Life with Nat - EP212: Tony talks #19 - Nat & Tony's big changes clinic is open for business
Episode Date: March 26, 2026Tony's back (aches, but enough about that for now), and we've got the springtime hopefulness coursing through our veins and want to get all the changes made in our lives. What have you done, and what ...are you unsure about doing in the future? Enjoy!! xx Please subscribe, follow, and leave a review. xxx You can find us in all places here; https://podfollow.com/lifewithnat/ We're on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lifewithnatpod Nat's insta: @natcass1 Marc's insta: @camera_marc Niece's insta: @natsnieces Tony's insta: @tonycass68 Linny's insta: @auntielinny.lwn MORE LIVE SHOWS! 29th March 2026 Bristol, The Gaffe - SOLD OUT 10th May 2026 - The Grief Show with Auntie Linny - Studio, Chelmsford Theatre, Chelmsford - TICKETS COMING SOON 24th May 2026 - Hertford, Beam TICKETS Book Club: March's Book - Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin https://www.amazon.co.uk/Everyone-This-Room-Will-Someday/dp/1838953752 Nat’s solo chats - any rants always welcome. We're talking big career changes, the constant comparisons with others on social media... and the audacity of teenagers! Scraping the Barrel - SCAN AND SHOP VIRGIN NO LONGER! Bonce vs list! - Are you a list maker? Always collecting for Nostalgia Fest! What’s brewing with the Nieces - AGEING & non-negotiables Things we’re nagging with Linny about - More lateness stories and some cleaning questions, please! The Tony talks chatter - Keep your DIY questions coming. What are your favourite films & albums? What’s the show Tony’s going on about? And is there any way they'd legally be able to continue their holiday if that happened on the boat? Cold water swimmers and shower’ers… convince us A 'Keep It Light Media' Production Sales, advertising, and general enquiries: hello@keepitlightmedia.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Hello and welcome to Life with Nat.
I hope you're all super, super good on this Thursday.
It's not Thursday, it's actually Friday before, because I'm super organised this week, and I'm with Tony.
Hello, Tom.
Hello, Nat.
How are you?
I'm not too bad, thank you.
Not too.
I've never been able to do accents.
Terrible.
Awful.
That's a terrible.
I don't even know where that's from.
Oh, Vera.
Is it a sort of Manchester, isn't it?
Trying to be.
Yeah.
Sort of from watching Corrie were mum and dad.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Shit at it.
Yeah.
Can you do any accents?
Anything?
Got anything for me?
I used to be...
I think it was a film once.
Was it Kess?
I remember Kess.
Do you remember who's saying Kidd?
With a bird?
Yeah.
Right.
And I don't know if he's dad or someone who kills the bird
and he says to him, you pig, hog, sow, drunken, bastard.
Oh, that's good.
Really sort of pointed.
I mean, I don't know where we could take that on the sentence.
No, no, it's just a factual sentence from a film.
Yeah, no.
But I'm saying it's really good, but I don't know where we could take it.
Unless we're having a pop at someone.
No, no, you couldn't.
Or you could, I suppose.
If you had the hump of someone, you could call them a pig hog, sell, drunken bastard.
I suppose.
Talking of having a go.
Yes.
I was crossing a car park today.
Right.
Park car, as I like to say.
Crossing the car park in an industrial estate.
So I've parked the car.
Right, okay.
Yeah.
Just crossing the road at a normal speed.
Okay.
I weren't in a rush, but I wasn't...
You weren't jaywalking.
I wasn't jay walking.
Right, okay.
And I wasn't running.
All right.
Did you get bib?
Massive.
I nearly had heart attack.
Beb!
And then she was going, why don't you hurry up?
Why don't...
I said, how not?
What should I do?
Fucking run across the road.
Oh, it goes.
me the amp.
What car was it?
Was it Mercedes?
I've got a Mercedes.
Yeah, I know you've got a small one.
Yeah.
No, no.
I don't know what it was.
Okay.
But, oh, I thought, well, if you're in a rush,
I thought you're late.
You've got to put in a bit more time for your day.
Yeah, well, she's obviously just a bit of a,
like had a shitty day and got the amp and whatever her.
I wasn't sort of, you know, or I'm...
Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-a.
Yeah.
I thought, oh, give us a rest.
What we've got to do, Anika's challenge now, to cross all the road?
Yeah, it's just people, on it.
Some people.
Yeah, just bastards, don't they?
How's your weekbeen?
Sort of all right-ish.
Yeah.
Not bad.
My knees knackered as well as me back now.
So I'm sort of hobbling about a bit.
But other than that, the sun's shining, which is always good.
Yeah, it's lovely.
It's lovely. Really feel like we've turned a corner now.
I agree.
I agree.
Until it starts snowing in April.
I always remember Daddy could say that.
I've known it to snow at the races.
In June, yeah.
In June, yeah.
Yeah, it used to, I've known it to snow set.
What was it?
Bank Holiday, August bank holiday.
It wasn't quite as bad as that.
He did tell me once it snowed in,
I think it snowed in June in 1963.
Yeah.
When they had that terrible winter.
It started in January and it went on for months and months and months apparently.
Don't.
Yeah.
But, no, so fingers crossed, that's it.
We've turned the corner.
I think so.
All the flowers are coming up and the blossoms are on the trees.
And the birds.
They are so...
You wait till you ever sleep over here tonight.
They are having a party in the morning.
Beautiful it is.
Well, they wake me up now.
About half five?
No, earlier.
Oh, really?
Earlier.
And I love it.
I just, I know we've had this conversation for them.
No, it's lovely, though.
To be woken up by birdsong is just amazing.
I love it.
Even though I'm awake and I don't care.
No, I'm usually sort of half five, 20 to six.
Yeah.
And there's a couple that are talking to each other.
Yeah.
And they've got big mouths.
And I think, here they go.
Yeah, they go.
I wonder what they're saying to each other.
There's worse things, isn't they?
Screeching foxes.
Well, they're mating, aren't they?
Yeah, I think they're doing their thing.
They're doing their bit.
Yeah, but, oh, you would have...
It's a terrible sound.
God.
It's horrible.
It's like someone being murdered.
