Tomorrow is Not Today

Kingsley (00:01.124)
Welcome to the tomorrow is not today podcast. Sorry, I'm going to just, I want this other camera.

Donna Martin (00:09.164)
Yeah, because that's looking a bit grainy again on your side. Sorry? Your photo or your video is looking a bit grainy on your side again.

Kingsley (00:13.38)
Sorry.

Kingsley (00:19.495)
is it that better?

Donna Martin (00:22.094)
No, it's still a bit grainy Kingsley. Yeah, I can't see you clear. Yeah. So what happens with the side, it saves it because of the internet doesn't come through as quick. It saves it. Your computer and then it'll upload it. Okay, so it'll be it'll be done. Okay. Yeah, that's fine. Just for you for you for coming out. Yeah. No, that's good.

Kingsley (00:25.32)
Okay. that's for the internet. Yeah. So what happens with Riverside? It saves it because of the internet, it doesn't come through as quick. And then what'll happen is it saves it on your computer and then it'll upload it. So it'll be all clear. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, no, that's good. So here we go. Welcome to the Tomorrow Is Not Today podcast. Today I have all the way from WA, Donna Martin, who we've known what, two or three years now, I think we've been in communication with things. And Donna has been a marvelous support and contributor to the Tomorrow Is Not Today magazine as well, has been on the podcast previously, but I love Donna's story.

Donna Martin (01:03.294)
Yeah. things and Donna has been a marvelous support and contributor to the Tomorrow's Not Today magazine as well has been on the podcast previously but I love Donna's story where she's come from is definitely the opposite to where she is now and how she helps people and that's what the podcast is all about so Donna tell everybody a little bit about you and how you help people at the moment

Kingsley (01:16.856)
where she's come from is definitely the opposite to where she is now and how she helps people. And that's what the podcast is all about. So Donna, tell everybody a little bit about you and how you help people at the moment.

Donna Martin (01:30.028)
Yeah, thanks Kingsley. So I'm a mom of three boys, first and foremost, and I'm a burnout specialist, a mentor and a speaker. And I help people through my business, The Good Life Approach. It's creating greater clarity, calm and confidence in our lives, Kingsley, so that we can actually live our own version of the good life. That's my passion.

Kingsley (01:52.214)
And you do that very strongly and getting better and better at that all the time. I've got to say. Now, you don't have a Western Australian accent.

Donna Martin (01:52.591)
and you do that very strongly in getting better and better at that all the time. got to say now, you don't have a Western Australian accent. No, I'm an original dairy girl.

Kingsley (02:05.167)
So where are from originally?

Donna Martin (02:08.064)
I'm from Derry in Northern Ireland, Kingsley, and I say the Derry girl because it's all over Netflix and that is my era of growing up. So when you're looking to understand my background and different things, it is quite closely Rod of the Bone representation of it.

Kingsley (02:24.591)
Okay, nice, nice. So now we're going back to your story. So we're gonna, in getting to your story into why you're actually helping people the way you do at the moment, we're gonna go back to being a Derry girl. Tell us a little bit about where you're from, the town and a little bit about home.

Donna Martin (02:47.894)
Yeah, so I'm from a place called Derry City in Northern Ireland and it's interesting because depending on your political affiliate or your religion of Catholic and Protestant because this is where people identify the leader. Say you come from Derry if you're Catholic or London Derry if you're a Protestant. But the interesting thing is Kingsley, my daddy is Catholic, my mommy is a British Protestant.

Kingsley (03:15.498)
wow.

Donna Martin (03:16.44)
So the contrast of where I grew up, I was born in 1980 and the contrast of where I grew up, I found this really interesting because there was such a harsh divide over a lot of different political and religious stuff that thankfully is settling there to go to now is an absolutely beautiful place. But in the 80s, it was quite terrific. A lot of bombings, a lot of police, a lot of army, a lot of violence.

Yeah, so my growing up was really good in one sense of running around the streets, 3D room, 3D build trees, 3D play. But you had that violin part, you had police checkpoints going through the shops, had...

You had bombs going off while you were going to your work in a restaurant where you would just divert around a back street and it was normal practice. You had riots going on certain times of the year. So all that was like an average growing up for me. The police were on the streets with their guns. And, kinkly, my husband is from the south of Ireland and I never knew, I was in my 30s, that police in the south of Ireland, which is, we're all part of Ireland.

Kingsley (04:34.02)
Mm-hmm.

Donna Martin (04:34.392)
But the police in the south of Ireland don't carry guns unless they're in a specialist force. My belief was that all the police around the world carried guns because that's what they done in Northern Ireland.

Kingsley (04:39.972)
Wow.

Kingsley (04:48.9)
Wow. So for you, bombings, back streets, police with guns out, that's just a normal part of your everyday life.

Donna Martin (04:49.838)
So for you, bombings, back streets, police with guns out, that's just a normal part of everything? That was it. And tanks going down the street with the army men all jumping out with their guns, going to raid houses or going to break up a riot or even just doing your day to day shopping. I remember going through the checkpoints and stuff and where are you going and what are you doing and...

Just like when you think of it now and I think of my kids and the life we have in WA like it's it's phenomenal and Derry is not like that anymore. I love it. It's a beautiful place. It's where I came from and I'm glad that it has evolved over the years because it's beautiful. But that was a reality growing up in the 80s and even in the 90s and stuff before the ceasefire Kings. It was very volatile. People getting killed, people being shot. What's on the news?

where has bombs been let off, just like you couldn't go with a policeman back in the day without them being threatened or you being threatened and I remember secretly which I can put on another time going with a policeman and it was a huge deal like it was just bananas and you're going the divide of religions being allowed to go away a Protestant or being allowed to

go with somebody in the place was just an absolute no.

Kingsley (06:17.998)
Wow. That's such a different world to where we are now. And it's interesting because obviously we saw this on the news over here. But to hear the inside, what it was really like, that's a completely different thing altogether. So obviously you grew up with that. That's part of your life. So danger around you, that's normal. And then take it in a little bit more closer. What was home life like then?

Donna Martin (06:19.31)
I know. So obviously you grew up with that, that's part of your life. So danger around you, that's normal. And then take it in a little bit more closer. What was home life like then?

So home life, if I go back to my first memory of home life Kingsley, it was when my mother left at four and a half. And this isn't a new story. It's something I've shared before with people. My mother left when I was four and a half on Christmas Eve. that memory is the earliest memory I have from childhood. So when I go back to the starting point of my ideas, my beliefs,

what I carried, my values, my known worth, whatever it was, I connect the dots to that timeline of that experience. And when you think of that, yeah, it's...

It's interesting as an adult because in hindsight when I look or people ask me I'm like my mother was obviously not well, wasn't coping. Five kids back to back was maybe severely depressed. And when I think of being a mom of 83 young boys and I think of the difficulties or the different issues that I had after the kids, it's a lot, it's overwhelming and you can probably relate as a parent.

Kingsley (08:00.241)
Definitely. But I guess one of the questions then that comes to mind is now obviously you four and a half at the time, coming to Christmas, does that still affect you now? Have you gotten through that? Did affect you for a little while?

