The Reinvention Story Every Business Owner Needs to Hear | Natalie Chadwick

Natalie Chadwick's story is one of resilience, reinvention, and learning to trust yourself through every chapter of life.

In this episode, Natalie shares her journey from starting hairdressing at 16, to salon ownership, building a music career, navigating single motherhood, and overcoming significant financial challenges before stepping into her role as Global Creative Director at CPR Hair.

This conversation goes beyond career milestones. It's an honest look at what it takes to rebuild when life doesn't go to plan, how to keep moving forward through uncertainty, and why backing yourself can change everything.

We also discuss an exciting new chapter for CPR Hair, including what's ahead for the brand and the opportunities emerging within the hair industry.

If you've ever questioned your next move, faced setbacks, or found yourself starting over, this episode is for you.

Inside this episode:

✨ Starting a career in hairdressing at just 16 years old
🏢 The realities of salon ownership and the lessons learned along the way
💸 What nobody teaches you about money, business, and financial pressure
👩‍👧 Navigating single motherhood while pursuing ambitious goals
🎤 Building a music career and balancing creativity with responsibility
🔄 Rebuilding after setbacks and creating stability from the ground up
🔥 Learning to trust yourself when the future feels uncertain
🚪 Recognising opportunities and stepping into leadership
🤝 The impact of mentorship, support, and being seen by the right people
🌿 Creating a career and life that feels aligned with who you truly are

This is a powerful conversation about resilience, growth, and finding the courage to begin again.

If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs this reminder: your next chapter can be your best one yet.

Follow Natalie on Instagram: @natalie_cprhair


Join Us Live This September

If you're a salon owner ready to step away from the day-to-day and work on your business instead of constantly working in it, we'd love to see you at Off the Floor.

Hosted by The Conscious Salon and Salon Society, Off the Floor is an intimate two-day event designed to help you build stronger leadership, gain financial clarity, improve your marketing, and create the systems that give you more freedom as a business owner.

📍 QT Gold Coast
📅 7–8 September 2026
🎟️ Only 36 tickets available

Secure your ticket and learn more:
https://the-conscious-salon.circle.so/off-the-floor

To follow our journey:
Instagram @aheadhair_
@the_conscious_salon

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Setup

SPEAKER_01 0:00

This episode of the Conscious Salon Podcast is brought to you by CPR Hair.

unknown 0:05

Yay!

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Love saying that already. Yay. Welcome back to the Conscious Salon Podcast. Tess, we've got someone very special here. I said to Tess, I was like, we're sitting down with our new boss today. We just recorded all the devil wears part of the event.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Which without any prompting, Matt's effectively come dressed with the rent. Even though I knew our guest is also.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Thank you. Sorry. But today I did write you a little intro. Oh. So today we're joined by a woman who has lived a lot of lives in a very small lifetime. She started hairdressing at 16, owned a salon for a decade, and knows firsthand the pressure, the pace, the high highs, and the absolute chaos that come with building something in this industry. And somewhere alongside all of that, she also built a music career that has run for 10 years. When we say that this guest understands creativity, performance, pressure, reinvention, and backing herself, we really mean it. What we love about her story is that it isn't polished or perfect. It's really real. And when we met this incredible guest a few months ago, and when we connected with her, uh it was a really instant connection. And it feels like we have a shared mission to completely transform uh the hair and beauty industry. It's uh her story shows a woman who has followed instinct, worked extremely hard, taken risks, backed herself when things felt scary, and still kept moving forward. From being a single mum living week to week and hoping that a gig would cover the extras that her daughter needed, to now being the global creative director of CPR hair, helping shape huge opportunities in our industry. Her story carries the kind of grit that you can feel. She is someone who cares deeply about the hair industry, deeply about people, deeply about growth, and deeply about the future of our industry. The reason that we were drawn to you, Nat, is that you stand for education, innovation, passion, community, building women up and empowering the next generation of our industry. We absolutely had to have you on. And we're so excited to welcome to the Conscious Helen Podcast, Natalie Chadwick.

SPEAKER_03 2:34

Yay! Thank you so much, guys. How does that feel? So glad to be here. Um how does it feel? Look, I obviously know all these things that I do all the time, but until somebody says it out loud, you don't really hear it from anyone. Like, you know, occasionally you'll get appraised by a client or a boss or your wife, especially. Um but yeah, not from other people directly uh in front of your face. So thank you. That was nice.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

I feel like it can be so easy to like gloss over the impact or not recognize the impact. And I think as Nikki was speaking, then I was like, Yeah, fuck, this is exactly why we wanted like we were so I would almost say like not hypnotized, but almost magnetized, I was magnetized, like just really and even from like our chats and things, and obviously now working together, the connection and the vision is so aligned. So I think for like you know, what I love most about you is that you're like ready to like break up the mold and like shake shit up and like really inspire others to like live how they want to live and be who they want to be. But hearing it like that is pretty fucking cool. I also like completely forgot about the um music career because I was like, fuck, I forgot about that. Like woman of many talents, you can take us out with a song if you like.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Well, I don't have a can tell you, but yeah, if you have one, I'll go find one. Um, Nat,

