Big Stuff With Danielle Colley

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Sophie Bretag came on this show to talk about kindness. But what she really gave us was something far more important — a front-row seat to what happens when everything you've built your identity around is taken from you, and what you discover in the silence that follows. 

Two years ago, Sophie had surgery for tongue cancer — a rare diagnosis for a woman her age — and spent almost twelve months unable to speak clearly. For someone whose entire career is built on her voice, that enforced silence became the most profound teacher of her life.
This is a conversation about what it actually means to choose yourself — not as a concept, but when the stakes are real, when your husband is hospitalised the same week you are, when your kids need you, when going back to work two weeks post-surgery feels like the only option. 

Sophie is warm, funny, and extraordinarily open, and I found myself receiving things in this conversation that I didn't even know I needed. I think you will too.
CHAPTERS
0:00 — Introduction 
3:00 — The lump on Sophie's tongue 
10:00 — The diagnosis: "baby cancer" 
17:00 — The operation 
22:00 — Speaking for the last time before surgery 
27:00 — The biggest fears going under the knife 
33:00 — When your other senses take over
38:00 — The outpouring of love  
44:00 — Setting the hardest boundaries of her life 
49:00 — "I chose to choose me" 
54:00 — What kindness actually looks like day to day 
56:00 — What she would tell herself two years ago
RESOURCES & LINKS
Sophie Bretag — mettaleaders.com
The Kind Way — available for pre-order now, in store 30 June 2025
Sophie on LinkedIn
Sophie on Instagram — @sophiebretag

Danielle Colley — daniellecolley.com.au
Instagram - @iamdaniellecolley
Contact Big Stuff — bigstuffpod@gmail.com
THINKING POINTS
When someone you love is struggling, do you offer an open door — "let me know if you need anything" — or do you give them options? 
Think about one person in your life right now who might need A, B, C, or D instead.
Where are you still waiting for permission to stop going back to the way things were? You already have it.

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Six months ago, Danielle stepped back from the daily grind of running a business and gave herself something she'd never given herself before: time. 
Not because she didn't know what was coming — she did — but because she decided to meet it with open hands instead of a full calendar. What followed was two books, a body of paintings, and her very first art show.
This episode is about what happens when grief asks you to stop explaining yourself and just make something true instead. It's also about the five things Danielle learned from announcing something terrifying before she was ready — and why that's exactly the point.

CHAPTERS
0:00 — Introduction 
2:30 — The in-between 
6:00 — What grief actually asks of you 
9:00 — Why she made space before the hardest thing arrived 
12:30 — The art, the books, and what it all is really 
16:00 — Five things learned from hosting a first art show 
16:30 — 1. Do it scared 
18:30 — 2. Audacity is excellent 
19:30 — 3. The devil is in the details 
21:30 — 4. Release the outcome 
23:00 — 5. Deadlines are king 
24:30 — You don't need permission to begin

The As She Is collection — available to view and purchase via Danielle's Instagram @daniellecolley.art

If this episode landed somewhere real for you, send Danielle a message — she genuinely wants to know. 
You can reach her at ⁠bigstuffpod@gmail.com⁠ or find her at daniellecolley.com.au. 
And if you know someone who's been sitting on something — a creative project, a scary goal, a version of themselves they haven't shown anyone yet — share this one with them. 
That's exactly who it was made for.

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I’ve always thought of myself as someone who cannot lie. I’m a compulsive truth teller — ask anyone who knows me. But today’s guest made me realise something uncomfortable: that’s also a lie. Everyone lies. The question is whether you know when you’re doing it. And why.
Dominic Thurbon is a behavioural change expert, co-founder of Alchemy Labs, former world top-10 debater, Earnst & Young partner, founder of two businesses he built and sold, and author of books published in fifteen countries. 
His new book To Be Honest is one of the most rigorously researched and genuinely funny books I’ve read on why we lie, how misinformation spreads, and what it actually takes to make truth happen in a world designed to make that very difficult.
In this conversation we go into the Bollywood film Dominic lied his way into at 21 (yes, really), why even the most ethical people lie daily without realising it, the crucial difference between a liar and a bullshitter, and what it means to make truth a verb rather than a value.
 This one didn’t let any of us off the hook. I don’t think it’ll let you off it either.
 
