Seizing your YAY with Sara Holloway: Getting in touch with your inner child, dealing with overwhelm & leaving a corporate job

in the work to get there. I want to bring you the tools and actionable steps to feel confident in yourself, inspired to take bold action, and motivated to conquer your goals. Are you with me, girl friends, Let's rise and conquer. Hi, guys, and welcome to another episode of the Rise and Conquer Podcast. Today, I have a very exciting guest for you.

heels to step into business full time. She also has an amazing podcast called Seize the Ya, which investigates the difference between success and happiness and the importance of cultivating joy in your everyday life. In this episode, me and Sarah chat about her transition from leaving corporate and starting her own business, dealing with stress and overwhelmed with all her many projects, and why getting out of your comfort zone is a muster. I'm so excited to share this episode with you guys.

And this week is the first week that I've been home in a row and nixt been home at the same time for seven whole days, and I was like, I need to rise and conquer just chilling out a little bit, and I am not good at it. I love it once I get there, but it takes me so long to just kind of put on the brakes and slow the momentum and kill the adrenaline and actually

get back in touch with how I really feel. I get too excited about life and too excited about everything that's going on, so it's hard for me to go slower. But I was like, I can feel that I'm getting back into the habits that lead to burnout, so I was like, stop now, read some books, do the bare minimum that you need to do to get through this week, and then next week you can go back to the to the crazy, but this week you need to slow down. So I'm trying my very best.

looking to leave straight away. I think I thought I'd spend the start of my career there, figure out you know what I like, what I don't like, get some experience, make some networks, but I had always, you know, through my whole childhood, I'd always been half super super nerve, book smart bookworm, and then half super ARTI farty, crazy muso dancer person. And through UNI, I was kind of able to do an arts degree at the same time,

so I could balance it out. But I found as soon as I got into the professional environment, you know, the hours are so long, that the hobbies started to drop off, and that side of me kind of started to wither a little bit. So I'd noticed it, but I, you know, I was still I got to work in Hong Kong. I worked on an amazing deal over there.

I had a really good time. I think the law firm was a really great start to my career, but I ended up getting itchy feet quite early and took a month off in my first year, which is very unheard of. To work in Africa with Nick whose creative agency had been working with the five cent campaign and Wygap, and they took us to one of the schools in Rwanda, which was, as you can imagine, an incredibly, incredibly transformative experience that really changed kind of the way we think

about ourselves and the world. But I got a parasite while I was over there, which is you know, one of the side effects of hardcore third world country travel. And I came back. I think I lost maybe five kiloes when we were there, and then when I got home, I lost another ten, So I lost fifteen kilos in total. Wow, I know, and I'm quite slender, so I didn't you have that much to lose in the first place. And typical A type, I ignored all the signs. I was like,

I'll think my way out of it. I went straight back to work and just kept kind of smashing myself and hadn't developed any kind of relationship with well being or self care and ended up with a drenal fatigue. So in that context, I was told I couldn't drink coffee anymore, which was you know at the time, like I was like mainlining. It was my bloodstream was coffee, and yeah, my drenal system couldn't handle it. I'd have like a full panic attack every time i'd have try

and have a cup of coffee. So then when I got sent to Hong Kong, I sort of was like, well, how am I going to survive this? M and A is very long hours closing deals and then Hong Kong on top of that is like a city that never sleeps, so it's even more long hours, and I just thought,

how am I going to cope without caffeine? But I ended up discovering over there that matcha has a really solid amount of caffeine, but is much gentler on your adrenal system and your body generally because it has a unique amino acid in it called elthenine, which makes it slow release into the bloodstream. So I had no idea about any of this at the time, but fast discovered how amazing it is in terms of giving you a

really solid energy boost. But if you're sensitive to caffeine or going through some kind of health discovery journey, I could cope with it. And so Nick came over a couple of times and he started using it, and we realized how versatile it was because it was a powder, so either if you like the flavor, you could have it by itself, or if you don't, you could kind of hide it in a smoothie or bliss balls. And then came home and we couldn't find it anywhere, so

we thought, you know, this is weird. Everyone's got Green Payer outed, you know, everything we're drinking sperollina, so surely we could drink something that's green powdered that is as beneficial but tastes much better. But no one was selling it, even though the health food market was booming. So we went online, found some from a tea farm in Japan.