Donna Martin (08:01.016)
Definitely. But I guess one of questions that comes to mind is, now obviously you were four and a half at the time, coming to Christmas, does that still affect you now? Have you gone through that? Did it affect you for a little while? It affected me for...

I would say it definitely did for a while. I just remember around Christmas time then when she wasn't there because she had gone back to England. She had remarried and she used to send presents and stuff and she would ring us on the telephone, the house phone and you know, but it was just like a stranger at the other end of the phone. Like we didn't really know her and what I associated then was just somebody that gave you extra presents. wasn't, it wasn't really a thing.

For now, no, doesn't affect me. For me, I love Christmas as the joy and the magic of that magical mystery, that gift of being present. So for me, I think it actually went the opposite way at Kingsley. And it didn't just happen in an instant that it went the opposite way. But for me in the reframe and my ideas or beliefs that she wasn't well, not that she didn't love five kids of a Mullerly love, but that she just wasn't able to manage.

I just think I'm lucky to have my voice. I'm lucky to be present in the moment and just not make it all about presents, but to make it about us as a family, as a unit that's well, that's all in one space that are living in a place that we want to live in, live in our good life with love, with awareness, with that is what it presents to me now, not just Christmas, but every day.

Kingsley (09:49.618)
And obviously this unfortunately is very common story for that to happen. As a four and a half year old, your mother leaving, Christmas Eve, you would have been very excited. What did that do to you inside?

Donna Martin (10:00.111)
your mother leaving Christmas Eve, you would have been very excited. What did that do to you?

I just remember being, I remember the pink floral pajamas that I was wearing. I have a scene or a vision in my head because I've gone back over this with different therapies, TRTP or different regression therapies and I just have an image of me but not me, me looking at me down a hall and her walking out and that the words of her saying I don't love you, asking her to stay and her saying no I don't love you and just closing the door.

And now Kingsley, I don't know if I made that up in my head. I don't know if that is something that was just imprinted or if it was actually said because she was trying to just make it better in the moment. I don't really know, but I just remember feeling a sadness. I just remember feeling an emptiness, like a lost. And I felt that feeling for many years to come, like lost, not knowing who I was, not identifying if she doesn't love me and she's my mommy then.

else is going to love me like my daddy loves me but who else if she can walk away does that make sense

Kingsley (11:16.825)
Yeah, so it puts a bit of a fear and I guess an insecurity of the fact that, my dad loves me because he's my dad, but do people really love me?

Donna Martin (11:26.254)
Do people really love me? Yeah. That, yeah. Living with that fear going through school, years, that sort of thing.

Kingsley (11:29.881)
So that living with that fear going through school, two and age years, that sort of thing, how did that affect you? Was that a conscious thing? Was it a subconscious thing that you sort of reacted out of?

Donna Martin (11:48.813)
I think even when I think of that now in Kingsley, I've done a lot of different modalities and different work and I'm well good to talk about the story or the scenarios. But when I think of that and I think I always felt like the black sheep, like an outsider. I always went my own way, done my own thing. I was always very empathetic, always read people's energies, could always really tune into people. People always came to me to share stuff.

But I always felt the need to over help people. And I don't know whether that need came from that lack of will they love me or will they love me if I do more or will they love me if whatever. Do you know what I mean? So even though part of me was strong enough to go, I'm just going to do my own thing and go my own way. And I didn't always get sucked into things.

Part of me then would get sucked into silly things and I'm like, well, trying to be liked or trying to not feel like the outsider or the person on the outskirts. Do you know what I mean? Just, well, you're just kind of sitting there and looking going, I'm in, but I'm not really in. Like I'm not, I don't know. I always just felt like an outsider, like an underdog or like, like you were just on the radar of.

Tana, everybody else. So is it sort of a thing where you were wondering if you were accepted for who you are? always. Yeah, for years. Was that at home as well by your siblings and by your dad, or was it sort of more outside of the home?

Kingsley (13:17.253)
So is it sort of a thing where you were wondering if you were accepted for who you are?

Kingsley (13:27.609)
Was that at home as well by your siblings and by your dad or was it sort of more outside of the home?

Donna Martin (13:35.063)
No, it was outside because inside, like my two older brothers, they were older, they were heading out, they were in the mix with their own friends. So my sister and me are closer in age and my younger brother. So we would have been closer in age and round the streets and more of that connection. So at home, we all knew, we all knew where we were, what was going on, what was happening inside the home.

But it was the outside that I always felt like the outsider, the per me, the pity party. There's the one tease Donna, you've no mommy, half a Jaff, meaning half Protestant, half Catholic. So there was just so many different things. The elements had me down, clothes just not having branded. And I didn't care about any of that. I didn't care about the branded and the material stuff because I knew

how much my daddy grafted. Like I knew and I could see from a very early age the pressures he was under, what he was going through. So it was nearly trying to relieve some of that in any way we could in the home. the outside part of it then going through all that stuff, was like some of it didn't bother me, but then people going, aha, no, mommy, or just sneering about silly things. It was just like.

I remember standing with my sister crying in the back lane and stuff when people were teasing us and just are just going on home then and just going, they're just knowing they're just not nice or but yeah, I many times like that.

Kingsley (15:15.803)
So it sounds obviously a lot of bullying going on in that case.

Donna Martin (15:16.174)
So, obviously lot of bullying going on in that case. It was interesting, Kingsley, because it was... I would say it was bullying now that, yeah, okay, you know it was bullying, but at the time, I think it was kids that just didn't know any better. And whether they were listening at home to what was being said or whether they were... I don't know. I don't know, because they were our group of friends, some of them, but they were still...

Kingsley (15:43.121)
Mm.

Donna Martin (15:46.285)
Like it wasn't like it was a random person or a person in school. These were people that we actually ran about with in groups that would be teasing me. Like my core friend, Karen, that I grew up with my whole life, my whole life, like my lifelong best friend from no age, from down the street. She was the only one out of that group that never, that never ever did, that completely got it. So that was my...

That was my person and still do this day. But it was like the other people that were in groups that were meant to be your friends. So from a very early age, Kingsley, I always questioned. I could feel things, knew things, ignored things, questioned. But in that, I didn't even really know who I was. I felt like I was an outsider. But an outsider to what? Because I didn't know who Donna was. When I looked in the mirror, I had no idea.

Kingsley (16:42.288)
Yeah, explain that a little bit more. You didn't know who Donna was.

Donna Martin (16:47.2)
I would look and you would have all those labels like, haha no mommy, haha half a Jaff, look at you, per you. And I would just be looking at this person in the mirror and going.

I've no feedback for you, like I've no love for you, I've no joy for you, I've no idea. Are you strong? Are you brave? Are you...

I would just be looking and being like, why would they want to be your friend? But then another said, why would they want to do that? Why would they want to hurt you? Why would they want to be mean? So then going back, my dad, always said, treat others how you want to be treated. So in my head, I'd be like, well, I wouldn't treat anybody like that. That's not very nice. So why would they treat me? So I was always in my head, Kingsley, from a very, very early age, questioning and yeah, just.

Just questioning and curious.

