March 26, 2025 • 41 mins
Meghan Markle, uh Sussex, has a new side hustle and it involves your wardrobe. Why you buying a pair of jeans can earn the California duchess $16.80.
Yes, on the show today, we unpack how royals are diversifying, either willingly or not, thanks to 2025’s influencer culture. For some of them, it might even include a foray into *checks notes* milk.
Plus, are you a lucky girl? TikTok’s latest manifestation trend explores the art of delusion to ensure you get what you want, every time. Except when you're Jessie and you're lucky even when you don't want to be. Our self-confessed lucky girl explains all.
And, the return-to-office debate has taken a surprising turn. Is the location of your desk now a political statement? We discuss.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
You're listening to a MoMA Mia podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Mamma Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters
that this podcast is recorded on.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Beware the man who tells you that his life is
drama free after a breakup. They are the type of
man or women who treat their partner terribly. They make
them paranoid, they undermine them, They foster very bizarre behavior
and guess what the partner does start acting weird because
(00:39):
you're cheating on them.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Right, Hello, and welcome to Momma Mia. Out loud, well
women are actually talking about. On Wednesday, the twenty sixth
of March, I'm Holly.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Wayne Wright, I'm Jesse Stevens and I'm Amelia Luster filling
in for Mere today.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
You can't get rid of you, Amelia and I like
it on the show today. You can now buy the
exact skinny jeans that Meg Sussex was dancing around her
kitchen in when she was making her non jam on
her TV show. The good news is if you do,
Megan gets sixteen dollars eighty in her bank account from you.
Welcome to the world of celebrity links. Also, why where
(01:23):
You Work? Is the New Australian political battleground and can
you make yourself lucky? Have you heard of lucky girl syndrome?
Apparently being delusional is the key to getting absolutely anything
you want. But first, Jesse.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
In case you missed it, yesterday Treasurer Jim Chalmers handed
down the twenty twenty five twenty twenty six federal budget. Now,
this was the budget that was never meant to happen,
and it might not actually be implemented. Given this government
could be voted out in a matter of weeks. It
was widely presumed. Remember that Albanezi would call an election
(01:59):
before the budget was due on the twenty fifth. But
then cyclone Alfred meant a delay, and here we are
with what feels like a bit of a hypothetical budget. Nonetheless,
here are the headlines. All right, Three things. First thing,
boost in Medicare seven point nine billion dollars has been
committed to, making nine out of ten GP visits bulk
(02:20):
billed by twenty thirty. I think we can all acknowledge
that bulk billing disappeared under our noses. Second thing, energy
relief one hundred and fifty bucks wiped from your energy
bill through to December. And the third thing, childcare. Maybe
this is just me and my own interest, but hey,
i'd ever said I was a political journal I guaranteed
(02:41):
eligibility for at least three days a week of subsidized childcare.
Most of what was announced we already knew. So if
you feel like none of this is surprising, you're right.
But you might see some headlines around today because for
the first time, thirteen content creators attended the federal budget lockup,
which is usually reserved for political journalists. On the one hand,
(03:02):
you've got the critics saying, how about the methodology of
interpreting the budget of impartiality? And on the other hand,
you've got people saying, aren't these some of the country's
most powerful and influential communicators. If you want your budget
delivered to a gen Z audience, the newspaper probably isn't
the way to go. I say, I'm bowing down to
(03:24):
anyone who wants to spend six hours in a locked
room with budget papers. What are you two thinking? Are
you jealous you weren't invited.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
I think it's so great, And I think the idea
that you need some sort of special qualifications to understand
what a government's policies are is frankly part of the problem.
We should all be getting across all of it, and
it's not rocket science, and it's just about informing everyone.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
I agree. It used to be a very tightly closed
shop the journalists who could get into the Budget lock
Up and obviously the Canbra Press Gallery, and there's a
lot of good reasons for that. But the media has
changed out of sight in the past ten years and
it's just perfect sense that you would expand who gets
to come. So basically new media is included. MoMA Mia
went we had a reporter and that is the first time.
(04:11):
And I remember when I was head of Content musical
like we were trying to get people in there, but
there wasn't the sort of respect or understanding that new
media as it's called, was valid. So I think it's
kind of misleading that we're seeing these headlines saying influences
in the Lockup when a lot of them are just
very often female, younger journalists, media people, podcast hosts. Like
(04:37):
it's sort of being used as a derogatory term. I
don't have a problem with it.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Who were some of the influencers who went so Hannah
Ferguson from Cheek Media to call her an influencer, I
feel exactly as you say, Holly is intentionally undermining. There's
another influencer called Millie Rose Banister who has a big
Instagram following, But what she's actually done is founded a
youth charity for gen ZT. She's a founder really, so
(05:05):
I think you know, read between the lines and these
aren't people just posing in bikinis like they are actually
trying to enact change and they've got very engaged audiences.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Well, also, people in bikinis have energy bills to pay,
so I don't see.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
That so true.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Possibly more the heating bills. You're not wearing clothes anyway.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
I'll be excited about the energy bills.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Megan's Sussex has opened a shop, but yet we are
still waiting for jam as Ever. The brand through which
she's selling, like Crepe mix, those ubiquitous flower sprinkles and
the stuff that you saw on the Netflix show is
called as Ever. And although you can go there and
look at those things, you cannot yet buy them the
shop and every day, twice a day at least, that
(05:52):
shop is still not operating. It's still not trading. But
what is trading is her Instagram store. And this is
brand new. So on Megan's Instagram store, you can buy
the things that she wears on her body and her face.
So these are all things made by other people people
and other brands, but if you buy them, Megs gets
a little kickback for anything that you purchase. Do you
(06:15):
guys know what affiliate links are?
Speaker 4 (06:17):
No?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
And can you explain why this is such a big
deal because I sort of thought she was already doing
this or everyone's doing this.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
So lots of people do do this. Talking as we
were in the intro about you know this broad term
of influencers and how it's often like thrown around as
some sort of derogatory term. Lots and lots of content
creators on social media platforms do do this, right, So
lots of publishing houses do it too. Mamamia does it sometimes.
(06:46):
So if you might have an article that's like twenty
pairs of genes to wear this winter, and then if
you it'll say some of the links in this post
are commissionable links or affiliate links, And what it means
is if you click through and you buy those genes,
a little percentage of money goes to the brand or
the person or the publication that recommended them to you. Right,
(07:08):
it's all got to be out in the open. That
always has to be declared. You cannot sort of cover
it up. So a lot of influencers and content creators
do it, but who does not generally do it are
top tier celebrities and royals. So it was a little
bit surprising to people this week when Megan posted on
her stories that she now had a shop and it's
(07:31):
called my Shop and you can go there and at
the top it says Duchess Megan, Duchess of Sussex, and
then immediately in brackets some of these links will be commissional.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Sore other celebrities doing this.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Lots of celebrities do it, but generally speaking, so the
biggest people who make the most money on shopmy are
people like, for example, Alex Earl. She is a twenty
two year old TikTok creator from Miami, and she has
more than six million followers. She makes a mint on there. So,
for example, you post about a wedding you go to
on the weekend, you're wearing a particular dress, and you're
(08:04):
holding a particular bag and particular shoes, and then if
you go in Alex's shop, it'll say wedding outfit, and
you go. Then you can click on the shoes, click.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
On their and in sort of defensive of affiliate links
or the reason why, I think in the influencer space
it's sort of become quite a respected.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Means of a sense there's nothing wrong with it.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yes, I think of Lee Campbell, who we work with,
and Lee is often recommending clothes and beauty products. And
it's work right, like people saying where's that skirt from?
Where'd you get that? Like it can sound ridiculous, but
replying to people and finding the link and going this
is how it sits and this is the size and
blah blah blah. It's women who are working often for
(08:44):
free on these platforms. It's a way for them to
generate income.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
It is right, It absolutely is, and as I say,
it has to be declared. There's nothing fishy about it.
So if if I'm wearing a pair of shoes and
you're like, I like those shoes, where are they from?
And I just tell you I'm not getting an affiliate
link from that, But if I was, I would have
to tell you otherwise I would be breaking some serious rules. Right,
So Megan is doing everything by the book. But the
(09:07):
raised eyebrows are kind of about two things. Well, one
of them is that, as I say, it is not
generally something that very fancy people do, so it's a
little bit sneered about, I think from people who are like,
but hold on, you already have a deal with Netflix
that's worth one hundred million and a deal with Spotify
that's worth sixty million, and you've got this money coming in.
