February 9, 2025 • 23 mins
What if the key to resilience and transformation lies in the untold story of a rock star? Michelle Blood’s journey is nothing short of extraordinary. From commanding the stage as an ‘80s rock icon to overcoming a life-altering accident that redefined her purpose, Michelle turned adversity into an anthem of personal and spiritual transformation. In this electrifying episode, she shares the highs and lows of her music career, the power of inner growth, and the art of thriving through life’s toughest challenges.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode
of rise from the ashes aburnout to brilliance.
This is season five and my nextguest is a literal rock star.
That's where she started.
Her name is michelle blood andshe's an awesome human being,
transformational leader, andshe's inspiring to create change
(00:23):
around billions of people inthe world.
Michelle, welcome to Roast fromthe Ashes.
It is a privilege and an honorto have you here.
I know your schedule isextremely busy, but it's, as I
said, a brilliant time to haveyou this Christmas Eve, since
we're filming it.
Please introduce yourself tothe world and tell people who
(00:43):
you are.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Thank you, bez.
As we say in Australia, g'dayBazza.
Yes, I love this time of theyear it's beautiful, I've got
all the lights along my footpaththat's glowing at night and
even though I don't have anyneighbors, I enjoy them because
I live in quite solitude, whichis awesome.
But yeah, I was in a rock bandin Australia for many years.
(01:08):
I was singing professionallysince the age of five on TV and
what happened to me was it wasinteresting because I don't
think people really understand,baz, what it's like to be in a
rock band.
I was the lead singer, one ofthe main songwriters, the
manager of the band, and to getgigs to start with and then to
(01:28):
get a record contract InAustralia back in the 80s, you
had to have a huge audience thatcame to see you before you
think a record company wouldeven look at you.
It was really quite fascinating, and it's not these days where
you can self-publish and putsongs on iTunes yourself.
It was really challenging backthen and we gigged at one stage
(01:49):
for seven years non-stop andsupported some pretty big bands
like the Pretenders, georgiaSatellites that came out from
America, and until we ended upgetting our own support bands
because we were getting biggerand bigger.
But then after all those yearsof just getting all the videos
out and everything I had, whatwould look like to some people
(02:13):
the worst thing that could everhappen to a young Australian
female singer who'd worked sohard all her life to get to
where she was.
It was a car accident and itwas actually a truck.
I was a passenger with the truckdriver.
We were driving from brisbaneto sydney in australia, so you
know that's a long trek, right,and that back in the day we
(02:35):
didn't have proper highways.
It was just a normal two-laneroad, pretty rough back then the
roads in australia, and wefinally, after about 14 hours,
whatever it was got to Sydney.
But he fell asleep at the wheeland we had a horrific accident.
He was fine, which is amazing,but as the passenger because he
went into a pole, a lot of themusical equipment and we've got
(02:57):
big double, huge speakers andeverything Everything crushed me
.
I was crushed and my body wascompletely destroyed and smashed
bones everywhere.
Probably never, if I was luckyto get through the night I would
.
I'm pretty sure I'd never walkagain and all this sort of thing
.
But I was in that hospital formonths and months and months,
(03:18):
many long operations.
I won't go into all the gorydetails because I don't want
someone to miss their throw up,their breakfast, lunch or dinner
, whatever you're watching thisand so just to say that was the
beginning, baz, of a newtrajectory in my life that awoke
(03:38):
me to so many different thingsand you would think that would
be the worst thing that couldhappen, but it was the best
thing that ever happened to me.
So that's the beginning of apretty amazing journey.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
But you were very young and thank you for sharing
that, michelle.
I mean you were very youngdoing this and coming into that
world.
What was it like for you comingfrom childhood, better stardom,
into all this attention,because that must have been a
really draining thing in itself.
Someone so young going, oh myGod, I've got all this attention
(04:13):
.
What was that transition likefor you?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
No, that never affected me because I worked so
hard and I slogged it out withsome pretty bad bands at times
and so I was used to having beercans thrown at me, because the
Aussie crowds are pretty roughand I guess it was a slow
progress.
It wasn't an overnight thingand when I was a kid the school
(04:41):
kids would.
I even got dunny dunked oncebecause they just because I was
on tv.
The Aussie kids are pretty meanso I was very quiet around
people, but it wasn't that sortof attention.
