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She’s a Champion of Women and a True Visionary For Societal Change

She’s a Champion of Women and a True Visionary For Societal Change

She is Hana Assafiri.

What does it mean to turn adversity into purpose? In this episode of the Power Of Women Podcast, I sit down with Hana Assafiri OAM — activist, entrepreneur, and founder of the Moroccan Soup Bar. She is a relentless champion of women and a true visionary advocating for societal change. And her life story is a testament to resilience, defiance, and the audacity to seek freedom.

Born to Lebanese and Moroccan parents, Hana’s upbringing stretched between Australia and Lebanon. At just 15, she was forced into an arranged marriage, confronting both personal violence and systemic failures. Her story is not one of victimhood but of refusing to be defined by it.

Hana reveals how the small kindnesses of strangers, a shop assistant who treated her with dignity, a teacher who cared, shaped her path forward. Those acts of humanity became the seeds of her own mission: to create spaces of safety, dignity, and empowerment for women.

The Moroccan Soup Bar, founded in 1998, is one of those spaces. What began as a kitchen staffed by women seeking refuge has evolved into a model of community, employment, and healing.

Her recently published memoir, The Audacity to Be Free, expands on these themes, challenging us to rethink freedom, gender roles, and the role men must play as allies in addressing violence. Hana is unflinching: “The solution must be driven by women, supported by men.”

 

In this episode, we explore:

The meaning of life and freedom beyond survival

Cultural expectations, arranged marriage, and systemic failures

Acts of kindness that can change the course of a life

 

As Hana explains:

“Life doesn’t come with a trigger warning.”

“Women don’t need pity and charity. What they need is pathways and opportunities.”

 

💥 New episodes drop every Monday to power your week.

📖 Read the full transcript of this conversation here:

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

HANA (00:00)

Hi, Hannah Asafiri. What am I defining in the three or four rapid fire points? The meaning for life, I think, maybe I’ll start there, for me is whatever setting in whatever capacity that you leave those circumstances in a somewhat better predicament than when you found them. And that is, I guess, my foundational value for life, whether I find myself

 

⁓ one-on-one with individuals in social settings, advocating and or speaking to politicians, parliamentarians or the king or queen. That ultimately what drives me and what gives my life meaning is that. And sadly, we’re living in a world where ⁓ those tensions are much more real and require in us to take greater risks and responsibilities in preserving the very values.

 

that can ensure a better kind of fairer world. ⁓ And as women, think, which is the other layer, ⁓ being mindful of the profound inequality and the spaces that women have to navigate, also with it comes the opportunity for us to rethink how ⁓ better outcomes are possible through women’s contribution. So in a sense, the hope

 

for me ⁓ is what defines me and that is that the world can be better, kinder, fairer, more humane.

 

DI (01:37)

I’m Di Gillett and welcome to the Power of Women podcast. We’re a platform that showcases and celebrates the strength, the resilience and achievements of women from all walks of life. But today we’re going to ask somewhat a deeper question. What does it mean to be free? And that is something that so many of us literally take for granted. Or is it something more

 

that we need to explore around that? Is it the power to build a sanctuary for others, even if you had to burn your own world down to escape? This is a story of a woman who was told to be silent, to make herself small and to fit into a world that had no room for her spirit. It’s the story of Hannah Asafiri. In Melbourne, Australia, that name is spoken with a reverence usually

 

save for community heroes and culinary legends. But before she was a celebrated activist and a radical entrepreneur, she was a girl trapped in a cage not of her own making. Today’s guest knows exactly what it takes to find freedom, not just for herself but for countless others. Hannah Asafiri, welcome to the Power of Women podcast.

 

HANA (02:59)

Dear Lord, thank you, Di, and thank you for that amazing introduction. Gosh, I think I can leave now and that kind of sums it up. I’ll just not disappoint going further, but yes.

 

DI (03:11)

Well, I think the introduction deserves a bit of a deep dive because there’s one hell of a story behind that. So, but before we begin, could I just want to say when we spoke off air and I said to you, do we need to do a trigger warning about anything that we are going to talk about today? I’m going to pause there because your response, I think, says it all. Because You said to me,

 

life doesn’t come with a trigger warning.

 

HANA (03:44)

And it doesn’t. And sadly, for many in the main, women and girls and children, and this is commonplace, that these conversations, ⁓ it is really sad. They don’t come with trigger warnings. and yet they are so pervasive. They’re a common experience for many of us. That said, it is important, I think, for people to know that there’s support, there’s help, that these are conversations that

 

⁓ don’t and are not afforded the appropriate spaces to talk about them, that we keep them hidden and we keep the responsibility and the onus on those who endure violence and abuse and trauma and leave them to their own devices or therapy or whatever it is. But as a society, we don’t talk about them effectively. And if and when we do, we

 

cotton wool them with trigger warnings and if you want to leave, leave the room. Well, life isn’t like that sadly. And that way of discussing these issues I don’t think is making inroads into changing attitudes and the very drivers of these attitudes. We need to be able to talk about them matter of fact. We need to be able to talk about them honestly and shift the shame, isolation, humiliation,

 

that those who endure ⁓ feel and place it where it belongs and it is with those who perpetrate these acts. ⁓ so, yes, I come back to, of course, life doesn’t give you trigger warnings, but also let’s ⁓ reimagine how we as those of us who’ve lived life ⁓ can respond and have this conversation and define how we talk about it.

 

DI (05:19)

mmm

 

Yeah, thank you. Could we start with your story and delve into some of that today, Hannah? What was it like growing up where tradition and culture often overshadowed your spirit?

 

HANA (05:54)

I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s tradition and culture. think often times spirited children find themselves restricted by the conventions and the environments that they find themselves in.

 

DI (06:12)

she’s got nothing to do with that. That could be any of us.

 

HANA (06:14)

That’s right. ⁓ I think, you know, importantly, especially if you’re a young girl and then growing up to be a woman in a society that’s got clearly defined roles and, you know, you’ve got your predictable pathway to how, what you should aspire to and ⁓ marriage and children and all of that sort of stuff. And I think anything that exists outside of that is quickly tamed.

 

and dissuaded, we’re often dissuaded from, you know, the hair being camped, just having an honest expression of who you are. ⁓ And yes, with that, obviously different cultures have their own traditions and rituals that further contain, absolutely. So for me, growing up in a culture,

 

DI (06:50)

I’m out of here Hannah.

 

HANA (07:09)

initially in Australia, but then we moved, my mother’s Lebanese, my father’s Moroccan, we then moved to Lebanon for a time and it was during wars and ⁓ really high-stakes settings, but the contrast between Australia and Lebanon in the gendered roles and the expectations of women and girls was for me really confronting. ⁓

 

necessarily restricting ⁓ more the hypocrisy of the expectations. it? ⁓ Probably neither. think I was curious about who makes the rules about these. It was absurd. I think more than, there was an absurdity about men and boys moving in public spaces only.

 

DI (07:43)

confusing.

 

or confronting.

 

HANA (08:03)

and women being relegated to the domesticity of kitchens and houses and salons and whatever. And whilst in and of itself maybe to a child that would have been okay, but where it wasn’t okay is I was then expected to move in men and boys spaces to go and bring the food from the grocery store, get the bread and yet denied everything that came with it and all the freedoms that came with it. And I think that

 

then became my training ground for really pushing back a little bit and really formulating my identity around questioning why things the way they are, who makes these rules, because they were absurd. just were nonsensical. So it was more that.

 

DI (08:52)

Yet you found yourself, as I understand it, in an arranged marriage despite the fact that you had this strong sense of what was fair for the guys and not fair for the girls.

 

HANA (09:06)

So yes, arranged marriages and I think this is where I guess when, so we moved from Lebanon back to Australia and ⁓ in that space ⁓ my mother did not integrate and certainly back then, I’m talking 40 years ago, 50 years ago even, the integration of communities and cultures was not as sophisticated as it is now and still now it’s quite inadequate.

 

But back then, it was worse. So mum lived inside the four walls of the home and became more and more depressed and more and more isolated, more and more, and her sense of marginalization and understanding of the world was limited to the four walls. And from that space, I go back to she did her best in her care.

 

⁓ Sadly, part of ⁓ her way of extending care ⁓ was to go back to what she knew, and that is to organise and arrange a marriage for her children. But again, later we can talk about that if or if not. ⁓ The conditions around which I was married were ⁓ very difficult. They were a consequence of sexual abuse.

 

And the only way in her isolation, my mother knew how to deal with the reputational damage, what that would mean for my other siblings in young girls being marriageable or otherwise. So like many cultures and traditions, sweeping under the carpet, getting rid of the problem, marry her off. And I think whilst

 

Now I understand and certainly forgive. It wasn’t okay for the little girl that was me and nor is it okay for many others. I also think where these circumstances were allowed to happen, I was married at 15 in Australia.

