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UpLIFT You: Strong Body, Strong Mind
Join host Leanne Knox for an in-depth look at the stories behind the barbell, lifting and life. We give you the tools and resources and chat with the leading experts to help you build physical and mental fortitude for whatever stage of life you're at. Tune in every Saturday at 7 AM AEST and prepare to be Up Lifted.
UpLIFT You: Strong Body, Strong Mind
28 | Chasing Dreams and Embracing Leadership: Jess Knox's Journey from Airlie Beach to the New York Film Academy
What happens when you decide to chase your dreams across the world? Join us for an engaging chat with my daughter, Jess Knox, as she recounts her remarkable journey from Airlie Beach to the New York Film Academy. As a creative force and founding member of Seagrass Theatre Company, Jess's story is one of courage and embracing leadership, all while navigating the challenges of stepping out on her own. Her vivid anecdotes of battling storms on an epic road trip and settling into life with a new flatmate offer laughter and insights for anyone venturing into the unknown.
Jess opens up about the emotional rollercoaster of leaving the familiar comforts of home for the bustling Gold Coast. While excitement marked the start of her new chapter, loneliness and adaptation hurdles soon followed. Her candid reflections on facing these trials with vulnerability and resilience show the power of finding strength in challenging times. This episode also uncovers the practical side of transition, from financial planning and prioritizing meaningful experiences to the importance of support networks both personally and professionally.
In addition to exploring Jess's inspiring path, we touch on the value of pursuing passions and the transformative role of art and mentorship. Jess's perspective on avoiding conventional paths and finding joy in leadership roles speaks volumes about embracing change. The episode culminates in a celebration of dreams, with aspirations as vivid as singing on a jetty in Greece. With heartfelt gratitude extended to Jess and everyone involved, this conversation leaves listeners with hope, appreciation, and a reminder of the beauty in following one's heart.
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Welcome to Uplift you, creating strong bodies and mind. Get ready to power up your day with practical strength training tools, inspiring stories and build resilience of body and mind. It's time to Uplift you, together with your host, leanne Knox.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the next episode of Uplift you, the podcast that helps you build a stronger body and a stronger mind through practical tips, powerful tools and inspiring stories. Today, I'm beyond excited to have a fun conversation with none other than the voice who introduces this podcast and, for those of you who didn't know, this just happens to be my up and coming star daughter, ms Jess Knox. Jess has been an integral part of my podcast journey so far, so I thought it fitting that I have her on my show today. So strap yourselves in, as Jess and I have a candid look at lives past and journeys yet to come. Thanks for being here, jess. I'm so excited to have you.
Speaker 1:Thanks for having me. Should I call you Leanne or mum?
Speaker 2:You can call me mum. That's fine, okay, mum.
Speaker 1:Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. It's been a long time coming this session.
Speaker 2:It has, and we've had many practice sessions. Jess has been my guinea pig from day one for the Uplift you podcast, also teaching me some real basics like how to plug the microphone in, for example. How to get good lighting the lighting the makeup, probably much to her disgust. Today I didn't put any makeup on, but I'm beautiful as I am.
Speaker 1:I agree, don't need makeup.
Speaker 2:All right. So, jess, I'd like to just kick straight off with this question. If you could describe who you are and one thing that you are most proud of that you've achieved so far, could you give us what that would be?
Speaker 1:That's a hard question, I have to say, because you know. One sentence to sum up all of 19 years is not a lot, but I would have to say that I'm a true born, strong, creative leader. That's the best way to sum me up.
Speaker 2:Okay. So when you say you're a strong, creative leader, how do you lead other people?
Speaker 1:I think I lead other people by example because I'm not afraid to put myself out there, which is a lot has a lot to do with me personally, because you know I do a lot within the creative world and then in my personal world. So I think I lead by example putting myself out there, showing people that it's okay to ask questions and showing people that it's okay to be wrong and it's okay that you just live your life the way you want to live your life, because you only get one of them.
Speaker 2:So there's a lot in that, Jess. So, before we get into that and how you certainly are a strong creative leader. Can you please give us a bit of a background of where you're at in your life, where you've come from, where you're at right now and where you're striving to be in the near future or even the far future?
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure. So, as some of you may know, a quick little history is that I was born in Nambour. Quick little history is that I was born in Nambour, raised in Airlie Beach, with, of course, my mum and my dad and my five siblings, and I, at 16, started a theatre company at my high school and I just, I've always loved the dramatic arts. I've always loved art in general. I think it's amazing that you can express yourself in so many ways and it's never just a black and white box. It's just so colourful. It's just so colourful. So I started this theatre company at my school with the help of my teachers and all my friends. It was really fun and quite successful, actually.