Because I had to work so hardmanaging the band, making sure
we had the right road crew, therehearsals, the sound quality
(05:01):
was great, big double four-wayspeakers, everything was perfect
.
I never, ever had time to thinkabout myself or anything except
the band.
What we're going to do new songswhen you're in the process of
working so hard and traveling somuch.
There'd be articles and stuff,but we couldn't even watch our
own videos on TV.
(05:23):
My grandfather once woke up inthe middle of the night and put
on MTV and he saw my video andone of the videos I go like this
and it looks like I'm about tofall into a barbed wire fence
and he yelled out watch outMichelle.
He called my mom and he said Ican't believe it.
It looked like she was reallygoing to and it's a video and I
(05:44):
know it's a rock video.
But because we didn't havetelevisions, we were put in for
years and years.
We used to call them cockroachpalaces, with horrible motel
rooms that the gigs would giveyou.
They weren't very good, theywere horrible.
So we would definitely.
It took years before we startedgetting decent places to stay.
(06:05):
So it's a rough life and Icouldn't speak during the day
because I had to work so hard tosing and dance and do all the
stuff crazy stuff I did on stage.
So I had to save my voice andyou will find that nearly any
successful rock band or singerwho doesn't blow out gigs I'm
(06:26):
not talking about Axl Rose orsomething like that they blew
out gigs all the time.
You don't speak during the day.
Hardly anybody does.
Chrissie Hines didn't speakduring the day either, because
you've got to save your voice.
So you leave a very isolatedlife in that respect when you're
in a rock band.
So that's the answer to thatone.
No one's ever asked me thatbefore Baz.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, I can relate to that, actually, because I was
DJing and hosting in an app, acompletely different setup.
I was never a rock star, Iwasn't the famous stardom you
ever, but speaking in thedaytime to tourists, to people,
was a drain for me.
So I can relate to theenvironment, because working you
(07:08):
just worked and when you werespeaking you were getting paid
to speak.
You didn't want to.
From my point of view anyway,you didn't want to be
interacting with people thatwere wasting time and talking to
you about how many shots theycould drink or whatever it was
that the conversation was.
It's interesting because youhad such a demanding lifestyle.
What was the emotional drainfor you?
Speaker 2 (07:31):
it wasn't an emotional drain.
I've been.
I was just driven and a happyperson and extremely disciplined
, making sure the band alwaysshowed, because we're on the
road all the time, so we didn'thave time and we didn't go out
to the crowds and speak to thecrowds or anything.
We would just get to the gig,do the rehearsals, do the gig
(07:52):
and and wait till everyone hadleft and then come out.
We'd always come out and helpthe road crew, even though we
paid them to do it, because Ijust found it kept the boys
humble.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Yeah, I like the value that that shows compassion
for other people.
A lot of people who have thatlevel of authority they lose in
the translation because theybecome very egoic.
What, in the industry, is verydemanding.
As you said, you're always onthe go.
(08:22):
What was the most favorite,what was the most passionate
part of your job?
I know it was serving andenjoying what you were doing,
but on a deeper level, what wasthe passionate part?
What really fueled it?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
When we had written a really good song and I could
feel I would always know if asong was really good, because I
get what I used to call Godbumps I still call it God bumps,
actually and I would just know.
And then when you'd see theaudience singing along to the
songs you've written, it'seuphoric, it's hard to explain.
It's hard to explain, it's notego or anything like that, it's
(08:58):
just when you've worked so hardto get to where you are nonstop
just horrible little gigs andget it to that point.
It just feels very fulfillingand joyful.
And it used to make me cry whenI'd go backstage because I'd
say they're all singing our song.
It was just so miraculous to mebecause after all those years
(09:20):
of slogging it out, to have thathappen was amazing.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
When you look back now and you've got a huge amount
of success, influence.
And when I say success, itisn't about self-success, it's
about impact on other people.
And that's what I love aboutyou, because when I say success,
it isn't about self-success,it's about impact on other
people.
And that's what I love aboutyou, because when I say that you
just light up, your whole bodyjust comes alive, and I love
that.
What would you tell youryoungest version of yourself,
(09:47):
your 10-year-old self, lookingback now?
Would you do anythingdifferently if you had a chance
to go back and say, look, don'tdo this, do this instead.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
I think the only thing would be um, I had a
couple of guitarists before Istarted creating my own bands.