 

And Australia allowed it at the time, again, because we find ourselves wanting to be culturally sensitive, wanting to ⁓ embrace different cultures. But when that approach lacks a gendered understanding, we then default to going to the men, hey, what are your issues? How do you, what is it that you need to feel that you belong in Australia? And all these…

 

DI (11:38)

Hmm

 

become complicit as a country.

 

HANA (11:53)

And the people that are defining those cultures, of course they’re going to define them from their perspective and from their privileges. So as men who have been the ones that are consulted over the years, they have said, well, you know, our culture requires that we are allowed to marry our children young, provided there’s guardian consent, et cetera, et cetera.

 

Governments, whilst well-meaning, and societies, whilst their endeavor is to ⁓ be inclusive, I think those issues, unless they’re informed by the intersectional experience of women, and unless women contribute to what defines those cultures, then in the end they land on the bodies, sadly, of women and children who

 

deal with the impact and consequences of the layered, for lack of a better word, misogyny, the layered ⁓ societal issues that we have to navigate. And I think for me, I try to understand many years later my arranged marriage within that context, instead of just blaming my mother or the government for allowing it, or the Imam for marrying us, or whatever it is. ⁓

 

And I think it’s actually freeing when we can understand our place in the world and begin to agitate for change so that others don’t have to endure.

 

DI (13:31)

What happened between the relationship between you and your mother early on? it, was that a point of friction?

 

HANA (13:39)

Absolutely not. And you know, sadly, I loved my mother dearly and dearly. We’d never had a fight our entire life. And the level of empathy was probably too close even. ⁓ And we as children, probably like many children of migrants, we become the adults. We become the doctors, the interpreters, the translators.

 

DI (14:04)

All the things that care

 

HANA (14:05)

That’s

 

right. And because especially that they can’t move freely in society, we then take on that role. And in that role, you’re not allowed to be a kid. In fact, you can’t be a kid. with mum, interestingly, she now passed. But I’ve always had this thing that, you know, she did her best, she loved us, she, in her own understanding of the world.

 

and simultaneously holding the experience that it wasn’t good enough, that ⁓ as a young girl who was hurt and harmed by some of those decisions, and then how do we, if we arrive at that place, how do we forgive?

 

DI (14:52)

You’d built a strength of character though as a young girl in Lebanon being frustrated for want of any other word of seeing what was the gender difference of what the boys could do versus what you could do. How did you then bring that strength of character and perhaps view of injustice into an arranged marriage and actually

 

Were you again diminished or did you find your voice in the marriage early?

 

HANA (15:27)

Well, sadly, the marriage was profoundly violent from the very outset, in fact, from the wedding night. And I did write about it and was mindful in writing about it also not to associate arranged marriages with violent marriages. I think there is a distinct difference. Some arranged marriages can be good.

 

And some, obviously, marriages that aren’t arranged are also violent. So I don’t think the issue is arranged marriages per se. And yet this guy, I mean, there was absolutely nothing in common. We had no compatibility. was somebody who, you know, we started by saying, I ask why, why is the world the way it is? Why isn’t it better?

 

and his mode of, know, was about it’s my way or the highway. And I was never, for many reasons, I was never going to be the person that just thought, well, that’s okay, it’s your way. And I was young and I was 15, he was years older than me. So communication was just not at all. ⁓ And his mode of…

 

communicating and relating was extraordinarily violent at every turn.

 

DI (16:58)

And you would have had any life skills to deal with that at that age?

 

HANA (17:01)

None. And on top of it, you know, we’re Muslim, raised Muslim, and I think I was one of the first Muslim young women in Australia who was really pushing back and seeking a divorce. In fact, I called my mum the night of my wedding after the initial act of slap across the face and said, get me out of here. What is this? no, no, no, no, we can’t. And what will people say in that hole?

 

And you know, you then become exposed to culture again, this culture that’s defined by somebody obscure that says, you must remain, you must endure, you must persevere, you must not provoke, and all that sort of stuff. So, you know, I left him four or five times and …

 

In that and during that time and I think what’s been really good for me and What’s given me endurance, defiance, resistance, resilience, whatever it is, is the kind act of strangers, people you never expected. Like the woman at Sussan who I would come in every day once he would leave and go to work and

 

I would jump out the window, literally, I was young and agile, could jump out the window and headlock the doors and I’d go, yeah right, ⁓ and go up to the local Sussan store and every day would imagine a world and a possibility that wasn’t the horror that I was living. ⁓ And like most people I think who live through violence and trauma, we dissociate.

 

For me, dissociation was also a positive thing because it allowed me to imagine a world ⁓ that was possible. and in that world I kind of really cultivated an alternative to the horror. ⁓ And the random strangers who existed in that world, the woman at Sussan who every day knew I would come in, jump out the window, come in. ⁓

 

And she would know I would never buy something. I never had the money, never had the means. He never gave me any and didn’t work and, you know, I children. And she would say, hello, can I help you? Every day as though I was someone new. I didn’t annoy her, even though I said, can I try this on, can I try that on? And began to wear jeans that I wasn’t allowed to wear and tried all this stuff on every day. And she, you know, did not tire from.

 

going, hello, can I help you? And I think to women like that and individuals like that, you have no idea about the impact you will have on the trajectory of somebody’s life. Act of kindness, not from people that are expected to be kind, but from random, whether it’s your teacher who goes over and above, whether it’s a stranger who says, you okay?

 

DI (19:58)

Through an act of kindness.

 

HANA (20:12)

whether it’s, And they’re the ones that I think are profoundly important in and through the experience of those of us that have at times been isolated and been violent. Absolutely, an important one.

 

DI (20:24)

It’s a memory that you hold. Yeah.

 

Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. Well, coming up, we’re going to talk about more about how Hannah became a beacon of empowerment and social change.

 

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So Hannah, leaving the marriage wasn’t easy, but what it did expose for you was that the system was really failing women. What did you find?

 

HANA (21:03)

Look, absolutely, and I think, I mean, I wish there were other alternatives for me at the time, and I look back at some of those experiences, and they are heartbreaking, that there aren’t any real and meaningful options for women to be safe and free of violence and trauma. ⁓

 

in leaving whilst it was very difficult and multi-layered, you know, from the control of violence within the home to then the societal control that says you can’t leave, you are defined by being a divorcee or in our culture you can’t, or in our faith it is not a possible option and all those things. And then the legal system who deems you fit or unfit.

 

to care for your children without recognising the life that you are enduring and experiencing through and with a violent partner without understanding the consequences of that. You are deemed based on having left a certain way or then you are defined and judged by those events. So I think the…

 

At every level, individually, at a societal level, at a cultural level, at a legal institutional level, women have failed repeatedly. And I think it’s understandable why women stay and why the revolving door scenario women return. With that said, it’s then no surprise. I then went on to work in women’s services and for 13 years my life was

 

and continues to be, but in that iteration committed to law reform, to changing some of the interventions, at least at a social level, to shifting and challenging some of the attitudes that enabled and allowed violence to endure. So I did everything from working in direct service, picking up the phone, speaking to a woman in crisis, to then

 

looking at effective models and responses to women who are escaping violence and abuse, to even sitting on government, national, state level on advisory boards talking about this issue. And thankfully, and still inadequately, but certainly thankfully, law reform and the recognition that this isn’t just a domestic.

 

At least those conversations have changed. We’ve still got a very long way to go. But we’re certainly not where we once were.

 

DI (23:54)

Did your mother get to live to see you do this work? ⁓

 

HANA (23:58)

Yes,

 

yes, yes, yes. My mother got to live not only to see me do this work and often, you know, working with other younger Muslim women in similar predicaments at times and really challenging and rewriting traditions and customs ⁓ and slowly also watching the transition and change of some of my mother’s attitudes over the years. And my father.

 

And then obviously opening the Moroccan soup bar and ⁓

 

DI (24:34)

come to that because I want to talk about that.

 

HANA (24:37)

In

 

the domestic violence sector and responses, guess for me, the lens and the experience has always been about those on the margins and those ⁓ who the system fails and continues to let down. And I think not through ⁓ ill intent at all, yet the system continued to let down. ⁓

 

because it’s established in a way that is a band aid to the problem. is not.

 

DI (25:08)

It’s not addressing the cause. ⁓

 

HANA (25:11)

And I think after 13 years, there was one incident where a woman phoned in with two children and we’d exhausted every option. And back then there’s only transitional housing and crisis housing and hotels and there was nothing available. And she said, I’m out on the street. I have two children. I need somewhere to go. And I couldn’t find anywhere. And we had nothing available to her. And I was told that I’m supposed to say.