Speaker 2:And what was the name? What was the?
Speaker 1:name. The name of it is the Seagrass Theatre Company at Prospine State High School. If you ever get the chance to go see one of their shows, please do, because they're just so, everyone's so talented and I just love seeing all the kids perform so well. Um, it's just really really nice and I was obviously a part of it. So I decided in grade 12 or grade 11, sorry I didn't want to do the classic nine-to-five job and I didn't want to be boxed in, I guess you could say, in a black-and-white world.
Speaker 1:So I decided that I wanted to pursue my love for the dramatic arts and I applied to a film school in the Gold Coast called the New York Film Academy, australia and, to much of my surprise and amazement, I got in first try, which was pretty exciting Grade 12. And then I graduated. I did my ATAR, got a pretty good score, I will say. Then I turned 18. And two months after turning 18, I moved down to the sunny Gold Coast. And two months after turning 18, I moved down to the sunny Gold Coast, which is about for people who don't live in Australia or Queensland, it's about 12 to 14 hours, depending on how you drive, south of Airlie Beach, away from everyone. I knew which is pretty scary, but it's turned out pretty well for me.
Speaker 2:I would say so just going back to that time, jess, when you moved. So to put this in context, jess is 19 years old right now. Yes, almost 20. And she's been out of home for two years Could be a little bit longer, two years.
Speaker 2:So for the audience this is I'm talking to someone who is the youngest guest so far on my podcast and your struggles are obviously maybe there would be some that are similar to our audience and also there would be some different struggles, jess, because of your age. But if we look back to when you moved out of home because looking at the people that are in your age bracket okay, your friends, your community one of the big steps when you finish school is moving away from home. Now I believe we have a little bit of a funny story about when we drove you down to the Gold Coast. Can you please tell us what happened the day that we packed all your gear in the car and there was two cars I was with you and dad was in the lead car and we took off at 4am in the morning for our 13 hour drive down to the Gold Coast?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I had packed all my things months before moving. I was so excited. And then at 3 am, 2.30 am, we woke up. We had our coffee, we had a bit of brekkie, jumped in the car and we looked up and to our dismay, is torrential storms and rains just pissing down, honestly. So we jump in the car and we're driving and we're all like you know, mum mum made me drive at 3am because she hates driving in the dark, she hates driving in the rain. So that was really fun for a you know little, uh little, uh fresh 18 year old to be driving in her first. Like real bad storm.
Speaker 1:But we got about 40 minutes out of proserpine when the road started to flood and the water was gushing so fast over the road that it had actually created a couple rivers. So here I am, white knuckled, my nose, basically my chin, sitting on the top of the steering wheel, white knuckled, looking out terrified, and dad's miles ahead because he's in a big ram so he doesn't have to worry. But I'm in my small Lancer and just white-knuckled, trying to get down there as fast as we could, but going 40 kilometres an hour for about what? Two hours? Just through the torrential storms and rains and the rivers over the road and it was pretty scary. But I think Mum and I were hysterical by that point, tired and scared, so we laughed the whole way, the whole way. We pissed ourselves laughing. It was really. It was actually a quite a good memory it it was.
Speaker 2:It's a very potent memory for me because I was laughing, that was between the screams, because as we hit potholes and big bits of water on the road and the car was aquaplaning, the screens involuntarily just left my body. That's the most amount of screens I've ever done on a trip. Looking back, looking back at that rocky start to the Gold Coast moving to the Gold Coast, jess, so that you could go to the New York Film Academy Coast. Moving to the Gold Coast, jess, so that you could go to the New York Film Academy, which really was an exciting. That was an exciting time for you and it was also a rocky time for you.
Speaker 2:Can you explain to us some of the challenges that you had? We got to the Gold Coast. You moved in with a flatmate that you'd never met before. Can you give us some of the challenges that you've faced over the last couple of years, because I have no doubt that there are many people around your age that are facing similar challenges. So give us a little lowdown of that and how you worked through that and what were some of your fears and worries and struggles during that time.
Speaker 1:Well, initially, when I was getting ready to move, I was so excited Like I don't know if you remember how excited I was, but I was so excited to go.