Yeah, it really is.
It really is.
In the middle of the night.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, it is.
Or a car alarm.
Yes.
That no one can turn off.
Funny enough, that's a really good point you've just made there.
Go on.
There's someone local in our street,
and their car alarm goes off about four times a week.
It exactly.
the same time.
It goes off at 6 o'clock in the morning.
God knows what they do.
But I just lay there and I think, here it goes again.
Oh, surely they've got to sort it out.
It's probably a technical issue, no?
Well, we must be, yeah.
But, you know.
Oh, it's horrible, isn't it?
Yeah, yeah.
But I know it's the same car.
It's the same alarm.
You know it's the same one.
And they've obviously been to the garage a thousand times
and been told it's right and it's working and it's not.
So, yeah, the car alarm's a bit of a pig.
It is, yeah.
Hey-ho
Yeah
There you go
We've got our birds
Don't we
We have got our birds
Which is our most important
We've got a woodpecker
Have you
We've got a woodpecker
We've got an owl
We've got
We've got a twit-toe
I saw an owl
In the middle of
You know we
As you drive into the village
Sat in the middle of the road
Really?
In the middle of the road
On the white line
Massive great big tawny owl
It was a few years ago
Wow
Huge
Just sat there
What's it doing sitting there
It's a bit strange
I don't know
I don't hear the owl now.
We hear our one.
Lovely.
And woodpecker says,
look,
look,
oh,
you did.
Yeah,
they're pecking wood.
The clue is in the name.
Gleys in the name.
Woody woodpecker.
Woody would pecker, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Excellent.
So it's a very,
very fast tap.
You can hear it,
and then there's a gap
and then it goes again.
Brilliant, love it.
I was having my makeup done
the other day here.
And, you know,
Molly will lay it all out
or Sophie or whoever's here
and it's early
sort of half five in the morning
and I can just sit at the kitchen table
and just look out the window
the birds
what they're doing out there
with the twigs and where they're going
and they're in there and in there
but I never get
who sits at the window for an hour
who's got time?
Who's got time?
I know some people enjoy it
and they're retired
or they like bird watching
or have you
but that's the only sort of
it's a real treat
and my young friends
who are doing my makeup and hair
I'm like oh have you seen this
and they're like
Oh, you're fucking boring, isn't you?
I'm getting old.
I like Gardner's World,
University Challenge,
and watching birds.
Yeah, that's right.
And what you're going to do about it?
Yeah, fuck all.
There you go.
43 in May?
Get over it.
So you kindly phone me this morning.
I did.
To a range this evening
and come up with a super idea.
Yeah.
And I know we speak about these things
and we have touched upon it,
but I just think it's something
that everybody talks about all of the time.
And it's being brave
and making change.
changes. And I put out a question, and as usual, our listeners have been absolutely fantastic.
Yeah, it's just overwhelming, isn't there?
It's fantastic. So thank you all so, so much. And we'll get down to them in a minute.
But firstly, I thought, why don't we have a little talk about changes that we've made to our lives,
things that have changed it for the better or for the worst, doesn't matter. Yeah, I just think it's really interesting.
for me
when you said this
and I thought
oh what should we talk about
I think a couple of things have happened
I think
a bad decision that I made
was choosing to do a fitness DVD
I know but you've got to put that one to bed
no but I'm just saying
it was a bad decision for me
because it didn't
it mucked me up a little bit
so that weren't great
and I think the best decision I made
was
leaving these tenders last year for me to be brave
and have a bit more freedom.
That was a huge decision
because you're going from
and we talked about it a lot of the time
didn't we?
We had a lot of conversations.
You're basically coming, going,
it was a steady job.
Yes.
It's a steady job with a guaranteed income.
Yeah.
So what essentially you've done,
you've gone from being employed
to being self-employed.
Although I wasn't.
No, but...
Just to make you, but yes,
you're right.
You weren't, but what I'm saying is
in terms of structure and stability,
yes.
It was like employment.
It was.
And then sort of to leave and do your own thing,
then it's like going self-employed or starting your own or whatever it might be.
Yeah.
Because you now, like I have to do, every week, every month,
whatever, you've got to go and find your work,
and you've got to go and do your work,
and you've got to get paid for your work.
It's a real change.
And I'm very honest and open, as you know,
and I like to be on the pod because we're a community of people.
I found it really tough after Christmas.
Yeah, I know you did, yeah.
I found it really tough.
I felt that I didn't have much coming up.
in.
You know, there was nothing in that diary that excited me.
Yeah.
And I thought, right, okay.
I did, well, I was doing the BBC documentary, so I loved that.
It was, and I'm still doing it, and that's brilliant.
But there was sort of, the phone wasn't ringing, and I didn't have emails coming through from Scott.
And I thought, oh, God, I'm not going to earn any money this year.
Yeah.
This is going to be awful.
Yeah.
I've made a terrible decision.
Because in a way, I can't help because my brain is conditioned.
to think of a certain weekly wage, if you like.
And I need that.
And when you don't see it coming in, you panic.
Yeah.
But thank goodness, I'm touching wood.
Do a little prayer and things have started to happen and the phone rings.
And I said you they would.
I know.
But you don't know at the time.
You don't, but you have to sort of, unfortunately,
you've got to trust yourself.
In a way, it's self-motivation we're talking about.
and it's really difficult to be self-motivated.
Yeah.
And it's really difficult to be self-motivated
when the buck stops with you.
If you don't get out of bed, you don't earn.
Yes.
Same as me.
Yes.
There's days when I literally think,
I just don't know I'm going to go to work today
because I'm aching, I'm hurting and whatever.
Yep.
Get myself out of bed, put my feet on the floor,
go right, let's do it, get up,
and it gets a bit easier.
And the way we go again.
so it's very, very tough to have to find your own work,
do your own work, get paid for your own work,
and keep it going and keep, you know, and keep that momentum going.
And interestingly, I've been talking to a few people with late,
different people and whatever, and people are really impressed with me
in terms of this pod.
Yeah.
They go, you've done two a week since you started and haven't had one off.
I go, no, I'm not doing that.
Yeah, it's right.
They go, but people have breaks, they'll take a break,
or there might not be one.