Buying A Salon Without A Plan

SPEAKER_00 4:00

I was really surprised. I actually didn't know this about you, but I learned before we were recording when we were talking beforehand that you were a salon owner. And I didn't know that. So I want to take us back to that point, and I want you to share your story of how you went from that to this. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_03 4:19

Um, look, yes, I owned a salon. It was one of the most incredible times of my life. It was a real learning curve. I was also, as a lot of hairdressers are, really terrible with money back then. And you know, owning a salon, there's just so much cash. Like, you know, the one of those ads where they're doing this, like that is you. Like you are like cashed up at the time in my era, because back then there was a lot of cash. It wasn't, you know, as as heavy in card as it is now. And so I would just I would I know the good old days, right? I would just spend it. Yeah. I'd be like, this is the best thing I've ever experienced. I didn't know that salon owning could be, you know, this wonderful. So I'd go out and buy a new outfit every week. I would be across the road at the the jewelry store. I was like, you know, just spending like crazy. And I had a mortgage pretty young at a pretty young age. My dad died when I was 21. So I inherited some money and got I brought a house, and I was very young to be, you know, doing all those big girl things. I had just um traveled overseas, and so basically I I ruined my really beautiful opportunity um by just spending way too much, not knowing my my figures, not understanding business, you know, well enough. And I just went into it so blind. I didn't even care where it was when I went to start searching for okay, where do I want to own a salon? I looked in Bondios, can I just move to Sydney? No clientele there, no nothing. I just got back from London for like two years of traveling, so I had no real, you know, direction. There was no business plan. There was just like, oh, I bought a house in this area, maybe I should stick to here. Went in blind. True creative, right? It's like, wow.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Nikki's brain is like combusting. She's like, wow.

SPEAKER_03 6:07

Yeah. Bought someone else's salon. It was a really long-standing salon, been there like 25 years or longer. Um, was called Street Talk before that. I, of course, renamed it Pompinos and uh completely changed the whole thing, spent way too much on the paint. Yeah, come on.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

That's always the yeah. We do paint that with that, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:29

Back then. Yeah, like I just went.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Yeah. Like if we go on to a bank, what's the bank? What's banking?

SPEAKER_03 6:39

Commonwealth, don't do it. Um no, I'm honestly I'm allowed to say that. I honestly um the boss you tell us how we can pay. I feel like I feel like back then as well, like, you know, banks didn't care for their community. I don't know if they do now, actually, because my wife does all the finances. Yes, we love. Yeah, but they they really didn't care how you know badly you did. Like, you've got the money, you've got a mortgage, you've got, you know, you're paying me back. That they don't give a damn how much you keep redrawing on your house. Like, so that's that was a huge learning curve, to be honest. And at 21, Jeez. Yeah, I I wasn't that old. I was older than that when I bought the salon, but my dad died then. I um yeah, I got up to a team of like five, had a receptionist. By that point, I was, you know, thinking I was this queen salon owner. I fell pregnant with Gia and you know, it was really um, I wouldn't say unexpected, because of course when you have sex, you're gonna end up pregnant eventually. Um I don't do that anymore. Write that down and so yeah, uh it was unexpected for me in my situation. I was also um going to get married to a guy that I'd met uh in London and two weeks before the wedding I pulled out. So there was there was a lot going on for me. And then I've runaway bride. Runaway bride, absolutely. I've done it all. Um I'm actually a very fast runner.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

I believe that. I actually would like solidly believe that. It's like so I told you we're gonna need about eight parts of this. Especially running from men, very good at it. Same say less. Oh race you're on.

SPEAKER_03 8:29

Oh god. So yeah, I had a lot going on and I reconnected with my ex, who was my high school boyfriend from a very young age, and sort of just said to him, Look, you know, we we need to catch up more. We were really just best friends more than anything. He then went on to father three of my children. Wow. So thanks. Beautiful to him. Productive catch-ups, evidently.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

Wow, okay.

SPEAKER_03 8:55

But yeah, after that, I guess the salon started to sort of, you know, take second place for me. Like after Luca was born, my second, I just I just thought I was Mother Teresa and I was gonna have five children, and I just loved it so much that um it the opportunity came up to sell it. And

