I was like, you had it made And people.
Speaker 1: Would have looked at me and been like, she's living
Speaker 1: the ideal life. But really, deep down I was. I
Speaker 1: was unfulfilled. I was not fulfilled. And it was one
Speaker 1: of those moments where I did wake up one day
Speaker 1: and I thought, no, this isn't me. I don't want
Speaker 1: to live for the materialistic liabilities. I want to live
Speaker 1: for the adventures and the experiences. And it was such
Speaker 1: an aha moment that I just something inside me. I
Speaker 1: sold everything I rocked up to sold. So the house
Speaker 1: of the car, I wropped up to Mom and dads
Speaker 1: with the pet pig and Dad's like no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no. And I'm like, what, Like we lived in
Speaker 1: like suburbia, And I gave the pet pig to a
Speaker 1: guy from work. He has a farm. And normally when
Speaker 1: I tell people that I gave the pet pig to
Speaker 1: a farm, they're like, so you killed him. I'm like, no,
Speaker 1: like an actual farm, not the farm your parents tell you.
Speaker 2: The rainbow farm at the end of the pot of
Speaker 2: Gold where all the animals lived together in harmony.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that was just the beginning of where
Speaker 1: I really felt myself. I felt, this is me, this
Speaker 1: is my life, this is what I'm going to do now,
Speaker 1: I'm just free to go do what I want. And
Speaker 1: I know that's when I started believing whatever happens happens,
Speaker 1: everything will fall into place eventually.
Speaker 2: Oh oh my gosh, absolutely, And I just think, like,
Speaker 2: how crazy that you had everything that you had ever
Speaker 2: dreamed of and all the things that most people still
Speaker 2: measure success by so young, and all it did was
Speaker 2: create stress and unhappiness and restriction for you.
Speaker 3: But walking away from it all and.
Speaker 2: Also having the balls to do that, because that's incredibly scary,
Speaker 2: and to give away your pig, I mean, mate, that's huge.
Speaker 2: Like you took a huge risk and absolutely changed your
Speaker 2: life and started peeling back all the layers to reveal
Speaker 2: like who Amy actually is underneath. And now that Amy
Speaker 2: that I know that makes so much sense to me now,
Speaker 2: but probably at the time it didn't make sense to anyone,
Speaker 2: which is also even more impressive that you were like,
Speaker 2: I'm going to do it. I am going to walk
Speaker 2: from Melbourne to Canberra tomorrow because I want to with
Speaker 2: my alda bag of goods and no change of clothes
Speaker 2: tell us about that.
Speaker 3: I feel like this is a great chapter.
Speaker 2: Come Next is my favorite one. It's logical, you know,
Speaker 2: it's what you expect would come.
Speaker 4: Next, obviously, like how would it not come next? And
Speaker 4: it actually started kind of how the whole plumbing thing
Speaker 4: started and the whole ars in the window mooning started.
Speaker 4: It kind of started by someone saying, oh, you couldn't
Speaker 4: walk to Canberra.
Speaker 1: You couldn't do that. I don't even remember how we
Speaker 1: kind of got on the subject. We're at the pub
Speaker 1: a few lemonades later, and I don't know it, just
Speaker 1: I started doing some hiking and someone kind of said
Speaker 1: you couldn't do it, And another moment in my life
Speaker 1: was just like why shouldn't I do it? Like what
Speaker 1: why can't I do something crazy? And then I just
Speaker 1: literally I it might have been two days later. I
Speaker 1: packed my bag. I'm like, I'm just gonna I'm just
Speaker 1: going to go for it, and I'm gonna post it
Speaker 1: on Facebook that I'm walking to Camber because then I
Speaker 1: have to Then I have to do it. And so
Speaker 1: I remember walking down the driveway and my parents were
Speaker 1: looking at me so worried about me, and I remember
Speaker 1: turning to them and looking in their eyes and saying, Mom, Dad,
Speaker 1: at least I'm not on drugs. I'm just walking.
Speaker 2: Good perspective very important.
Speaker 1: And they were like, oh, you know that supposed is right.
Speaker 1: But within that experience, and it wasn't long after I
Speaker 1: sold all my stuff, I did a bit of traveling.
Speaker 1: But then within that experience it completely completely made me
Speaker 1: realize and built me up to I can literally do anything.
Speaker 1: I was walking, you know, in forty degree heat, sleeping
Speaker 1: on the side of the road. I was by myself.
Speaker 1: I think I was twenty twenty three at the time.
Speaker 1: I would sleep on the side of the road. My
Speaker 1: bag got stolen. I had to walk three days in
Speaker 1: my thongs. Literally no, that was so my actual bag
Speaker 1: got stolen, so I had to use an Audi bag
Speaker 1: and I couldn't even count. I would be so rich
Speaker 1: now if the amount of people that pulled over on
Speaker 1: the side of the road and be like are you okay?