And I said, no, no, no.
I've made a promise to the listeners
that it'll be out Monday and Thursday
and I shan't go back on that.
Unless something exceptional happens.
Yeah, I mean, if there was a huge technical issue
or, as you say, something catastrophic happened.
That's different.
Then you put out an old one and apologise or what have you.
But you're not going to go on holiday for two weeks
and go, I can't be bothered to do it.
You plan.
It's disrespectful as well to your listeners.
It's almost like you're taking them for granted.
I think that's wrong.
I agree.
And also, I don't know if you,
heard the news about Lisa.
Well, I know something,
I don't know exactly what's happened.
Well, she's not going back to BBC Radio 2.
Right.
I don't know the reasons.
No. Not our business.
But I could only think about how sad I felt
because she's not going to be in my life.
Yeah, I know, because she is a,
I mean, that show is Saturday tea time, isn't it?
It's the best, yeah.
And it's a very personal thing to who you want to listen to.
And when I know that I'm not going to hear new ones of that,
and what have you, really got me thinking about our listeners.
Yeah.
And it got me, I'm not saying that, I hate saying that because I'm not in her league.
I'm not saying I'm Lisa Tarbuck.
But what I'm saying is, when I mentioned this on the pod last week,
and I've had a few messages to say, by the way, you're my Lisa Tarbuck.
Because people like listening to us.
Yeah.
So I don't want to let them down.
No, absolutely not.
And I think it's really, really important.
I'd do as well, yeah.
So there you go.
Where are my gloves?
Come on, heat.
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Off on a tangent again.
Sorry.
But yeah, in terms of being brave.
from making a change.
I'm pleased with what I've done,
but there's always,
you're just sort of always a little bit,
as you say,
not on eggshells,
but you're waiting for the next thing,
you're waiting for the next thing.
I'll be honest with you as well.
For me,
it's fear of failure.
Yeah.
That's what drives me most of the time
is fear of failure.
Because if I fail...
But you would never fail.
No, I know that.
What do you mean by fail?
Because you're brilliant.
No, but you have to...
You shouldn't have to worry about that.
No.
What it is, it's a fear.
I call it fear of failure.
Yeah.
And for me, what it is, it's a fear that at some point I stop doing what I should be doing.
But I get complacent.
I get lazy.
Or I don't care anymore.
Or I take my eye off the ball.
That's, for me, the fear of failure is what drives me.
You know?
Yeah.
No, I do understand.
So my big change, I was a lecturerian on the council.
I'm a qualified lecturgeoning, I've been for a long time,
and then I changed and went into consultancy.
I became a QS and the chartered surveyor,
and I did eight years at college, and I had a very, very good job.
I was working in a big consultancy in London.
You know, I had a company, A.R.D., I had insurance and healthcare.
And your pension, yeah.
So I had a nice salary, and I just packed it all in one day to start the business.
and it was the maddest decision ever.
Why did you do that?
What was your thinking?
I wasn't enjoying what I was doing.
Yep.
I didn't enjoy.
I liked corporate life at certain times
when you were being taken to the Belfrey for the Ryder Cup
or being taken to Spain for a week
for the British Council of Office's annual conference
or, you know, going out to nice restaurants
and all that was all very nice.
But I didn't really enjoy what I was doing anymore
and I didn't see a future in it.
how I wanted to try and build something
or make something or build something or do something financially.
I'm being brutally honest,
that financially was better for the family.
Right.
Because I didn't see me ever earning enough money
doing what I was doing,
even though it was nice and it was comfortable.
There wasn't sort of a ladder.
It wasn't amazing.
The salaries weren't amazing.
They weren't like, you know, city banker salaries.
I mean, I remember I walked around Marks and Spencer
the Manchester project we did,
which was the biggest in the world at the time,
the biggest M&S in the world,
with the Marks and Spencer's board explaining to them
what we were doing and how we were doing it
and how we'd done stuff in budget and da-da-da-da-da.
And I knew that the blokes who were like fitting,
the light fittings and putting plasterboard on the wall
were ruining more than I was.
And that was a real, that really hit home to me.
Yeah, fair enough.
A lot of what I did was about, it was about status.
You know, so you drove a nice car
you wore a nice suit and you walked around with a big wigs
and you were seen as an important person
because you're part of the design team, etc, etc.
But financially, didn't stack up anymore.
So I packed it in.
Yeah.
That's a major thing to do, right?
Bearing in mind, I had two small kids.
Yeah.
I still got big balls, you know, but two small kids.
And literally said, I said to Paul,
who's, you know, my best mate,
where business partners have been for a long time.
Should we have a go?
I just said, let's have a go.
He wasn't keen.
because he don't like change.
Bless him.
But I just walked into work one day.
I had two weeks off,
and I walked into work into where I worked at
at AYH, big consultancy in London,
saw my main board director.
I said, I'm leaving.
And he went, oh, where we go?
Where are you going?
Where are you going?
Who's poached you?
No, no, you don't understand.
I said, I told him what I was doing,
and he just sat there and went, well, brilliant.
He said, I'm really, really, really pleased for you.
He said, I think you're fucking mad.
Yeah.
He said, but I'm really pleased for him.
Good luck to you.
That's nice.
That's good.
So that was the massive change in my life.
But it's so brave and it was, you know, you have enjoyed years of it.
Yeah.
You've worked really hard, but it's been rewarding.
Yeah.
And it's hard graft.
It is hard graft, yeah.
Hard graft.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But, yeah, fantastic.
Yeah.
And you've, yeah, you've done what you set out to do, which is fantastic.
Yeah, and it's, but it's been a very, lots of sleep this nights and lots of, you know, the buck stops with you.
there isn't a support network.
No, no, no.
This is the thing.
Anyone that thinks about going out on their own
or doing their own thing,
and it's great because you're your own boss
and all the rest of it,
but you've got no accounts department,
no HR department,
you've got no medical insurance.
Yeah, yeah, of course.
You've got no this, you've got no that.
You've got no senior director.
If you've got a massive problem,
you can't deal with it, they can help you.
You've got none of that.
No, no.
You're on your own.
And you've got...