 

there’s nothing available. Now for me that was personal. It was a profoundly personal, relatable story. ⁓ And that was the defining moment for where and how the Moroccan Super was established.

 

DI (25:54)

Ah. Well, we had on the podcast a few weeks ago the CEO of the Why Do We CA Australia, Michelle Phillips. Yes. And talking specifically about homelessness for women and that the cohort now that super surpassed the over 50s is now the 25 to 38 year olds through largely domestic violence.

 

And whilst we’re yet to know if anything will come of it, ⁓ from that podcast I had somebody reach out through the website only the other day asking could we connect them with the YWCA because they want to invest in women’s housing. hopefully that becomes a call to action and something that

 

HANA (26:47)

And I mean, just some basic re-imaginings. ⁓ Because at the moment, for all the measurable indicators, the indicators is that gender-based violence is going the wrong way.

 

DI (27:05)

Yeah, well we can see it in the statistics every day in the news. It’s tragic.

 

HANA (27:10)

And a lot of people say, yeah, it’s because women report more. No, that’s not true because the measurable indicators are sadly the brutal end to domestic violence, which is murder. Those numbers are going up and they’re not a perception. So if these are the indicators, then there’s something amiss in the way we are responding to the issue.

 

DI (27:38)

and to your point, band-aiding it rather than addressing it at the root cause.

 

HANA (27:42)

And I simply say some basic things and when we talk about the Moroccan Soup Bar, for 25 years we have unwittingly and organically evolved the model that women don’t return at all. Not one woman has gone back to a violent partner in 25 years at the Moroccan Soup Bar. Not because there’s something magic about us, not because we’re amazing, but because I think our response is needs driven.

 

DI (28:12)

Yep.

 

HANA (28:12)

⁓ It organically evolved around the enduring needs of women, not just the crisis itself, but the ongoing needs like housing, upskilling women.

 

DI (28:24)

So tell us, where did the soup bar start, the Moroccan soup bar? It is your baby.

 

HANA (28:27)

So,

 

that day that I had this woman who said, you know, I need somewhere to go and there was nowhere for her to go and to me I found that extraordinarily difficult to accept. There’s always an option and there should be. If there isn’t, there should be. ⁓ I would have taken her home, you know.

 

But obviously worker safety and wellbeing and you’re not allowed to and you have boundary issues if you did and whatever. There’s always a solution. has to be a solution. Anyway, so driving home in that state, there was a sign on the side of the road saying, Felice of a shopfront on St. George’s Road. I pulled over and phoned the agent and he happened to be in the area and showed me through this

 

space. ⁓ It was carpeted. It was absolutely nothing and it was a derelict kind of strip. There was no other retail. So it was a thoroughfare St. George’s Road. And there and then I found myself haggling and brokering a lease deal, not knowing what it would be other than it would be a space that is safe, run by women for women. ⁓

 

DI (29:50)

because there had to be a solution.

 

HANA (29:52)

Absolutely. And this is, I guess, probably an important aspect of who I am and how I’ve navigated my life. I think women’s intuition is undervalued, in fact, often judged. And our intuition, ⁓

 

DI (30:09)

could not agree more.

 

HANA (30:17)

you know, is being made to, ⁓ put that aside. It is about reason, it’s about a plan, it’s about ⁓ everything with an end game. so we prioritise reason and everything that is quantifiable over intuition. And for me, what’s held my entire life in good stead and what’s never harmed me.

 

DI (30:29)

not always

 

HANA (30:43)

society harms me, and individuals and cultures, ⁓ but your own intuition, if you allow it and get in touch with it as a barometer, will never put you in harm’s way. And I think women’s intuition, reinvesting in it and re-trusting it as women is probably one of the best things we can do for ourselves. ⁓ Now, the difference is, sadly, intuition doesn’t have a plan. It just says,

 

take that step. We don’t know what will happen, but trust and take that step. And from that step, wherever you are, intuitively, you will know where the next step is. And your life will organically and authentically unfold. The issue is you can’t then take that to a bank and say, fund this intuition, because I want to open up a place and I know it’ll work. And I did, in fact, go to the bank and they went, yeah, no.

 

DI (31:44)

Talked to nearly any trailblazer or entrepreneur, intuition will have been what drove them.

 

HANA (31:51)

Yes. ⁓ And I think intuition should be part of the story. I’m not saying it’s the only story, but certainly for me, in every major life-changing and defining moment, it has been intuitive. ⁓ You know, I believe in theories, energies, vibes, ⁓ as much as everything else that is tangible. ⁓

 

DI (32:18)

But you know how to tap into it. Not everybody does.

 

HANA (32:21)

I’ve had to. It is that space that’s kept me safe. ⁓

 

DI (32:27)

It’s been your imagination that would have emotionally kept you safe years ago.

 

HANA (32:33)

And I’ve learned, and in that sense, I’ve been really, really lucky that, you know, that the circumstances didn’t define me, but that I’ve found a way to navigate through, kind of just being in yourself and looking inward.

 

DI (32:49)

So how is the Moroccan Soup Kitchen supporting women and fulfilling the dream that you identified through intuition that day?

 

HANA (32:58)

Yes, so what I thought is it would be a place for women to be safe. And then the next layer of that is society often and certainly in our cultures, women are conditioned in kitchens often. ⁓ And they are rarely rewarded, remunerated or supported or valued for that work. It’s often work that’s exploited, that’s part of the expectation of what we do. ⁓

 

And then you look for a real job. And then I thought, what if we flip that on its head a little bit and we started where women are at, what they know how to do. And they know how to be in kitchens. Bring them in. Here’s a kitchen. And we know how to do hospitality and certainly in our culture. mean, we’re… So we thought women…

 

DI (33:43)

Morning kitchens.

 

HANA (33:49)

in a kitchen and we would offer up the, and I’m vegetarian, so we would make it the best possible vegetarian food ⁓ served up to Melbourne, cooked by these women. And for me it was also really important not to make the story about women, that women’s dignity was important, that the story is about this is a food place of Moroccan vegetarian food. Back of house it had a different story.

 

DI (34:15)

Yeah.

 

HANA (34:15)

because it’s not a charity. Women don’t need pity and charity. What they need is pathways and opportunities. ⁓ so at least I knew enough to separate the two. And front of house, this was for all intents and purposes, something that was grounded in our culture, that was being offered up to Melbourne as an alternative to vegetarianism, which at the time, you know,

 

DI (34:41)

Yeah.

 

There wasn’t much there.

 

HANA (34:46)

sauce and I valued

 

the integrity of flavors and had experimented over the years because I’m vegetarian, turfing the meat and chicken and putting potato and chickpeas. So I’d experimented for myself because I was familiar with a palate that is rich in flavor. And then, you know, the women came and ⁓

 

gave him a few recipes and said, is what we’re cooking and it’s vegetarian and it’ll be like this and we opened the Moroccan soup bar genuinely in good faith. 1998, pre-internet, pre-…

 

DI (35:21)

What year? wow.

 

Pre social media. Pre any of it. Yeah, wow.

 

HANA (35:31)

In the hope that, you know, and everybody at the time, absolutely every single living human being said to me, what are you doing? This is insane. What do you know about hospitality? And you’ve got a good job. You’re a coordinator of an organization. What? And I thought, no, something in me intuitively ⁓ thought not that

 

it would be and become what it has, but that I needed to do something that was different to the system that was a revolving door bandaid. How and what that looked like I didn’t know and trusted that it would be okay. Whatever it is, it’ll be okay.

 

DI (36:16)

What’s happening back at house?

 

HANA (36:18)

So Back of House, ⁓ women and to this day, I can tell you, we’ve never advertised for staff. And Back of House, is a space for women ⁓ to disrupt the cycle of violence initially, but then to look at and walk alongside them on whatever their journey is, whether it’s from basic language to up-skilling to developing.

 

you want to be a chef, want to whatever it is, you want to be a childcare worker, to walk alongside their journey, housing, childcare, and all those tangible things along the way became evident and we organically together reimagined solutions. So housing, coming back to your housing in the YWCA, women would say, okay,

 

DI (36:54)

This is

 

HANA (37:14)

I could never ring up an estate agent. I don’t have the references, don’t have the means to live alone and compete in private rental. Public and social housing needed five years to get into. So we would come together and I would say, listen, I’ll call and over the years we’ve got to know many real estate agents. Some of them are amazing. And what I would say is, I don’t want you to give her the house, but what I want you to do is I will guarantee

 

this application at least get a look in. And in their application often women will say, how about we live together? To other women. And how about I’ll look after your kids when you’re working, you look after my kids when I’m working. And that way they deal with the prohibitive childcare costs, ⁓ housing.

 

DI (37:46)

Yeah.

