Michelle Stephenson Part 2 - Turning the tables on Di and Nicola

This week Nicola and Di chat with 2 incredibly inspiring women, Nici Andronicus and Tania Taylor-Frost, whose stories will give you a huge boost. Both of these women do incredible work for the charity Be Centre, which changes the lives of children through play therapy. Nici is a former elite athlete, who represented Australia in triathlon and modern pentathlon. She competed in 10 world championships and over 90 international events, becoming world no. 2 in 1997 and a three-time national triathlon champion. Not only that, Nici is a mother of 5, and does a lot of incredible work for different charities. Tania is the CEO of the Be Centre, helping children navigate trauma and big emotions through play therapy and early support. She’s also the director of the Sydney Skinny, a passionate force for children’s mental health and a fierce advocate for early intervention. Tania is also a proud mum of 2.  In this conversation you’ll hear Nici’s powerful story of what it was like when her husband was diagnosed with brain cancer when she was 20 weeks pregnant with their 5th child. Nici was able to draw on the incredible resilience and strong mindset that she developed in her career as an elite athlete, to help her get through what was arguably the biggest challenge of her life.  Nici shares openly and vulnerably about what it was like for her family, and how her youngest child was deeply affected and needed the support of the Be Centre to be able to process the trauma and difficult emotions that he was going through.  We also hear Tania’s story, and how she originally met Nicola during a hiking trip with Wild Women On Top, where they were supposed to share a tent - you’ll have to listen in to hear what actually happened. She shares about why she was motivated to switch from working in tech for corporates and government to working for charities, and what it’s like for her now in her role as CEO for the Be Centre.  When you listen to the passion that these 2 women have for making a positive difference in the world and the way they talk about giving as a gift to self, we guarantee you’ll feel inspired like we did.  If you want to give back in a really fun way, we’d love you to consider attending the Be Centre Annual Charity Gala, on Friday May 30th. Tickets are $280 and all proceeds help families and children who otherwise could not access therapy due to financial hardship.  This episode is proudly supported by Montgomery Investment Management, trusted experts helping you build and protect your financial future.  Follow Be Centre on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/becentrefoundation/ Buy Tickets to the Be Centre Annual Charity Gala here - https://www.becentre.org.au/events/save-the-date-be-centre-annual-gala-dinner-30-may-2025/ Follow Be Centre on Facebook here - https://www.facebook.com/becentre/ Follow Nici on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/niciandronicus1/ Follow the GIANTS on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/gwsgiants/ Follow Nicola and Di on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/overthebackfencepodcast/ Buy your Eir Women products here. Use code OTBF20 at checkout for a 20% discountSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Nicola and Di are excited to bring you the first episode of our new financial series, Over The Money Fence with Roger Montgomery. This series aims to help you take control of your finances with clarity and confidence. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by investing, unsure about what’s happening in the markets, or you just want to make a smarter decision with your money then you are in the right place. We will be joined each month by financial expert Roger Montgomery, who you may remember from our 100th episode. Roger is the Founder and Chairman of Montgomery Investment Management, has over 30 years’ investing experience and a highly respected financial commentator featuring on various ABC programs, as well as his popular column in The Australian newspaper. He is also the author of best-selling investment guidebook Value.able. In this conversation we chat about a really important topic - where should you invest when markets feel wild and you feel scared? Roger gives us such reassuring and calming advice about what we need to pay attention to, what we can tune out, and why it’s important to take your time when it comes to making financial decisions.  He is able to explain the share market in a way that’s not only understandable, but interesting and talks to us about the difference between speculating and investing. We also talk about other ways of investing that aren’t as volatile as the share market, including private credit, gold and term deposits. Roger gives us a brief overview of the pros and cons of each of these investments, and why you might choose one over the other.  We also have a meaningful chat about what’s really important in life, and that true value lies in the relationships we have with the people we love.  