Kingsley (17:47.091)
It's actually a really interesting you say because I think whether you're a kid or whether you're an adult, I think a lot of people are in that place where they question who they are, they question what their identity is, they question what their value is. Now things can look fantastic, things can look great, but at the same time when you really stop and ask people, question people who are they,

Donna Martin (17:47.993)
really interesting you say because I think whether you're a kid or whether you're an adult, I think a lot of people are in that place where they question who they are. They question what their identity is. They question what their value is. Now things can look fantastic. Things can look great. But at the same time, when you really stop and ask people, question people, who are they?

Kingsley (18:16.78)
What's important to you? What are your values? What do you bring? I think a lot of people even now as adults, successful adults, face that.

Donna Martin (18:17.134)
Yeah, that's your identity shift. That's your everything that we do, that we create, that we pass on, pay forward. It's regarding your identity. And it's your core, not from the teeth out.

Kingsley (18:41.618)
Mmm.

Donna Martin (18:44.854)
Not when you say it to somebody else, us having a conversation, but it's that core internal knowing, internal gut feeling that sits right there, what we call a solar plexus, where your identity sits. You'll feel if you're good with you or you'll feel if you're not. You'll feel if you're skirting on the outskirts of something or if you're being true to you. You always know. It's will or not you want to pay attention and give yourself permission to do something about it.

Kingsley (18:59.292)
Mm.

Kingsley (19:15.066)
And I think that's part of the hard part, isn't it? Is, are you willing to face that or are you just going to pretend it doesn't exist?

Donna Martin (19:18.132)
is are you willing to face that or are you just going to pretend it doesn't exist? Yeah, yeah. And yeah. I want to get to a point later on, we're going to come back to it as to how you actually made that shift. Because obviously you've made that shift with the work you've done now, the life you have now, all of that sort of stuff. You've made that massive shift. Yeah. But before we get there.

Kingsley (19:27.032)
I want to get to a point later on, we're going to come back to it, as to how you actually made that shift. Because obviously you've made that shift with the work you've done now, the life you have now, all of that sort of stuff. You've made that massive shift. But before we get there, how did that affect you? Because when you go through life as a teenager and a young adult, some of the things that you think that you do

Donna Martin (19:46.287)
that affect you because when you go through life as a teenager and a young adult, some of the things that you think that you do, the decisions you make and your view of life and other people can be incredibly distorted. And so that has an impact on how we think and what we do. So how did that impact

Kingsley (19:57.435)
the decisions you make and your view of life and other people can be incredibly distorted. And so that has an impact on how we think and what we do. So how did that impact your life as a teenager going through this? Because this, I think, can also help some parents with teenagers going through stuff as well.

Donna Martin (20:13.134)
So as a teenager Kingsley, my daddy he was very open in the sense he would just say, treat others how you want to be treated if you're not in a scenario that's good you know to remove yourself if you need help always ask always come to me I'm always here always open don't ever be afraid to say anything.

And so he gave us that leeway, if you like, to experience or to do what we wanted to do. So as a teenager, I went through a phase of going to Mass as a Catholic, like every single day and evening time and stuff, just because I remember that deep desire within Kingsley to...

seek out what it is that I was searching for what was going to fix this emptiness what was going to fix this feeling of lost or whatever I was seeking and I remember just just going going please go please go please go please can you just please just help me like I know you're there and can you just help me to figure out what's going on so that I feel better that that I know where my place in the world is and I done that for a while and then I got fed up

And that's not to say everybody's story kingsly because my daddy didn't go to mass neither did any of my siblings they were all like daughter seriously what are you on? And so I went from a stage of going God give me these answers whether I was listening or not listening to going do you know what this isn't working for me so then I went from that to starting to drink to starting to go to nightclubs to starting to take drugs

to starting to get myself into.

Donna Martin (22:05.176)
Scenarios, parties, events, places that I didn't need to be in Kingsley. And then that got me questioning a whole other type of what are you playing at Donna? What are you doing? Like what's... I went from one extreme of all in on God in a chapel to the other extreme of drink, drugs.

Kingsley (22:14.483)
Mm.

Donna Martin (22:35.083)
relationships, choices and a whole other extreme at the other side.

Kingsley (22:43.069)
So it's really a time of the lack of identity, lack of who you were, put you into a real searching mode. Were you searching for an identity? Were you searching for a value? Were you searching for who am I in this world? Where do I fit? What was it you were searching for?

Donna Martin (22:48.526)
The lack of identity, lack of who you were put you into a real searching mode. you searching for an identity? Were you searching for value? Were you searching for who am I in this world? Where do I fit? What was it you were searching for? I think...

When I looked at the, I just remember having this strong urge of just seeking, of seeking something, do remember something or know something about me that I had forgotten. Like I had this emptiness, I carried this thing of not being sure of me, not loving me, doubting me, questioning me, always feeling like an outsider, like it wasn't worthy, like it wasn't good enough, like

What I had to say or do didn't have much value in comparison to other people. It other people way better. And I didn't like that feeling Kingsley. And going through the extremes, I don't know, was I searching if I think about it now for my own love, but I was searching for it from other people because of my imprinted memory of my momma saying I don't love you.

For me going back and doing therapy and different things, I would say the subconscious correlation with that memory to going, well, who's going to love me? But in reality, what I didn't realize was that I had no idea how to love myself, Kingsley. I knew me daddy loved me.

Did I know what a mother's love was like? No. Did I know what actual, I knew what love meant in terms of daddy lovin' but in terms of self love, I had no idea. I didn't respect myself, I didn't value myself.

Donna Martin (24:57.898)
And it was interesting because the drink and the drugs was an escape for me then. It was a way out of not feeling that shame, that embarrassment, that guilt and actually the tiredness, the exhaustion of actually searching and seeking and not having an answer. Does that make sense? Because this was for years, like years, well up teens and into my twenties. It was just going, do you know what? I'm so over.

Kingsley (25:17.853)
Mm-hmm.

Donna Martin (25:28.6)
so over-phanelicus and so over-searching for answers.

Kingsley (25:33.683)
So you were probably, and I'm going to put words in your mouth a little bit here probably, but it sounds like you're out there searching, you're doing all this stuff, the drinking, the drugs, the relationships, all this sort of thing. That was happening. And probably when you're out, people looking onto you going, oh, she's having the best time, she's loving this. But inside you were obviously feeling something a little different.

Donna Martin (25:40.271)
But it sounds like you're out there searching, you're doing all this stuff, drugs, relationships, all this sort of thing. That was happening. probably when you're out, people looking onto you going, she's having the best time, she's loving this. But inside you were obviously feeling something a little different. Kingsley, inside I was dying. Inside I was absolutely lost. I was curled up in a ball as a young child that had no idea where she was going. That's...

That was the crucifixion inside of me and what was going on on the outside was just like a surface survival mode just yeah yeah yeah just just getting on with it.

Kingsley (26:23.316)
What I want is for people listening or watching this to understand that...

Because that's not uncommon. In fact, it's really, really common for what you're talking about. But a lot of people think they're the only ones that everyone else, because it looks great on the outside, so everyone else is doing really, really well, but they're the only ones that feels like this. And it's definitely not the case because we all, until we find that, we all feel very hollow and we're putting on a mask and we're putting on something that's not real. And I want people to understand that it's...

