Speaker 1: Everyone knows how brutal the entertainment industry can be, whether
Speaker 1: you're grinding away just to get a foot in the
Speaker 1: door or doing everything you can to keep working. The
Speaker 1: struggles of the working artist are so well known they're
Speaker 1: almost cliche at this point. But one entertainer who's beaten
Speaker 1: the odds for more than two decades is Aida Nikodimu,
Speaker 1: who you might know better as Leah from Home and Away.
Speaker 1: How has Aida done what so many haven't been able
Speaker 1: to figure out? And hold a steady job in the
Speaker 1: notoriously unstable world of TV? And how does a working
Speaker 1: actor manage her time, energy and attention, which is also
Speaker 1: a brand ambassador and a parent to a young child.
Speaker 1: My name is doctor amanthe Imma. I'm an organizational psychologist
Speaker 1: and the founder of Behavioral science Consultancy Inventium, and this
Speaker 1: is how I work a show about how to help
Speaker 1: you do your best work. I feel like being an
Speaker 1: actor in a daily Sophie could not be any more
Speaker 1: different from my life as a consultant, So I was
Speaker 1: very curious to know what does a typical week.
Speaker 2: Look like for Ada Aida.
Speaker 1: I'd love to start with understanding what does a week
Speaker 1: in your life look like.
Speaker 3: Every week is different, like every day is different.
Speaker 4: We tend to get a schedule on a Thursday night
Speaker 4: for the following week, but the last couple of years
Speaker 4: with COVID, nothing is certain as everyone else is, you know,
Speaker 4: facing the same problem, So we do get a rough
Speaker 4: draft for the following week. But if someone tests positive,
Speaker 4: then you know, you can get a phone call. Go,
Speaker 4: you know, come in. You don't have a day off today,
Speaker 4: You've got twelve scenes that you need to do. But generally,
Speaker 4: let yeah, I get my schedule, and the minute I
Speaker 4: get it, I start scheduling my own things. Then obviously,
Speaker 4: first is making sure that my son jonas you know,
Speaker 4: can be picked up, dropped off, when am I doing it,
Speaker 4: when my partner doing it, when his dad's doing all
Speaker 4: that sort of stuff.
Speaker 3: Then I'm scheduling my workouts and any sort of appointment.
Speaker 3: So tragitial.
Speaker 4: So what I usually like to do, Like this morning,
Speaker 4: I was at the gym. I left home about like six,
Speaker 4: so I wasn't too bad, went to the gym. I
Speaker 4: had a day of today, so I've gone to the gym.
Speaker 3: Like I was saying to you, I just after.
Speaker 4: The gym when looked after my grand my goddaughter, and
Speaker 4: you know, now I'm not going to do a bit
Speaker 4: of work at home, but otherwise I tend to go
Speaker 4: to the gym at if I'm working, I don't know,
Speaker 4: like four point thirty five o'clock if I can, and.
Speaker 3: Then go to work.
Speaker 4: Usually at work by seven or six, do makeup, and
Speaker 4: then you're on set. Know it just to but every
Speaker 4: day is different. Like some days I might not start
Speaker 4: until twelve or two.
Speaker 3: Other days I.
Speaker 4: Might be finished by nine o'clock in the morning. Like
Speaker 4: every day is different.
Speaker 1: Wow, okay, so talk me through a day where you're
Speaker 1: on set for the majority of the day, Like what
Speaker 1: would that look like?
Speaker 4: So, yeah, you'll go into makeup, get you're going to
Speaker 4: your dressing room, get.
Speaker 3: Change, go into makeup.
Speaker 4: I always have a coffee while I'm getting my makeup done.
Speaker 4: Makeup tends to take about forty five minutes. I'll also
Speaker 4: go through my lines while I'm sitting in the chair,
Speaker 4: like obviously you know them by this stage, but it's
Speaker 4: just nice just to sort of read over them.
Speaker 3: I'll do that, then get made up, go on to set.
Speaker 3: It depends again what set it is, but say it.
Speaker 4: Might be the Morgan House or the diner, which I
Speaker 4: mean a lot you'll do.