But it's also rewarded.
It's rewarded, yeah.
It's hard.
on worrying.
Yeah.
But for anyone out there who's thinking about it,
I think the positives outweigh the negative.
I do, yeah.
Well, the point I'm making is that when you do things like that,
I did it with reckless abandon, literally.
Yeah.
You know, I phoned showing up and said, I've resigned.
And she said, you've done what?
Bloody hell.
And it was all a bit of a shock.
But I just felt like I had, you know, like,
I just felt I had to make that gut, absolute incision.
Yeah.
I knew it's going to be right.
I thought, I'm going to make this work.
And we've made it.
it worked. But like you said, that is drive as well.
Yeah, you've got to be driven. That's drive, passion.
Yeah, and also a bit of stupidity
and not even thinking about
it could go wrong.
James O'Brien, I did a podcast
with him this week. His podcast is
full disclosure, but I heard
today he's done a podcast with Jeremy
King. Now Jeremy King
is one of the best restaurateurs
in this country.
He looked after the old I of a years ago
where we went, but he now has
he went through murders with the walls
and the Ivy and it was awful
and he's now got the Arlington
where we went for the first year anniversary
and he's now opened
Simpsons on the Strand again
fantastic
he had an offer for Cambridge
University
or he could stay in a hospitality business
where he was not earning a lot
and he flipped a coin to choose
that's as good as any
and again
what he's done because of his drive and passion
it fascinates me
Have a listen.
Not I want to steer you away from my podcast listeners.
You know I wouldn't do that.
But have a little listen.
It's fascinating.
But I think a lot of people say things are luck.
Aren't you lucky?
I get quite a lot.
You're lucky, aren't you, to be doing what you're doing?
And I think I was lucky in 1993,
but actually 30, whatever years later,
it's hard work, being kind, being respectful.
It's all those things.
I get the same.
You're lucky.
You're never out of work, are you?
And I don't say, well, yeah, you know when you go home
and you watch the telly of a night?
Yeah.
Well, I'm out seeing people.
Or I'm doing quotes.
Or you know on a Sunday when you're down in the pub or doing it,
I'm pricing a great big estimate
that I'm probably not going to get.
And you know when you turn your phone off on a weekend?
Well, I take calls on a weekend.
Yeah.
invariably, I'll get a phone call for someone that can lead to a job.
The best quote ever about that particular thing is that
someone once said to Gary Player, the golfer, yeah, you're very lucky, go.
And he said, funny enough, he said, the harder I work, the luckier I get.
That's brilliant.
And that is so, so true.
The harder I work, the luckier I get.
It's so true.
Yeah.
I like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And obviously whoever
sort of said you're lucky, he shut him right up.
Oh, I love that.
Yeah.
Should we have some listeners?
Yeah, go on.
Go on.
Here we go.
Hello, Natalie and Tony.
Happy Spring.
You may remember me as the one who called in
about asking Tony if you had any nice friends for me.
So I just wanted to update you all.
I decided, I didn't need a British
husband. I just needed to be British. And I mean, I feel like I'm going to cry saying this,
but my British passport just came in the mail a couple days ago. I got my dual citizenship
in 2024. It took a while to get the passport. And honestly, it's the best thing that's ever
happened to me. I love England so much. And I would like to live there. And hopefully I will
see you guys soon. Have a wonderful day.
Thank you so much for your podcast. I really enjoy it.
Lovely Michelle.
Oh, brilliant.
Isn't that great?
Yeah.
What a change that is?
Yeah, that's, yeah.
Big, isn't it?
Yeah, that's huge.
Another country.
I mean, that's, yeah.
My mate, Sophie, did it, didn't she?
She's in Perth now.
Mm.
I don't think I've got it in me.
No.
Don't think I could do it, Tone?
I don't think I could.
No.
Just don't think I could move from the UK?
No, I would, I think I would struggle massively.
because there's
so many things you love
and there's so many things you hate as well
I remember years ago
I worked with this bloke
and he was a cultural attach
to Barbados
What's the tachay, sorry?
He was a civil servant
basically
And he was
like he worked for the British government
in Barbados
in the British embassy
doing whatever he did
and I went
Oh but that was great
And he went
You know what?
He said after six months
of sunshine
and barbecues.
He said, all I wanted to do
was get on a tube train in London on a Monday morning,
come out of the station in the pissing rain.
Wow.
He said, that's what I missed.
Is that mad or what?
But I get it.
He said, I'm so sick of barbecues, sunshine,
and, you know, drinking on the beach and whatever.
He said it's just, you don't realize
what you've got in England
because you've got seasons
and you've got seasonal change
and all that sort of stuff, you know.
Yeah, you never know what you've got till it's gone
The grass is always greener, isn't it?
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
I think we're very lucky with our seasons.
Yeah, yeah.
To see that the duffs come up.
Yeah.
And as we said about the birds.
Yeah.
And my little blossom tree, you see the pink blossoms coming out.
It's magical.
Yeah, it is.
Magic.
Don't last for long either.
No.
Then that'll be gone.
And then something else can.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Fantastic.
Here's another.
And Michelle, if you do come to England, I want to see you at a live show of ours, please.
Oh, definitely, yes.
Got to come along.
Yeah.
Hi, Nat.
Hi, Tony.
hope you're both well. Just in your message, Natalie, in regards to being brave and making decisions.
I was brave three years ago and actually went to college and qualified as a nail technician.
And I was working full time as well as doing models and then trying to build my nail clients up.
Last August, I actually took the leap and gave up some of my career work.
And I'm now doing that part-time.
And I am just over part-time hours with my Nile clients.
I've still got a little way to go.
I have like two really four weeks.
And then I have one week where I need to build my clientele up.
So once that's done, I might be able to go full time doing the NALs.
But that's something that I went out of my comfort zone and went back to college
and learned something that I wanted to do when I left school.
But I was swaying to doing something else.
So, yeah, that's my life-changing decision that I've done.
And I'm so proud of myself for doing it, especially, you know, later on in life as well.
I'll speak to you soon.
Oh, it's Laura from Essex, by the way.
Bye.
See you, Laura.
See you, Laura.
Lovely to hear from you.
