Big Stuff With Danielle Colley

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Melinda Schneider has been on stage since she was three years old. She's released fourteen albums, won six Golden Guitars, sold out the Sydney Opera House more than once, and just debuted at number one on the ARIA charts. By every measure, she is a success story.
But in this conversation, Melinda shares what was quietly happening behind all of it — the perfectionism that drove her, the workaholism she couldn't stop, and the breakdown at 47 that finally forced her to put it all down. She talks about the flags she ignored for years, her resistance to accepting help, the terror of going public with her mental health story, and what it's actually taken to rebuild a life that feels good from the inside.
This is a conversation about the cost of performing perfect — and what becomes possible when you finally stop.

Connect with Melinda: 
Website:⁠ melindaschneider.com.au ⁠
Instagram: ⁠@melindaschneiderofficial⁠
The Barbra Streisand show The Way We Were tours nationally from August — including the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall.
Find out more about Danielle at ⁠daniellecolley.com.au⁠
Or follow her on Istagram - ⁠@iamdaniellecolley⁠

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 — Introduction 
05:00 — What it's really like being a successful working artist 09:30 — Where does expectation end and you begin? 
11:30 — The perfect impersonation of perfect — and the collapse at 47 
20:00— What she was most afraid of: being a disappointment 23:00 — The flags she ignored 
27:30 — The trigger, the breakdown, and going to bed
30:30 — Resisting medication — and why surrendering to it was the hardest part 
34:00 — "Should is shit" — reprogramming the critical inner voice 
40:30 — The sandwich generation
46:00 — The number one album and what success feels like now 
52:00 — Painting with her mum, "I wonder what will happen," and letting go of perfectionism 
55:30 — What's next: touring, the Barbra Streisand show, keeping the balance

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What if the clutter in your home isn't just stuff — it's a story you're still telling about yourself? In this episode, Danielle sits down with Cindy Kavanagh, former fashion photographer turned Swedish Death Cleaning practitioner, for a conversation about identity, letting go, and what's left when you strip it all back.
Cindy spent over thirty years making women look and feel extraordinary — first through fashion photography, then through her portrait studio The Modern Muse, and then through a Masters of Art degree exploring identity and belonging. Now she's doing the most radical thing she's ever done: clearing it all away. Her accumulated beautiful life, her professional identity, and the roles she's been playing — and helping others do the same through the Scandinavian practice of Swedish Death Cleaning. Not because life got bad, but because she started to wonder what was actually left when you stopped holding onto the proof of who you once were.
This one goes deep. Danielle and Cindy talk about the grief of an empty nest arriving earlier than expected, the quiet liberation of choosing simplicity after decades of accumulating, and why your home might be the most honest mirror of who you really are. There's also a bumblebee. A large one. 
CHAPTERS
00:00 — Introduction 
03:30 — Meet Cindy: from fashion photographer to Swedish Death Cleaner 
08:00 — Selling dreams, not dresses: the heart behind the camera 
15:00 — Danielle's dad's sailing journal and the art of honouring what matters 
22:00 — What Swedish Death Cleaning actually is (and isn't) 
28:00 — How your home reflects your internal state 
33:00 — Sentimental objects, obligation, and letting go with love 
40:00 — The empty nest: grief arriving earlier than expected 
46:00 — Joy and grief in each pocket: the duality of life's transitions 
53:00 — What simplicity looks like after a life of accumulating 
59:00 — Your home as a mirror: the five objects question

RESOURCES MENTIONED
The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning by Margareta Magnusson
HOW TO FIND CINDY
Cindy's business: Simplify with Cindy
Instagram - @simplify_with_cindy

Enjoyed this episode? Share it with one person who needs to hear it. And if you want to get in touch or submit your own How Are You Really, reach Danielle at [email protected] or @iamdaniellecolley

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Have you ever completely lost your cool with your kid and then spent the next hour feeling like the worst parent alive? Family therapist and author of The Perfect Parent Trap, Lisa Taylor, has spent 25 years sitting across from families in crisis — and what she'll tell you is that in almost every single case, the child is not the problem. In this deeply honest conversation, Danielle and Lisa get into the real reason the teenage years can feel less like raising a family and more like surviving one, and what you can do about it.
Lisa introduces her concept of "Heartprints" — the invisible imprints from our own childhood that quietly drive our reactions under stress. When your teenager slams a door or goes into full shutdown, the heat you feel rising in your chest? That's rarely about them. This conversation is warm, practical, and full of the kind of insights that will make you stop mid-scroll and think: oh, that's me.
In this episode:
0:00 Introduction
4:30 Why parenting feels unsolvable
9:00 Behaviour is information, not a problem to fix
12:00 What's happening in your teenager's brain
17:00 Heartprints: how your childhood drives your reactions
24:00 Does the inner work ever end?
29:00 When your kid completely shuts down
34:30 Parenting from fear vs love
39:00 Why taking things away doesn't work
43:30 Screens and the technology experiment
49:00 Spicy brains, blended families and unmet needs
53:00 Protecting your relationship through the teen years
57:00 Why repair is more powerful than perfection
1:01:00 The five fundamentals
1:04:30 Danielle's thinking points
Resources mentioned: The Perfect Parent Trap by Lisa Taylor — available at Amber Press, Amazon, Booktopia and good bookstores 
Lisa's website: strengtheningfamiliesaustralia.com.au 
Lisa on Instagram: @lisataylor.au