(09:28):
And Harry's book was the best selling of all time,
and he's got the royal money, and yet you also
want my one dollar sixty from that face cream that
I'm buying from you. So there's that level of snobbery.
And then the other piece to it is the murky
world of royal endorsement, right, because what a shot my
really is is it's an endorsement, right saying I use
(09:50):
this face cream, I love this face cream. You can
buy this face cream too and be like me. And
the thing about Megan's is it's very clearly Megan, Duchess
of Sussex. And the rules, generally speaking are that from
proper royals. And I know there's some disagreement about how
proper they are, but they still have their titles. They're
not HR eights, but they still have their titles. They
still feature If you go to royalfamily dot com, the
(10:12):
official page are still there.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Like another one of your bookmarks all.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
The time to see whether or not they've been kicked off.
Yet this might do it. So they're using their royal
title to do this, So that's also interesting.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Okay, but how is this different from princess and son
who I believe is called Peter Phillips, who doesn't have
a title because Princess Ann wanted her kids to grow
up like commoners. But he has appeared in ads in
China to sell milk very much trading on the idea
of I'm a royal and I drink this milk.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
This is why this is murky territory, right, because if
you read any of the books about the royals, I'll
say this is always a point of friction because the
further down the royal ladder you slip, the less money
you get. So Peter Phillips and Zara Phillips, who are
Princess An's children, as you say, did not get titles
and they are not working royals, so they do not
get any money from the public purse. So they're like, well,
(11:05):
how do I make money? And Zara's like, I could
take some land driver money. They would like to spook
their cars, and they do, but the fact they don't
have titles makes it a little bit different.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
And there is Amelia a rub there. And the rub
is that in that Peter Phillips commercial which I went
and watched for Chinese milk, in the background it is
a backdrop like a green screen of a palace, and
then there's a green screen of him having tea in
(11:37):
what honestly looks like it's meant to be Buckingham Palace. Yes,
and the same thing happened with Kitty Spencer. She also
was in an ad for Chinese milk and she said
something along the lines like milk is part of any
royals morning routine because they drink tea. And this horrified
the British elitist royalists were looking at this, going, you
(12:02):
don't trade in our good name to go and basically
flog whatever milk will pay you the most. So I
think that there is something I love.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
There is a very fair point there, merely because the
thing is is the people who are like saying the
royal name should not be sullied. The way that the
Royal family actually makes its money that is not in
dispute is basically through being landlords of vast tracts of
the country. You know that they then get paid by
all kinds of things, from prisons to private housing associations,
(12:39):
sort kind of things to use the fancy land that
they own. There is a lot of commercial arrangement going
on in the royal family all the time. But what
has never happened before is that someone who has a
very fancy title and is that close to the crown
has gone, please buy this bag. I will get sixteen
dollars if you do, quite so explicitly.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
It's the next step in the metamorphosis of Megan Markele
Duchess of Sussex the influencer. And I'm here for it
and I love it. So I found a dress that
I quite liked, right, and it was a dress for
five hundred and sixty four dollars and a little out
of my budget. But on my deep dive I discovered
(13:23):
that this website that she's using has a commission of
up to thirty percent. She could get one hundred and
sixty nine dollars if I bought that dress, which I
thought was amazing. But in the fine print, I think
there's a hint as to where she's going next. Right,
Because the platform also allows creators to discover and manage
paid collaboration opportunities. Look, I recently did spon con for
(13:46):
Cabot's deck Oil. I reckon, we are a month from
Meghan Markel or Meghan Sussex being the face of Cabot's
deck Oil. She's doing her little little den hundred paid
collab face. The woman has to work. I quite love it.
I love how offensive the monarchists will find it. I
definitely understand. I just keep looking at this and going
(14:08):
I'm getting further and further on the train of Look, honey,
we have got to drop that title. We've got to
drop it.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
That's the thing. I don't have any problem with her
doing this like that would be really hypocritical. I mean,
I also get paid to promote things on the Internet.
But I think one of the ways that it's a
bit distasteful, and what it is is it folds into
what we've been talking about all year that Meghan has
obviously decided I don't give a shit anymore about all
the criticism because you people are never gonna like me.
(14:35):
It's never going to be enough. I'm just going to
do what I want to do. Because this hands ammunition
to her critics who say, don't you have enough money already?
You know, like maybe Jesse needs the Cabot deck oil money. Oh,
trust me, I do, but maybe Meghan doesn't. But then
I think that Meghan rightly has realized that that's also
(14:56):
a very old fashioned idea and we're used now to
people having lots of different strings to their bow.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
I also think we should remember that she used to
be famous pri Harry for suits. Yes, but she always
wanted to be in fluence. So the tig her blog
pre Harry was all about Megan recommending things and selling
beauty products and food products and influencing people with her taste.
So it's sort of like she never wanted to be
(15:22):
a royal. She always wanted to be an influencer, right,
and now she's just returning to that.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
It gives her a competitive advantage though over every other
There isn't another person on that platform who can say
that they are a duchess and that this face cream
is dutchess level good.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Look and I'm horrified by that. I want to make
clear that she is trading off the royal name, which
has never been sullied before. But one thing I did
want to mention that did genuinely horrify me. Is you
mentioned skinny jeans? Is she selling skinny jeans on there?
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Like Jesse, I have deep dived. Most of the things
on there are sold out already, so it's very clear
that the people wanted what Megan is selling them. But
in her show with Love Megan, it's not as ever,
and it's not this other brand. I'm very confused. But anyway,
in her show she wears skinny dear the lot and
they are for sale on there, and it's a brand
called Frame, a gene called alex are apparently very cool
(16:16):
and that you cannot buy those for love nor money
and they cost two hundred.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
See that is to me in a moment.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Where you work is the new political battleground business productivity,
life productivity, and a culture war over working from home.
It seems politics has weaseled its way into the workplace.
In an article published in The Sydney Morning Herald titled
(16:44):
why where you Work is the new political battleground, Shane
Wright argues that one of the biggest debates set to
play out in the coming weeks concerns working from home,
so the coalition wants all public servants back at their desks.
Peter Dutton has accused many of refusing to go back
(17:04):
to work. He's also expressed plans to acts up to
thirty six thousand federal public servants, seemingly following in the
footsteps of Elon Musk and Doge. Here is what Alberanezi
has said in response.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
This is an advantage in modern families that have enabled
them to take advantage of it. It has also meant
for working families where both parents are working, they're able
to deal with those issues of working from home has
enabled them to work full time and therefore it has
(17:42):
increased workforce participation, particularly for women. Peter Darton has said
that firstly he has questioned working from home and of
course these decisions are decisions that are made as well
with employers. He has questioned it and he has said
(18:04):
that oh well, women in particular can just go out
and job share well, people who want to work full
time in order to make sure they can look after
their families. This just shows how out of touch Peter
darton Is.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
He also added that forcing people back into their cars
for a daily commute could set them back five thousand
dollars a year just in transport and car parking costs.
So the debate about working from home or back to
the office has been gaining momentum since the pandemic. Prior
to the pandemic, about six point five percent of assies
worked at least half the time from home, and now
(18:42):
it's about seventeen percent. Some economists, business leaders, and policymakers
say that working from home has caused a drop in
national productivity. They argue that not being in an office
reduces their ability to generate new ideas. What is not
factored in, though, is the cost when it comes to
(19:02):
what right terms life productivity. That is, the time of
person is trapped in a car for our every week.
A one size fits all approach is also seen to
punish some demographics more than others. For example, people with
kids generally, people in their thirties and forties want flexibility
(19:22):
more than people in say, their sixties, and people who
have a longer commute. Holly, does this just tell us
everything about who each politician is trying to appeal to.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yes, I think it does. And it's interesting because the
come back to the office is like a puffer fish
issue for two groups of people. I'm going to really generalize, Yeah,
but business leaders they want people to come back to
the office generally speaking, and those who can't work from
home want people to go back to the office because
(19:56):
they're like, why should you get to have this work
life balance when an enormous amount of people could not
possibly do their jobs remotely or flexibly. And you know,
we all know who those people are, but they're everybody
teach to laborers, to nurses, to doctors to you know, many,
many many people. So those groups of people are not
(20:17):
very friendly to this working from home debate, and indeed,
when we talk about this issue on the show, will
very often get a lot of feedback from people saying
this is not relevant to me, I don't like it.
What's interesting to me is that labor have decided enough
people are into it that it's worth them defending it publicly.