Speaker 2:I just want to insert in here. Her excitement was taking the form of this I can't wait to get out of this town. I'm sick of living in the small proserpine and I'm going to the big smoke. So continue on, Jess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I was so excited to go when, once we finally made it to the Gold Coast, we stayed in a cute little apartment and I remember sleeping on a sofa bed right next to my parents and I felt like I was six years old again. It was honestly a really like grounding experience, cause I was like this is the last night I'm going to spend with my mom and dad, and it was scary, but I was, so. It was really melancholy Honestly, it's the best way to describe it Cause I was so excited and I was like, wow, my life really starts here. I get to move on, I get to do all these fun, exciting things. But also I am a huge family person and I was like, oh, wow, I'm going to miss my mom and dad and my family a lot. Um, so, yeah, that was like a really quite daunting thing on me and I just remember feeling, feeling, do I really want to do this? God, I'm like a bit scared. So, yeah, then we in the morning, we went out to breakfast and we jumped in the car and we, uh, drove over to my roommate's house and, um, we moved in. I got all the stuff I needed to got a bath mat, got sheets and pillows and stuff to store my clothes in, and it was really exciting, because I love playing house. It's one of my favorite things to do, moving furniture around and creating my little space, but I remember one.
Speaker 1:So I'd moved in and I'd been all excited and then the time came a couple of days later where mum and I went out for breakfast. Mum, dad and I went out for breakfast and they were leaving. They were getting in the car to go and I had to drive the opposite way. It was kind of like you know parting roads sort of thing, and mum and dad stood at the end of a driveway and my mum shouted out to me hey, jessie, I'm living in Egypt, and I said what. And she jesse, I'm living in egypt, and I said what. And she goes, I'm living in denial. And we both I just remember us both bawling our eyes out and it still makes me like a bit sad, like still makes me a bit a bit teary, because it was really scary. But it's such exciting experience. You know what I mean and I feel like, for any of you who are about to move out or if you have just moved out, my mom's crying, if you if you can't see this video.
Speaker 2:The tears of joy, tears of joy.
Speaker 1:But I feel like it's one of those things where you just have to do it and, even though it's scary, you just kind of got to lean into the fact that nothing is planned from this point out. You may be going to university or college or working, but nothing is planned for you. You have to do it with guidance, but by yourself from now on. That's scary, but I think the best thing I did was lean into that and I was like you know what, if I'm going to be by myself in the big smoke, I may as well just make the most out of it.
Speaker 2:So, jess, what were some of the specific fears and struggles that you had in that time? Because I know I'd love to sit here and say to the audience Jess had a fantastic move to the Gold Coast and everything went smoothly and she enjoyed her college, her life so much doing screen acting and film and it was all roses. However, you know I'd be lying if I said that, and so can you tell us some of the struggles that you had during that period when you were settling into a new place, going to a new college, meeting new people, away from your family?
Speaker 1:yeah.
Speaker 1:So I'd moved in with someone I'd never met before. That was a whole experience in itself, which was really cool. I really really enjoyed meeting new people. It was like all brand new and shiny.
Speaker 1:But then, my first night by myself, I just remember bawling my eyes out and for weeks and weeks and weeks after that I would find any reason to leave the apartment because I had never felt that level of lonely. And obviously you've listened to my mom before. But we have. I come from a huge family and we always have people around us. And then I went from having people around us and walking into my sister's room, my brother's room, my mom and dad's room, walking over the shed and finding people training the dogs, the cats, the chaos to just nothing. Like it was really quite an isolating experience, and isolating in a good way, but also really like it was really hard for me. I remember calling my mom and just being like, oh my god, mom, like come pick me up, I'm done, I want to come home.
Speaker 1:Because I was so, I just didn't have many friends. I moved down a month before I started college to get a job and get myself settled and it was just so I didn, was just so. I didn't have a job, I didn't have any friends. I only knew my roommate and she was in university all day because she was training to be a doctor. So it's not like I really saw anyone and I just was so lost. I've never really been to the Gold Coast. I had some family around, which I was really grateful for. I got to go up to Mount Tambourine, which is about a 40 to an hour minute drive inland up a beautiful mountain, to see my auntie. I got to hang out with my godparents. That was a time in my life where I was like, wow, I'm never going to take my family for granted again, because you do take it for granted you always do when you have something around you. But it so sobering you know what I mean to be so isolated from everyone, and I was just so grateful to have such a supportive family around me and people that I knew that would take care of me sort of thing if anything were to go wrong. But yeah, so then I started college.
