Show Us Your Bits

From Jilly Cooper to Take That what do they have in common? This week’s guest, international bestselling author, entrepreneur and inveterate traveller Tasmina Perry. Long before the bestselling novels and publishing success, Tasmina was a bored trainee lawyer, working in a hot dog caravan at Granada Studio Tours, dreaming of becoming a journalist. Then one day she spotted a group of young dancers outside — “the red shoes”, as she describes them, dancing around in cycling shorts and bright red shoes and decided to pluck up the courage to ask if she could interview them. The nearest boy said yes. His name was Rob. The band was Take That. And Rob was Robbie Williams. That very first interview helped take Tammy from trainee lawyer and hot dog seller to a writer at More magazine, launching the journalism career that would eventually lead her to becoming editor. In this episode, Tammy also takes us behind the scenes of her glamorous new novel, Seven Nights in St Tropez, the ultimate summer page-turner, and reveals why she couldn’t bear to say goodbye to one of her favourite characters, the formidable paparazzi boss Mimi. From luxury mansions to the seedy underbelly of the yacht scene on the French Riviera, she explains how her love of travel inspires her writing, and why creating a vivid sense of place is at the heart of every book she writes. Tammy shares how a honeymoon search for the perfect beach read sparked the idea for Daddy’s Girls, the novel that became her breakthrough international bestseller, and why she later took another leap of faith by leaving traditional publishing behind to launch her own independent imprint. As always, the conversation is brought to life through four treasured possessions: a dazzling brooch gifted to her by her great inspiration and guiding light, Jilly Cooper, shortly before Jilly died; framed handwritten lyrics from her teenage hero Lloyd Cole; a photograph of Sherpa Tenzing summiting Everest; and a gold swan gifted by her husband, reminding her of the magazine where their love story began. Jilly’s encouragement and belief in her had a huge impact on Tammy, inspiring her to keep writing and trust in her own voice. It’s a conversation about creativity, reinvention, friendship, entrepreneurship and the power of simply asking the question: why not you? Tasmina’s message is simple: opportunities are everywhere, most people are kinder than you think and extraordinary things can happen when you’re brave enough to ask. Find Tasmina at tasminaperry.com and @tasminaperry on Instagram.
To view our guests' special bits, please follow us on Instagram @showusyourbitspodcast
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We’re on a health and wellbeing vibe this week talking about being off the booze and our love of Pavari cocktails, plus our secret addiction to the new season of Rivals. We’re also having a very down to earth honest chat with our guest - actor, podcaster, public speaker and coach, Salima Saxton.
Salima’s candid talk for The Moth has had millions of views on YouTube and is the story on which her forthcoming memoir ‘The Undoing’ is based. She talks about what happened when her husband, Carl, someone she’d always thought of as her ‘oak tree’ as he was so stable, called time on how they were living. She recalls the surprise of his frank admission about how he wasn’t coping, and her realisation that his mental health was in jeopardy. She sprang into action, dismantling their so-called ‘perfect’ London life, moving their three children out of their private school and back to her childhood home in the countryside. In doing so, she had to confront the ghosts of her past, but says that the upside is that in jettisoning all the ‘stuff’ she considered to be important, she’s reclaimed her younger self and what really matters in life.
Despite having alway marketed herself as great in a crisis, Salima was surprised by the way in which she reacted to her unexpected diagnosis of colon cancer last year and the news of the difficult treatment she had to undergo. When one of her friends described her as a ‘bad patient’, her incredibly popular Substack newsletter was born. Salima says that she doesn’t have a filter at the best of times, but she found comfort in sharing everything she experienced - from the silly questions she asked her surgeon, to her deepest inner fears. Unsurprisingly, her fans have deeply connected with her honesty, her humour and her compulsion to help other people.
Salima, who has been in shows such as This is England, Trigger Point and Twenty Twelve says she’s ready to move back into acting. She says her mantra for getting through life is to keep curious and to keep moving forward.The special ‘bits’ she brought to show us included a framed picture of her husband and son in a chippie. It was taken just at the end of her treatment when she’d lost her appetite, but suddenly had an overwhelming urge for big fat salty greasy chips. Her family drove to a chip shop in town and this moment reminded her that life would once again be ‘normal’. When she looks at it she says she feels emotional because she’s so proud of how her family pulled together and got through such a tough time.
With her three teenage children growing up fast, she brings a child’s jacket that has gone through her two girls and her son and reminds her of her beautiful moments of their childhood in London. We talk about the nostalgia of motherhood and how we navigate the emotions of our children changing and moving away from us.
She also brings a painting of honeysuckle that grew in the thatched cottage in which she grew up. It was painted by her late father, from whom she was estranged. It reminds her of the good parts of her dad and how she’s come to the realisation that he tried his best.
If you haven’t discovered Salima’s honest, funny, engaging Substack, find her https://substack.com/@salimasaxton and also on Instagram @salimasexton