Speaker 3: How many sings do you do before lunch? Maybe it
Speaker 3: might be about eighte scenes before lunch. Then you've got
Speaker 3: an hour lunch break, and then there could be some scenes.
Speaker 3: If you're on all day, then there's probably another eight.
Speaker 4: After lunch, and then come home, get your son ready,
Speaker 4: get into bed and learning a cook dinner, learn your lines,
Speaker 4: and do it all again.
Speaker 3: But it depends.
Speaker 2: Okay, so learn your lines.
Speaker 1: You make that sound so easy, but I mean eight
Speaker 1: scenes before lunch, and I imagine it's not just remembering words.
Speaker 1: You're remembering the blocking, the physical movement of where you
Speaker 1: need to be.
Speaker 4: No, not anymore so when I first started in Home
Speaker 4: and Away, we used to it was a completely different setup.
Speaker 4: So there was like three massive cameras. I'm sure you've
Speaker 4: seen this where you've seen like live TV shows being
Speaker 4: done with this three big cameras on the floor. And
Speaker 4: then so we would have rehearsed it beforehand, and we
Speaker 4: would have rehearsed all of our blocking, and we wrote
Speaker 4: down all the blocking. And the director's not on the floor,
Speaker 4: the director's up sort of in the second level, sort
Speaker 4: of with a vision switcher and you've got a first
Speaker 4: assistant director on the floor and they would sort of
Speaker 4: you know, control the floor, whereas that doesn't happen now.
Speaker 4: You go in for a scene, you sit down, you
Speaker 4: do a quick line run, and then the director will go.
Speaker 3: You know, start at the cough machine, maybe.
Speaker 4: Online to walk over, pick up a plate, go into
Speaker 4: the kitchen, whatever. But that's quite collaborative as well, and
Speaker 4: depending what the scene is, you know, you might have
Speaker 4: something to do with the blocking, the director might have
Speaker 4: something to do with the blocking. So basically, when you're
Speaker 4: learning lines, you're learning lines nowadays, but you know, obviously
Speaker 4: you've got to do a bit of script work, so
Speaker 4: you've got to understand what the storyline is and you
Speaker 4: know where your character has been, where your character's going,
Speaker 4: all of that stuff.
Speaker 2: So how do you learn life? What's your process?
Speaker 4: I'll read the whole script prior to rehearsals, and then
Speaker 4: when I get my schedule for the following week, I'll
Speaker 4: break it all down into the days and then if
Speaker 4: I know that, for example, on Thursday, I've got a
Speaker 4: really big day, I'll just sort of read over those,
Speaker 4: you know, throughout.
Speaker 3: The weekend, or like just a couple of times, So
Speaker 3: it just depends on what it is.
Speaker 4: But my process is with learning lines, just to keep
Speaker 4: doing it, you know, just before bed. I find if
Speaker 4: I read my lines before bed, they tend to sink in.
Speaker 3: But it just depends on what sort. If you've got
Speaker 3: a massive.
Speaker 4: Monologue, then you've got to sit down and really spend
Speaker 4: a bit of time learning your lines. But if it's
Speaker 4: conversational stuff like reading it, you know a few times
Speaker 4: before bed over a couple of nights, it tends to
Speaker 4: sink in, and then again in the makeup room you
Speaker 4: read them again, and then you've got a couple of
Speaker 4: rehearsals on the floor and they.
Speaker 3: Tend to be in your head. I've been playing Lea
Speaker 3: for twenty one years or whatever it is, twenty two years.
Speaker 4: So it's a lot easier because I understand the character
Speaker 4: and I feel that they probably right close to us
Speaker 4: as well, so it's a lot easier to learn.
Speaker 1: How do you try to relax before those big days
Speaker 1: where you are kind of mentally maybe stressing and preparing
Speaker 1: what strategies have worked for you.
Speaker 3: Exercise really works for me.