Connect with Danielle: 
daniellecolley.com.au  
[email protected]
IG- @iamdaniellecolley

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In this episode, Danielle sits down with double ARIA Award-winning musician, Elana Stone, to explore what it really means to build a sustainable creative life when the entire economic system has shifted underneath you. 

Twenty years into a career what looks successful from the outside - international tours, collaborations with incredible artists, awards and recognition - Elana opens up about the gap between external achievement and internal reality. 

They dive deep into the brutal economics of streaming (spoiler: you need over a million streams a month just to earn minimum wage), the necessity of doing "everything" as an independent artist, and why creative sustainability often means piecing together multiple revenue streams rather than chasing the singular dream of "making it."

But this conversation goes beyond industry economics. 
Elana and Danielle discuss the ego death that comes from loss and parenting, the tension between what we think we're supposed to want and what actually sustains us, and why community music-making - like the choir Elana leads - creates the kind of resonance and flow that reminds us why we do creative work in the first place. 
From Elizabeth Gilbert's "one hour a day" practice to the question of whose definition of success we're actually following, this episode asks: How do you stay the course as a creative when it's so unreliable and uncertain? And what will matter more than any award or recognition when you're looking back at 80?

00:00 - Introduction03:45 - The Gap Between Success and Reality13:15 - The Economics of Streaming: How Musicians Actually Earn24:30 - Working in the Cracks: Multiple Creative Streams31:45 - Ego Death and Redefining What Matters40:30 - Why Choir Matters: Flow, Resonance, and Community48:00 - Creative Practice: Elizabeth Gilbert's One Hour a Day59:30 - What's Next and Letting Go of Old Dreams62:15 - Final Question: What Will Matter at 80?

Books mentioned: 
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

You can find Elana's latest album tagged below, and find her at 
IG: ⁠@elanastoneworld⁠
WWW: ⁠elanastone.com.au⁠

Support live music. Buy merch. Go to gigs.

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What happens when a Muay Thai champion decides the real fight isn't in the ring—it's saving boys from the stereotypes that are killing them?
Richie Hardcore knows exactly what happens when boys grow up watching men solve problems with fists and bottles. His father's severe alcoholism and the family violence that came with it could have destroyed him. Instead, it became his mission.
Now, as a White Ribbon ambassador and TEDx speaker, Richie walks into schools across Australia and New Zealand having the conversations most adults are too scared to have. He tells teenage boys it's okay to cry, to feel confused, to not have it all figured out. He works with incarcerated young men through The Rise Above Charitable Trust, showing them the violence can stop with them.
But here's what's keeping me up at night after this conversation: our boys are struggling more than we realize. They're ordering hard drugs via Uber. They're learning about sex from pornography that teaches the opposite of intimacy. They're consuming manosphere content that's gone mainstream—not Andrew Tate anymore (he's "cringe now") but gym influencers and self-help bros peddling the same dangerous messages about what it means to be a man.
And they're desperate for someone to tell them it's okay to take off the mask.
This is essential listening if you're:
Raising or teaching boys and watching them shut down emotionally
Worried about gender violence in your community
Trying to understand what healthy masculinity actually looks like in practice
Concerned about online radicalization and manosphere influence on young men
Looking for actual conversations to have with the boys in your life

CONTENT WARNING
This episode contains frank discussions of family violence, alcoholism, substance abuse, sexual violence, domestic abuse, and the impact of pornography on young people. Listener discretion advised.

Resources mentioned - 
Jess Hill - "⁠See What You Made Me Do" ⁠(book on domestic violence and gender violence)
Jess Hill -⁠ "Asking For It" ⁠(SBS documentary on consent culture)
⁠The Rise Above Charitable Trust ⁠- Richie's organization working with incarcerated youth
⁠Our Watch (Australia)⁠ - Gender violence prevention resources

CONNECT WITH RICHIE HARDCORE
⁠On Instagram⁠
⁠On Website⁠

If you enjoyed this episode, please share with just one person. 
Connect with Danielle at [email protected] or on ⁠Instagram⁠