We tested about fifty different kinds I think found one that we liked, ordered the minimum order, which was ten kilos, and it turned up and it was way too much tea for two people, and yeah, that it literally the business journey started from realizing we had to get rid of some of it somehow and deciding that it'd be a really a nice way to kind of spend more time together and do something a little bit creative together that was different to anything either of us were doing.

And we knocked up an Instagram page. We had the website going within I think it was two weeks or something like that, because Nick luckily has a creative agency which is super handy, and yeah, and then it's just literally been much of madness. Is then that was like the very very end of twenty fourteen. Started twenty fifteen.

I left my job six months after that because the power of Instagram and digital e commerce and the power of being first to market as well just meant we exploded to the point where we were packing it ourselves. So someone had to leave, and it made sense for me to do it because I'd found that this was kind of reigniting all the parts of me that I had forgotten were there. And yeah, and now it's been nearly five years since then, Oh my gosh, wow, so random.

I know, I've just studied a law degree, I know I've been through it all, but I'm actually going to completely Do you know a.

were waiting to see how much it grew. And really it just happened so quickly that I didn't really even have time to think about it. We were just like, crap, we need packers, and crap, we need this and oh my god, stock and blah blah. It wasn't really until it became mutually exclusive, like the minute that I realized I couldn't do both, like I couldn't have one foot in each door and like have that safe fallback position

of kind of having both. Basically, for us, it was an actual opportunity that came up that I realized we would have to say no to if I kept my job because no one could fulfill the order. So we'd gotten big enough, quick enough to get under the radar, onto the radar sorry of urban outfitters across the US. They'd found us on Instagram, and wow, I know, like we just that's you know, that's kind of how fast

we grew from a product that everyone wanted. But you know, a lot of people had heard of it, but no one could find it in cool packaging. So they had found us and asked for I think they got a few samples, and you know that, I thought, yeah, cool, they're happy with it. They might order like twenty or

maybe like fifty bags. I think they ordered like ten thousand or something like that, and we were just like, we haven't scored ten thousand in the last six months, Like I just don't know how that's gonna happen.

and we've done so much about ourselves. So the moment of realizing I would leave was it happened within two weeks. Like we got the offer, I realized it was impossible to say yes unless I left. Then had to grapple really fast with what that meant and how much risk and all like. It was just such an intense, crazy time. But I'm kind of glad looking back that there was a timeline, because otherwise I might not have been forced. I would have just kept sitting in the comfort zone.

But I realized I always make decisions based on what can I never do again. What is the once in a lifetime opportunity? And law is an industry that's not going to go anywhere. We are always going to need lawyers. Our qualifications will always be there and they will always be relevant. Whereas this opportunity to be the first matterom Eben Outfitters, like, that's really a once in a lifetime opportunity. So what am I going to look back on and regret?

And yeah, so I literally two weeks after that, I think maybe less maybe ten days, I resigned and haven't looked back. I don't think I've had time to look back.

anything like this. It's not a recession, it's a it's not the depression. There's not a war going in you know, there's no world wars like obviously in other you know, in Australia particularly, we're very very lucky with the stability and the appetite for small business and innovation and all that stuff.

that I started to recognize myself again. So deep down I knew that this was too exciting, it was too promising. Even financially it actually made sense because as I'm sure you know, lawyers don't make nearly as much as you

think they do for the hours that they work. It doesn't actually work out to be that financially sensible, you know, you know, I mean it does eventually, but like at the beginning, yeah, there's a lot of hours for you know, it's a really tough schalog at the start, and just for the freedom and excitement, yeah, I just I definitely had a feeling dipped down, but I still my like a type conservative risk aversal lawyer. Self was like, I have to go through all the risks and I have

to really be sure that this is the right decision. Yeah, And that side of me was like at the time, like I'll tell you because most people don't actually understand what I say. The kind of sacrifice was even bigger because I was about to start so I was meant to move six months later to Brisbane and then to Canberra to do a High Court associate ship with who is now the Chief Justice, so chief Justice Keefle, and God, like,

you know what that means? Most people don't know, So I don't mention it because.

good relationship with my partner at the firm. He kind of almost said, if it doesn't go well, you can come back. So I was like, well, then there's really nothing to lose, is there.