The Investor Deal That Went Dark

SPEAKER_03 9:14

very interesting story. I totally forgot about this till right now. So an investor brought my salon to start up salons for uh women coming in from Nepal. Wow, so he was cool. It was a cool idea. However, he was taking their money to get them sponsorship into Australia and then, you know, like thousands of dollars, like 60,000 or whatever he charged them to get them here. And they they would leave their babies. Like this is heartbreaking. This one woman I net met, her name was Babita, and I fell in love with her. She still follows me now to this day. I fell in love with this woman because she was just so like she had left her nine-month-old baby, her three-year-old, and like her children at home with a mother to be able to come here to be a hairdresser. So she would learn she learnt the course, did the whole thing in a year, paid the money to this school. Um, and then he would set up salons all across Australia and restaurants. He was doing it with chefs as well. Um, and yeah, and get them here on a working visa. And and the you know, the salon ownership was just a side hustle kind of thing to get them here. And I think in his mind he did think he was going to be able to make it big, you know, doing this. But then of course, their English is limited and there was you know many problems. And I did work for him, like I continued to work for him for about six months until you stayed in the business. No, area managing for his businesses. Wow. So I then realized what he was doing, gave the car back, gave the laptop back, was like, I'm out, this is really bad. I didn't realize at the time when I took the job with him. Um, yeah, that was the interesting part of the story after that. Another one where I'm like, whoa. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Wow. So I I did have a question in there. Why did you give up owning a salon? But obviously you chose the motherhood path. Yeah. You chose to step back from owning a salon.

SPEAKER_03 11:13

It wasn't just the motherhood path, it was very much like um I was feeling overwhelmed. I wasn't good at money, as we just discussed before. Um, I've become a lot better now. Being a single mum teaches you a lot. Um, but yeah, I just I wasn't good at the money side of it. I didn't have the support, you know. I had no mum, no dad, no family to really support me in that. And so it's really tricky, you know, to do it all on your own. Yeah. And I've done that my whole life. Like every single scenario, like God, we could talk about the first egg of my period was a train wreck.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Um, we need to touch on that now. How am I going on? I know you want to know that one. Oh god. Why not?

SPEAKER_03 11:54

I don't know if I could do that one.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

No, okay, we'll start that for part two.

SPEAKER_03 11:59

Yeah, I could be here two days running um the amount of stories we have. So yeah, um, where were we at?

SPEAKER_00 12:05

So you you you chose to step out of the salon.

SPEAKER_03 12:08

Yeah, so I chose to step out of it, but the business or the entrepreneur in me was still like, oh, this guy's gonna give me an opportunity, I should take it. Um Luca was, yeah, like I said, only nine, ten months, something like that. And I just I just what really always want to be the boss. So I yeah, I took it, took the opportunity, and then yeah, it didn't work out. But um, yeah, that's why I left pretty much because I just was finding it really difficult to juggle it all on my own. Were you a single mum then, or were you partnered? No, but um let's be honest, girls, being married to a man is like being a single mum. So um, no offense to men. They're not listening. June out a long time ago.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

Um it's like our family and that's it.

SPEAKER_03 12:54

Yeah, so uh he worked in the mines, so it was fly in, fly out. So yes, I was a single mum.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Yeah, even more so with that, that's like full on.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

Yes. I

Single Mum Budgets And Building Back

SPEAKER_00 13:04

really want to talk about how you live today and the path that you chose to your own happiness. And I know that we've we've touched on this in conversations that we've had prior to recording. But you shared something really incredible, and with your permission, I'd love to share it. Sure. On the potty. So everyone that we interview, we always ask them to fill out a few questions beforehand just so that we can get your permission as to what you feel comfortable talking about. And this is a side of you that I hadn't seen before, but I think it's so unbelievably powerful. You wrote six years ago, I was a single mum, a musician with a side of hair, asking my 11-year-old daughter to calculate every dollar we spent at Kohl's to make sure that we didn't go over the $90 budget that I had, and praying that my $300 gig at the Hamo would be enough for the school excursion that she wanted to go on. What comes up for you hearing that?

SPEAKER_03 14:00

Yeah, look, it's it's tough because um you girls know what motherhood is like, and it's you know, I'd explain it like this all the time. It is the best and the worst time of your life, all rolled into one. And so, you know, I actually have really fond memories of that time. Like even Gia, my this is my eldest who we're talking about, she still talks about taking the calculator around coals. She has learnt to be so good with her money. Like I've made her um, you know, really accountable for everything that's happening around her. And you know, like down to like, can I have you know, is such a limited, I guess, theory for them that they know that you know it's it's so much different now. We're living a totally different life. But um at the time, yeah, it was it was tough. But Gia and Luca, not so much Eddie, she was too little, but um they learn a lot about you know, not asking for the designer water bottle or being okay with taking the same water bottle you've had for five years to school. Like they they learn a lot through that period because before that, with when we were married, we actually had a lot of money, fly in, fly out, business owner was yeah, there was it's it was one extreme to the next. So it was it was really tough. And yeah, I am really proud of that um those that era because you know, I don't know if I didn't tell you this, but I I come out of that era saving only just enough, like 32 grand, to get my own um townhouse. Yeah. And that's when I started I started working for CPR and and that helped me to achieve that goal. So um I remember towards the end I was still five grand short to pay the rest of the townhouse off. And I was freaking out, you know, like I'd only been out of the music world or whatever for a year and a half or maybe two years, and I'd recorded an album just before, so I'd spent a lot of money making this music still and touring still while I was working with CPR. So um I was doing an Australian tour with Catherine Britt at the time, so it was like you know, 17-hour drives out into the middle of nowhere. And I remember just being five grand short and thinking to myself, how am I gonna make this work? And you know, even the girls, like, because I taught them how to save, Gia's like, you can take it out of my savings. And I'm like, no, babe, I'm not gonna do that. She's like, Yes, mum, like you should do that. Um, anyway, so I ended up really my one of my best friends, she's like, babe, I'm gonna throw you the $5,000, it's gonna be fine. And it was over Christmas period. We moved in in the beginning of December, and Cass knew all about this, he knew what was going on, and so he um he gifted me money at Christmas to pay it back. So yeah. It's a beautiful man, isn't he?

