Connecting the Dots

Connecting the Dots...with an old friend (Katrina Banks)

• Adam Leishman • Season 1 • Episode 43

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This week, I reconnect with Katrina, a longtime friend who has lived an inspiring life. She became a mum at 19, faced all the challenges that come with that, and built a career in the medical field while embracing a life full of adventure and travel.

 In this episode:

  • How she turned early challenges into opportunities
  • The balance between career, family, and personal passions
  • Why adventure and travel keep her motivated
  • The mindset behind pushing boundaries and living life to the fullest

A great listen for anyone looking for inspiration on resilience, career growth, and creating a life you love!

Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts & wherever you get your podcasts.

#ConnectingTheDots #Podcast #LifeLessons #SuccessStory #CareerGrowth #Inspiration #TravelMore #Adventure

Speaker 3:

Hello, this is the poster I bought a couple of years ago, called My Life in Weeks. It's on the premise that the average person has about 4, 000 weeks in their life. So you put in your birthday, it comes pre filled out up to, you know, the age you are now, representing all of the weeks that are behind you, and it's got all these empty dots, that each dot's a week. And, so I've had it for a couple of years, that's why they, you know, they come pre filled and then they get messy as I And, and the first year I got it, I would do a little video and talk about what was in my week that week. And then, since I turned 49, I'm 43 weeks into connecting with people, hence Connect The Dots. And I get to connect with either, somebody I've never met, somebody I've met recently, somebody I know. And this week I connect with somebody I knew a long time ago. And They were a young mum when I knew them back in the day. And I just, I guess, whether it was my own perception, of what struggles I thought a young mum was three decades ago, and the path they might have been on to, I just, it was really good to be able to catch up with them. And off camera, um, I wanted to really be able to say to them, I was impressed. I was impressed that they were able to go from, you know, being a young mom and go on to have wonderful kids, wonderful life, full of adventure. And I just, it might've been my own perception as I say, but I just, I was impressed. I admire what they did and, uh, I just wanted to be able to say that to them and record a conversation while I catch up with them. So let's go meet them!

Speaker:

That I went to

Speaker 2:

Fiji and got a tattoo at the spur of the moment. Oh, good.

Speaker:

Alright, I'm

Speaker 2:

going to China in, I'll be in the air in 14 days.

Speaker:

This is Katrina. I've known you a long time.

Speaker 2:

You have. A

Speaker:

long time, and I think if Maybe we were in year 11 when we met,

Speaker 2:

maybe? Were we in the same year? No, so I was in year 10, you were in year 11.

Speaker:

There we go. Correct. So that was some time ago.

Speaker 2:

Just a little.

Speaker:

And I think you were dating one of my mates at the time we met.

Speaker 2:

I think, possibly. Or did one of your mates know my friend? Possibly. And that's possibly how we met.

Speaker:

And you went to Caboolture High? I did at the time. And, and, and we've sort of, for a while there we were, we knew each other and I, you know, at some point you, you felt pregnant. You were a young mum. I was. And apart from all the other things we're going to talk about today, including your travel, what you do, holidays, you're always up for an adventure. The thing that's always stood out to me, and I've always been impressed, is you went from being a young mum, and all of the challenges that, you know, that faces young mums, to go on to live this wonderful life with a great job, a great partner, great kids. How did, how did, how did that happen? How did you become a young mum?

Speaker 2:

Look, I was a young mum. I decided that I was, you know, going to have the baby. I had good family support, so that helped. I had some good friends. And I'm pretty headstrong, so I just I'm just going to do it. I just, I'm just going to make this work. And I just made it work.

Speaker:

How old were you?

Speaker 2:

I was 19 when Michaela was born. Yes. So I was on my own. I lived with, I moved back in with my parents into a little tiny, you know, three by three bedroom with a baby. And then I was there for a little while. Then I moved into a two bedroom duplex and I was there for a little while by myself. I

Speaker:

remember that duplex because I'd call in and say g'day to you and check in and see how you're doing. Yeah,

Speaker 2:

so we lived there for a little while. Then it got a bit tough, so then I moved into my friend's parents backyard into a caravan. We weren't there very long and then I moved to another place and that's where I met Tony.

Speaker:

Yeah, wow. And then, fast forward to today, tell me what you do now.

Speaker 2:

I am a practice manager for a paediatric specialist. I started there 15, just had my 15 year anniversary, work anniversary. I started there with one clinician. two hospitals and one other team member. So currently now I'm the practice manager. We have two branches. We work at five hospitals. So I do some theater scrub nursing as well during those general anesthetic procedures. And I have a team of eight and an oral health therapist. Awesome. Keeps me on my toes.