 

HANA (38:09)

They share the cost of housing and on top of it, the other layers of support, they validate one another’s experience. So they don’t end up going back. And I think they’ve been part of the success story of the Moroccan Super. And then on top of it, we identified. So that was the immediate need. And then we identified, okay, so what do you want to do if you want to springboard out of here to wherever else? And some would say, I want to do childcare. I want to do, ⁓

 

DI (38:23)

tested.

 

HANA (38:39)

advocacy, whatever it is, I want to be a patisserie chef. So we then formulated arrangements with Box Hill Institute and others to upskill these women. And the biggest problem sadly again is when people are not in touch with the lived experience.

 

They’ll say, there’s an option to upskill, get them to apply, here’s a course funded by government, la, la, la. Okay, but it competes with putting food on the table. If any woman is to take up that option, she has to take six weeks out of her income earning capacity to do that course to then be upskilled. And often, it’s not that women don’t want to. So I paid for their training as part of their time at the Moroccan Soup Bar.

 

DI (39:23)

prohibitive

 

HANA (39:30)

And often we would bring the training in and the hours are paid and there’s a ⁓ synergy between, I think, women, the courses that they are learning. And then they can see a vision and an outcome, an endpoint. It’s not just, here’s your accommodation to disrupt the crisis, now go fend for yourself, which is how sadly the system is made. And I think that’s been the successful

 

⁓ part of transitioning women and challenging quietly at times and at times more overtly some of the assumptions that are the very drivers of violence and gender-based violence, assumptions around female genital mutilation, for example, or assumptions around should women endure and stay and persevere in some circumstances or ⁓

 

you will have to defy your parents because, you know, we’re supposed to afford them respect, all those kind of things. When challenged from a place of knowledge ⁓ and when we can put aside superstition and culture and tradition, but come back to the very premise of what it is to be a decent human being, even a person of faith, then I think we can rewrite.

 

some of those outcomes and the Moroccan soup bar has been there for women back of house and the other thing that at the Moroccan soup bar not one woman has walked in the door knocked on the door and said I want a job and I’ve said no to and often we don’t need staff.

 

DI (41:13)

So have you been self-sustaining? Can I ask that? have. whole time.

 

HANA (41:16)

 

whole time. And I love that because it gives you the freedom to

 

DI (41:23)

You’re not beholden to anybody else’s.

 

HANA (41:25)

Nobody’s agenda, nobody’s criteria. It is simply the criteria of making the circumstances a little better for those we stumble across. And then obviously front of house, it grew into many over 26 years, many social causes became evident ⁓ and required us to take a stand like ⁓

 

DI (41:37)

It’s even more fantastic.

 

HANA (41:53)

our relationship to First Nations communities, how we can be allies, how we can take the responsibility beyond just acknowledgments, ⁓ to being effective allies in those conversations, the climate emergency, how we can reimagine plastic, polystyrene, all that sort of stuff.

 

DI (42:14)

So cultural limitations are irrelevant in any of this? Absolutely. You’ve diversified.

 

HANA (42:19)

Well, because I go back to, for me, kindness, compassion, justice, fairness, all those things, they’re a perspective. They’re not cause specific. And they can’t be just when it’s convenient, I’m only talking about this group. No. That no matter where they are and what you come across and you’re confronted by, that perspective is my responsibility to enact. So…

 

You know, same-sex marriage, all of those issues as they ⁓ became apparent over time and became social conversations, we took a stand on and our community, ⁓ and I often say I feel like a surrogate aunt.

 

DI (43:03)

I bet you do.

 

HANA (43:05)

community. And it’s not just North Victoria, we became a destination place, everybody came, it’s so humbling. ⁓ But with it, people, and I think it reaffirmed this idea that if you build it, they will come. Quirky as it may be, unconventional as it is, that it resonated with ⁓ the betterment of who we are. And a community was not only forgiving,

 

of, you know, at times some of the girls spilt tea on people. We’re not from hospitality. The food was great, always. ⁓ We never compromised on the standard. And yet people found themselves drawn to a place that was refuge to those values, I think. And no matter who you were, the richest

 

⁓ and or the most marginalised or homeless, you were afforded the same dignity and the place was yours. and I think that affirmation back from community, that kept us buoyed and it certainly allowed us to endure through COVID and… ⁓

 

DI (44:04)

Meh.

 

You’re

 

busier today with the activities that I will call back of house than front of house by contrast.

 

HANA (44:30)

So obviously I’ve written a book, in the book it’s also a deliberate contribution, I think, to bearing witness to our times in what I find that we are hostile to and repealing some of the gains that women have made over the years. ⁓

 

DI (44:32)

Yeah.

 

HANA (44:57)

That to me feels like it’s got a lot of momentum and pushback from the highest office of the land to some social media influencers or whoever it is. that conversation around putting women back in their place ⁓ should have remained in the history books. And yet, ⁓ we’re talking about abortion rights again, we’re revisiting ⁓ attitudes that I just find extraordinary.

 

And that gave me the impetus to write about, I mean, we call it a memoir. It is called The Audacity to be Free, but to reimagine freedom. And, you know, if I had to write my life story, I think it’ll be a thousand page and that’ll only be the beginning. But I did pick snippets of my life that spoke to these issues.

 

in the hope that they can resonate with and contribute to a conversation that we are having at the moment as a country on gender-based violence and how to engage all of society. Because this to me isn’t a women’s problem, nor is it a men’s problem. It’s our problem. And sad to say we all contribute.

 

to upholding attitudes through our silence and through what we say ⁓ that form part of the drivers. And the other thing I think is also important and ⁓ doesn’t really have a lot of space is that not all men are wholesale to blame for violence against women. And we unwittingly do this because we’ve left the field, we’ve gone

 

No, violence against women is a gendered problem. Yes, it is, but not all men are perpetrators of violence. all perpetrators are perpetrators and we need to really have better systems of accountability for that, absolutely. And at times even, dare I say, remove the man. Keep an eye on him, remove him, don’t disrupt her life and children anyway. Absolutely, and simple. And the other thing,

 

DI (47:15)

Wouldn’t that be novel?

 

HANA (47:21)

The men who are not perpetrators, they are our allies. Engage them in a way. Don’t, I mean, we’ve backed, sad to say, from what I’ve seen, men into a corner of not knowing how to be and what to do. And at times, equally, not all women are wholesale victims of violence, because even unwittingly, and at times overtly, but unwittingly, ⁓

 

DI (47:24)

Absolutely.

 

Yes, I couldn’t get him on

 

HANA (47:49)

You know, men like Trump were once boys in the home. Given legitimacy, What we ask our sons and daughters are different things. What we expect and allow for sons and daughters are different things. We are complicit also in

 

…the very attitudes that enable, because when boys grow up in households, and they’re not just the domain of women, both men and women, in what they witness, ⁓ and then it’s reinforced at a social setting, in schools, our boys will be boys, they play like… …and then it’s reinforced in politics, even in our political settings, that whole adversarial have-a-go toxic culture…

 

DI (48:25)

See it on the school bus.

 

I’m

 

that at the moment and it’s a reminder that it’s been going on for a long time.

 

HANA (48:47)

So let’s invite and engage ⁓ decent men in ⁓ being part of the solution, as well as, I think, women in all our roles and responsibilities, also reimagining and questioning some of the attitudes that we uphold. ⁓ which

 

you know, I think, are contributors, our attitudes towards men and women and boys and girls and non-binary people and prejudice and all of it. ⁓ These are the drivers. Yes, governments have a role and a responsibility and must address better institutions and systems and legal responses, ⁓ but it would be remiss of us not to look at the attitudinal drivers. ⁓

 

and engage men because I think we’ve left the void and that void has been filled by the Andrew Tates and others. The solution, the one thing I would say is at the moment we’re trying to second guess ourselves a little bit and kind of go, yeah, men need to be part of the solution, let them do the men’s shed and no. The solution has to be driven by women, supported by men.

 

DI (49:49)

That’s right.

 

HANA (50:09)

That is the only way those solutions are going to be effective. They need to be defined and driven by those who endure and experience the issue as allies with taking responsibility for the privileges they hold in society as our allies. So I think the solution to me is not impossible. In fact, it’s probable if we allow and make space for

 

⁓ a reimagining and that flagpole of a vision where society is freer for everybody to live with dignity and respect.

 

DI (50:49)

Thank you, Hannah. And if I wrap that up in a bow, The most salient point out of that, I think, to share and reinforce is the solution is created by women but supported by men. Absolutely. I think that’s it in an absolute nutshell. What an absolute pleasure and a privilege to speak with you today.

 

I will ensure that we add the details to the Moroccan Soup Kitchen in the show notes and a link to your book, The Audacity, to be free. And be sure to share this episode because this is a really important episode on so many levels. It touches on so many of societal challenges today and there won’t be anybody in your orbit that this isn’t relevant for, so please be sure to share it.

