December 1, 2025 • 50 mins
What happens when you need a gap year from real life? When you’ve worked hard, climbed the corporate ladder and saved every penny to buy your first apartment in the big city, only to find yourself in a trap?
Tim Abbott was living the quintessential city life. By 28, he had cracked the Sydney property market, secured a stable corporate career, and built a thriving side hustle making memes for over 100,000 Instagram followers. But behind the scenes, a shocking $11,500 quarterly strata bill and the crushing weight of the cost-of-living crisis brought him to breaking point.
Tim realised he was "cosplaying adulthood" in a life he couldn't afford and didn't enjoy. So, he engineered what he calls a "Financial Gap Year."
In this episode of Pivot Club, Sarah Davidson speaks with Tim about his decision to trade his laptop for a tractor. Tim explains how he quit his job in digital marketing, rented out his apartment, and moved to a rural farm in Queensland to work on a timber plantation. Now, living in a caravan and cutting his expenses by 90%, he is on a mission to regain his financial freedom with a massive goal in mind: To save $100,000 in just 12 months.
We unpack the "ego death" of leaving a "cool" city identity for high-vis and manual labour, the unexpected joy found in a simple existence, and how to tell the difference between what society wants for you and what you actually want for yourself.
Join us for an honest and hilarious conversation about taking back control of your own timeline.
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CREDITS:
Guest: Tim Abbott
Host: Sarah Davidson
Executive Producer: Courtney Ammenhauser
Senior Producer: Sally Best
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
You're listening to Amma Mia podcast. What happens when you
need a gap? Here from real life? When you worked hard,
climbed the corporate ladder, saved every penny to buy your
first apartment in the big city, only to find yourself
(00:29):
in a trap all of a sudden, that big dream
turns into a financial nightmare. The cost of living crisis
turns your largest asset into your biggest liability, and the
city life you worked so hard for starts to feel
a bit like a cage. Can you really just press pause?
Can you stop everything, pack a bag and leave the
(00:49):
city life behind to regain your freedom? Welcome to Pivot Club.
I'm your host, Sarah Davidson, and I know the feeling
well of wanting to veer off the traditional path. My
own journey took me from the structured world of corporate
law into the unknown territory of founding my own business
Matter Maiden. This is the show where we unpack those
(01:10):
professional plot twists and brave decisions that change the course
of our lives. We dig into the risks the rewards,
an often chaotic middle ground between who we were and
who we are becoming. Today, we are talking to a
person who looked at his successful city life only to
realize it was serving his ego rather than his happiness,
and so decided to trade his laptop for a tractor.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I just felt like I was like for other people's
lives as opposed to going out and living my own life.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
That person is Tim Abbott, a city boy turned farm
hand who originally made his name online, building a massive
community of over one hundred thousand Instagram followers. Tim was
living the quintessential city life. By twenty eight he had
cracked the property market, buying his own apartment in Sydney.
He had a stable corporate career and a thriving side
(02:02):
hustle making memes, But behind the scenes are shocking eleven
and a half one thousand dollars quarterly strata bill and
the crushing weight of the cost of living crisis brought
him to a breaking point. Soon enough, Tim realized that
he was cosplaying adulthood in a life he couldn't afford
and he didn't enjoy, So he engineered what he calls
a financial gap year. He quit his corporate job in
(02:25):
digital marketing, rented out his apartment and moved to a
rural farm in Queensland. To drive a tractor on a
timber plantation. Now living in a caravan and cutting his
expenses by ninety percent, he is on a mission to
regain his financial freedom, with a massive goal in mind
to save one hundred thousand dollars in just twelve months.
(02:49):
In this honest and hilarious conversation, we explore the ego
death of leaving a cool job for manual labor, the
joy of a simple existence, and how to tell the
difference between what society wants for you and what you
actually want for yourself. Get ready to be inspired to
take have control of your own timeline, Tim Abbott, Welcome
(03:14):
to Pivot Club.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Oh thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Let's go back to the start, So tell us about
how you were brought up to view your work ethic
and your career, and then any of yous that have
kind of been with you since that childhood into teenhood
that a lad to hear.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
So.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
I grew up in the north side of Sydney in Camray,
which is like just over the hubbor Bridge, and went
to a little Catholic school over there called Maris not
Sure and I had a really good time in high
school where I was kind of like interested in everything
and anything. I kind of wasn't one person who had
like one lane. I kind of liked to try everything.
So I was very active. I loved doing the school plays. Yeah,
(03:52):
I really love to overcommit myself, which.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Is still true. Change nothing's changed.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
And my had two working parents and my dad was
a TV producer and so he worked on a lot
of Australian reality TV like Big Brother and Dancing with
the Stars and yeah, all those programs. And then and
my mum worked she's a psychologist by training, but then
worked in management training.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
So two very hard working parents. And yeah, they had
a great work ethic, which.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
I look to be honest, like, probably didn't really hit
me until later in life. I think I agree with it,
and I think I probably benefited from their hard work
at an early age. So yeah, but I think as
role models, Yeah, both of them worked really really hard
to build a life that they had and kind of
(04:42):
in a self made way. And then after school, I
went to Newcastle University and moved up north. I was
really excited to like new social scene and you know,
new lifestyle. But I went up there to do film
and television and loved the university of the university. Newcastle
University is really really great, but I just didn't really
find my people. Yeah, and that was kind of probably
(05:04):
the first pivot in my life, if I could bring
it back to pivots.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Yeah, I just wasn't really Yeah it was.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
I was there for a full year and I just
people really friendly, but I just didn't find my people.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
It wasn't your place.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
And I think because I mean also like I don't
know if I was also showing up for the authentic myself,
authentically myself, So it's probably hard for people to get
to know me when I'm not being me. So after
the year that I moved back to Sydney and finished
my degree at UTS and then worked, I've had so
many jobs and so the pivot thing is so natural
(05:38):
and normal to me because I yeah, I worked in
on reality TV shows as well.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
So yeah, nepotism.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yeah, well no, I actually got it through my degree
at UTS. They make you do an internship as a
part of your degree, and so landed an internship at
the ABC working on grew and transfer.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah, yeah, and that was one of my first jobs.
And then yeah I did I'm as surby to get
me out here and the Amazing Race and an independent
film in camera and then ended up in tech.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Another pivot. Before we've even come close to the actual pivot, there's.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Probably like seventeen. So yeah, I think I threw all
these jobs like contract work, and also just coming off
the back of the degree, I was kind of just
like trying to do everything and trying to experience everything
to kind of find what I was good.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
At or what I enjoyed. I don't know if that's
pretty common for young people.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Is it's really common? And I think one of the
really interesting things about being a person who's multi interested
or multi passionate, right is that it gives you an
amazing breadth of experiences because you do spend your childhood
and early teens experimenting a lot. Because I'm really similar
to you, it actually makes it really hard to make
decisions because you don't have this like clear framework that
(07:00):
guides you. It's sort of like, well, I like everything,
so what do I do?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I do like everything? And that's also like I'll like
a blessing and a totally totally because like after school,
end of high school, I really thought I was going
to be in musical theater, which you know that.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Kind of doesn't surprise me. I'm getting musical theater from you.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Well, thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, and I don't
like I just was a pirouid into your chair and
all the vocal woman. But I was.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
I loved it so much at school and I think
it was what I really enjoyed. And then after school,
I was like, how does one do that?
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Yeah, as a career, well living, why do you?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
I don't know. I actually still don't know, and I
know people who do that as a profession, but I'm like,
do you get an Asian first?
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Do you go to a blind audition? I don't know,
but yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
And then after that, so I was also really interested
in tech, and a friend of mine was texted me.
He said, I've got it. I got promoted at work
and they're advertising my job. It's an entry level tech job.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
You should. It's like a great place to work. You should.
I was going to say audition, but you should.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
It's in your blood. You just can't get out of it.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Yeah, get away. Yeah, so you should send in your CV.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
And then I went and did the job interview and
then didn't hear anything for like two months, and so
I was like, oh, I guess I didn't get it.
Is it not working in tech? So I was like
designing websites and digital courses and yes, I feel like
I've lived like nine lives.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
You are eight different people coming into the nights right now.
I think the best people have been a lot of
different people along the way. But can you paint a
picture for us of just before the sort of huge
lifestyle change that you had that we all get to
that led you fourteen hours away from Sydney. You had
kind of fallen into maybe finding your place for a
(08:44):
chapter mate you were back in Sydney. You're living this
hugely successful life big dollars made a name for yourself.
Was that in this same tech position that you kind
of worked your way up?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Or was this another No, not at all, And thank
you for discribing me like that, because it's not my
self perception, but.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
It really is. From the outside it reads very nicely.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Oh thank you, I'm squirming.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
It was well, I think, so I moved to London
and I was working for this tech startup that kind
of springboarded off the other tech job, and then was
working in marketing, just in a digital marketing role and
then stuff started happening through covid online, and that's how
I started creating content and making memes.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Ah so good, Oh thank.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
You, the archives are good.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
But yeah, that kind of pushed me into a world
of media, but was also a good combination of my
TV and digital marketing and tech brack on. It kind
of just brought everything together in one place. So yeah,
the success of it all, Like, I'm kind of blindly
unaware of what that looks like because it's kind of
(09:54):
happened so gradually and slowly.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
What was the kind of stable day to day that
you were doing just before this?
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Only enough?
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, I actually think the messy middle happened before the move.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
And that's what caused the move.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
So because basically I was to be Frank, I was
working my full time job and then also as a
side hustle hobby making content online and that was time Like,
it's a time consuming thing and a time consuming hobby,
and so because I was making an income through online,
I was then like, well, why am I spending fifty
(10:27):
hours a week at work? Like this is so much
at once, and so I was like, well, I'm going
to quit my day job and roll with the punches
with content creation, and that wasn't the right decision looking back,
like yeah, because like you're giving up like a stable
income and like a regular routine. And I think all
my friends work in nine to five, so I think, yeah,
(10:49):
it was kind of the dream to be like I'm
going to quit my job, but the reality of it
is like, oh, your friends are busy.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
All your friends are your friend Matt mat got mates
over there, and there's only.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
So much you can like, so many errands you can run,
and so many like gym classes you can go to, errands,
and I like to be busy. So it was I
did it for probably eighteen months, and I was really
quite unhappy and like born unhappy because of the like
lack of purpose and like also contribution to society. Like
I felt like I was like kind of just a
(11:23):
paperweight at the time.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
So like, okay.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Well, the joy that you were passing on to many people,
I mean when you say hobby for context, for our listeners,
there are over one hundred thousand people following you and
getting a lot of joy you were providing in your
own way at the time.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah, but also like again, you don't have that, well
I don't have that perception of myself and so, and
I also was noticing myself like when I'd meet people and.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
They're like, what do you do? And I would be
so like embarrassed. Yeah, shame like that.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
So it's now been again demoted to hobby, which I
actually really like and I think that's a really good
balance and it's like a fun thing to do and
it has some great opportunities. But yeah, life before that,
I was living in Clavelli and living in a roommate
and it was a good lie, like it was really nice,
but I just was there was something unresolved and I
wasn't content and I wasn't happy, and I felt very
(12:15):
aimless and truthfully like I think you might have had
this as well, but I felt like I was living
a life that was aspirational to other people maybe or
other people might have wanted, but I didn't want it.