Speaker:

What's your favorite thing about that job?

Speaker 2:

Ooh, parents, the kids. That's also the worst part of the job sometimes. Yeah, I like my job. I love my job. I've got to say probably a good 95 percent of the time I love my job. It can be very challenging sometimes. HR is the worst part about my job. But generally, yeah, generally I love my job. I spend a lot of time at my job and I've spent a lot of time at the practice, obviously, 15 years. Yeah. My boss is very generous, very, you know, giving and understanding. And yeah, we have a great team. So

Speaker:

awesome. And where is, where, where, where is work?

Speaker 2:

We have a branch at North Lakes and we have a branch at Chermside as well. Yep.

Speaker:

And where do you spend most of your time?

Speaker 2:

Most of my time is at North Lakes. However, I do go to Chermside once a week at minimum. Yeah. Sometimes I go into theater hospitals, which is St. Andrews, Peninsula Private, Marta and Hurston. That's another one.

Speaker:

I remember probably a decade ago, I was going to a different. business in the same building as your place at Chermside. As I walked by, I'm like, I think I know the person in there. Tell me about the rest of the family.

Speaker 2:

So I've got two children, as you know, Michaela is just about to turn 30. She has two little boys a five year old and a soon to be one year old. And I have a 16 year old son, nearly 17. Got his learners, got a part time job, just started a tape corset. school, year 11. So yeah, then there's my husband, Tony. We've been married forever. Yep. Yeah. We've lived in the same house now for about 18 years. Yeah, wow. Yep. He wants to retire soon. Okay. What's he do? He's a production manager for a nursery. Awesome. Quite a large nursery.

Speaker:

Yep.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

And he's done that for a while?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, he's done that for two different companies. So we had our own business when, before Tyler was born, that he worked part time for another company and then he We had the business and it just got really hard. It just got too hard for me to sort of go back to work, have a baby, run all the admin stuff for a small business and things like that. And it's difficult to have contractors. So they just might not turn up for work one day. So that puts a big impact on the, on a small business when there's only a couple of people running it. So we gave up that section yet released out of our contract with builders and stuff like that. Yeah. And so he went to work full time for where he is now. The

Speaker:

other thing I've always watched you do is you live life to the full.

Speaker 2:

I try.

Speaker:

You're always doing something that's either active or holiday or or just involved in something that just looks fun and engaging. What drives that do you think?

Speaker 2:

I do have a high stress job. So I unfortunately did have a bit of a breakdown last year. It led to me yeah, not in a great place. I ran away to Thailand for a couple of weeks with a high school friend, Renee. So we went yeah, we went to Thailand for 10 days. So that was really good. And I needed it. It was definitely an eye opener for me. I really needed it. I like adventure. I like to do different things. And I feel like just in the last couple of years, I've really sort of pushed myself. So I've got a jet ski. Yes. I love it.

Speaker:

Yes. Favorite place to go?

Speaker 2:

I like the dam. Okay. It's, it's safe. Somerset? Yeah. Somerset Dam. It's safe for me. Yep. Yeah, I do like going over to Moreton and things like that, but the water's just gotta be right for me. Cause I just get a bit nervous when it's a bit too lumpy on the way over and yeah. So yeah, but I do love it. I can get it zero to a hundred very quickly. Yeah, I love it. It's a release for me. It's like when I go to Alex. So Alex Beach is my favorite place up the coast. I just need to get down to the bottom of the hill and it's just like instant release. So that's what it is like the jet ski as well. It's just like that instant. Release for me and I love it

Speaker:

and the other thing I've noticed you've got really good at over the years is travel

Speaker 2:

Hmm, tell

Speaker:

me about that. Where have you been going to

Speaker 2:

Okay So Renee and I went to Thailand in last March April something like that in two weeks I'm off to China with Renee as well.

Speaker:

Okay So

Speaker 2:

yeah, I'm off to China China really wasn't on my list, but it was a really good deal So we decided that we were going to go. I try and I'm hoping to travel once a year overseas somewhere. I've got two grown kids. My husband's not that keen on traveling because he doesn't really like flying. So and Renee Yeah, he's happy to go. So we're gonna try and get somewhere to go. We're going to New Zealand for a wedding at the end of the year as well. Yeah. Yeah, I like to travel. I like to not go and sit on a beach and do nothing as such. I'm happy to do a little bit of that, but I like to see different cultures, different experience, different cultures, different foods, different backgrounds, things like that. So yeah, that's my little pip for travel.

Speaker:

And holidaying in Australia, where's your favourite place?