Speaker 4: A really good breakfast, Like if I'm and if i'm
Speaker 4: tired or hungry, I'm not good to anyone. So yeah,
Speaker 4: I like to have a really good breakfast. And I'm
Speaker 4: one of those people that wake up hungry. So I
Speaker 4: have no issue with having breakfast or whatever. Like I
Speaker 4: can have breakfast at three o'clock in the morning, but
Speaker 4: I'll always make sure it's a big one. But I
Speaker 4: find exercise and if you could just go to the
Speaker 4: gym and do a twenty minute run, if I've got
Speaker 4: a big day, I find I'm just a lot more alert,
Speaker 4: and yeah, everything just sits in a lot better.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it just really works for me.
Speaker 4: I'd like to say a good night's sleep, but ever
Speaker 4: since I've turned I don't know, I'm forty five now,
Speaker 4: I'm going to say the last two three years, I'm
Speaker 4: such a terrible sleeper.
Speaker 3: I think it's just my age. So yeah, I battle
Speaker 3: with sleep a lot.
Speaker 1: Do you have almost like a shutdown or a switch
Speaker 1: off richeal when you've shot all your scenes for the day,
Speaker 1: there's nothing left to do, but you've still got the
Speaker 1: full face of makeup and the lashes and everything. Is
Speaker 1: there a process that you used to switch off?
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I find that my drive to work prepares
Speaker 4: me for the day, and because I'm just by myself,
Speaker 4: and then I find the drive coming home helps me unwind,
Speaker 4: so because I feel like, you know, because you're talking
Speaker 4: all day and on, like, I just think that drive
Speaker 4: home really helps me. But then when I come home,
Speaker 4: you know, say hi to the family, I have to
Speaker 4: go wash my face, wash the lashes, draw it, pull
Speaker 4: my hair back like it is now.
Speaker 5: And then I'm ready because I do I feel like
Speaker 5: I do need to wash that, or I'll have a
Speaker 5: shower just so I can just wash the day off
Speaker 5: before I'll start dinner or whatever it is that I
Speaker 5: need to do, because especially if you're on set all day,
Speaker 5: there's a lot of powder that goes on your face,
Speaker 5: and I feel like it just gets really heavy by
Speaker 5: the end of the day.
Speaker 3: So I just, yeah, I just need to sort.
Speaker 2: Of wash it all off on your drive home.
Speaker 1: Is there anything else that you're doing to transition out
Speaker 1: of work mode.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like, sometimes I'm thinking about the day and breaking
Speaker 4: it all down and getting rid of it, you know,
Speaker 4: because I don't like to bring that energy home because
Speaker 4: sometimes you know, I mean, you might be doing a
Speaker 4: day where there's a lot of emotional scenes and as
Speaker 4: much as you don't want to take that on, of
Speaker 4: course you have to take that on because you have
Speaker 4: to get to a point and be able to cry
Speaker 4: or whatever it is. So yeah, I'll think about the
Speaker 4: day and unwind and shake it off and you know,
Speaker 4: maybe play a bit of music, or maybe listen to
Speaker 4: a podcast, or I can laugh or whatever it is.
Speaker 4: But I don't like to bring my scenes into my
Speaker 4: home life, So yeah, I'll do that and what I
Speaker 4: have found as well. But because we all like, if
Speaker 4: I've got say twelve fifteen scenes in a day, you're
Speaker 4: not always going to feel like you've done a good
Speaker 4: job with all of them. But if I did one
Speaker 4: and it was terrible, go I let it affect my
Speaker 4: other scenes where I find now, I don't let it
Speaker 4: do that. I go, right, Okay, that was one bad scene.
Speaker 4: I didn't you know, I felt like I didn't sort
Speaker 4: of achieve what I wanted to achieve.
Speaker 3: But I got to let it go.
Speaker 4: Hopefully someone just got up, made a cup of tea
Speaker 4: at that point, didn't even see the scene because they're
Speaker 4: so quick, So you know, I just don't let it
Speaker 4: affect my whole day, because we can't be perfect all
Speaker 4: the time and we.
Speaker 3: Are never perfect. So yeah, I do just have to
Speaker 3: shake it off.
Speaker 2: How did you learn to do that?
Speaker 4: I think just survival, you know, because I was finding
Speaker 4: that I was letting it really get me down because
Speaker 4: I am a perfectionist. I think I am type A personality,
Speaker 4: so everything has to be perfect, you know, like literally
Speaker 4: at home, like my pillows have to be a certain way,
Speaker 4: all that sort of stuff. But I was just finding
Speaker 4: that it was making me really unhappy and very unproductive.