Speaker 1:A month after I'd gotten my my little job as a bartender at a hotel and I was really enjoying it. I started college. It was so exciting and as the days went on, it just got a lot easier. Like I was going to college, I was going to work, I got to meet my friends at school, like I was. So it was so exciting because I was like, wow, okay, I'm actually living the life of everyone ever. I've ever seen in movies and obviously I don't know if you know, but I was studying a diploma in screen acting for movies. So it was kind of like my little movie moment, I guess you could say. And I actually met my fiance at my college, which was pretty cool. I would say he's pretty cool, I like him a lot. Don't tell him, though, he's twerking behind the camera right now actually, yeah, no, it was really.
Speaker 1:It was really nice, I was really excited, but then my life took a bit of a turn and my roommate and I didn't get along and I had to move out and we and my fiance and we were both homeless for six weeks and not homeless as in, we were sleeping on the street or anything.
Speaker 1:I had to crash at a friend's house for three weeks and then I crashed at the hotel I worked at actually for three weeks, which I was very grateful for because I always had a house and, as I said, my parents got me through that really rough period and I feel like it was really, as I said, you just can't take these things for granted and you really learn what type of person you are when you face adversities Like you don't have somewhere to go home to every day and you don't have your mum and dad and your safety net around you all the time. You don't have familiarities. You're literally isolated and no matter how many calls or texts or whatever, you really do feel isolated and I feel like the biggest thing is not once did I ever give up, and sometimes I wanted to and I just like I'll just throw the towel in and come home, but not once did I ever give up. I got through through the help of my friends and my family and my fiance, like the three big Fs you know.
Speaker 2:So you didn't have anywhere to live. And what was some of the other struggles? Because I know that your struggles are very common to a lot of young people these days so you didn't have any accommodation. That's a really big thing. In all of like Eastern Australian coastal cities and towns now, there is not enough accommodation for people, and especially for young students and young people that don't have a lot of funds. So what else were you struggling with there, jess? Because I know that the first, at least the first year and a half, well, while you were at college, that whole entire year was, although very enlightening with your education and new experiences, was a personal struggle for quite a long period of time.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I mean, as I said, I was in college for a year and it wasn't like a university where you could just put it on hex fees. You had to kind of pay a fee upfront every term and it was a very expensive fee because it's not a university covered by the government and yada, yada, I won't get into that sort of thing. But when you're only able to work a couple hours a week, mostly up to 20, because obviously you're at school all day, it's really hard to financially support yourself. You've come from a place where your parents buy all your food and give you rent and water and da, da, da, da, da, and then you kind of just chucked into the big world and you think water and da-da-da-da-da. And then you kind of just chucked into the big world and you think, oh, I'll be able to pay bills, it's no issue. But you don't realize how jarring it is just to be put straight into a world where you can't afford it.
Speaker 1:And that's something I struggled with for a really long time and I'm still struggling. But I'm finally in a place where I've kind of built up my. I've built. I've gone from rags to riches not quite riches, but I'm still building myself up. But money was a really, really hard thing for a while and because we were homeless, we had no money, we didn't have any place to kind of put our stuff down, so we were constantly bouncing around. We didn't have a kitchen, so we had to buy food and obviously we had to try and save for college. So funds were a really hard thing and I think one wise person once told me you have to build yourself up. You can't just expect to go into this world and have everything figured out. It's all about trial and error, you know.
Speaker 2:Wise words, Jess. I'd like to meet that person one day.
Speaker 1:I think you've already met them. Something seems a bit familiar about those words. My mum told me that. But so you have to build yourself up and money. One thing I learned is money comes and goes, but experiences are really important to me.
Speaker 2:So can you tell the audience then, like the people that are listening, that are your age or going to leave school or have left school and are struggling with financial issues, which is 90% of the young population what actual strategies did you use to make your money work better for you so that just so that you could survive? What did you do? Did you go without something? Did you change what you spend your money on? Like, how did you change your mindset to get through that period of literally barely having enough money to survive each week?
Speaker 1:Well, one thing I did is first thing I did is I created a budget and I sat down and I figured out exactly what I needed to pay the absolute bare minimum necessities, so rent, food, fuel, water and power bills. I sat down and I figured that out first. The second thing I did is I as much as you're not going to like to hear it I went without. I went without for a long time and that's not going without the bare necessities, that's just going without. And that's not going without the bare necessities. That's just going without. Going clubbing every weekend, going out drinking, buying food out.