Speaker 1: Like are you lost? And they thought I was a
Speaker 1: Swedish backpacker or a homeless person, and I'm like, I'm
Speaker 1: oh good, I'm just gone for a walk. Like where
Speaker 1: you're from, Like I'm from Lilida. I'm doing this for
Speaker 1: fun and pop like and just the amount doing something
Speaker 1: by yourself where you get to think a lot and
Speaker 1: so hard. Like remember I would have like a solar
Speaker 1: panel on my head to charge my phone and just
Speaker 1: all this crazy stuff. One time I got lost in
Speaker 1: the forest. I was going on a walk and then
Speaker 1: I got lost in the forest and I thought I
Speaker 1: was gonna die. I was only point in life I've
Speaker 1: literally felt like I'm going to die in here. It
Speaker 1: was Australia day at home, and I'm just picturing all
Speaker 1: my friends getting drunk having fun, and I'm like, I'm
Speaker 1: in a fucking forest. I've got hands of tuna, I've
Speaker 1: got a couple of pudding cups, and I have no
Speaker 1: idea where I am. And I could laugh about it now,
Speaker 1: but I cried since three days straight, like I'm a goner.
Speaker 2: Yeah that was three days, wasn't it, Like you were
Speaker 2: fully didn't see anyone again until three days later.
Speaker 1: And then on the third day, I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: if I just walk one way, if I just walk straight,
Speaker 1: I'm sure to come out somewhere. And then this treelopper
Speaker 1: came and they it was getting dark and they had
Speaker 1: their headlights on and they're like, what are you doing.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my god. It was like a movie.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm also been in it for three days.
Speaker 1: I've had three cans of tuna. It was just like crazy.
Speaker 1: And then he took me back to his house and
Speaker 1: then talk about the kindness of a stranger. I literally
Speaker 1: got in the car with some treelopper that could have
Speaker 1: been a murderer.
Speaker 2: I'm like, this is a murder podcast, and I'm making
Speaker 2: why did you go into podcasting?
Speaker 1: But I had no other options, and you know, they
Speaker 1: made me dinner and then I was on my way
Speaker 1: and it was just such an experience of like I
Speaker 1: can do anything and it doesn't have to make sense
Speaker 1: why I do it. And that's why I kind of
Speaker 1: tell everyone and get everyone out there. Just do something crazy.
Speaker 1: Take your annual leave, go on or walk, go camping
Speaker 1: by yourself. Just do something that is completely out of
Speaker 1: your comfort zone and you won't even know how fi.
Speaker 1: You could just change. You could wake up with a
Speaker 1: completely new perspective on everything. And that's what happened to me.
Speaker 1: And once I finally got to Canberra, I was kind
Speaker 1: of got there and I'm like, there's not much going
Speaker 1: on here. There's nothing happening in Camebra. Why did I
Speaker 1: choose camera?
Speaker 3: Why did you choose camera? I'm like, why did you
Speaker 3: choose something? Like, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Why didn't you walk back in the other direction, like
Speaker 2: fly to camera, walk back to Melbourne.
Speaker 1: Look, I don't know, I don't know. I just wanted
Speaker 1: to go and I'm like, camera, I'm heading towards you.
Speaker 1: Cindy's a bit far. Cambra will do hands. From that
Speaker 1: point on, like, I was just constantly building my strength
Speaker 1: and it just truly shows that if you do something
Speaker 1: completely out of the ordinary, you don't know where it's
Speaker 1: going to take you. And for me, from that experience,
Speaker 1: I just started noticing more and more opportunities. And instead
Speaker 1: of being so down on myself that I was stupid
Speaker 1: and I can't do anything, it's like, did I can?
Speaker 1: If I can do this, I can do anything, and
Speaker 1: I'm just going to look out for opportunities find them.
Speaker 1: And then that's when everything started to come my way
Speaker 1: because I was so much more confident in my own skin.
Speaker 2: And you are such an amazing example that you can
Speaker 2: actually change your entire narrative at any time in your life,
Speaker 2: like you didn't intrinsically have this thirst for risk and
Speaker 2: adventure when you were younger, like you were shy, you
Speaker 2: were racked with self doubt. And I think people really
Speaker 2: silo themselves into personality types and think, oh, well, I
Speaker 2: could never be like that because look how adventurous amy is.
Speaker 2: But you didn't start that way, like until this trip.
Speaker 2: You were so like you said, down on yourself and
Speaker 2: you had like I imagine, more imposter syndrome than the
Speaker 2: average person has ever had and still now are absolutely
Speaker 2: living your dreams because that changed the way that you see.
Speaker 3: Yourself and your life path.
Speaker 2: And I think that's just it should spark like a
Speaker 2: fire and everyone listening that anyone can do it anytime,
Speaker 2: Like what's the worst that will happen. You've got nothing
Speaker 2: to lose, improving to yourself that you can do something
Speaker 2: you didn't think you could do.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and just take that step out of just
Speaker 1: your ordinary day of going to work and doing this.
Speaker 1: A lot of people think if they, you know, skip
Speaker 1: a day of work, or they God help us go
Speaker 1: on a holiday for a month or something, that the
Speaker 1: whole world is going to explain. It's like, these are
Speaker 1: the staff These are the adventures that you're going to
Speaker 1: remember for the rest of your life. You just need
Speaker 1: to take the plunge, get out there and do something different,
Speaker 1: no matter what it is.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, that's just such good advice.