SPEAKER_01 16:57

Anyone who doesn't know Cass is that's our big boss. It's the king of us now.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

So it's really interesting. And our first extra male listener outside of our family, which we're very grateful for. Um, I'm gonna share this story because anyone who doesn't know Cass, he's the founder. Or he's like, what do you call it when you like take over a company? It's obviously his family business, but is do we say he's the founder or he's the he's the CEO, the CEO of CPR Hair. He's the king of hair. But um Cass is the the CEO of CPR Hair, and when you guys hosted Telon Forum this year in Tassie, we were invited to come along, and that was just the most amazing trip because it was like we were away with all of our mates.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

Yeah, it was like there were some really some real key players there. I felt like it was it was a bit comical with only people when you were.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

But it was it was pretty incredible. Like we had there was Sophia Hilton there, we had Tabitha Coffee there, and it was you were meshing so much with these people that we'd sit at the breakfast table and it was like, Tabitha, can you pass the salt? Like it was the weakness. I'm like 100%.

SPEAKER_01 18:02

I'm still holding on to the fact that it could be passed the salt.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Absolutely, we're gonna put that on a t-shirt, but it was the most incredible, um, incredible weekend. And Cass came over to us and sat down with us, and he said, I have this incredible vision for the hair industry. We have so many hairdressers who are so dysregulated and whose nervous systems are fried and we just need to change this industry. And I said to Cass, Do you know what we do? And he said, He doesn't try me as a social media kind of dude, and he's like, No. And I said, Well, we run a business called the Conscious Salon and and we integrate um practices, mindful practices for salon owners to help them regulate their nervous system. And then I said, Can I give you my number? We need to talk. And this is how the whole thing started. So that doesn't surprise me at all that he believed in you so much to say, all right, this is the home that you deserve to put your kids in. How does that feel? Just even thinking about having an employer see that in you.

SPEAKER_03 19:05

Yeah, look, it's actually um, you know, refreshing to hear that because sometimes you get bogged down in work life and you start to, you know, negative thoughts start to come up in your mind and you start to like think, oh, this job's so hard, you know, I'm traveling all the time, I'm spending every weekend away from my family, I'm doing this, this, and this. And then hearing that is really like solidified why I've been with CPR for, you know, nearly seven years now and why I continue to stay with them because it's not about the money, although that is great, of course, and it's not about the notoriety of the job or anything like that. It's it truly is that he believes in me so fucking hardcore that he will just go, okay, if if you really think this is the way, Nat, let's go. Like honestly, with anything. And if something happens, because of course there's budgets and there's restrictions that you have to, you know, and um if something happens and it's like a no, he will like go and fork out to pay for it for me to make it happen. He likes to do that. Doesn't surprise me at all.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

And he it's really interesting when we went and and thanked him at the end of the conference. We said to him, you know, thank you so much, this has been amazing. And he would not take anything. He just said, This is Nat. This is Nat. This is and he wouldn't take anything, like no credit whatsoever. So beautiful human. Nat,

Leaving Marriage And Choosing Love

SPEAKER_00 20:27

uh I would love to talk about uh your experience leaving your marriage and going on to pursue your beautiful relationship and marriage now to Genevieve, whatever you feel comfortable sharing.

SPEAKER_03 20:41

Yeah, 100%. Well, um just as a a segue, um, I met Genevieve after a really awful breakup. And um, you know, I always say that I feel like I I dreamt her into my life because I I actually had a list. I was like, you know, writing all the things. Um, this is what I won't, you know, put up with anything else less than this, what's on this list, you know. Like, um, but how I in ended up in looking for that perfect relationship was my husband and I used to be in a band together, and this is how I got into music. I didn't even play guitar before 36 years old.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

So um I fall into everything, like I've fallen into the sound with all this money, and I've fallen into a music career that's doing really well. I'm really good at falling. So it's a real skill. I'm like blown away. It's like it's continue.

SPEAKER_03 21:34

So yeah, I was in a band with my ex-husband called The Wayward Henries, and we, you know, it was our my first ever musical career, like my first ever musical anything. And we obviously had band members come in and out, you know, over the couple of years we were doing it. And this one uh female guitarist joined our band. Very Fleetwood Mac moment coming. Just pre warning. All the millennials along.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Like millennials, Gen Z.