Watch her emotional talk for The Moth here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA0BBHoMLuM
To view our guests' special bits, please follow us on Instagram @showusyourbitspodcast
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It's a pop of colour this week with flamboyant, fabulous founder Pauline Paterson from Dr. PAWPAW. Pauline founded her company in 2013 with her husband Johnny, when their daughter developed eczema as a baby. The doctors recommended steroid cream but, being a hairdresser, Pauline knew how harsh chemicals could be — and just how delicate a baby's skin was. Back in Australia, the paw-paw fruit (a.k.a. papaya) is widely used for its soothing qualities. Once she put it on her baby's skin, the eczema cleared up straight away. Seeing the huge gap in the market, she created a clinically proven, multi-purpose, paw-paw-infused vegan balm — and Dr. PAWPAW was born. She's since used the same base formula to create a whole range of products, from hair care to lip tints.
Pauline talks about working with her husband, how she's grown a huge business from scratch with no formal training, and her passion for developing her products. Intrepid and daring, Pauline is all about saying yes to life — climbing mountains, travelling far and wide, and most recently joining 50 entrepreneurs on a hair-raising tuk-tuk drive coast to coast across India to raise money for girls' education.
Describing herself as a maximalist and a compulsive jewellery buyer, Pauline whittled her "bits" down to some fascinating pieces — including a pair of vintage sapphire and silver rings she bought in Egypt on her honeymoon. She also shares the story behind a moonstone ring: how it cracked, and how a woman in a crystal shop told her something evil had come her way — and the crystal had defended her. Down to earth and funny, Pauline also faced most parents' nightmare: losing a beloved cuddly toy and brings a pair of matching toys for each of her kids to show us.
She keeps herself grounded amid an all-consuming business by carving out time for exercise and lives by the mantra "Work hard, play hard, be kind". She firmly believes there's rarely a difficult situation that kindness can't solve.
Dr. PAWPAW is available in most high street stores — see the full range at www.drpawpaw.com. Find Pauline at @mrspawpaw on Instagram and @drpawpaw. @showusyourbitspodcast
To view our guests' special bits, please follow us on Instagram @showusyourbitspodcast
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Oh, we do like to be beside the seaside! Oh we do like to be beside the sea... Alice and Josie take to Brighton beach for this week's episode, because who doesn't love the British riviera when the sun is blazing down and everyone is in a good mood? Basking on the stones (and looking for hag stones - the special lucky pebbles with holes in), Josie regales Alice with her recent adventures in the Cannes Film festival where she's been talking about her film, The Bright Side Running Club - a story inspired by Brighton beach. Whilst Alice shares her fascinating with seashells and her gorgeous seashell jewellery collection. Do check out their new Substack page - Show Us Your Bits Podcast for the stories behind the bits. And @showusyourbitspodcast on Instagram

Read the full transcript here.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1W4GK5aaiHv68jp1numaY_T91rA-ymZn7BaFxuL-TxF4/edit?usp=sharing
To view our guests' special bits, please follow us on Instagram @showusyourbitspodcast
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Show Us Your Bits, Alice and Josie are joined by the brilliant Ciara Crossan, founder of Wedding Dates, for a conversation full of adventure, instinct, motherhood, bold decisions and the magic of saying yes. From backpacking around the world with kilos of sand in her suitcase, to just saying 'yes' and flying across the world to LA for the Grammy Awards with a DJ friend after being offered a free ticket, to building a business as a single mum of identical twin boys, Ciara’s story is packed with colour, courage and those extraordinary little moments that change everything. Her bits are just as full of life. She brings sand collected from beaches across the world, a painting she bought after that unforgettable Grammy adventure as a reminder of the moment she stepped out of her comfort zone and said yes, and a beautiful diamond necklace with three stones: one for Ciara and two for her sons. Bought to mark a huge personal milestone, it has become a daily reminder of what she has built, what she has overcome, and the boys at the heart of it all. There are seagulls in Brighton, a psychic twin dream, a wedding dress marathon, Kilimanjaro, imposter syndrome, instinct, and the kind of stories that make you want to look again at the objects you carry through life.

A gorgeous, funny and inspiring episode about trusting your gut, backing yourself, and the bits that tell the biggest stories.

In this episode-
In this episode of Show Us Your Bits, Ciara Crossan shares the story behind the meaningful objects she has collected through travel, motherhood, business and personal growth.

Ciara is the founder of Wedding Dates, a wedding technology platform based in Cork, Ireland. She started the business in 2008 after growing up in a hotel family and spotting a gap in how couples searched for wedding venues and suppliers by date. Over the years, Wedding Dates has grown into a platform supporting hotels and wedding venues across Ireland and the UK, including its venue CRM system, WedPro.

The conversation explores Ciara’s journey as a female founder, tech entrepreneur and single mother to identical twin boys. She talks about the loneliness of building a business, the importance of women’s networks, finding confidence in rooms where she once felt she did not belong, and the power of trusting your gut.

Ciara’s personal objects, or “bits”, include sand collected from beaches around the world during two years of backpacking, a painting she bought after flying across the world to Los Angeles for the Grammy Awards with a DJ friend after being offered a free ticket, and a beautiful three-diamond Chupi necklace. The painting reminds her of a moment when she stepped out of her comfort zone and said yes to an unexpected adventure.

Her Chupi necklace has three diamonds: one larger diamond representing Ciara, and two smaller diamonds representing her twin sons. She bought it to mark completing her postgraduate masters in international selling in 2019 to 2020, after once swearing she would never return to education. She now wears it almost every day as a reminder of what she is building for herself and her boys.

This episode touches on entrepreneurship, motherhood, women in business, imposter syndrome, travel, friendship, intuition, meaningful jewellery, personal storytelling and the objects that hold our most important memories.

Listen for stories about Brighton seagulls, a psychic dream about twins, running a marathon in a wedding dress, appearing on Dragon’s Den, launching the Irish Wedding Venue Awards, climbing Kilimanjaro with women from the EY Winning Women network, and learning to say yes to life’s unexpected opportunities.

@showusyourbitspodcast
To view our guests' special bits, please follow us on Instagram @showusyourbitspodcast
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.