I would be the singer forsomeone else who created the
band.
One of the creations was we'llfind a singer, and it was me.
And I had a couple of theguitarists that were just mean,
horrible guys who would justwant to go through listening
(10:20):
back to the.
You know you, I don't think yousang that note as well as you
could.
They were just mean.
I had one one guitarist whowould lock me in my motel room,
wouldn't let me out at night.
So if I ever did get a chanceto go out, I couldn't.
So I actually had to escape.
I had to get the guys in theband to help me get a bus ticket
(10:40):
to Sydney.
I was right up in Cairns to getaway from this guy.
I didn't date anyone I workedwith, but I would just tell
myself don't join those bands,get out of them straight away.
If there are any mean guys,just leave straight away.
I wouldn't go through thatagain.
But the thing is, when you gothrough something like that, it
(11:01):
makes you stronger, because Iwas all that long bus drive back
to Sydney.
I just said I'm going to startmy own band.
I'm never going to be insomeone else's band, ever again.
I'm going to get the coolestguys and girls to work with that
are nice people, that aren'tbig drinkers or egotistical and
I did, and it took me a fewyears to get everyone I wanted,
(11:24):
but the guys were just the mostamazing people to work with and
kind and funny.
It's like we all loved A LifeCalled Brian and all those sort
of things.
We all had our own jokes andstuff.
So that's why I think for sure,actually, now that you're making
me think back on this, that'swhy I ended up working so hard
(11:44):
to start my own band and get thebest players and the nicest
people I could work with, evenour road crew.
They were just amazing andthey'd work with the biggest
names, but we paid out a lot ofextra money to get the road crew
.
They were just amazing andthey'd work with the biggest
names, but we paid out a lot ofextra money to get the road crew
.
We all would have bugger allmoney ourselves to get the best
road crew because your lightingand your sound is everything
(12:04):
with in a band.
So anyway, but questions wow,unique ones too.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
I love that because what you're doing is setting the
stage for from the lowestpoints and then learning the
lessons.
I think it's so important thatmany people just think it's
about just doing it and then itall works out.
But while you're explaining,it's very true, and anybody
(12:32):
who's got any level of success,there's success.
There's always this storybehind the scenes that no one
knows about of the stress Like,oh my God, why am I doing this?
Why does this happen?
But, like you said, then youraised your standard and then
(12:52):
set the intention for this iswhat I want Because of the
experiences that you knew youdidn't want.
Right, you get locked in a hotelgetting nasty people that you
didn't gel with, but that's alla part of the journey.
Burnout and failure inleaderships in any walk of life
is about them.
(13:13):
Lessons in any walk of life isabout them lessons, and you're
just a a a gleaming example ofsomebody who applied the lessons
but not just went and did itwhen a big fuck you to everybody
and they excelled in it to thatnext level, which is incredible
.
Many people just think I'll stophere.
Somebody once told me and Ican't remember who it was 15
(13:37):
years is the number that you seeovernight success, and it's 15
years in the making that you seesomebody at a level where you
think I could admire that person.
But what you don't see, andyou've explained just then, is
the heartache, the late nights,the unknowns, the uncertainty,
the variables that go into it.
(13:59):
As a performer that is tryingto make a name for themselves
and extremely good at what theydo, what did you find that was
your sweet spot?
I know it was singing, but whatabout?
The singing was making you comealive.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Well, apparently I've been singing since I was two.
Mum said I could sing all thesongs on the radio before I
could even speak properly and Iknew that it made people happy.
I was a pretty quiet kid,apparently, but they would put
me on the kitchen table and Iwould sing to the grandparents
and it would make people happyand the nuns.
I went to a beautiful catholicschool and the nuns put me in
all the school of stedvitz andthat made them happy, because
(14:42):
then the nuns I went to abeautiful Catholic school and
the nuns put me in all theschool of Stedvitz and that made
them happy, because then theschool would win for me singing
and it's just something that Ilove to do and I would challenge
myself in the studios as well,to sing the highest notes I
(15:04):
could possibly get to and do thebest runs and then have to do
that and do it live exactly thesame to make it sound like the
record.
And I used to love to challengemyself to be able to do that,
because when I could get to anote and then go to an even
higher note, it's euphoricbecause you don't feel like it's
(15:25):
you doing it even though it isyou doing it, but it takes such
practice and such discipline.