Donna Martin (26:58.574)
I remember

Kingsley (26:59.144)
doesn't matter who you are, what you're going through, what you've done or what's been done to you, you are valuable and you do carry a lot of value just because you are here on this planet. And so what happened to you? Like, what was the trigger then for you to actually make a change?

Donna Martin (27:26.018)
I had so many, it wasn't just one thing Kingsley that was right, you're done and dusted. It was, I think an accumulation of nights out, of drinking, of drugging, of being in relationships, being in parties, doing things that I felt shitty about doing or felt guilty about.

And I just remember feeling that shitty shit after shit after shit after shit. So an accumulation of different experiences. And I just remember thinking there has to be a better way. There absolutely has to be a better way. And I think at the time, the secret had come out with Rhonda Byrne.

And a friend of mine, Kira, had, she had the book, her sisters had the book, they'd all read it, they were all chatting about it. And I remember then reading this book and going, okay. And a lot of the things in it I could relate to because I was unintentionally manifesting things, jewelry, cash, jobs, experiences for years. So coinciding with all this craziness, Kingsley, I was also doing this, unbeknownst to me, which is mad, and only

When I read that book, I was like, okay. So I can see threads of things in my life and I can see threads of experience and people and whatever. So that got me under the journey of looking at personal development and stuff and looking at the experience and looking at my idea and thought processes. That brought me to Broad Proctor. That brought me to a lot of different things that kind of just opened a gap in the door.

It didn't kick it wide open. wasn't like an epiphany or whatever else, but it was just like, OK. But then I would fall back into my ways of doing what I was doing and then it would feel shitty again and then it would be like, OK. And I think then at the age of 23, I decided, right, enough is enough. I am going to go and I'm going to do my nursing. And there was two ladies that I was a home help while I was working in a restaurant, Kingsley.

Donna Martin (29:42.735)
when I was doing my drinking and drugging and cruising and I had had an opportunity to do nursing already but I didn't want to do it because it was in a different place in cold rain so you would have to travel in a train for 40 minutes I was like nah and I was like the money's rubbish I don't want to so even though I loved helping people and had always done it I was like nah so if cruisey job came up because I didn't drive with being a home help so you would go into people's homes you would help you would do cooking cleaning help them if they needed wash help them

basic stuff. So I came across two women and they lived around the corner from me in a beautiful home in a beautiful area of where we lived, Kay and Margaret. And she was a radiographer and I can't remember, Margaret had a really good job as well, but they started planting the seeds with them me, I'd say two years before that when I was 21. God, Donna, you would make a great nurse.

God Donna, you're really kind, you're really caring. Now Kingsley, I never had anybody speak to me like that before in my lifetime. It's not language we used at home, it's not language that my, my daddy would say, love you, but there was no, you're amazing, you'd be really good at this, this is a really, none. So this language was foreign to me, so when these women were saying to me, Donna, you're really good at this, like you're really kind, you're really caring, you have a really good manner, I was looking at them going, what are you looking for? I didn't get it.

Kingsley (31:08.212)
Yeah.

Donna Martin (31:09.856)
And it took about two years and them coaxing me to do my stuff at the Tech to get into university. took two years of me going to their house and them implanting this to say, Donna, you should apply to university to be a nurse. And nobody in our house had been to University Kingsley. I was still out session and everything and it was like, OK, so maybe I might be smart enough. They're telling me.

Kay is a radiographer and Margaret they've really good jobs. They're in a really beautiful home in a really good area. Maybe I could trust what they're telling me and maybe I could start believing that I might by some magical miracle get on the university and by some miracle actually become an Irish and Kay had had a fall and broke her hip.

and I had put on my nursing application and unfortunately in the January, the end of the January, the 26th of January, Kay passed away. And I think that next week I got my letter in from the nursing board to say that I had an interview. They go and be one of the first in Derry to be in the University of Ulster in their nursing program.

Kingsley (32:28.532)
Wow.

Donna Martin (32:33.088)
And I remember just crying Kingsley. And I remember Tell Margaret, the lady that loved Wuther and she was absolutely delighted. And when I went to that interview, I think it was two weeks later, the middle of February, I could feel Kay here. I could just feel as much as somebody standing behind you in a shop, I could feel her here with her hand on my shoulder. And I could feel her and we were in a room of like 20.

Kingsley (32:48.789)
Hmm.

Donna Martin (33:00.5)
on nursing students, think it was, and all these heads and deans and way out of my comfort zone, Kingsley, my inner voice, my noise is going, you shouldn't be here, you don't deserve a place here, you shouldn't, this isn't for you, you're not smart enough, you're not good enough. And everything bar her steady hand took to sit me down in the seat, Kingsley, shaking to go through and talk in your interview.

And that was the changing point to go and I started my nursing degree in September. And that was the catalyst of transiting out of the drinking and the drugging and the seed of, okay, maybe I could actually do this. But I had a complete meltdown two months later because my granny died who was my pillar stone. And then I was going to chuck in nursing. I literally had, I was like, no, I just can't, I can't do it.

and then Megrani's presence presented itself.

Kingsley (34:03.303)
It's really interesting that it took two years for two obviously beautiful ladies to tell you who you were and what you had capability of.

Kingsley (34:23.453)
And I think quite often, and I've heard this story more than once, where people have this view of themselves because of stuff that's happened. And if you look at it, like, it may not seem like a lot to some people.

but your mother walking out at four and a half on Christmas Eve, I don't love you. The impact.

that that can have on somebody is just enormous and it flows through the rest of our life. And then you had these two beautiful ladies come and tell you who you really are, what your value really is, what you truly have to offer, what you're capable of.

Donna Martin (34:58.082)
can have on somebody is just enormous. And it flows through the rest of our life. And then you had these two beautiful ladies come and tell you who you really are, what your value really is, what you truly have to offer, what you're capable of. And I think every one of us, no matter who we are, can find that.

Kingsley (35:17.726)
And I think...

every one of us, no matter who we are, can find that good in other people and tell them what's there and tell them what can happen. Because you wouldn't be who you are now if it wasn't for those ladies telling you that. You wouldn't be helping the number of people that you're helping now if those ladies weren't telling you that.

I think that's such a powerful, powerful thing.

Donna Martin (35:50.895)
I the fact that they seen something in me that I had been searching for for years but still couldn't see because I was pushing so hard or I just couldn't conceive in my human logic, my human mind I had nothing to compare it to. I had nothing there to compare and say,

Kingsley (35:51.145)
So then.

Kingsley (36:09.695)
Yeah.

Donna Martin (36:18.638)
And only through them mirroring that consistently and consistently and consistently just planted small seeds and just kept watering and watering and watering and all those baby steps Kingsley then. Yeah.

Kingsley (36:32.874)
And you know what's interesting about that? They didn't put anything in you. They just drew out what was already there.

Because that's who you were.

All the way.

Donna Martin (36:47.83)
Yeah, I just couldn't see it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Kingsley (36:48.968)
It's so cool.

