Live Immediately With Mike Campbell

I love being around people that inspire me and make me think. My guest today, Justin Smith, is definitely one of those people. Our paths only crossed a few weeks ago, at an event I was hosting in my hometown of Newcastle. Justin and I connected after the event and I simply loved that this guy, in his mid-twenties, was already asking some big questions of himself, and that he had the courage to make some changes in his life that meant detouring from the so called normal path. In this episode, Justin and I discuss human connection, wearing multiple professional hats, work life integration, the importance of mentors, and adding value to the lives of the people around us. Justin also goes into the five value pillars that he guides his life by. One point I really loved about this was his notion that the skill of contentment is so important when striving for growth and betterment. That we need to be happy with what we have, before we can grow and be better. Justin grows, and helps the people around him grow, throug

In a fast passed world of trying to be everything to everyone, my guest today, Brooke McAlary, has one word for you – Slow. Brooke is the author of the new book “DESTINATION SIMPLE – Everyday Rituals For A Slower Life”, host of the hugely successful and #1 iTunes podcast, The Slow Home Podcast, and co-founder of the independent podcast company, Jack Rabbit FM, that she launched with her husband Ben a couple of years ago. Ben was also a guest on the Live Immediately Podcast way back in episode four. I have linked to his episode in the show notes. It is well worth a listen as Ben touches on his thoughts around the alignment of health, happiness and heart. Brooke has had a massive influence on my life, as it was the lessons I learnt, from her conversations with her guests, that really helped me to shape my thoughts, start asking questions, and create beautiful change in my life over the past few years. There is so much in this episode, I don’t know where to start. Brooke and I discu

We often feel like we have ticked all the boxes of social expectation, but we still have this feeling of emptiness. We keep trying to chase that imaginary finishing line. My guest today, Lynne Welch, is a girl from the suburbs of Sydney, who felt like she had ticked all the boxes of social expectation. That age-old question, “So now what?” came into her mind. But unlike many of us, Lynne decided to explore the world to see if she could find the answer. Lynne, who feels more comfortable and at home in a foreign place, now runs two businesses in the Indian town of Ladakh, which is at the foothills of the Himalayas and has no road access for seven months of the year during winter. Lynne and I piece together her epic travel adventures and discuss designing a lifestyle around flexibility, going into the unknown without expectations, working through cultural differences, and crowd funding a new school. I love Lynne’s easy going, lets see what happens, caring attitude. And if you are anything like

Crossroads appear throughout our lives, some are created by particular moments, and others we go searching for. And that decision on which way to turn, is more challenging at some points than others, but it is that willingness and determination to change that enables us to grow. My guest today, Will Ainsworth, has made some big, positive, and important changes in his life. After watching his father die by the bottle, and realising he was potentially walking a similar path, Will broke this vicious family cycle right before his first son was born. This positive change rippled throughout his entire life. In this episode we discuss knowing your purpose, being forced to make a change, breaking habits by replacing them with better ones, and working on being optimistic. I admire Will for being very open and raw on quite a personal and sensitive topic, and I love the life that he has designed for himself and his family. I hope you enjoy x www.liveimmediately.com

The universal language is love, and my guest today, Julie Muir, a city girl from Dublin, found hers while backpacking around South America. Julie’s journey of love carried her around the globe and eventually brought her to the sandy shores of Australia. In this episode Julie and I discuss being open to new and different experiences, paying forward the goodwill you receive while traveling, learning to live with less, and the life lessons we learn by travelling. Julie is a lover of love with a big heart. And if you are anything like me you’ll be mesmerised by her beautiful Irish accent. I hope you enjoy x www.liveimmediately.com

Let me start with one big ask. If you are a parent, please really listen to this episode, as it includes many important factors for raising our children. My insightful, beautiful, and profoundly articulate guest today, Claire Dunn, is a student of nature. Claire is the author of the book “MY YEAR WITHOUT MATCHES – Escaping the city in search of the wild”, where she spent a year off grid in a wilderness survival camp. In this episode, Claire and I discuss her experience in living in the wilderness for a year, the mysterious pull that we feel, and the sacred order of survival. But where my heart lies in this conversation is when we start discussing rewilding, where we need to rediscover our wildness, and the beautiful and very import notion of bringing up nature connected kids. Claire is a deep thinker, but not simply in the back corners of her mind, but deep into her soul. I personally took so much away from this conversation and I know you will too. I hope you enjoy x www.liveimmediately.com

We have all had one of those days. You come home from the office and you start questioning everything – “Is this what I want to be doing?”, “Is there something more?”, “How can I make a change in my life?” And then you throw out a crazy idea to your partner. ”Hey honey, why don’t we renovate a vintage trailer and travel the United States for a year?” For most of us, we let that crazy idea pass and go about our normal evening. But what I love about my guests today, Melissa and Carson, is that they ran with the crazy idea and did just that. They spent over a year renovating a 1968 FAN travel trailer, and then spent a year on the road with their Goldendoodle, Costello, spending each week in a different state, picking up local colour along the way. In this episode we discuss going with the crazy idea, the beauty in planning and growing before the adventure has even begun, living with less, and taking the choice away from ourselves to build better habits.