SPEAKER_03 22:11

Remember what I am. So my children have to remind me of You're a millennial. Thank you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Oh my yeah, it's really cool. Anyway, yeah, so Hollywood Mac moment. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 22:19

Google that. Google that. Yeah. So a female band member joined our band and um I just fell in love with her like hardcore. Like she was um well, you know, talented, um, but also really complicated person and very yeah, not for me.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

However, um, musician. Yeah. We've all been old. I had a very um passionate relationship with the musician that was um Nikki, I think, cool.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

You know, when your sister's going out with a major fuck boy, it was that, but for a long time. It wasn't a fuckboy, it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

How dare you? The tortured, the tortured artist. The tortured artist. The tortured artist. Yeah, I was saving him. I it didn't work shockingly. But anyway, continue. Yeah, yeah. I know the tortured. The musician, the m mu the magnet of the musician, I guess. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 23:15

So the thing about women is that they're so nurturing, you know, they will just like look after you like no one's business. Like I'm talking like, oh, your lip lips look a bit dry. You probably need some more water. I've got lip balm. Hang on, I'll get it for you. Oh, you don't have a pick for your guitar. Hang on, I'll get oh, I'm getting it right now, you know? Like, so I think that was a lot of the um allure at the time because men obviously don't do that, have no clue. Um, so yeah, and yeah, just feeling cared for, I think was how it came about. But um, that relationship ended very badly and very publicly, and um hence uh the White Heat album.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

Um also on the way home, we're listening to every song.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

I'm also pulling up all the lyrics so that I can really see the pathway of this. Yeah, okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:08

It was it was messy, but yeah, um, so yeah, it and that ended really badly, and then I made this incredible list. And the list was of you know, everything that I wanted in a partner. One very funny um thing on the list that I always joke with Genevieve is about they had to have their own hair routine. I was like, I'm not blow dragging this again, I'm not blow dragging some bitch's hair ever again.

SPEAKER_01 24:35

Like my time, my time's done.

SPEAKER_03 24:36

I'm over. And hilariously, uh Genevieve is like a full like cult curly girl. So like there's no touch. There's no touch in that business, and I'm so happy about it. Um but yeah, that was on on the list. Uh yeah, so yeah, made this list, um, met Genevieve Genevieve. She actually lived five and a half hours away from me. What is it? And the only reason we connected um was, you know, kinda radius or thing. No, obviously, like um music, music and like, you know, um Sydney, like she was working at the time as a training and assessor. I'm gonna get that wrong, she's gonna kill me, but anywho, um yeah, training and assessor for like the government, and we were both in Sydney a lot, and so yeah, it it ended up working out fine. But yeah, well, that's that.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

So that is that. So our journey was a tough one.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

Had you explored relationships with women prior to leaving your marriage to your or your partner. Not relationships, no.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

Or were were you always like drawn to women? Or is that something that came after the fleet with Mac moment?

SPEAKER_03 25:40

Definitely drawn to women. I always say this um that I surround myself with women like constantly. And I'm not talking about sexual relationships at all. I'm talking about friendships. Of course, all women do that, but I'm talking about even like down to always having I always had it like a young girl hanging around that was like for babysitting, or someone was always interested in starting up a business with me, or um, you know, like different sort of relationships, not just you of course you have lots of girlfriends, but these women are just I guess drawn to the fact that I'm also like that. I'm also nurturing, I also love, you know, empowering other women to do the best that they can. So I just surround myself with women all the time. So I think yes, in a way, but not in like, you know, relationship-wise, no, definitely not.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

You're the pussy magnet. Very good. So with that, with now living authentically and like, and even with that, with you being like it wasn't something you like keep h kept hidden or anything like that, just something that like kind of like developed, I guess, in a way, or something like whether it was the Fleetwood Mac moment or however it went, something in you was like, Oh yeah, this is where I want to be.

SPEAKER_03 26:52

Yeah, look, there was it's so confusing for me because when I get asked this question, I just have no clue. There were moments when I was a kid, you know, like teen kind of years, where I'd have a sleepover and I'd be thinking about that kind of thing, like with a friend that it was sleeping over or something like that. But I didn't understand that, so I think I've kind of squashed it. And then there's also moments where when I lived in London, my best friend is gay and like absolute queen. She's the most stylish person I know. And she got the two years together would be an absolute nightmare.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

Oh no, I thought this is nothing. She is like I love this is nothing. She is so like Nat is literally dressed in like clothes that I could only dream of.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

No, I felt really insecure when I saw you in the lobby and I was like, Nat's gone like to a 10.

SPEAKER_03 27:40

Oh, you know what I was saying about how good a packer I am?

