Episode 47 - Rosie Mac: Back from the Brink

A single slip on a wet morning changed everything. Rosie spent 42 years as a research nurse, then a head injury, a misdiagnosis and an atypical stroke forced a brutal reset. What followed wasn’t a neat comeback arc, rather a slow, honest rebuild guided by hope, intuition and the surprising medicine of art.

We dive into the reality of post-concussion syndrome, the pressure to perform while your brain says no and the fear that comes with losing a professional identity you’ve held for decades. Rosie shares the 12 days she spent in hospital after a silent stroke disrupted her vestibular system, the months of being housebound and the moment she asked the question that opened a new path. Why am I still here? From there, she began listening inward, funding an intuition course by selling a painting in 24 hours and discovering intentional creativity as a way to transmute trauma into tangible remedies.

You’ll hear how medicine painting became nervous system tools, how childhood programming and perfectionism gave way to self-trust and why neuroplasticity and spiritual practice belong in the same sentence. Rosie co-generated a bestselling book chapter with the Empowering Women Alliance, then stepped into leadership to help more women become authentically expressed and unapologetically powerful. We connect the dots between science and spirit, software updates for your beliefs and the practical steps that turn a whisper of hope into daily change.

If you’re navigating loss, burnout, or a life transition, this conversation offers a grounded blueprint for starting again, one small, compassionate choice at a time. Subscribe, share with someone who needs a nudge toward their own reboot, and leave a review to help more Everyday Warriors find us. What part of your life is ready for an update?

Connect with Rosie on Facebook or LinkedIn

See Rosies website here

Chapters

• 0:00 Mission And Listener Care Note
• 2:01 Reviews, Support, And Book Plug
• 3:33 Meet Rosie From New Zealand
• 4:15 The 2016 Concussion And Career Loss
• 7:20 Misdiagnosis, Post-Concussion Syndrome, And Identity
• 10:04 The Atypical Stroke And Hospitalisation
• 13:30 Recovery At Home And Surrender
• 16:05 Choosing Hope And Listening To Intuition
• 19:10 Art As Medicine And Intentional Creativity
• 22:40 Healing Childhood Programming And Grandkids’ Mandalas
• 25:06 Energy, Mindset Updates, And Neuroplasticity
• 28:20 Blending Science And Spirituality For Women’s Empowerment
• 31:35 Co-Generated Bestseller And Leadership
• 34:10 What’s Next: Retreats And Book Festival
• 36:30 Gratitude And Closing CTAs

Transcript

Trudie Marie: 0:00

Welcome to the Everyday Warriors Podcast, the perfect space to speak my truth and dive into deep conversations with others. This podcast is about celebrating everyday warriors, the people who face life's challenges head-on, breaking through obstacles to build resilience, strength, and courage. Join me, your host, Trudy Marie, as I sit down with inspiring individuals who have fought their own battles and emerge stronger, sharing raw, real and authentic stories in a safe space. Allowing you to explore, question, and find your own path to new possibilities. Let us all embrace the warrior within and realize that while no one is walking in your shoes, others are on the same path, journeying through life together. Please note that the following podcast may contain discussions or topics that could be triggering or distressing for some listeners. I aim to provide informative and supportive content, but understand that certain things may evoke strong emotions or memories. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed or in need of support while listening, I encourage you to pause the podcast and take a break. Remember that it is okay to prioritise your well-being and seek assistance from trained professionals. There is no shame in this. In fact, it is the first brief step to healing. If you require immediate support, please consider reaching out to Lifeline on 13, 11, 14 or a crisis intervention service in your area. Thank you for listening and please take care of yourself as you engage with the content of this podcast. Love the Everyday Warriors Podcast? It would mean the world to me if you were to leave a five-star review to ensure that the Everyday Warriors podcast is heard by more listeners around the world. You can also support the show for as little as $5 with a one-time donation or by becoming a monthly subscriber. Your contribution helps me to continue bringing you inspiring stories of everyday warriors who overcome challenges to find strength, resilience, and new possibilities in life. Head to the link to buy me a coffee and fuel the next episode. Every bit counts. A journey that was as much about finding my way back to myself as it was about conquering the trail through the highs and lows and everything in between. This book is taken from my journals and is my raw and honest experience of overcoming trauma and embracing the strength within. Grab your copy now. Just head to the link in the show notes and let's take this journey together. Welcome to another episode of the Everyday Warriors Podcast. And today I have a guest calling in all the way from New Zealand. So yes, there is about a five-hour time lag between us having this conversation. But I would like to welcome Rosie to the podcast.