And that's not to be ungrateful. I just I knew
that I like the outdoors, I like the rural living
(12:36):
cities kind of stressed me out, so and the yeah,
and so I was I think having some hard, like
hard long conversations with myself being like do I want
this or do other people want this and am I
being a am I being a supporting role to other
people's lives because I've got faumily and friends here obviously,
and I love seeing them, but I just felt like
I was like here to be for other people's lives
(12:59):
as opposed to going out and living my own life.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Oh my gosh, that is honestly the peak of brave,
I think in this day and age, to actually be
able to identify that your sort of unhappiness or lack
of contentment is because you've followed what society thinks is
really cool. There's a lot of people when they make
(13:23):
a big decision, especially to leave their job. Being a
full time content creator is most people's dream, like the
flexibility and the ability to work for yourself, and it
takes a lot to actually stop and go I've tried
it now, I've taken the risk, I've made the jump,
and it's actually not for me. But it's so it's
actually really hard to go against the social grain and
say this isn't for me and I'm not loving it,
(13:45):
but I'm really really inspired by the fact that you
did feel it quite quickly, and we're like, I've got
to do something about it.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Well, I certainly liked aspects of it. I certainly do,
and I've met some incredible people and had some incredible
opportunities through it.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
But I think it being.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
My bread and butter and my main driver, I don't
think it was for me and I am maybe it's
a bit of aduxmorrow, but I'm quite like a quiet
private person. It seems like it goes contradictory to like
sharing your life online, Yeah, and also opening that.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Up for criticism.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
But the chaos and mayhem kind of came just before
the move and in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
This is probably the bigger picture.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Yeah, in twenty twenty two, I had been saving honestly
since I was about sixteen until I was twenty seven
to buy something right, been working, and it got to
twenty twenty. End of twenty twenty one, I went, if
I don't buy something now, it's never going to happen
for me. So pulled my life saving together and I
bought a one bedroom apartment in Sydney, which cost every
(14:42):
dollar I had like come settlement. Yeah, it used every
dollar and I had to bend over backwards to get
my mortgage approved. So got that overline and I was
a huge relief, and I went, oh, thank God, like
I finally done it. And I was at the age
of twenty eight, twenty nine, I was.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Already very young to such a big master.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I was really sensible with my money. I'm pretty quite,
pretty frugal, and yeah, probably too sensible, but I just
thought that was going to be like the rest of
my life and done deal and uh the sunset, yeah,
and there's my retirement. And then unfortunately, I've just been
so unlucky with the building and strata costs that it's
I think people see it all property as an investment,
(15:23):
but it's been a huge liability and it was getting
and I was single income, so like, the cost of
it is so expensive, and the upkeep of this building
is astronomic. Or my last quarter bill was eleven and
a half thousand dollars and physically, yeah, and you got
a bill like that and you're like, what do I do?
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
So I then moved out of that place to rent
somewhere else because I was cheaper to move into a sharehouse.
And even then, like I was on a good salary,
and I felt like I was too late in my
life to be living in a sharehouse. And kind of
strapped for cash all the time, and I lived so frugally,
like I don't have any flash cars and I don't
(16:06):
go shopping. And I was just like, I can't cut
back any I've got a prepaid mobile phone.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
I don't have a gym membership.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
I was like, how do I like, I don't know
how much nothing else services.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
I was like, I'm not.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
So That's when my friends Sarah and Will were doing
this financial gap year thing, and that's what kind of
sparked the idea in my head, and I went, I
think I need to do something similar like this just
for twelve months, just to get my wind back and
get my money in order create some breathing room massively,
(16:41):
and being so used to pivoting, I.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Was like, it was like an easy yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
And I've lived in I've.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Lived in maybe five or six cities now, so pivoting
is not foreign to me. And I was kind of
just put that thought out into the universe and just serendipitously,
a friend of mine who was working on the property
where I now work, I was stuck in traffic and
Sydney and he'd messaged me and he said he's like,
when can you come up like we really need some
(17:08):
help up here.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
And I was like, this is just such yeah, such
cer indiferitous timing. And I was like, you know what,
like why not so oh yeah?
Speaker 2 (17:19):
And so looming in the background was all these like
just bills and you know, Morgan and Strata payments and
all that sort of stuff, and I was like, I.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Need to change something.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah, And so I spoke to my mom, my kind
of voice of reason, and I was like, does this
sound sensible to you? And she said, I think it
sounds like a really good idea. And then I was like, Okay,
now I've got mum's ticket approval.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
I think i'll voice have spoken.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
The voice has spoken, so I'll put wheels into motion.
And yeah, within about four or five weeks, i'd kind
of like wrapped up my lease in Sydney and was
on my way in a car up to up to Queensland.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
This makes me so excited because I think a lot
of people have faced the same discomfort or the feeling
of like something's missing or something isn't sitting right, but
not a lot of people necessarily act on it or
feel they have power to because they're not familiar with
the pivot. This is why this show is so exciting,
is exposing people who aren't as familiar with the pivots
that you can actually take control and make decisions, and
(18:21):
you can kind of do them quite quickly in a
lot of situations massively.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
And I'm so glad that, yeah, this has all happened,
because I love talking about pivoting. But I think later
in my twenties, I realized that I have a lot
more autonomy over my life, yes than I thought I did.
And particularly but if you're in a job that I
didn't like, or relationship you don't like, or something like that,
you do have that control. And maybe a lot of
us are but meant to believe that we don't have
(18:47):
that control in our lives. But having done it so
many times, I went and I went, how do I
regain that control?
Speaker 3 (18:53):
And I went living in a situation.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Where I'm living rent free and making good money and
all that sort of stuff, I went, Okay, it did
give me that sense of control back. Yeah, having never
done that work, it did feel like a much bigger leap.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Then you're anticipation, well.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Like having moved to London working in the corporate world,
like it was far less of a transition than moving
to rural Queensland.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Yeah, especially rural. It's like Sydney to Queensland alone. So
that's a big part of the messy middle. But before
we get there, I just want to call out that
you mentioned you'd found this huge autonomy over your life
and that it was spurred for you by kind of
getting to breaking point. But one thing I want to
say to everyone listening is that you actually don't have
to get there.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Advice you don't.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah, like, you don't have to. I think that's the
motivation for a lot of people. And I often say
to people, I'm not worried about people who are unhappy,
because they will reach breaking point and they'll change. I'm
worried about people that are.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Blah, oh, just like they might.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Never reach that point and they might never realize they
have that autonomy.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Yeah, it's it's self discovery because you can't I don't
know if you can make someone else see that, Like
they kind of have to be awoken to it Themselah.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Something has to wake you up, can it anytime? Feel
like that that agitation for change, and so yours is
maybe more dramatic than the average person, But yeah, talk
to us about this financial gap year. So it was
a move to a completely different setting, a completely different job,
but also with the goal of saving one hundred thousand dollars.
And I was reading that you said your living cost
(20:23):
went down by seventy five percent just on this phone.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Oh more more, yeah, like ninety percent.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
So you've called it your financial gap year, which I
think is such a cool term. Can you explain to
us what the actual mechanics of that are, like, what
that is? What tell us what it looks like?
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
So the funny that the term thing, I think. I
don't know if it started with me. I mentioned on
the phone to my mom. I was like telling, getting
kind of the mum approval of, like is this a
good idea? But I was like, I think it's like
a gap year, bit like financial focus. So I think
it's like a financial gap year. And then when I
did my first post online about it, I was like,
I'm dubbing at my financial gap year. I think the
(21:04):
media just kind of picked it up and ran with it.
I'm certainly not the first person to do the concept.
I'm certainly not, but.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
I think you coined the term the term and you
should be getting royalty.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Actually, but I had stolen the idea from two friends
of mine, Sarah and Will, who had moved up to Foster,
which is about three and a half four hours north
of Sydney, one school teacher, one is working from home,
and they did the same thing. They were like, we're
just paying so much in rent and we just wanted
a year breather to save up a.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Good amount of money. And that really planted the seed.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
And then I was stuck in Sydney traffic coming home
from work and very serendipitously got a text from my
friend who was up on the property and he was
like can you come sooner? Like we really need your help,
and I was like, I know. The timing of it
was just like huh, all right, well that's a good
sign that I you know. We spoke on the phone
and he kind of sold me the you know, the
(21:56):
dream of the fantasy, which is sure, well, it turns
was like it was a very comparable salary to my
corporate job in Sydney really, which I think surprises a
lot of people. But I think because it's harder to
get workers in those areas, so I think they realize
that and they pay for that, but then also the
(22:17):
addition of not having to pay rent like utilities and
petrol and all covered. So if you kind of package
it all up, I went, Wow, the recipe of very
low cost of living and keeping my salary reasonably the same.
That was the concept of this financial gap year. So yeah,
(22:38):
you could say move back in with your parents, say
for twelve months, and do something similar. But I think
it makes it like not either not the temptation or
the fomo of like seeing people out doing stuff, like
it's just not an option where we are. So yeah,
it makes the time out there a lot easier because yeah,
I'm not thinking like.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Oh, seeing what you in your face around the corner,
or it's not even an option, So I'm not like, oh,
my friends are out having fun at the part and
I'm not sitting at home being you know, a sad
little timmy.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
But it's but it's it's really leading.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Up to that in kind of the maym chaos of
it all, I was just like it was, first of all,
the financial stress of trying to be a big boy
and be in that world was too much too soon
for me, and I really took on more than I
could chew, and I was clutching onto it like a
life raft and like trading water. And after a long
(23:35):
time of deliberating, the best decision and the biggest relief
for me, was throwing my hands up and saying I
just can't keep doing this.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Yeah, that you don't need to keep up. Yeah, actually
take a step back.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
For sure, and also asking myself the question of like,
who is this for? I think this is for your ego, tim,
Like I think this is all ego pleasing to, you know,
be a homeowner. And like I was kind of like,
why am I holding onto that doesn't like, doesn't serve you,
doesn't serve me, And it's only it doesn't bring me
(24:07):
happiness joy, It actually causes me a lot of stress.
So yeah, putting my hands up and going like I
surrender to this, and I'm just gonna take this leap
and try out this new life.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
I'd never worked on a farm, never driven a tractor, like,
never done any of that.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
But I was reassured that if.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
I could drive a car, I could drive a tractor,
which is partially true. There's a bit of a learning curve,
but yeah, and now kind of I feel like I'm
good at my job. And also I really love it.
I genuinely love it, and it sounds like.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
An idyllic, beautiful, grounded existence.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
It is. I don't want to speak too toxic positivity
about it. Yeah, but the lifestyle is really really simple
and I'm currently living in a caravan on the property
and I love it. And I think if you told
me that twelve months ago, I wouldn't have believed it.
But there's something really it's almost like being stripped back
(25:02):
in a way of when I was living in the city.