SPEAKER_02 27:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:44

Well, I wore this outfit already, um, but with a brown jumper, you know, and I just like take three things that you have to recycle, like wear this on the um plane with the jeans, you know, like and just have like five things in your bag.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

I've got to jazz up my trackies a little bit. Anyway, yeah. So hang you with the with the best friend in London.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

Yeah, in my in my London era, um, surrounded by lesbians, went to lesbian bars, went to every lesbian band you could imagine, and didn't feel a thing. So this is what I mean. I was so I'm so confused. And I was in my 20s. Like, come on, it's the best time to start exploring. Nope. No exploration at all with women in London. But I actually like an episode of the L-word, isn't it? Yes, I could have had so many different relationships. Um, but I didn't, I don't know, just wasn't in me at the time. But you know, I I do remember thinking about women prior to that when I was in my teens, and then after, you know, like uh I often would, you know, like I don't know, pash someone in a nightclub or something, but never eventuated to anything. So no actual, you know, proper relationships ever until yeah.

Being Loud And Proud At Work

SPEAKER_00 28:51

Wow. I want to talk about how it's been for you as a corporate woman to have I I imagine my first serious relationship was with a woman. And I was that was my first like coming out story, I guess, um, being queer or someone who didn't didn't identify as being heterosexual. And it was really complicated, and I spoke about this recently at a conference. I'll cry if I tell that story again. But I spoke about this recently at a conference, uh, talking about this traumatic moment of feeling so incredibly judged and um abandoned by really solid people in my life when I came out. And I imagine that you would have uh faced judgments in your life and being a corporate woman, it could be really difficult to be a queer corporate woman without having people who have that look in their eye that we can see when you say something that someone may be even subconsciously uncomfortable with. Have you experienced that?

SPEAKER_03 29:48

Oh um, of course, of course I have, but um the incredible thing about you know so many things happening to you in your lifetime, it builds resilience and my skin is like thick, like so thick. And I think um yeah, anyone that you meet who is close to me will tell you that it it's water off a duck's back. I don't I don't take it to heart. And I think that's the really sad thing about most queer women that I've met in my life and in my community, is that there's always a real mental struggle with how they feel about themselves or how they can come out. I was loud and proud from day dot, did not care. Don't care if you don't accept me. I have no qualms. The only person I think that actually truly hurt my feelings, this is you said you might make me cry, this is pretty hurtful, but the only one person, like I've had things said to me that you wouldn't believe, but the one person that really hurt me was um I can't even say it. Wow. Um, yeah, my mother-in-law. We were so close, like so close. And I don't actually think it was because I was now gay that she had an issue. I think it was more that I'd hurt her son. Of course, yeah. Yeah. Wow. But that's probably the only person I've ever felt like, wow, that really hurt, you know? Yeah. But no, corporate life, no worries. I I actually have that really um high and strong ability to make men feel really small. Same. Um it's weird, right? I I I don't do it on purpose. Um maybe sometimes I don't mean to do it on purpose, but it it it just happens that I um am so honest about what they've just said that it makes them look or feel really stupid. You know?

SPEAKER_01 31:57

It's interesting even with this one I hear, because how long ago was this for you when like your mother-in-law said this? How many years was that?

SPEAKER_03 32:02

Oh, look, gosh, we've been separated for ten years or more. But you know, the relationship I had with her was much stronger than I had with him. You know, like um, I guess she's the also the first real motherly figure, uh, apart aside from my nana, like my nana raised me, so was, you know, an incredible, very important woman in my life. But um outside of family, like uh Brock's mum was the first woman who really nurtured me and cared for me and made sure that you know I felt loved and accepted into a family.

SPEAKER_01 32:42

I think and that's the thing with it so many times, and like this is something I take as as a note of a, you know, I'm a mother that fiercely protects my son. But yeah, this is shit you gotta watch because I feel like it is it I think you're a hundred percent right with saying like it wasn't so much that I was gay, it's the fact that her son is hurting the crossfire of this. Yes. And that it sucks. Like it's not but that's the thing for you. I can hear it's almost like a form of rejection where it's like this person that you look to is like a mother is whatever she said or however she's responded. It's it's fucked. And I think this is so many times where people this is a part of like life that I hate in general being. There are shades of grey. Like it doesn't mean that there's like even with you saying, like, I don't really know how to answer it because you know, when I was younger, I had crushes on girls, and then as I've gotten like nothing in the middle there where I could have really gone that and then this thing happened and blah blah blah. There are so many shades of grey that we need to start looking at, or like just start seeing the world world in colour, start looking for this one box or one situation or one experience. It's like it's either this or this. Like it just that is not a human experience. It's not and it shouldn't be. Like, like I don't want to live in a world like that. But as you're sitting here and saying that, it just puts in my brain of like no matter what I feel and how I I'm gonna watch my kids get hurt, we can't make what they're going through something that we take personally or like create that because they're gonna experience it enough anyway. Like they're gonna experience being out in the world and and I don't wanna also shelter that. Like I want my kids to hurt and to feel and to have that and to like Yeah, I mean, I really hope that you've had a a flip in if she's come around and apologized or anything for that.