We learnt so much from Roger in this episode, and more importantly we already feel more calm and confident when it comes to our finances. Roger also set some homework for us all this month -  get all of your investments down on paper, make sure you know where all your money is, and find out what return they’ve been generating for you. Stay tuned until the end of the episode to hear Di, Nicola and their producer Sam chat about what impacted them from this conversation - believe it or not, there are tears already.  This episode is proudly supported by Montgomery Investment Management, trusted experts helping you build and protect your financial future.  If you're interested in further information about managing and protecting your financial future, please contact David Buckland, Chief Executive Officer or Rhodri Taylor, Account Manager on (02) 8046 5000 or [email protected]. Find out more about Montgomery Investment Management here - https://montinvest.com Learn more about Roger and read his articles here - https://rogermontgomery.com Buy Roger's book Value.able here - https://rogermontgomery.com/valueable-book/ Follow Roger’s YouTube channel here  - https://www.youtube.com/user/rogerjmontgomery Follow Roger on X here - https://x.com/rjmontgomery Follow Roger on Facebook here - https://www.facebook.com/montgomeryroger/ Follow Roger on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rogermontgomery/ Follow Nicola and Di on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/overthebackfencepodcast/ Follow Nicola and Di on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/@Overthebackfencepodcast/podcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Nicola and Di chat with the fascinating Feng Shui expert, Kelly McCloskey. Kelly has been transforming her client’s spaces and lives for the past decade and helps them to create environments of love, growth, financial abundance and wellbeing. She is one of only a handful of individuals in Australia who has trained under masters of San Yuen Yuen Gua Feng Shui, a method that can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty.  In this conversation, we hear all about the fascinating world of Feng Shui, which is essentially the energy of a house or space. Kelly explains about the 9 different sectors of Feng Shui, which everyone has in their homes and how to find out what they are so you can get the most out of the space you’re in.  Kelly gives us great tips on some of the simple things we can do in our homes to make sure we have good energy (chi) flowing through our space and are attracting the things we want in life. You’ll have to tune in to hear those.  She tells us how powerful artwork can be in the home, and the incredible story of how she has manifested everything that’s ever been on the wall behind her bedhead. Di also shares her own amazing story of how she was told to take down paintings of single women in her home, because it was blocking the energy of love, and shortly after, she met a man.   We had so much fun chatting with Kelly. There was good energy all round in the studio that day and we hope you can feel the good vibes as you listen.  This episode is proudly sponsored by Eir Women. Use code OTBF20 at checkout to receive a 20% discount on any purchase. Follow Kelly on IG here Find out more about Kelly’s work here Follow Kelly on TikTok here Follow Nicola and Di on IG here Buy your Eir Women products here. Use code OTBF20 at checkout for a 20% discountSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Nicola and Di celebrate their 100th episode!! To mark this special occasion, Nicola and Di chat with the successful and relatable Roger Montgomery. Roger is the Founder and Chairman of Montgomery Investment Management, has over 30 years’ investing experience and a highly respected financial commentator featuring on various ABC programs, as well as his popular column in The Australian newspaper. He is also the author of best-selling investment guidebook Value.able. We really wanted to have Roger on our podcast because he has a gift for making investing andfinances so easy to understand, and he keeps things relevant and fun. He is full of wise advice and has even been described as the Warren Buffet of Australia. Roger is also a family man, with a beautiful wife and 3 children, who we get to hear more about in this interview. In this conversation Roger helps us understand how we can become more aware of our attitude towards money and how it forms when we’re really young. He shares with us a great little test you can do with your kids, which will give you a good idea of whether they’ll be a good saver when it comes to money, or whether they’ll spend it.  