And how brilliant that you've done that, like you say, a later stage in life.
But Laura, you've missed a trick, love.
I need your Instagram.
Have you got a nail on Instagram or something I can plug for you?
So send me, you know, whatever it is.
Laura's Nails at W-dub.
I'll do an email.
I'll do your phone number if you want.
Come on, let's get that week filled up for you.
very happy to do so Laura.
I think it's amazing that for someone to take that decision
to say I'm going to change my life,
I'm going to do something for the better,
I'm going to change my life,
that's the biggest thing that you can do
and it's the hardest thing you can do.
Because once you've made the decision
and you start it, it sort of rolls.
You know, I went back to college at 26
and did a degree, for instance.
Again, a bit mad.
But also, can I ask it?
Because you got a first-class honors degree, didn't you?
and how long did that take you?
It took me four years part-time.
Part-time, and then you were working for the council.
No, no, no.
No.
I was in consultancy then.
But they didn't pay my college.
No.
So I had to work, basically I had to work five days in four at work.
Right.
So I had to work 10-hour days at work.
Yeah.
Otherwise, I was going to dock me.
And then you'd come home?
Then I'd come home and work evenings and weekends.
And I'd do a 12-hour day at college.
Nine to nine.
Yeah, but one day a week.
It's crazy stuff.
Yeah.
But you're in it.
But motivated.
But once you're in it, you do it.
It just happens.
Yeah.
It's making that first step, taking that, and so I would urge anyone.
If there's anyone out there who feels they want to do something,
and maybe, like, on the next one we do, if we get some messages.
Yeah, yeah.
If there are people out there that are thinking, shall I, shan't, I, whatever,
and there's specific cases, and we can maybe touch.
on it and maybe try and give a bit of advice.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Because I feel like, I'm 57 now.
I've done a lot of different things in life.
You know, I've gone from a lecturision on the council
to a consultant in London now.
I've run my own business.
And so I've got quite a lot of life experience.
Absolutely.
And I would love to be able to help anyone,
if I can, to try and put them on the right road
and put them on the right track.
After that, that's lovely.
077-28-20, 19-19-19.
Yeah, that would be fantastic.
Yeah.
Really good.
We had a message here.
Hi Nat and Tony.
I wanted to message him for your Tony Talks pod
about changing your life.
I'd appreciate it if you could keep me anonymous
and apologies in advance for the long message.
So here we go.
I made a change to my life age 25
after losing my gorgeous mum.
Mum and I lived through some quite horrible abuse
from my dad right up until she passed away.
So sorry to hear that.
It's terrible.
When I lost mum after a long illness,
I thought I had nothing to live for.
She was my best friend
and suddenly I was on my own with my dad
feeling trapped.
I knew I had to make a change
and I knew my mum wanted me to have the life
she never got a chance to live.
I dropped lucky,
meeting the love of my life not long after
and I finally had the strength
to stand up to my dad
and I made it clear
I would no longer stand for his behaviour.
I've struggled at times with the decision
to cut contact down to a minimum
but with support from my now husband
my wonderful friends
I've felt strong enough to prioritise
my mental health and wellbeing
refusing to be put down anymore.
I feel happier and more confident in myself than ever before,
but it's always tinged with sadness
at the fact my mum isn't here enjoying my new life with me.
Ultimately, though, I just want to say to others,
no matter the situation,
even when it feels hopeless,
you deserve a good life,
and you mustn't let fear or other people stop you living the life you deserve.
Make the change.
If I can do it, so can you.
Thank you, and I love the pod.
Well, that is powerful stuff.
It's powerful.
He sounds nice.
The dad, doesn't he?
Nice guy.
What a dog.
My God.
There you go.
And it's terrible.
It's awful.
I have to say to that anonymous text message, a lot rings true.
Been through my own problems in life.
Yeah.
Could have stuck in a very, very bad place.
But I was brave enough to say no more.
So I know where you're coming from and you've got to do it.
And again, there are so many people out there on the face of it, it all looks okay.
Yeah, but there's stuff going on underneath that they have to part up with every day.
And that's hard.
But you can make a change.
You can be brave enough and make a change with the right support around you.
You can do it.
Definitely.
100%.
Another one here from Kiara, move to Ireland with work.
26 landed in Dublin airport
Fault fuck I don't know what to do anymore
Biggest personal learning journey I've been on
Having the resilience to put myself out there
Without the comfort of my besties at home
Don't get me wrong their visits to sunny Dublin
Was splendid
I love the job I did
And I met some wonderful people
I moved into a house share
Which I vowed never to do
But it gave me a gang of girls
That essentially became my family overnight
To this day I still see them
And I love them very much
It's part of my life
I always look back on with fondness and a very, very full heart.
I moved back home three years later and saying goodbye was very hard.
So, yeah, again, I think people that move from their hometown or country
and they go and experience something or people that travel for a couple of years,
I have, I sort of, I think they're really inspiring and think, oh, that looks really good.
But again, I just don't think it's for me.
No.
We're a real home bird, you know.
Funny how we're all different.
Yeah.
But it's very inspirational,
listening to people that have had the balls,
basically, to get up and change,
do something different, move somewhere,
get another job, somewhere else,
do get out of an abusive relationship.
Very inspiring.
Brilliant.
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Ryan messaged.
Hi Ryan.
I made a big change when my mental health hit rock bottom.
I had a job I loved in London,
but I had to pack a bag one Saturday night,
and I booked a flight back home to Ireland.
I moved back in with my parents and younger siblings.
That change and decision saved my life.
Trust your gut, it will never let you down.
Yeah.
But that takes a lot for a young man
where you've gone, I'm doing this, I'm going to go and see the world
and I'm going to go over to the UK.
It takes a lot to put your tail between your legs
and go home to your mum and dad, I think.
Yeah, there's a desolate mission.
I wouldn't call it failure, but you would feel like that.
No, you would just, you could do.
You would feel that there is an element of failure there.
But how brilliant that he made that decision.
But what he said about gut instinct is, honestly,
if there's something that the last 47 or whatever years
of me being in environments where you've got to make decisions
or whatever it might be from a teenager up to now
is that gut instinct.
It's always right.