It is no secret that I love travelling and that it is a big part of my life. My family and I packed, donated or sold everything we owned in Australia to head off on a year adventure through North America, where we didn’t pay for accommodation. This time last year, home for us was a log cabin, in the middle of the Northwoods of Wisconsin, in a town called Clam Lake, which has a population of 37 people. We learn and grow so much when we travel, and this is what my guest today, Amanda Kendle, and I really dive into – those lessons on the road and how we can implement them into our daily life. In this episode we discuss the beautifulness of short-term perspective, making changes in your life even when things are great, travelling slowly, and choosing the bigger life. Amanda is the host of the Thoughtful Travel Podcast and also has the travel blog, Not A Ballerina, which she has run for over 11 years. I hope you enjoy x www.liveimmediately.com

We all too often are tangled in the web of life. Feeling like we are suffocating from the expectations of others and the ones we put on ourselves, our endless list of priorities, and that constant need to be connected. In this episode I have a wonderful chat with occupational therapist, speaker, mother and author of the new book – Switch Off: How to Find Calm in a Noisy World – Angela Lockwood. I loved this conversation so much as Angela and I go deep on a lot of topics that I feel so strongly about – The importance of slowing down, how we spend our time, creating boundaries around technology use, supporting children’s growth with our time, creating a habitat for health, how our behaviours are teaching our children, and so much more. This is such a fun and knowledge packed episode, and one that I have been super excited to share with you. Angela is such a beautiful person and someone who genuinely want to help people, especially kids, to grow and be happy and fulfilled in their lives.

At this time of year we often look ahead, set a number of goals, resolutions, things we want to achieve and things we want to change. Usually these are centred on looking better, feeling better or getting more of something. We attempt to map out the entire year looking at it as a whole entity, from a distance, like it is complete. But our year isn’t complete, it has just begun. And our year, like our life, is simply made up of many days. In this solo episode I talk about the exercise I did to determine my perfect day and discuss the importance of outlining our perfect day. How once we know what our perfect day looks like we can determine the changes we need to make with our current daily actions to align more closely with our perfect day. I hope you try the exercise and discover what your perfect day looks like and the changes you need to make in your day to live it. I would love to know how you go with it so make sure you flick me an email with your perfect day outline and if you have any questions I a

Anxiety seems to be an issue that keeps surfacing through a lot of the conversations I have with people, this heaviness that some people are living with. But often that moment when they are diagnosed with anxiety and they start to take action to fix or manage it is a pivotal moment in their life. My guest today is Kylie Aloi, is one of those people. Her journey of learning how to manage her anxiety lead her to a place where she now lives by following her values, understanding what is important to her, and living the life she wants to live and not one that she is expected to live. In this episode, Kylie talks openly about understanding that anxiety is part of her personality, calling off her wedding four weeks out and the freeing feeling it created for her, being in tune with your values, along with some tips on how people can discover their own values. I really appreciate how honest Kylie is during our conversation on a topic that isn’t always the easiest to talk about. I hope you enjoy x www.liveimmedi

“The rut”. That feeling like you are continuously treading water, moving from one thing, to the next thing, to the next. It is something we all get stuck in, and if we’re not careful or mindful of our situation, it can cause damage to all other areas of our life – relationships, health, time. My guest today, Zoe Davis, found herself in one of those ruts, one that had been going on for many years, until her body finally said, enough is enough, and she was bed ridden for two weeks. Zoe wasn’t able to do anything, but reflect on the situation she was in. Zoe hit a point in her life where she realised she needed to make some changes. And this is a key point of this episode - Zoe had been stuck in her rut so deeply, that she had neglected health, neglected herself. Why do we wait so long to make changes in our lives? Zoe had a massive lump on her right hand, but she kept putting the x-ray off until the pain was too much for her to handle. That lump, ended up being a Giant Tumour. The

This is a conversation I have really been looking forward to and sharing with everyone, as I believe we all need to have a hard look at our financial health. I strongly believe that if people knew more about money, if they knew how it works, to live within their means, to not constantly live in a state of money stress, and money fatigue, then they could eradicate their money issues. And if we eradicate our money issues, I believe we would also eradicate a lot of the family fighting, as a lot of the augments stem from money issues or money issues amplify other problems. And if we could stop the family augments, this would mean more kids are growing up in families that aren’t fighting, more kids are growing up in happy families. And to me, that is the end goal of everything. To raise kids with smiles on their faces. Because if we raise kids with smiles on their faces. They turn into adults with smiles on their faces. And adults with smiles on their faces don’t start wars - they are compassionate, th