SPEAKER_03 34:27

Look, it's taken years, but now, you know, at the at the time what really hurt me wasn't so much words, it was more like that she wasn't going to speak to me anymore, that I didn't have that relationship, that there was no more texting um or anything like that. And I would go to pick the girls up and she would keep the screen door locked. You know, like just It was like real like micro choice. So horrible accepting that I still am the mother of these children and it's still like a huge part of your life, whether you like it or not. Yeah. Um that was really hard. But recently, of course, yeah, she's I mean, we don't text or anything, but if something major happens, I'm there, you know, like and and we're yeah, we're a lot better now. But I wouldn't say friendship or anything like what we had. But yeah, yeah, it's huge. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:19

I think there's like that underlying feeling of of rejection, no matter how much how you look at it. Yeah, or how long it's been. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:27

It's um it is one of those massive things though, isn't it? Like I just think about that a lot, and I just think so often we don't think about how our actions or our choices are our like even things like locking a screen door, how that can impact someone. Yeah. So massively in that distance that it can put through. Uh I wrote about it. It's fine with with now.

Advice For Women Ready To Leave

SPEAKER_00 35:46

Good. The biggest thing that I see with you, Nat, with hearing your story and and hearing all of the obstacles that you faced to get here as well. Like being a single mum, changing careers, having the salon, moving on from that, leaving your relationship with a man, which is like always gonna be quote unquote the safer option for from the outside looking in. Is it though?

SPEAKER_03 36:09

Well, no. No, because in fact, like I I hate when people say the norm or the safer option or the the sometimes even the right choice. Like, are you kidding me? Like, you know, in my experience, and look, I don't have a huge experience with men because I was always the dumper, you know, I was always like whatever. Did not care much for them at all. Now it all makes sense. However, at the time I just thought I was a real bitch. Like, I just I actually just thought, oh, you know, I am more like a man in that way, that I can let go of relationships. I'm not really phased. Then once I had my first ever female breakup, oh my God, it took a week of and obviously longer than that, but a week of isolation, crying, like non-stop. I I had never experienced heartbreak before that. Wow. Like I didn't know. I was like nearly 40. I was 38 years old. I'd never experienced heartbreak. I had no clue that people actually, when my friends were going through a breakup or a heartache, I was like, what the hell is wrong with you? Like I I really had no clue. Like I thought that breakups were like you broke up with someone and then you don't talk to them anymore, and you kind of miss hearing from them, but that's it. I honestly truly believe that. And um when yeah, when I had my first female breakup, I was a tr like a total mess. My ex-husband actually took the kids for a full week. Cass gave me the week off work. I could I couldn't function. Wow. I couldn't talk. It was it was awful. Like wow, I finally at 38 years old finally experienced what heartache is and heartbreak and loss. Like, you know, of course I've experienced um grief, but not in a relationship manner. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:05

That's huge. I think for so many women that come into our our world and they get really honest about what they want. There's so many women that come to us who have had really similar situations to you, and I want to speak directly to those women now. Because I think whether you're in a relationship that's no longer serving you, a relationship that you don't truly desire, and you may desire something else, or you feel unfulfilled, but it feels easier to stay in a relationship just because it's harder to blow up your life and leave and to start again. And for a lot of women it's so intimidating. So I would love to take the opportunity now, if you can talk to directly to those women, what's the one thing that you would have needed to hear all those years ago before you chose yourself?

SPEAKER_03 38:51

Look, for me, I this is really hard for me because I know um that other women have this sense of um unlike inability to choose things for themselves because they're so nervous about um the consequences or what might happen, or I just don't have that. So for me, for me, it was like a clean cut, easy choice. Um but for those women who are finding it difficult, I honestly think the most important thing to remember is that you don't have to do this alone and you don't have to have any savings and you don't have to be financially stable. There are so many people and communities and uh like did you guys know? Of course you will, there is like a food shelter for people who can't afford food. I didn't know that until I was well into my late 30s, and my best friend had said, Oh, don't worry about it, babe. You can just go get $2 Veggie Mart from this place and and Hamilton. I was like, what? Like I had no clue about that before. And so you actually don't need a lot of money to leave someone. And I I I was lucky, I had support of, you know, an ex-husband who, even though he didn't want me to leave, he, you know, okay, let's buy the beds for the kids, let's set it up. Okay, here's this. I think he thought I was gonna come back at that point. Um, but yeah, I I then borrowed furniture from a friend. I did all this stuff just to set up this tiny little two-bedroom unit with three children. And I started asking for help. I went to a lot of these places who will help pay your Telstra bill, um, who will help, you know, find cheaper food, who will help with um our school at the time that the girls were going to had like fruit boxes and all these things like that are available to women who need it. And it it it really doesn't cost a lot to do it. And if you were, I think that's the biggest fear because how will I feed my children? How will I survive? What I don't want them to just be eating two-minute noodles, although that's what I'm one thing I'm really good at cooking. Um, you know, like how will we do it? That that's probably the fear that most women have is how will I financially be able to do this, let alone I'll all already be on the back foot of like, you know, I'm they may be heartbroken, they may be trying to um fix the relationship with their own children during that transition period, or God, there's so many reasons that they might have not to leave. Um, but for me, I just yeah, don't have those. I'm always a hundred percent independent, always know that I can start from zero and end up where I am now in a heartbeat.