Roger chats to us about the money challenges that women in their 50s and over are facing, with divorce rates going up and many women being faced with a situation they weren’t expecting, and having to learn how to navigate their financial future, which can feel a bit daunting at times. We talk about why it’s so important to learn more about managing your money, slow down rather than being rushed into a financial decision, surround yourself with people you trust, and be more empowered when it comes to your money.  We also get to hear a little bit of Roger’s personal story, the jobs he had as a kid and the values his mum instilled in him at an early age. Roger shares the beautiful story of how he met his wife on the ferry when he was 27, and they’ve now been married for 26 years.   Di brings up her fear of the stock market, and Roger gives her some great, calming advice. The good news is, this is the very beginning of our conversations with Roger, who is going to teach us everything we need to know about finance and help break down some of the fears we might have when it comes to money or investing. We are thrilled to announce we will be doing a monthly series with Roger called Over the Money Fence, which is going to help us all feel more confident about managing our money.  Happy 100th episode! We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did and we want to say a huge THANK YOU to all our listeners who have been with us from the beginning, and to those who have joined along the way. We could not do this without you.   This episode is proudly sponsored by Eir Women. Use code OTBF20 at checkout to receive a 20% discount on any purchase. Find out more about Montgomery Investment Management here - https://montinvest.com Learn more about Roger and read his articles here - https://rogermontgomery.com Buy Roger's book Value.able here - https://rogermontgomery.com/valueable-book/ Follow Roger’s YouTube channel here  - https://www.youtube.com/user/rogerjmontgomeryFollow Roger on X here - https://x.com/rjmontgomery Follow Roger on Facebook here - https://www.facebook.com/montgomeryroger/Follow Roger on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rogermontgomery/ Follow Nicola and Di on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/overthebackfencepodcast/ Buy your Eir Women products here. Use code OTBF20 at checkout for a 20% discount  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Nicola and Di chat with the wise and incredible Sally Loane. Sally has had a remarkable career from starting as a journalist in print media, moving into broadcasting with ABC radio, before jumping into the corporate world and establishing herself as a non-executive director on several boards - including being the first woman on the board at the NSW Waratahs in its 135 year history! She is currently the Chairman of Destination NSW and sits on the board for several charities and other organisations. She is such an inspiring woman, who has consistently reinvented herself and believes in stepping up courageously when new opportunities present themselves. In this conversation, we go right back to Sally’s childhood and what it was like growing up in Tenterfield, spending her mornings being homeschooled by mum, and her afternoons in the paddock with dad. She shares how her country upbringing taught her so much about resilience, which she would come to rely on later in life when she experienced great loss.  We talk all about Sally’s early career in journalism, her time as a political reporter, the mentors she had along the way and how terrifying it was for her to make the switch from print to broadcasting and being live-on-air with the ABC. We also find out that Di was one of Sally’s loyal listeners from her days at the ABC and has been a bit of a fan girl ever since. We chat about Sally’s career transitions and reinventions and how she finds the confidence to keep taking on the next challenge.  Sally is also passionate about women’s financial independence and so we talk about finance, why it has been a taboo topic in the past, and she shares some great tips for women to look after their financial health and how it’s never too late to contribute to your super.  This was such a wonderful conversation with Sally, and we could have talked with her for hours. It was just like chatting with a girlfriend. We hope you enjoy this as much as we did.  This episode is proudly sponsored by Eir Women. Use code OTBF20 at checkout to receive a 20% discount on any purchase.  Follow Sally on IG here Follow Destination NSW on IG here Follow Nicola and Di on IG here Buy your Eir Women products here. Use code OTBF20 at checkout for a 20% discountSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Nicola and Di chat with the Instaqueen of Palm Beach, Suebelle. Suebelle has gained an incredible following on social media and has become an icon of style, captivating her fans with her daily outfits, fashion tips and hilarious sense of humour.  In this wonderful conversation, we hear all about Suebelle’s fascinating life - growing up in Texas, moving to Boston and becoming a first-grade teacher by day and a PlayBoy Bunny by night, before changing careers and working in travel, where she met her first husband in Honolulu. After what Suebelle describes as ‘a nice little divorce’, she went on to meet the love of her life, Richard, who she had 38 beautiful years with before he passed away earlier this year.  