CHAPTERS
00:00  Introduction
03:30  The biggest lie Dominic ever told
13:00  Why we double down on lies
18:30  Them truth, we truth, me truth
24:00  Everyone lies: the main reasons why
31:00  The gender difference in how we lie
34:30  Does my bum look big? 
40:00  Making truth happen
46:30  The misinformation economy and why social media is designed to work against us
53:30  Liars vs bullshitters 
59:30  The debating paradox
64:00  What it would take to change your mind
 
 
RESOURCES & LINKS

Find Dominic Thurbon on his website
      To Be Honest — available at major bookstores and online via Major Street Publishing
Alchemy Labs (Dominic’s behaviour change firm)
 Find Dominic on LinkedIn
 

Mentioned in this episode

•       On Bullshit by Harry Frankfurt (Princeton University Press) — the source of the liar vs bullshitter distinction
•       Lying by Sam Harris — the case that there is never a situation where lying is justified
•       Stolen Focus by Johann Hari — on reclaiming attention in a distracted world
•       Brené Brown on “being clear is kind” — from Dare to Lead
•       World Economic Forum Global Risk Report — misinformation ranked the #1 short-term global risk
 

Find more of Danielle Colley

•       Instagram: @daniellecolley
•       Email: bigstuffpod@gmail.com

If this episode got you thinking, share it with one person who needs to hear it. And if you haven’t already, take the burnout quiz at daniellecolley.com.au — it’s free, it’s quick, and it might just tell you something true about yourself that you’ve been

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Kate Purcell has spent much of her life in a battle with anorexia — hospitalised ten times, including seven months at a residential clinic in Perth. She has since navigated a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder, survived a psychotic episode, written two books, and built a life she genuinely loves.
But this is not a neat before-and-after story. Kate is still managing an eating disorder diagnosis right now, alongside medication that makes that harder, not easier. In this conversation, she talks about the girl she was before the illness took hold, what it felt like from the inside, and how she has learned — slowly and imperfectly — to separate who she is from what she has been through.
This one is raw, real, and deeply human.

Chapters
0:00 — Introduction
3:00 — Growing up and the beginning of comparison 
10:00 — The diet that became something else
 18:00 — Hospital and The Beast taking hold 
28:00 — What actually helped
34:00 — Life after hospital
42:00 — A year of living in hell
49:00 — Diagnosis, medication, and finding solid ground 
54:00 — The recent relapse — and what it taught her 
58:00 — Building self-worth from the inside out 
1:02:00 — What Kate would say to her fifteen-year-old self

Find more Kate - 
Her books
⁠Hope Inc. — Kate's memoir ⁠
⁠Tell Your Eating Disorder to F**k Off: Reclaim Your Power ⁠— Kate's self-help guide with reflection exercises and values work

Her socials
⁠Instagram⁠
⁠LinkedIn⁠

Support
If anything in this episode stirred something up for you, please reach out to a professional who specialises in this area. In Australia:
Butterfly Foundation Helpline: 1800 33 4673 (free, confidential support for eating disorders and body image concerns) 
Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636 
Lifeline: 13 11 14
You deserve support that's built for exactly what you're carrying.

Connect with Danielle
Instagram:⁠ @iamdaniellecolley ⁠
Email: ⁠bigstuffpod@gmail.com⁠

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She had the wardrobe, the fancy car, the career leading teams across multiple markets. From the outside, Fleur Marks had built the life. And if you'd asked her how she was doing, she would have told you she was fine.
She was not fine.
Fleur is a globally recognised leadership strategist, speaker, and author of the brand new book The Overachiever's Reset. She spent 20 years building a high-performance career on drive, relentless standards, and the unshakeable belief that if she just worked hard enough, everything would stay together. Until her body sent a message she could no longer ignore — a rare, incurable autoimmune disease attacking multiple organs simultaneously. Then, just as she began to stabilise, breast cancer.
She lost the house, the income, the career identity, and almost her life. More than once.
Here's the part that stopped me: Fleur wrote this book from a hospital bed, not knowing if she'd live to see it published. She is still in treatment now. And she showed up for this conversation anyway.
This is one of the most honest, generous, and quietly life-changing conversations I've recorded. I threw out my questions within ten minutes and just followed where Fleur took us — and I'm so glad I did.
We talk about what it actually costs to tether your worth to your output, what collapse can unlock that ambition never could, and why the word "fine" might be the most important red flag you're ignoring right now.
Find Fleur here - https://fleurmarks.com.au
Or here - Instagram
Or here - LinkedIn
Buy her book here - The Over Achievers Reset

CHAPTERS
00:00 — Intro
03:00 — In treatment, still showing up 
07:00 — The old Fleur: Wonder Woman with a badge of busy 
13:00 — Where impossibly high standards come from 
18:00 — The first signs  
23:00 — Losing everything at once 
38:00 — The blue esky on the porch  
44:00 — Becoming a high-performing sick person (and seeing the pattern repeat) 49:00 — What FINE really stands for 
53:00 — The moment the light went out 
58:00 — Mortality, faith, and why Fleur believes she was kept here 
63:00 — Ambition after the reset — sequins, not superwoman 
67:00 — Close and thinking points

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Reach out to Danielle if you would like to be a guest or have a question you would like discussed on the podcast. 
danielle@daniellecolley.com.au