Lisa Preston - DNA, Adoption & The Courage to Uncover Family Secrets

This week Nicola and Di chat with the CEO of the Northern Beaches Women’s Shelter, Narelle Hand. The shelter is a place that offers more than just a roof - they support women facing domestic violence, financial hardship, mental health struggles or family breakdown. They help them rebuild with kindness, community and compassion. It’s a story of challenge but also one of hope and transformation, and we certainly heard that shine through in the stories that Narelle shared with us. In this episode we hear how Narelle got started working in this field, and why it fills her with so much purpose every day. She takes us through a day in the life of a woman who might need the support and services of the women’s shelter and what it’s like for them from the moment they arrive in the women’s shelter until they’re ready to leave.  Narelle shares some of the beautiful stories of the way that the women have been cared for by the community and are able to feel truly loved, safe and at peace. She shares some of the well-earned and hopeful stats with us, like the fact that they have a 98% success rate with women who come to the shelter being able to move out, rebuild their lives and achieve their goals.  This is such an important topic and we talk about the different issues that can lead to homelessness and women needing to seek services like this, but we also talk about all of the phenomenal ways the community has come together to provide help and support and the overwhelmingly positive impact that NBWS is having. It was an absolute pleasure to have Narelle join us in the studio, and we hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did.  This episode is proudly supported by Montgomery Investment Management, trusted experts helping you build and protect your financial future. For further information, please contact David Buckland, Chief Executive Officer or Rhodri Taylor, Account Manager on (02) 8046 5000 or [email protected]   Follow Northern Beaches Women’s Shelter on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/nbws_org/ Find out more about the work Northern Beaches Women’s Shelter do here - https://nbws.org.au/ Donate to the Northern Beaches Women’s Shelter here - https://nbws.org.au/donate/ Follow Northern Beaches Women’s Shelter on Facebook here - https://facebook.com/NBWomensShelter/ Follow Nicola and Di on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/overthebackfencepodcast/ Watch Over The Back Fence on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/@Overthebackfencepodcast/podcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Nicola and Di are back with the next episode of our monthly financial series, Over The Money Fence with Roger Montgomery. This series aims to help you take control of your finances with clarity and confidence. Roger is the Founder and Chairman of Montgomery Investment Management, has over 30 years’ investing experience and is 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 talk about the different ways that you can build wealth, and for our younger listeners, we go through why it’s so important to start now. We talk about the incredible impact of compounding interest over time - and Roger shares with us some amazing numbers of what you could expect to earn if you were to start investing from an early age.  We also talk about the different options available when it comes to investing - from shares, to property, to private credit - Roger takes us through each one and why you might choose one option over the other.  Finally we talk about crypto currency and where this fits into your wealth building. Roger shares some interesting benefits of digital assets like crypto, and brings another fresh perspective to the table. And we go through some listener feedback and questions we received after our last episode, so stay tuned for those.  We love these episodes with Roger because we get to learn so much practical information that we can actually digest and implement. We hope you are also getting a lot out of this series. Keep sharing your feedback with us.  This episode is proudly supported by Montgomery Investment Management, trusted experts helping you build and protect your financial future. For further information, 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 Find out more about Montgomery private credit funds here -    https://www.montinvest.com/privatecredit 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/ 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 wonderful and wise Penny Moodie. Penny is a writer, OCD advocate, mum of three and social work student. When she hears people say they’re ‘a bit OCD” about cleaning, she can’t help but feel frustrated. It took Penny 23 years to be diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder and through her book The Joy Thief and her new podcast It’s Not What You Think, Penny reveals what living with OCD is like and gives encouragement to all those walking this path.  In this episode, we chat to Penny about what it’s been like living with OCD, what it was like for her as a child, and the article she read in her twenties that gave her that a-ha moment where she realised that the intrusive thoughts she was having and the struggles she was facing may actually be OCD.  Penny debunks some of the common myths around OCD and explains the difference between OCD and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, which many people get confused about.  She shares some of the funnier stories of the thoughts and compulsions she’s had in her life and the importance of humour when it comes to living with and managing OCD.  Importantly, Penny talks about ERP therapy - which is the most beneficial type of therapy when it comes to treating OCD and gives some really great tips for what can help if you or a loved one might be struggling with this condition.  