Speaker 2: This is why I think you need to speak to
Speaker 2: like every school and in every platform, like you need
Speaker 2: to live in a soapbox to just spread this message
Speaker 2: because like everyone needs to hear more of it and.
Speaker 3: To see what you've done.
Speaker 2: Even in the short time since that walk, Like I
Speaker 2: can't even imagine what lies ahead. There's just so much
Speaker 2: excitement coming your way now that you have kind of
Speaker 2: changed your mindset towards abundance and confidence that you'll make
Speaker 2: at work. So I mean, you've since been on survivor
Speaker 2: on house rules, You've started a business that is booming,
Speaker 2: Like not many businesses came out of COVID booming, but
Speaker 2: tiny days. You're how many different places do you have?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 3: Is you and your brother?
Speaker 1: Yes, me and my brother, So we're we're on our
Speaker 1: fourth and yeah, completely loving, loving the journey. But as
Speaker 1: you know, and what I've realized, so many things go
Speaker 1: wrong and then you just start to realize, I'm just
Speaker 1: going to bloody, enjoy this ride is the moment you're like,
Speaker 1: all right, who cares kind of me?
Speaker 3: So how did that start? Firstly, how did you get
Speaker 3: back from camera?
Speaker 2: And then how did you start to translate all of
Speaker 2: those big revelations too. I'm going to start a business,
Speaker 2: I'm going to go on reality TV. I'm going to
Speaker 2: change my life become a business owner, and then I'm
Speaker 2: going to be a speaker.
Speaker 1: Well, I actually when I was on the Walk, I
Speaker 1: applied for Survivor because a lot of my mates are like, oh,
Speaker 1: you have to go on this show, and I hadn't
Speaker 1: watched it before, and I just pulled out the camera
Speaker 1: and I swear I just had to say, I'm a plumber,
Speaker 1: i haven't showered in three weeks, and I'm on the
Speaker 1: side of the road walking to Canberra and they're like,
Speaker 1: she's on She's on the show.
Speaker 3: Easy. Easy.
Speaker 1: So when I got home, oh, well, I had choked
Speaker 1: a lot of the way home, and then I met
Speaker 1: up with my partner at the time and we went
Speaker 1: up to Cosiosco and then I got home and then
Speaker 1: from there I did a bit of traveling around in
Speaker 1: the verre and then I went on Survivor I remember
Speaker 1: actually I was in the middle of doing like all
Speaker 1: the auditions and I didn't want to tell anyone. I
Speaker 1: thought I'd curse myself if I told people that I
Speaker 1: was in the auditions, and my parents and stuff thought
Speaker 1: I was like traveling around Australia and for no joke,
Speaker 1: two and a half weeks I was like hiding in
Speaker 1: my van down at Phillip Island and traveling around just
Speaker 1: Victoria because I had to go over these auditions and
Speaker 1: my mom would call me and be like, oh, where
Speaker 1: are you, and I I suppose I was getting me
Speaker 1: ready for Survivor I because I didn't want to tell
Speaker 1: her because I thought I'd curse myself. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm just at this spot. I'd look at a man
Speaker 1: like near one hundred k's out of Adelaide, and I
Speaker 1: said this spot and I was like, I forgot where
Speaker 1: it was. He's like, oh, you're not there, are You'm like, why,
Speaker 1: what's wrong with this? He's like and he told me
Speaker 1: this story about how this young girl got raped and
Speaker 1: murdered there like twenty years ago. And I'm like, oh, no,
Speaker 1: I'll be fine, and I'm leaving tomorrow. And really I
Speaker 1: was like twenty k's from home.
Speaker 3: Just hiding it around the corner.
Speaker 1: It was such a stupid thing to do, but I
Speaker 1: just had it in my head. If I tell people,
Speaker 1: it might not happen. And then I got on and
Speaker 1: I went to SAMO. I had no idea about the show.
Speaker 1: If anyone watches it, I just had no idea about it.
Speaker 1: I rocked up in like half a T shirt, literally
Speaker 1: in short cho I'm like, hey, guys, like, ayy, where's
Speaker 1: your joper? I'm like, why would I need a jumper?
Speaker 1: And it was full on like you you're sleeping in
Speaker 1: the mud. Everyone's talking about you, like if you're not
Speaker 1: mentally strong. The game is just insane. And as you
Speaker 1: kind of might know, I'm the type of person who
Speaker 1: goes i'd do something. I'd do the adventure. And then
Speaker 1: I move on and I'm like, all right, what's next?
Speaker 1: That was fun. I don't dwell on it that I got.
Speaker 1: I think I got eliminated fifth and it was funny.
Speaker 1: I'm best friends with guy now who got me boot
Speaker 1: who you no ideas?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 1: I remember this. These two guys were on the beach
Speaker 1: talking obviously about how they're going to get me out.
Speaker 1: I walked up to them and I'm like like, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: what are you talking about? And I'm like, oh, weather,
Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh sleep, yeah, the weather.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I didn't bring a jumper. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I think half my reason that I knew people
Speaker 1: wanted that so bad. They it was their dream to
Speaker 1: go on Survivor, and for me it was just another adventure.
Speaker 1: And I probably mucked my game up because I kept
Speaker 1: telling people. I'm like, I'm just here so I can
Speaker 1: get drunk in Jury Villa, and They're all looking at.