Speaker 2:

Look, I'm a sucker for San Stanthorpe. It's not really a travel, it's only three hours away. But I love stanthorpe, like you say, Tasmania. Yep. I love Stanthorpe. I, I like to go there. I went there for a couple of days for my birthday last year. It's nothing. I just, I just like the little country town. I like that it's cold. I go out to a winery, like I quite like Stanthorpe. I've got a couple of tick sheets for Australia. So yeah, so I'd like to go out to Uluru, I'd like to go to Western Australia and swim with the whale sharks. Yeah, I'd like to go to Tasmania. It's not high on my list, but it's something that I, yeah, I'd definitely like to go and see as such. I

Speaker:

think if you like Stanthorpe, you'll love Tasmania.

Speaker 2:

Probably. Yeah. So yeah, a couple of places that I've been. I don't really have any. Drive to go to the Great Barrier Reef, that sounds bad. I've been to Darwin, been to Sydney, been to Melbourne Canberra. It's small, but it's also another place I'd probably like to see just to tick off a few little things that I'd like to see down there. And what about

Speaker:

overseas? What's on the list?

Speaker 2:

Oh look, high on my list has always been Japan. Tyler would love to go to Japan so hopefully sometime soon I can take Tyler and we can go over to Japan. I'd like to do Canada, Alaska. I'd like to do turkey. Oh wow, why Turkey? It just, just the background of it, Turkey, you know, like it's quite historic and so yeah, I'd like to do that. I definitely have no interest in Egypt, people say to me, Egypt, and yeah, no, no, not, not keen. Look, if there was something really cheap, like China, then maybe I'd go, but yeah, no real interest in Egypt. Yeah.

Speaker:

And what's Tyler going to do when he finishes school?

Speaker 2:

Young Tyler's got a he's got a highway and he's got a couple of exit ramps. So, Tyler wants to be an electrician.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So currently he's got two part time jobs. He's in year 11. He's just started his electro technology course through school. So one day a week, he does that all day. So electrician is his highway and he's got a couple of offset goals. So he might either work for Ergon or for Energex. Or for the other company I can't remember which is up north, the electrical company, Electrical Base as well. Yeah, so that's his kind of, yeah, drive or just a, you know, an apprenticeship when he finishes school. He might go off to the army cause he likes the idea that he can play rugby and get paid for it at the same time. So yeah, so that's another sort of option for him. Yeah, so he's got a couple of little exit ramps off his plan. Mmm.

Speaker:

And apart from China, what's on, what's in the future for you, planned or not planned that you're looking forward to?

Speaker 2:

I'm looking forward to going to New Zealand. So, a friend of ours is getting married in January, so as a family we're going to go over and do, like, a two, three week trip. We've talked about it for a long time, but Tony's not keen on flying, but he's, yeah, he, New Zealand is definitely one place he wants to go. So we're just going to drug him and off we go and, yeah, have a really good time. Yeah. Thank you

Speaker:

very much for chatting with me today. Thank you,

Speaker 2:

nice to see you again.

Speaker:

Yeah, it is good to see you. When am I going to see you on another parkrun course?

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, running. Every

Speaker:

now and again you turn up there, or I think you turn up more often than I see you, but I see you.

Speaker 2:

I'd like to say that I go there a lot. I do not like running and I still don't like running. But do you know how hard it is to run when you're, when, when you like, when you're angry, you can't, you can't run when you're angry. You start off running when you're angry, but it doesn't last long because you need to focus on breathing and running and staying alive. So that's kind of what got me into running really, is that I just, that's where I started. You would start running angry and then you would just go, and it just goes out of your head. And I suppose that's. Exercise is the same type of thing, you know, of any form. It's the endorphins that kick in and, you know, all that sort of stuff. So yeah, that's, that's how I got into running. I've done a couple of triathlons, so they were a bit of a tick for me when I nearly drowned in, but that's okay. We live another day. Yeah, running. Look, I'd like to get back into running. I've just So I don't really have any interest in it at this point. It's meant to be hard, that's what makes it

Speaker:

so good for you. Yeah,

Speaker 2:

I could be barely running 500 metres now. Like I've just started back at the gym, so I'm doing a bit of like treadmill, a bit of cross training. You know, just starting that routine, that habit back again. So yeah, hopefully I'll get back into running. I'd ideally like to do 10. Oh, no, sorry. Half. I'd like to do a half. Yep. Have no interest in a full cause that just that concept of that far is just a lot. When I drive, I sometimes think off from there to there's 20 Ks. That's a long way. But yeah, one day, one day I'll definitely, you know, it's another little tick on my sheet.

Speaker:

I

Speaker 2:

got a Kawasaki one 60 X CSDX. So yeah, yeah. She goes fast. It's green. I love it.

Speaker:

Awesome.

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