We really loved chatting to Penny about this important topic and we found everything she shared so helpful. We hope you love this episode as much as we did.   This episode is proudly supported by Montgomery Investment Management, trusted experts helping you build and protect your financial future. For further information, please contact David Buckland, Chief Executive Officer or Rhodri Taylor, Account Manager on (02) 8046 5000 or [email protected] Follow Penny on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/penny_moodie/ Listen to Penny’s Podcast It’s Not What You Think here - https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/its-not-what-you-think/id1820351498   Buy Penny’s Book The Joy Thief here - https://www.booktopia.com.au/the-joy-thief-penny-moodie/book/9781761068669.html Follow It’s Not What You Think podcast on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/itsnotwhatyouthink_pod/ Follow Nicola and Di on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/overthebackfencepodcast/ Watch Over The Back Fence on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/@Overthebackfencepodcast/podcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Nicola and Di chat with the authentic and funny Bianca Dye. Many of our Australian listeners will of course know Bianca from her days as a radio presenter, across multiple stations, or the several TV shows she’s appeared on, including her own show which she hosted on Arena TV, Access All Areas. As well as her career in media, Bianca is known for her fearless honesty, and she’s an advocate who’s spoken out on many issues including mental health, IVF, perimenopause, ADHD, heartbreak, and all the messy parts that come with being human. In this episode Bianca shares some hard won wisdom on how to keep going and growing.  In this chat Bianca is refreshingly herself and shares with us so many stories of the highs and lows in her career, the mistakes she’s made, the things she wishes she did differently, as well as the moments she’s proud of.  We hear about Bianca’s incredible career path, which has included being a spruiker, a Marilyn Munroe impersonator and even a ringmaster for the Moscow Circus. In fact, it was her days spruiking on the Gold Coast that actually landed Bianca her first radio gig. Bianca is such a great storyteller and she shares so many funny moments in this chat - including the hilarious time she went to interview Richard Branson and he asked if she’d be willing to pull a prank with him - you’ll have to tune in to hear what happened next.  In true Bianca style, we also talk about the harder moments as well - from heartbreak, to losing jobs she loved, challenges with perimenopause and the brain study that showed she had ADHD.  We loved having Bianca in the studio with us and we really hope you enjoy listening to her as much as we did.  This episode is proudly supported by Montgomery Investment Management, trusted experts helping you build and protect your financial future. For further information, please contact David Buckland, Chief Executive Officer or Rhodri Taylor, Account Manager on (02) 8046 5000 or [email protected] Follow Bianca on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/biancadye/ Follow Nicola and Di on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/overthebackfencepodcast/ Watch Over The Back Fence on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/@Overthebackfencepodcast/podcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Nicola and Di chat with the incredible Chelsea Pottenger. Chelsea is the founder of EQ minds, a high performance mindset and meditation coach, a sought-after keynote speaker, author of The Mindful High Performer, a former US College Division 1 basketballer with an MBA. Chelsea works with large brands globally, helping people reset, recharge and perform at their best. A proud mum, a devoted wife, a passionate mental health advocate and an ambassador for The Gidget Foundation, supporting new parents through perinatal anxiety and depression.  In this episode we get to hear Chelsea’s story - from growing up in rural NSW with a strong work ethic, to being scouted by US colleges to play basketball at the highest level, to an injury which brought her home, and the love story that was happening in the background of all of this.  Chelsea opens up about the painful struggle she went through, when after trying for 7 years to fall pregnant, she finally gave birth to her daughter Clara and then suffered severe postnatal depression, which led to her being admitted to a psychiatric hospital. She talks about how she got through that dark time and the incredible resources that are available for any parents who may be going through similar challenges. We also hear about the wonderful new career that came from Chelsea’s rock bottom. She went on to study mindfulness and psychology, founded EQ minds and now spends her time sharing helpful evidence-based tools to help people perform at their best and thrive. She has shared stages with some of the most incredible people as a sought-after speaker and we were so lucky to have her with us in the studio.  This conversation really covers it all and we loved the way that through talking about Chelsea’s mental health challenges and the struggles she faced, there was also so much light and laughter in this interview. We hope you love it as much as we did.  