Rosie: 3:49

Thank you, Trudy. It's so lovely to be with you today.

Trudie Marie: 3:53

I'm so glad to have you, and I'm also honored that this is your very first podcast that you're on. So I'm glad that I'm the person that you got to chat to and have this experience with.

Rosie: 4:03

It's really exciting, actually.

Trudie Marie: 4:06

I'm glad you're excited. Some people can be very stressed, but I'm glad you're on the more positive vibes. It's such a good thing.

Rosie: 4:13

Absolutely.

Trudie Marie: 4:15

So I'd like to start your story back around, I think it was 2016, that you said that your life changed forever.

Rosie: 4:26

I was a research nurse in my former career, and in mid-2016, I slipped over in the wet, putting out the rubbish bin and hit my head on a concrete pillar. And went to work that day feeling really out of kilter, not realizing that I had concussions. And then kept pushing and pushing to try and go back to work. And ended up having to leave my 42-year career about 18 months later. So that's really where it started. I had not been taking care of myself very well. And I think that was a sign from the universe to start looking after myself. So I literally got hit with a piece of four by two, is what we say in New Zealand. However, it wasn't enough. And a few years later, on the 1st of December 2019, I had a medical event that could have been fatal. And that really scared me.

Trudie Marie: 5:40

Wow. I just want to take you back to that whole incident, like in 2016. So you've had a full, obviously a home before you went to work. And then you've had the onset of concussion, but you, even though you're a nurse, you've ignored those signs of concussion and tried to work through it. What was that actually like for you? What did you experience during that time? Because you said it ultimately ended your career 18 months later.

Rosie: 6:07

Oh, it was really a challenging time for me. As a research nurse, you have to be very mindful of collecting really clean data. And I was constantly under pressure, under review from my employer. It was just a really, really awful time. I just kept struggling and struggling and working part-time, eating, sleeping, going to work was literally my life for the next 18 months.

Trudie Marie: 6:41

Wow, so just struggling with the concussion caused issues with your memory and your ability with your cognitive functions?

Rosie: 6:49

Absolutely. I was constantly having headaches on the back of my neck and the cognitive function wasn't really there. You know how, you know, that feeling when you can't think straight? It was like that all the time. And not being able to function from someone who was really pedantic about having everything correct because as a nurse, you sometimes someone's life depends on you know what you do. So it was a really yeah, it was a really challenging time, very scary. My GP wasn't that supportive. She thought, oh no, you're too far down the track to have concussion, didn't do any kind of follow-up care or anything like that. So I ended up changing my GP. And as a consequence of that, actually managed to get a proper assessment done. And they did find that I had post-concussion syndrome. By then it was 14 months down the track. So yeah, struggling every day, it didn't do a lot for my self-worth and my self-esteem, constantly being under pressure like that and feeling like I can't. Why can't I do my job properly? And being told that you don't have post-concussion syndrome, when you actually do, you've got nothing, nowhere to go with that.

Trudie Marie: 8:21

I can only begin to imagine, like you said, you were a research nurse or had been a nurse for 40 plus years, and now was struggling to do the basic day-to-day functions that you were supposed to be doing at your work. And as somebody who, like you said, is so particular and organized, and you have to be being a research nurse, that's now stripped away from you. So I can only begin to fathom how much confidence you would have lost during that time because who you know yourself to be is no longer that way anymore.

Rosie: 8:57

Absolutely not. I felt like I'd completely lost my identity during that time. I didn't like trying to do this job to the best of her ability and finally realizing that I I couldn't continue doing it and having to leave that career, that was a huge blow.

Trudie Marie: 9:17

I I totally get that that must have been awful, and especially not having the support of your medical practitioner, like your GP, to let you know what was going on. So having the foresight to be able to find an alternative person to actually correctly diagnose you so that then you could get treatment and heal what was going on. So that was a positive step, but then you said fast forward to 2019, and you had a medical episode which then changed your life again.