Speaker 3: In my whole day.
Speaker 4: I was letting, you know, a conversation that i'd have
Speaker 4: with someone, or you know, a line read that wasn't
Speaker 4: great or whatever it was. I was just letting it
Speaker 4: affect to my whole day, and then a lot of
Speaker 4: times affect my mood when I was coming home.
Speaker 3: And yeah, I feel like that's.
Speaker 4: Just you can't do that, and especially when you've got
Speaker 4: a child, like I don't want my child to you know,
Speaker 4: I want to be really present when I'm with him
Speaker 4: because I do work a lot, so it's very important
Speaker 4: for me to be present for Jonas. So yeah, I've
Speaker 4: had to learn just to shake things off and also
Speaker 4: not like everything around the house doesn't need.
Speaker 3: To be as perfect. It's never going to be perfect.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: There's always something to do. There's always another load of
Speaker 4: washing to do, like all of that stuff, right, So
Speaker 4: I have to constantly work on that though, I do
Speaker 4: have to work on just letting things go.
Speaker 1: What strategies have you found have been effected for doing that?
Speaker 1: Which is easier said than done. Let's face it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, look, I've accepted this is who I am, and
Speaker 4: I just have to talk myself when I find myself
Speaker 4: getting really busy at home and cleaning for like just
Speaker 4: constantly cleaning.
Speaker 3: Like, Okay, what's that about? What am I avoiding? Like?
Speaker 4: Is there something I need to be writing down and
Speaker 4: thinking about? Do I need to go for a walk
Speaker 4: and just shake it off again? Like there's a reason
Speaker 4: why I think you need everything to be perfect all
Speaker 4: the time.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to control something.
Speaker 4: So I'm just trying to be like more self aware
Speaker 4: and also just letting things go.
Speaker 3: And you know, the minute you have a child, like you.
Speaker 4: Do learn you have to let let things go because
Speaker 4: you can't control them.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: You know, I spent the morning with my little goddaughter
Speaker 4: this morning, who's eighteen months. You're on her clock, like
Speaker 4: it's whatever she wants to do. So I think children
Speaker 4: really make you present.
Speaker 2: How how have you balanced.
Speaker 1: The I guess you know what can be sort of
Speaker 1: an unpredictable filming schedule of being an actor with being
Speaker 1: a mum.
Speaker 3: I have really struggled the last couple of years because
Speaker 3: prior to COVID, we would get our weekly schedule and
Speaker 3: it would pretty much stay the same. It was very
Speaker 3: rare that it would change. You know, if someone was
Speaker 3: really sick, like I'm talking in hospital sick, it would change,
Speaker 3: or if the weather was really bad. But you tend
Speaker 3: to be the same all the time. And I like
Speaker 3: having a schedule and sicking to a schedule.
Speaker 4: Whereas I find now even when you've got a day off,
Speaker 4: like I get a little bit anxious that I don't
Speaker 4: know when I'm want to be called in. You're constantly
Speaker 4: looking at your phone. You make appointments you don't know
Speaker 4: if you're going to make them. You know, I promised
Speaker 4: my son I'm going to pick him up, and then
Speaker 4: I might not with down and pick him up, like
Speaker 4: all of that sort of stuff. So I haven't got
Speaker 4: a handle on that, Like, I still struggle with it.
Speaker 3: I'm not the only one.
Speaker 4: I'm sure everyone's in the same boat with COVID. We
Speaker 4: haven't been out of book holidays, you know that we
Speaker 4: could keep them even now, Like I've got a holiday
Speaker 4: booked in three weeks, and I'm not excited about it
Speaker 4: because it's like, well, who knows whether we'll be able
Speaker 4: to go, you know, it's it's still always up in
Speaker 4: the air. But I try and just be as organized
Speaker 4: as I can.
Speaker 3: I try and you know, make sort of contingency plans
Speaker 3: for my son and for everything else around me.
Speaker 4: Just think I have to go into work and yeah,
Speaker 4: you just have to be more president of being in
Speaker 4: the moment.