It is.
And the amount of times I've done stuff
and I've tried to go, no, it's going to be fine.
No, that's going to be all right.
But in your head you know.
You know you're going to go back to what that's telling you.
Yeah.
And you know that's right.
And you know you've got to make that decision,
but you're putting it off or you're prevaricating
and you don't want to make that decision.
because it's a difficult decision or it's going to upset someone
or it's going to cause a problem.
So true.
But it really is.
It's a huge life lesson.
I wonder what that is.
Why is it in your gut?
What it is.
It's a mental thing of you.
It's a realisation of what the right answer is.
And it's the feeling that gives you.
Yes.
It's not your gut making the decision.
No, no, of course.
In your brain, your brain is saying, listen,
I know you don't like this.
and it's not very palatable.
But this is what we need to do.
And this is the right decision and this is what you need to do.
And then that just makes your body.
I think that is what makes you feel, oh, you know, uncomfortable.
Oh, you know, that's that gut feeling.
Yeah.
You mustn't, you know, a lot of the time I say to people, you don't listen to your heart.
You know, your heart might be trying to be nice or this or that.
Listen to your head, which is actually the gut feeling thing.
It's like you must.
And I've seen it so many times.
So true.
So many times.
Well, you come around in this big circle.
You start here and you go around in this circle.
No, it's going to be fine.
It's going to be fine.
We get over it.
We do this and we do that.
It's not going to be okay.
And then you just come around and you go, no.
No.
We've got to make, we've got, the original decision was why.
You were right.
You're silly bastard.
Yeah.
I've just spent two weeks wasting my life.
Yeah.
Trying to, you know, think about an alternative to what the right,
to the correct decision.
Yeah.
Lovely Joe.
She said four years ago this summer after
21 years in the same job, I made a huge change at the age of 49. I was good at what I did,
I was respected, and staying would have been the easiest and most comfortable choice. But something
in me, maybe courage, maybe instinct, pushed me to take a leap of faith. I followed my gut
and ended up joining one of the big four. Becoming a newbie again at my age was a strange
and initially vulnerable experience, but I've never once regretted it. The move changed.
challenge me, stretch me, and ultimately made me a better person.
So that's fantastic, Joe.
Absolutely Britain.
You know where else she said?
I just wanted to say, you are my Lisa Tarbuck.
Oh, that's nice.
Means the world to me that.
It means the world to me.
Thanks, Joe.
But yeah, I think I don't know what it's like, you see.
I don't know what it's like to work in an office
and change to being somewhere for 20 years
and changing into a new office.
that you're going to be in for a long time.
But I know what it's like to be at a place
and just absolutely grow up there.
And it's home and it's easy.
It's an institution, isn't it?
It is an institution.
It really is.
And I think a lot of times spent in my place that I grew up,
I was always thinking in my heart.
I always wanted to be kind and very grateful for what I had.
I always have and I always will be so grateful.
But sometimes you do have to go, hang on.
Yes, right.
What's it saying?
Maybe a little change is needed.
Yeah.
You know.
Yeah.
Auntie Dodo, big fan of ours, Donna.
All right.
Tonight, Christian and I are having an evening at Ronnie Scots.
Oh, I love Ronnie Scots.
The only thing about Ronnie Scots is you can't have a fag now, can you, or smoke or vape or anything inside.
Oh, right.
Okay.
Because it's a jazz club.
It should be full of smoke really lends itself to it.
It really does.
Anyway, they decided, Donovan Christian,
they wanted to do more of London this year,
theatres, music, etc.
So that's what they're doing.
Loads of love and love to Tony as well.
Thank you very much.
But even those things, it's really important.
Yeah, well, what you're doing is,
is that you're saying to yourself,
look, we're going a bit stagnant and a bit stale,
and we're going to make an effort,
and we're going to do this stuff.
you know, and we're going to go out and whatever it might be.
I mean, I know how easy it is to be, not lazy,
but when I'm not, if I'm, I mean, I'm working seven days at the minute,
so I don't get time to do it.
But I know at Christmas I had a few days off.
And I got very...
Easy, isn't it?
I got a bit lazy to be, honestly.
I didn't want to go out.
Oh, we spoke about it, didn't we?
Yeah, didn't want to take the dog for a walk.
Sat in your own pyjamas for three days?
Yeah, exactly, yeah.
Didn't have a wash.
No.
But it's so easy to become that person.
It's a form of self-motivation.
They're saying, listen, we're not happy.
We don't really want to just sit indoors, watch the tell, whatever.
We're going to go out, we're going to go Ronnie School.
We're going to do some music.
We're going to do this, do that, and get out more.
And again, that leads to a rich and varied life.
Stuff to talk about.
Stuff to talk about that you don't get the malaise setting in that you can get if you just sit about.
And do nothing.
And do nothing.
And that's happened to me before.
So I know what I'm talking about, you know.
So again, but it's self-starting.
It's a form of motivation.
It's exactly the same thing.
Because it's the easiest thing in the world to just get a glass of one,
sit and watch television,
but to have to, you know, get ready and get on a train and go out.
We did it.
We did it Tuesday.
Me, Mark, we went to see Titanic, moving from Rio.
Yeah.
And I thought, oh, it was Tuesday night.
I know.
Oh, what a nightmare.
Tuesday?
Yeah, what a nightmare.
Yeah, in the trek?
Brilliant.
Yeah.
Brilliant night.
A bit of a late night.
It was tired on Wednesday.
But it was really good.
And you go, we've got to do that more.
Yeah.
Yes, it might be a little bit late.
Who cares?
Yeah.
It's all right.
I don't know if I needed the four large glasses of wine,
but it was St Patrick's Day.
So, you know, what can you do?
And we are sort of, you know, Irish.
Of course we are.
Cassidys.
About 200 years ago.
Cassidys?
Yes.
Donnie Gould Cassidys.
Absolutely.
Good evening.
Hi, Tony.
I hope you've both had a lovely day.
It's gorgeous weather.
I just thought I'd pop on.
I just saw your message on Insta and about big changes.
I have said to you before that that me and my husband have separated.
I've been five months now.
And I'm being brave and doing all the things that I would just naturally let my husband do.