There was a lot of maybe falsities that I I
told myself that I needed. Like I first thing I
walk out the door, I get my coffee. I can't
start my day without grabbing my coffee.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
That's a lie. That's a straight up line that I
tell myself.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
I'd hear you burst my bubble.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Yeah, I would go fifteen eighteen days that are having
a coffee and I'm still surviving and still very happy.
And so all those things again, and like I need
to get new sneakers because I love running every day,
Like I straight up don't. I've got I'm fine, I
am fine. And so there was a lot of things
that I just would convince myself. I don't know if
that's common, but living in the city.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
That I think extremely common.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Yeah, you need or but then out there, like I
wear the same clothes every single day and I yeah,
I do the same job every single day and eat
the same food pretty much every single day, and I
love it.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Yeah, and I'm very content and happy. Oh is that
really nice? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (25:57):
And sincerely genuinely like, it's a very the less I have,
the easier life is. It feels very flow.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
It's fascinating that that's a common reflection for people that like,
contentment doesn't necessarily come from the huge things that we think.
It doesn't mean that those can't create happiness, but it
can complicate things. And we do have a lot of
narratives and stories we tell ourselves, and particularly with the
pace of life in the city, it's really hard to
(26:26):
unravel them all because you never stop and just think
and like, unravel the mind, Matt. But you've given yourself
this incredibly liberating chance to do that. But you mentioned
the toxic positivity things. This is called the messy middle
because it isn't always a smooth transition, even if it's
one you want, and even if the end of the
story is incredible. There of course, are some logistical challenges,
(26:48):
emotional challenges can you talk us through like missing home,
the homesickness or isolation, so the emotional side of it,
but also the physical demand of going from an office
job to you are working in such a different way,
Like what's your identity?
Speaker 3 (27:05):
Yeah, I'll start the end.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
I don't think I've ever found identity through my occupation
what ever, ever, And I think that's a good thing
when it comes to pivoting, because I've never been like, oh, well,
I'm a marketer through and through, and or like I'm
a you know, web designer. I'm like, I don't, you're attached, No,
And I find my identity through my interest hobbies, friendships
(27:29):
a lot more so like i'd find you know, cycling,
you know, being an interest of mine. I find identity
through that, and like my cycling buddies or my love
for technology and geeking out with friends over that or
something like that.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
Whereas like my job, and that might be because I've
never had a job that I've really been proud of
or loved that much, so that could just be my
own failues.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
But I even with content creation online like I don't
find identity through that. I might find community through that, yeah,
but I don't find identity through that. I wouldn't So
that makes pivoting and adjusting in life a lot easier
for me. But it does feel a bit like cosplaying
at the moment, because like I have to wear high
visit at work for like oh ands safety reasons, and
(28:10):
I look at myself in.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
The mouth, well, I look at myself with the mirund
like I feel like I'm like a dull.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
I'm like, I feel a little bit like it's like
playing dress ups a little bit because I'm like I
can't ever wearing like steelcap boots.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
And high veers. I would have never imagined that.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
But yeah, and then from transitioning from an office space
to an outdoors kind of workplace, I've really loved it,
and there's something very refreshing about like the tactile nature
of my job. Like for up until now, like I've
lived my life in like doing like post campaign analysis
and reports and.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Like digital dex.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Yeah, and like all that sort of stuff and the
life or the shelf life of that might be a
meeting and then it's never seen me before again and
then like I'd never really got that like sense of achievement,
whereas it like when you look back on like your
physical labor of the day, Like there is something very
cave man about like yeah, and like there is being like, oh,
(29:04):
that's my work that I've done today, and I can
see it, and I can touch it and I can
feel and all that sort of stuff. Yeah, so that's
been a really pleasant surprise.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
So on the farm, yes, couse, playing in your high
What is your actual job.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
That's a great question.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Yeah, I drive a tiger cat, which is like a
huge yellow tractor all day every day. Yeah, start to finish,
we are collecting trees, so it's a private plantation.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
And the trees get cut.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
I then we then cut them and then put them
on the timber road trains that you would have seen
driving around.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Yeah, that's my job.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
But then because we're on a property, there's cattle running around,
there's Emmy's running around there around out there. Yeah, it's
a very different conversation out there, Like there's a lot
of chart about like weather conditions and drop and stuff
that I can't really like contribute that much too, but
I like, yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
I listen on intently and you know curiously, I think that.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
It's just very rare for you to be so well
adjusted around your identity and your job, because so many
people's identity is their work, and it can be really
hard to separate who you are, Like there's a lot
pride often in your work, and once you have attached
your identity to that, it's really hard to learn how
to separate that. But then you also mentioned that the
(30:16):
whole part of cosplaying. I love that sentiment, but I
also think to extrapolate from that that part of doing
something new is we are always just cosplaying and faking
it till we make it, until we're good at it.
And I think that's a great strategy, just like put
it on the uniform, get in the mindset, work it out.
I was pretend until you can do it.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
I was certainly costplaying in marketing. I'm sorry to any
of my old clients that might.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Say this, but cosplaying in everything I do, it's.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Very hard to be positive, like enthusiastically and genuinely enthusiastic
about like clicks and views, like, hey guys, we're up
twenty five percent this month, isn't that amazing? Like that
was costplaying? That was I was wearing a suit and like,
I hate wearing a suit, so like like all of that,
I like, in my professional life has all been a
lot of cosplaying.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
I mean this is probably as.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
True to me as you can get, but even online
an element of performing and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
And I think also cosplaying can work when you do
have those moments of doubt, because for a lot of people,
when they do make a really big jump, like you
moved five hundred kilometers away into a job you've never
done before, that would bring up a lot of self
doubt and imposter syndrome for people. And my strategy has
been cosplay confidence until you actually haven't and that works.
But have you had any moments when you did find
(31:33):
yourself in this messy middle where you were like, maybe
I can't do this?
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Yeah I have, Yeah, And there's been yeah, two moments
of stick out this year that have certainly been that.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
One was doing the Iron Man training and.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Just another thing thrown into the mix.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Yeah, there was point there where I was like, there's
no way you can do this. And it's momentary, but
like there is that voice of doubt, that conquering that
makes you so much stronger and so yeah, there was
a lot of negative self talk during that training of
being like, I mean.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Fair enough things you can do as a human saying yes,
and you've done it.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Yeah, I did too. Actually, yeah that's a word. But
I love it.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
But but then out on the out on the farm, Yeah,
there's been a couple of moments and one really tough
day and I was just like Tim, like what are
you doing?
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Like this is why are you out here?
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Yeah, And but but but again, like I'm old enough
now and have been through enough for those moments now
where I go like, these moments can just be a
mixture of you're tired, or you're stress or both, or
you're hungry or whatever, and then all of three and
then you're like huh okay, like that's just I'm okay,
(32:48):
I'm okay.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
Yeah. Yeah. And so writing writing those.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Waves as opposed to catastrophizing is a lot easier now
in my thirties than it was maybe ten years ago.
But yeah, and I think from saying doing the Iron Man,
there is a lot of mental resilience there of sticking
things out and pushing through and that's really lent into
doing this sort of work. But now I really love it.
It's my favorite job that I've ever had. I think, Yeah,
(33:12):
well I noticed that because I don't complain about it
to my friends.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Oh my gosh, that's a fascinating way to measure.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Yeah, when your friends ask you how's work, I'm like,
I actually love it. And look, if I could change
one thing, ord be being closer to a city and
being closer to my partner James.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
But a long distance.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Yeah, so that's you know, temporary making that work. But
other than that, I.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Actually love the job and I love where we are.
It's a beautiful part of Australia. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Do you know what I think is also fascinating about
this financial gap year? And actually that comes back to
the sort of more standard conventional gap year that people take.
It's similar to working overseas as an ex part or
doing an exchange when you're at school. I loved those
experiences so much because they were temporary and I knew
that I didn't have to put down roots and prove
(33:58):
myself for a lifetime or make forever decision. Mostly as
an adult, you don't get that because your decisions are
kind of for your life. But you've you're living in
this temporary, beautiful bubble. Has that made it easier to
enjoy it?
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Does?
Speaker 2 (34:12):
It does feel that way sometimes, And yes, I do
talk to my friends about this because so I'm living
in a caravan as a part of this setup on
the property and I love that. But I do wonder
if I love it so much because it is an
experience that does have an expiry day. I wonder, And
I don't think that's something that I'll ever know, having
lived in London that didn't have an expiry day. And
(34:34):
I did just get to a point where I went,
I'm not happy anymore. I need to leave, and that
was yeah, And once I obviously didn't leave the next day,
but once I'd made the decision mentally, that was my
kind of exit period. And then starts wrapping things up.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
But I've been.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Pretty intuitive and in tune with that part of my
brain for quite a while now of going like this
doesn't feel right and learning to listen to my gut.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
I don't. But that took me a really long time.
It took me a long time.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
And once I tuned into the gut more than the ego,
the gut really guides you really, really well, because if
you feel uncomfortable or feel like a wrestless something's not right.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
There's a reason.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
I also think that leaning into that whole everything is
temporary thing.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
But the con is like nothing's forever.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
In a good way, exactly liberating way.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
The trap of that might prevent people from doing something
is the kind of what ifs.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Yeah, in my mind, I'm like, well, the what if
is use that in a good way of like who
cares if it doesn't work, because then you can just
do something else.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Correct and worst case scenario, you're back where you started.
I've never done that, And looking back on my life,
it's a lot easier to look back than look forward.
But I look back and I'm like, every decision has
kind of pingponged me into something better or a more
interesting path.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Moving onto your life now, almost six months in, Yes,
I've read you say that actually looking forward, this is
the most excited you've been for the future, which is
a beautiful sentiment.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
It's the first time in a really, really long time
that that's been true. I feel like the last time
I was just excited for the future, I had just
finished high school. Oh my gosh, And that kind of
like the world'smight always just sort of mentality of like, well,
I don't have a care in the world, and more
like if everything seems very in flow now and.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
That's from this, do you think that's separation from where
you were for.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
A number of things.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
I feel like I'm living a life that's far more
true to myself, which or true to min desires and
my goals, which is so exciting. And then probably nine
months into relationship with my partner James, and that is
just like the best thing that's ever happened to me.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
And we're just like just.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Like perfect for each other, made for each other, and
very much brought into the same pipe dream of like
one in the Golden Retrieval one in the house. It's
so exciting to have like a co pilot now of
being like, right, we're both in the driver's seat, we're
both going after the same thing. Yeah, same energy, same vision,
and it's very exciting. So it's just very exciting for
the future. And you know a lot of things that
I've wanted to do in my life where I've thought
(37:10):
I'm going to be doing them on my own. To
now have someone a companion to I could go and
do all those things with it's very, very exciting, and
I yeah, I feel very blessed and it's given me
a great buzz and energy which I haven't I haven't
experience since I was probably yeah, like seventeen or eighteen. Yeah,
and to.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Get that back is Yeah, it's so exciting. And it's
interesting that I think with something like a financial gap year,
the wording is often oh, well when you go back,
like when this ends and you go back, But I
kind of don't think that you will go back to
who you were before, Like you'll be propelled into this
new human. You can't go back to unknow what you've known.