Rosie: 9:49

Absolutely. That one was a real that was a real shocker. So I had not been feeling well for a while and couldn't put my finger on anything. My new GP then couldn't, she couldn't put her finger on anything either. There were it was really random. I woke up one morning at four o'clock in the morning and I'm like sick and tired of feeling sick and tired, and decided I would get up and go downstairs and do some painting because I'm an artist. And so I put the kettle on for a cup of make to make a cup of tea, started mixing up some paint, and the next thing I'm on the floor, vomiting, the whole world is spinning, I had no idea what was happening. I had the foresight to be able to reach up with my arm on the bench and grab my phone and ring an ambulance. So it turned out that I had what was called an atypical stroke. So I had no stroke symptoms. There, most people who have a stroke will have symptoms like drooping on one side, loss of power on one side, maybe drooling. I had none of that. There was nothing. And it wasn't until I had a visit from a neurologist who asked if I'd had a previous head injury. And I went, yes, but what's that got to do with what's happened to me? And he said, Well, if you've had a head injury, you're more at risk of having a stroke. And your stroke is not typical. So it had complete anytime you get plaque on your teeth, you can get it in your arteries as well. And so this four and a half centimeter piece of plaque had sheared off the cerebral artery. So in the back of my neck on the left hand side, and that caused a blockage, which then affected my vestibular system. So your vestibular system is responsible for your balance and your spatial awareness. And I was really sick. So I spent 12 days in hospital. The first sort of six days, really, I was on IV fluids because I couldn't eat, I couldn't drink, or like tiny sips of water because I was still feeling so so nauseated. So it took them six days to get the medication right in order for me to start to be able to have fluids, and then consequently, after that, having food. Couldn't get up and go to the toilet or anything at all. It was all bed bound for seven days actually. Not being able to move my eyes up or down or left or right because it would make me feel nauseated, and just really having to take things very, very slowly.

Trudie Marie: 13:01

Wow, if the first, like you said, getting hit by a two by four, as what you say in New Zealand, didn't happen in 2016, then you got dealt another one in 2019 that this was your chance to really slow down and look after yourself. Because that must have been, I mean, if the first time wasn't a harrowing experience dealing with everything that led to the loss of your career, but now this was like physical, you had to stop. There was no two questions about it.

Rosie: 13:37

Absolutely. It was a wake-up call I needed.

Trudie Marie: 13:42

What happened after that? What led you're obviously in hospital for that 12 to 14 days. How did life change after that?

Rosie: 13:52

It was very slow, very, very slow, and that was necessary, truly. I couldn't even walk to my letterbox, which was less than 10 meters from my front door. So I had I needed help at home with tasks, and I was independent with being able to shower myself. However, I couldn't do anything at home like cleaning the bath or the shower or making my bed or doing washing or anything like that. I was wiped out, completely wiped out. So I slept a lot.

Trudie Marie: 14:29

Were you living alone at that time, or did you have a partner or children or anything with you?

Rosie: 14:34

Living alone. Yeah.

Trudie Marie: 14:36

Oh wow. So not only are you dealing with this whole experience, but you're doing it solo. And if you hadn't already lost your confidence in losing your career, you're now literally back to being dependent on other people just for day-to-day survival.

Rosie: 14:54

Yes. And I had to surrender to that, which is really ironic because as a nurse, you take care of everyone else and you put yourself last. And this is that was like payback time. Now you've actually got to put yourself first. Absolutely. I was completely forced to put myself first. And so I spent about three months really building up my strength and stamina, getting myself starting to do tasks at home. And one day I was lying on the couch and I thought, what am I still, what's going on? What am I still doing here? Why am I alive? So I started questioning what it was, what was my purpose. And I said, What am I here for? What's the next step? And I got focus on the good stuff. So that's what I did. I because I could have actually curled up and done nothing and been depressed and all of that sort of thing. However, I had in that focus on the good stuff, I started to have a bit of hope.

Trudie Marie: 16:09

And hope makes a big difference in any healing journey of any sort. Because if you can see that glimmer of hope, or the light at the end of the tunnel, or the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, whichever way you visualize it, it's your way to keep moving forward, even if it is only one step at a time.