Speaker 1:I stuck to my guns and my fiancé and I we went without and we would build up some funds and then every month we'd go and do something, just so that we weren't feeling so down about being at home. So I feel like planning something that you're looking forward to and saving all your money and making it a mission is so rewarding when you finally get it, cause you're like, wow, I saved up $300 this week and now I get to go and make a charcuterie board and sit on the beach and have a date. You know what I mean. Like that was really rewarding for me, more rewarding than just paying my rent, my bills and yada, yada, yada.
Speaker 1:And then the last thing I did is I asked for help when I was in a lot of strain. I would call my mom and dad and I would say, look, this is what's happening, and my mom and dad aren't rich. Like don't get it wrong, like we're not from a millionaire, billionaire home. But I knew that if I had ever called my mum and dad and said, look, I can't make ends meet, can you please help? They would. And they did, and they did for a long time and they still are to a certain degree with Cameron and I, you know so.
Speaker 2:So that that means, jess, that you broke things down. You have the ability to break things down and prioritize what's really important in your life. Remember, I used to talk to you about what are the things that you need to survive. They come first in your budget, okay. So you need food, you need a house none of that is non-negotiable. You can't survive without food or somewhere to sleep at night. And then what you were very good at then is then making sure that your priority stuff was paid for and anything that was left over, which obviously wasn't much. You took the opportunity to enjoy the smaller things in life, because that's where your money stretched to at that time. So going on a little beach date, you know, sitting on the beach or sitting in a park, and so, even though you went, you said that you went without. Do you, looking back at that particular period, what did you learn from doing the smaller things and enjoying the smaller things? Doing the smaller things and enjoying the smaller things.
Speaker 1:To be completely honest, as cliche as it sounds, less is more. You know, not going out like when I turned 18, I had all the money in the world. I was working two jobs, I wasn't at school, I could go out every single weekend. It was like so much fun for me at that time. But going without less is more. I didn't have to go out, I would stay home and make something fun. I'd play Uno with all my friends.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, when we first moved into our first house in Robina, we used to have our friends over every single weekend and we'd just play board games. Cards Against Humanities was our thing for so long. It was so much fun just doing the small things. And you know what? I was making my money's worth of rent. I did not leave the house. I was making sure that I got every cent out of my rent.
Speaker 1:I would do everything I could at home and then even just going out of the house and walking around the shops and being like, well, this is really nice, I wouldn't buy them. But I would still be like, oh, that's a goal, that's something I want in the future and I'm going to set my mind to and I'm going to try and afford and, trust me, those would change every single. Every single time I went to the shops it'd be something different, but I wouldn't want the last thing, and that's something that I learned was um, impulse buying is so bad. Like you need to give it time before you buy something, especially something really expensive. Like there was this really nice pair of sketches I really wanted for a really long time, and every time I go to the shops I'm like I'm going to get them, I'm going to get them, but then I never got them and now I don't want them anymore. You know, it's like you don't need priorities right.
Speaker 2:You learned. You learned through scarcity because you didn't have the funds to prioritize what's really important in your life. And I believe, uh, that's the way, one of the key ways. It sounds to me like that's one of the key ways that you got through that really tough year while you were at college, and you actually said something which prompted me to now tell the audience a little theme that we had for this podcast in mind, which is called looking forward and looking back.
Speaker 2:So, thinking about our relative ages here, jess, I'm pretty sure the audience knows which person's going to look forward and which person's looking back. So, because you've been so, so great in telling your story so far, let's start with you first. So you, what if you could look at your experiences over the last couple of years and you are looking forward to the future? What are the three things that, from your experiences let's go since you even through high school and since you've left high school, what are the three things, the three most important things, that you would like to carry through to your future, that you have learnt so far in your life's journey?
Speaker 1:Yeah, great question actually, because obviously I've not got many years to look back on. I've got a lot of experience, but not a lot of years, and one thing I really, really, really always want to carry with me is just to be kind. Kindness is a huge thing for me and I find it really important to be kind to everyone, you know, and it's not just to be kind, kindness is everything.
Speaker 2:Can you think of someone in your life right now that was very kind to you, that you would like to, that inspires you to be kind.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure I, um. I had a friend in high school and she was. She is the most beautiful person you'll ever meet. Her name is Tessa Jolly. She's so kind, she's so loving, she's so bubbly and even on her bad days and the bad the days she's like not doing you know the best, because we all have those days she was still so kind to everyone and she never was mean. People were mean to her, don't get me wrong, but she never stooped to that level. She was always so kind and she actually her and I, um she started this foundation. Well, she headlined this foundation called Be Kind Today, which was about her best friend who sadly passed away. I think my mum's actually talked about this before.