Speaker 3: I get. This is what COVID has taught us all.
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 1: We will be back with Ada soon talking about how
Speaker 1: she balances her work schedule.
Speaker 2: With being a single mum. If you're looking.
Speaker 1: For more tips to improve the way that you work,
Speaker 1: I write a short fortnightly newsletter that contains three cool
Speaker 1: things that I've discovered that helped me work better, ranging
Speaker 1: from software and gadgets that I'm loving through the interesting
Speaker 1: research findings. You can sign up for that at Howiwork
Speaker 1: dot Code. That's how I Work dot co now you've
Speaker 1: been on Home and Away for over twenty years. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's unusual for anyone, let alone an actor to be
Speaker 1: in a job for so long.
Speaker 2: How are you keeping it fresh and interesting?
Speaker 4: Look, because the storyline, like, everything moves so fast, I
Speaker 4: don't think you have a lot of time to be bored.
Speaker 4: And there is always quite interesting storylines and okay, sometimes
Speaker 4: they're bigger than others. But I'm not that bored because
Speaker 4: it's not like you're playing the same story the whole time.
Speaker 4: We're always telling a different story, so that makes it interesting.
Speaker 4: And also they let us like, we're very fortunate that
Speaker 4: Home and Away and seven will be quite open to
Speaker 4: us doing different things. So and look at that, Like
Speaker 4: at the moment with COVID, it's a bit hard because
Speaker 4: it's hard to say, oh, you know, I can let
Speaker 4: Ada on Wednesday Thursday go and do another show or whatever.
Speaker 3: It's a bit impossible.
Speaker 4: But prior to this, there was other projects that we
Speaker 4: got to work on as well. So yeah, if you're
Speaker 4: trying different jobs, I don't know, you just never get bored.
Speaker 4: I'm not bored, but for me it is a job
Speaker 4: as well, and I get a lot of joy out
Speaker 4: of my life outside of work, and.
Speaker 3: My son just turned ten, so he keeps me really
Speaker 3: really busy.
Speaker 4: Basically when you have one night off a week where
Speaker 4: we don't have a sport, so out of seven days,
Speaker 4: so we're quite busy.
Speaker 1: Wow, Okay, I've got an eight year old daughter and
Speaker 1: we've got appall one afternoon a week.
Speaker 3: Oh.
Speaker 4: Like, yeah, he loves soccer, so he plays yet two
Speaker 4: different types of soccers, and then their play that they're
Speaker 4: trained and they play. Then he's got jiu jitsu and
Speaker 4: there's always up on. Yeah, so we're quite busy. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: so there's ever a dull moment here that.
Speaker 2: Sounds like it.
Speaker 1: Now, a large part of your job involves doing interviews
Speaker 1: with media and promoting various things. How do you decide
Speaker 1: how much to reveal about yourself when you're doing interviews
Speaker 1: and work with the media.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I've learnt to actually like, if something makes me uncomfortable,
Speaker 4: there's a reason why it's making me uncomfortable. I used
Speaker 4: to be one of those people because journalists have this
Speaker 4: really great ability of like, if they're silent, I tend
Speaker 4: to feel that silence because I'm just I'm a people pleaser,
Speaker 4: and I just I feel like it's part of my job.
Speaker 3: And I was always giving a lot away.
Speaker 4: And I try not to do that now because it's
Speaker 4: it would make me feel really uncomfortable. And also, I
Speaker 4: think for a long time, because I've been in this
Speaker 4: industry since I've been sixteen years old, I'm forty five now,
Speaker 4: I've gone through so many different things, but I've always
Speaker 4: felt like it's my job to give people everything, and
Speaker 4: it's actually not. And there is a lot of things
Speaker 4: that are really hard to talk about and are really
Speaker 4: really personal, and you don't need to tell people everything.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I now go Look, if something's really uncomfortable,
Speaker 3: I won't talk about it. But look, I think I
Speaker 3: probably still am quite honest as well. But I do
Speaker 3: say no to a lot more than I used to
Speaker 3: because being at home with my partner and my son
Speaker 3: is so important to me and the last two years
Speaker 3: have taught me that, and I've pulled back from a
Speaker 3: lot of things. I don't do a lot of things
Speaker 3: like I used to.
