Live Immediately With Mike Campbell

You have that love of travel, always trying to grab every opportunity to get away and explore. Travel is part of your DNA. And then you start a family. You become a parent. You push that travelling spirit aside and try not to listen to it every time it starts to get a little restless. In this episode I am chatting to a couple, Megan and Peter Richardson, who didn’t push their adventurous spirit aside, they embraced it with their young family. Megan and Peter hopped on the plane for a yearlong family adventure through Europe and South East Asia with a 4 month old and a 2.5 year old. The majority of their planning for the trip happened while Megan was pregnant! Megan and Peter hit the road on a budget. They were frugal and saved before their trip, and to save money while travelling, they saved on accommodation by house and pet sitting. They talk about how your travels are so much richer when you house and pet sit, than simply saving money. We dive into their initial fears, how they overcame them, and move

If you have a teenage girl, or a girl who will become a teenager, you definitely need to know about my beautifully fun guest today, Liv Phyland. The majority of my guests are parents, as the majority of you are parents. And we all know that doing something new or creating change in your life, is even more challenging when you add children into the mix. However, I wanted to chat to Liv today, because even though she isn’t a parent yet, Liv is such a wonderful role model for our young girls and is doing beautiful work through her Girls Who Glow workshops. Liv talks about how teenagers are being influenced by social media, feeling like they need to be someone different to who they are. Through her workshops, Liv helps girls to find their inner glow. The cornerstones of these workshops are nutrition, exercise, body image, social media, healthy relationships and mental health. Liv and I also chat about how a girl from the country finds herself as a presenter on channels 10’s music show “The Loop&

What is the type of life you want to live? How do you want to raise your kids? What kind of community do you want to live in? What do you truly value? Have you ever sat down and spent the time to answer such questions? What do you think your answers would look like, and what changes would you need to make to the way you’re living now? I sat down with Sophie Brunton, a mother of three, who has dedicated the time to answer these questions, and take the courageous step to make changes to her life. After the initial idea two years ago, working through the ups and downs of change, Sophie and her family are about to relocate to the country town of Murwillumbah, 50 minutes north of Byron Bay, NSW, Australia. And it is not just a tree change that Sophie was looking for, it was a community that shared her values, where the schools took a holistic view, a community of connection and generosity, an environment where her boys could evolve into men with love, care, and surrounded by nature. Sophie and I dive deep in

Who were you before kids? It is an interesting question and one that I had never really thought about. But what did you want to achieve before you became mum or dad? Are there aspirations, hobbies, or things you truly enjoyed, that you have stopped since becoming a parent? Today I chat with the inspiring Lauren Branson, a fun mother of five and start-up business owner. I am fascinated by how Lauren manages to run her business and five kids under eight, while still making time for herself. There is often this parent’s guilt that we place on ourselves if we are spending time doing something for ourselves. But as I discuss with Lauren, you need to carve out time for yourself, so that you can look after others. And even with five kids and a business, Lauren still manages to do this. How? Lauren prioritise what is important and makes time for what she values. Lauren is passionate about eating healthy and local food. Her business, Your Food Collective, is an online farmers market that connects busy parents to

“What screws us up the most is that picture of what we believe it should be, and we’re not open to what it could be—but what it could be, could be infinitely better.” Katie Dean My guest this week is the courageous Katie Dean, and I love this chat with Katie as it is beautifully raw. Katie opens up about the challenges of being a solo Mumma and how she made the decision while being seven months pregnant and having a toddler. Katie talks about living with a low level of panic, the importance of internal observation, getting out of your head and into your body, and to “check yourself before you wreck yourself”. We also dive into the topic of fear and how you need to lean into fear to become brave, how there are no negative feeling, just uncomfortable ones, and the different, beautifully messy, phases of parenthood. I hope you enjoy x www.liveimmediately.com

Jeff Sandquist really needs no introduction to the Live Immediately family, as this is the third time I have had the privilege to interview Jeff. Jeff has become a close friend and he was the host of the brilliant Intentionally Wandering Podcast that literally changed my life. But over the past year, Jeff has been going through some changes in his own life, assessing what is improving his life, what isn’t, and what things in his life have simply run their course. This has lead Jeff to do something that many people might think about, but struggle to make the final decision. Jeff has deleted all of his social media accounts. He has also stopped his podcast and blog. In this episode I really dive deep into why Jeff felt the need to pull back from the digital world and how he feels about not being as connected anymore. And his answers might surprise you. This isn’t an episode about social media bashing, it is about knowing yourself, knowing when to quit, knowing when things in your life stop benefitti

This is an episode that demonstrates why I love long form interviews. Time allows me to penetrate deeper into the heart and mind of people I have the privilege of interviewing. My guest today, Abby Lewtas, is a world traveller and host of The Wanderlusters Mind Podcast. I imagined that our conversation would centre on travel and adventure. How travel is this wonderful teacher, as the lessons are taught before an adventure, during the adventure, and when you arrive home from your adventure. Abby and I do discuss such lessons like having the courage to leave a comfortable routine, being vulnerable and stepping out of your comfort zone, and becoming more open-minded and curious. Abby also talks about intuition and paying attention to the little, adventurous, voice inside you that tries to nudge you down new paths. That if you don’t listen to what your body is trying to communicate to you, then you will feel stuck and nothing will ever change. But where this conversation takes a beautiful turn is when I ask

