Karen Sander: Meet The Host | Sharing Stories Changing Lives
In the inaugural episode of the Sharing Stories Changing Lives podcast, host Greg Vinall sits down with Karen Sander, the visionary behind this ground-breaking series. This candid conversation delves into Karen's rich tapestry of experiences within the realms of storytelling, podcasting, radio hosting, and community TV presentations. As a respected podcaster himself, Greg navigates through Karen's journey, unearthing the passion and purpose that drive her to harness the transformative power of stories. Listeners are invited on a captivating exploration of Karen's background, providing a compelling glimpse into the creative forces propelling this inspiring podcast. Learn more about the podcast and what you can expect every week on Sharing Stories Changing Lives.
Dive Deeper: The Full Conversation with Karen Sander
The Core Story: Finding Purpose and Passion
Welcome to the very first episode of Sharing Stories, Changing Lives! In this episode, host and master storyteller Karen Sander sits down with Greg Vinal to share her personal journey and reveal the purpose and passion behind creating this podcast. Karen details her extensive background, from community TV and radio to founding the Aging Fearlessly podcast and, most critically, creating the successful Story Room Global live events. She explains why, at 67, this new podcast has become her mission: to showcase authentic, untold stories that foster empathy, resilience, and transformation on a global scale. This episode is a fundamental guide to the power of human connection through narrative.
Time-Stamped Breakthrough Moments
Listen to the pivotal moments that shaped the podcast's creation:
[00:00:30] – Introduction to the host, Karen Sander, a compassionate soul and master storyteller.
[00:01:45] – The mission of the podcast: to inspire, entertain, and positively influence lives through powerful, authentic stories.
[00:05:00] – The importance of storytelling in society: fostering empathy, preserving culture, and shaping identity.
[00:08:45] – The catalyst: How being invited to a live event inspired Karen to create The Story Room after seeing the impact on the audience.
[00:15:20] – The COVID-19 impact: How venue closures led to the realization that a podcast was necessary to reach a wider, global audience.
[00:23:00] – The Magic of Storytelling: Why true stories resonate so deeply and provide inspiration for following your own dreams.
[00:30:30] – The origin of the Aging Fearlessly podcast, which was sparked by writing a book about not being "defined by a number."
[00:43:00] – Upcoming Guests: A sneak peek at the incredible stories coming next, including Nick from Bucketty's Brewery, psychologist Gunther Swaboda, and risk consultant Tony Lofram.
[00:46:20] – The Backstage Pass: Details on the new private membership area for exclusive videos and live event content.
[00:54:00] – Karen's Final Pearl: The power of acknowledging and sharing your own story to achieve personal growth.
Full Episode Transcript
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, I'm Greg Vinall and I am thrilled to welcome you to a brand new podcast, Sharing Stories, Changing Lives. This podcast is set to ignite your imagination, to touch your heart. And today, we embark on a journey of inspiration, resilience and human connection. I've had the privilege of working alongside a remarkable storyteller, a colleague whose passion for narratives is just contagious.
Now she's ready to take you on a ride through the lives of extraordinary individuals. Ladies and gentlemen, Karen Sander is more than a master storyteller. She's a compassionate soul with a knack for drawing out the most profound and authentic tales from those who've lived them. Every week, right here on this podcast, Karen will sit down with amazing people from all walks of life, each with a unique story to share. So get ready for laughter, tears, moments that will stay with you long after the podcast ends. Sharing Stories, Changing Lives isn't just a podcast, it's a platform for connection, empathy and understanding. So without further ado, go and grab your favourite beverage, settle in and join us on this incredible journey as Karen Sander unfolds the captivating narratives that remind us all of the power of the human experience.
This is Sharing Stories, Changing Lives.
Welcome to Sharing Stories, Changing Lives.
The host, Karen Sander, is on a mission to provide listeners with a unique podcast experience that inspires and entertains, offering insights and perspectives that may positively influence their lives.
On this platform, Karen has the privilege of interviewing individuals from all walks of life, each with their own powerful and inspiring stories you won't find anywhere else.