That they know, you know, the stats seem to swing
a lot, but they're saying that about a third of
(20:38):
people have some kind of hybrid working arrangement these days,
and that when you poll those people who can work
from home. It's very clear that a lot most of
them want to hold on to it. Eighty eight percent
of Australians say they would prefer to work from home
some of the time if they could. So it's like
Albow is kind of deciding I'm going to talk to
(21:02):
them at the risk of upsetting this group and this group,
and Dutton has decided these two very different grips groups,
the business leaders and the people who don't who don't
support any working from home are more important.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Which are broadly speaking, the coalition's base here right because
it's this kind of pincer move that we've seen in
right wing parties around the globe where they appeal to
the very rich, they appeal to maybe more of the
working class, and it's a pincer move that kind of
cuts out that middle, maybe in this case predominantly white
collar workers who have the flexibility to work from home.
(21:37):
Obviously there are exceptions, as you mentioned, Holly, but in
broad brush strokes, if you divide society up into those
three classes, it's a pincer move.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
And I think there's a general sense of defensiveness when
you have the opposition leader essentially, and this has happened
in the US as well, wagging their finger saying you
need to get back to work. You've been taking like
it feels like they're saying this isn't what they're saying,
but it feels like they're saying, you've been taking the piss.
And I've felt my friends who have had the same
(22:07):
things happened in their workplaces. Its mirroring what's been happening
in workplaces for a few years now, which is that
the boss tries to change this new dynamic and says
we want people back to work for a heap of
sometimes incredibly valid reason, for the fact that they have
an office that's empty, for collaboration, for opportunities for gen
(22:29):
Z workers who are not getting the hands on training,
or opportunities to learn from people older than them, for
mental health reasons. There's heaps and heaps of reasons. But
I think there's definitely a defensiveness. And this focus on
the public sector as well, I think is slightly misguided
because what this research said as well is that they're
(22:51):
not the number one group that's working from home. In fact,
it's people in like investment in finance. A lot of
them are working from home. A lot of media people
are working from home, and this attack on the public service,
it makes me really nervous, I think, because there's this
you that it's bloated, that they waste time, that they
(23:13):
waste resources, and you know what, perhaps in some little
pockets there's truth to that, but I also think it
is so many thousands of people and the people I
know who work in the public service or working their
ass off, yeah, I mean, whether it's from home.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Or yeah, and it's such a varied workforce. Like government
workers is a term that is being thrown around all
over the world at the minute as some kind of
code for like you've got a cushy job. I see it.
I see it on TikTok all the time, where it's
somebody like government workers work like this, and it's like
this tiny portion of the day, mums work like this.
It's a giant portion that and it's like government workers
(23:49):
has become like a and it's exactly it is. And
that's nonsense because that umbrella encapsulates so many different kinds
of people doing different kinds of jobs.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Jesse, I think you're right to say that you feel nervous,
or I agree with you, because I do think it's
a bit of a cultural or touch point right now,
this idea of government work as not working very much.
And I think you also raise an interesting point conversely
about the fact that it's not always clear who wants
to get back to the office and why I think
it's hard to generalize. You mentioned gen ZED there, and
(24:24):
anecdotally in my experience, gen Z colleagues I have are
the ones who want to get back to the office
because they're saying, we're not seeing role models and mentors
in the office. We don't know how to write an email,
we don't know how to conduct ourselves in a meeting.
We need to see other people in order to emulate
that and to move up the career. Add it, and
then I've heard managers say that they feel that gen
(24:45):
ZED workers are being stifled in their career progression because
they're not able to observe how more senior employees work.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Well, it's interesting because when you think about it, you know,
when you're living through these vast changes that we're living
through all the time of the minute. But it's been
five years, right, it's been five years since for a
period there everybody who could be sent home, was sent
home right and then slowly back. So a lot of
people in that five year period have entered the workforce
for the first time, and if they are in a
(25:15):
what would have once been in a conventional office situation,
they've never known that. They've never known one hundred percent attendance,
They've never known Friday night drinks. They've never known all
of those kind of some important and some less important
cultural touchdowns of what it means to be constantly around
these people of different levels of seniority in different jobs
to you all the time. They've never known that. So
(25:38):
it's going to be really different. But the thing is
is that the resistance that comes from because you say
that about gen z Amelia, and I'm sure that's true
and accurate, but there is also, I think, because of
the fact that a large cohort has come of age
during this time, an expectation that some hybrid model will
be provided and that insisting on five days a week
(26:00):
attendance is kind of extreme, and I wonder how that
tension works itself out without this cultural finger pointing.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
And getting back to the political point, I wonder if
Dutton knows something more than maybe a lot of people
do about this debate in the sense that maybe young
people want to get back to work more than we think.
Maybe that's why he's pushing this, because he knows a's
quite a diverse demographic of people who don't like the
status quo. It's not just the people we talked about before.
(26:31):
It's not just the managers. It's not just the nurses
and the bus drivers and the doctors. It's also maybe
a frustration amongst young people. Well. Ben Affleck is on
the cover of GQ talking about how much he hates
attention again. He told the magazine, my life is actually
pretty drama free, before bringing up of his own accord
his divorce from Jennifer Lopez. Jesse, you're an expert on breakups,
(26:55):
you wrote a book about him. How do you think
Ben is handling his.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
I think that line about my life is actually pretty
drama free was so revealing, And it was revealing because
I just kept thinking, beware the man who tells you
that his life is drama free after a breakup. They
are the type of man or women who treat their
(27:21):
partner terribly. They make them paranoid, they undermine them, they
foster very bizarre behavior and guess what the partner does
start acting weird because you're cheating on them, right, And
then when they break up, that person says, I'm glad
my life is now drama free, when they were the
(27:41):
ones acting like an idiot. Like I have been in
this situation where I've had people, you know, a boyfriend
at the time who every time he went out for
a drink he'd get a few phone numbers and then
and that I'd get upset, and then after we broke up,
he would say, Oh, my life is just so much
It's just so much less drama, there's less anxiety. I
(28:07):
just felt like I was just taking on your big
feelings all the time. And I was like, yeah, I
bet it's there's less drama.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
But you were the cause of it because you wanted
to be single and now you are. Maybe you should
have stayed single in the first place. After the break
do you need more luck? Being delusional might just be
the key. Welcome to Lucky Girl.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Syndrome what unlimited out Loud access. We drop episodes every
Tuesday and Thursday exclusively for Muma Maya subscribers. Follow the
link in the show notes to get us in your
ears five days a week and a huge thank you
to all our current subscribers.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Try being delusional for a month and tell me if
your life doesn't change. This is TikTok influencer Laura Glabe,
who was explaining lucky Girl syndrome, which is a new
version of the old art of manifestation. If you think
great things will happen to you, they probably will. Let's
listen to Laura explain it a little more.
Speaker 5 (29:17):
I genuinely consider myself one of the luckiest people I know,
Like I get the most insane opportunities thrown at me
out of nowhere. Literally, no better way to explain it
than like it feels like the odds are completely in
my favor. I've thought about this and talked about it
with friends before to me and like ask myself, like,
I wonder why.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
This should always happens to me.
Speaker 5 (29:34):
I'm not exactly sure at what point this started for me,
but ever since I can remember, I have always made
it a point to tell everyone I am so lucky.
I just always expect great things to happen to me,
and so they do. And I know that's gonna be
someone in the comments who's like, well, that just opens
more room for disappointment, because if something doesn't go your way,
then like you're going to be disappointed. Well, no, because
(29:54):
nothing ever doesn't go my way, and like if it
doesn't go the exact way that I wanted to go,
then something better comes up after it. The thing is,
it wasn't until like genuinely believed that great things just
happened to me out of nowhere, that things literally started
flying at my f I'm not kidding constantly, and my
friends are can vouched for them because they've.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Heard me say this.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
I'm constantly saying, great things are always happening to me unexpectedly.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Does she have any friends? That's what she's saying this constantly.
M Vernon wrote about this phenomenon on Mama Mia recently,
and she traced the trend's origins back to a woman
named Esther Hicks. She is an inspirational speaker whose Law
of Attraction workshops have gone viral online. Hicks has a mattra.
She says we should be repeating to ourselves multiple times
(30:39):
daily and especially whenever we feel anxious. Got a pen,
write this down. Things are always working out for me,
no matter how it looks. At any point in time,
I question how new this is. I think every generation
has a version of manifestation which they sees on two
twenty years ago. Holly, I'm sure you remember this just
like I do. It was the Secret by Eronda Byrn
(30:59):
that was everywhere I remember Zowie Foster Blake back in
the name checking It that highlighted the importance of gratitude
and visualization for achieving what you want in life. So
I will say that sometimes this has worked for me.