How did you arrive to where you are today? How did you find yourself on this particular path? And is this path the one that you want to continue on? My guest today, Shannon Meyer, asked herself similar questions when she started to feel like she was managing her life, but not living it. Shannon was going through the daily admin and coordination of juggling family life and working mum. While Shannon was succeeding at work, it was pulling her away from her family and she started to worry that her three kids would look back on their childhood and not have many experiences with their mother. I guess the real questions Shannon was asking herself were—what is all this for, why am I doing what I am doing, and is this what I truly value? Shannon decided to make some courageous changes in her life that enabled her to spend more time with her family. Shannon left her corporate job, her family sold everything they owned, and they decided to travel around North America in an Airstream. But what I admire even more i

True change starts within, and my guest today, Chelsea Pottenger, has gone through a complete life reboot that started when she dedicated time to her internal wellbeing. Chelsea was living the face-paced corporate life until her baby girl was born and Chelsea was slammed, hard, with severe Post Natal Depression. And as you will hear in the interview, sadly, Chelsea was just hanging on. Through her adversity though, Chelsea discovered the importance of working on her inside self. Her “post traumatic growth phase” as Chelsea calls it. Chelsea went back to university to study a Doctorate of Psychology & Neuroscience, a Diploma of Positive Psychology & Wellbeing, and became an internationally accredited mindfulness and meditation teacher. Through her experience and studies, Chelsea is now helping individuals and organisations to focus on their internal fitness and feel the beautiful benefits of mindfulness. This is such an important episode, as what Chelsea and I discuss can have such a fundam

Today I’m chatting with a very special man, Matt Linnert, who is a thinker, a questioner, a listener, and a doer—who strives to make the world more compassionate by being a beautiful example through his work and daily actions. This entire conversation is quite deep, as Matt and I discuss some interesting topics that often left me with more questions than answers. Matt talks about creating change in his life that was guided by not what he was meant to be doing, but how he was meant to be living. We discuss the power of self-enquiry to release a lot of our ego and fear, letting go of our need for control, asking questions that encourage change, and living life with compassion as the driver. Matt also runs a wonderful charity called Collective Heart that brings ordinary people together to do extraordinary things within local communities and communities in need abroad. I hope you enjoy x www.liveimmediately.com

What does it take to cycle from Alaska to Argentina with your husband and twin ten year old boys? Well this is exactly what I chat about with Nancy Sathre-Vogel. I learnt it takes over 27,000 kilometres (over 17,000 miles), 1,018 days, and 15 countries. It takes pushing through snowstorms and waking at 3am to ride through the desert before the sun becomes unbearable. But more importantly, it takes the desire to want to do something different, the motivation to change, the willingness to fail, and the courage to live a life that you want to live. Nancy and I do talk about her family adventures, the countries she visited and schooling her boys on the road. However, we also dive into the challenges of finding your passion, the difficulties in doing something that is different to how you were raised, and the craziness in not trying. Nancy has a beautiful outlook on life where she lives each day while staying focussed on the bigger picture. I hope you enjoy x www.liveimmediately.com

So much of life, what happens around us, is out of our control. The only part of life that is within our control is the attitude in which we approach it. My guest today, Talon Windwalker, is a wonderful man who approaches life with a caring soul and who lives by the motto of “no regrets”. I reached out to Talon, as I wanted to learn about his life as a single parent, travelling the world indefinitely with his adopted child. But as you’ll hear, the lessons and stories that Talon will tell are about so much more than travel. Talon is an author, writer, hospice chaplain, Zen monk, ultra runner, snowshoer, endurance cyclist, certified endurance running coach, scuba instructor, photographer, and lover of travelling, languages, and cultures. In our conversation, Talon talks about death and life as a hospice chaplain, being 300 pounds, losing weight and becoming an ultra marathon runner, being a single man and adopting a child, travelling to over 30 countries and world schooling his child, and the

Parenthood is more about the lessons we learn than the ones we teach. And ideally, when we enter the uncharted waters of parenthood, we do so with the love and support of a partner. Unfortunately for my guest today, Alex Brown, that wasn’t the case. Alex was only 20 when she became a mother, and her abusive partner of four years left when Alex wouldn’t terminate the pregnancy. Simultaneously, Alex needed to navigate motherhood and relearn how to take control of her life. This conversation takes many twists and turns, but when you’re trying to create a fresh start, perhaps that is exactly what you need to do. Alex is quite open as she talks about her abusive relationship, how she had no control over her time or money, and the moment when she thought becoming an escort was her only way out. Alex is learning to take control of her life by taking control of her money, and through the process Alex has learnt how her financial health is interlocked with her physical health and emotional health. I