It's like, what is the plan if you make this
(37:48):
one hundred thousand dollars goal? Do you feel pressure to
decide that? Ah?
Speaker 2 (37:53):
No, I probably feel more pressure to proclaim it than
because we keep asking, well, I've kind of got the
grand plan.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
Yeah, yeah, I've put myself into that position.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
But plan, Like I think to say, it's it's absolutely
changed me as a person. I think it's hard to
go through any experience or life without it changing me.
I think the best thing that's happened to me is
that I feel like it's really stripped me back to
bear bones.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
And bear like without all the noise, without the noise.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
Yeah yeah, and that's that's always been the same. But
I think like living in the city, you do pick
up a lot of influencers, whether you're not like subconsciously
from your friends or just society. But I wish more
people could see me out there, and I don't think
they ever will. I love.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
So that's really sad. But like it's I said, it's
my boyfriend, James. I wish you could see me.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
I see who I am out there, because like I
think it's someone who I'm really proud of, which is
really ver nice.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
So sad, that's actually so beautiful.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
Yeah, I really like who I am out there, And.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Thank you in your purest form.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
Yeah, truly, there's no fluff.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
And then after this, I really want to sell the
apartment and I certainly don't want to be some property mogul.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
I'm not. That's certainly not the dream.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
But yeah, so James and I will hopefully team up
and buy a house together and that be that, and
he runs a business in Brizzie. I'll probably like, I
love Sydney. Sydney is one of the best places on earth.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
I love it. It's my hometown. But I just like,
if I don't have thirty million dollars, so.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
If I did financial gap quarter, yeah yeah, yeah, maybe
when I'm in the Book of Mormon, Yeah that'll happen.
Speaker 3 (39:33):
Yeah, obviously. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
So I was put down roots in Brizzy because and
I say, this is a huge compliment, but I would say,
like Perth and Brizzy have this very like two thousand
and five pre smartphone analog analog energy about it, and
I love it. It's a city, but it's a slower
pace and everything feels a lot more present. It just
feels like it's the speed is just turned down a bit.
(39:55):
I agree, So that's kind of the dream. And then
for another pivot, I'm enrolled to study psychology.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
So wait, what of course you are? Wait what drove that?
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Well, I come from a bit of a psych background,
so my mum psych trained, my uncle psych trained, my
sister's psych trained, and I just as an area of study,
what I listen to is what I read. I find
it fascinating, ever evolving research. So I'm enrolled. I actually
started earlier this year, but then with everything, I was like,
I can't you have a lot on your plane anymore
(40:30):
right now? Yeah, as my friends are doing the most
achieving the least.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
But I hear that. But that's the kind of you know.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
Longer term retraining vision. And I did kind of anticipate this,
but I originally studied communications information technology, and now moving
into like later in life, I'm like, I'd really like
to do psychology. I think it's really like rewarding profession
to help people and it's just interesting like human behavior,
and yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
There's something really refreshing about you. And it's many things,
many things, but I feel like one of them is
that you don't seem soon first stressed about timelines, Like
people often don't go back to retrain because they feel
like they're too old or it's too late. The common
phrase is it's too late for me to do that.
(41:18):
To be fair, you're a baby, you're thirty one. But
still many people wouldn't go back and retrain in something
at thirty one or take a year out of life.
As you mentioned, the pace of the cities is so
fast that a lot of people would feel like they'd
fall behind. But then it's kind of like fall behind
what from who? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (41:32):
From watch from no.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
One else is living your life, and you seem to
be really able to move past that timeline that the
city is kind of impose on us.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
Well, I don't get a twisted I am quite pragmatic.
Planned you've thought about it, yeah, I thought about it.
But we spoke about my parents and their work ethic.
But we have a family friend called Brett, and he
was actually a family doctor growing up. He got to
my age now, early thirties, and he went, I don't
want to do this. And so after the what like
six seven years of training, and he did that because
(42:03):
I think there was a bit of parental pressure for him,
but he was like, I don't want to do this.
And so then he went and worked in television for
a bit, and then he worked at AOL for the
intech company Yeah, and then worked at Microsoft and then
the San Francisco Chronicle and he's had this amazing career.
But he just kind of went, you know, like that
seven eight year degree can transfer into all aspects of life, right,
(42:25):
So he told me, and he was like, you know,
it's an eight year degree or it's another forty years
of my life.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
Oh yes, I love that. And so he's like I'm
not throwing that degree out the window. He's like, use it. Yeah,
and he finds that.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
Knowledge of the human body and health so valuable in
his life. But I think that adaptability really inspired me
because I'm like, well, I've done a marketing degree. I
guess I'm going to be a marketer for the rest
of my life. Most being like, no, I'm going to
go work on off arm.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
I love that, And I often come back to this quote, Yeah,
you don't have to stick with a mistake just because
of the time it took you to make it. Oh,
not that it was a mistake his career, but it's
just like, you're right. We often think, oh, well, I've
studied this long, I've got to keep going with it.
And it's like, actually, you don't have to give the
rest of your life to medicine just because you gave
seven or eight years. You can choose and it will
(43:14):
still be transferable. Like nothing's a waste.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
It's a business term like diminishing returns. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
Yeah, And so I think he went like, it's going
to cost me more to stay than it is to
leave to let go. Yeah, And it's the same thing
with my apartment. It's going to cost me more to
stay than it is.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
To go, and we don't often think about that. We
think about the risk of the scary decision. We don't
think about the risk of staying and how that's sometimes scarier.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
I think so because look, you know, if I was
in the same position I was twelve months ago, I'd
be really unhappy. Yeah, but that's me, that's me. I'm
not like and again this is an extreme yeah, if.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
It is quite large, Yeah, that's what it took for you.
So what would you say, having been like a serial
pivoter and continuing to make them obviously going back to study, Yeah,
what would you say is the biggest unexpected lesson that
you've learned about IDI, yourself or life?
Speaker 2 (44:06):
I think I might have said this earlier, but the
biggest unexpected lesson is that I do have far more
autonomy over my life than I once thought or gave
myself credit for. And I'd probably still fall trapped to
that of like, oh no, that's not an option or
I can't do that, and then I kind of go like,
well why not?
Speaker 3 (44:23):
Why can't I?
Speaker 2 (44:24):
And I'm certainly not lawless and I'm certainly not like
with reason. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, I think that part
of my like, well, who's in control? And that's also
for the bad sides of my life too, Like, I
think it was a lot easier for me, in certainly
bad situations of my life to point fingers or play
(44:45):
the blame game, but to take the accountability of like
what role did I play in that? And how much control?
Like I think of like a bad relationship that I
might have been in where I'm like, well, Tim, you
stayed in that.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Yeah, like you let it happen hard look in the mirror,
yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:00):
And so having those conversations with myself, I was like, yeah, damn,
I do have a lot more control and an autonomy
of my life.
Speaker 3 (45:07):
Then I thought.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
So, going back to the time thing before I turned thirty,
I thought I had to live my whole life before
I turned thirty.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
I'm not sure about you, but I don a meltdown.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
Yeah, twenty nine and a half, I was like.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
Jesus, Yeah, I was like, oh my god, I have
to have the house and the kids and the like
in the marriage and the train drip I've gone t yeah,
and if I've got to Travis. And then I turned
thirty and they're like the hourglass flipped over again, and
I went I felt very much on the old side
of young when I before ten thirty, and now I
feel like I'm on the young side of old. So yeah,
and so now I feel like a spring chicken again.
(45:39):
I'm like, oh, my godness, yeah, which is great. That's
that's really really nice. And also like I don't know
what I'm expecting out of life either, like what am
I supposed to have achieved by thirty one?
Speaker 1 (45:49):
Like or oh, there is no there is no normal.
There is no normal, and there's no overwriting timeline.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
It's no, We're all in.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
Our own pathway, and we get really hung up on
where we should be.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
Compared to who, Yeah, compared to who, and what timeline
and what trajectory. But I honestly now sincerely look at
my at my identity, not being disconnected from work and
being really happy with yeah, who I am and what
I stand for and my values and all that sort
of stuff. But it's taken a long time. It's taken
(46:21):
a Rubik's cube of pivoting and twisting.
Speaker 1 (46:23):
And molding, and so for any other more aspiring pivoters,
perhaps other people who were earlier, Oh the pivot curious,
which is pie curious, which is probably a big subsection
of society. But other young Australians, you know, particularly who
might be feeling the crunch of the cost of living
like you were, or the relentless pace of society, what
(46:46):
would you say to them about what a successful pivot
looks like? Now?
Speaker 3 (46:50):
True?
Speaker 2 (46:51):
Well, I think that the question that I asked myself
that was really helpful is like, what do I need
to surrender to us? I think I said that before,
but like the question of like, and also what would
bring me more pace on what would make my life easier?
But what is a successful pivot? I guess I don't know.
I guess I think you're always going to learn something.
You can only learn so much in one place. So
I think that putting yourself in a new environment you
(47:13):
hate it, you've learned that you've hated it, or you've
learned you don't like it. So for me, I don't
think there's ever been a pivot that is not paid
off in some way. If speaking frankly, I actually didn't
really enjoy my time living in London, purely from where
I was at as a twenty four year old and
I was so broke. So like that was not you
can't enjoy the scene broken, Yeah it was.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
Yeah, it was just stressful.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
But then leaving that, I went like, oh, that's actually
where like I started, like I met someone who was
making content in that pinea dot seed, and I was like, well,
had I not done that, all of this other stuff
wouldn't have happened as well. And so again much easier
to connect the dots looking backwards. But at the time
you're like, this doesn't feel like it's right for me,
or yeah, but it ultimately has paid off, I think.
Speaker 1 (47:58):
And I also think that finding out you don't like
something is actually as valuable as finding out you do,
because you don't know until you try it.
Speaker 3 (48:07):
I really really agree with that.
Speaker 2 (48:09):
But yeah, falling trapped to not trying something out of
fear of not enjoying it would be dangerous.
Speaker 3 (48:14):
I think.
Speaker 2 (48:15):
Yeah, yeah, but peer pressure is really really real, even
as an adult, and I see it amongst you know,
my peers. Sometimes when just a collective consciousness can sweep
through a decision or create new norms, to create new
norms that everyone that I know is financially stressed or
we just accept it.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
Yeah, you're just like this is just being in my
thirty how it should be.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
It should be as opposed to being like why though, Yeah, yeah,
but it does take some deep introspective conversation with yourself
and figuring out if it's if you're happy or who
are you playing this for?
Speaker 1 (48:49):
Well, I think you have already in this episode given
our listeners so much inspiration to start having those introspective
conversations if they haven't, because a lot of people haven't,
and you're a really amazing example of what you can
do when you do reach that point.
Speaker 2 (49:05):
I think this pivot in particular, but I think had
we done this podcast eighteen months ago, you would have
caught me.
Speaker 3 (49:09):
At my wits ends.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
So the timing of the universe.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
The timing of the universe has been perfect. But yeah,
I think thinking back to that time, the restlessness restlessness
causes for a pivot, I think, yeah, yeah. If that's
a takeaway, that was amazing.