And so when you do really do agood job, you do a gig that was
great and all the band was greatand everything was in absolute
harmony.
It's it just is very fulfilling, because you know what it's
like.
I say to people if you could runyour business like a successful
(15:49):
rock band, where everything'sgot to be in harmony and you've
got to show up on time, you'vegot to be disciplined and you
only work with the people thatyou're in harmony with, you'll
always be successful in yourlife.
It's a good analogy, I think.
Actually, and I've used thatever since I started my actual
own bands.
It was like that's the way togo.
(16:09):
You don't act like the boss,but you're disciplined with
everybody.
You don't say to the guysthat's okay, you broke your
strings, Where's your sparestrings?
There's so many things you haveto when you're managing a band.
You've got to make sureeveryone's got spare strings.
This the drummer's always gotto make sure they've got.
There's so much going on.
(16:30):
But as far as singing, that'sthe sweet spot is when you know
you've done a really good joband everything's been in harmony
.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
I love that word that you said there harmony because
I think it's often overlooked innot just business but light as
well, and what people a lot ofpeople don't realize is your
business is an extension who youare, and if things aren't
aligning, there's somethingwrong, not just externally, but
internally.
So that's a good thing to lookat and remind the viewers of and
(17:03):
the listeners of today.
Look internally for what'sreally going on, not just
externally, because there'salways a balance and I want to
speak about the balance in thenext part of this, because you
had a profound awakening is anunderstatement, from what I can
gather for the viewers.
If you're tired of justsurviving and you're wanting to
(17:27):
thrive, take a notepad and penout and going to this podcast
and this episode and just writedown the top five tips that you
can get off Michelle, becausewhat she's laying out here is
her pathway to a life that shenever needed, a holiday from, a
(17:49):
life that she lives and thrivesin, and that's happiness, that's
fulfillment.
It doesn't come from amaterialistic world of money and
success, but they can be acomponent of it in success, but
they can be a component of it.
Michelle blood is an example of, and to us all all.
(18:10):
Success isn't external, it'sinternal.
Before we close this sectionepisode, how was your some of
your perceived failures?
How did you strengthen them inthe future?
They didn't repeat themselves Iwouldn't repeat them.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
I didn't I.
I never, ever thought anythingI did was a failure, ever.
I just knew I wasn'texperienced enough yet to be
able to do that.
I just needed more experience.
And you just keep doing it.
It's like like anything.
You don't fail, you're justlearning as you go.
Oh, I didn't do that, but I'llknow next time to do it.
(18:50):
So I don't even look at a wordlike failure, because I think
it's going to make people feellike a failure.
Oh, what a knucklehead.
I buggered that up.
I'll do better next time.
Basically, that's my attitude.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
But that's gold because it's reframing it.
It's not staying in thenegativity of oh I did this,
self-blame, self-pity,self-worth.
You've then translated it intoit's not a failure, it's just an
experience, and now we know notto do it.
I think it's a very poignantway to look at things, because a
(19:28):
lot of people don't.
They're, we're conditioned as asociety to look into oh, that's
the negative and that's whereI'm going to stay.
You didn't, and that takes alot of courage, and also,
courage is built from resilience.
Vice versa, they go hand inhand.
In the next part of this, Iwant to look into your awakening
(19:57):
and that journey from the rockstar rock band into, oh my God,
there's so much more.
And, as you and I both yeah,yeah, you and I both know there
is so much more and a lot of itis there to be experienced
(20:20):
before we go, is there any tipsyou would like to share with the
audience about understandingthemselves from a lesser point
of view than they actually are?
Speaker 2 (20:32):
The thing is, you're not an island.
You're not alone.
You're never alone.
You think you are, but you'renot.
We're all so very connectedwith this higher power that is
extraordinary, that is animatingevery cell of your being.
You're not just a human being,you are a powerful entity called
the infinite.
That is what you are one with.
(20:54):
You may not feel it at themoment, but you can.
Change can happen.
Some people say you can havechange overnight.
Yes, that is true, but you haveto be patient with yourself and
learn in increments.
Just take small bites and learnthat way, because then, before
you know it, you've eaten thewhole elephant.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
I love that analogy.
Michelle, thank you very much.
I will see you in the secondepisode and viewers, people
listening now, please subscribe,share the episode because you
will, I guarantee you, changesomeone's life.