This episode is proudly supported by Montgomery Investment Management, trusted experts helping you build and protect your financial future. For further information, please contact David Buckland, Chief Executive Officer or Rhodri Taylor, Account Manager on (02) 8046 5000 or [email protected] Buy Chelsea’s Book The Mindful High Performer here - https://www.eqminds.com/the-mindful-high-performer Buy The Mindful Journal here - https://www.eqminds.com/the-mindful-journal Follow EQ minds on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/eqminds/ Follow Chelsea on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/chelseapottengerofficial/ Find out more about EQ minds here - https://www.eqminds.com/ Find out more about The Gidget Foundation and their resources here - https://www.gidgetfoundation.org.au/ Follow Nicola and Di on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/overthebackfencepodcast/ Watch Over The Back Fence on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/@Overthebackfencepodcast/podcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Nicola and Di chat with the incredible Lisa Preston. Lisa has one of the most powerful and unforgettable stories that you won’t want to miss. As someone who was adopted at birth, we hear the epic tale of what it was like to search for her birth parents, and all of the twists and turns along the way. This is a story of love, belief, hope, belonging and determination. It’s so powerful that Lisa was asked to be a guest on the SBS show Insight, in an episode about adoption, and we were lucky enough to go into even more detail about the amazing moments from her life.   We’re not going to spoil the story for you in these show notes, this really is an episode that will have you on the edge of your seat, but needless to say there were a lot of emotions shared in the studio that day. We went through highs and lows, shared laughter and tears and were deeply moved by what Lisa shared.  We’re so grateful to Lisa for being so open and vulnerable with us, and letting others have a glimpse into the complex world of adoption. Above all, this is an uplifting story of what can be possible when you don’t give up, keep an open heart, have empathy for others and are determined to put the puzzle pieces of your life together.  Lisa is a phenomenal storyteller and we absolutely loved having her in the studio with us. We hope you love this episode as much as we did.  This episode is proudly supported by Montgomery Investment Management, trusted experts helping you build and protect your financial future. For further information, please contact David Buckland, Chief Executive Officer or Rhodri Taylor, Account Manager on (02) 8046 5000 or [email protected] Follow Lisa on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/bluetrunktradingco Follow Nicola and Di on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/overthebackfencepodcast/ Watch Over The Back Fence on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/@Overthebackfencepodcast/podcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Nicola and Di are back with the third episode of our monthly financial series, Over The Money Fence with Roger Montgomery. This series aims to help you take control of your finances with clarity and confidence. Roger is the Founder and Chairman of Montgomery Investment Management, has over 30 years’ investing experience and is 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 simple framework that you can use to build a robust retirement portfolio - the 3 bucket strategy. Roger takes us through the benefits of having a structure and a plan, and how it can bring us so much peace of mind that we will be able to enjoy our retirement - which could be arguably the most enjoyables years of our lives. We go through what each bucket is for, how they support your present needs and your future self, and the way you work with all 3 buckets to make sure you can feel calm, confident and not at the whim of market fluctuations.  Roger also gives us a brilliant overview of private credit funds - what they are, why they’re a relatively new way to invest, the different things to be aware of when you’re choosing a private credit fund, and why he thinks this is an important thing to consider when it comes to bucket 2.  We also hear about the wonderfully positive impact these conversations have been having on Nicola and Di, and how they feel so much calmer about finances these days.  As always, this episode was full of so much valuable information and we’re so glad to be able to bring you these conversations with Roger where we are learning so much. We hope you are too.  This episode is proudly supported by Montgomery Investment Management, trusted experts helping you build and protect your financial future. For further information, please contact David Buckland, Chief Executive Officer or Rhodri Taylor, Account Manager on (02) 8046 5000 or [email protected] Read the summary of the three-bucket strategy here - https://rogermontgomery.com/the-three-bucket-strategy-for-building-a-retirement-portfolio/ Find out more about Montgomery private credit funds here -    https://www.montinvest.com/privatecredit 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/ 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 funny and vibrant Shelly Horton. Shelly is a bold, outspoken journalist and TV presenter, who has been on our screens in Australia for decades. We chat about her pathway to confidence plus her new book, I’m Your PERI Godmother.  We hear all about how Shelly got her start in TV, the cruel way she was fired for being “too fat”, and how she made her way back onto our screens through a mentor, a goal-setting course, and the power of visualisation and dressing the part.  Shelly gives us some of her highlights from her 6 years as a gossip columnist and the 1500 events she attended in that time - including her favourite celebrities and who was the worst - you’ll want to tune in to hear those stories!  We also talk all about Shelly’s brilliant new book, I’m Your PERI Godmother, which has been described as a hilarious guide to help you survive perimenopause with science, helpful tips and proven treatments. Shelly tells us about her own journey with perimenopause and the way it completely changed her mental health. She talks about her own lack of knowledge in this area, and how she thought menopause was for old ladies. As Shelly says, it’s so important for us all to educate ourselves about perimenopause and then decide what’s best for us. The best part is, Shelly has a way of making this topic fun and we laughed a lot in this interview.  