SPEAKER_01 41:32

I think it's one of those things that we talk about all the time with having that, you know, when you get to the end of your life, you know, and it and we're in the I mean, you know, universe willing, but having that moment of looking back and being like, cool, have I lived authentically, have I lived for myself, have I sacrificed myself? Because so often what we hear people with their reservations, and this goes into every whether it's leaving relationships, you know, making choices, any big decisions that you're making, you gotta have you gotta have some balls about you, and you've gotta or you've got to have some tits about you, actually, not balls about you. One of the biggest things I feel so often is that people will wait for the perfect moment at the perfect time with all of these things, and and you miss it, you miss it time and time. Like that opportunity of it all being perfectly aligned at that exact moment is so fucking rare. So if you are waiting for that or thinking, I'll just see out this or so, like you have today. Today is the day when you need to live authentically for you, whatever that means. If that means new job, new relationship, new new dynamic, new country, it doesn't matter what it means. But start doing that and stop waiting for that ultimate, you know, thing. I'm like you, I'm like I'm cutthroat. Once that decision's made, it it's already done. So thank you for being that for so many women who will need to hear that. You will help women make decisions for themselves on this episode. And I'm so grateful for that because we need more people in here that are gonna start, you know, shaking shit up.

The Avatar Metaphor For Intimacy

SPEAKER_03 42:57

And if you haven't already made the decision, ladies, I'm gonna tell you something that might change your mind. I have referred to this before in in my time. Um I feel like intimacy with a woman is so different. Like, I'm not talking just oh, you know, gentler or this or that. No, it's not about that. I always refer to it as like, have you seen that movie Avatar? Okay, you know, when the tales connect with the the weird, yeah, it and it's the the tree of life, and like it's like that. Something happens that is so unique and different and more in touch with who you really are and how you really feel. Um, for me, obviously, if you're a hetero straight woman, that might not be the case. But I don't may not land the same. May not land the same. But I think that um even that in itself is so important because if you're not feeling that right now with your current partner, 100%, husband, what whoever it is, um get out. Yeah. Because you have the opportunity to feel like that, you have the opportunity to feel so amazing, and why would you give that up? 100%. That's so yeah. You know, like if you're I um when I first met Genevieve, we I lived in a rental house in Mayfield, and there's it's really old kind of town, and it's kind of like Mayfield is kind of like the new town of Newcastle. It's a bit grungy and it's pretty cool, and every house has weird things. This one had like all these rows kind of different coloured windows, so every window had like little square panels of colour. And you know, after like you know, being intimate would be just laying there, and I I swear to god, colours would just fly across my face. Like that kind of magic doesn't happen if you're unhappy. Agree, agree. Like, why would you bother? You know, it's so true.

SPEAKER_01 44:48

And I think it's only when you go into a dynamic where you have that experience where you are like, oh, this is what it can be like. Yeah, it changes everything. I see when that 100%. And it's like it's massive. That's everyone's gonna be watching Avatar tonight. Oh my gosh. I'm gonna home to watch it. I've never seen it. I will be watching now.

SPEAKER_00 45:07

Nat, thank you so much for being here. You are just an exceptional person in our industry for so many reasons. But the fact that you you will help so many women listening to this and empower them to choose a different life where they are happy and fulfilled and actually acting for themselves and not for someone else and not out of obligation, which is what our whole mission is is just to get women to really live for themselves and actually choose what they want. So you will help so many people. What a gift.

CPR Rebrand And What Comes Next

SPEAKER_00 45:36

Nat, uh, what's next for Nat? What's next for CPR? Can we talk? Can we touch on, are we allowed to touch on I know what are we allowed to sell on?

SPEAKER_03 45:43

Yes, of course. We've got uh the Salon 27 in February, but before before even any of that happens, we've got a major rebrand going on. Um we're you know venturing into New Zealand right now. So um we're looking at UK, um, America. There's there's so much on the horizon for us. So um I have been miraculously appointed from starting with CPR uh six years ago, uh BDM Um marketing and social media, creative director, global creative director. It's there's so many um things happening for us as a brand, and I'm just so excited to be a part of it. So excited to be sitting at the table. So it's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 46:25

So, guys, conference time, the salon 2027. Natalie Ann's gonna be there. Yes, um, and also, so is Renya. Renya, and then and um Mia Langley, who our Tim are obsessed with. It's very exciting. So we will be there, but we want all of you guys to come to it.

SPEAKER_01 46:42

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 46:43

Nat, thank you so much for being here today. Thank you all for listening to another episode of the Conscious Sun podcast.

SPEAKER_01 46:48

Love you guys, stay conscious.