And it took me a really really long time to figure out what kind of weak structure works and the fact that you do need a little bit of structure, Like I really love the idea of total spontanating control for a little while, but then eventually realize that everyone needs a bit of routine and structure in their life to just manage your energy levels and to plan and

actually get things done. So now I still, particularly with a hospitality business, now, there's still a lot of stuff you can't control and a lot of like, oh crap, got to drop that and run there and do this

and do that. But generally I try I start every morning, and I've dropped the guild about this, but I spend every morning in my favorite cafe, which is around the corner from our house, and it's like equal distance between Matcham milk Butt and our home, so that we're kind of close to everything that we need to be but tucked away as well, and I'm stuck there. So it really makes me. I sit down, I get all my emails done in the morning before I kind of face

the day. I have a really good, delicious, healthy meal. I have like massive breakfast every day and it just sets up my day really nicely. So that's become a real ritual that I could definitely make the breakfast at home, but I get so much joy from starting my day that way, and that's probably the only part of the

day that looks the same every day. I also meditate in the morning first thing when I get up, because I get, you know, quite bad anxiety sometimes, but also just generally can get really overwhelming having so many balls in the air. So that really helps ease into the day nicely and set the right tone and help you

kind of set some intentions. I try and have Tuesdays and Thursdays and kind of my meeting days, when you know, we meet with different ingredients suppliers or bloggers or builders or new product developers, or you know, there's so many different things that we might have going on with the podcast. I might do my podcast episodes on that day. I've realized I need to have days that I know are the days when I have to be outward facing and have like a lot of energy and people facing energy.

And then Mondays and Wednesdays tend to be my computer admin days where I do like our tacks and all our back end admin work on product development or recipes or ingredients for you know, new formulations or whatever it is. The sitting down and the hardcore financials and all that stuff happens on a Monday and a Wednesday, and then Friday's just kind of the leftover, like whatever else is spilled over. If we have content shoots for matching made

and or match of milkbar. I tend to do that on Friday because it's kind of when my energy is, you know, a bit tired for the week, so I do the more fun things. And then in between all of that, I have gotten much much better at quarantining weekends. I never used to kind of take them, and then I burnt out again and realized everyone needs a break,

even if you love what you're doing. So Saturdays there's often there's actually a lot of events I think on Saturday's in health and wellness, so I sometimes still have to do a little bit of work or be at the cafe. And then Sundays am I complete. I call them sloth Sundays, like I don't move, I just watch Netflix, I read a crime book, or like sleeping till midday or whatever it is. I'm like super lazy. I'm just

a lazy person in an excited person's body. The only other thing that's I try and keep consistent is exercise, because again, like the first year of business, I didn't exercise at all. I thought I'm moving into wellness. I'm going to be like the wellest person ever. But I just never took breaks. And you kind of feel like your own wellness ironically becomes your last priority because your business is what is driving you. But now I'm really careful to make sure that it you know, for your

physical health, but also your mental health. It's so important to get the blood flowing and get your body moving. So at the moment, I'm quite run heavy because we're working with Nike towards a half marathon, and I'm the most run averse person in the world. But I've slowly been converted and now I love a good run. I don't know how I used to hate it. So I run a couple of times a week. I lift weights. When I wasn't running, I was doing more yoga and pilates.