Speaker 3 (49:25):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
That's all for this week's Pivot Club. If you want
to keep up with our weekly pivots, please hit that
follow button on your podcast app of choice. And if
you know someone who is currently feeling the burnout of
the city Grind, send this episode their way. It might
just be the breath of fresh air that they need.
Pivot Club is produced by Sally Best, with audio production
by Tom Lyon. Our executive producer is Courtney Ammenhauser. Thank
(49:53):
you so much for listening and I will catch you
next time. Momma Me acknowledges the true additional owners of
land and waters that this podcast is recorded on
You're listening to Amma Mia podcast. What happens when you
need a gap? Here from real life? When you worked hard,
climbed the corporate ladder, saved every penny to buy your
first apartment in the big city, only to find yourself
(00:29):
in a trap all of a sudden, that big dream
turns into a financial nightmare. The cost of living crisis
turns your largest asset into your biggest liability, and the
city life you worked so hard for starts to feel
a bit like a cage. Can you really just press pause?
Can you stop everything, pack a bag and leave the
(00:49):
city life behind to regain your freedom? Welcome to Pivot Club.
I'm your host, Sarah Davidson, and I know the feeling
well of wanting to veer off the traditional path. My
own journey took me from the structured world of corporate
law into the unknown territory of founding my own business
Matter Maiden. This is the show where we unpack those
(01:10):
professional plot twists and brave decisions that change the course
of our lives. We dig into the risks the rewards,
an often chaotic middle ground between who we were and
who we are becoming. Today, we are talking to a
person who looked at his successful city life only to
realize it was serving his ego rather than his happiness,
and so decided to trade his laptop for a tractor.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I just felt like I was like for other people's
lives as opposed to going out and living my own life.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
That person is Tim Abbott, a city boy turned farm
hand who originally made his name online, building a massive
community of over one hundred thousand Instagram followers. Tim was
living the quintessential city life. By twenty eight he had
cracked the property market, buying his own apartment in Sydney.
He had a stable corporate career and a thriving side
(02:02):
hustle making memes, But behind the scenes are shocking eleven
and a half one thousand dollars quarterly strata bill and
the crushing weight of the cost of living crisis brought
him to a breaking point. Soon enough, Tim realized that
he was cosplaying adulthood in a life he couldn't afford
and he didn't enjoy, So he engineered what he calls
a financial gap year. He quit his corporate job in
(02:25):
digital marketing, rented out his apartment and moved to a
rural farm in Queensland. To drive a tractor on a
timber plantation. Now living in a caravan and cutting his
expenses by ninety percent, he is on a mission to
regain his financial freedom, with a massive goal in mind
to save one hundred thousand dollars in just twelve months.
(02:49):
In this honest and hilarious conversation, we explore the ego
death of leaving a cool job for manual labor, the
joy of a simple existence, and how to tell the
difference between what society wants for you and what you
actually want for yourself. Get ready to be inspired to
take have control of your own timeline, Tim Abbott, Welcome
(03:14):
to Pivot Club.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Oh thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Let's go back to the start, So tell us about
how you were brought up to view your work ethic
and your career, and then any of yous that have
kind of been with you since that childhood into teenhood
that a lad to hear.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
So.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
I grew up in the north side of Sydney in Camray,
which is like just over the hubbor Bridge, and went
to a little Catholic school over there called Maris not
Sure and I had a really good time in high
school where I was kind of like interested in everything
and anything. I kind of wasn't one person who had
like one lane. I kind of liked to try everything.
So I was very active. I loved doing the school plays. Yeah,
(03:52):
I really love to overcommit myself, which.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Is still true. Change nothing's changed.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
And my had two working parents and my dad was
a TV producer and so he worked on a lot
of Australian reality TV like Big Brother and Dancing with
the Stars and yeah, all those programs. And then and
my mum worked she's a psychologist by training, but then
worked in management training.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
So two very hard working parents. And yeah, they had
a great work ethic, which.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
I look to be honest, like, probably didn't really hit
me until later in life. I think I agree with it,
and I think I probably benefited from their hard work
at an early age. So yeah, but I think as
role models, Yeah, both of them worked really really hard
to build a life that they had and kind of
(04:42):
in a self made way. And then after school, I
went to Newcastle University and moved up north. I was
really excited to like new social scene and you know,
new lifestyle. But I went up there to do film
and television and loved the university of the university. Newcastle
University is really really great, but I just didn't really
find my people. Yeah, and that was kind of probably
(05:04):
the first pivot in my life, if I could bring
it back to pivots.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Yeah, I just wasn't really Yeah it was.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
I was there for a full year and I just
people really friendly, but I just didn't find my people.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
It wasn't your place.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
And I think because I mean also like I don't
know if I was also showing up for the authentic myself,
authentically myself, So it's probably hard for people to get
to know me when I'm not being me. So after
the year that I moved back to Sydney and finished
my degree at UTS and then worked, I've had so
many jobs and so the pivot thing is so natural
(05:38):
and normal to me because I yeah, I worked in
on reality TV shows as well.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
So yeah, nepotism.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Yeah, well no, I actually got it through my degree
at UTS. They make you do an internship as a
part of your degree, and so landed an internship at
the ABC working on grew and transfer.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Yeah, yeah, and that was one of my first jobs.
And then yeah I did I'm as surby to get
me out here and the Amazing Race and an independent
film in camera and then ended up in tech.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Another pivot. Before we've even come close to the actual pivot, there's.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Probably like seventeen. So yeah, I think I threw all
these jobs like contract work, and also just coming off
the back of the degree, I was kind of just
like trying to do everything and trying to experience everything
to kind of find what I was good.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
At or what I enjoyed. I don't know if that's
pretty common for young people.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Is it's really common? And I think one of the
really interesting things about being a person who's multi interested
or multi passionate, right is that it gives you an
amazing breadth of experiences because you do spend your childhood
and early teens experimenting a lot. Because I'm really similar
to you, it actually makes it really hard to make
decisions because you don't have this like clear framework that
(07:00):
guides you. It's sort of like, well, I like everything,
so what do I do?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
I do like everything? And that's also like I'll like
a blessing and a totally totally because like after school,
end of high school, I really thought I was going
to be in musical theater, which you know that.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Kind of doesn't surprise me. I'm getting musical theater from you.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Well, thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, and I don't
like I just was a pirouid into your chair and
all the vocal woman. But I was.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
I loved it so much at school and I think
it was what I really enjoyed. And then after school,
I was like, how does one do that?
Speaker 1 (07:35):
Yeah, as a career, well living, why do you?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
I don't know. I actually still don't know, and I
know people who do that as a profession, but I'm like,
do you get an Asian first?
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Do you go to a blind audition? I don't know,
but yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
And then after that, so I was also really interested
in tech, and a friend of mine was texted me.
He said, I've got it. I got promoted at work
and they're advertising my job. It's an entry level tech job.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
You should. It's like a great place to work. You should.
I was going to say audition, but you should.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
It's in your blood. You just can't get out of it.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Yeah, get away. Yeah, so you should send in your CV.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
And then I went and did the job interview and
then didn't hear anything for like two months, and so
I was like, oh, I guess I didn't get it.
Is it not working in tech? So I was like
designing websites and digital courses and yes, I feel like
I've lived like nine lives.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
You are eight different people coming into the nights right now.
I think the best people have been a lot of
different people along the way. But can you paint a
picture for us of just before the sort of huge
lifestyle change that you had that we all get to
that led you fourteen hours away from Sydney. You had
kind of fallen into maybe finding your place for a
(08:44):
chapter mate you were back in Sydney. You're living this
hugely successful life big dollars made a name for yourself.
Was that in this same tech position that you kind
of worked your way up?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Or was this another No, not at all, And thank
you for discribing me like that, because it's not my
self perception, but.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
It really is. From the outside it reads very nicely.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Oh thank you, I'm squirming.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
It was well, I think, so I moved to London
and I was working for this tech startup that kind
of springboarded off the other tech job, and then was
working in marketing, just in a digital marketing role and
then stuff started happening through covid online, and that's how
I started creating content and making memes.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Ah so good, Oh thank.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
You, the archives are good.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
But yeah, that kind of pushed me into a world
of media, but was also a good combination of my
TV and digital marketing and tech brack on. It kind
of just brought everything together in one place. So yeah,
the success of it all, Like, I'm kind of blindly
unaware of what that looks like because it's kind of
(09:54):
happened so gradually and slowly.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
What was the kind of stable day to day that
you were doing just before this?
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Only enough?
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, I actually think the messy middle happened before the move.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
And that's what caused the move.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
So because basically I was to be Frank, I was
working my full time job and then also as a
side hustle hobby making content online and that was time Like,
it's a time consuming thing and a time consuming hobby,
and so because I was making an income through online,
I was then like, well, why am I spending fifty
(10:27):
hours a week at work? Like this is so much
at once, and so I was like, well, I'm going
to quit my day job and roll with the punches
with content creation, and that wasn't the right decision looking back,
like yeah, because like you're giving up like a stable
income and like a regular routine. And I think all
my friends work in nine to five, so I think, yeah,
(10:49):
it was kind of the dream to be like I'm
going to quit my job, but the reality of it
is like, oh, your friends are busy.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
All your friends are your friend Matt mat got mates
over there, and there's only.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
So much you can like, so many errands you can run,
and so many like gym classes you can go to, errands,
and I like to be busy. So it was I
did it for probably eighteen months, and I was really
quite unhappy and like born unhappy because of the like
lack of purpose and like also contribution to society. Like
I felt like I was like kind of just a
(11:23):
paperweight at the time.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
So like, okay.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Well, the joy that you were passing on to many people,
I mean when you say hobby for context, for our listeners,
there are over one hundred thousand people following you and
getting a lot of joy you were providing in your
own way at the time.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah, but also like again, you don't have that, well
I don't have that perception of myself and so, and
I also was noticing myself like when I'd meet people and.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
They're like, what do you do? And I would be
so like embarrassed. Yeah, shame like that.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
So it's now been again demoted to hobby, which I
actually really like and I think that's a really good
balance and it's like a fun thing to do and
it has some great opportunities. But yeah, life before that,
I was living in Clavelli and living in a roommate
and it was a good lie, like it was really nice,
but I just was there was something unresolved and I
wasn't content and I wasn't happy, and I felt very
(12:15):
aimless and truthfully like I think you might have had
this as well, but I felt like I was living
a life that was aspirational to other people maybe or
other people might have wanted, but I didn't want it.