It really, really is. So then you become a nurse because that's obviously who you are as a person. You're a carer. You love to, and I've seen this in you. That's who you are as a person. That you do find the good in people and you draw, you do that to other people now. Basically that's what you spend your life doing. Is that for other people?

So you become a nurse and then what happens? Take us to the next phase.

Donna Martin (37:17.166)
So I qualified as a nurse in 2026 and I got my first job in a palliative care or an oncology hematology ward which also a palliative care in it and I'd been there in one of my placements and then I had the opportunity to be there on a contract so I done that but at the same time in my home life I was living in my daddy's home but he was living with his girlfriend.

and I was sharing a house with my brother. And so whatever had happened, and my brother had fell out at that time. And I decided then that, okay, I've got my first job. I can now get a mortgage and buy my own place. I don't need to be here anymore. Miss Independent, this is what I'm gonna do. And so it was the height of the boom. And so I bought a flat in an area that I'd been to school in Kingsley and...

I paid way over the odds, literally at the peak of the boom, and bought this flat and unbeknownst to me, like, it just opened a can of worms that was, for two years, ended up absolutely horrific. Dissocial behavior, destruction of property, and ended in death threats for me. So.

Kingsley (38:35.734)
Wow.

Donna Martin (38:37.068)
Yeah, I kind of summed that up in a nutshell, but that was my phase of nursing starting in palliative care going through two years of

Kingsley (38:41.087)
Mm.

Donna Martin (38:50.926)
Yeah, just horrible scenarios. In my head, Kingsley, this is what I was saying. And it's interesting. So when I bought a flat, I bought a flat that was up

Kingsley (38:55.168)
So why did, you're a nurse, you're out there helping people, you're buying a house, you're trying to get ahead in life, yet you're getting death threats. How does that work?

Donna Martin (39:17.686)
top flat and there was one below me but the one below me I didn't know was empty and they had used it as a drug den so all the teenagers and it was the end part of a cul-de-sac where you could kick the ball and whatever else and so I didn't realize this so they had all got used to congregating around us, mass different numbers this is where they would go to hide out during school time, smoke, to drink, to take drugs all of this so naive as I was then at 26 by my own place I remember going to them going

Look, lads, this is my flat now. I've bought it, I own it. I'm a nurse. I look after people. Come on, can you go and pick somewhere else to go? And they more or less just laughed at me. And in my naivety, Kingsley was like, surely they can respect, we respect other people's property. They were like, good luck, love with that. They absolutely trashed my car, tried to kick in the front door. The first night that I moved in.

I had gone to the cinema with my friends and when I came back there was about 50 people who had organised a rave via Facebook outside my house. So they were all drinking, they had a big beatbox, big tunes blaring, they had a mass crowd of teenagers, all ages. I opened the gate to go down, there was somebody actually taking a piss in my garden. When I asked them all to leave they laughed at me, I had to go in lock the door, they smashed

through a Budweiser bottle at my kitchen window, smashed the window, left glass all over. I rang the police and the police said, love, that's a no-go area. We can't go in there.

Kingsley (40:54.591)
No.

Donna Martin (40:56.024)
So the reality Kingsley dropped like a lead balloon and I just went.

and I'll not even say it on the podcast, I was like, shit, what have I done? And I remember just curling up in a ball and pulling the duvet over my head and sobbing, just absolutely sobbing. I couldn't go out. I couldn't leave the house. The music was blaring. The police wouldn't come. And I had to get up at 6 a.m. for my shift at work, going on to people that were dying, going on to people getting treatment, going on to people that were newly diagnosed.

Kingsley (41:05.607)
Ha ha ha.

Donna Martin (41:33.579)
and that went on then. The more I challenged them, the more they would be riled up. If I parked my car outside the house, they would come out and just constantly kick a ball at it. They would aim to be there at similar times. They would just be there kicking the ball off the kitchen window. You would go in and you would see where they've tried to put stuff through the letter box or tried to kick at the front door to destroy it.

Just ridiculous things, tried to the wing mirror off the car, scored it with keys and stones, put down the tires, tried to kick the windows. And then I remember going through, I think we'd a multiple run of so many weeks where people were constantly dying. They were either end stage, they were unexpected, they'd just come in, they reacted badly to treatment. And I just remember getting to a point, Kingsley, where

I think I was nearly two years on at this stage and I just completely broke down. And I hadn't really told my friends running what was going on. I had tried to talk to them a couple of times and just any time it was just always fighting. Then when I told my friends, because they were from the area, they put me in touch with people. Now, one of the councillors in the area, I was told they ring them and

person turned around and says to me Kingsley you were stupid enough to buy in the area so you can just more or less take your eye.

Kingsley (43:11.412)
Wow.

Donna Martin (43:12.534)
And this was like a top counselor for that specific area at the time that I was told to go to for support. They couldn't up this in the bud. And that was their response. You're stupid enough to buy it. Tick your odd. Yeah, you made your bed lying. Yeah. So I told my friends and my friends were connected with other people who passed on the message and everything was hushed.

Kingsley (43:27.275)
That's crazy.

Donna Martin (43:40.775)
and they set up a community watch where we would go round in different things. So then it became part of the news, the newspaper came out and done an article, it became part of a thing for a while. And now the people doing the community watch, they were lovely Kingsley, they were really nice and nobody had realised what I had been going through that whole time.

I just didn't want to hassle people, want to bother people, just thought nobody's going to care. Why would they be bothered? This was her attitude. Why would anybody be different? So I was blown away when people then wanted to help.

Kingsley (44:17.175)
Mmm.

Donna Martin (44:18.552)
But then it got to a point where it just, they just started getting more riled up when the people that were doing the community watch then kind of challenged them, to them, yous know you're not meant to be here. I remember going down to them Kingsley and I think I'd come from a shift where a young person had just died. And I remember going down to them and just saying, look, lads, I've just watched somebody die this evening. Like I've, this is what I do.

Do you think it's fair that now that I'm paying money for this mortgage and this is my home that I can't go into my home and I can't be safe and I can't be whatever and you're destroying my car and you're destroying my property. Do you think this is okay? And whatever it has happened, it just completely escalated. And the next thing it was, you're F'd. You're dead. We're gonna get you. We've had enough. We're done with you being here. You're not here anymore.

were after you, you're dead.

And at that Kingsley then it was just like,

was just like that was the last straw because there was another adult there they took me and said Donna this has to be reported to the police this is done this is gone just gone way too far you can't just band-aid it you can't keep just just going on or ignoring or hoping they're not getting the picture and they're not going and that was at Kingsley I moved back under my daddy's house and I kept paying my mortgage for my

Donna Martin (45:56.513)
even though I wasn't there. I went to the Citizens Advice, I asked, what can I do? What's the best way forward? At that time, the market completely crashed. I'd bought the flat for like 110,000 derlin, and it was valued at something like 38,000 pounds. And I was still paying a mortgage because in my defiance, I was always told that

Kingsley (46:14.451)
Wow.