Speaker 4: I used to just say yes to everything because I
Speaker 4: thought I had to.
Speaker 2: How do you decide now what to say yes and
Speaker 2: what to say no too?
Speaker 3: If it's something that I really want to do. Also,
Speaker 3: is it going to take time away from my son?
Speaker 4: Like weekend stuff I'll only do like any sort of
Speaker 4: weekend charity stuff Like for example, there's a telephone coming
Speaker 4: up at seven do every year, and I thought it
Speaker 4: was the weekend that I had my son because I
Speaker 4: share custody, and it wasn't. So I thought, Okay, well,
Speaker 4: I'm not taking time away from Jonas. So do I
Speaker 4: want to do this? Like, yeah, I'll go and do that,
Speaker 4: but yeah, if it means me having time away from Jonas,
Speaker 4: I don't tend to do it.
Speaker 1: I'm going to share custody position as well, where I've
Speaker 1: got my daughter half the time.
Speaker 2: And it's interesting.
Speaker 1: I feel like they're two different lives that I live.
Speaker 1: You know, one is where I put myself first and
Speaker 1: I put my work first, and I can put my partner,
Speaker 1: you know, really high up in the priority list. And
Speaker 1: when I've got my daughter Frankie, she's my number one
Speaker 1: priority and everything gets scheduled around her. How does it
Speaker 1: work in your life? Like is that something you can
Speaker 1: relate to in terms of It's almost like you've got
Speaker 1: two lives.
Speaker 4: Absolutely totally agree with you and you're so right, Like
Speaker 4: when they're with you. They are your priority, you know,
Speaker 4: and when you do share custody, like you notice it
Speaker 4: even more.
Speaker 3: You notice how little time. Remember someone saying to me
Speaker 3: something about, you know, you have eighteen summers with them,
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh my god, when you put it like that,
Speaker 3: like why would I wish it away? And why would
Speaker 3: I give energy to something that I resent.
Speaker 4: That's the other thing. You know, you say yes to
Speaker 4: these things and then you resent that you're doing it,
Speaker 4: So what's the point of doing it? And I just
Speaker 4: want to be at home with my son, So I
Speaker 4: totally relate to. But I remember initially when I started
Speaker 4: doing the share custody thing, when Jonas was away from me,
Speaker 4: I just was lost, like it's so unnatural not to
Speaker 4: have your child around, and I was just beside myself.
Speaker 4: But then once I got used to that sort of
Speaker 4: two three years down the track, a lot of this
Speaker 4: is actually quite lovely because you can then use that
Speaker 4: time to do things for yourself, because the minute you
Speaker 4: become a parent, you don't have a life anymore.
Speaker 3: That's how I felt.
Speaker 4: But so it's nice sort of having those two lives
Speaker 4: like you're saying, but but yeah, I do definitely though
Speaker 4: when he's around, like he is my number one priority.
Speaker 4: He literally just turned ten yesterday and I don't even
Speaker 4: understand how that happened.
Speaker 3: And I was quite emotional about it yesterday. So how
Speaker 3: are you ten? And Yeah, it's just it's just too quick.
Speaker 3: It's way too quick.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the eighteen Summer's thing. I love sort of thinking
Speaker 1: about those moments. I remember I saw Billy Crystal's One
Speaker 1: Man Show a few years ago. I think it was
Speaker 1: called five hundred Sundays, and that was the number of
Speaker 1: Sundays got with his dad before his dad passed away.
Speaker 1: And I sort of I like to remind myself of
Speaker 1: just how, you know, how precious that time is, because
Speaker 1: it can just feel very mundane as well being a
Speaker 1: parent and you know, feeling like you're doing the same
Speaker 1: thing day and day out with the time that you
Speaker 1: don't have Jonas, how do you think about that time?
Speaker 1: And I guess make the most of it given the
Speaker 1: you know that you don't have this big responsibility that
Speaker 1: you have in the other half of your.
