Sometimes, a pivot isn’t triggered by a failure.
Sometimes, it happens because you keep looking for a way to make the world a little bit fairer.

Anne Aly was born in Alexandria, Egypt, and moved to Australia when she was just two years old. Her parents worked hard in factory jobs to give their family a foothold here - and those early experiences of displacement, resilience and possibility stayed with her.

By her late twenties, Anne was a single working mother raising two young boys in Perth on the minimum wage. She knew what it meant to juggle life’s demands with no safety net - and she used that as fuel to keep pushing forward.

She went back to study - and then studied some more, earning a Master’s and a PhD focused on countering violent extremism. From there, Anne became a globally recognised expert in her field - advising the United Nations, publishing hundreds of academic works, and even being the only Australian invited to speak at President Obama’s White House summit on countering violent extremism.

But academia was never where her story stopped.

In 2016, Anne took another monumental pivot - into politics. She was elected as the Federal Member for Cowan, becoming the first Muslim woman in the Australian Parliament, and then a minister in federal government, shaping policy on multicultural affairs, small business and international development.

Along the way, she has championed issues close to her heart - from community safety to meaningful support for domestic and family violence survivors, turning her own life experience into public purpose.

In this episode, Anne talks about how she navigated seismic life shifts with grit, compassion, and that same drive to make space for voices too often overlooked - and how she keeps pivoting even when the stakes are high.

THE END BITS:

Want more from Sarah Davidson? Check out her podcast Seize The Yay.

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Feedback: podcast@mamamia.com.au

Share your story, feedback, or dilemma! Send us a voice message, and one of our Podcast Producers will get back to you ASAP.

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CREDITS:

Guest: Anne Aly

Host: Sarah Davidson

Executive Producer: Courtney Ammenhauser

Senior Producer: Sally Best

This show was brought to you in partnership with Charles Sturt University. Australia's largest and most experienced online uni. Take the next step. Search Charles Sturt University online.

Complete our short survey about education for for a chance to win a $1,000 gift voucher in our quarterly draw! https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/8467038/Ch

Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sometimes, a pivot isn't triggered by a failure. Sometimes, it happens when you’re winning.

You can have the perfect life on paper - the apartment by the beach, the successful business, the long-term relationship - and still feel a quiet, persistent exhaustion. It’s that slow build of burnout that whispers: you are running 100 k’s an hour in the wrong direction.

But what happens when you finally brave that change, only to face a hurdle you never saw coming?

Jo Yates began her career studying analogue photography in the UK, right on the edge of the digital revolution. As the industry shifted beneath her feet, she was forced to re-educate herself - pivoting from photography into video production, then into large-scale event and marketing production here in Australia.

But alongside her creative career, Jo had a quiet safety-net hustle: flipping properties. What started as a way to create financial security slowly grew into something much bigger - until it became impossible to ignore.

Then life intervened.

After moving to Noosa, Jo was faced with the covid lockdown AND a diagnosis that forced her to stop, reassess, and reinvent her life yet again. It became the ultimate pivot - one that reframed her relationship with work, success, and what really mattered.

Today, Jo runs Bricks and More, a property renovation and buyer’s advocacy business with a difference - combining her creative thinking with commercial strategy to build homes that are genuinely meaningful to the people who live in them.

In this episode, we talk about adaptability, resilience, rebuilding after crisis, and why you don’t need a dramatic leap to change your life - just a clear vision and the courage to take the next small step

THE END BITS:

Want more from Sarah Davidson? Check out her podcast Seize The Yay.

Discover more Mamamia podcasts here.

Feedback: podcast@mamamia.com.au

Share your story, feedback, or dilemma! Send us a voice message, and one of our Podcast Producers will get back to you ASAP.

Rate or review us on Apple by clicking on the three dots in the top right-hand corner, click Go To Show then scroll down to the bottom of the page, click on the stars at the bottom and write a review.

CREDITS:

Guest: Jo Yates

Host: Sarah Davidson

Executive Producer: Courtney Ammenhauser

Senior Producer: Sally Best

Audio Producer: Thom Lion

This show was brought to you in partnership with Charles Sturt University. Australia's largest and most experienced online uni. Take the next step. Search Charles Sturt University online.

Complete our short survey about education for for a chance to win a $1,000 gift voucher in our quarterly draw! https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/8467038/Ch

Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What happens when the "dream job" you hustled so hard to get...suddenly disappears? You're trapped in the story of who you think you should be, convinced you only fit into one box. When life tears up the script, that loss of identity can be paralysing. But what if that ending is actually the best thing that ever happened to you? What if the thing you’re doing as a "side hobby" is actually an empire waiting to be built?

Tori Clapham is the powerhouse founder behind the boutique fitness brand, Peaches Pilates. Today, she oversees an empire with ten studios, an app used in 54 countries, and over $4 million in annual revenue. But the path there wasn't a straight line. Tori began as a performing arts student, moving from Far North Queensland to NYC and eventually landing a coveted creative role at MTV.

Everything changed when she was made redundant. Left with a $10,000 cheque and a major life decision, Tori looked back at the casual Pilates sessions she ran for colleagues during lunch breaks and realized her "hobby" was actually her calling. She took a massive gamble, using her redundancy pay and travel savings to sign a lease on a tiny "shoebox" studio in Bondi.

In this empowering episode of Pivot Club, Sarah and Tori cover the grit of DIY renovations, the risks involved when her husband quit his corporate job to join the team, and how their lo-fi workout videos accidentally prepared them for a global pandemic. They also dig into the "mini-pivot" of motherhood and how to build a business that serves your life, rather than the other way around.

Get ready to learn why your biggest setbacks are often the things that propel you the most.

THE END BITS:

Want more from Sarah Davidson? Check out her podcast Seize The Yay.

Discover more Mamamia podcasts here.

Feedback: podcast@mamamia.com.au

Share your story, feedback, or dilemma! Send us a voice message, and one of our Podcast Producers will get back to you ASAP.

Rate or review us on Apple by clicking on the three dots in the top right-hand corner, click Go To Show then scroll down to the bottom of the page, click on the stars at the bottom and write a review.

CREDITS:

Guest: Tori Clapham

Host: Sarah Davidson

Executive Producer: Courtney Ammenhauser

Senior Producer: Sally Best

Audio Producer: Thom Lion

This show was brought to you in partnership with Charles Sturt University. Australia's largest and most experienced online uni. Take the next step. Search Charles Sturt University online.

Complete our short survey about education for for a chance to win a $1,000 gift voucher in our quarterly draw! https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/8467038/Ch

Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.