Speaker 2:I have. In my first couple of episodes I talked about Billy Kinder and I gave them I have given the audience that story. So if you haven't heard that story, go back and listen to my first couple of episodes and you'll hear all about Billie Kinder and that experience and how Billie's kindness lives on in the world today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that whole, her whole foundation and my best friend, tessa, is really, really important to me. You know, they're something I think about a lot almost every day, um, and I feel like just being kind is very important. You know, you never know what anyone's going through, so just be the one person in their day that can make them smile, or even just be the one person that they can say, okay, that person was nice to me. You know what I mean. That person was kind to me.
Speaker 2:That's important for me to carry on throughout my life and what's another thing that you've had time to reflect on over the past few years and thought this is something that's really resonated with me and I want to, you know, carry this on in my life as well, looking forward.
Speaker 1:Obviously, my dramatic arts. I love art, every little thing. I cannot draw a stick figure to save my life. I am an awful drawer, but I love art, all of it. I am obviously an aspiring actor. My fiance and his best mates who are also my best mates have a podcast called making the scene, which I'm in the studio for now, and it's just. I just love art. It helps you express yourself in ways that it's incomparable for words to do. You know, and it's it's a way of learning more about yourself, and learning in acting something you do is you draw on emotion a lot and it's something you learn through, like, um, if a bad experience has happened to you, you can. You can draw from that and you can be like wow, this is why it made me sad. Now I can use that reason. I was sad for my acting and you learn so much about yourself. I've learned ridiculous amounts about myself in the past year and a half, two years that I've been out of home.
Speaker 2:It's yeah. So, jess, can you think again of someone who's really inspired you in that field, in that art and drama that has taught you a lot?
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. I mean all of my lecturers at NYFA did an amazing job in helping me on my way and they were very supportive of my time not having accommodation. But the biggest mentor I've ever had is my grade 10, 11, 12 teacher at high school called Miss Napier. She is like my best friend, who got me through a lot because I wasn't a fan of high school and she taught me that it's okay to not be okay and these feelings people feel are normal, and she helped guide through all of the hard points in high school and taught me that the dramatic arts is more than speaking loud on a stage. It's all about expression, and she's the one who ignited my true passion for acting.
Speaker 2:you know, she's really important to me so do you encourage people your age to? If they don't have any mentors or people they look up to, like, how do? How would they find someone like that in their connections, like in their world? How important are those connections? Do you believe in becoming the best version of yourself?
Speaker 1:I think connections are everything, whether they be purely financial connections, whether they be personal connections, connections with yourself. Connections are everything and the best thing to do is just to put yourself out there and to talk, to talk to people. If you feel really passionate about fishing, go to a fishing expo. You never know what you're going to find. If you feel I feel like you've got to really like, sit down and think about what am I passionate about? What do I really really love? What lights my fire? What gets me going, and go do it. Find that thing.
Speaker 1:For my mom it was being a healthier version of herself and she started with CrossFit and she started with gymming. And now look at her. She's a three-time world champion. She's got a million records. I'm so proud of my mum. You should see me. I tell everyone I've ever known that my mum is a world champion. I feel like you need to find what really gets you going and then just do it, just give it a go. If you like acting, go to a show. Even you don't even have to do it yourself. Just go experience it.
Speaker 2:I feel like I'm living my acting slash, musical, unspent life through you, Jess, because at school I was into just about everything debating sport, school captain, you name it. I was into it, except music. Now, from and acting from a very young girl, I encouraged you into that field. It's the classic parent thing, living that unlived moment of my life through my children. So I did send Jess to piano lessons with a very passionate, strict piano teacher who at the time Jess found really challenging to work with because Jess also likes to be the boss. However, you know that gave you a grounding. But even before that, Jess, you would not go to sleep at night unless I put music on. You would refuse to sleep unless there was music in the background. So you were born, much to my delight, with a musical, a love for music, and later on that turned also into a love for acting and drama. So for parents that are listening, my biggest takeaway from this experience so far Jess is my third child to leave home and Jess, when she finished school, wanted to do was thinking about doing teaching. And I was at that time a teacher and I looked at what I how I knew Jess Now.