Speaker 3: Life, Like obviously I try. I have a partner that
Speaker 3: I've been with for quite a while and we try
Speaker 3: and you know, do our date nights or have weekends away,
Speaker 3: and you know, just and fill our cups in different ways,
Speaker 3: like whether it's like I mean, I could spend all
Speaker 3: day at home just pottering around the house, cleaning and
Speaker 3: just organizing things. I love doing that. It's I just
Speaker 3: find it really relaxing. So I love doing that.
Speaker 4: But I just it's really important just to you just
Speaker 4: do stuff for yourself. I love like I'll read, like
Speaker 4: I said, or I'll go for walks, or I spend
Speaker 4: you know, I'll see my friends.
Speaker 3: But yeah, trying trying.
Speaker 4: To relax is very important for me because I can
Speaker 4: just be on all the time. If I'm not careful,
Speaker 4: I don't. I'm not great at relaxing. And when I'm
Speaker 4: with Jonus, obviously you don't relax. So yeah, when I'm
Speaker 4: not with him, I do try and do things like that.
Speaker 4: But yeah, yeah, just just fill my cup in many
Speaker 4: different ways.
Speaker 1: How do you make sure you do relax when it
Speaker 1: doesn't come naturally to you.
Speaker 4: I have to I have to talk myself into like
Speaker 4: I had to. No, no, no, you don't need to
Speaker 4: do the fifth f looad of washing.
Speaker 3: Or whatever it is. No, just sit down on the
Speaker 3: couch and read your book, and of course once you do, like,
Speaker 3: you know, it's lovely. I don't know where I get
Speaker 3: it from. I think my mom's a bit like me,
Speaker 3: and she's always just been.
Speaker 4: On the go and and I don't know it's a
Speaker 4: female thing though as well.
Speaker 3: It's always, oh, you know, I'm so busy.
Speaker 4: Like I don't know why we wear this badge of
Speaker 4: we need to be really really busy all the time.
Speaker 3: So I do have to talk myself down a lot.
Speaker 1: So I think i'd love to hear from people is
Speaker 1: the best advice that they've received.
Speaker 2: I'd love to start with advice.
Speaker 1: Relating to your career and as someone, you know, one
Speaker 1: of the lucky ones that has had a pretty stable
Speaker 1: career in the entertainment industry, what's some of the best
Speaker 1: advice you've received.
Speaker 3: I think it's just to teamwork.
Speaker 4: I think it's never never believing the publicity, never believing
Speaker 4: that you're more important.
Speaker 3: Than the next person.
Speaker 4: Where we all are the reason why the show is
Speaker 4: so successful, and if it wasn't me on the front
Speaker 4: cover of TV Week, it'd be someone else.
Speaker 3: It's just a job that you feel.
Speaker 4: It's not because of it doesn't It's not because I'm
Speaker 4: special that you know, I'm on the cover of this
Speaker 4: so I've got this campaign or whatever it is, just
Speaker 4: because you're on Home and Away and it's a really
Speaker 4: popular show.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I just think I'm always.
Speaker 4: Very aware that it's teamwork, and yeah, that's really really important,
Speaker 4: is it?
Speaker 2: Is it hard? Sometimes I guess not to believe the hyph.
Speaker 3: No, not not for me.
Speaker 4: I was really like, I've been look like I said,
Speaker 4: I've been in the industry since I was sixteen. So
Speaker 4: I remember when I first started in the industry.
Speaker 3: You know, of course it got to my head.
Speaker 4: I was a teenager and I was a little shit
Speaker 4: Like I remember talking back to a runner once and
Speaker 4: I just was so embarrassed about it afterwards, like who
Speaker 4: are you to like demand? Like it was just it's
Speaker 4: not how I was brought up. But I was really
Speaker 4: lucky that from the moment I was in the industry.
Speaker 4: I have a very strong Greek mum who firstly didn't
Speaker 4: let me have the money. She saved all of my money.
Speaker 4: She'd give me like a little bit of pocket money
Speaker 4: every week. I had to finish my schooling and I
Speaker 4: would come home after being on set all day or
Speaker 4: being at some amazing premiere and I'd be having to
Speaker 4: scrub the toilet or do the house for it or
Speaker 4: like it was.