And that's not to be ungrateful. I just I knew
that I like the outdoors, I like the rural living
(12:36):
cities kind of stressed me out, so and the yeah,
and so I was I think having some hard, like
hard long conversations with myself being like do I want
this or do other people want this and am I
being a am I being a supporting role to other
people's lives because I've got faumily and friends here obviously,
and I love seeing them, but I just felt like
I was like here to be for other people's lives
(12:59):
as opposed to going out and living my own life.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
Oh my gosh, that is honestly the peak of brave,
I think in this day and age, to actually be
able to identify that your sort of unhappiness or lack
of contentment is because you've followed what society thinks is
really cool. There's a lot of people when they make
(13:23):
a big decision, especially to leave their job. Being a
full time content creator is most people's dream, like the
flexibility and the ability to work for yourself, and it
takes a lot to actually stop and go I've tried
it now, I've taken the risk, I've made the jump,
and it's actually not for me. But it's so it's
actually really hard to go against the social grain and
say this isn't for me and I'm not loving it,
(13:45):
but I'm really really inspired by the fact that you
did feel it quite quickly, and we're like, I've got
to do something about it.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Well, I certainly liked aspects of it. I certainly do,
and I've met some incredible people and had some incredible
opportunities through it.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
But I think it being.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
My bread and butter and my main driver, I don't
think it was for me and I am maybe it's
a bit of aduxmorrow, but I'm quite like a quiet
private person. It seems like it goes contradictory to like
sharing your life online, Yeah, and also opening that.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Up for criticism.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
But the chaos and mayhem kind of came just before
the move and in twenty twenty two.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
This is probably the bigger picture.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Yeah, in twenty twenty two, I had been saving honestly
since I was about sixteen until I was twenty seven
to buy something right, been working, and it got to
twenty twenty. End of twenty twenty one, I went, if
I don't buy something now, it's never going to happen
for me. So pulled my life saving together and I
bought a one bedroom apartment in Sydney, which cost every
(14:42):
dollar I had like come settlement. Yeah, it used every
dollar and I had to bend over backwards to get
my mortgage approved. So got that overline and I was
a huge relief, and I went, oh, thank God, like
I finally done it. And I was at the age
of twenty eight, twenty nine, I was.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Already very young to such a big master.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I was really sensible with my money. I'm pretty quite,
pretty frugal, and yeah, probably too sensible, but I just
thought that was going to be like the rest of
my life and done deal and uh the sunset, yeah,
and there's my retirement. And then unfortunately, I've just been
so unlucky with the building and strata costs that it's
I think people see it all property as an investment,
(15:23):
but it's been a huge liability and it was getting
and I was single income, so like, the cost of
it is so expensive, and the upkeep of this building
is astronomic. Or my last quarter bill was eleven and
a half thousand dollars and physically, yeah, and you got
a bill like that and you're like, what do I do?
Speaker 3 (15:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
So I then moved out of that place to rent
somewhere else because I was cheaper to move into a sharehouse.
And even then, like I was on a good salary,
and I felt like I was too late in my
life to be living in a sharehouse. And kind of
strapped for cash all the time, and I lived so frugally,
like I don't have any flash cars and I don't
(16:06):
go shopping. And I was just like, I can't cut
back any I've got a prepaid mobile phone.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
I don't have a gym membership.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
I was like, how do I like, I don't know
how much nothing else services.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
I was like, I'm not.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
So That's when my friends Sarah and Will were doing
this financial gap year thing, and that's what kind of
sparked the idea in my head, and I went, I
think I need to do something similar like this just
for twelve months, just to get my wind back and
get my money in order create some breathing room massively,
(16:41):
and being so used to pivoting, I.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Was like, it was like an easy yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
And I've lived in I've.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Lived in maybe five or six cities now, so pivoting
is not foreign to me. And I was kind of
just put that thought out into the universe and just serendipitously,
a friend of mine who was working on the property
where I now work, I was stuck in traffic and
Sydney and he'd messaged me and he said he's like,
when can you come up like we really need some
(17:08):
help up here.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
And I was like, this is just such yeah, such
cer indiferitous timing. And I was like, you know what,
like why not so oh yeah?
Speaker 2 (17:19):
And so looming in the background was all these like
just bills and you know, Morgan and Strata payments and
all that sort of stuff, and I was like, I.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Need to change something.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah, And so I spoke to my mom, my kind
of voice of reason, and I was like, does this
sound sensible to you? And she said, I think it
sounds like a really good idea. And then I was like, Okay,
now I've got mum's ticket approval.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
I think i'll voice have spoken.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
The voice has spoken, so I'll put wheels into motion.
And yeah, within about four or five weeks, i'd kind
of like wrapped up my lease in Sydney and was
on my way in a car up to up to Queensland.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
This makes me so excited because I think a lot
of people have faced the same discomfort or the feeling
of like something's missing or something isn't sitting right, but
not a lot of people necessarily act on it or
feel they have power to because they're not familiar with
the pivot. This is why this show is so exciting,
is exposing people who aren't as familiar with the pivots
that you can actually take control and make decisions, and
(18:21):
you can kind of do them quite quickly in a
lot of situations massively.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
And I'm so glad that, yeah, this has all happened,
because I love talking about pivoting. But I think later
in my twenties, I realized that I have a lot
more autonomy over my life, yes than I thought I did.
And particularly but if you're in a job that I
didn't like, or relationship you don't like, or something like that,
you do have that control. And maybe a lot of
us are but meant to believe that we don't have
(18:47):
that control in our lives. But having done it so
many times, I went and I went, how do I
regain that control?
Speaker 3 (18:53):
And I went living in a situation.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Where I'm living rent free and making good money and
all that sort of stuff, I went, Okay, it did
give me that sense of control back. Yeah, having never
done that work, it did feel like a much bigger leap.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Then you're anticipation, well.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Like having moved to London working in the corporate world,
like it was far less of a transition than moving
to rural Queensland.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Yeah, especially rural. It's like Sydney to Queensland alone. So
that's a big part of the messy middle. But before
we get there, I just want to call out that
you mentioned you'd found this huge autonomy over your life
and that it was spurred for you by kind of
getting to breaking point. But one thing I want to
say to everyone listening is that you actually don't have
to get there.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
Advice you don't.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah, like, you don't have to. I think that's the
motivation for a lot of people. And I often say
to people, I'm not worried about people who are unhappy,
because they will reach breaking point and they'll change. I'm
worried about people that are.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Blah, oh, just like they might.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Never reach that point and they might never realize they
have that autonomy.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Yeah, it's it's self discovery because you can't I don't
know if you can make someone else see that, Like
they kind of have to be awoken to it Themselah.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Something has to wake you up, can it anytime? Feel
like that that agitation for change, and so yours is
maybe more dramatic than the average person, But yeah, talk
to us about this financial gap year. So it was
a move to a completely different setting, a completely different job,
but also with the goal of saving one hundred thousand dollars.
And I was reading that you said your living cost
(20:23):
went down by seventy five percent just on this phone.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Oh more more, yeah, like ninety percent.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
So you've called it your financial gap year, which I
think is such a cool term. Can you explain to
us what the actual mechanics of that are, like, what
that is? What tell us what it looks like?
Speaker 3 (20:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
So the funny that the term thing, I think. I
don't know if it started with me. I mentioned on
the phone to my mom. I was like telling, getting
kind of the mum approval of, like is this a
good idea? But I was like, I think it's like
a gap year, bit like financial focus. So I think
it's like a financial gap year. And then when I
did my first post online about it, I was like,
I'm dubbing at my financial gap year. I think the
(21:04):
media just kind of picked it up and ran with it.
I'm certainly not the first person to do the concept.
I'm certainly not, but.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
I think you coined the term the term and you
should be getting royalty.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Actually, but I had stolen the idea from two friends
of mine, Sarah and Will, who had moved up to Foster,
which is about three and a half four hours north
of Sydney, one school teacher, one is working from home,
and they did the same thing. They were like, we're
just paying so much in rent and we just wanted
a year breather to save up a.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Good amount of money. And that really planted the seed.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
And then I was stuck in Sydney traffic coming home
from work and very serendipitously got a text from my
friend who was up on the property and he was
like can you come sooner? Like we really need your help,
and I was like, I know. The timing of it
was just like huh, all right, well that's a good
sign that I you know. We spoke on the phone
and he kind of sold me the you know, the
(21:56):
dream of the fantasy, which is sure, well, it turns
was like it was a very comparable salary to my
corporate job in Sydney really, which I think surprises a
lot of people. But I think because it's harder to
get workers in those areas, so I think they realize
that and they pay for that, but then also the
(22:17):
addition of not having to pay rent like utilities and
petrol and all covered. So if you kind of package
it all up, I went, Wow, the recipe of very
low cost of living and keeping my salary reasonably the same.
That was the concept of this financial gap year. So yeah,
(22:38):
you could say move back in with your parents, say
for twelve months, and do something similar. But I think
it makes it like not either not the temptation or
the fomo of like seeing people out doing stuff, like
it's just not an option where we are. So yeah,
it makes the time out there a lot easier because yeah,
I'm not thinking like.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Oh, seeing what you in your face around the corner,
or it's not even an option, So I'm not like, oh,
my friends are out having fun at the part and
I'm not sitting at home being you know, a sad
little timmy.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
But it's but it's it's really leading.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
Up to that in kind of the maym chaos of
it all, I was just like it was, first of all,
the financial stress of trying to be a big boy
and be in that world was too much too soon
for me, and I really took on more than I
could chew, and I was clutching onto it like a
life raft and like trading water. And after a long
(23:35):
time of deliberating, the best decision and the biggest relief
for me, was throwing my hands up and saying I
just can't keep doing this.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Yeah, that you don't need to keep up. Yeah, actually
take a step back.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
For sure, and also asking myself the question of like,
who is this for? I think this is for your ego, tim,
Like I think this is all ego pleasing to, you know,
be a homeowner. And like I was kind of like,
why am I holding onto that doesn't like, doesn't serve you,
doesn't serve me, And it's only it doesn't bring me
(24:07):
happiness joy, It actually causes me a lot of stress.
So yeah, putting my hands up and going like I
surrender to this, and I'm just gonna take this leap
and try out this new life.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
I'd never worked on a farm, never driven a tractor, like,
never done any of that.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
But I was reassured that if.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
I could drive a car, I could drive a tractor,
which is partially true. There's a bit of a learning curve,
but yeah, and now kind of I feel like I'm
good at my job. And also I really love it.
I genuinely love it, and it sounds like.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
An idyllic, beautiful, grounded existence.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
It is. I don't want to speak too toxic positivity
about it. Yeah, but the lifestyle is really really simple
and I'm currently living in a caravan on the property
and I love it. And I think if you told
me that twelve months ago, I wouldn't have believed it.
But there's something really it's almost like being stripped back
(25:02):
in a way of when I was living in the city.
There was a lot of maybe falsities that I I
told myself that I needed. Like I first thing I
walk out the door, I get my coffee. I can't
start my day without grabbing my coffee.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
That's a lie. That's a straight up line that I
tell myself.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
I'd hear you burst my bubble.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Yeah, I would go fifteen eighteen days that are having
a coffee and I'm still surviving and still very happy.
And so all those things again, and like I need
to get new sneakers because I love running every day,
Like I straight up don't. I've got I'm fine, I
am fine. And so there was a lot of things
that I just would convince myself. I don't know if
that's common, but living in the city.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
That I think extremely common.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Yeah, you need or but then out there, like I
wear the same clothes every single day and I yeah,
I do the same job every single day and eat
the same food pretty much every single day, and I
love it.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Yeah, and I'm very content and happy. Oh is that
really nice? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (25:57):
And sincerely genuinely like, it's a very the less I have,
the easier life is. It feels very flow.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
It's fascinating that that's a common reflection for people that like,
contentment doesn't necessarily come from the huge things that we think.