Rosie: 16:29

It was definitely one step at a time. So I started focusing on what was good in my life, not what I'd been through and experienced. Yes, there was emotional healing to be done with that. However, I wasn't, I didn't have the capacity to do that at the beginning. I had an opportunity to start later on down the track to actually discover that my intuition had been talking to me the whole time and I hadn't been listening to it. And so I started to pay attention and started to trust myself more if it makes sense. So this journey was like a spiritual awakening, really. When you start to consider what am I here for, what's my life purpose? I started receiving information about what that might look like for me. And every time I asked a question, it would be more revealing information about the direction that I was meant to be going. I mean, now I look back and I think both of those things were such a huge blessing. At the time, no. Now, wow.

Trudie Marie: 17:49

I can totally relate to that feeling because unlike you who were literally stuck at home, not being able to function as you knew yourself how to function. I remember when I was walking on the bib track and by myself with no help, no assistance, just out there on my own, day-to-day hiking and listening to my own thoughts and my own intuition, that you really do start to analyze what's important in your life. Why are you here? What is your purpose? And start being grateful for the little things. It's not an easy thing to deal with because it's a journey in itself. And I know at various times on the track I hated it and wish it'd be over and could have quit the track. But now, a couple of years on, I look back in hindsight and I think, wow, it's probably one of the best things to ever happen to me because you actually go inward in the true sense of the word because it's up to you. And my one of my favorite quotes is if it is to be, it is up to me. And when you do that inward journey, life changes.

Rosie: 19:06

Absolutely. So what I discovered is that the most important relationship I'll ever have in my life is the one that I have with myself.

Trudie Marie: 19:16

We only have each other as in like ourselves. We're the only person who travels with our us our whole entire lives.

Rosie: 19:25

And know yourself intimately, right?

Trudie Marie: 19:28

These days we distract ourselves with everything else in the world, whether it's scrolling on our phones or taking various substances or soothing ourselves by other means, that we don't ever just be with ourselves and trust ourselves and back ourselves.

Rosie: 19:48

I'd always been a human doing, not a human being. And so I got to be, and in that silence discovered, yeah, that I actually started to fall in love with who I was and who I was becoming.

Trudie Marie: 20:04

And who was that? What how did your life change after that?

Rosie: 20:09

So after that, I actually had an opportunity to do a course called Intuitive Mastery by a lady here in Christchurch in New Zealand. And it was I had no idea how I was going to pay for it. I had no job. I was on a benefit, a sickness benefit by then. And I had no idea how I was going to pay for it. And in the kind of application interview, she said to me, Oh, do you ever sell your art? And I said, Well, I've had a go on Facebook, this was many 2020, but didn't really have any luck. And then I got off that call and I went, Oh my gosh, is my intuition talking to me? Is that a sign I need to sell a piece of art? So I walked around my apartment and said, Okay, which of you girls wants to go to a new home? Got an answer straight away, did a little write-up of it, took some photos, popped it up on Facebook, sold for exactly the money I wanted in 24 hours. Nearly blew my socks off. So I stepped into that container, and as a result of that, my journey's really been evolving. I've been growing personally, I've been coaching people. I stepped into another big coaching container last year, and that's been really amazing. So yeah, I'm really, really passionate about helping other women to step into their own authentic power and to live a joyful life because I know having gone through what I went through, I know it's possible. If I can do it, anyone can do it.

Trudie Marie: 21:53

I love that. That's such a great perspective to have. But I want to take you back to your whole art story. Is this something you had been, I say, dabbling in while you were a nurse, or was this something that you discovered in that period after you gave up your career?

Rosie: 22:13

No, that my art goes actually way back into 2012. I had been told when I was a teenager that I couldn't draw for peanuts and don't think I'd ever be an artist. And that really stuck. Teachers wouldn't be allowed to say that now. However, that really impacted my belief system about whether or not I could draw. I'm not great at drawing, however, I love painting. So in 2012, I went and did some art classes to learn how to paint an oil, and then I discovered something called intentional creativity. I was so blown away that I decided to learn how to teach it. So that was a nine-month intensive course done online. And so now I teach mainly medicine painting. And what's medicine painting? So medicine painting is where you take a story that maybe you had no control over, like we'd call it an unavoidable tragedy. And you alchemize it through this process of painting. When you complete your painting, you have remedies that you can literally go to the shelf because you it's called apothecary. So remember the old Chinese apothecariens, yeah, with all the little things? You make your own remedy that you can go and access. So energetically and metaphorically, you can go and access that remedy anytime you need it. Take a sip and pop it back on the shelf.