And finally we ask Shelly about her tips for being more confident, and simple things that people can do to feel more prepared if they have a speech coming up.  We absolutely loved chatting with Shelly and it felt like we had a good girlfriend at the back fence with us. We hope you love it as much as we did.  This episode is proudly supported by Montgomery Investment Management, trusted experts helping you build and protect your financial future. For further information, please contact David Buckland, Chief Executive Officer or Rhodri Taylor, Account Manager on (02) 8046 5000 or [email protected] Follow Shelly on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/shellyhorton1/ Buy Shelly’s new book I’m Your PERI Godmother here - https://geni.us/ImYourPeriGodmother Follow Nicola and Di on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/overthebackfencepodcast/ Watch Over The Back Fence on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/@Overthebackfencepodcast/podcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Nicola and Di chat with the kind and generous Karen Ledbury. Karen has been a television presenter in Australia for three decades and for the last 18 years has graced our screens on Channel 7’s The Morning Show and Sydney Weekender. She’s worked for every commercial network in Australia, and describes how her early days working alongside Bert Newton was the best training in the industry.  In this heartfelt episode, we hear about the funny and interesting stories from Karen’s TV career, as well as the incredibly harrowing period that Karen faced recently when in a 6-month period her father passed away, her husband suffered a catastrophic stroke and her 19-year old son was diagnosed with cancer.  Karen opens up and shares about the day when her world was turned upside down, when she received a text message whilst she was on air that her completely healthy husband had been taken to hospital, and they didn’t think he would make it through the night. We hear about the powerful moment days later which completely shifted Karen’s perspective. She talks about the importance of gratitude, living in the present and giving back. As someone who has been through so much, it’s so inspiring that Karen still devotes so much of her time to giving to others through her charity work.  We felt all of the emotions in this conversation - there were lots of laughs but also tears. It really was a beautiful moment of connection and we hope you feel as uplifted and inspired as we did listening to Karen’s story.  This episode is proudly supported by Montgomery Investment Management, trusted experts helping you build and protect your financial future. For further information, please contact David Buckland, Chief Executive Officer or Rhodri Taylor, Account Manager on (02) 8046 5000 or [email protected] Follow Karen on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/karenledbury/ Find out more about the charity Save Our Sons and how you can help here - https://saveoursons.org.au/ Follow Nicola and Di on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/overthebackfencepodcast/ Watch Over The Back Fence on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/@Overthebackfencepodcast/podcasts 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 best-selling author Jacqueline Maley. Jacqui is an esteemed, award-winning journalist and novelist, who works as a senior writer and columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. She is celebrated for her incisive commentary on politics, culture and social affairs. Her latest novel Lonely Mouth, is the book everyone is talking about, including Nigella Lawson who says it’s one of her favourite Australian books.  In this episode we hear how Jacqui got started in her career as a journalist. After studying law and getting a summer clerkship at a prestigious law firm in her final year of uni, Jacqui very quickly realised that this wasn’t the career for her. After graduating, Jacqui went backpacking around Europe and she applied for a cadetship at The Sydney Morning Herald whilst she was overseas. She got the cadetship and from the moment she started working as a journalist, she absolutely loved it and didn’t look back.  We chat about the way Jacqui deals with the negative feedback and online criticism that she, like so many journalists, receive these days. Jacqui has a very refreshing way of looking at it, which we know you’ll want to hear. We also talk all about Jacqui’s new book Lonely Mouth, which is getting rave reviews. We hear about the Japanese expression which gave the book its name, and the fascinating topics the book explores - the conflicted way women think about their bodies, their appetites, and themselves in the world, and the way we believe ourselves to be worthy - or not - of love.  Jacqui shares her own book recommendations with us and we chat about why giving someone a book as a gift is such a beautiful and powerful present.  We really loved this conversation with Jacqui and it was so wonderful chatting books with such an esteemed author, who was really lovely and down-to-earth. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.  This episode is proudly supported by Montgomery Investment Management, trusted experts helping you build and protect your financial future. For further information, please contact David Buckland, Chief Executive Officer or Rhodri Taylor, Account Manager on (02) 8046 5000 or [email protected]   Follow Jacqueline on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/jacqueline_maley_writer/ Buy Jacqueline’s book Lonely Mouth here - https://www.booktopia.com.au/lonely-mouth-jacqueline-maley/book/9781460759189.html Follow Nicola and Di on IG here - https://www.instagram.com/overthebackfencepodcast/ Watch Over The Back Fence on YouTube here - https://www.youtube.com/@Overthebackfencepodcast/podcasts Buy your Eir Women products here. Use code OTBF20 at checkout for a 20% discountSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.