Speaker 3: I love you.
Speaker 2: I'm like, now, especially now that I know you better,
Speaker 2: like I didn't know you before you went on. Now,
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh my god. She just like there's no game.
Speaker 2: I'd be exactly the same. I have no poker face.
Speaker 2: I just tell everyone everything. I can't keep a secret
Speaker 2: to say my life, Like, I can keep secrets, but
Speaker 2: I can't like pretend that I'm feeling something I'm not.
Speaker 3: I'd be so bad. I'd just be like, hi, I
Speaker 3: voted you out.
Speaker 1: I don't so like that. And it just you. I
Speaker 1: think people have to go into that show and you
Speaker 1: have to be a bloody good actor because you have
Speaker 1: to turn on and but you're constantly paranoid. So when
Speaker 1: I got I'm not a victored. Sorry, I've been wanting
Speaker 1: to be started to go. When I got brooded, I
Speaker 1: was like, it was all good. It was honestly, I'm like, oh, sweet,
Speaker 1: that's awesome. That means a bigger opportunity is coming for me,
Speaker 1: or I'm huge on this happens for a reason that
Speaker 1: didn't go that way. I didn't win for a reason.
Speaker 1: I got to go to the Philippines for six weeks
Speaker 1: after that and drink coconuts on the beach. But I
Speaker 1: got to like actually eat and sleep in a hotel.
Speaker 1: So I wasn't disappointed. I wasn't. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: it was more like that was an awesome journey. What's next?
Speaker 1: And I think in anything like that where you might
Speaker 1: be so excited to achieve a goal or well whatever,
Speaker 1: getting on reality TV or starting a business, but as
Speaker 1: you know, so when you get the goal, yeah you're
Speaker 1: excited about it. It might be a week or two weeks
Speaker 1: or two months, but then it's like it just becomes
Speaker 1: your day to day life and it goes down and
Speaker 1: it fizzits a bit. So it's always for me, what's
Speaker 1: the next thing I can do, and after I'd travel
Speaker 1: with my brother and the Philippines after I got booted
Speaker 1: from Survivor. We both He was actually an ex accountant
Speaker 1: and kind of the same pathways you. He was so
Speaker 1: smart and he was so good at what he did,
Speaker 1: being a chry to account it. But he was like me,
Speaker 1: He's like, nah, this isn't me, Like, I want to
Speaker 1: do something else. I think there's more to life for me.
Speaker 1: So he quit and he did the whole traveling for
Speaker 1: four years, and we realized our passions areligned, and one
Speaker 1: night we sat down. At the time, I was running
Speaker 1: how to adult courses for like just teenagers and stuff,
Speaker 1: just workshops to teach them the skills that they don't
Speaker 1: learn in high school and things like that, because I
Speaker 1: didn't learn that much in high school of life skills.
Speaker 3: I did not know you did that.
Speaker 2: Did you teach a lot the moon in their science classes?
Speaker 2: Here is how you get expelled?
Speaker 1: And not many people did not. I did it for
Speaker 1: a couple of years, just purely out of it. I
Speaker 1: didn't want to make any money out of it. I
Speaker 1: just purely wanted to show kids that there's more to
Speaker 1: life than the textbooks. And there's more skills that are
Speaker 1: going to get you a lot further in life than
Speaker 1: knowing algebra. So one week it might be just like
Speaker 1: no talking about drugs and alcohol like And I never said,
Speaker 1: oh I'm a genius, I'm a psychiatrist. It was just
Speaker 1: so the kids could relate to me. I'm not their mom,
Speaker 1: I'm not their teacher. Let's just have a chat, talk
Speaker 1: about things, talk about the outside world after school. And
Speaker 1: one of my classes was like out your passions in
Speaker 1: life and how you're going to turn them into your purpose.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't the whole thing of, oh, you need
Speaker 1: to turn your skateboarding passion into a job, because we
Speaker 1: all know then you'll probably end up hating skateboarding after that, absolutely,
Speaker 1: But it was what are you good at and what
Speaker 1: do you like doing, what do you get up and
Speaker 1: like doing, and how can you turn it into more
Speaker 1: than yourself. I wasn't going to get up in the
Speaker 1: morning and be like, yes, I get to build a
Speaker 1: tiny house today. It's more like, yes, I get to
Speaker 1: create these amazing places where people can come unwind, get
Speaker 1: away from their bosses, spend time with their loved ones.
Speaker 1: And that's what got me up in the morning and
Speaker 1: how man Ben created that. We kind of we just
Speaker 1: sat down and we wrote, all right, what are we
Speaker 1: good at? What are our passions? And it was you know,
Speaker 1: the environment, doing things with our hands, building holidays, and
Speaker 1: from that it eventually into why don't we build tiny
Speaker 1: houses We've got the skill set for it and then
Speaker 1: rent them out as B and b's And that's how
Speaker 1: Tiny Stay started. And yeah, we're just growing and growing
Speaker 1: every day. So it's such a beautiful thing to look
Speaker 1: back on from where I was, you know, ten fifteen
Speaker 1: years ago. I never would have dreamed this would be
Speaker 1: my life now.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, but isn't that the best?