Inga, Andy and I returned from our family adventure about a month ago, where we were house and pet sitting our way through North America for a year. It has been wonderful, being back in our little home in Newcastle, walking along the beach and catching up with family and friends. One question that many people have asked us is, “How are you settling back into reality?” This is an interesting question for me, so in this episode I thought I would answer it. I am sure there are many people who I don’t get to see face-to-face who would be wondering the same thing too. I would also love to know what you think of this style of episode. If you like it, I will look at including more solo episodes where I discuss the lessons I have learnt and how I am using them in my own life. I hope you enjoy x www.liveimmediately.com

When you look back at the people who you have met during your life, there are some who always stick out from the crowd, they are in those fond and happy memories, and they helped nudge your life in a positive direction, where at the time, you didn’t even realise that the nudging was taking place. My guest today, Kylie Martin, is one of those beacons in my life, as she played a pivotal role in my career into the music industry. Kylie has had a very successful career in the music industry as head of publicity for leading independent and multinational record companies, starting her own publicity company, Martini Media, publicist for ARIA and their 30th Anniversary Awards, along with being Kylie Minogue’s publicist for umpteen years. And as much as we do discuss Kylie’s journey through the music industry, we really dive deep when Kylie shares her journey into motherhood and discovering that her baby boy has autism. Kylie is honest and frank, as only Kylie could be, as she discuses being fearful

I am a believer that the beautifulness in life is surrounded by the people you meet. My guest today is a dear friend of mine, Tom Glafcke. Who I had the pleasure of meeting and becoming deep friends with, when my family and I were housesitting a log cabin in the northwoods of Wisconsin. Tom describes his life as, “ordinary by many people’s standards”. But through the many conversations I had with him, the stories that he shared, and the lessons that I have learnt from him, I believe his life is anything but ordinary. Tom is in his mid 60s, a lover of nature, solitude and people. This episode is full of life wisdom - lessons that you only learn through time, experience and actively living life. Tom shares stories about living a deliberate life, walking through life with optimism, the aliveness that struggle makes you feel, and that love really is the answer. There is a beautiful simplicity about the way Tom has deliberately chosen to live his life. And it is this simplicity, this rawness of h

There are many things I dislike about social media, but one of the positives for me is how you can learn from someone else’s normal life. My guest today, Natalie Walton, is far from normal as she juggles four children and just as many businesses. But her life, her day to day, her school runs, meal times, waking babies are all normal to her - but I have learnt so much from her experiences, through her photos and articles that she writes. About a year ago, Natalie, her husband and now four children moved out of Sydney to the hinterland of the Central Coast. And from what I can tell, for no apparent reason. They weren’t leaving the city because they hated it, they weren’t moving for a career, the opportunity presented itself and it gave them a chance to simply try something new. I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation as Natalie discussed her tree change and adjusting to the countryside, getting the kids involved and co-parenting, reasons for limiting the amount of toys her children have, and he

We all have choices in our lives and often when we say we can’t do something, it is because we have already said yes to something else. Just like that old saying, “You can have everything, just not all at the same time.” My guest today, Evie Farrell, had been saving up to renovate her kitchen. And even though she had gone through the design process, flicked through countless magazines and walked through many showrooms, she just couldn’t bring herself to spend her money on a new kitchen. Evie kept thinking, that in ten years time, her daughter would not thank her for giving her a new kitchen. But she would thank her for giving her the experience of traveling through Asia for 18 months with her.  So that is what she did. Evie packed up her life in Sydney and spent the kitchen money on an 18 month adventure through Asia with her 6 year old daughter.  In this episode we talk about stepping sideways in life, the material waste that we have in our lives, the joy of travelling with

One of the key elements of living immediately is to be deliberate with our actions, mindful of the direction we are heading in. My guest today is Ben Gray, a great guy who loved life in Australia with his wife and two kids. But he also had this feeling that he didn’t want to be living the same day for the next 65 years. So a few years back he decided to spice things up a little and pack the family up in a motorhome and travel across North America. As exciting as his adventure was, I personally gravitated towards Ben because of the way he has decided to live his life since his road trip. He has recently purchased a property in the countryside of Canada to allow his kids to grow surrounded by nature and to help instil his three C’s - Curiosity, Creativity and Courageousness In this episode we discuss living a predictable life, chasing the imaginary finishing line, and the importance of setting a date to achieve your dreams. Ben is as laidback as you’d expect any boy from the Sutherland Shire o

The fast pass of work and long hours in the office can have a huge affect on all aspects of your life. And this is exactly what my guest today, Stacey Clare, discovered after spending years working late and not thinking about the food she was putting into her body or how she was treating herself. But that all changed after the birth of her first baby. Having a baby is a joyful moment, a journey where a woman becomes a mother. And as joyful as it was for Stacey to have her first child, it was also full of complications that lead to her baby being born at 32 weeks and only weighing 1.38kgs. The poor health of her baby meant that Stacey needed to do something that no parent should have to do. A month after bringing her baby home from the hospital, she found him not breathing in his cot. A heart wrenching sight for any parent to see. Stacey had to put her fingers around his little chest and push down, performing CPR on him to bring life back to his little body - Which, thankfully, she did. But through all this, S