The guests open their hearts and minds to share their life experiences and in doing so, they celebrate the remarkable impact of real tales, genuine connections and authentic individuals. Listeners are invited to join Karen on this journey as she explores the untold stories that can truly make a difference in their lives. At the Sharing Stories, Changing Lives podcast, they wholeheartedly believe in the transformative magic of storytelling. To learn more, they can visit www.thesorryroom.au and explore their private membership area, the Backstage Pass. Well hello listeners and thank you for tuning in to the very first episode of Sharing Stories, Changing Lives. In a moment, I have the pleasure of introducing to you the host of this podcast, Master Storyteller, Karen Sander. But before I do that, I'd just like to spend a moment or two reflecting on the importance of storytelling in today's society. Storytelling taps into the very essence of what it means to be human. It allows individuals to share experiences and convey emotions and allows us to impart wisdom. Through stories, we connect on a really profound level, fostering empathy, fostering understanding and creating a shared sense of humanity. Whether stories are passed down through oral traditions or written narratives or through modern multimedia platforms, they provide a framework for processing complex information, shaping identity and building communities.
Storytelling is a vehicle for preserving cultural heritage, for instilling moral values and for igniting imagination. In essence, storytelling isn't merely a form of entertainment, but is a fundamental aspect of our cognitive, emotional and social development, weaving the fabric of our shared history and connecting us in ways that go well beyond the confines of time and space. So with all that in mind, I'm really excited to introduce the host and creator of Sharing Stories, Changing Lives podcast, Karen Sander. So welcome, Karen, and thank you for the opportunity to help explore your personal story. Well, thanks, Greg Vinal. It's wonderful that you're giving me the opportunity to share how this podcast came to be and my story. Yeah, Karen, it's always difficult to tell your own story. And so it's nice to be here to help facilitate that process. It's better for it to be a conversation than to be telling your own story by yourself. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not very good at monologues. Well, look, I don't think any of us are, or certainly not without a lot of practice, but it's much more pleasant anyway. And I'm looking forward to getting to know you a little bit better through this conversation, helping to introduce you to the audience and the future audience of sharing stories, changing lives. So your personal journey is quite an interesting one. And over the last 50 years, leading up to where we're sitting today, you know, you've transitioned from community TV through radio, you've founded the aging Fearlessly podcast, you created live storytelling events. And now the Sharing Stories, Changing Lives podcast. So quite an amazing range of things that you've done, but storytelling has been central to everything. And I want to go through each of those things individually. We'll flesh them all out and find out a bit more about what you've done. But before you tell us a little bit more about what prompted you to create this podcast, sharing stories, changing lives.
Speaker 2: First of all, I'll go back to I am a baby boomer, so I'm not young getting into all of this, but, you know, I'm 67 years of age at the moment and I have retired from the workforce. And this has become my purpose and passion. And how did I get into the storytelling world? I was invited to share my story at a live event about five years ago. It was well before COVID and I really enjoyed doing it. And I saw what was happening within the audience. And I kept attending every month because they had one event every month. And I just absolutely loved it. And I turned to a girlfriend that was with me once and I said, we could do this. And she said to me, she looked at me and just shook her head and went, you can do it. I'll help you get it off the ground. And that's what we did. Some awesome stuff. So let's take a step back and look at some of the other things that you're doing that have kind of led up to this particular podcast. Because as I said, you've been involved in television, radio, all sorts of stuff. But I'd like to have a bit of a chat about your live events because your story room live events are really emerged as a powerful community initiative. So a little bit about how story room came to be and its impact on the community and especially during the challenging times around the COVID-19 pandemic. Yeah. So well, as I said, I was going to these live events and I just decided to have a go at doing this myself. And I put a bunch of girlfriends together and I actually cooked them dinner one night. I didn't poison them. We got the whiteboard out and I told them what I wanted to do. So we had like a three hour brainstorming session about this event. And it didn't have a name. Didn't have a venue. It didn't have anything. It just was an idea that I had. And they then held me accountable. And five months later, which was March of 2020, I held the first event in Manly. And through the big network I have was close to 100 people in the audience. And they were theater style in a hotel. And look, the night went incredibly well. People were impressed. And within two weeks after that, we sold out the April event. So I was really, really thrilled, Greg. Then what happened was there was all this noise about COVID. And by the time, well, a week out from the event in April, everything was shutting down. People were called back to their home countries. The pubs and clubs were all shutting down and we were told we weren't allowed to meet socially. So we had to refund everybody for that event. The good thing for me and how I looked at it in a positive way was that we'd done one. It was successful.