You know, I've got to pull my big girl pants up.
Oh, excuse my son.
Hello, darling.
Jackson and verbal, he can't talk.
But he is not quiet.
Mommy, help you in a second.
We've all been there.
We've all been there.
It's normal.
Oh, living his best life.
Yeah, so this week I have been building a flower bed.
Check one.
My garden furniture turned up today, so I'm doing that this evening.
But my biggest project has been redecorated in my kitchen
and I've painted all my cupboards, the colours that I love.
And I don't have to check, you know?
You know what I'm saying?
And, yeah, I'm really, really proud.
I'll send you some photos over of before and after.
Yeah, so I'm feeling very strong and independent.
And, yeah, this sunshine is the best medicine.
So I hope you guys are okay
I just thought I'd share that with you
And yeah
Have a great weekend
Bye now, bye Tony
Thanks Jade
What a lovely message
Yeah lovely message
So out of
That's a false change obviously
What's happened
Because I think she'd messaged him before
Didn't she
It was quite unexpected
As I'm anyway
I think you're right
Yeah
So it's a false changed
But it's a change for the better
And she's taking it on
And amazing
Absolutely brilliant.
Brilliant.
You know, and I think that, again, one of our mantras at home is what's meant to be is meant to be.
Oh, yeah.
Everything happens for a reason.
Yeah.
And yeah, and it may well be that.
But it is a crazy life.
Yeah.
And it may well.
And it may well be that Jade's life is going to turn out immeasurably better in a year or two's time than it would have been if...
It would have all remained the same?
It all remained the same.
Yeah.
So, again, that's something that I'd say a lot to remind me of there's times when I think,
why is this happening?
And I just think, it's happening for a reason.
There's a reason.
There's a reason.
There's a reason.
Whatever that reason is.
Be it a lesson or a stepping zone to meet someone or something.
Or a changing direction.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, your life path isn't straight.
It never is.
No.
Twist and turns.
And I think...
I've had more twist and turns than fucking theme park.
Well, I'm the same.
You know, I'm the same.
A vampire ride at Chessington.
You know, I never saw me doing this at 57 that I'm doing now, ever.
No.
No.
30 years ago, I just knew.
And 20 years before that, I never saw me doing what I was doing and then not going on to doing this.
So it's life, isn't it?
It's life.
It's quite wonderful, really.
It is.
Yeah, it is.
And we're so lucky to be it.
And I know it's boring, cliche, whatever you want.
want, but whatever my thing is, you go, oh, and you think, you're here.
Yeah, you're here.
You're here. Experience.
It's ridiculous.
So don't moan.
Yeah.
You are a miracle.
It's crazy that we're here.
Mad.
Yeah, we're miracles, aren't we?
All of us.
Lovely job is talking about being independent with her kitchen.
I've got a message for you.
Okay.
Carol from West Yorkshire.
Right.
Hi, Nat, sorry.
Can't keep this in anymore.
I thought, what's you going to say here?
Oh, God.
Been thinking and worrying about this.
since Christmas.
What on earth?
Can she be thinking about?
How is Tony's kitchen coming along?
Love the pod.
Listener from day one.
And as an only child,
I so envy your lovely big family
and wish they belong to me.
Thank you so much for letting us share them,
which I really love.
Thanks, Carol.
As the kitchen, we haven't heard about the bloody kitchen.
Stop press.
Stop press, the kitchen is finished.
Oh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh.
Woo!
I've got some little tiny bits of snake.
to do.
But the floor protection finally came up at about 7 o'clock last Sunday evening.
Oh, I can hear Carol's allation.
The pop of the cork.
Yeah.
So you can now see the beautiful New Amtico floor.
Oh, beautiful.
I've seen some pictures.
It's fantastic.
I'm pleased of it.
It looks absolutely beautiful.
Painful and difficult and long-winded and tons and tons of work.
But I'm still not finished.
I've still got the bedroom to do and then all the hallway.
No, I know.
But it's a major.
It looks absolutely beautiful.
Thank you, yeah.
It's a major achievement.
Brilliant.
There you go, Carol.
Yeah, there you go, Carol.
Fantastic.
We has a lovely message from a lady.
And she said,
I changed my attitude when I lost my hair through illness.
At first I tried to hold onto it
or cover my head with wigs or scarves,
but with greater inner and out of confidence,
I thought stuff it.
And now, I guess,
go hair, hat, scarf, free at work.
She's a teacher as well.
And when she's socialising in our local neighbourhood
and she's lost six stone in weight
and it even gives her more positivity at 52.
And she sent me a beautiful photo of herself.
I've seen the photos, yeah.
And she's just happy.
She don't cover it up.
Doesn't she?
She looks radiant, doesn't she? She looks so content.
That's the thing she looks happy in herself.
She does.
You can see it in her facial expression.
And their eyes?
Yeah, definitely.
Definitely.
There's an element of contentment.
Yeah, yeah.
That's hard to come by contentment.
Oh yeah, very difficult.
Yeah, it's a tough one, that is, yeah.
So well done you.
Yeah, brilliant.
Hi, and that.
It's Julie from Somerset.
Not sure if you've got the first voice note or not,
my first ever voice note, by the way.
Anyway, I gave up work in October 24
after 22 years of the same company
because they didn't give shit.
And it's the best decision I've ever made.
Don't get any income until 2028.
So, yeah, happy days.
Anyway, love the pod.
Keep it up.
See you soon.
Bye.
Julie, brilliant.
That's her first voice note.
Yeah, it's really good.
It's really brilliant.
It is weird talking into her phone if you haven't done it.
Well, yeah, yeah.
And brilliant.
Good for you.
It's great.
I think we need to know the secret of living on fresh air if you've got no income.
Maybe she's got a bit tucked tomorrow.
Yeah.
And she's living a simple life.
Self-sufficient.
Good luck to life.
Growing her own.
Who knows.
More questions and answers, but brilliant.
And she sounds happy.
Inspiring.
Great, isn't it?
Yeah, it is.
I love our listeners.
They give us such material and so many subjects and stories to talk about.
Well, every time, honestly, you know, we had a chat this morning, didn't it?