Donna Martin (46:26.712)
Don't get a credit card unless you can pay it off. Don't buy something unless you have the money for it. You get your mortgage, you pay it off. And so even the Wally's experts around me, Kingsley, were telling me, this is what you have to do. I refused. And then I had a complete breakdown and I had to go off work on the sick.

Kingsley (46:36.344)
Mm.

Donna Martin (46:51.542)
And I remember at that time just being so distraught going, why me? Why again? All the shit with my mommy, all the shit growing up, all the shit in my teenage years. Then I finally thought I had found where I was going. Then Kay dies, then my granny dies, then I get through my nurse and now I'm doing good. Like I'm solid God. Like I'm here waving the flag like I've done.

I remember having this conversation, Kingsley, as bizarre as this sounds. I remember going, I've done my share. I've pulled up my fricking socks. I'm doing my share for greater good here. So why are you doing this to me? And I remember having these conversations going, this isn't fair. This just...

Kingsley (47:28.631)
Hmm.

Donna Martin (47:43.851)
I was just so disillusioned with everything Kingsley, just so disillusioned and I remember going to Australia to my cousin for a couple of weeks break. literally, could, I felt like I couldn't breathe. I felt like I was suffocating. I didn't want to go bankrupt. My head was just all over the place. I felt guilty cause I was off on the sick. I couldn't go to work because I kept crying. I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep. And I remember going to Australia and saying,

lying on a park on Bondi Road, Waverley Park, just lying and going, my God, if you're an actual God, if you're up there, if there's something up there for a greater good, then you will give me a bloody crystal clear sign on what I need to do next. I'm done. I'm just done with you. And I remember closing down my eyes, Kingsley, and everything went quiet. And all I got next was the smell of roses. And now I'd been to Medjugorje, which is a place in Croatia, a holy place where

Our Lady supposedly appeared. And when I was there, a guy had died. And that was in our group of diabetes. had collapsed. Madunda, a diabetic woman, But why I'm saying that, Kingsley, is because when he passed, the clock on the Croatia in Medjugorje chimed and I looked up and I just get this overwhelming sense that he had passed away.

And then my friend got a phone call to say he's just passed away. And I was like, OK. But I had smelled the roses in Medjugorje. But when I was in Waverley, I smelled that same smell. And it brought me back to that sense of knowing and remembering the connection of someone passing some of a connection that's not of this world that we can consciously, intellectually, humanly identify and say that that's logic. makes sense. But for me, that was a connection that I had spiritually.

Kingsley (49:29.048)
Hmm.

Donna Martin (49:39.417)
something other than human they say there's something else here guiding you and that in that I just had this thing of go back go bankrupt you're going to be okay but that is your right next step forward and Kingsley when I went home I remember going up to Belfast to the court with my sister and being so nervous and so filled with dread the the court

Man, the judge is going to say to me, you were stupid for buying. He's going to say the same thing as your woman. You deserve to be here. Kingsley, haven't done it. There was about 40 other people because now we had the crash. Everything was gone. And I called my name up and there I am sweating buckets, feeling sick to my stomach, trying not to cry, waiting for him to give me a whooping. And he just goes to me, Donna, love. He goes, I'm really sorry for what you've been through.

Kingsley (50:21.154)
Mmm.

Donna Martin (50:37.25)
He says, just go. says, this is done. He says, just go and love your life. He says, you should never have had that. He says, but you're OK. That doesn't define you. says, you just go now and you love your life, you're free. And Kingsley, for somebody to say that, me dreading and so afraid that I had messed up, that this was all my fault, that I deserve this, for again, some stranger to just go, Donna, it's not your fault.

That was not your fault. Like, just go now and live your life. And I remember just looking at my sister Sharon, impure disbelief, Kingsley. Just did he actually just did he just say that? And I remember going out the door and you know, your man does the high kick out of Forest Gump and just punches the air.

Kingsley (51:26.733)
Hey.

Donna Martin (51:31.779)
I go out and do the air kick and punch the air and just roar under the air with my sister and give her the biggest honk and it's like this weight is just just off my kings day it's just like but in my head I could I tried all which ways to figure out how I could pay this off how I could get out of this never in my wildest dreams but if I hadn't ignored

that guidance that came to me that day in Waverly Park.

I wouldn't have had the courage then to go through and to experience and that be part of me being free to start again.

Kingsley (52:14.775)
Yeah, yeah, it's a powerful thing. And when, you get a guidance like that from God and he's showing you stuff, it's unbelievable. That is so cool. That is so cool.

Donna Martin (52:25.995)
yeah and you know what Kingsley I think it's important because I know I'm very aware that not everybody relates to a God and this is the thing you don't have to there is a universal source there is something and it doesn't matter what name you put on it but there is a creative source and substance that we are all interlinked and interconnected with so that's

That's the thing. It's whatever your idea or non idea or your thing is. Just just start paying attention and just yeah. and trust. Trust yourself. So then from there, take us a little bit further in. Because obviously you're living in WA now. Yeah.

Kingsley (53:06.893)
Yeah, listen, listen, absolutely. He's directing, he's directing 100%. So then from there, take us on a little bit further. And because obviously you're living in WA now. So how did you get, how did you get over here? Why did I understand why? But how did that all happen?

Donna Martin (53:23.406)
So after the nursing incident and after all of that, even after the judge and after all that was released, I had went and I had rented a house down where I grew up, close to my sister's house, but I wasn't expecting the aftermath of the two years of trauma and impact and I think maybe the aftermath of everything.

my mother, my teenage years, mistakes, drama, trauma, everything. And I was under personal development. So when you go into yourself, when you start digging deeper, when you start going internally inside Kingsley and looking, all this stuff comes up because it has to come up and come out to be released instead of forming as dis-ease and continuing down in the body. So when I was doing all that

I actually went through a severe episode of depression where I actually wanted to end it. I'd actually gone and got tablets and just said, know what, actually I am physically and mentally exhausted and this feeling, this, I thought the relief of the bankruptcy and everything else and starting fresh, I felt guilty because I should have felt good. I should have felt that continued relief.

but I didn't. I felt more more depressed, more guilty. And the more I started digging Kingsley, the worse it got. And it got to a point then where I just felt like I didn't want to be here anymore. So from that transit to...

calling my sister or having her on the other end of the phone by some magic while I was taking tablets and then she's on the other end going, Donna, what's happening? And I'm a ball of tears going, how did I even ring you? Just this voice, pick up the phone and ring your sister. And somehow I'm sitting with the phone and her voice is in my ear and I can see her house, her front door from my house, front door.

Donna Martin (55:32.855)
And I'm going, what is going on? Like who has stepped on here? What has intervened again? And my sister took me in and cared for me. Her and her husband. John, they took me in and they looked after me and they cared for me. And it took me a while to get on and even footing. And at the time my cousin was going through something herself. Her marriage had ended. And funny enough, we weren't really connected, Kingsley, until our granddad being sick and then dying.

brought us together at the funeral. Then we found out what was going on with each other and each other's words. And then that started a new trajectory. Her brothers were in Perth, Australia. They were both working in the mines. And I remember sitting out her backyard one day going, we were talking about going to Australia for six weeks. We both worked for the trust.