 

You can catch it on all of the ⁓ audio platforms and on YouTube. Until next time.

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Reinventing Life in Midlife: It’s Both Courageous & Empowering

Reinventing Life in Midlife: It’s Both Courageous & Empowering

Midlife isn’t a crisis — it’s an invitation.

In this episode of the Power Of Women Podcast, host Di Gillett sits down with Maz O’Connor, a woman who made the bold decision to sell everything in Australia and start a new life in Bali. Her story is a reminder that reinvention isn’t about discarding who we’ve been. It’s about carrying our courage, resilience, and experience into the next chapter.

From financial independence to intentional living, Maz shares how courage often whispers before it roars, and how listening to that voice can transform everything.

If you’re a woman navigating midlife change, looking to prioritise wellness, independence and purpose, this conversation will show you how reinvention really begins.

 

In this episode, we explore:

Why midlife reinvention is about conviction, not crisis

How courage and clarity fuel personal growth after 50

Why financial independence is the foundation of women’s empowerment

 

This is what Maz said about courage & reinvention:

“Courage is that quiet voice that whispers, that whispers and that we ignore it. And when we’re choosing to find the stillness and listen to the whisper, it gets louder.”

“I took a massive step and I sold everything up… It doesn’t need to be that big and that dramatic.”

 

💥 New episodes drop every Monday to power your week.

📖 Read the FULL TRANSCRIPT of this conversation here.

 

MAZ (00:00)

My name is Maz Maz O’Connor and I’m so excited to be on this podcast with you Di. Thank you so much for inviting me to speak. I’m in my third act and I’m absolutely loving what I’m doing. Reinvention to me is everything and how do we redefine retirement. I took an incredibly bold leap and I packed everything up in my beautiful hometown in summers just over a year ago now. It had been stewing on my mind about where I’m going and what’s happening in this third act.

 

I was a solo mum for over 20 years and I loved that part of my life. I love talking about everything to do with parenting and what I raised was really incredible independent children. So I’m 30 years in the wellness space. I’m very passionate about affiliate marketing and network marketing and particularly for women in our third act. We have so much to offer and how do we wrap that up and what do we do in our third act? So I’m excited with where we’re going, Diane.

 

DI (00:57)

Welcome to the Power Of Women Podcast and I’m Di Gillett. We’re a platform that showcases and celebrates the strength, resilience and achievements of women from all walks of life. And Today, as Maz has already suggested, we’re going to talk about mid-life reinvention. That feeling that it’s time to shift gears and prioritise wellness, purpose and maybe even launch something of your own.

 

And It takes bravery and it takes courage and it takes clarity on who you are and what matters most. And Maz knows that and I know that having walked away after 30 years from a lucrative career that sustained my lifestyle to launching Power Of Women 18 months ago. But what’s really the most fantastic part of that is I am doing things on my own terms.

 

So whether it’s a career pivot, a lifestyle change, or just a quiet voice saying, this just isn’t working anymore. This episode is about what it really takes to start again. And joining me from a tropical paradise in a much warmer space than the grips of winter in Melbourne is Maz O’Connor. Maz, welcome to the Power of Women podcast.

 

MAZ (02:21)

Thank you so much, Di I’ve been looking forward to talking to you and speaking into your audience.

 

DI (02:27)

Fabulous and you and I met about I think it’s about two years ago in a little rudimentary studio when Disrupt Radio was getting off the ground and we were both there with Moe Hope and and online with Alison Shamir who I interviewed very recently and and we were talking about imposter syndrome.

 

MAZ (02:51)

Yes. And even Di being in that room with you and Alison and Mo, like I had that moment of imposter syndrome, like what am I doing here? And it was reminding to take our space, to sit in the circle. And what I love about women is that we hold each other’s hand, we lift each other up.

 

DI (03:16)

And look behind me on my pedestal is Women Holding Space, which is a beautiful book given to me by the amazing Hima Prakash after she was on the podcast only a few weeks ago.

 

MAZ (03:30)

Yes, incredible. I started to listen to Hamer’s interview yesterday. I look forward to ⁓ finishing that off today.

 

DI (03:39)

So, so much has shifted since we sat in that room. But I can remember you were a bit mesmerised by my shiny pants. So, I’ve worn shiny pants again today. They’re not quite as shiny and tactile as those ones. But I thought I should revisit that today.

 

MAZ (03:58)

I appreciate that, I can still remember seeing you getting out of your car and just going, what? This is going to be fun.

 

DI (04:09)

Yeah, Midlife reinvention. Haven’t got the message of the midlife bit in the wardrobe yet! but there we have it. So let’s talk about your midlife reinvention if we could first. I think that’s a great starting point because you’ve had a monumental shift since we sat together last.

 

MAZ (04:30)

Exactly where your introduction is, is I had a 20 year very successful career with ⁓ an Australian business. I was a solo mum during that time. I raised my children. It was very intentional the way that I raised my children. We were very fortunate. My business was successful. I helped a lot of women in during my time there. My children.

 

Now at the time were about 20, 22 independent looking after themselves and for me it became what now? What do I do now? So I left the organization that I was in and I didn’t know what I was going to do next. So I gave myself the breathing space. I was fortunate financially I could do that. I gave myself time to breathe and to fear and literally to breathe like doing breath work, doing yoga.

 

time on the beach. What does it look like? What? And I would pray and I would ask like, what’s coming in next? And things didn’t move too quickly. Very, what came through one day was around sharing my voice on radio. So similar to what you’re doing with the podcast, it was called you first and it was all about women and it was what happens when we put ourselves first. And what I found in that period of time is

 

When we put ourselves first, we are always of more service to other people. And that was magical. So the radio show became a podcast. Now, none of that was income producing. So it was like, what’s happening next? So I also knew that I loved where I lived in Australia, but I didn’t want to stay there for the next 30 years. I live in a beautiful suburb and some of your audience may know of Summers. It’s down by the water.

 

There is dolphins, there is koalas, there is this beautiful supportive network and I loved being there but I also knew that that wasn’t going to be for me for the next 30 years. So sitting around the pool with the group of women in Bali last May, so we’re now 18 months ago, sitting around and they’re all saying what would it be like to live and again that moment of oh this is where I’m coming next.

 

So then I rang my partner, I rang my children and I said this is what’s happening, this is what I’m doing, I’m going to wrap everything up and I’m coming to Bali to live. And what I chose not to listen to with a naysayer is how could you leave, you live in a beautiful place, you’ve got a great business.

 

DI (07:11)

What were the people around you saying? What was the reaction?

 

MAZ (07:16)

What it was is we all see through our own lens. So for those people, was, we will miss you. And my home was an Airbnb, it was an event space, it was a yoga studio, I read yoga classes, we did a lot of weekend workshops. So it was closing those things down. And what people do is they see it through their own eyes, what they will miss. And for me, was, and you know, what you’re doing, Di, is like, how can we be a vision for other people? How can they see?

 

DI (07:36)

What I’ll miss.

 

MAZ (07:45)

what we’re doing and even if it’s that little bit of courage where she chooses to get up at 6 instead of 6.30 and take half an hour to walk or half an hour to read something that’s going to shift her mindset or that she moves in the morning to make her body feel better. That’s what I want to be. So if someone’s looking at me and I know it’s happening and thinking, well, if Maz can do that, maybe I can too.

 

do this little thing too.

 

DI (08:16)

Yeah and I think that’s right, it’s and that word and I know it’s played around but it’s so valid of giving yourself permission to do that but it doesn’t, it’s not a snap decision and it does take courage and it absolutely takes a sense of self that we probably didn’t have 20 years ago.

 

to do that and I appreciate there’s a generation coming through now who might be starting this journey earlier than us. However, know, different time, different landscape than perhaps what we were facing into at that stage.

 

MAZ (09:01)

One of the things in I’ve been writing a lot since I’ve been in Bali and I do spend a lot of time on my own here as I’m building this new brand globally is when I was 14 I met some girls that went to boarding school and I lived in a beautiful family regional area as well and I went boarding school that’s a great idea.

 

So at 14 I went to my went back to my parents and said I want to go to boarding school for a year 11 and 12 and the same thing my family were like I think probably my family were like see you later

 

DI (09:37)

People

 

say I want to leave boarding school.