Speaker 2: I mean, this is why I take time to go
Speaker 2: through all the earlier parts that sometimes people are like,
Speaker 2: that's not what I do now, Like why do you
Speaker 2: need to talk about it so much? And it's because
Speaker 2: I'm like, people need to be reminded that you didn't
Speaker 2: know that you would end up here.
Speaker 3: That's the point.
Speaker 2: That's why it's so exciting that you didn't wake up
Speaker 2: one day and go, I want to build tiny houses.
Speaker 2: And that's what makes me excited every day. It's like
Speaker 2: you had to grow into figuring out where your passions
Speaker 2: and your skills and your talents kind of you know,
Speaker 2: merged in the middle. And you're so right to about
Speaker 2: the fact that sometimes if you do just look for
Speaker 2: purely what you're passionate about and you make that a job,
Speaker 2: that does kill the joy for some people. So maybe
Speaker 2: it's not just things that you purely love. Maybe it
Speaker 2: is also like something you can offer someone else. And
Speaker 2: I love that you framed it around like you love
Speaker 2: not the physical bit that's your job. We don't have
Speaker 2: to love our job every day. You love the experience
Speaker 2: you create for someone else. And it's more about the
Speaker 2: connection side of thing that I think makes people really happy.
Speaker 2: Because if you are just tying it to things, like
Speaker 2: you know, monetary goals or tangible things, then you're right,
Speaker 2: you get over it really quickly and it doesn't last.
Speaker 2: So I love that so much, and I'm so so
Speaker 2: excited for you that this is where you are and
Speaker 2: that it's booming and growing and everything's just unraveling exactly
Speaker 2: as it should.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's so true. And as I was kind
Speaker 1: of saying before, you do face challenges every day with it.
Speaker 1: But I think if you think more about why you're
Speaker 1: doing it rather than the challenges can It completely changes it.
Speaker 1: And one small thing I did, and I only started
Speaker 1: doing this, probably a few weeks ago, to be a
Speaker 1: very to do list. I would wake up in the morning,
Speaker 1: wake up at three thirty in the morning. It's ridiculous,
Speaker 1: do not try it. But I would write down on
Speaker 1: my in my diary. I'd be like, Okay, what do
Speaker 1: I need to do today? And then yeah, then I
Speaker 1: started changing it to how do I want to feel today?
Speaker 1: What do I what gets me excited? And it has
Speaker 1: I've only been doing it for a few weeks, but
Speaker 1: it's completely changed. It's more like my life isn't just
Speaker 1: a to do list. I want to feel motivated, energized,
Speaker 1: to feel energized, I want to go to the gym
Speaker 1: in the morning, I want to do this, And it
Speaker 1: was kind of I don't know. It completely changes your
Speaker 1: perspective of the day ahead. Rather than just like, oh, crap,
Speaker 1: I've got a message you know so and so from
Speaker 1: PR and do this and do that. You're just growing
Speaker 1: every day, like no one really knows what they're doing,
Speaker 1: no one has no idea. But if you enjoy it,
Speaker 1: you're halfway there.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's so true, and you're right, like, we do
Speaker 2: treat our lives very much as a to do list
Speaker 2: and then wonder why there's no joy at the end
Speaker 2: of it. And you look back, I can think I
Speaker 2: sacrificed so much of the important things in life for
Speaker 2: that to do list that you know, decades later you're like,
Speaker 2: I don't even care.
Speaker 3: About that to do list.
Speaker 2: Really, it's you have to enjoy the journey and all
Speaker 2: those little moments of joy in between. So that leads
Speaker 2: really nicely into like the middle section is n Ata,
Speaker 2: which is the challenges you face along the way, and
Speaker 2: I think you've really beautifully kind of acknowledged all of
Speaker 2: those in among all the highlights, which is not the
Speaker 2: way most people tell their stories. So I really appreciate
Speaker 2: that you're really upfront about that. But the last section
Speaker 2: is your playta, which is the part where you do
Speaker 2: acknowledge that you can't just work and die. Even if
Speaker 2: you love your job, there has to be a part
Speaker 2: of you that's reserved for just pure fun and enjoyment
Speaker 2: and energy and excitement that makes you, you know, what
Speaker 2: are the things you do that aren't related to your
Speaker 2: work that let your brain switch off so you don't
Speaker 2: burn out from your work and that just you do
Speaker 2: even if they might feel like a waste of time,
Speaker 2: but because you enjoy them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's so not like that just makes me smile
Speaker 1: thinking about like all the beautiful things we have in
Speaker 1: our life that we can do that isn't completely to
Speaker 1: do with the grinds, And one of them for me
Speaker 1: is definitely hiking, and but being by myself hiking. You know,
Speaker 1: I love my partner or my friends and my family,
Speaker 1: but I just I love spending time by myself, you know,
Speaker 1: switching the throne to do not disturb and just going
Speaker 1: for a hike, and kind of having days instead of
Speaker 1: constantly you know, six days a week or whatever it
Speaker 1: is as a business owner. It used to be seven.
Speaker 1: But being like I don't have to do this every day,
Speaker 1: maybe some days I won't put it on my alum
Speaker 1: and I'll just go with the flow. If I want
Speaker 1: to sit there and watch Netflix for six hours, I'll
Speaker 1: do it. Like my life doesn't have to be like that.