Trudie Marie: 23:46

And people do underestimate the power of art therapy as being a major part of a healing journey in any form of what the trauma is, and any form of what the art is, because for some people it's painting, for other people, it's drawing, for other people, it's craft work, working with their hands to create something. I know that was a big part of my journey. I started out doing macrame, creating knots, because I found the knots very therapeutic, and when I couldn't do that anymore due to circumstances beyond my control, I switched to drawing mandalas, and I loved the repetition of the patterns, and just in that moment when you're drawing lines, everything else disappears, everything else goes away, and it's very mindful in practice. And then somewhere along the line, I learnt to paint as well. So I love the idea that art is medicine in some way, shape, or form.

Rosie: 24:46

Mandala's too. They're beautiful, meditative, and so sacred.

Trudie Marie: 24:52

Yeah, I love to sit and draw them when I'm where my nervous system is shot and I need something to bring me back to the here and now and to the calm. It is it's very purposeful, very mindful in doing so. But I love the fact that you almost had this kind of imposter syndrome because you were doing this artwork, it was on your walls, but you were scared to show it to the rest of the world and believe it had any value extrinsic to yourself.

Rosie: 25:23

Absolutely, and that is part of childhood programming. So you've probably heard about all of the stuff that we absorb when we're little, mostly happens between naught and seven, and this is stuff that I actually had no idea about. I was born into the world when children were seen and not heard, and we didn't talk about anything. Look, I mean anything. There was no conversation at all about life in general and how to behave or how to navigate your life journey. There was none of that, and that I think that's part of why I'm so passionate. I have young grandchildren, and being able to share my wisdom with them is really great to see them be curious as well. So now I'm off on the tangent.

Trudie Marie: 26:14

That's perfectly okay. Sometimes the tangent is where you discover the new because you creating that with your grandchildren is one, releasing some kind of generational trauma because you weren't allowed to talk about it, and now you're encouraging your grandchildren and hence your children to talk about it, but you're creating this new therapy in their world that they then get to take on and do something fun with art, for example, in their world as they grow up.

Rosie: 26:46

Yeah, and they love doing things. In fact, actually, we just a couple of weeks ago we went to the riverbank and collected stones, and I taught them how to do the a very basic mandala shape on a stone, and they loved it. There's that special time with Nana.

Trudie Marie: 27:05

And you can't take away those precious moments, they're special.

Rosie: 27:10

Absolutely, yeah, absolutely.

Trudie Marie: 27:12

And especially given that inside of what you've experienced like in 2019, that's probably the last thing you ever thought about doing. Like you may have thought at some stage that you may not have been around to experience those times with your grandkids.

Rosie: 27:27

Exactly. And actually, our the youngest who was born the day that it happened.

Trudie Marie: 27:33

Oh wow, so you had a new grandchild baby.

Rosie: 27:37

Grandson, yeah, new grandson the day that it happened. So when it happened to me, my daughter-in-law was in labor. Wow. So what could have been the most devastating day actually was quite blessed in many ways, not only for the wake-up call, but for the child as well.

Trudie Marie: 28:02

Yeah, very nice. It's in those moments that it's where the gratitude comes back in. Is it you can sit there and dwell on everything that could have happened or everything that was wrong with the situation, but you've chosen to focus on no, that was the day my grandson was born, and how we move forward from that.

Rosie: 28:26

Well, I think I I've come to understand that everything is energy, and so where you place your energy, where you put your attention is where your energy goes. And it's like I was talking about the programming before, about it's almost as if I liken it a little bit to a computer, right? Where you've got the computer hardware, and then you've got the software program that's running. And that software program that's running is everything that you've been exposed to and all of the meaning and the emotion that you've added to whatever it was that happened or was said. And so I've been running a virus check and deleting all the files.