I'm skeptical of it, but I have to admit that
when I was getting over a horrible breakup earlier in
my life, I had someone advise me to articulate specifically
(31:20):
what I wanted in a partner, to sort of both
visualize identify it, and then visualize it. And I decided
that the most important quality that I needed in a
partner was someone who was fun on a wedding dance floor,
namely because I had been with someone who was very
not fun on a wedding dance floor. And I got it.
I got someone who was fun on a wedding dance floor.
(31:41):
That said, Holly, is this all just toxic positivity blaming
the victim? In some ways?
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Yes, it is.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
It definitely.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Is also this bit where she says, I genuinely believe
I will always get whatever it is I want. I
think that's called entitlement, right. I think that's what that's called,
because what happens when you don't like inevitably in your life,
you are going to come up against not getting exactly
what it is you want, and then what happens.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
You know, this woman has a very complicated Starbucks order.
Absolutely know that.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
And it also feels a little bit like the old
idea that, you know, optimism versus pessimism, like the outcome
is probably going to be the same, but the optimist
will have a better time. It's a bit like that, right.
It's like if you go through life going it's probably
going to work out. I'm probably going to get this.
I'm probably going to get that. Maybe you're just generally
enjoying a little bit more the kind of reality that
(32:32):
you're going to get some of what you want and
some of what you're not. How you're focusing on the
stuff you're going to get.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
I think the energy thing is real, Jesse.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
Look, I am a self professed lucky person. I'm a
lucky person, and I had this experience years ago, I
was on a date with this guy. Things were going well,
and it was a fancy restaurant. I don't know why
this happened this night, but there was a meat raffle
and they came over.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Sorry, was it a fancy restaurant if I had a
meat raffle?
Speaker 3 (33:01):
Look, I thought it was what I keep going back
to my memory and I'm like, I'm sure it wasn't
an RSL. But there was a meat raffle and they
came over with the little tickets. I feel you know what,
I feel like, you didn't even have to buy the tickets.
I feel like it was a thing where they came
over and gave people tickets. And I looked at this
person I went, please, no, don't give me a ticket
(33:22):
because I'm gonna win this fucking meat raffle and I
don't want a tray of meat on this date. And
I just went no, no, no, no, no no. And they
gave us a few tickets and then they went to
call it. And I was like, the least sexy thing
to happen would be if I won this tray of
sexages and.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Do you know nothing about street Man?
Speaker 3 (33:40):
And we won the fucking meat raffles. I just remember
walking back to his place and he was just holding this.
There was no he was still right, really no, I
think he just it was an ick. I don't think
that winning a meat raffle on a second date is hot.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
There are some stages of your life when winning a
meat raffle is great, But be young, single on a
date where you're probably living like, that's not really useful.
Like four kilos, that's not really.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
It wasn't it. So being lucky isn't always great. But
I think there is something to this. And I remember
learning this at school, and I think it's a bit
of pseudoscience. I don't think that it's quite accurate. And
people online call themselves neuroscientists, and I don't think they
know what that means. But there's something called the reticular
activating system, which is this thing where if Holly tells
(34:31):
me that she's bought a new car, and she tells
me the make and model of that car, suddenly I
will see that car everywhere. Or someone says, you know
this new song. You start noticing things if the seed
is planted right. And that's all this is is that
if you seed luck early on in your day. Then
you'll start seeing luck whereas before you didn't. And I
(34:53):
think the other question that this sort of ass of
people is what would you do if you believed you
were lucky? And the answer is I'd probably try more shit.
So I have a friend who said, oh, you know Emily.
Emily is so lucky. She wins every competition, you know,
those online competitions. She went to Disneyland because she won
(35:13):
this competition, and I'm like, mate, when was the last
time you entered one of those copts? Think Emily is
the only one who enters the Disneyland competition, so she goes.
And I think that women often maybe psych themselves out,
or you know, they might not go for the job,
or they might not go on the date because they're
(35:35):
worried that it won't work out. But in the same
way that depression, and I have experienced this at moments
in my life. Depression makes your life sad, like the
experience and it's chicken or egg. But when I'm in
a state of depression, objectively bad things start happening in
my life. It's like you generate them, because I think
(35:56):
there's probably some part of you that almost revels in it,
and so this is the opposite. There's something quite.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
It's if you think that any project, anything you try,
if you allow yourself to be pre paralyzed by the
idea that it might fail, of course you're going to
try less shit, as you put it, Jesse. So I
think that's true. But I'd like to prosecute the delusional
part of this right because I have a friend who
one hundred percent is this person. I don't know if
you've noticed that a lot of modern manifestation seems to
(36:25):
center around getting car parks where you want them.
Speaker 6 (36:28):
There are many problems in the world that need to
be solved, but apparently all the positive energy is being
entirely channeled to there will be a spot outside the place,
like the cafe I want to go to, and I
have a friend who's this so she'll go.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
So you'll be talking and we'll go shall we drive?
And I'll say, oh, you know how hard it is
to park around there? And she goes, no, it's not
hard to park. You think it's hard to park.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
It's easy.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
I always get the good park. I've got excellent parking energy.
And I'm always like, really, baby, and she'd like you
you get in the car you drive. We will drive
around the block three times, but no one will say anything.
Everybody is scared. Everybody has been intimidated into the fact
that we have positive parkings usual, and eventually, after half
an hour a parking spot will materialize and she'll go
see seeing that that's the delusional piece. No, not seeing
(37:13):
the negative, only seeing the positive.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
I think that's right. But I want to posit that
this is particularly relevant in love and romance more than
maybe parking or even work, in the sense that you
know that old phrase it doesn't rain at pause. Anyone
who's ever done a lot of dating will know that
there's a real quality of momentum. When things start to
(37:37):
pick up in your love life, then all of a sudden,
everyone's interested in you. I do think that when it
comes to romance, sending out a positive energy as opposed
to a desperate energy, say, I think that people pick
up on that.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
That is really I agree. I think I've got two
issues with lucky girl syndrome. The first is that it
is not a very connected way of living. So if
you're so lucky, there are a few world conflicts that
could do with your luck, and also your positive vibes,
less car parks, more wishing well for others. Perhaps the
(38:15):
second thing is the workshop element. I can explain lucky
girl syndrome in about eight seconds. I don't need your workshop,
so I think that there's a business flaw in this
that people go lucky girl syndrome. All you have to
do is believe good things will happen. It's so simple.
Pay twenty eight dollars for my workshop link in bio,
(38:35):
and I'm like, guys, you've given it away for free,
Like I just don't know how much more. The life
coach of it all is just bamboos link to me.
I would love to know if these people are actually
making any money.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
This is why you also need to sell face cream affiliates.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
Feeling oh affiliate links so true.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
That is all we have time for my friends today.
And thank you out louders for being here with us.
Thank you Jesse Stevens. How you feeling duck oh?
Speaker 3 (39:00):
Look getting there, getting there. But I will say I've
had a really rough week with our sick kid, and
I've been sick and we have needed all the distraction
we can get. Maya has a new podcast and it
is called how to Build a universe, and it is brilliant,
especially if you are trying to keep your children. Tell me,
I don't know about this, Okay. So it's Tom Lyon,
(39:21):
who is a sound engineer. Mame. He's just he's brilliant.
He has made this podcast in collaboration with Jen Muir,
who is a brilliant parenting expert. And what they do is,
for about ten minutes, takes you through like an imaginary world,
so a forest, and you have a mission, and you
(39:44):
come across a magical tree and a magical possum, and
then this person says this, and there's like funny voices
and he is you know, some people when they speak
to children adopt a really sort of patronizing tone, and
I've always noticed, no matter how young kids are, they
can see right through it. He doesn't. He's got this
gift for speaking and engaging children. I would say probably.
(40:07):
I mean Luna's not even too and she really enjoyed it,
but I would say probably up to maybe ten.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
So it's a co listening show that you like you
have on you listen to with your kids.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
Yep. So it's great in the car. And It'll say
at the beginning, Jen does a really good bit which
she says, this imaginary play is really important and to
do it together and then to discuss it is important.
But you basically go on this journey. It's so engaging,
so good for imagination. It's called how to Build a Universe.
We'll have a link in our show notes.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
Have you tried Luna on Gwyneth Paltrow's new podcast? How
does that came out this week too?
Speaker 3 (40:39):
Okay, so I've actually I tried my other day to
put on one of my podcasts and she just went was.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
It a true crime podcast about prisly murders? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (40:48):
Her next word will be stab stab step.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Thank you out louders, Thank you to our amazing team.