Speaker 1: And so it's kind of having the freedom to be like,
Speaker 1: I don't know what I want to do today, I'll
Speaker 1: go for a hike, I'll watch Netflix and then something
Speaker 1: that kind of used to be a real passion of mine,
Speaker 1: which was doing DIY and fixing things, but then it
Speaker 1: slowly started to turn and kind of talking about the
Speaker 1: whole skateboarding thing turned into another side of my career
Speaker 1: for me and constantly filming content for it. So it
Speaker 1: was great, but it took the joy out a little
Speaker 1: bit because I wasn't just doing it freely. So sometimes
Speaker 1: I just like to take the time. As much as
Speaker 1: I love filming it and creating videos, it's good to
Speaker 1: just put the phone away and do things that I
Speaker 1: don't have to post on social media and make things
Speaker 1: that are purely just for me, rather than doing it
Speaker 1: with someone else or for someone else or for the
Speaker 1: world to see. Oh, I don't have to show them
Speaker 1: my whole life and everything I do.
Speaker 3: Totally.
Speaker 2: And I think that's something that can be a bit
Speaker 2: confusing for some people when they do have a passion
Speaker 2: that they really love, and then they do make it
Speaker 2: their job because they think you have to be passionate
Speaker 2: about your job all the time, and then it does
Speaker 2: kill the joy when they have a deadline or a
Speaker 2: brief or someone else's creative idea, you know, super imposed
Speaker 2: over the top of it. And I think that's one
Speaker 2: thing I probably went really hard on when I first
Speaker 2: started CZA and now try and scale back a little bit,
Speaker 2: is that the joy you find, it's wonderful if you
Speaker 2: can find that in your job, but it doesn't have
Speaker 2: to be at work. Like for some people it will
Speaker 2: never be at work. And it's okay if you do
Speaker 2: your job nine to five because it pays bills and
Speaker 2: that's it. As long as it doesn't make you unhappy.
Speaker 2: You can find your joy outside of work, and maybe
Speaker 2: that's just where it belongs for you. Like the balance
Speaker 2: is going to look different for everyone, but some things
Speaker 2: are really precious and you do want to keep them where.
Speaker 3: They are joyful for you.
Speaker 2: And like it's okay to be like, I don't want
Speaker 2: to do that as a job today or any time,
Speaker 2: but I love that you do still do your DIY projects,
Speaker 2: but you do some that are just for you because
Speaker 2: that's so important for you to keep that alive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and it's so true. Everyone needs to create
Speaker 1: time in their schedules for just doing what makes life
Speaker 1: life and makes them happy. And yeah, that's so true.
Speaker 2: I think one of the things I loved so much
Speaker 2: about our trip recently was that even though there were
Speaker 2: eight women and then two guys and then the guides,
Speaker 2: we spent like big chunks of that day walking really
Speaker 2: separate from each other. Like we had wonderful conversations at
Speaker 2: points like at lunchtime, or if we kind of broke
Speaker 2: off into different clusters of who was feeling faster or
Speaker 2: slower on particular days. But we also spent hours in silence.
Speaker 2: And I don't do that very often, but I think
Speaker 2: learning to appreciate your own company inside your own head
Speaker 2: is one of the most valuable things you can do.
Speaker 2: It's really uncomfortable to begin with, Like the first few
Speaker 2: days you spend by yourself, I can imagine when you
Speaker 2: started walking, you're just like, without the noise and distraction
Speaker 2: of people and conversation, it's like a lot of shit
Speaker 2: in your brain that starts to come to the surface.
Speaker 2: But it's good for you to process that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so true. And at the start of anything
Speaker 1: spending time by yourself, you constantly got stuff going on
Speaker 1: in your head. But the more you do it, and
Speaker 1: the more you take the time to be by yourself
Speaker 1: and reflect on the day or reflect on everything, show
Speaker 1: your gratitude. It just puts you at peace and that
Speaker 1: I never thought one of my favorite things to do
Speaker 1: in the world that I'd be passionate about would be
Speaker 1: just be alone and by myself and like go for
Speaker 1: a walk.
Speaker 2: But here we are, and I think that's really healthy
Speaker 2: because a lot of people are scared of their own
Speaker 2: company or like scared of what they'll feel if they
Speaker 2: slow down for a second. But that kind of need
Speaker 2: for just momentum and constant distraction is actually where people
Speaker 2: burn out. Like that's how people get sick and overworked
Speaker 2: because there's.
Speaker 3: Just too much adrenaline all the time. But sitting with
Speaker 3: your own stuff is like it's so.
Speaker 1: Important, so so so good.
Speaker 2: Well, to finish up, second last question is three interesting
Speaker 2: things about you that don't normally come up in conversation.
Speaker 2: And you're like a pretty open share which I love
Speaker 2: about you, so it's probably harder for people who share,
Speaker 2: like who are pretty chill about being open. But what
Speaker 2: are three things that like people don't normally know about you?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that's a good question. I tell everyone everything.