Trudie Marie: 29:13

Such an awesome analogy because what came to me when you were saying that is that if most of us have any sort of smartphone these days or any sort of computer, it constantly requires updating. And so you need to update it for it to keep working. Yet, so often, as human beings, we just expect to continue going with the same patterns, the same behaviors, the same values, the same everything, and still expect to run the same way we were 20 years ago. But that's never gonna happen. We need to constantly update our software systems.

Rosie: 29:52

Yeah, yes, exactly. And the if we don't, the thing is we'll I can't even remember. Remember who said it, but the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. Yeah, you when you run a virus check and you delete the malware, it's the same thing. You're just minding the thoughts, right?

Trudie Marie: 30:17

Very true. Yeah, I love that. Like it's such an interesting perspective. We we constantly need updating in our lives. Whether that's by removing old patterns or removing old beliefs and behaviors. It's the same with people who either diet or smoke or want to give up substance abuse or anything like that. You can't keep going through life doing what you did before and expecting it to change in the future. You need to stop and make a change or stop and make an update or do something different ultimately.

Rosie: 30:55

Yeah, that reminds me of that quote is Albert Einstein. I love quotes. The one where he says you cannot solve the problem with the same kind of thinking that you use to create the problem. It's all interwoven and all interconnected, and get me started on things like neuroplasticity and stuff like that, and I could talk for hours.

Trudie Marie: 31:15

And do you find that's where your scientific background as a nurse and then entering this new era that's more emotionally, energetically, spiritually driven, that you are literally combining the two? That a lot of people would see that as woo, but then being able to combine the scientific background of that into how they both interconnect.

Rosie: 31:42

Yeah, they're weaving much more closely these days. The science and spirituality have really been a long way apart, and now they're moving much closer together. It's becoming much more mainstream and less woo. Yes, it is partly the nurse background that has me fascinated because the human body is actually a miracle. I totally don't have to think about your heart beating, it just beats. You don't have to think about breathing, you just breathe. It's all automatic. I mean, wow, it's amazing, and I think we have so much more potential than we've been led to believe. And I'm on a mission to extract that, particularly for women who seem to have lost themselves or they feel like they have no voice, they've been in a relationship that's stagnant, they don't know who they are, they know there's there's something more, but they don't know what it is. Like it was a bit like that for me. I knew there was something more deep down inside, I just didn't know what it was, and I just kept pushing it away until those things led me to actually stop and start doing some radical self-love and then start this journey of discovery. So I think it's less woo and more about discovery these days.

Trudie Marie: 33:17

Such a great perspective on seeing that is it is a journey of discovery. We don't know everything, and we're never going to know everything, but it's discovering those new things along the way that make life better as we go.

Rosie: 33:34

Absolutely, and I want to be the best version of myself that I can be in every any given moment, whether it's down at the supermarket doing my grocery shopping or spending time with the grandchildren reading, doing art, anything else. That's who I want to be, and be that light in the world, and so many women are taking that on for themselves, being really authentic instead of thinking, oh my gosh, someone's gonna judge me. And that's what I was concerned about when we were talking about not putting the art out on Facebook. I had a raging perfectionist and fear of being judged, what will people say about me? Well, who the hell cares? I'm just gonna be me. If you don't like it, that's okay.

Trudie Marie: 34:28

It's a shame that more people don't think that way. I come from a very similar background of the constant fear of being judged, of not being good enough, and worrying what other people think. And yet, if we can just stand in our own power and realize that there is how many billion people in this world, we don't need everyone to like us. We just need those couple of people that are essential in our inner circle to make us feel good and loved and supported that nobody else matters in the big scheme of things.

Rosie: 35:06

Exactly, and realizing that is part of the journey, I think.

Trudie Marie: 35:12

A hundred percent, and that journey for you of inspiring and empowering women has led you to your latest, I suppose, adventure in being a collaborative author in a book.