We're going to be back in your ears tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
Bye, b B.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Shout out to any Mamma Mia subscribers listening. If you
love the show and you want to support us, subscribing
to Mama Mia is the very best way to do it.
There's a link in the episode description.
Speaker 6 (41:09):
They will be the back, back, back back
You're listening to a MoMA Mia podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Mamma Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters
that this podcast is recorded on.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Beware the man who tells you that his life is
drama free after a breakup. They are the type of
man or women who treat their partner terribly. They make
them paranoid, they undermine them, They foster very bizarre behavior
and guess what the partner does start acting weird because
(00:39):
you're cheating on them.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Right, Hello, and welcome to Momma Mia. Out loud, well
women are actually talking about. On Wednesday, the twenty sixth
of March, I'm Holly.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Wayne Wright, I'm Jesse Stevens and I'm Amelia Luster filling
in for Mere today.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
You can't get rid of you, Amelia and I like
it on the show today. You can now buy the
exact skinny jeans that Meg Sussex was dancing around her
kitchen in when she was making her non jam on
her TV show. The good news is if you do,
Megan gets sixteen dollars eighty in her bank account from you.
Welcome to the world of celebrity links. Also, why where
(01:23):
You Work? Is the New Australian political battleground and can
you make yourself lucky? Have you heard of lucky girl syndrome?
Apparently being delusional is the key to getting absolutely anything
you want. But first, Jesse.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
In case you missed it, yesterday Treasurer Jim Chalmers handed
down the twenty twenty five twenty twenty six federal budget. Now,
this was the budget that was never meant to happen,
and it might not actually be implemented. Given this government
could be voted out in a matter of weeks. It
was widely presumed. Remember that Albanezi would call an election
(01:59):
before the budget was due on the twenty fifth. But
then cyclone Alfred meant a delay, and here we are
with what feels like a bit of a hypothetical budget. Nonetheless,
here are the headlines. All right, Three things. First thing,
boost in Medicare seven point nine billion dollars has been
committed to, making nine out of ten GP visits bulk
(02:20):
billed by twenty thirty. I think we can all acknowledge
that bulk billing disappeared under our noses. Second thing, energy
relief one hundred and fifty bucks wiped from your energy
bill through to December. And the third thing, childcare. Maybe
this is just me and my own interest, but hey,
i'd ever said I was a political journal I guaranteed
(02:41):
eligibility for at least three days a week of subsidized childcare.
Most of what was announced we already knew. So if
you feel like none of this is surprising, you're right.
But you might see some headlines around today because for
the first time, thirteen content creators attended the federal budget lockup,
which is usually reserved for political journalists. On the one hand,
(03:02):
you've got the critics saying, how about the methodology of
interpreting the budget of impartiality? And on the other hand,
you've got people saying, aren't these some of the country's
most powerful and influential communicators. If you want your budget
delivered to a gen Z audience, the newspaper probably isn't
the way to go. I say, I'm bowing down to
(03:24):
anyone who wants to spend six hours in a locked
room with budget papers. What are you two thinking? Are
you jealous you weren't invited.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
I think it's so great, And I think the idea
that you need some sort of special qualifications to understand
what a government's policies are is frankly part of the problem.
We should all be getting across all of it, and
it's not rocket science, and it's just about informing everyone.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
I agree. It used to be a very tightly closed
shop the journalists who could get into the Budget lock
Up and obviously the Canbra Press Gallery, and there's a
lot of good reasons for that. But the media has
changed out of sight in the past ten years and
it's just perfect sense that you would expand who gets
to come. So basically new media is included. MoMA Mia
went we had a reporter and that is the first time.
(04:11):
And I remember when I was head of Content musical
like we were trying to get people in there, but
there wasn't the sort of respect or understanding that new
media as it's called, was valid. So I think it's
kind of misleading that we're seeing these headlines saying influences
in the Lockup when a lot of them are just
very often female, younger journalists, media people, podcast hosts. Like
(04:37):
it's sort of being used as a derogatory term. I
don't have a problem with it.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
Who were some of the influencers who went so Hannah
Ferguson from Cheek Media to call her an influencer, I
feel exactly as you say, Holly is intentionally undermining. There's
another influencer called Millie Rose Banister who has a big
Instagram following, But what she's actually done is founded a
youth charity for gen ZT. She's a founder really, so
(05:05):
I think you know, read between the lines and these
aren't people just posing in bikinis like they are actually
trying to enact change and they've got very engaged audiences.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Well, also, people in bikinis have energy bills to pay,
so I don't see.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
That so true.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Possibly more the heating bills. You're not wearing clothes anyway.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
I'll be excited about the energy bills.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Megan's Sussex has opened a shop, but yet we are
still waiting for jam as Ever. The brand through which
she's selling, like Crepe mix, those ubiquitous flower sprinkles and
the stuff that you saw on the Netflix show is
called as Ever. And although you can go there and
look at those things, you cannot yet buy them the
shop and every day, twice a day at least, that
(05:52):
shop is still not operating. It's still not trading. But
what is trading is her Instagram store. And this is
brand new. So on Megan's Instagram store, you can buy
the things that she wears on her body and her face.
So these are all things made by other people people
and other brands, but if you buy them, Megs gets
a little kickback for anything that you purchase. Do you
(06:15):
guys know what affiliate links are?
Speaker 4 (06:17):
No?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
And can you explain why this is such a big
deal because I sort of thought she was already doing
this or everyone's doing this.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
So lots of people do do this. Talking as we
were in the intro about you know this broad term
of influencers and how it's often like thrown around as
some sort of derogatory term. Lots and lots of content
creators on social media platforms do do this, right, So
lots of publishing houses do it too. Mamamia does it sometimes.
(06:46):
So if you might have an article that's like twenty
pairs of genes to wear this winter, and then if
you it'll say some of the links in this post
are commissionable links or affiliate links, And what it means
is if you click through and you buy those genes,
a little percentage of money goes to the brand or
the person or the publication that recommended them to you. Right,
(07:08):
it's all got to be out in the open. That
always has to be declared. You cannot sort of cover
it up. So a lot of influencers and content creators
do it, but who does not generally do it are
top tier celebrities and royals. So it was a little
bit surprising to people this week when Megan posted on
her stories that she now had a shop and it's
(07:31):
called my Shop and you can go there and at
the top it says Duchess Megan, Duchess of Sussex, and
then immediately in brackets some of these links will be commissional.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Sore other celebrities doing this.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Lots of celebrities do it, but generally speaking, so the
biggest people who make the most money on shopmy are
people like, for example, Alex Earl. She is a twenty
two year old TikTok creator from Miami, and she has
more than six million followers. She makes a mint on there. So,
for example, you post about a wedding you go to
on the weekend, you're wearing a particular dress, and you're
(08:04):
holding a particular bag and particular shoes, and then if
you go in Alex's shop, it'll say wedding outfit, and
you go. Then you can click on the shoes, click.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
On their and in sort of defensive of affiliate links
or the reason why, I think in the influencer space
it's sort of become quite a respected.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Means of a sense there's nothing wrong with it.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yes, I think of Lee Campbell, who we work with,
and Lee is often recommending clothes and beauty products. And
it's work right, like people saying where's that skirt from?
Where'd you get that? Like it can sound ridiculous, but
replying to people and finding the link and going this
is how it sits and this is the size and
blah blah blah. It's women who are working often for
(08:44):
free on these platforms. It's a way for them to
generate income.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
It is right, It absolutely is, and as I say,
it has to be declared. There's nothing fishy about it.
So if if I'm wearing a pair of shoes and
you're like, I like those shoes, where are they from?
And I just tell you I'm not getting an affiliate
link from that, But if I was, I would have
to tell you otherwise I would be breaking some serious rules. Right,
So Megan is doing everything by the book. But the
(09:07):
raised eyebrows are kind of about two things. Well, one
of them is that, as I say, it is not
generally something that very fancy people do, so it's a
little bit sneered about, I think from people who are like,
but hold on, you already have a deal with Netflix
that's worth one hundred million and a deal with Spotify
that's worth sixty million, and you've got this money coming in.
(09:28):
And Harry's book was the best selling of all time,
and he's got the royal money, and yet you also
want my one dollar sixty from that face cream that
I'm buying from you. So there's that level of snobbery.