Look forward to the nextepisode very shortly, which is
part two, and how Michelledecided to go deeper within
(21:39):
herself to really explore hertrue nature.
See you on the second episode,share it and I'll see you very
shortly.
ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode
of rise from the ashes aburnout to brilliance.
This is season five and my nextguest is a literal rock star.
That's where she started.
Her name is michelle blood andshe's an awesome human being,
transformational leader, andshe's inspiring to create change
(00:23):
around billions of people inthe world.
Michelle, welcome to Roast fromthe Ashes.
It is a privilege and an honorto have you here.
I know your schedule isextremely busy, but it's, as I
said, a brilliant time to haveyou this Christmas Eve, since
we're filming it.
Please introduce yourself tothe world and tell people who
(00:43):
you are.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Thank you, bez.
As we say in Australia, g'dayBazza.
Yes, I love this time of theyear it's beautiful, I've got
all the lights along my footpaththat's glowing at night and
even though I don't have anyneighbors, I enjoy them because
I live in quite solitude, whichis awesome.
But yeah, I was in a rock bandin Australia for many years.
(01:08):
I was singing professionallysince the age of five on TV and
what happened to me was it wasinteresting because I don't
think people really understand,baz, what it's like to be in a
rock band.
I was the lead singer, one ofthe main songwriters, the
manager of the band, and to getgigs to start with and then to
(01:28):
get a record contract InAustralia back in the 80s, you
had to have a huge audience thatcame to see you before you
think a record company wouldeven look at you.
It was really quite fascinating, and it's not these days where
you can self-publish and putsongs on iTunes yourself.
It was really challenging backthen and we gigged at one stage
(01:49):
for seven years non-stop andsupported some pretty big bands
like the Pretenders, georgiaSatellites that came out from
America, and until we ended upgetting our own support bands
because we were getting biggerand bigger.
But then after all those yearsof just getting all the videos
out and everything I had, whatwould look like to some people
(02:13):
the worst thing that could everhappen to a young Australian
female singer who'd worked sohard all her life to get to
where she was.
It was a car accident and itwas actually a truck.
I was a passenger with the truckdriver.
We were driving from brisbaneto sydney in australia, so you
know that's a long trek, right,and that back in the day we
(02:35):
didn't have proper highways.
It was just a normal two-laneroad, pretty rough back then the
roads in australia, and wefinally, after about 14 hours,
whatever it was got to Sydney.
But he fell asleep at the wheeland we had a horrific accident.
He was fine, which is amazing,but as the passenger because he
went into a pole, a lot of themusical equipment and we've got
(02:57):
big double, huge speakers andeverything Everything crushed me
.
I was crushed and my body wascompletely destroyed and smashed
bones everywhere.
Probably never, if I was luckyto get through the night I would
.
I'm pretty sure I'd never walkagain and all this sort of thing
.
But I was in that hospital formonths and months and months,
(03:18):
many long operations.
I won't go into all the gorydetails because I don't want
someone to miss their throw up,their breakfast, lunch or dinner
, whatever you're watching thisand so just to say that was the
beginning, baz, of a newtrajectory in my life that awoke
(03:38):
me to so many different thingsand you would think that would
be the worst thing that couldhappen, but it was the best
thing that ever happened to me.
So that's the beginning of apretty amazing journey.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
But you were very young and thank you for sharing
that, michelle.
I mean you were very youngdoing this and coming into that
world.
What was it like for you comingfrom childhood, better stardom,
into all this attention,because that must have been a
really draining thing in itself.
Someone so young going, oh myGod, I've got all this attention
(04:13):
.
What was that transition likefor you?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
No, that never affected me because I worked so
hard and I slogged it out withsome pretty bad bands at times
and so I was used to having beercans thrown at me, because the
Aussie crowds are pretty roughand I guess it was a slow
progress.
It wasn't an overnight thingand when I was a kid the school
(04:41):
kids would.
I even got dunny dunked oncebecause they just because I was
on tv.
The Aussie kids are pretty meanso I was very quiet around
people, but it wasn't that sortof attention.
Because I had to work so hardmanaging the band, making sure
we had the right road crew, therehearsals, the sound quality
(05:01):
was great, big double four-wayspeakers, everything was perfect
.
I never, ever had time to thinkabout myself or anything except
the band.