And her mommy was like, well, why not just go for six months? Both of take a career break. You've both been through a lot. Just go and live your life. You're not connected. You're not tied down. No kids, no partners, no nothing. And so that started the instigation of the love of Australia again. And we ended up going to Paris for six months. Kathleen never came back. And I met my husband, Lee. Kathleen met his best friend at our eldest boy's Christmas.

and they're still together. And that started the love affair with Perth, Australia. But me and my husband, we had met in Sydney, because that's where we were all living at the time. We moved back to Ireland for nine years. And soon after going to Ireland, building our dream home, Kingsley, a couple of years in, and after having our other two boys, we realized that actually we miss the outdoor lifestyle. We miss that breath of fresh air. We miss that sunshine. We miss.

the environment, the relaxed way of being, the lifestyle, all of it. And that's where the idea then to come back to Australia came. But then we had issues with our house. They had put the wrong insulation on. We ended up having dry rot. We ended up getting sick. We ended up having to leave our home. We ended up going through another traumatic event as a family. And finally, we then attracted the right buyer to purchase the house office.

Kingsley (57:38.851)
Donna Martin (57:52.527)
to give us the freedom to come back to Australia. So we came back to Perth, choosing Perth as a family area for us. And my cousin Cathy had moved back to Perth then from Sydney as well. So we came back here three years ago and this is where we've been ever since.

Kingsley (58:13.37)
It's quite a journey. It's really quite a journey. And through all of that, like tell us a little bit about now how you are actually helping people because it's... What I love about people's stories is that without all of that ugliness, you wouldn't be in a place where you're helping so many people and changing their lives and helping them do so much right

Donna Martin (58:14.062)
It's quite a journey. It's really quite a journey. And through all of that, tell us little bit about how you are actually helping people. what I love about people's stories is that with...

Yeah.

Kingsley (58:42.35)
So what was a catalyst for you to go, you know what, can do, I can actually take this and help other people now.

Donna Martin (58:42.702)
So what was the catalyst for you to go, you know what, can actually take this and help other people. So the catalyst was when we were going through all the high stuff in Ireland, I had another breakdown and it was just like, I just cannot do this anymore. There has to be a better way. So I then started with my own mentoring through my friend Melanie, who was doing Proctor Gallagher stuff. Then I became a consultant myself. So that elevated me into the coaching world to

cut back on the nursing and start more in personal development in the coaching space. And then we came to Australia. So I had been doing the thinking under results and doing different things. And then when we came to Australia then in 2024, less than a year later, we were all in a car accident. And as a business owner Kingsley, I had been doing all the doing, doing all the right things, moving to a new country, connecting, networking.

doing all the recommended things through business coaching, all of that right words, right language, right things, right system, right funnel, right everything. And that car accident then halted everything. I had got a knock to the back of the head, which had created a knock and a nerve, which created occipital nerve issues with headaches, with awareness, a lot of pain. And why I'm sharing that Kingsley is because that actually

stopped me doing everything. Stopped me going out, stopped me having meetings, stopped me doing coaching, halted the business. And we had to do a lot of stuff then as a family, psychology, stuff with the kids, stuff with me, stuff with my husband, stuff with treatment. And that is what reframed everything for me. I was doing a bit, my business, the good life approach was the good life approach, but I was doing a lot of different things, legacy design, what am I going to do, what am I...

trying to do too much of everything and I'm sure business owners or even people in jobs can relate. You're trying to multitask and do it all and we're listening to people and we're sucked down a vortex in social media and we're sucked down a vortex and people saying you should do this, this is the right way, this is... But that just wiped the floors. Just put a pause on absolutely everything. How I run my business, how I operated, what I was doing, my capacity.

Kingsley (01:00:58.747)
Mm.

Donna Martin (01:01:08.494)
Just everything. And today, like when I look how the Good Life approach has evolved into being a burnout specialist, when I talk about Burnout Kingsley, a great friend of mine's, Dave from Touchpoint, I had a session with him and he was like, Donna, when you're in the jar, you can't read the label. And I love, have you ever heard that before? Yeah, yeah, it's great. So true.

Kingsley (01:01:32.301)
Yeah. Yeah. It's great. So true.

Donna Martin (01:01:35.151)
But I looked at that and I was like, do you know what, actually? was like, that's so true. Because when I was in burnout, when I was in depression, when I was in the midst of overwhelming anxiety, I couldn't see it. I had no capacity. And I've heard this from people that do the toolbox or whatever. I wish I'd started it early. I felt like I didn't have the capacity. Why did I not do this? If I had a new what I know now.

through the understanding, then I wouldn't have sat in the fence, I wouldn't have procrastinated. But it's like, don't beat yourself up, it's where we're aware. But the thing is, burnout has many faces. It's overwhelm, it's frustration. It's that sadness that can be part of that low energy, feeling deflated, feeling lost, not in a position, feeling constantly anxious, feeling constantly turned on, feeling constantly flat.

summer and on age, always anxious, always checking, always seeking, always searching, always doing the next new thing, the next shiny object, that overwhelm, that noise, that capacity to not switch off. And that's where I think you go back to all my threads, Kingsley, and all my story. When the car accident brought everything to a halt, was like, just what do I need right now?

Kingsley (01:02:58.511)
Hmm.

Donna Martin (01:02:59.17)
go back to the power of presence. What is going to serve me right now? What is, I talk about the pause check reset because it's the easiest thing in the world, Kings, like my kids know this. When you pause, if I says to you to pause your current story, what's your story being today before you jumped on the call to record the podcast? Was it a good supportive story of where you were winning and everything was going to go crazy?

Was it an overwhelm of noise of your to do list of wrap this up? This has to be like your energy is pretty chill there and present. So when you say to people, watch your current story, pause it and become aware of it because awareness is the first step to change when you actually recognize then the repeated patterns of repeated loops, the repeated themes, the repeated voice, the critic, the guilt.

the stress, the response, the agitation. When you recognize that, Kingsley, you can then give yourself the permission, the permission to actually check in with your physical response. Am I tight? Am I tense? Am I agitated? Am I running on fumes, on coffee? Am I relaxed? Is my emotional state hyped up? Do I feel flat? Do I feel like I'm in fear or lack of limitation?

Am I constantly checking my bank account? Am I constantly worried I'm going to lose people or I'm going to disconnect or my relationship's not great, that somebody's going to walk out? Whatever it is, if you give yourself permission to recognise what's going on, that body response, the human, that's just autopilot. It's just data that we have repeatedly programmed under our DNA and it goes the path of least resistance. So it's just cruising. Do you know when you drive somewhere and you're like,

And on night shift, this happened to me so often, I would leave my night shift and I would get home and I'd be like, my God, I do not remember the drive home.

Kingsley (01:05:07.525)
Yep.

Donna Martin (01:05:10.278)
The automatic pilot comes on and we are not, if we are not paying attention when we're switched off, when we're down a rabbit hole and we're not aware. This is where being neutral and non-judgmental and just observing and then saying, do I give myself permission to look at this? And then do I give myself permission to actually reset? Do I want to reset from an anxious state or from a fear and lack in limitation? My husband will often say to me, if we have stuff going on, he'll be like,

Kingsley (01:05:20.636)
Mm.