And then the other piece to it is the murky
world of royal endorsement, right, because what a shot my
really is is it's an endorsement, right saying I use
(09:50):
this face cream, I love this face cream. You can
buy this face cream too and be like me. And
the thing about Megan's is it's very clearly Megan, Duchess
of Sussex. And the rules, generally speaking are that from
proper royals. And I know there's some disagreement about how
proper they are, but they still have their titles. They're
not HR eights, but they still have their titles. They
still feature If you go to royalfamily dot com, the
(10:12):
official page are still there.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Like another one of your bookmarks all.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
The time to see whether or not they've been kicked off.
Yet this might do it. So they're using their royal
title to do this, So that's also interesting.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Okay, but how is this different from princess and son
who I believe is called Peter Phillips, who doesn't have
a title because Princess Ann wanted her kids to grow
up like commoners. But he has appeared in ads in
China to sell milk very much trading on the idea
of I'm a royal and I drink this milk.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
This is why this is murky territory, right, because if
you read any of the books about the royals, I'll
say this is always a point of friction because the
further down the royal ladder you slip, the less money
you get. So Peter Phillips and Zara Phillips, who are
Princess An's children, as you say, did not get titles
and they are not working royals, so they do not
get any money from the public purse. So they're like, well,
(11:05):
how do I make money? And Zara's like, I could
take some land driver money. They would like to spook
their cars, and they do, but the fact they don't
have titles makes it a little bit different.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
And there is Amelia a rub there. And the rub
is that in that Peter Phillips commercial which I went
and watched for Chinese milk, in the background it is
a backdrop like a green screen of a palace, and
then there's a green screen of him having tea in
(11:37):
what honestly looks like it's meant to be Buckingham Palace. Yes,
and the same thing happened with Kitty Spencer. She also
was in an ad for Chinese milk and she said
something along the lines like milk is part of any
royals morning routine because they drink tea. And this horrified
the British elitist royalists were looking at this, going, you
(12:02):
don't trade in our good name to go and basically
flog whatever milk will pay you the most. So I
think that there is something I love.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
There is a very fair point there, merely because the
thing is is the people who are like saying the
royal name should not be sullied. The way that the
Royal family actually makes its money that is not in
dispute is basically through being landlords of vast tracts of
the country. You know that they then get paid by
all kinds of things, from prisons to private housing associations,
(12:39):
sort kind of things to use the fancy land that
they own. There is a lot of commercial arrangement going
on in the royal family all the time. But what
has never happened before is that someone who has a
very fancy title and is that close to the crown
has gone, please buy this bag. I will get sixteen
dollars if you do, quite so explicitly.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
It's the next step in the metamorphosis of Megan Markele
Duchess of Sussex the influencer. And I'm here for it
and I love it. So I found a dress that
I quite liked, right, and it was a dress for
five hundred and sixty four dollars and a little out
of my budget. But on my deep dive I discovered
(13:23):
that this website that she's using has a commission of
up to thirty percent. She could get one hundred and
sixty nine dollars if I bought that dress, which I
thought was amazing. But in the fine print, I think
there's a hint as to where she's going next. Right,
Because the platform also allows creators to discover and manage
paid collaboration opportunities. Look, I recently did spon con for
(13:46):
Cabot's deck Oil. I reckon, we are a month from
Meghan Markel or Meghan Sussex being the face of Cabot's
deck Oil. She's doing her little little den hundred paid
collab face. The woman has to work. I quite love it.
I love how offensive the monarchists will find it. I
definitely understand. I just keep looking at this and going
(14:08):
I'm getting further and further on the train of Look, honey,
we have got to drop that title. We've got to
drop it.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
That's the thing. I don't have any problem with her
doing this like that would be really hypocritical. I mean,
I also get paid to promote things on the Internet.
But I think one of the ways that it's a
bit distasteful, and what it is is it folds into
what we've been talking about all year that Meghan has
obviously decided I don't give a shit anymore about all
the criticism because you people are never gonna like me.
(14:35):
It's never going to be enough. I'm just going to
do what I want to do. Because this hands ammunition
to her critics who say, don't you have enough money already?
You know, like maybe Jesse needs the Cabot deck oil money. Oh,
trust me, I do, but maybe Meghan doesn't. But then
I think that Meghan rightly has realized that that's also
(14:56):
a very old fashioned idea and we're used now to
people having lots of different strings to their bow.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
I also think we should remember that she used to
be famous pri Harry for suits. Yes, but she always
wanted to be in fluence. So the tig her blog
pre Harry was all about Megan recommending things and selling
beauty products and food products and influencing people with her taste.
So it's sort of like she never wanted to be
(15:22):
a royal. She always wanted to be an influencer, right,
and now she's just returning to that.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
It gives her a competitive advantage though over every other
There isn't another person on that platform who can say
that they are a duchess and that this face cream
is dutchess level good.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Look and I'm horrified by that. I want to make
clear that she is trading off the royal name, which
has never been sullied before. But one thing I did
want to mention that did genuinely horrify me. Is you
mentioned skinny jeans? Is she selling skinny jeans on there?
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Like Jesse, I have deep dived. Most of the things
on there are sold out already, so it's very clear
that the people wanted what Megan is selling them. But
in her show with Love Megan, it's not as ever,
and it's not this other brand. I'm very confused. But anyway,
in her show she wears skinny dear the lot and
they are for sale on there, and it's a brand
called Frame, a gene called alex are apparently very cool
(16:16):
and that you cannot buy those for love nor money
and they cost two hundred.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
See that is to me in a moment.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Where you work is the new political battleground business productivity,
life productivity, and a culture war over working from home.
It seems politics has weaseled its way into the workplace.
In an article published in The Sydney Morning Herald titled
(16:44):
why where you Work is the new political battleground, Shane
Wright argues that one of the biggest debates set to
play out in the coming weeks concerns working from home,
so the coalition wants all public servants back at their desks.
Peter Dutton has accused many of refusing to go back
(17:04):
to work. He's also expressed plans to acts up to
thirty six thousand federal public servants, seemingly following in the
footsteps of Elon Musk and Doge. Here is what Alberanezi
has said in response.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
This is an advantage in modern families that have enabled
them to take advantage of it. It has also meant
for working families where both parents are working, they're able
to deal with those issues of working from home has
enabled them to work full time and therefore it has
(17:42):
increased workforce participation, particularly for women. Peter Darton has said
that firstly he has questioned working from home and of
course these decisions are decisions that are made as well
with employers. He has questioned it and he has said
(18:04):
that oh well, women in particular can just go out
and job share well, people who want to work full
time in order to make sure they can look after
their families. This just shows how out of touch Peter
darton Is.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
He also added that forcing people back into their cars
for a daily commute could set them back five thousand
dollars a year just in transport and car parking costs.
So the debate about working from home or back to
the office has been gaining momentum since the pandemic. Prior
to the pandemic, about six point five percent of assies
worked at least half the time from home, and now
(18:42):
it's about seventeen percent. Some economists, business leaders, and policymakers
say that working from home has caused a drop in
national productivity. They argue that not being in an office
reduces their ability to generate new ideas. What is not
factored in, though, is the cost when it comes to
(19:02):
what right terms life productivity. That is, the time of
person is trapped in a car for our every week.
A one size fits all approach is also seen to
punish some demographics more than others. For example, people with
kids generally, people in their thirties and forties want flexibility
(19:22):
more than people in say, their sixties, and people who
have a longer commute. Holly, does this just tell us
everything about who each politician is trying to appeal to.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yes, I think it does. And it's interesting because the
come back to the office is like a puffer fish
issue for two groups of people. I'm going to really generalize, Yeah,
but business leaders they want people to come back to
the office generally speaking, and those who can't work from
home want people to go back to the office because
(19:56):
they're like, why should you get to have this work
life balance when an enormous amount of people could not
possibly do their jobs remotely or flexibly. And you know,
we all know who those people are, but they're everybody
teach to laborers, to nurses, to doctors to you know, many,
many many people. So those groups of people are not
(20:17):
very friendly to this working from home debate, and indeed,
when we talk about this issue on the show, will
very often get a lot of feedback from people saying
this is not relevant to me, I don't like it.
What's interesting to me is that labor have decided enough
people are into it that it's worth them defending it publicly.
That they know, you know, the stats seem to swing
a lot, but they're saying that about a third of
(20:38):
people have some kind of hybrid working arrangement these days,
and that when you poll those people who can work
from home. It's very clear that a lot most of
them want to hold on to it. Eighty eight percent
of Australians say they would prefer to work from home
some of the time if they could. So it's like
Albow is kind of deciding I'm going to talk to
(21:02):
them at the risk of upsetting this group and this group,
and Dutton has decided these two very different grips groups,
the business leaders and the people who don't who don't
support any working from home are more important.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Which are broadly speaking, the coalition's base here right because
it's this kind of pincer move that we've seen in
right wing parties around the globe where they appeal to
the very rich, they appeal to maybe more of the
working class, and it's a pincer move that kind of
cuts out that middle, maybe in this case predominantly white
collar workers who have the flexibility to work from home.