I love Reformer or like hot polarates. Yeah, a bit of everything. And then there's all lots of random crap that comes up in between lots of speaking gigs and a bit of travel, and then the podcast somehow fits in to all of that.

of it all when you're constantly changing. So I love that you touched on that, and then also you touched on you know, making sure you do that so you don't get overwhelmed and you don't go into burnout, which I'm sure we've all been there, so feeling on that one. But is there anything else that you personally do or you recommend so you're not going into burnout which then takes so much more time to recover.

because you don't want to stop. Like it's very, very hard to stop when you're doing something you love that's going well. So I think one of the things I've learned is to try to rest before you feel like you need it, which is even harder to do. But you kind of have to block out days or times or whatever it is for you. For me, it's Sundays because I think every time zone in the world is on a weekend on a Sunday, so you can't really

feel guilty. But whatever it is for you, even if it's not one full day but like an hour here and there, I think you have to block it out and do it as a routine, not wait until you're tired to do it, because that's when it's too late almost to kind of bring yourself back. And also even for people who are super connected with their bodies, who are in wellness, you know, our industry is all about that, so you would think I would be more connected with

my body than most. But adrenaline is also a really tricky kind of energy because it makes you think that you're feeling good for short bursts of time when you're really excited, but it tricks you sometimes when you actually have a totally empty tank, but you just can pull it together, you know, for an event or whatever. So sometimes you think you feel good, but you really do need some time. So I kind of think if you preemptively block out, it's a lot of trial and error

to figure out where your balance is. But if you roughly know what helps you, especially if you have such a busy life when you are on what roughly helps you maintain that without burning out, then just block it out in advance, block it out in your calendar. What I've had to do is put those you know, the day structures. I put those things in my calendar so that there's a mental trigger if I try and put

anything on top of those things. You know, it's a visual queue of like actually I meant to be at yoga at that time, or you know, everything has to be in the calendar with the same importance as a meeting, because otherwise your brain won't give it the same importance, and when it comes to it, you'll just push every thing over the top of it because you don't see that,

you know it's blocked out. So I think, really, just get to know yourself and then preempt your bad decisions and kind of idiot prove your calendar so that you make sure that you're never running yourself too low before you've realized.

a thing. It's so foreign when you first move into it, you know, you're not used to people knowing who you are or caring what you ate, or it's just such a different world that at the beginning, I obviously when you're taking photos is when you're at events or when you're dressed up and you're kind of showing all the highlights because that's all you think to post. I realized after a little while that I just started to feel

a bit uncomfortable. That I was like, everyone thinks that that's what I look like all the time, and I don't. And then I would get to the point where I wanted to post some new content and I wouldn't have any content that looked like that because I most of my days like inactive wear with no makeup on my conscious pedomas working from bed, and like, I think it came from the struggle of realizing that I don't have enough photos like that, because that isn't enough of my life.

That then I was like, well, what does that tell me? That I've created this like view of myself that I feel like I have to live up to every photo, but I don't look like that enough the time equals I'm not portraying enough of the real what I actually am doing. And the only way that I could make myself get comfortable then was to start kind of posting

some of the crappiest stuff. And also from a personal confidence point of view, I realized, you know, I think we've all gone through a phase where way too selective about the photos that we post, like, oh no, I don't like that one, Like I'm going to take it again, like let me, you know, fix my arm or whatever

it is. We all go through that hypocritical phase, and I realized the only way to kind of let myself like liberate myself from that was to just put up the ugliest photo that I hated the most and then to realize that nothing happens. So I kind of I'm a bit of a discomfort junkie. Once I realized how comfortable I had gotten in law and how much I

didn't grow, I'm kind of now addicted to. Once I get too comfortable, I'm like, what can I do That's like so uncomfortable and unpleasant that then I have conquered it, you know, risen and conquered it just by putting it out there. I remember one day when I was like, every photo I've posted has been like a whole ordeal of like choosing the right one and then editing the filter and then putting it on them, righting the caption, and I'm like, I'm just going to say, screw it.