Donna Martin (01:05:39.427)
Donna, how are you so calm? How are you so relaxed about this? And I'm like, we are experiencing the same scenario because we are a family unit. But I choose to perceive it in a different way. I choose to know and experience physically and view it in a different lens, in a different energy than how you choose to. And he gets paid off.

Kingsley (01:06:00.401)
Yeah. Yeah. It's so true.

Yeah.

Donna Martin (01:06:06.862)
But it's true. This is why you can look at somebody in your work and they are so relaxed about the same thing and you're like, why are you not at this? Or you're so enraged about something at home and you're like, why are you not? And they're like, because I choose to be empowered and I choose to set a mind on that I choose a different way. So this is the pause check reset. When you actually reset your

Kingsley (01:06:16.252)
you

Donna Martin (01:06:35.188)
energetic state, your point of attraction, your internal state that only you can do, that you're in charge of when you empower yourself and give yourself permission to do that, Kingsley, your point of attraction changes, your vibration changes, your frequency changes, not woo woo, but science, because science has told us we live in a quantum field made of energy. We are all made of energy. scientific fact.

So as opposed to woo woo, if we take the science and actually say, OK, so if you're recommended to drink two liters of water, if I recommend to you to pause, check and reset your day for a different outcome, would you try and do it for the next 30 days or would you commit to doing it for the next 30 days and watch how your results change? Experience it for yourself. It's that willingness.

Kingsley (01:07:25.308)
Mm.

Kingsley (01:07:29.274)
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I think it's, when you think about it, it's a very simple thing, but we don't, because we do get on this, we just got to do our thing, do our thing, do our thing. And we don't stop doing our thing to stop and pause and take a look at what's going on, what's happening externally in my mind, in my body, with everything else that's happening. We don't take that time and just that simple few steps can make a massive difference.

Donna Martin (01:07:29.602)
Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's, when you think about it, it's a very simple thing. But we don't. Because we do get on this, we just got to do our thing, do our thing, do our thing. And we don't stop doing our thing to stop and pause and take a look at what's going on, what's happening externally in my mind, in my body.

with everything else that's happening, we don't take that time. Just that simple few steps can make a massive difference to how we think, how we approach things, what we do, what we don't do. I wouldn't lay to people all of that. Absolutely. Yeah, it's the power of pause. Just being present and becoming intentionally aware. That's we both have an affinity for intentional living, for being intentional, the purpose behind.

Kingsley (01:07:58.237)
to how we think, how we approach things, what we do, what we don't do, to how we relate to people, all of that, absolutely.

Mm.

Kingsley (01:08:15.483)
Yeah, absolutely.

Donna Martin (01:08:19.02)
why you're here, what you're doing, how you're showing up. Even when you're brushing your teeth, even when you're making a dinner, when you're interacting behind closed doors, when there's no camera on, when you're not out. It's that pure raw intention of who you're being in each moment that translates into your vision, your idea of the good life. that's intentionally, there was so many times where I just wanted to stop Kingsley. So many times, and I'm sure you're the same.

And I'm sure people that are listening to this are the same where it's just like, my God, can I really go again? Do you know what I mean? And it's like, I'm 46 this week and it's going 46 years of adjusting and doing and even from that first memory of four and a half, you're like, okay, your human does get tired Kingsley.

Kingsley (01:08:55.406)
Mm. Yep.

Donna Martin (01:09:16.898)
But is your life worth living? What's your greatest, grandest vision that you have for your life, for you, for the connection and what your idea of your good life, what does that look like? What does it feel like? What does it translate into in your experience and connection and interaction with other people? Like have a look at that feeling to your heart, feeling to your internal guidance and see what comes up.

Kingsley (01:09:44.763)
Yeah, I love that. I love that you call it the good life. I love that. think that's awesome. So who do you mostly work with, Donna?

Donna Martin (01:09:46.669)
love that you call it the good life. I love that, I think that's awesome. So who do you mostly work with, For me, Kingsley, it's individuals and organisations. So if you're an individual and you want support, you can either do one-to-one mentoring or you can do one of the courses, the daily reset toolbox or one of the other ones. If you're an organisation or team,

Kingsley (01:09:58.555)
Okay.

Donna Martin (01:10:13.172)
you can do, there's other ones there that you can do as well. The toolbox is what I recommend for teams for that tools and awareness to actually say where are we at in this space? What is happening? What's going on for us? Because when you do the individual work, Kingsley, you know yourself and you do then our work on you, you automatically have your frequency that you radiate out to others, your attraction. When you're beside someone that feels good, you feel good. You want to be in the space.

So when people do the individual work, but then connect as a collective, as a team, everybody's accountable, everybody's on board. Willer that through the pause, check, reset, workshop, or willer through the daily reset toolbox. That becomes a powerful shift in collective consciousness within your organization, within your team. What then, and it doesn't just impact your work life, Kingsley, or your business.

It impacts when you go home because it's still a part of who you're being. That's how you're showing up. We're all connected. Yeah.

Kingsley (01:11:14.705)
Yeah, we're one person. Absolutely. It does. So how can, how can, if someone wants to get in touch with you, what's the best way? Facebook, Instagram, email, what's the best thing for you?

Donna Martin (01:11:21.23)
They can simply either connect with me on Facebook, Instagram, on LinkedIn, The Good Life Approach or you can just go to the website www.thegoodlifeapproach.com. Reach out to me whatever is easiest. Yeah.

Kingsley (01:11:38.781)
Perfect.

Now, question that I ask at the end of every podcast is how can you make, how can you create the life you want and leave a legacy that you're proud of?

Donna Martin (01:11:51.584)
leave a legacy that you're proud of. Through intentional design.

It's that simple, Kingsley. Just do a pause, a check and a reset and intentionally choose your version of the good life. was easy. Yeah. But Kingsley, this is a thing and this is what I say in my podcast. The very first one is what is your idea of the good life? Because most of us don't know when we're asked, how can you create it if you don't know what it is? You can't. And that's that's the first place I go to with people as well. And surprisingly, most people.

Kingsley (01:12:07.613)
Well, that was easy.

Kingsley (01:12:19.45)
Exactly.

Yep, and that's, that's the first place I go with, with people as well. And surprisingly, most people have not really dug into that as a real question for themselves and where they're heading. It's really interesting.

Donna Martin (01:12:34.936)
But you wouldn't take a road map to you wouldn't just gauge your way down random roads to go to a specific destination.

Kingsley (01:12:43.421)
Exactly. Donna, thank you so much for joining us on the Tomorrow's Not Today podcast. Some great stories, some great insights there. And I think for me, one of the biggest things is people hopefully can take away from that, that, you know what, it doesn't matter where I am or what I've done or what's done to me or anything else. You can take that pause in the reset and adjust and get intentional about where you're going.

Create the life you want, leave a legacy that you're proud of, which is exactly what you're doing now. So yeah, thank you so much for joining us, Donna. Have a fantastic day. Look forward to getting this out there.

Donna Martin (01:13:23.821)
Thanks for having us. Yeah. Cheers, Kingsley. Thank you.