Speaker 2:Jess didn't like school very much. She did not like following the rules, she didn't like fitting into the box, she didn't like crossing the T's and dotting the I's. And school is very institutionalized and you need to cross the T's and dot the I's and follow the rules and fit into the box In the current educational institution, the way that it's run, especially the state system. So I encouraged Jess to take that first year away from school and go into what she was really passionate about, and that was music and acting. So I'm so happy that I knew my daughter enough to know what her passions were and that I was in a position to be able to help her do that.
Speaker 2:So, as a parent, what I would say to other parents with teenagers that are just about to leave home or finishing high school is allow them the time to really discover who they are before you start trying to shape where they should go in their lives. Okay Now, sorry, Jess, I've just gone on a rant there, but that's your number two was Mrs Napier. And do what you love. And what would be your number three?
Speaker 1:I feel like my biggest takeaway from the past two years, my biggest, biggest, biggest takeaway is nothing is ever guaranteed. No matter what you do in life, nothing is ever guaranteed. You're never going to. You never know what could happen in the next week, in the next year. You know I could blow up tomorrow and become a fantastic, amazing actor.
Speaker 2:I thought you meant you were really going to blow up. Then I was like how are you going to blow up? Are you going to stand on like a you know a bomb?
Speaker 1:or something. No, no, no, but I am the bomb. So, yeah, no, you just never know. So why not do the things that you love? Why not be with the people you love? Why not live? Your life might be like I don't, I don't know, I'm not super forward about this because it's a bit cringy, but like yolo, you know, you don't know.
Speaker 2:Nothing's guaranteed can you explain your life for the older YOLO?
Speaker 1:means you only live once. Nothing is ever guaranteed and, of course, everyone gets anxious about things in their life. My big thing is money and security and stability, but you just never know. So something I'm still learning which is one thing that I want to continue to learn and continue to grow and carry on through my life is that nothing is guaranteed and you just need to live your life and you need to live your life the way that you want to live, and if anyone's ever pressuring you to do something that you don't want to do, you just need to say YOLO.
Speaker 2:So, jess, that's really interesting that you say nothing is guaranteed. If we spin that around, can you think of a positive way to say that nothing is guaranteed?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess you could say that change is guaranteed. Fantastic, yeah, everything is guaranteed to change.
Speaker 2:There is nothing more certain than change, right? Yeah, oh God, I sound so much like my dad.
Speaker 1:There is nothing more certain than change, right yeah? And if you look back at oh God, I sound so much like my dad If you listen to their podcast and you are the sum of the people that you, the five people that you spend the most time with.
Speaker 2:So you're going to hear a lot coming out of my mouth, that comes out of my husband, steve's mouth, and your dad as well. So, jess, that's some really great advice from such a young person, and it does not surprise me at all that you have that level of insight at the ripe old age of 19, because from the day that Jess was born, she has been beyond her years. She didn't cry when she was born. She opened her eyes and looked around the room and it was quite spooky because everyone in that room at that moment had the same thought and we thought this soul, this spirit, this child has been here before and Jess has lived up to that first impression of seeing her as a baby. She has lived up to that at every stage of her life. So, jess, 19 going on 29,. Thank you for your wonderful insights.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I'm sure that's going to help some people, even just one person, who may be struggling with it's almost the end of year 12. There's people leaving school, there's a lot of kids leaving school. They're not sure whether they don't even know what they want to do half the time. Do they want to stay home? Do they want to move? What's their career going to be? How did you, very quickly, how did you negotiate that? I know that I said I encouraged you to go and do what you want to do for one year. But how did you feel when you finished year 12? Were you certain of where you were going? And are you even certain now?
Speaker 1:No, to be completely honest, I always thought I'm never going to do a nine to five. I'm never going to do it. I don't want to do it. I don't want to sit at a desk, I don't want to be in a box, but I just don't know. I have fallen in love with the job I'm doing now.
Speaker 1:I've been recently promoted to a leadership role in my job One of the youngest, if not the youngest, leader at that property that I'm working at and um 19 going on 29. I'm I'm leading 50 year olds, 60 year olds um in my everyday job and I've loved learning more about the hotel and um, guest experience sort of thing, and the property I work at is amazing at nurturing my want to learn and need to learn and they're nurturing that and I love that. So I will always love acting and I'm always going to pursue it, which I still am. But I've also found something else that I'm really passionate about and I really love, and I just don't know where that's going to go. I'm also really passionate about teaching.