When I said, well, what about this and what about that?
You said, oh, yeah, well, you said, oh, I'll do something along those lines.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And every time I think, you know, my dreadies, I come up and you go,
I don't know what I'm going to talk about, I've got no messages.
And I've come up and there's about 150 messages.
I don't.
I mean, it's brilliant.
It's amazing.
Oh, it is good.
Oh, do you know something?
Because we're filming this Friday night, obviously.
My comic relief sketch has just been on the telly.
Oh, was it really?
Yeah.
Oh, lovely.
I completely forgot that it was on this evening.
I'm sure it won't be the last time.
It was really good fun to film.
Was it?
Went down.
and with Stephen Mulhern and this one and that one.
And we didn't do it all together.
It's a bit of a secret for you, but they edit it so, well, you know,
but Alison Hammond was there and this one was there and that one.
And it was a bank job.
It was all sort of, and Idris Elbers in it.
And it was quite random, but I got me trumpet out, of course,
and it was good fun.
So, yeah, I just had a message from Lovely Scott saying the sketch was great.
Oh, bloody hell.
There you go.
I'm still working, Scott.
I'm hard at it here, mate.
We're great.
Graft in.
Graft in.
Hey, Nat.
It's Caroline from New Moulden in Surrey.
Oh, talking about big, brave decisions.
So for me, I chose to step away from a very long career in HR.
And it was quite weird because I built up a really good career.
I was doing really well.
But, you know, when you kind of get that deep down feeling that something's not quite aligned
and you kind of keep questioning, is it really for me?
and it wasn't like it was run big sort of dramatic decision.
It was something that kind of grew over a few years.
I just felt like I couldn't ignore it.
And I'd found out, you know, a couple of years before that,
that was neurodivergent.
I think that just made it even harder to push the feeling away
because I just felt like I was working in a way
that didn't really fit what I was meant to be doing.
So, yeah, but leaving felt really scary
because I was stepping away from something that was very stable
and sort of more or less going into that unknown.
But I think making that decision just led me to understand myself
on a much deeper level.
And now I support other women,
particularly those actually that are late diagnosed as well,
to just understand themselves better
and create ways of working that actually fit them.
So, yeah, so I guess the biggest thing that I would say I've learned
is that as we get older,
and I'm 52 now, you do start listening to yourself more.
And I think really thinking about what you want out of life
and something can look really good on the outside
but doesn't really feel right on the inside.
Yeah, that's probably what I'd say about big decisions.
But anyway, really love the pod, as always.
Look forward to hopefully maybe catching up with another live show
if you're doing more of them.
So yeah, love to you all.
Take care.
Bye for now.
What a great message.
Yeah, a really good message.
I completely agree with that.
I do think you listen to yourself more.
The older you get, you get things become a little bit simpler
and you stop trying to please people as much.
True.
Very true.
You stop and you do, you do to some extent,
I think I don't really give a shit what that person thinks.
Whereas, you know, in your 20s and 30s, you would,
I was always a people, you know, sort of,
I'm worried about what they think about me.
I don't really care as much now.
I care if it relates to my business.
someone says, oh, your building works shit.
Yeah, yeah, no, that's different, though,
because that's a crowd, you're proud of your skills.
Yeah, that's a direct sort of attack on what I do.
But, yeah, yeah, I'm not as worried about what people think of me.
And I think that, but so getting back to that message,
that definitely is an age thing where you become more inner confidence,
self-confident, and you do start to think,
well, actually, time's ticking here.
You know, I haven't got 50 years anymore.
Might have 20 at best.
I mean, I say it a lot.
Oh, yeah, I don't state.
I hate this.
No, no, but I do.
I say it as a joke.
I say it's a joke.
Oh, you know.
I say to people, look, we've got to get going,
because I reckon I've got 20 summers
until I'm sitting in my own piss.
I think that's relevant.
Fair enough.
I think that's relevant to say you know
that there's a finite amount of time.
Oh, no, but 77 these days.
Well, it's a figure of speech.
Yeah, fair enough.
And I actually nick that out of a film.
Wasn't Kez, was it?
No.
No, I can't remember what film it was.
Anyway, but it was a line in the film,
and I thought it was so, I just thought it was so relevant
for like a middle, a middle-aged mindset.
But you are right.
You've done half of it, ain't you?
Well, two-thirds, really, yeah.
Stop here.
I have, you meant I've done half of it.
I'm not going to live to 140.
You don't know.
You don't know.
You'll be up here.
Yes, and today we're meeting,
the Guinness World Record Hover for longevity,
Mr Tony Cassidy,
he's in a nursing home here in Hartfordshire.
And what's your secret, Mr. Cassidy?
Fuck off.
Leave me alone.
I, everyone.
140 leave off.
There was a tortoise, weren't there?
It was about, I can't remember how old.
Two hundred and six?
No, he was really old.
I think he'd seen the Napoleonic Wars.
Something, brilliant.
Absolutely.
That could be you.
You don't know?
Calling me a tortoise.
Just think, I love a tortoise. I'd love a tortoise.
Tall Toys.
Oh, I think they're beautiful.
Yeah.
They're really great characters about them, you know.
Well, on that note, we can go and have our dinner now.
Okay.
Yeah.
Smashing.
Yeah.
I love that chat.
Thank you.
That's all, it's been great.
Really, really enjoyed it.
Really, really good.
Yeah.
I hope you've all enjoyed it as well.
As always, let us know what you think.
You can catch us on Instagram at Natalie Cassidy's Life with Nat.
That is our new Instagram page.
obviously I've got my own one
but it would be lovely
I'm trying to sort of shift people over
thanks for everyone who's followed so far
but please join us over there
077828-1919
let us know your thoughts
and as Tony said
maybe Tony and I's next one
if there's any advice you need
about changing direction
in business or relationships
or whatever it is
and you fancy little
gnatar or send us a voice note
we'd be happy to help
yeah definitely
have a brilliant weekend everybody
we're in Bristol this weekend
which is going to be good fun
so anyone who's coming down
thank you so much
and I'll speak to you on Monday
time and have a lovely weekend
and June that
love you
love you too see soon
see you later
bye
bye