Speaker 2: I know when they're saying, but like, what's something that
Speaker 2: someone who like, maybe we would after having spent like
Speaker 2: five or six days in really close quarters, like little
Speaker 2: habits or funny quirks or like party tricks or allergies,
Speaker 2: you know, all those.
Speaker 1: I'm going to think it's so many after we get
Speaker 1: off the podcast, I should have looked at that question.
Speaker 1: I think one of the things is, as much as
Speaker 1: I'm kind of out there and love talking and all
Speaker 1: this this kind of thing, I love listening, And when
Speaker 1: I'm in a bigger setting, it's always like I would
Speaker 1: much prefer to listen to someone else and listen to
Speaker 1: what someone else is doing with their life. And then
Speaker 1: instead of talking about me, like my mum is she's
Speaker 1: like my biggest fan ever. Everywhere we go, it's like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, and it's always like no, like I
Speaker 1: don't I don't know, just talking to other people about
Speaker 1: what they're doing. I wouldn't care if no one knew
Speaker 1: anything about me, But if I could talk to someone
Speaker 1: else and hear their stories and what they're up to,
Speaker 1: and what you do is a podcast, so it's just amazing.
Speaker 1: And that's one of my things. I do like being
Speaker 1: just you know, turning off for a bit and listening
Speaker 1: to other people and then oh, I like as much
Speaker 1: as I've been on reality TV. I actually hate watching TV.
Speaker 1: I've just started watching Big Brother. But I think in
Speaker 1: my head, I'm like, oh my god, how many hours
Speaker 1: of am I wasting watching this? But I don't watch
Speaker 1: movies that much. I'll do it because Kate Kate does it.
Speaker 1: I don't watch TV that much. I'm like, I don't
Speaker 1: know what do I do with my life? I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know, like even movies and stuff. I just don't.
Speaker 3: Is it because you get fidgety? Like do you want
Speaker 3: to do stuff?
Speaker 1: Yeah? It's just like oh god. I always like I
Speaker 1: walk into a movie theater be like, Okay, how long
Speaker 1: does this go for? And then I don't.
Speaker 2: It's You're like me, He's like, this is like prison.
Speaker 2: I can't do it because the same time, I'm like,
Speaker 2: that's the point. You're already doing one activity. You don't
Speaker 2: need to do three. It's like, nah, we're leaving, let's
Speaker 2: just watch it. We can download it.
Speaker 1: It's fine, So true, so true.
Speaker 3: So what do you do do you do?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 3: Do you like board games or do you read?
Speaker 1: I've just started getting onto board games. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: read more. I've started your book. I love it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I started on the trip and I've been slowly reading it.
Speaker 1: I tell you. The funniest thing actually take off my
Speaker 1: third thing that I completely don't know now. I was
Speaker 1: on the phone to my mom before and she's like,
Speaker 1: what are you doing this stuff to do? And I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm just got this podcast. She's like, oh, yeah, what's
Speaker 1: it called. I'm like, oh, sees the Yay. And she's like,
Speaker 1: Seize the Day. And I'm like, no, seize the yay.
Speaker 1: And she's like, what do you mean. I'm like, seize
Speaker 1: the yay. She's like the day. I'm like the yay.
Speaker 1: And when on the LA five minutes, she's like I
Speaker 1: don't understand. I'm like, oh my god, like yay and
Speaker 1: she's like, gay, it sees the game.
Speaker 2: I'm not even gonna try, Mom, I can't even do
Speaker 2: you know what happens Actually quite often that I have
Speaker 2: to spell it because people like they think I'm it's
Speaker 2: cease like cease the ya, like end the joy. I'm
Speaker 2: like no, no, like see the day, but yay.
Speaker 3: It takes me a really long time to get it
Speaker 3: out there.
Speaker 2: I'm like, you know what, I should just wear it
Speaker 2: on me, just so I can just even have to
Speaker 2: explain just like this is it.
Speaker 3: And I've started getting.
Speaker 2: From like automated email chains and stuff emails that are
Speaker 2: like dear ces or like dear the ya.
Speaker 1: All the time with tiny stage I got dear Tiny.
Speaker 3: I get it all the time.
Speaker 2: Sure, But then I'm like, you know, there's some really
Speaker 2: quirky names out there, Like I don't blame them.
Speaker 3: It makes sense. You never know these days.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, after this podcast is going to be
Speaker 2: like the biggest baby name of twenty twenty one because
Speaker 2: no one's got any names for us but haven't been
Speaker 2: used like a million times.
Speaker 1: It's not actually that bad seas.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's kind of like a medical condition if
Speaker 3: you see. So it's like not great.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's like the most loving nice. The
Speaker 2: very last question, since I love quotes so much as
Speaker 2: you know, what is your favorite quote?
Speaker 1: My favorite quote? I have it in front of it.
Speaker 1: It's literally on my thing. You are the author of
Speaker 1: your own life. And as much as it's quite simple,
Speaker 1: it really puts into my perspective of like, no matter
Speaker 1: what happens to me every day, I can't live in
Speaker 1: reaction to if something goes wrong, and that's huge for me.