 

MAZ (09:39)

Yeah,

 

so I went to boarding school and I went away to do what I needed to do and then I did it again. I moved from Melbourne to Queensland and that’s when I started to work in the health retreats in Queensland and then I did it again when I moved to Sydney. So the big thing just looking at what was happening in my life is that I backed myself. So when I left my husband,

 

Sydney and I moved back to Melbourne, I was in fully commission based business and I backed myself entirely and then I supported other women and it was a direct to market business and I supported other women to do the same and I would believe in them until they believed in themselves and then that’s how they supported their families. So where we are, where you and I are now is

 

The reinvention of this third act, like what does this look like? And redefining retirement. And you and I know that The highest level of homeless people now are women post 50 that are not prepared for what’s coming. So this is who I’m speaking into daily and globally is let’s do exactly what you’re talking about. Let’s hold hands. Let’s raise each other.

 

DI (11:07)

Yeah, and in actual fact, I’m going to challenge that statistic. and we’ve been talking about the, and not to lessen the impact of the over 50 homeless, but I have recently had on the podcast, Michelle Phillips, who is the CEO of YWCA Australia. And that’s actually shifted to the 25 to 34 year olds because of domestic violence, because of the housing crisis.

 

and that has actually, that has usurped the 50 plus cohort. So, ⁓ however, I look around me, I can see in the streets and I walk around my local area, there are clearly women, mature age women living in cars. So it’s just, it’s incredible. But you raised a really interesting point if I… ⁓

 

start to join the dots. So you said you worked in a commission-based industry and I come from the world of recruitment and executive search where over the years you would have a retainer but your real income was generated by what what revenue you brought in for for the business and and you shared in a percentage of that revenue. Now there’s a mindset that goes with that.

 

because there are a lot of people who could not live on an income stream like that because they needed the job security and the income security of a set salary. Where you and I from a career perspective had to back ourselves from day dot to do what we did and I know I worked for

 

you know, industry doy in the recruitment space and reported to Andrew Banks for many years. And probably more entrepreneurs were born out of the stable of the Morgan & Banks stable than probably any other business stable I can think of in this country. And there is a mindset and a character trait that plays out in what you and I are doing now.

 

So I think that’s it. It’s an interesting profile.

 

MAZ (13:31)

Thank you, Di. It was something, and it was seeing my, you know, someone reflected me back to me saying like as a solo mum, the 100 % commission based business, what I loved was it’s the paying it forward. So I helped other women find, like, and as I said before, like to believe in them, I would believe in them until they’d believe in themselves. And then they’d be up and running and I provided them a framework to be able to create an income.

 

And the vehicle at the time that I was using was an Australian based business ⁓ in women’s fashion. And it was incredible. my boys and I, we went overseas every year. We chose where we lived. We lived by the beach. We chose the car. And education was really important to me. The schools I put my children through. So we were able to create a lifestyle, not based on what our bank balance is, but what our dreams are.

 

And then I met that with how clever we worked. And it’s the same thing now with Women, 50 plus going into, you know, we sort of talk about retirement. I want to redefine that. We have so much that we can bring, but often we’re not considered for those traditional jobs anymore as the youth are coming through. So that’s what I love about affiliate marketing and network marketing and commission-based businesses is that

 

You Use all of the network, you use all of your skills and you bring that to market. Pairing with AI, pairing with digital marketing, social media, there’s so much that’s there.

 

DI (15:13)

It was interesting. I recorded a show with Wade Kingsley, radio guy the other day who lives down in your old neck of the woods. and he made an interesting point because ageism is something that, you know, we’re right in the heart of. And I don’t, I have to put my hand up and say I personally haven’t experienced it. but it’s all

 

but it is absolutely all around us. And I probably had more approaches for employment in my post 50 years and I’m now post 60 ⁓ than I had in my earlier career. I’d note that that is the exception, not the norm. But Wade made a really interesting point in the world coming through of ageism and AI,

 

that maybe our cohort are going to be really valuable because we’re the guys who knew the world before AI. We knew how to get on the tools and do all the manual labor. And maybe that is going to keep us longer because people are going to come looking for our skills because we know how to do things when the wheels fall off.

 

MAZ (16:31)

Yes and those of us that are willing to embrace AI. So I think yes and. So AI fascinates me. It fascinates me particularly in the wellbeing space. What’s happening in the wellbeing space, how we’re using the data to improve our own wellness and how

 

DI (16:53)

Everybody’s got a device on. Yeah, yeah.

 

MAZ (16:56)

the

 

wearing device which is one thing but then also how does that device, how does that information then get interpreted? You know what apps are coming out and even the interpretation like then how do we improve our wellness based on that? That’s the space that I’m in that’s super exciting me. So I think yes, Di, us that have been the manual learners and the unique thing about you, Di, is that you are so willing to embrace technology.

 

You are so willing, you have a learner’s mindset, so you are willing.

 

DI (17:29)

I’ve done two YouTube videos this morning to help me maximise my YouTube channel and learn how to work with the algorithm. I love it.

 

MAZ (17:38)

Yes,

 

so for those that are willing to embrace AI, to have the beginner’s or the learner’s mindset and to bring that and also to make a difference, how do we amplify others? In me, that’s the formula for success and that’s what you’re doing, that’s what you’re bringing.

 

DI (17:57)

Yeah and that’s what you’ve been doing for so long. So tell us a little bit before we move on, tell us a little bit about the business you’re building now.

 

MAZ (18:06)

Thank you, Di. So for me, moving to Bali was again like when I left home and I went to boarding school. It was I to remove myself from everything that I knew. And if I’m talking about a global business, I’m going to do it from a space and not use the networks, the face-to-face, the one-to-one networks that I know. So the organization that I’m working with, it’s a 40-year-old well-being organization.

 

they have embraced AI in such a way because they’ve been gathering data for over 20 years. So what’s coming is AI combining it with DNA testing, microbiome testing and antioxidant scanning, so a bio-photonic scanner. You’re smiling, Diet. I feel

 

DI (18:55)

I am because this is my world. If I watch any podcast it’s about, I mean I didn’t know what microbiome was two years ago and now it’s every second day it’s in my world.

 

MAZ (19:07)

So this organisation that I’m with ⁓ is leading in this. They are spending almost 2 billion Australian dollars in the development. ⁓ It is coming out over stages. Stage one has just been released, which is a biophotonic scanner ⁓ that will be available for anybody in the wellness space, for consumers to use as well. ⁓ It will give you an antioxidant reading. We know when our antioxidant levels are high,

 

free radicals that are doing the damage in our

 

DI (19:40)

These are personal tracking devices,

 

MAZ (19:43)

It is a personal tracking device at the moment. It’ll be limited to what’s available in the marketplace. It’ll use, ⁓ where it’s going to, it’ll use the wearables that a lot of us have, the Aura rings and the wearables. But the first stage is this biophotonic scanner. And that just excites me no end I is that you can be at home, you can scan, or you could go to your gym where they have a scanner or your.

 

allied health professional where they’ve got a scanner, you scan and it’ll go die, your health rating is at 420, which is around halfway. 850 is maximum. Would you like to improve your wellbeing? Of course, die 60, wanting to live younger, longer. And we all know that we are living longer anyway. Let’s live longer, better.

 

DI (20:36)

Let’s

 

live longer and better. Yes.

 

MAZ (20:39)

So then you then like these are the protocols so there’ll be personalized protocols that’ll be just for you there will be recommendations of nootropics and nutraceuticals as well for you and then they’ll be attached to apps which might be like Mindvalley or DMRT or where you know other apps will be associated with so it’s exciting.

 

DI (21:04)

And I can see you’re excited about that. How fantastic to get your head around and be involved in something at this point in your career that is so motivating. Well done you.

 

MAZ (21:18)

The reason I’m doing it as well is that the platform enables me to invite other people to be part of this too and globally. So there is another wave where this particular organisation is opening up in India. So come later this year I’m moving to India for a period of time as well. So again 100 % backing and a brand new market.

 

DI (21:42)

wow. So you are way not done yet. You’ve got loads, loads more to do, Matt. That’s very exciting. Yeah. That’s absolutely brilliant. What a third act. It’s going to be your best. Yes.

 

MAZ (21:56)

that’s what we’re planning and also how can I bring other people along with me? What does that look like? What does that feel like? And being global as well die. Living in this beautiful place in Bali has has taught me a lot. It has simplified my life incredibly and allowed me to focus on what’s important and what’s important is yes my own health, yes the well-being of my family, yes leaving a legacy.

 

but also how can I help others to be well, to live longer, better, to leave a legacy for their families too? And how much are we willing to let go of? So when I left Australia, I sold pretty much everything. I’ve got a real passion for chairs, so I didn’t sell all of my chairs, but I sold my car, the rest of my furniture. I have no kitchenware left at all.

 

all my linen, I love linen, all my linen went and I was so incredible. I tell you the challenge, the most challenged person, so I told my partner, he was on board, I told my children, my beautiful community and you may have heard of my best friend is Jane McCann who’s on Instagram as the middle-aged goddess and I was so nervous about telling Jane so I didn’t ring her and tell her I went home and I said

 

Jane, I’ve got something to tell you. I think I’m going to wrap up and I’m going to leave.” And she said, ⁓ I was so nervous to tell you. She said, because I’m going to leave the peninsula and move somewhere else as well, but I didn’t know how to tell you.