Speaker 1:I love being a teacher. I love being a role model for people. I love being someone that someone knows that they can look up to, and I make open mistakes. I make open things. I'm very open as a person. So I don't know. Maybe I will be 32, going and doing my teacher degree, pregnant with my third child. You know, you just never know where life is going to take you. And the only thing I'm certain of right now is I'm engaged, living in the Gold Coast with my dog and my cat and my roommate and my fiance, and I've got a great family and a great support system around me. That's the. That's all I know for now, and I it's.
Speaker 2:And in the words, in the words of Jess, and those words were taken from a a, a very great podcast that we both listened to. It's not that deep.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not that deep. It is what it is. I'm, I'm living my life. I'm gonna figure it out as I go it's. You don't have to have everything worked out as much as I wanted it to.
Speaker 1:You don't, you, can't. There's nothing you just. Everything is certain to change. So if you're thinking of moving out, if you're thinking of, you know, your child moving out, if you're thinking of you know your child moving out, if you're thinking, even just listening to this and being like, wow, I'm 32 and I want to move countries, whoever you may be, the only thing certain is change.
Speaker 2:So you may as well just go along for the ride and do what you love and embrace the opportunity right, because you never know when another opportunity like that may come along.
Speaker 2:So I think, because this podcast has just followed this fantastic journey of Jess thus far to almost 20 years old, we've focused on looking forward and how Jess is looking forward and what she's learned from the past couple of years, and I believe that this would be a great time to, rather than me looking back.
Speaker 2:I think this would be a great opportunity to have another podcast and another conversation in the next episode, jess, where we can look back at 51-year-old Leanne, and what I really wanted to do was look back to when I was your age and have a look at the differences and the parallels between 19-year-old Leanne, okay, and 19-year-old Jess. And the reason I feel like that is so valuable for our audience is because a lot of the disconnect that happens now is what is traditionally known as the generation gap okay. So you know what a lot of parents and grandparents find it really hard to connect to the younger generation because of this, what they call the generation gap. When we really look into it, humans human beings haven't changed. What's changed is the social conditions, and so I feel like that's going to be a great next podcast that we get to record together, jess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, look, I'm down and everyone who's listening. You'll have to tune into that one because that one is going to be juicy.
Speaker 2:It'll be juicy because 19 year old Leanne's journey was. Life was slightly different to 19 year old Jess. However, a lot of the stuff that, a lot of the things that Jess has discussed today and a lot of her insights, sound very familiar to the insights that I gained through a different life journey and situation. So something to look forward to in the future, jess, is if I wanted to ask you the question that I asked most of my guests to finish off today, and that is to finish off today, and that is how do you uplift yourself?
Speaker 1:how do I uplift myself? I uplift myself by sorry, my fiance's just run out the door pointing at himself, but um, I uplift my camera.
Speaker 2:This isn't about you. This is about j.
Speaker 1:I uplift myself by allowing myself to be me, allowing myself to love the people I love and allowing myself to do what I want to do.
Speaker 2:Okay, so that means you uplift yourself by being aware of who you are and celebrating who you are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cause I'm unique. Everyone is unique, but I'm unique and I know that I'm unique. And I know that I'm unique and I'm not going to sit here and say that self-pity or anything like that, because it's not. I'm unique. I'm a great person. I am happy with who I am. I'm so excited to see who I am when I'm 51. I'm excited to see where my life takes me. Like I'm excited and I'm so grateful to be who I am and the age I am, because I right now everything's so flexible, nothing's holding me back.
Speaker 2:So I'm just really I love to think about the future, but I'm just really happy of who I am and I know that I'm going to be destined for an amazing life, no matter what happens and how fantastic would it be, jess, if in 30 years time you have a um, you know, number one podcast in the world and you record a podcast with your daughter and do the looking back piece. Look, this could become a tradition for the future generations of like A1 podcasters who just interview their children when they're 50 years old. Look, we've started a thing.
Speaker 1:No promises, but if it happens, it happens. Also, I wouldn't mind being on a jetty in Greece jumping off it singing Mamma Mia with my mom. That's a lifelong goal.
Speaker 2:That is a lifelong goal and that will be discussed in our next episode. So until then, stay strong, and I thank you so much, jess. You're a rising star. Anyone who wants an actor, an actress and any type of acting, dramatics, music, singing she's the whole package Highly recommend.
Speaker 1:Thanks Jess Love you, thanks Mum Love you, thanks everyone.