What we're going to do new songswhen you're in the process of
working so hard and traveling somuch.
There'd be articles and stuff,but we couldn't even watch our
own videos on TV.
(05:23):
My grandfather once woke up inthe middle of the night and put
on MTV and he saw my video andone of the videos I go like this
and it looks like I'm about tofall into a barbed wire fence
and he yelled out watch outMichelle.
He called my mom and he said Ican't believe it.
It looked like she was reallygoing to and it's a video and I
(05:44):
know it's a rock video.
But because we didn't havetelevisions, we were put in for
years and years.
We used to call them cockroachpalaces, with horrible motel
rooms that the gigs would giveyou.
They weren't very good, theywere horrible.
So we would definitely.
It took years before we startedgetting decent places to stay.
(06:05):
So it's a rough life and Icouldn't speak during the day
because I had to work so hard tosing and dance and do all the
stuff crazy stuff I did on stage.
So I had to save my voice andyou will find that nearly any
successful rock band or singerwho doesn't blow out gigs I'm
(06:26):
not talking about Axl Rose orsomething like that they blew
out gigs all the time.
You don't speak during the day.
Hardly anybody does.
Chrissie Hines didn't speakduring the day either, because
you've got to save your voice.
So you leave a very isolatedlife in that respect when you're
in a rock band.
So that's the answer to thatone.
No one's ever asked me thatbefore Baz.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, I can relate to that, actually, because I was
DJing and hosting in an app, acompletely different setup.
I was never a rock star, Iwasn't the famous stardom you
ever, but speaking in thedaytime to tourists, to people,
was a drain for me.
So I can relate to theenvironment, because working you
(07:08):
just worked and when you werespeaking you were getting paid
to speak.
You didn't want to.
From my point of view anyway,you didn't want to be
interacting with people thatwere wasting time and talking to
you about how many shots theycould drink or whatever it was
that the conversation was.
It's interesting because youhad such a demanding lifestyle.
What was the emotional drainfor you?
Speaker 2 (07:31):
it wasn't an emotional drain.
I've been.
I was just driven and a happyperson and extremely disciplined
, making sure the band alwaysshowed, because we're on the
road all the time, so we didn'thave time and we didn't go out
to the crowds and speak to thecrowds or anything.
We would just get to the gig,do the rehearsals, do the gig
(07:52):
and and wait till everyone hadleft and then come out.
We'd always come out and helpthe road crew, even though we
paid them to do it, because Ijust found it kept the boys
humble.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Yeah, I like the value that that shows compassion
for other people.
A lot of people who have thatlevel of authority they lose in
the translation because theybecome very egoic.
What, in the industry, is verydemanding.
As you said, you're always onthe go.
(08:22):
What was the most favorite,what was the most passionate
part of your job?
I know it was serving andenjoying what you were doing,
but on a deeper level, what wasthe passionate part?
What really fueled it?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
When we had written a really good song and I could
feel I would always know if asong was really good, because I
get what I used to call Godbumps I still call it God bumps,
actually and I would just know.
And then when you'd see theaudience singing along to the
songs you've written, it'seuphoric, it's hard to explain.
It's hard to explain, it's notego or anything like that, it's
(08:58):
just when you've worked so hardto get to where you are nonstop
just horrible little gigs andget it to that point.
It just feels very fulfillingand joyful.
And it used to make me cry whenI'd go backstage because I'd
say they're all singing our song.
It was just so miraculous to mebecause after all those years
(09:20):
of slogging it out, to have thathappen was amazing.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
When you look back now and you've got a huge amount
of success, influence.
And when I say success, itisn't about self-success, it's
about impact on other people.
And that's what I love aboutyou, because when I say success,
it isn't about self-success,it's about impact on other
people.
And that's what I love aboutyou, because when I say that you
just light up, your whole bodyjust comes alive, and I love
that.
What would you tell youryoungest version of yourself,
(09:47):
your 10-year-old self, lookingback now?
Would you do anythingdifferently if you had a chance
to go back and say, look, don'tdo this, do this instead.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
I think the only thing would be um, I had a
couple of guitarists before Istarted creating my own bands.
I would be the singer forsomeone else who created the
band.
One of the creations was we'llfind a singer, and it was me.
And I had a couple of theguitarists that were just mean,
horrible guys who would justwant to go through listening
(10:20):
back to the.