“I have more respect for someone who has tried and failed, than someone who has never tried.” – Nerida Bint There are some people in the world that lift you up and leave you in a better place than where you were before. My guest today, Nerida Bint, is definitely one of those beautiful people. What I love about Nerida is that she has taken all the knockdowns in her life, all the times she was pushed away, and every moment she wasn’t included and was forced to be alone, and turned them into a positive force that is helping countless women to change and grow. Nerida is the founder of Lissome, a women’s only gym that provides so much more than a space to exercise. Nerida is all about helping women to become the absolute best that they can be. Nerida has created a community that is welcoming, empowering, and calls bullshit on judgment. There is so much in this episode, as Nerida and I discuss dealing with shame and working through the struggle, the need to change if you want things to

Sometimes you can be on the conveyor belt of life and not realise it until it is too late. Or perhaps you’re heading down a life path because you feel it is what you’re supposed to do. We are told to get a good job, a 30 year mortgage, keep your head down, and then enjoy a handful of years when your hair is a little greyer and your body a little sorer. We push all the things we truly want to do, off to another day, later down the track—to a day that never arrives. My guest today, Pat Seyrak, has decided to try something different. He has turned his back on the old Australian dream of home ownership shackled with a 30 year mortgage, and is heading towards financial freedom and retirement before he is 40. The way Pat is doing this is through the stock market, but this podcast is not about shares and it is definitely not financial advice, so please do not take it as advice. Pat’s way, is simply one way. What I love about how Pat is living his life, and what this episode is all about, is t

Hitting the open road with the wonders of the world out your window, pulling up and resting your heard wherever you park your van. It sounds so beautiful, and it is what my guest today, Jared Melrose, and his sweetheart of ten years, Ash, do as they both live in a van together. In this episode we touch on the functionalities of living in a van—the cost of fitting out a van, doing laundry, cooking, and the use of public toilets. Or “shining beacons in the night” as Jared calls them. We also dive into some deeper topics, and what I love is how honest Jaded is about some of the realities of van life and the dichotomy of the lifestyle. There is freedom in mobility, but not always freedom with space. Jared talks about initially dealing with the change in comfort, crossing the bridge of other people’s expectations, and confronting his relationship with Ash, as there is nowhere to go, shut a door, and have your own space. As Jared says, “Everyone has got compromises that they are dealin

My guest today, Erin Carey, is, as she explains, your average wife, mother to three young boys, overworked, stressed and tied, who lives in suburbia in South Australia, nothing special. And Erin describes herself like this so when you listen to her story, you realise that you can do it too, that you can “get out there and do whatever your dream may be.” One of the biggest takeaways from this episode is the power in making the decision. Erin and her husband made the decision that they wanted to take their boys and sail around the world for a few years. They didn’t know how they were going to make it happen, but they made the decision. Erin and I go quite deep on a number of topics—the confidence in finding other people that have already achieved what you’re hoping to do, the importance of having a common goal, how ideas change and evolve over time, learning new skills along the way, and how time allows you to discover more qualities about your kids and loved ones. Erin also talks

Death is a natural part of life. It will touch us all throughout our life, and ultimately at the end of our days. For my guest today, Garth Ashford, the unforgiving hands of death choked his life in a way that is unimaginable for any parent. Thirty years ago, at the age of twenty-nine, Garth held his nineteen-month-old baby girl Samantha in his arms, as her weak heart took its final beat. An experience that Garth will live with until his final day. As much as this episode is about death and grief, it is about life and living. Garth shares his story of grief and how this changed his perspective on life, learning through the experiences and going within himself to find the answers, and the beautiful awareness and contentment in which he lives each day. Garth’s journey has lead him to open The Soul Embrace, where he assist those who have suffered a loss in their lives to recover, rebuild and readapt. Garth helps people to embrace their soul. Life’s lessons have cut deep into Garth’s soul, but t

This is a special episode as it is actually an episode where I am interviewed by Abby Lewtas for her recently launched podcast The Wanderlusters Mind. I know you love travel stories so it is safe to say that you will love Abby’s podcast as she takes you on an adventure into the minds of globetrotters. Abby and her guests share their travel stories, navigating their return home and stepping into their inspired adventurous life. This episode is all about my little family adventure, slow travelling through the United States for a year, the people we met, the time spent growing as a family, arriving back home, looking at life differently, and being comfortable with the unknown. Abby is a caring and courageous woman, and if you like what you hear then add The Wanderlusters Mind podcast to your playlist. I hope you enjoy x www.liveimmediately.com

In this episode I welcome back a good friend Cait Flanders to the podcast. Cait and I originally spoke back in episode 19 about Mindful Budgeting, which I have linked to in the show notes. I wanted to have Cait back on the podcast for many reasons, but also as she has recently written a book titled - “The Year Of Less – How I stopped shopping, gave away all my belongings, and discovered life is worth more than anything you can buy in a store”. As you’ll hear me say a number of times during our chat, I absolutely loved reading this book, and it is so much more than Cait’s year of no shopping. It is a heartfelt story about a women discovering herself and battling a few demons along the way. Cait and I cover so much in this episode. Some of the big takeaways for me were around the importance of starting—how you don’t need (and will never have) the answers to everything before you start something new, but starting is exactly what you need to do. The use of experiments to