It doesn't mean that those can't create happiness, but it
can complicate things. And we do have a lot of
narratives and stories we tell ourselves, and particularly with the
pace of life in the city, it's really hard to
(26:26):
unravel them all because you never stop and just think
and like, unravel the mind, Matt. But you've given yourself
this incredibly liberating chance to do that. But you mentioned
the toxic positivity things. This is called the messy middle
because it isn't always a smooth transition, even if it's
one you want, and even if the end of the
story is incredible. There of course, are some logistical challenges,
(26:48):
emotional challenges can you talk us through like missing home,
the homesickness or isolation, so the emotional side of it,
but also the physical demand of going from an office
job to you are working in such a different way,
Like what's your identity?
Speaker 3 (27:05):
Yeah, I'll start the end.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
I don't think I've ever found identity through my occupation
what ever, ever, And I think that's a good thing
when it comes to pivoting, because I've never been like, oh, well,
I'm a marketer through and through, and or like I'm
a you know, web designer. I'm like, I don't, you're attached, No,
And I find my identity through my interest hobbies, friendships
(27:29):
a lot more so like i'd find you know, cycling,
you know, being an interest of mine. I find identity
through that, and like my cycling buddies or my love
for technology and geeking out with friends over that or
something like that.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
Whereas like my job, and that might be because I've
never had a job that I've really been proud of
or loved that much, so that could just be my
own failues.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
But I even with content creation online like I don't
find identity through that. I might find community through that, yeah,
but I don't find identity through that. I wouldn't So
that makes pivoting and adjusting in life a lot easier
for me. But it does feel a bit like cosplaying
at the moment, because like I have to wear high
visit at work for like oh ands safety reasons, and
(28:10):
I look at myself in.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
The mouth, well, I look at myself with the mirund
like I feel like I'm like a dull.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
I'm like, I feel a little bit like it's like
playing dress ups a little bit because I'm like I
can't ever wearing like steelcap boots.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
And high veers. I would have never imagined that.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
But yeah, and then from transitioning from an office space
to an outdoors kind of workplace, I've really loved it,
and there's something very refreshing about like the tactile nature
of my job. Like for up until now, like I've
lived my life in like doing like post campaign analysis
and reports and.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Like digital dex.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Yeah, and like all that sort of stuff and the
life or the shelf life of that might be a
meeting and then it's never seen me before again and
then like I'd never really got that like sense of achievement,
whereas it like when you look back on like your
physical labor of the day, Like there is something very
cave man about like yeah, and like there is being like, oh,
(29:04):
that's my work that I've done today, and I can
see it, and I can touch it and I can
feel and all that sort of stuff. Yeah, so that's
been a really pleasant surprise.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
So on the farm, yes, couse, playing in your high
What is your actual job.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
That's a great question.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Yeah, I drive a tiger cat, which is like a
huge yellow tractor all day every day. Yeah, start to finish,
we are collecting trees, so it's a private plantation.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
And the trees get cut.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
I then we then cut them and then put them
on the timber road trains that you would have seen
driving around.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
Yeah, that's my job.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
But then because we're on a property, there's cattle running around,
there's Emmy's running around there around out there. Yeah, it's
a very different conversation out there, Like there's a lot
of chart about like weather conditions and drop and stuff
that I can't really like contribute that much too, but
I like, yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
I listen on intently and you know curiously, I think that.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
It's just very rare for you to be so well
adjusted around your identity and your job, because so many
people's identity is their work, and it can be really
hard to separate who you are, Like there's a lot
pride often in your work, and once you have attached
your identity to that, it's really hard to learn how
to separate that. But then you also mentioned that the
(30:16):
whole part of cosplaying. I love that sentiment, but I
also think to extrapolate from that that part of doing
something new is we are always just cosplaying and faking
it till we make it, until we're good at it.
And I think that's a great strategy, just like put
it on the uniform, get in the mindset, work it out.
I was pretend until you can do it.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
I was certainly costplaying in marketing. I'm sorry to any
of my old clients that might.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Say this, but cosplaying in everything I do, it's.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
Very hard to be positive, like enthusiastically and genuinely enthusiastic
about like clicks and views, like, hey guys, we're up
twenty five percent this month, isn't that amazing? Like that
was costplaying? That was I was wearing a suit and like,
I hate wearing a suit, so like like all of that,
I like, in my professional life has all been a
lot of cosplaying.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
I mean this is probably as.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
True to me as you can get, but even online
an element of performing and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
And I think also cosplaying can work when you do
have those moments of doubt, because for a lot of people,
when they do make a really big jump, like you
moved five hundred kilometers away into a job you've never
done before, that would bring up a lot of self
doubt and imposter syndrome for people. And my strategy has
been cosplay confidence until you actually haven't and that works.
But have you had any moments when you did find
(31:33):
yourself in this messy middle where you were like, maybe
I can't do this?
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Yeah I have, Yeah, And there's been yeah, two moments
of stick out this year that have certainly been that.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
One was doing the Iron Man training and.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Just another thing thrown into the mix.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Yeah, there was point there where I was like, there's
no way you can do this. And it's momentary, but
like there is that voice of doubt, that conquering that
makes you so much stronger and so yeah, there was
a lot of negative self talk during that training of
being like, I mean.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Fair enough things you can do as a human saying yes,
and you've done it.
Speaker 3 (32:11):
Yeah, I did too. Actually, yeah that's a word. But
I love it.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
But but then out on the out on the farm, Yeah,
there's been a couple of moments and one really tough
day and I was just like Tim, like what are
you doing?
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Like this is why are you out here?
Speaker 3 (32:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Yeah, And but but but again, like I'm old enough
now and have been through enough for those moments now
where I go like, these moments can just be a
mixture of you're tired, or you're stress or both, or
you're hungry or whatever, and then all of three and
then you're like huh okay, like that's just I'm okay,
(32:48):
I'm okay.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
Yeah. Yeah. And so writing writing those.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Waves as opposed to catastrophizing is a lot easier now
in my thirties than it was maybe ten years ago.
But yeah, and I think from saying doing the Iron Man,
there is a lot of mental resilience there of sticking
things out and pushing through and that's really lent into
doing this sort of work. But now I really love it.
It's my favorite job that I've ever had. I think, Yeah,
(33:12):
well I noticed that because I don't complain about it
to my friends.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Oh my gosh, that's a fascinating way to measure.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Yeah, when your friends ask you how's work, I'm like,
I actually love it. And look, if I could change
one thing, ord be being closer to a city and
being closer to my partner James.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
But a long distance.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Yeah, so that's you know, temporary making that work. But
other than that, I.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Actually love the job and I love where we are.
It's a beautiful part of Australia. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
Do you know what I think is also fascinating about
this financial gap year? And actually that comes back to
the sort of more standard conventional gap year that people take.
It's similar to working overseas as an ex part or
doing an exchange when you're at school. I loved those
experiences so much because they were temporary and I knew
that I didn't have to put down roots and prove
(33:58):
myself for a lifetime or make forever decision. Mostly as
an adult, you don't get that because your decisions are
kind of for your life. But you've you're living in
this temporary, beautiful bubble. Has that made it easier to
enjoy it?
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Does?
Speaker 2 (34:12):
It does feel that way sometimes, And yes, I do
talk to my friends about this because so I'm living
in a caravan as a part of this setup on
the property and I love that. But I do wonder
if I love it so much because it is an
experience that does have an expiry day. I wonder, And
I don't think that's something that I'll ever know, having
lived in London that didn't have an expiry day. And
(34:34):
I did just get to a point where I went,
I'm not happy anymore. I need to leave, and that
was yeah, And once I obviously didn't leave the next day,
but once I'd made the decision mentally, that was my
kind of exit period. And then starts wrapping things up.
Speaker 3 (34:46):
But I've been.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Pretty intuitive and in tune with that part of my
brain for quite a while now of going like this
doesn't feel right and learning to listen to my gut.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
I don't. But that took me a really long time.
It took me a long time.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
And once I tuned into the gut more than the ego,
the gut really guides you really, really well, because if
you feel uncomfortable or feel like a wrestless something's not right.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
There's a reason.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
I also think that leaning into that whole everything is
temporary thing.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
But the con is like nothing's forever.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
In a good way, exactly liberating way.
Speaker 2 (35:25):
The trap of that might prevent people from doing something
is the kind of what ifs.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Yeah, in my mind, I'm like, well, the what if
is use that in a good way of like who
cares if it doesn't work, because then you can just
do something else.
Speaker 2 (35:38):
Correct and worst case scenario, you're back where you started.
I've never done that, And looking back on my life,
it's a lot easier to look back than look forward.
But I look back and I'm like, every decision has
kind of pingponged me into something better or a more
interesting path.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Moving onto your life now, almost six months in, Yes,
I've read you say that actually looking forward, this is
the most excited you've been for the future, which is
a beautiful sentiment.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
It's the first time in a really, really long time
that that's been true. I feel like the last time
I was just excited for the future, I had just
finished high school. Oh my gosh, And that kind of
like the world'smight always just sort of mentality of like, well,
I don't have a care in the world, and more
like if everything seems very in flow now and.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
That's from this, do you think that's separation from where
you were for.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
A number of things.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
I feel like I'm living a life that's far more
true to myself, which or true to min desires and
my goals, which is so exciting. And then probably nine
months into relationship with my partner James, and that is
just like the best thing that's ever happened to me.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
And we're just like just.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
Like perfect for each other, made for each other, and
very much brought into the same pipe dream of like
one in the Golden Retrieval one in the house. It's
so exciting to have like a co pilot now of
being like, right, we're both in the driver's seat, we're
both going after the same thing. Yeah, same energy, same vision,
and it's very exciting. So it's just very exciting for
the future. And you know a lot of things that
I've wanted to do in my life where I've thought
(37:10):
I'm going to be doing them on my own. To
now have someone a companion to I could go and
do all those things with it's very, very exciting, and
I yeah, I feel very blessed and it's given me
a great buzz and energy which I haven't I haven't
experience since I was probably yeah, like seventeen or eighteen. Yeah,
and to.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Get that back is Yeah, it's so exciting. And it's
interesting that I think with something like a financial gap year,
the wording is often oh, well when you go back,
like when this ends and you go back, But I
kind of don't think that you will go back to
who you were before, Like you'll be propelled into this
new human. You can't go back to unknow what you've known.
It's like, what is the plan if you make this
(37:48):
one hundred thousand dollars goal? Do you feel pressure to
decide that? Ah?
Speaker 2 (37:53):
No, I probably feel more pressure to proclaim it than
because we keep asking, well, I've kind of got the
grand plan.
Speaker 3 (37:59):
Yeah, yeah, I've put myself into that position.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
But plan, Like I think to say, it's it's absolutely
changed me as a person. I think it's hard to
go through any experience or life without it changing me.