You know you, I don't think yousang that note as well as you
could.
They were just mean.
I had one one guitarist whowould lock me in my motel room,
wouldn't let me out at night.
So if I ever did get a chanceto go out, I couldn't.
So I actually had to escape.
I had to get the guys in theband to help me get a bus ticket
(10:40):
to Sydney.
I was right up in Cairns to getaway from this guy.
I didn't date anyone I workedwith, but I would just tell
myself don't join those bands,get out of them straight away.
If there are any mean guys,just leave straight away.
I wouldn't go through thatagain.
But the thing is, when you gothrough something like that, it
(11:01):
makes you stronger, because Iwas all that long bus drive back
to Sydney.
I just said I'm going to startmy own band.
I'm never going to be insomeone else's band, ever again.
I'm going to get the coolestguys and girls to work with that
are nice people, that aren'tbig drinkers or egotistical and
I did, and it took me a fewyears to get everyone I wanted,
(11:24):
but the guys were just the mostamazing people to work with and
kind and funny.
It's like we all loved A LifeCalled Brian and all those sort
of things.
We all had our own jokes andstuff.
So that's why I think for sure,actually, now that you're making
me think back on this, that'swhy I ended up working so hard
(11:44):
to start my own band and get thebest players and the nicest
people I could work with, evenour road crew.
They were just amazing andthey'd work with the biggest
names, but we paid out a lot ofextra money to get the road crew
.
They were just amazing andthey'd work with the biggest
names, but we paid out a lot ofextra money to get the road crew
.
We all would have bugger allmoney ourselves to get the best
road crew because your lightingand your sound is everything
(12:04):
with in a band.
So anyway, but questions wow,unique ones too.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
I love that because what you're doing is setting the
stage for from the lowestpoints and then learning the
lessons.
I think it's so important thatmany people just think it's
about just doing it and then itall works out.
But while you're explaining,it's very true, and anybody
(12:32):
who's got any level of success,there's success.
There's always this storybehind the scenes that no one
knows about of the stress Like,oh my God, why am I doing this?
Why does this happen?
But, like you said, then youraised your standard and then
(12:52):
set the intention for this iswhat I want Because of the
experiences that you knew youdidn't want.
Right, you get locked in a hotelgetting nasty people that you
didn't gel with, but that's alla part of the journey.
Burnout and failure inleaderships in any walk of life
is about them.
(13:13):
Lessons in any walk of life isabout them lessons, and you're
just a a a gleaming example ofsomebody who applied the lessons
but not just went and did itwhen a big fuck you to everybody
and they excelled in it to thatnext level, which is incredible
.
Many people just think I'll stophere.
Somebody once told me and Ican't remember who it was 15
(13:37):
years is the number that you seeovernight success, and it's 15
years in the making that you seesomebody at a level where you
think I could admire that person.
But what you don't see, andyou've explained just then, is
the heartache, the late nights,the unknowns, the uncertainty,
the variables that go into it.
(13:59):
As a performer that is tryingto make a name for themselves
and extremely good at what theydo, what did you find that was
your sweet spot?
I know it was singing, but whatabout?
The singing was making you comealive.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Well, apparently I've been singing since I was two.
Mum said I could sing all thesongs on the radio before I
could even speak properly and Iknew that it made people happy.
I was a pretty quiet kid,apparently, but they would put
me on the kitchen table and Iwould sing to the grandparents
and it would make people happyand the nuns.
I went to a beautiful catholicschool and the nuns put me in
all the school of stedvitz andthat made them happy, because
(14:42):
then the nuns I went to abeautiful Catholic school and
the nuns put me in all theschool of Stedvitz and that made
them happy, because then theschool would win for me singing
and it's just something that Ilove to do and I would challenge
myself in the studios as well,to sing the highest notes I
(15:04):
could possibly get to and do thebest runs and then have to do
that and do it live exactly thesame to make it sound like the
record.
And I used to love to challengemyself to be able to do that,
because when I could get to anote and then go to an even
higher note, it's euphoricbecause you don't feel like it's
(15:25):
you doing it even though it isyou doing it, but it takes such
practice and such discipline.
And so when you do really do agood job, you do a gig that was
great and all the band was greatand everything was in absolute
harmony.
It's it just is very fulfilling, because you know what it's
like.