Suebelle shares so many great stories from her life - including that time she kissed Ronald Reagan at the White House and told him how adorable she thought he was!  Suebelle also tells us why she loves Palm Beach so much, what she gets up to with her posse of girlfriends, her favourite places to go and why she loves her followers on Instagram and always makes the time to be kind to her fans. And of course, we also get some great tips on fashion, entertaining and dating from this Palm Beach queen.  We had so much fun chatting to Suebelle and could not wipe the smiles off our faces - as Suebelle says, it’s all about being positive and not taking yourself too seriously. We couldn't agree more! We hope you love this episode as much as we did. This episode is proudly sponsored by Eir Women. Use code OTBF20 at checkout to receive a 20% discount on any purchase.  Follow Suebelle on IG here Follow Suebelle on FB here Follow Suebelle on TikTok here Follow Nicola and Di on IG here Buy your Eir Women products here. Use code OTBF20 at checkout for a 20% discount  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Nicola and Di chat with the multi award-winning journalist and editor, Robyn Foyster. Robyn has had an extraordinary career in media for the past 38 years, including being the Publisher and Editor of Australia’s three biggest flagship magazines - The Australian Women’s Weekly, Woman’s Day and New Idea. In 2007, Robyn was voted Editor of the Year, and in 2015 she was voted as one of the 30 most powerful women in media at the B&T Women in Media Awards. She’s also worked as a TV producer on hugely popular shows in the UK, LA and Australia, and now she’s turned her attention to the world of tech and AI and is the founder of Women Love Tech, The Carousel and Game Changers. In this conversation we get to hear some incredible stories from Robyn’s career - including a life-changing trip to the Sahara desert, as well as the time she snuck back-stage at the Oscars and bumped into Harrison Ford, and how it felt to be the first person to put the Spice Girls on TV when she was working in London.  Robyn shares what it was like to be the Editor-in-Chief of the iconic Australian Women’s Weekly, and the responsibility she felt to the history of that magazine and its loyal readers.  We also have a great chat about tech, the reason Robyn loves it as a new and exciting way to tell stories and how AI is the second revolution. Robyn gives us some great tips for how we can approach AI and that it’s never too late to learn!  We had so much fun interviewing Robyn in the studio and we hope you feel as inspired as we did after listening to all she has to share.  This episode is proudly sponsored by Eir Women. Use code OTBF20 at checkout to receive a 20% discount on any purchase.  Follow Robyn on IG here Follow Women Love Tech on IG here Check out Women Love Tech here Check out The Carousel here Check out Game Changers here  Follow Nicola and Di on IG here Buy your Eir Women products here. Use code OTBF20 at checkout for a 20% discountSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Nicola and Di chat with champion netballer Cath Cox AM and author and comedian Carolyn Swindell, co-hosts of the No Dribble podcast. Cath is one of Australia’s most successful netballers, having represented Australia in 108 appearances from 1997 - 2013 and winning multiple gold medals and world championships. Meanwhile Carolyn had a career that spanned 2 decades in corporate, politics and professional sport, before she turned to stand-up comedy at the age of 49. Together with Liz Ellis, they are hosts of the hilarious No Dribble podcast, which is like listening into a conversation on the sidelines of a netball game - where they talk about all things life, friendship, family, wine and netball.  In this conversation we hear all about Cath and Carolyn’s friendship, and how Carolyn made a plan to get to know Cath and LIz because she figured they’d all be friends if they met in real life - and she wasn’t wrong!  Cath talks about her long career playing netball, and why she started playing in the first place - which was really all about the friendships, fun and socialising. We chat about her transition from netball into media and commentary and what that’s been like for her.  We also hear about Carolyn’s fascinating career story and how at the age of 49, she decided to give stand-up comedy a go. She shares some funny stories about throwing herself in the deep end and the mistakes she made along the way.  This conversation really is a funny chat between girlfriends. Everyone shares their funniest plane stories, some memorable moments from the podcast and we also talk about body image and aging - the good news is, it keeps getting better! We had so much fun on the couch this week with Cath and Carolyn and we hope you laugh along as much as we did.    