Rosie: 35:28

Yeah, that's been uh that was a really interesting journey. I was invited to by someone in the intentional creativity community to go along to an information evening with the potential of writing a chapter for a collaborative book. Not a collaborative, it's co-generated. So a collaborative is when a whole lot of people write something and they put it all together. Co-generation is where you come together as a group and you write together and you edit together, you critique, you give feedback. It was the most beautiful process I've ever been involved in, as far as a group project. Such wonderful women with such different stories that are both heartbreaking and heartwarming all at the same time, and so much wisdom within the stories. Honestly, you would cry if you read some of the stories. They're really amazing, and I talked about my own journey, part mostly about what we what I've shared with you today. So that was the Empowering Women Alliance, you can find them on Facebook. And since the writing of that chapter, I got invited to be part of their leadership team, which was just such a huge honour. It's a non-profit organization whose motto is for all women to be authentically self-expressed and unapologetically powerful, and that really aligns with my values of who I am today, the essence of who I am. So the book was released just a couple of weeks ago, and we became a number one Amazon bestseller, which was very, very exciting. It's the second book in the series. The first book in the series was also a number one bestseller. So, yeah, we're really excited. There'll be a third book starting probably next year.

Trudie Marie: 37:31

Congratulations! That's such an amazing way to complete that story in that area of your life that was so challenging to have it all culminate into being a co-author in a book and to share your story, but to have it part of a group of women who are interwoven in that whole concept that who you are today is a result of that process as well, because even taking your journey into something new in a way that others can learn from it is so empowering, it changes the course of your life again and the trajectory of your life again.

Rosie: 38:13

Sure does, and part of the ethos was that when you wrote your story, you needed to leave the reader with something inspiring or empowering or uplifting. That was the whole idea of this empowering woman with words series of books, is that all of the authors hold their or shared their story and yet left the reader feeling as if they'd received a gift from the reading of it.

Trudie Marie: 38:43

I love that. There's an old saying that you are the people that you meet and the books that you read, and I think when you either meet people and hear their story or you read the words of their story, that it leaves an imprint on your soul. Like we are never the same people we are after those experiences. So I just love the concept that you do leave the reader with a gift, yeah.

Rosie: 39:14

And I during that process too, Trudy, I had several more revelations about who I was being in the world and what I was up to. So helping it really helped me make a stand for what I believed in and who I wanted to become.

Trudie Marie: 39:33

That's such a beautiful part of the journey, too, is that you're constantly evolving through the process of your becoming. Yeah. So in saying that, what's next for you? You've said that you've become a part of the leadership group of this alliance, but what's next for Rosie?

Rosie: 39:55

So, next for Rosie is an inspiring women's wellness retreat in Bali. So I was invited to be a speaker at this three-day retreat. So I'm off to Bali in February, early February. And then I have a personal journey for fun. However, the hook for me is the Tucson Book Festival. So I'll be travelling to the United States next year in March for that. It's the fourth biggest book festival in America. So I'll be going there as a number one best-selling author.

Trudie Marie: 40:31

That's an exciting prospect coming up to the future. Like 2026 sounds like it's going to be absolutely amazing for you.

Rosie: 40:40

Well, if I expect it to be epic, it will.

Trudie Marie: 40:46

I love the way that you look at that. That's great. Well, I just want to say thank you so much for coming onto the podcast, vulnerably sharing your experience. It has been quite the journey over the last eight or nine years for you. But seeing you come out the other end in such a positive way and inspiring others and uplifting others through the telling of your story, I think is it's such a beautiful thing.

Rosie: 41:15

Thank you so much for having me, Trudy. I've really enjoyed our time together today.

Trudie Marie: 41:21

Me too. And I always finish the podcast by asking: what is the one thing you are most grateful for today?

Rosie: 41:29

Being here with you. Like I feel really blessed to have been invited and to have been able to share my story and inspire other women.

Trudie Marie: 41:44

Thank you for tuning in to the Everyday Warriors podcast. If you have an idea for a future episode or a story you'd like to share yourself, then please reach out and message me as I am always up for real, raw, and authentic conversations with other Everyday Warriors. Also, be sure to subscribe so that you can download all the latest episodes as they are published. And spread the word to your family and friends and colleagues so they can listen in too. If you're sharing on social media, please be sure to tag me so that I can personally acknowledge you. I'm always open to comment about how these episodes have resonated with you, the listener. And remember, lead with love as you live this one wild and precious life.