I say to people if you could runyour business like a successful
(15:49):
rock band, where everything'sgot to be in harmony and you've
got to show up on time, you'vegot to be disciplined and you
only work with the people thatyou're in harmony with, you'll
always be successful in yourlife.
It's a good analogy, I think.
Actually, and I've used thatever since I started my actual
own bands.
It was like that's the way togo.
(16:09):
You don't act like the boss,but you're disciplined with
everybody.
You don't say to the guysthat's okay, you broke your
strings, Where's your sparestrings?
There's so many things you haveto when you're managing a band.
You've got to make sureeveryone's got spare strings.
This the drummer's always gotto make sure they've got.
There's so much going on.
(16:30):
But as far as singing, that'sthe sweet spot is when you know
you've done a really good joband everything's been in harmony
.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
I love that word that you said there harmony because
I think it's often overlooked innot just business but light as
well, and what people a lot ofpeople don't realize is your
business is an extension who youare, and if things aren't
aligning, there's somethingwrong, not just externally, but
internally.
So that's a good thing to lookat and remind the viewers of and
(17:03):
the listeners of today.
Look internally for what'sreally going on, not just
externally, because there'salways a balance and I want to
speak about the balance in thenext part of this, because you
had a profound awakening is anunderstatement, from what I can
gather for the viewers.
If you're tired of justsurviving and you're wanting to
(17:27):
thrive, take a notepad and penout and going to this podcast
and this episode and just writedown the top five tips that you
can get off Michelle, becausewhat she's laying out here is
her pathway to a life that shenever needed, a holiday from, a
(17:49):
life that she lives and thrivesin, and that's happiness, that's
fulfillment.
It doesn't come from amaterialistic world of money and
success, but they can be acomponent of it in success, but
they can be a component of it.
Michelle blood is an example of, and to us all all.
(18:10):
Success isn't external, it'sinternal.
Before we close this sectionepisode, how was your some of
your perceived failures?
How did you strengthen them inthe future?
They didn't repeat themselves Iwouldn't repeat them.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
I didn't I.
I never, ever thought anythingI did was a failure, ever.
I just knew I wasn'texperienced enough yet to be
able to do that.
I just needed more experience.
And you just keep doing it.
It's like like anything.
You don't fail, you're justlearning as you go.
Oh, I didn't do that, but I'llknow next time to do it.
(18:50):
So I don't even look at a wordlike failure, because I think
it's going to make people feellike a failure.
Oh, what a knucklehead.
I buggered that up.
I'll do better next time.
Basically, that's my attitude.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
But that's gold because it's reframing it.
It's not staying in thenegativity of oh I did this,
self-blame, self-pity,self-worth.
You've then translated it intoit's not a failure, it's just an
experience, and now we know notto do it.
I think it's a very poignantway to look at things, because a
(19:28):
lot of people don't.
They're, we're conditioned as asociety to look into oh, that's
the negative and that's whereI'm going to stay.
You didn't, and that takes alot of courage, and also,
courage is built from resilience.
Vice versa, they go hand inhand.
In the next part of this, Iwant to look into your awakening
(19:57):
and that journey from the rockstar rock band into, oh my God,
there's so much more.
And, as you and I both yeah,yeah, you and I both know there
is so much more and a lot of itis there to be experienced
(20:20):
before we go, is there any tipsyou would like to share with the
audience about understandingthemselves from a lesser point
of view than they actually are?
Speaker 2 (20:32):
The thing is, you're not an island.
You're not alone.
You're never alone.
You think you are, but you'renot.
We're all so very connectedwith this higher power that is
extraordinary, that is animatingevery cell of your being.
You're not just a human being,you are a powerful entity called
the infinite.
That is what you are one with.
(20:54):
You may not feel it at themoment, but you can.
Change can happen.
Some people say you can havechange overnight.
Yes, that is true, but you haveto be patient with yourself and
learn in increments.
Just take small bites and learnthat way, because then, before
you know it, you've eaten thewhole elephant.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
I love that analogy.
Michelle, thank you very much.
I will see you in the secondepisode and viewers, people
listening now, please subscribe,share the episode because you
will, I guarantee you, changesomeone's life.
Look forward to the nextepisode very shortly, which is
part two, and how Michelledecided to go deeper within
(21:39):
herself to really explore hertrue nature.
See you on the second episode,share it and I'll see you very
shortly.
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