I think the best thing that's happened to me is
that I feel like it's really stripped me back to
bear bones.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
And bear like without all the noise, without the noise.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
Yeah yeah, and that's that's always been the same. But
I think like living in the city, you do pick
up a lot of influencers, whether you're not like subconsciously
from your friends or just society. But I wish more
people could see me out there, and I don't think
they ever will. I love.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
So that's really sad. But like it's I said, it's
my boyfriend, James. I wish you could see me.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
I see who I am out there, because like I
think it's someone who I'm really proud of, which is
really ver nice.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
So sad, that's actually so beautiful.
Speaker 3 (38:53):
Yeah, I really like who I am out there, And.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Thank you in your purest form.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
Yeah, truly, there's no fluff.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
And then after this, I really want to sell the
apartment and I certainly don't want to be some property mogul.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
I'm not. That's certainly not the dream.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
But yeah, so James and I will hopefully team up
and buy a house together and that be that, and
he runs a business in Brizzie. I'll probably like, I
love Sydney. Sydney is one of the best places on earth.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
I love it. It's my hometown. But I just like,
if I don't have thirty million dollars, so.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
If I did financial gap quarter, yeah yeah, yeah, maybe
when I'm in the Book of Mormon, Yeah that'll happen.
Speaker 3 (39:33):
Yeah, obviously. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
So I was put down roots in Brizzy because and
I say, this is a huge compliment, but I would say,
like Perth and Brizzy have this very like two thousand
and five pre smartphone analog analog energy about it, and
I love it. It's a city, but it's a slower
pace and everything feels a lot more present. It just
feels like it's the speed is just turned down a bit.
(39:55):
I agree, So that's kind of the dream. And then
for another pivot, I'm enrolled to study psychology.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
So wait, what of course you are? Wait what drove that?
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Well, I come from a bit of a psych background,
so my mum psych trained, my uncle psych trained, my
sister's psych trained, and I just as an area of study,
what I listen to is what I read. I find
it fascinating, ever evolving research. So I'm enrolled. I actually
started earlier this year, but then with everything, I was like,
I can't you have a lot on your plane anymore
(40:30):
right now? Yeah, as my friends are doing the most
achieving the least.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
But I hear that. But that's the kind of you know.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
Longer term retraining vision. And I did kind of anticipate this,
but I originally studied communications information technology, and now moving
into like later in life, I'm like, I'd really like
to do psychology. I think it's really like rewarding profession
to help people and it's just interesting like human behavior,
and yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
There's something really refreshing about you. And it's many things,
many things, but I feel like one of them is
that you don't seem soon first stressed about timelines, Like
people often don't go back to retrain because they feel
like they're too old or it's too late. The common
phrase is it's too late for me to do that.
(41:18):
To be fair, you're a baby, you're thirty one. But
still many people wouldn't go back and retrain in something
at thirty one or take a year out of life.
As you mentioned, the pace of the cities is so
fast that a lot of people would feel like they'd
fall behind. But then it's kind of like fall behind
what from who? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (41:32):
From watch from no.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
One else is living your life, and you seem to
be really able to move past that timeline that the
city is kind of impose on us.
Speaker 3 (41:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
Well, I don't get a twisted I am quite pragmatic.
Planned you've thought about it, yeah, I thought about it.
But we spoke about my parents and their work ethic.
But we have a family friend called Brett, and he
was actually a family doctor growing up. He got to
my age now, early thirties, and he went, I don't
want to do this. And so after the what like
six seven years of training, and he did that because
(42:03):
I think there was a bit of parental pressure for him,
but he was like, I don't want to do this.
And so then he went and worked in television for
a bit, and then he worked at AOL for the
intech company Yeah, and then worked at Microsoft and then
the San Francisco Chronicle and he's had this amazing career.
But he just kind of went, you know, like that
seven eight year degree can transfer into all aspects of life, right,
(42:25):
So he told me, and he was like, you know,
it's an eight year degree or it's another forty years
of my life.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
Oh yes, I love that. And so he's like I'm
not throwing that degree out the window. He's like, use it. Yeah,
and he finds that.
Speaker 2 (42:40):
Knowledge of the human body and health so valuable in
his life. But I think that adaptability really inspired me
because I'm like, well, I've done a marketing degree. I
guess I'm going to be a marketer for the rest
of my life. Most being like, no, I'm going to
go work on off arm.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
I love that, And I often come back to this quote, Yeah,
you don't have to stick with a mistake just because
of the time it took you to make it. Oh,
not that it was a mistake his career, but it's
just like, you're right. We often think, oh, well, I've
studied this long, I've got to keep going with it.
And it's like, actually, you don't have to give the
rest of your life to medicine just because you gave
seven or eight years. You can choose and it will
(43:14):
still be transferable. Like nothing's a waste.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
It's a business term like diminishing returns. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
Yeah, And so I think he went like, it's going
to cost me more to stay than it is to
leave to let go. Yeah, And it's the same thing
with my apartment. It's going to cost me more to
stay than it is.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
To go, and we don't often think about that. We
think about the risk of the scary decision. We don't
think about the risk of staying and how that's sometimes scarier.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
I think so because look, you know, if I was
in the same position I was twelve months ago, I'd
be really unhappy. Yeah, but that's me, that's me. I'm
not like and again this is an extreme yeah, if.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
It is quite large, Yeah, that's what it took for you.
So what would you say, having been like a serial
pivoter and continuing to make them obviously going back to study, Yeah,
what would you say is the biggest unexpected lesson that
you've learned about IDI, yourself or life?
Speaker 2 (44:06):
I think I might have said this earlier, but the
biggest unexpected lesson is that I do have far more
autonomy over my life than I once thought or gave
myself credit for. And I'd probably still fall trapped to
that of like, oh no, that's not an option or
I can't do that, and then I kind of go like,
well why not?
Speaker 3 (44:23):
Why can't I?
Speaker 2 (44:24):
And I'm certainly not lawless and I'm certainly not like
with reason. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, I think that part
of my like, well, who's in control? And that's also
for the bad sides of my life too, Like, I
think it was a lot easier for me, in certainly
bad situations of my life to point fingers or play
(44:45):
the blame game, but to take the accountability of like
what role did I play in that? And how much control?
Like I think of like a bad relationship that I
might have been in where I'm like, well, Tim, you
stayed in that.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Yeah, like you let it happen hard look in the mirror,
yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:00):
And so having those conversations with myself, I was like, yeah, damn,
I do have a lot more control and an autonomy
of my life.
Speaker 3 (45:07):
Then I thought.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
So, going back to the time thing before I turned thirty,
I thought I had to live my whole life before
I turned thirty.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
I'm not sure about you, but I don a meltdown.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
Yeah, twenty nine and a half, I was like.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
Jesus, Yeah, I was like, oh my god, I have
to have the house and the kids and the like
in the marriage and the train drip I've gone t yeah,
and if I've got to Travis. And then I turned
thirty and they're like the hourglass flipped over again, and
I went I felt very much on the old side
of young when I before ten thirty, and now I
feel like I'm on the young side of old. So yeah,
and so now I feel like a spring chicken again.
(45:39):
I'm like, oh, my godness, yeah, which is great. That's
that's really really nice. And also like I don't know
what I'm expecting out of life either, like what am
I supposed to have achieved by thirty one?
Speaker 1 (45:49):
Like or oh, there is no there is no normal.
There is no normal, and there's no overwriting timeline.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
It's no, We're all in.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
Our own pathway, and we get really hung up on
where we should be.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
Compared to who, Yeah, compared to who, and what timeline
and what trajectory. But I honestly now sincerely look at
my at my identity, not being disconnected from work and
being really happy with yeah, who I am and what
I stand for and my values and all that sort
of stuff. But it's taken a long time. It's taken
(46:21):
a Rubik's cube of pivoting and twisting.
Speaker 1 (46:23):
And molding, and so for any other more aspiring pivoters,
perhaps other people who were earlier, Oh the pivot curious,
which is pie curious, which is probably a big subsection
of society. But other young Australians, you know, particularly who
might be feeling the crunch of the cost of living
like you were, or the relentless pace of society, what
(46:46):
would you say to them about what a successful pivot
looks like? Now?
Speaker 3 (46:50):
True?
Speaker 2 (46:51):
Well, I think that the question that I asked myself
that was really helpful is like, what do I need
to surrender to us? I think I said that before,
but like the question of like, and also what would
bring me more pace on what would make my life easier?
But what is a successful pivot? I guess I don't know.
I guess I think you're always going to learn something.
You can only learn so much in one place. So
I think that putting yourself in a new environment you
(47:13):
hate it, you've learned that you've hated it, or you've
learned you don't like it. So for me, I don't
think there's ever been a pivot that is not paid
off in some way. If speaking frankly, I actually didn't
really enjoy my time living in London, purely from where
I was at as a twenty four year old and
I was so broke. So like that was not you
can't enjoy the scene broken, Yeah it was.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
Yeah, it was just stressful.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
But then leaving that, I went like, oh, that's actually
where like I started, like I met someone who was
making content in that pinea dot seed, and I was like, well,
had I not done that, all of this other stuff
wouldn't have happened as well. And so again much easier
to connect the dots looking backwards. But at the time
you're like, this doesn't feel like it's right for me,
or yeah, but it ultimately has paid off, I think.
Speaker 1 (47:58):
And I also think that finding out you don't like
something is actually as valuable as finding out you do,
because you don't know until you try it.
Speaker 3 (48:07):
I really really agree with that.
Speaker 2 (48:09):
But yeah, falling trapped to not trying something out of
fear of not enjoying it would be dangerous.
Speaker 3 (48:14):
I think.
Speaker 2 (48:15):
Yeah, yeah, but peer pressure is really really real, even
as an adult, and I see it amongst you know,
my peers. Sometimes when just a collective consciousness can sweep
through a decision or create new norms, to create new
norms that everyone that I know is financially stressed or
we just accept it.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
Yeah, you're just like this is just being in my
thirty how it should be.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
It should be as opposed to being like why though, Yeah, yeah,
but it does take some deep introspective conversation with yourself
and figuring out if it's if you're happy or who
are you playing this for?
Speaker 1 (48:49):
Well, I think you have already in this episode given
our listeners so much inspiration to start having those introspective
conversations if they haven't, because a lot of people haven't,
and you're a really amazing example of what you can
do when you do reach that point.
Speaker 2 (49:05):
I think this pivot in particular, but I think had
we done this podcast eighteen months ago, you would have
caught me.
Speaker 3 (49:09):
At my wits ends.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
So the timing of the universe.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
The timing of the universe has been perfect. But yeah,
I think thinking back to that time, the restlessness restlessness
causes for a pivot, I think, yeah, yeah. If that's
a takeaway, that was amazing.
Speaker 3 (49:25):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (49:30):
That's all for this week's Pivot Club. If you want
to keep up with our weekly pivots, please hit that
follow button on your podcast app of choice. And if
you know someone who is currently feeling the burnout of
the city Grind, send this episode their way. It might
just be the breath of fresh air that they need.
Pivot Club is produced by Sally Best, with audio production
by Tom Lyon. Our executive producer is Courtney Ammenhauser. Thank
(49:53):
you so much for listening and I will catch you
next time. Momma Me acknowledges the true additional owners of
land and waters that this podcast is recorded on
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