Speaker 3: I was always brought back down to reality. And I
Speaker 3: think because Mum did that with me early on, it's
Speaker 3: just stuck with me like that. It's just a job,
Speaker 3: Like we all just have a job out there. And
Speaker 3: I make sure that Jonas is aware of that because
Speaker 3: kids these.
Speaker 4: Days from a very young age, just want to be famous.
Speaker 4: It's not about working hard, Like what's important is about
Speaker 4: being And I always say to Jonas, That's not what's
Speaker 4: important to me. What's important is that I work really
Speaker 4: really hard.
Speaker 3: I enjoy my job. I work really really hard.
Speaker 4: I'm nice to people, I can provide for you, you know,
Speaker 4: all of that stuff's really important. And yeah, I just
Speaker 4: I just really try and instill that in him that,
Speaker 4: you know, because they all want to be YouTube stars
Speaker 4: these days, which I just don't get.
Speaker 1: How do you manage those situations where you're out in
Speaker 1: public with him and you've got fans approaching you.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: He he went through like different stages, like when he
Speaker 4: was a baby of city in England, standard and a toddler,
Speaker 4: and then he used to get really angry that like
Speaker 4: the attention was off him, and then he was quite observant,
Speaker 4: and then he really liked it, you know, and.
Speaker 3: So now.
Speaker 4: Now sometimes he likes it, like but you'll go, oh,
Speaker 4: can I get in the photo too?
Speaker 3: Like, no, no, no, you're not getting in the photo.
Speaker 3: You stand back.
Speaker 4: Mammy is taking a photo, and they go, oh, does
Speaker 4: you do they watch home in away. I'm like, yes, yeah,
Speaker 4: what's my job, so I think, But now it's sort
Speaker 4: of becoming a little bit more matter of fact. But
Speaker 4: I noticed him at school the other I picked him
Speaker 4: up from school and some of the kids in the
Speaker 4: playgrounds that came up and were chatting or whatever, and I.
Speaker 3: Could see him just like looking over and like being
Speaker 3: aware of.
Speaker 4: It, but being sort of proud, but like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 4: that's just that's just what.
Speaker 3: Happens, you know. So I don't know, like I'm forever
Speaker 3: talking to him about it, and I just I just
Speaker 3: want him to know that it doesn't mean a lot
Speaker 3: to me, and but it's come from a lot of
Speaker 3: hard work, and it's you know, if I could do
Speaker 3: my job and not be famous, that'll be even.
Speaker 1: Better now aida for people that want to connect with
Speaker 1: you in some way. They can obviously watch home in away,
Speaker 1: but how else can people connect with you?
Speaker 3: Oh? I guess my Instagram. I try and answer people,
Speaker 3: and you're gonna ask me what it is as well.
Speaker 3: I think it's just dating Nicodemo.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I guess guess through that through my Instagram
Speaker 4: and I got Facebook as well, so.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Bazie, I will link to those in the show notes. Ada,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for your time. It's been absolutely
Speaker 1: fascinating getting an insight into your life.
Speaker 3: Ah. Thanks, man, know, it's been lovely and I'm fine.
Speaker 3: I'm glad we finally got to do it.
Speaker 2: Me too, Me too.
Speaker 1: I loved hearing about Ada's process for switching off from
Speaker 1: her day, especially considering how emotionally draining some of her
Speaker 1: days must be.
Speaker 2: It's strange when you work.
Speaker 1: From home, you miss out on the commute home, which
Speaker 1: for many people I suppose is a chance to start
Speaker 1: that switching off process. I'd love to know what you
Speaker 1: do if you work from home like me, How do
Speaker 1: you switch off and leave your work day at work,
Speaker 1: even when work might be in your home. Drop me
Speaker 1: a note on the socials. You can find me at
Speaker 1: LinkedIn for my name Amantha Imba and also on Instagram
Speaker 1: at Amantha I How I Work is produced by Inventium
Speaker 1: with production support from Dead Set Studios.
Speaker 2: The producer for this episode.
Speaker 1: Was Liam Riordan and thank you Tom Nimba, who does
Speaker 1: the audio mix for every episode and makes everything sound
Speaker 1: so much better than it would have otherwise.
Speaker 2: See you next time.