 

DI (23:35)

Have you ended up in the same place?

 

MAZ (23:37)

No, we haven’t. So I’ve ended up in Bali. She’s ended up down the alt ways. But what’s happened in there, and it’s been really interesting that I’m spending more quality time with those people that I love than I would have if we lived together and we lived in the same town. the quality time with my loved ones, so my son, like my younger son, I spent three weeks with him. Now that would just never happen in Australia.

 

So three weeks with him, my youngest brother, who is a father and a husband now, I spent 10 days with him. Now that just would never happen. 10 days.

 

DI (24:16)

Because

 

it’s with intention.

 

MAZ (24:18)

Yeah, and my beautiful partner, he does fly-in, fly-out work, but my love language is quality time. So his love language is acts of service. So him going back out to work, that’s his love language. And then he comes back with me and we have quality time. And then the same with Jane. So Jane, again, they came for Christmas. Now that would never happen that we would have two weeks together.

 

Then we just did a retreat in Bali with her crew and we’re about to go to Morocco together as well and she’s about to announce another trip to a destination that I can’t speak about that is covered by many people and we often don’t get to go. yeah, that’s been really interesting, the quality time.

 

DI (25:08)

Fantastic. And I always think it takes a village to keep us going and as we get older that village gets a little bit more extensive. For somebody listening to this podcast and saying, okay, I’m going to pack up and move, what do you do in terms of doctors and all your support networks and for me a hairdresser and a colorist and you know, how does one do all of that?

 

MAZ (25:37)

That’s such a great question. I will say that I found myself in Australia for a couple of, in Melbourne actually, for a couple of nights and I found a dermal therapist in Albert Park of all places, gorgeous woman, Cammie. So was interesting. So I went home and I got a lot of the things done at home.

 

DI (25:39)

Ought to

 

MAZ (26:03)

I use an incredible skincare but those facials are really important. So yes I have a natural colour in my hair and I went for a walk this morning before we met and so it was pouring with rain so then my hair got pulled back. Getting my nails done I did that when I was in Melbourne but it’s yeah they’re like

 

DI (26:27)

It’s a little bit flying by.

 

MAZ (26:29)

but

 

also in Bali, like there is some phenomenal expats and also locals that run great businesses here. I live on the other side of Bali, so it’s the east side, which is not busy. It’s not highly populated by expats. And again, I chose this because I wanted to focus on there. How do we make the decision to go?

 

So it was the quiet time, it was the journaling. Some people might use prayer or intention. The stillness is uber important to have the quiet, to let the information come in for me. And I know I distract myself still. What does it look like? What does it feel like? To our listener, take the breath, do the exhale, feel the feels, back yourself.

 

If you don’t have the capabilities of backing yourself, listen to podcasts that Di, these incredible women, the Power Of Women. Listen to these women that have backed themselves. Surround yourself with people. Reading the book, you’ve got Hema’s book behind you. Read about incredible women that have backed themselves. And even if you just take that moment and use that little bit

 

of courage that someone else has used Follow those inspirational women on social media. Follow Dai, follow me, follow Dai’s previous interviews as well. Yeah, and back yourself, listen to that little voice and know that we’re never too, you’re never too old. You are enough just as you are.

 

You’ve got this, and for those of us that are 50 plus, you’ve got this vast amount of experience. Like, use that. Trust yourself.

 

DI (28:32)

Beautiful. So coming up, we’re going to dive into more stories about courage and reinvention. If you’re loving the Power of Women podcast, be sure to jump onto our YouTube channel and hit that subscribe button to ensure you never miss an episode.

 

So Maz, we said we’re going to talk about courage and reinvention and I know that you have spoken to many midlife women in our time of life. What are they telling you?

 

MAZ (29:05)

Courage is that quiet voice that whispers, that whispers and that we ignore it. And when we’re choosing to find the stillness and listen to the whisper it gets louder. The other thing that I know is that there will be the pothole that trips you up. There will be, in Hindu philosophy we talk about Ganesha.

 

And Ganesha is the remover of obstacles and he’s also the placer of obstacles. So we can see obstacles as I got retrenched, ⁓ my car broke down, ⁓ my husband and I aren’t getting on well. Courage is that little voice that’s in the background that’s believing that you’ve got what you need and taking that small step.

 

Shanna Kennedy was an incredible woman that I interviewed and she has a roadmap for people and I loved her roadmap. One of the big things that I’ve used is vision boards. Shanna speaks about that a lot. You interviewed Colin Callender, who’s co-written a book with her. The vision boards have been so important for me and now on a digital platform, I use it on my phone. So courage is taking that step, listening to that voice.

 

having a vision of where we’re going and just taking it step by step. I took a massive step and I sold everything up. It doesn’t need to be that big and that dramatic.

 

DI (30:36)

That’s a big step.

 

MAZ (30:40)

I just want to share this one thing with you as well, Di. To those listeners that are younger, when I had a three-year-old and a one-year-old, I opened up my own bank account. I was married to a guy at the time. I opened up my own bank account and I just started to put a little bit of money in the bank account.

 

DI (31:00)

This is a powerful message.

 

MAZ (31:03)

And it was not attached. I got the statement sent. In those days it wasn’t digital. It was sent to a different address. And I just started to put money away. It was my just-in-case money. And then I started to build my business. I had a small business at the time. And I started to earn. It was $5,000 a month. And I remember thinking, at $5,000 a month, now I can support my family and myself with this money.

 

And I took a moment and was like, do I want to stay in this marriage? He was well known in media at the time in Sydney. And he was well known and it was, if I leave, I’m going to leave this entire lifestyle. I’ve got the money. And so I sat there quietly and it was, do I stay because I’m safe or do I trust that I can do this? So.

 

And that was a moment where I then created a strategy for me to go forward and to leave. So that one, it took courage to do that little thing, set up that bank account. I was putting little bits of money in. When I got to a point of earning $5,000 a month, I was like, I can look after my boys and I on that. And then I didn’t leave then, I created a strategy so that I could leave. And the other thing I did die and for the listeners, I bought land.

 

I bought land, I needed to borrow, but I bought land in regional Victoria. And I went back home to my husband at the time and I told him what I did and he goes, where are you going to get the money from? Yeah. And why? And I said, well, I’m just going to get the money from the bank account because it was a pretty fat bank account. He goes, no, you’re not. And at that point he goes, you need to get a job. And at that point there was another point where I went, I’m not going to get a job. I’m going to be a full-time mom, but I’m going to create an income. And that’s when I went into network marketing.

 

because I knew that I could be a full-time mum and I could earn what I needed to earn and I could, I’ve got the, I’m excited, I’ve got the shakes talking about this and I could help other women in my position to do the same and that’s what I did die.

 

DI (33:12)

You created financial independence and set up your security strategy looking forward. And that’s a fantastic message for anybody listening. I’ve said, I’ve harked on about it so many times on this podcast and over the years in talking with friends. My relationship with money was

 

developed from observing my mother and my father, which would, and this story is generational, so it’s nothing unusual about it, but my relationship with money was informed by my mother asking my father for the weekly check for her cash flow. Now, it’s not that she didn’t have her own money, she’d given it over at the time, and she was the daughter of a bank manager, you’d think she would have known better. However,

 

I listened to that from as I can remember hearing it as young as eight and deciding at that young age that I was not going to be in that position and I was never going to ask anybody for money ever and I never have.

 

MAZ (34:25)

eight. I have a similar story when I was younger and I wanted to, when people would say what do want to be when you grow up and I would say I want to be my own boss.

 

DI (34:40)

Yeah, we set our intentions earlier than perhaps we perhaps we realize. Yeah

 

MAZ (34:46)

Yes. Yeah. want to be my own boss and I didn’t know what that meant but be my own boss. Yeah.

 

DI (34:54)

So by contrast to the women that you’ve been talking to and over the years that I’ve interviewed, not so much for power of women because these are women like us who are moving forward and doing some great work. ⁓ But What is it that you are hearing that is holding so many women back from stepping up and moving forward with their own journeys?

 

MAZ (35:22)

It’s fear. It is fear. It is fear of financial. If ⁓ I’m not in this marriage, how do I manage financially? And I haven’t been working for X amount of time. Here’s another big one, Di I’m sure you’ve spoken about this superannuation. I don’t have any superannuation. I don’t own property on my own. Or the other thing more recently is

 

people being property owners and having debt on their property in excess of 600, 800,000.

 

DI (35:58)

Frightening. Frightening.