This episode is proudly sponsored by Eir Women. Use code OTBF20 at checkout to receive a 20% discount on any purchase.  Follow No Dribble on IG here Listen to the No Dribble podcast here  Follow Cath on IG here  Follow Carolyn on IG here  Buy Carolyn’s book We Only Want What’s Best here  Follow Nicola and Di on IG here Buy your Eir Women products here. Use code OTBF20 at checkout for a 20% discountSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Nicola and Di chat with an Earth Angel, Sarah Grynberg who has interviewed some of the most incredible people including Matthew McConaughey, Jay Shetty and Dr Gabor Mate to name just a few.  Sarah is a mindset coach, international speaker and world-renowned podcast host. She is also the author of a brand new book, Living a Life of Greatness - steps to a fulfilling existence, and loving mum to her 2 kids.  In this inspiring conversation, we hear how Sarah built a career for herself in media, and was living what many people would describe as a glamorous, dream life - she was the producer of one of the most successful breakfast radio programs in the country, but on the inside, she was miserable. Sarah describes how in this period when she was feeling low and flat, she turned to personal development books and began implementing the tools she was learning and her whole life started to change. She also describes the way she manifested her dream job - as the executive producer of the Hamish and Andy podcast. This led to Sarah starting her own podcast, A Life of Greatness, which has become super successful with Sarah interviewing hundreds of amazing people who are dedicated to carving out lives of greatness. We have so much fun chatting to Sarah about some of the incredible people she’s interviewed including Dr. Joe Dispenza, Johann Hari, Dr. Andrew Huberman and Sarah’s personal favourite - you’ll have to tune in to hear who that was!  Sarah also shares some really helpful tips for how people can begin to make positive changes in their life, and how to get unstuck from negative thoughts. She shares what she’s learnt about relationships and the importance of not just reading self-help books, but actually practising and implementing the changes.  This was such a beautiful conversation about the power each and every one of us has to create the life we want, follow our dreams and live our own life of greatness. We absolutely loved having Sarah in the studio and we hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did.   This episode is proudly sponsored by Eir Women. Use code OTBF20 at checkout to receive a 20% discount on any purchase.  Follow Sarah on IG here Buy Sarah’s book Living A Life Of Greatness here Listen to Sarah’s podcast here  Join Sarah’s newsletter here  Follow Nicola and Di on IG here Buy your Eir Women products here. Use code OTBF20 at checkout for a 20% discountSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Nicola and Di chat with the incredible Liz Courtney. Liz is an internationally acclaimed film director dedicated to accelerating awareness and action around climate solutions.She’s also a talented speaker, author and the winner of several awards including the Women Changing the World in Media award and the 100 Women of Influence Australia awards.  In this fascinating conversation, Liz tells us about her career transition and the sliding doors moment where she went from working in PR and marketing to becoming an award-winning filmmaker in her 40s. From her first project for the ABC making a film about Sculptures by the Sea, Liz tells us about the life-changing opportunity she got to direct a documentary in Antarctica with 40 teenagers, which is what ignited her passion for climate activism.  That experience led Liz to embrace her inner adventurer, swap out the stilettos for snow boats and create her next documentary series, The Tipping Points, which took her all over the world. Liz shares the most amazing stories about some of her adventures in Antarctica, Greenland and what it was like living in the Amazon for a month.  Liz is full of optimism and hope for the future and she believes that we have an incredible opportunity to turn things around and make some real progress towards reducing our carbon footprint and saving the planet. She shares some great tips for everyone on the little things that we can all do to make a positive difference for the environment.  This was such a wonderful conversation with a truly inspiring woman. We hope you learn as much from Liz as we did and feel inspired by her stories and ideas.  This episode is proudly sponsored by Eir Women. Use code OTBF20 at checkout to receive a 20% discount on any purchase.  Follow Liz on IG here Follow Liz on LinkedIn here Learn more about Liz's films here Buy the book Women Living Fearlessly here Follow Nicola and Di on IG here Buy your Eir Women products here. Use code OTBF20 at checkout for a 20% discountSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.