(21:37):
Obviously there are exceptions, as you mentioned, Holly, but in
broad brush strokes, if you divide society up into those
three classes, it's a pincer move.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
Absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
And I think there's a general sense of defensiveness when
you have the opposition leader essentially, and this has happened
in the US as well, wagging their finger saying you
need to get back to work. You've been taking like
it feels like they're saying this isn't what they're saying,
but it feels like they're saying, you've been taking the piss.
And I've felt my friends who have had the same
(22:07):
things happened in their workplaces. Its mirroring what's been happening
in workplaces for a few years now, which is that
the boss tries to change this new dynamic and says
we want people back to work for a heap of
sometimes incredibly valid reason, for the fact that they have
an office that's empty, for collaboration, for opportunities for gen
(22:29):
Z workers who are not getting the hands on training,
or opportunities to learn from people older than them, for
mental health reasons. There's heaps and heaps of reasons. But
I think there's definitely a defensiveness. And this focus on
the public sector as well, I think is slightly misguided
because what this research said as well is that they're
(22:51):
not the number one group that's working from home. In fact,
it's people in like investment in finance. A lot of
them are working from home. A lot of media people
are working from home, and this attack on the public service,
it makes me really nervous, I think, because there's this
you that it's bloated, that they waste time, that they
(23:13):
waste resources, and you know what, perhaps in some little
pockets there's truth to that, but I also think it
is so many thousands of people and the people I
know who work in the public service or working their
ass off, yeah, I mean, whether it's from home.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Or yeah, and it's such a varied workforce. Like government
workers is a term that is being thrown around all
over the world at the minute as some kind of
code for like you've got a cushy job. I see it.
I see it on TikTok all the time, where it's
somebody like government workers work like this, and it's like
this tiny portion of the day, mums work like this.
It's a giant portion that and it's like government workers
(23:49):
has become like a and it's exactly it is. And
that's nonsense because that umbrella encapsulates so many different kinds
of people doing different kinds of jobs.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Jesse, I think you're right to say that you feel nervous,
or I agree with you, because I do think it's
a bit of a cultural or touch point right now,
this idea of government work as not working very much.
And I think you also raise an interesting point conversely
about the fact that it's not always clear who wants
to get back to the office and why I think
it's hard to generalize. You mentioned gen ZED there, and
(24:24):
anecdotally in my experience, gen Z colleagues I have are
the ones who want to get back to the office
because they're saying, we're not seeing role models and mentors
in the office. We don't know how to write an email,
we don't know how to conduct ourselves in a meeting.
We need to see other people in order to emulate
that and to move up the career. Add it, and
then I've heard managers say that they feel that gen
(24:45):
ZED workers are being stifled in their career progression because
they're not able to observe how more senior employees work.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Well, it's interesting because when you think about it, you know,
when you're living through these vast changes that we're living
through all the time of the minute. But it's been
five years, right, it's been five years since for a
period there everybody who could be sent home, was sent
home right and then slowly back. So a lot of
people in that five year period have entered the workforce
for the first time, and if they are in a
(25:15):
what would have once been in a conventional office situation,
they've never known that. They've never known one hundred percent attendance,
They've never known Friday night drinks. They've never known all
of those kind of some important and some less important
cultural touchdowns of what it means to be constantly around
these people of different levels of seniority in different jobs
to you all the time. They've never known that. So
(25:38):
it's going to be really different. But the thing is
is that the resistance that comes from because you say
that about gen z Amelia, and I'm sure that's true
and accurate, but there is also, I think, because of
the fact that a large cohort has come of age
during this time, an expectation that some hybrid model will
be provided and that insisting on five days a week
(26:00):
attendance is kind of extreme, and I wonder how that
tension works itself out without this cultural finger pointing.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
And getting back to the political point, I wonder if
Dutton knows something more than maybe a lot of people
do about this debate in the sense that maybe young
people want to get back to work more than we think.
Maybe that's why he's pushing this, because he knows a's
quite a diverse demographic of people who don't like the
status quo. It's not just the people we talked about before.
(26:31):
It's not just the managers. It's not just the nurses
and the bus drivers and the doctors. It's also maybe
a frustration amongst young people. Well. Ben Affleck is on
the cover of GQ talking about how much he hates
attention again. He told the magazine, my life is actually
pretty drama free, before bringing up of his own accord
his divorce from Jennifer Lopez. Jesse, you're an expert on breakups,
(26:55):
you wrote a book about him. How do you think
Ben is handling his.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
I think that line about my life is actually pretty
drama free was so revealing, And it was revealing because
I just kept thinking, beware the man who tells you
that his life is drama free after a breakup. They
are the type of man or women who treat their
(27:21):
partner terribly. They make them paranoid, they undermine them, they
foster very bizarre behavior and guess what the partner does
start acting weird because you're cheating on them, right, And
then when they break up, that person says, I'm glad
my life is now drama free, when they were the
(27:41):
ones acting like an idiot. Like I have been in
this situation where I've had people, you know, a boyfriend
at the time who every time he went out for
a drink he'd get a few phone numbers and then
and that I'd get upset, and then after we broke up,
he would say, Oh, my life is just so much
It's just so much less drama, there's less anxiety. I
(28:07):
just felt like I was just taking on your big
feelings all the time. And I was like, yeah, I
bet it's there's less drama.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
But you were the cause of it because you wanted
to be single and now you are. Maybe you should
have stayed single in the first place. After the break
do you need more luck? Being delusional might just be
the key. Welcome to Lucky Girl.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Syndrome what unlimited out Loud access. We drop episodes every
Tuesday and Thursday exclusively for Muma Maya subscribers. Follow the
link in the show notes to get us in your
ears five days a week and a huge thank you
to all our current subscribers.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Try being delusional for a month and tell me if
your life doesn't change. This is TikTok influencer Laura Glabe,
who was explaining lucky Girl syndrome, which is a new
version of the old art of manifestation. If you think
great things will happen to you, they probably will. Let's
listen to Laura explain it a little more.
Speaker 5 (29:17):
I genuinely consider myself one of the luckiest people I know,
Like I get the most insane opportunities thrown at me
out of nowhere. Literally, no better way to explain it
than like it feels like the odds are completely in
my favor. I've thought about this and talked about it
with friends before to me and like ask myself, like,
I wonder why.
Speaker 3 (29:32):
This should always happens to me.
Speaker 5 (29:34):
I'm not exactly sure at what point this started for me,
but ever since I can remember, I have always made
it a point to tell everyone I am so lucky.
I just always expect great things to happen to me,
and so they do. And I know that's gonna be
someone in the comments who's like, well, that just opens
more room for disappointment, because if something doesn't go your way,
then like you're going to be disappointed. Well, no, because
(29:54):
nothing ever doesn't go my way, and like if it
doesn't go the exact way that I wanted to go,
then something better comes up after it. The thing is,
it wasn't until like genuinely believed that great things just
happened to me out of nowhere, that things literally started
flying at my f I'm not kidding constantly, and my
friends are can vouched for them because they've.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
Heard me say this.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
I'm constantly saying, great things are always happening to me unexpectedly.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Does she have any friends? That's what she's saying this constantly.
M Vernon wrote about this phenomenon on Mama Mia recently,
and she traced the trend's origins back to a woman
named Esther Hicks. She is an inspirational speaker whose Law
of Attraction workshops have gone viral online. Hicks has a mattra.
She says we should be repeating to ourselves multiple times
(30:39):
daily and especially whenever we feel anxious. Got a pen,
write this down. Things are always working out for me,
no matter how it looks. At any point in time,
I question how new this is. I think every generation
has a version of manifestation which they sees on two
twenty years ago. Holly, I'm sure you remember this just
like I do. It was the Secret by Eronda Byrn
(30:59):
that was everywhere I remember Zowie Foster Blake back in
the name checking It that highlighted the importance of gratitude
and visualization for achieving what you want in life. So
I will say that sometimes this has worked for me.
I'm skeptical of it, but I have to admit that
when I was getting over a horrible breakup earlier in
my life, I had someone advise me to articulate specifically
(31:20):
what I wanted in a partner, to sort of both
visualize identify it, and then visualize it. And I decided
that the most important quality that I needed in a
partner was someone who was fun on a wedding dance floor,
namely because I had been with someone who was very
not fun on a wedding dance floor. And I got it.