I'm just going to put up this freaking awful chin photo that's like mid movement with one eye half open. I just put it up there and see what happens. And like, the response was so amazing. People were genuinely surprised, but also just so like they had a giggle. They loved it. They just thought it was the best thing of it. And I thought it was the best thing ever because then I was like, oh my god, now that's that's the bar. That's the bar. So anything that

I post on top of that as a bonus. And it just in one moment just kind of changed my standards and my whole relationship with Instagram and social media because suddenly I felt not that I felt like a fraud before, but I felt like I wasn't really putting out who I actually am. And I know that for some people that's more important than others. All. For some people, their brand is being quite preened, and that's you know, it's just a different relationship when you're using it for

a different purpose. But for me, because matcha Maiden was the preamed one that had to be very on brand with health and wellness and green and aesthetics, my personal page, I could do whatever. So I was like, why aren't I doing whatever? Why aren't I having more fun with it? And then I got addicted. I was like, Wow, let's go back and find all the ugliest photos that they can.

And then I realized how reassured people get by that and was like, oh wow, I need to do it more, like I need to find you know, I need to try and show how much we all look when we've eaten pasta, like how different that looks to when I'm flexing my abs first thing in the morning in the gym.

And I kind of really love being able to feel comfortable enough with myself now to put up those things and have a good chuckle and then make other people like sometimes now people post their own bloops, and I'm like, oh, I love that you felt good enough for yourself to

do that. And it's part of that whole self love journey that if you can learn to love the besides of you that you used to cringe at, then I now I'm suddenly just so much more comfortable in myself generally because everyone's seen all angles, so there's really nothing for them not to like or accept or you know,

I don't know. I just think it also makes me feel like when I do post photos where I've had like a makeup artist for three hours and a hair person for two hours, and like lots of lighting and editing and stuff. When I do post those, I don't feel as uncomfortable anymore because I'm like, I've shown the extent of work on my face that has gone into this,

so no one's being misled. You know, I want people to feel My favorite quote ever is people will never remember what you said or what you did, They'll aways remember how you made them feel. And I want everyone to feel happy and excited and confident out of every interaction they have with me. So for every good photo, I need to post a gross one for me to feel like I'm doing that.

anything like that. So it's just so refreshing to me that you're like, no, I can look for you and I can look like this and still do what I want do my stuff, and I absolutely adore that.

So I thought, if I can kind of replicate that, there's enough beautiful curative pages out there which are also aspirational and inspired, like inspiring in their own way, but there's enough of that it's easy for us to find things that are curated.

I was like, you know, this came out. My first feeling was to hide it, to not show it, but then like, this is me, this is an active part of my lifestyle, like I get these every two weeks, two weeks, and I had such an overwhelming response, and it's so right, like when you show I'm doing air quotes now like the gross side of you, and you're okay with it and everyone's okay with it. It's almost like this invincible sort of feeling where you're.

just stay there. But eventually, what the new thing that you're doing is going to get comfortable, and then you're going to have to, you know, find your what's your next challenge and your next stage of growth. And one of the things that I was missing was that both match of businesses are very much focused on a product and a message that isn't about your personal development so much as it is the products themselves and the benefits

that they can give you. And you know the impact of plant based eating, and indirectly it's all about making you feel better and making the environment feel better. But I felt like my strongest impact, without even meaning to, my personal page had become this kind of platform for sharing the backstory, so how to find the life that

you love? The questions I get most started to not be about the products of the businesses and much more about the change of life, or taking control of your happiness or anxiety, or the personal things like I think people really relate to people and people's experiences. So I realized that I was doing a lot of that on my personal page and through speaking gigs, but I didn't kind of have one spot to put all the information.

And then randomly throughout the year, if I was speaking with other people, we'd have all these awesome conversations backstage or in a cab or on a plane or you know, whatever it was. And there were so many common themes and so many times that. I was like, oh gosh, that person that asked me that question last week, If I could record this conversation and send it to them, that would solve all their problems, you know. I was like, I need to be able to I'm meeting so many

amazing people. I myself am getting so many incredible opportunities that I love to share how out of the blue they really came, and how much stuff happens when you just open your mind and don't get so scared about things going right for you. Yeah, it just kind of was like, how am I going to? What is the platform? What is the right platform to put that all in one spot? And I kind of thought that writing was something I love to do, but it's something we've done already.