 

MAZ (36:00)

Not being able to service the mortgage, going backwards, the husband either ill health is happening or the bonuses are not happening or the work’s not there. So fear would be the big one. So that’s why I always talk about strategy, have a strategy, start your strategy now. What does it look like? Is there a side hustle that you can do? Is there someone already doing what you want? Watch what they’re doing, like the steps are there.

 

Watch what they’re doing. Reach out to someone that’s already doing what you want to do. Clean up your social media. it’s not making you feel great of things that you’re looking at, clear it up. Don’t follow those people that are there as well. Believe in yourself. Even if it is that you keep a contract with yourself, even if it is that, as I said earlier in in our chat, even if it’s your promise to yourself that you wake at 6.30 in the morning and you spend some time journaling.

 

You spend some time writing, what does my dream life look like? You spend some time vision boarding what your world is going to be. You what we speak it like you die. I’m never going to be asking for money. You know, you can create your life. Let’s start to speak intention into that. Let’s let go of the fear. Yeah.

 

DI (37:21)

Yeah, thanks, Maz. On reflection now, as you look back, what do you actually wish you’d learnt sooner?

 

MAZ (37:31)

I can feel this in my body. To trust myself earlier, there was times and then it was gone. There was times and then was gone. To align with people that had a big vision, to align with people with a global vision, to follow the breadcrumbs. So success leaves clues. Who’s doing?

 

and living the life that I want to live and align myself with those people.

 

DI (38:00)

But you jumped on board pretty early in hindsight. So I might ask that of somebody else and they’re still getting there. I think you found yourself and set yourself up much earlier than many of us might do.

 

MAZ (38:22)

What I’ll also say is success doesn’t look like this. it’s not linear. And also success is different. One of the things that I’m so proud of is choosing to sole parent my boys. Because the guy that I was married to, he was a lovely fella. There was stuff that was going on there that he couldn’t control and we couldn’t be part of. So…

 

Choosing to sole parent was bit of a this sort of a as well but that was an intentional parenting. I was really conscious of what we did. Now did I always get it right? Probably not. Did I do my best? Absolutely. Are we great friends now and do we like just adore each other and they’re incredible human beings.

 

So knowing that success is not linear, knowing that success for one person is different to success for you. So success may be having cohesive family, what’s our part in this? Success may be supporting yourself and your family. What’s your part in this? And knowing that success is not this, it goes like this. And that’s okay as long as the trajectory is going up.

 

DI (39:43)

That’s brilliant. So if I was to ask you, what would you say to the woman who feels she is looking for change but doesn’t know where to begin? What would be that one salient point of advice you’d have to offer to the listeners today?

 

MAZ (40:02)

Success leaves clues. Look at those women that are doing what you want to do. Follow them. I read Michelle Obama’s book Becoming and what she did is that she had interactions with people and she asked them, what’s my next step? Who’s the next person you can introduce me to? Have conversations with those people. Reach out to those people.

 

Social media is incredible for that. Success leaves clues. Follow those that have the success that you want.

 

DI (40:40)

Thank you so much, Maz. What an absolute joy to reconnect, even though we’re worlds apart on this occasion. And thank you so much for joining the Dots. And I know you have also suggested a raft of fabulous women that I still need to have conversations with.

 

I love hearing what you’re doing and looking forward to being the beneficiary of some of this fabulous tech and some of this great innovative work that you’re part of and part of taking to market. good luck with that. Moes, where can somebody find you if they’re looking to follow specifically what you’re doing? Where do we catch you?

 

MAZ (41:28)

Instagram’s still my best place so at Mas O’Connor, still my best, that’s where I show up most most often. I’m also on Facebook, Mas O’Connor on Facebook.

 

DI (41:39)

And I ⁓ play with Facebook and Instagram, but most of my conversations because of my corporate background are still held on LinkedIn. So please follow me there if you’re interested in what I’m doing. And look, as Maz has already touched on, we have spoken to so many inspiring women over the last 18 months on the power of women. Some of the stories and their experiences have been born out of adversity.

 

Some of them have been born out of entrepreneurialism and some of them have been born out of social justice. So there’s a raft of individuals that are worth listening to and you can find all of the episodes on my website under the podcast tab on powerofwomen.com.au. Again, Maz, lovely to see you. Best luck with what you’re doing. It’s brilliant. Until next time.

 

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Born in Exile, Singing for Freedom: The Voice of Lele

Born in Exile, Singing for Freedom: The Voice of Lele

This week’s podcast is a conversation about legacy, resilience, exile, embracing a sense of belonging … & the power of music …the Voice of Lele.

Lele is a proud West Papuan singer-songwriter, refugee, mother of four, and decolonisation activist.

Born in exile, Lele’s journey has taken her from the Netherlands to Australia, where she became the nation’s first prominent West Papuan artist to perform on major stages — including the Australian Open. She shares the realities of being separated from one’s homeland, the deep cultural connection passed down by her late father — legendary musician Agustinus Rumwaropen.

We explore how music has become her weapon of resistance, a vessel for preserving her culture, and a bridge between her Melanesian roots and the world stage. This conversation is a testament to resilience, motherhood and determination.

 

In this episode, we explore:

– Growing up in exile and the meaning of “home”

– Music as cultural preservation and political protest

– The legacy of her late father, Agustinus Rumwaropen

– Balancing motherhood, activism, and performance

– Lessons in resilience and identity

 

This is what Lele said about resilience and identity:

“Music is a form of protest.”

“Living in exile means always longing to be home, even if you’ve never truly lived there.”

“You’re stronger than you think you are. Even when you think you’re strong, you’re even stronger.”

“If you get caught raising the West Papuan flag back home, it’s 15–20 years in jail — but I fly it proudly on stage.”

 

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Find Lele at:

Website: https://www.voiceoflele.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/voiceoflele

 

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What If Power Comes From Being the One Who Speaks Up?

What If Power Comes From Being the One Who Speaks Up?

What if power is stepping forward, speaking up, stating the need to think, to act differently. What happens when you challenge the system instead of adapting to it. 

In this episode of the Power Of Women Podcast, we meet Prof. Nada Hamad: physician, professor, mother of three, and unapologetic disruptor of the status quo. Her story is one of identity, integrity and the audacity to question systems that weren’t built with women in mind.

From medical school at age 14 to leadership in haematology and clinical trials, Nada brings insight and urgency to a conversation we all need to be having: what do we do when the system doesn’t see us?

Nada doesn’t just raise questions—she models what it means to speak up, even when it’s uncomfortable. This conversation delves into her journey and calls to rethink how we build more inclusive systems, from healthcare to leadership.

 

In this episode, we explore:

  • How gender bias is still baked into medical training and patient care
  • What it’s like to grow up as a third culture kid and build belonging across borders
  • Raising daughters to take up space and advocate for themselves
  • Why women’s experiences in healthcare are too often dismissed—and what must change
  • How speaking up isn’t just powerful—it’s necessary

 

Here’s some of what Prof. Hamad said:

“Most of the studies were done on men, most of the studies done on… white people, most of the studies don’t include women.

“How do you tell the medical profession hang on you missed something and we need to learn how to do it better without upsetting too many people … to slowly integrate this concept into gender specific healthcare.”

💥New episodes drop every Monday to power your week.

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Find Prof. Nada Hamad at:

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/prof-nada-hamad-a093384/

UNSW Website: https://www.unsw.edu.au/staff/nada-hamad

 

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Why Women Shouldn’t Have to Do the Heavy Lifting Alone: Advocate Together

Why Women Shouldn’t Have to Do the Heavy Lifting Alone: Advocate Together

Can’t tell you how damn refreshing it is to have a male guest who is a champion for women – and one who advocates why women should not have to do the heavy lifting alone.

We may be shoulder to shoulder in today’s workplace — but that doesn’t mean the playing field has always been level. For some, it still isn’t.

But we don’t have to be defined or limited by the past. The question is: how do we thrive better together?

This week marks a first for the Power Of Women Podcast — our very first male guest, Wade Kingsley. Wade is a creative entrepreneur, mentor, and the founder of The Creative Coach. He’s spent his career helping people unlock bold ideas and back themselves. Together, we explore creativity, ageism, and gender dynamics — and explore how men and women can work and thrive better together.

 

In this, thought-provoking episode, we explore:

 – Why creativity and confidence are inextricably linked

– The role men can play in championing female leadership

– Ageism, gender dynamics, and the importance of finding a supportive network

– Reskilling and embracing new technologies

– How the workplace is shifting — and why collaboration matters more than ever.

 

Wade doesn’t just talk about empowering women — he’s actively doing it.

“It’s all very well to rant about it on a podcast — but you have to walk the walk… I’m hoping through some of the initiatives that I work on, that’s how I can make a difference.”

 

New episodes drop every Monday to power your week.

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