I got someone who was fun on a wedding dance floor.
(31:41):
That said, Holly, is this all just toxic positivity blaming
the victim? In some ways?
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Yes, it is.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
It definitely.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Is also this bit where she says, I genuinely believe
I will always get whatever it is I want. I
think that's called entitlement, right. I think that's what that's called,
because what happens when you don't like inevitably in your life,
you are going to come up against not getting exactly
what it is you want, and then what happens.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
You know, this woman has a very complicated Starbucks order.
Absolutely know that.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
And it also feels a little bit like the old
idea that, you know, optimism versus pessimism, like the outcome
is probably going to be the same, but the optimist
will have a better time. It's a bit like that, right.
It's like if you go through life going it's probably
going to work out. I'm probably going to get this.
I'm probably going to get that. Maybe you're just generally
enjoying a little bit more the kind of reality that
(32:32):
you're going to get some of what you want and
some of what you're not. How you're focusing on the
stuff you're going to get.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
I think the energy thing is real, Jesse.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
Look, I am a self professed lucky person. I'm a
lucky person, and I had this experience years ago, I
was on a date with this guy. Things were going well,
and it was a fancy restaurant. I don't know why
this happened this night, but there was a meat raffle
and they came over.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
Sorry, was it a fancy restaurant if I had a
meat raffle?
Speaker 3 (33:01):
Look, I thought it was what I keep going back
to my memory and I'm like, I'm sure it wasn't
an RSL. But there was a meat raffle and they
came over with the little tickets. I feel you know what,
I feel like, you didn't even have to buy the tickets.
I feel like it was a thing where they came
over and gave people tickets. And I looked at this
person I went, please, no, don't give me a ticket
(33:22):
because I'm gonna win this fucking meat raffle and I
don't want a tray of meat on this date. And
I just went no, no, no, no, no no. And they
gave us a few tickets and then they went to
call it. And I was like, the least sexy thing
to happen would be if I won this tray of
sexages and.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
Do you know nothing about street Man?
Speaker 3 (33:40):
And we won the fucking meat raffles. I just remember
walking back to his place and he was just holding this.
There was no he was still right, really no, I
think he just it was an ick. I don't think
that winning a meat raffle on a second date is hot.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
There are some stages of your life when winning a
meat raffle is great, But be young, single on a
date where you're probably living like, that's not really useful.
Like four kilos, that's not really.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
It wasn't it. So being lucky isn't always great. But
I think there is something to this. And I remember
learning this at school, and I think it's a bit
of pseudoscience. I don't think that it's quite accurate. And
people online call themselves neuroscientists, and I don't think they
know what that means. But there's something called the reticular
activating system, which is this thing where if Holly tells
(34:31):
me that she's bought a new car, and she tells
me the make and model of that car, suddenly I
will see that car everywhere. Or someone says, you know
this new song. You start noticing things if the seed
is planted right. And that's all this is is that
if you seed luck early on in your day. Then
you'll start seeing luck whereas before you didn't. And I
(34:53):
think the other question that this sort of ass of
people is what would you do if you believed you
were lucky? And the answer is I'd probably try more shit.
So I have a friend who said, oh, you know Emily.
Emily is so lucky. She wins every competition, you know,
those online competitions. She went to Disneyland because she won
(35:13):
this competition, and I'm like, mate, when was the last
time you entered one of those copts? Think Emily is
the only one who enters the Disneyland competition, so she goes.
And I think that women often maybe psych themselves out,
or you know, they might not go for the job,
or they might not go on the date because they're
(35:35):
worried that it won't work out. But in the same
way that depression, and I have experienced this at moments
in my life. Depression makes your life sad, like the
experience and it's chicken or egg. But when I'm in
a state of depression, objectively bad things start happening in
my life. It's like you generate them, because I think
(35:56):
there's probably some part of you that almost revels in it,
and so this is the opposite. There's something quite.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
It's if you think that any project, anything you try,
if you allow yourself to be pre paralyzed by the
idea that it might fail, of course you're going to
try less shit, as you put it, Jesse. So I
think that's true. But I'd like to prosecute the delusional
part of this right because I have a friend who
one hundred percent is this person. I don't know if
you've noticed that a lot of modern manifestation seems to
(36:25):
center around getting car parks where you want them.
Speaker 6 (36:28):
There are many problems in the world that need to
be solved, but apparently all the positive energy is being
entirely channeled to there will be a spot outside the place,
like the cafe I want to go to, and I
have a friend who's this so she'll go.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
So you'll be talking and we'll go shall we drive?
And I'll say, oh, you know how hard it is
to park around there? And she goes, no, it's not
hard to park. You think it's hard to park.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
It's easy.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
I always get the good park. I've got excellent parking energy.
And I'm always like, really, baby, and she'd like you
you get in the car you drive. We will drive
around the block three times, but no one will say anything.
Everybody is scared. Everybody has been intimidated into the fact
that we have positive parkings usual, and eventually, after half
an hour a parking spot will materialize and she'll go
see seeing that that's the delusional piece. No, not seeing
(37:13):
the negative, only seeing the positive.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
I think that's right. But I want to posit that
this is particularly relevant in love and romance more than
maybe parking or even work, in the sense that you
know that old phrase it doesn't rain at pause. Anyone
who's ever done a lot of dating will know that
there's a real quality of momentum. When things start to
(37:37):
pick up in your love life, then all of a sudden,
everyone's interested in you. I do think that when it
comes to romance, sending out a positive energy as opposed
to a desperate energy, say, I think that people pick
up on that.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
That is really I agree. I think I've got two
issues with lucky girl syndrome. The first is that it
is not a very connected way of living. So if
you're so lucky, there are a few world conflicts that
could do with your luck, and also your positive vibes,
less car parks, more wishing well for others. Perhaps the
(38:15):
second thing is the workshop element. I can explain lucky
girl syndrome in about eight seconds. I don't need your workshop,
so I think that there's a business flaw in this
that people go lucky girl syndrome. All you have to
do is believe good things will happen. It's so simple.
Pay twenty eight dollars for my workshop link in bio,
(38:35):
and I'm like, guys, you've given it away for free,
Like I just don't know how much more. The life
coach of it all is just bamboos link to me.
I would love to know if these people are actually
making any money.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
This is why you also need to sell face cream affiliates.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
Feeling oh affiliate links so true.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
That is all we have time for my friends today.
And thank you out louders for being here with us.
Thank you Jesse Stevens. How you feeling duck oh?
Speaker 3 (39:00):
Look getting there, getting there. But I will say I've
had a really rough week with our sick kid, and
I've been sick and we have needed all the distraction
we can get. Maya has a new podcast and it
is called how to Build a universe, and it is brilliant,
especially if you are trying to keep your children. Tell me,
I don't know about this, Okay. So it's Tom Lyon,
(39:21):
who is a sound engineer. Mame. He's just he's brilliant.
He has made this podcast in collaboration with Jen Muir,
who is a brilliant parenting expert. And what they do is,
for about ten minutes, takes you through like an imaginary world,
so a forest, and you have a mission, and you
(39:44):
come across a magical tree and a magical possum, and
then this person says this, and there's like funny voices
and he is you know, some people when they speak
to children adopt a really sort of patronizing tone, and
I've always noticed, no matter how young kids are, they
can see right through it. He doesn't. He's got this
gift for speaking and engaging children. I would say probably.
(40:07):
I mean Luna's not even too and she really enjoyed it,
but I would say probably up to maybe ten.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
So it's a co listening show that you like you
have on you listen to with your kids.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
Yep. So it's great in the car. And It'll say
at the beginning, Jen does a really good bit which
she says, this imaginary play is really important and to
do it together and then to discuss it is important.
But you basically go on this journey. It's so engaging,
so good for imagination. It's called how to Build a Universe.
We'll have a link in our show notes.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
Have you tried Luna on Gwyneth Paltrow's new podcast? How
does that came out this week too?
Speaker 3 (40:39):
Okay, so I've actually I tried my other day to
put on one of my podcasts and she just went was.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
It a true crime podcast about prisly murders? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (40:48):
Her next word will be stab stab step.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Thank you out louders, Thank you to our amazing team.
We're going to be back in your ears tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
Bye, b B.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Shout out to any Mamma Mia subscribers listening. If you
love the show and you want to support us, subscribing
to Mama Mia is the very best way to do it.
There's a link in the episode description.
Speaker 6 (41:09):
They will be the back, back, back back
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