We've done a lot of blog posts. I do a lot of blog posts. Speaking is where I connect with people most strongly. And I also think it's great to hear people's voices because that's when the messages are the most relatable. When you can well obviously you can relate to them, that's why they're relatable. And hearing someone's voice is so much more powerful than seeing the words say right. I think if it comes to someone who's quite well

known and who's a bit intimidating. So I was like, podcast is obviously the right thing, and it's something completely new for me. I have no experience, so again that discomfort thing. I was like, how the hell am I going to do it? I don't know, I'll figure it out.

it does distract from your happiness a little bit. So shifting the dialogue back to yay and joy and bringing out you in a child again, I knew I would use it for something registered it and then I was like, this is it. This is what I'm going to do. I'm just going to move all the talking that I do in random forums and put it all in one place. So everyone can kind of hear from these amazing people and hear how normal they are and how they started from.

Literally everyone started from some kind of garage or basement basically, and with Google, that's how everybody started everything. Ever now yeah, yeah, and so then I just had you know, some amazing, amazing people who said yes very early on because we'd worked together for so many years, and that that meant

the first ten episodes had really good momentum. I recorded them all kind of on one trip, so they were ready, and then that gave me a lot of time to just figure out how to edit, like what I was doing, and just like everything. Really, I think we've you think that you need to have everything sorted when you start, but you absolutely don't. I don't think I've ever known where things were going until they went there. And when you just go with the flow, things can really go well.

I think, like you just put out put things out there and people will pick it up. There's someone else's always looking for exactly what you have, and there are lots of podcasts out there, but I think we all do it in our own different special ways. So even listening to I guess you've heard before interviewed by someone else might be different.

just create when I wanted to create. And that's continued that way, Like I kind of edit when I want to. If I don't make one each week, I've managed to do somehow, But if I don't, like it's not a big deal, and no one cares, no one knows. I really enjoy that. I don't like have to do it by a particular time, and I don't have any limits on how long they have to be. You know, you just kind of go with whatever happens. And it's really freeing and lovely to have something that you do just

for the sake. So I thought, if no one listens, then I still get to have these amazing conversations with people, and that's as good enough a reason as any to do something, Whereas I think we tend to worry that if it doesn't have an impact and get a million followers and make sales and do things, and it's not worth it. But I think you need to come back to if it's for your joy, that's a enough reason to do something. That's a great reason for an activity.

I absolutely love, so I could not agree more. So Lastly, I just wanted to ask you, what does it mean to you to find your Yay.

That's a big step. But the next step after that, which I think a lot of us haven't reached yet, is that, yes, it's so important to have passion in your life, but often that is combined with your work, and then that becomes all entangled with our ideas of success and productivity and achievement and how we define ourselves in our job and our work and all that kind of stuff. But what really has come up for me

in the last years is I found my passion. I found what I love and I found what lights me up, but it is also quite exhausting. So finding my true yay has been also finding activities that have nothing to do with my work and nothing to do with productivity, and that are purely for enjoyment, purely because I can lose myself and in time and not know what time or day it is or how long has passed since I've been doing it, and that I think just coming

back to that inner child thing. Children don't care about anything other than the minute they're in and how much fun that minute is, and adults lose that magic, which I think then in turn affects our creativity and our work, because if you don't give your brain a rest from it, you can't be fresh, and you can't have the best ideas. You just can't keep going forever at a crazy pace

and never take a break and get some perspective. So I think finding your YA involves finding all the things that light you up professionally, but then having some joy that's completely unrelated and not feeling guilty about doing it.

I think also when you go off and you're doing your own thing, you do feel a lot of pressure that any spare time that you know you are working on your own business and you're being constructive, and it's definitely something that you learn along the way, like I had to learn from getting to a point of burnout, that it is okay just to do things that you know don't necessarily earn the business money or earn you money or get you further along, that you just do

because you absolutely love it. So thank you so much for that. I could not agree more. And I've just had the best time chatting to you.

There's email, There's like a million different ways you can get to meet. There's LinkedIn everything, so I'm sure you won't have any trouble.