Speaker 1: And I used to always live in reaction and the moment,
Speaker 1: I kind of shift my perspective of like I control
Speaker 1: how I feel. And it even comes down to things like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, if your partner doesn't say something that you
Speaker 1: know you don't like and you go have you cry
Speaker 1: or you start a fight or whatever, It's like, what
Speaker 1: is the point of that? Like what are you achieving
Speaker 1: in any situation about anything? It's like if the car
Speaker 1: crashes into me, I'm literally I'll be like hah, Like
Speaker 1: I remember when I was driving around Australia, but I
Speaker 1: actually made it to Adelaide and I wasn't just in
Speaker 1: my backyard. I got to Adelaide finally, and then this
Speaker 1: car crashed into me and my van was written off
Speaker 1: and that was going to be the start to this
Speaker 1: huge journey. And as much as it's crazy, it didn't
Speaker 1: bother me. I was like, oh, well, like that sucks,
Speaker 1: but why would I What is the point? Yes, I
Speaker 1: get angry and I get frustrated, get sad, but I've
Speaker 1: learned to kind of teach myself to snap out of
Speaker 1: it and be like Amy, that's not going to serve you.
Speaker 1: So constantly thinking, I write my own story, I'm responsible
Speaker 1: for everything. It's yeah, it's been. It's been an absolute
Speaker 1: life changes for me.
Speaker 2: Oh that's such a good one and something I think
Speaker 2: about all the time that I think you can clearly
Speaker 2: see people who haven't grasped how much control they have,
Speaker 2: because obviously there are things in life you can't control.
Speaker 2: I mean, like the last eighteen months have shown us
Speaker 2: more than ever that there are uncertainties that will always
Speaker 2: be there. But that's only ever half the picture, Like
Speaker 2: how much it affects you that half of the equation
Speaker 2: is up to you. And I think until you actually
Speaker 2: grasp that, you can't change it. But I love that
Speaker 2: that's your reminder that actually, every day I choose, I
Speaker 2: don't choose this side, but I choose that side. And yeah,
Speaker 2: you know that that other quote, the way that people
Speaker 2: say life is ten percent what happens to you, ninety
Speaker 2: percent what you make of it.
Speaker 3: I think that's so true.
Speaker 2: And the more you remind yourself of that, the more
Speaker 2: you don't sit back and think, oh, I'll just let
Speaker 2: it all wash over me. It'd be like, I'm not
Speaker 2: going to let that wreck my day.
Speaker 1: And yeah, there's people out there with there's lots worse
Speaker 1: situations than you. And that quote you just said. It's
Speaker 1: funny because I say that all the time as well.
Speaker 1: But I change the percentages every time because I never
Speaker 1: know what the quote is. I'm like, yeah, it's ninety five.
Speaker 1: Then other times I'm like it's eighty three point two percent.
Speaker 1: I got that off, And it always constantly changes a percentage.
Speaker 2: I even say the wrong way around my life is
Speaker 2: ninety percent what happens to you and it's only ten percent. Fuck,
Speaker 2: that's not the right one. What a great ad for
Speaker 2: the show, Aims. Thank you so so much for sharing
Speaker 2: your amazing story. Every time I leave your company, I
Speaker 2: feel so uplifted and joyful and excited about life. You're
Speaker 2: just such a bundle of energy and an absolute little powerhouse.
Speaker 2: And I'm so glad to have you as a friend.
Speaker 1: Oh, thank you so much. I'm so glad to have viewers.
Speaker 1: I feel like we're just after that trip, We're just
Speaker 1: it's amazing, how like what we spent a week together,
Speaker 1: and I feel I have known you my whole life.
Speaker 2: I mean, wants to take a shit on a mountain together,
Speaker 2: just kind of go back from that.
Speaker 1: You and that it's so true and when you put
Speaker 1: yourself in those experiences with people is yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad to have you as a friend. Now.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to meet Paul one day soon.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, I know he's looking at he like.
Speaker 2: We thought we were going to do this in person, guys,
Speaker 2: and Paul got really excited and it was like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'll come in your podcast. Not for the podcast, it's
Speaker 2: because I get to meet Paul. And then we had
Speaker 2: to do it online.
Speaker 1: I was like, shit, sorry, I think I would have
Speaker 1: got so distracted though you would have lost you halfway
Speaker 1: my phone.
Speaker 3: Nothing would happen.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you so much, love, and I will make
Speaker 2: sure to put links to tiny stays in the show notes,
Speaker 2: even though I know it's probably they're all booked out
Speaker 2: like weekdays and weekends, aren't they for ages?
Speaker 1: It's amazing. Yeah, we're so stoked, but sure someone can
Speaker 1: get in somewhere ahead.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much love, No way, sir, have a
Speaker 3: good day.
Speaker 2: Am I right? The freshest of breath of air and
Speaker 2: legend of a human who truly makes the most of
Speaker 2: every opportunity in life and brings joy to all those
Speaker 2: around her in the process. I hope you guys loved
Speaker 2: Amy as much as I do, and if you did,
Speaker 2: please let her know by sharing the episode with some
Speaker 2: reflections or takeaways, tagging at Amy Kate Stanton. I've popped
Speaker 2: a link to her business, Tiny Stays in the show
Speaker 2: notes too. I highly recommend you check them out for
Speaker 2: a beautiful little escape. Have an amazing week, and hope
Speaker 2: you're all seizing your ya.