And I could then sit and revise, you know, go over what we'd actually done and improve it and wait for the opportunity. Thinking it had only been a couple of months. Yes. Yes. But we went through till March the next year, no February in 2021, before we were actually allowed back into venues. Something really good happened then. We were asked to sit at tables and we got rid of the theater style. And here's me thinking, oh, this isn't going to be as good. But it actually built the connection among the people there because people were sitting at tables sometimes with people they didn't know. And they hadn't been allowed out for so long. And just the joy that they felt coming in, meeting new people, sitting at a table. It's amazing. And we started up again.
Speaker 1: Can you give us a little bit of an insight into the format? I know this podcast is not about The Story Room. It's a little bit different format, but I'm interested in the format of your live events because you're still running the live events, right? So I'm still listening to the podcast, particularly if you're in the in the Greater Sydney area, the Northern Beaches area, I think is where you operate mostly, isn't it, Karen?
Speaker 2: Yes, and Cronela this year too.
Speaker 1: Okay. So people in those areas, you might be interested in checking out The Story Room and going to some of Karen's live events. So tell us a little bit about how the evenings run in the format.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So the event runs from seven to nine PM. It's a two hour event once a month. And I give each event a theme, whether it be something like courage and determination. One of my favorites themes, Greg, was life's like a box of chocolates. We had some great, great stories about people's ideas on chocolates. One person actually related chocolates in the box to his girlfriend. And finally, he actually carried the whole box. One woman who had, was every flavor. Yeah, she was wonderful. And stories like that, that just make the audience laugh and feel emotion. And sometimes we see tears from people, but basically they're themed events and they're six storytellers. We give them a timeframe of 10 minutes. Very, very hard to keep to. That's really the art of storytelling is to fit into a timeframe that you're given. If it's five minutes, you work to five minutes. If it's 10 minutes, you work to 10 minutes. And going over half a minute or so is OK, but we try to stick to that time. And we have an intermission at half time so people can mingle, they can meet new people. And like there's so much joy in the room. Now I do it at a really well-known brewery in the Northern beaches. I'll plug it. Bucketty's. It's a brilliant brewery and there's great beer, great wine, great atmosphere. And people just love coming there for the venue as well as the event. And yeah, so we're running nine a year at Bucketty's and we ran four this year in Crinola. So 13 live events.
Speaker 1: Wow. Wow. Very, very cool stuff. Congratulations on the success of The Story Room. It sounds like a fantastic event to be part of and to be a participant in. Karen, is COVID kind of the reason that you've transitioned? I know you've got the Aging Fearlessly podcast as well. We'll talk about that in a minute. But is COVID and the impacts of COVID on live events caused you to think about transitioning into a podcast? Or what was the reason you've gone from the live events now branching out and also doing podcasts around sharing stories and changing lives?
Speaker 2: Well, live events, you can only reach so many people in an area. So at the moment, unless we branch out to other states, we're really restricted to our local areas or to Sydney because distance and travel. And it's a lot of work. And unless you find the right people to run it for you in another place, it's difficult to do. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it just becomes a logistical-- Logistically difficult, yeah. Difficult. And so I decided to do a podcast to showcase people's stories. And they're not necessarily telling a story, but we're delving into their lives and their stories and using themes to do that and talking about resilience and courage. And I've actually done one with Nick that owns Buckety's Brewery. And the story behind this brewery coming to Bing in Brookvale is an incredible story of determination and grit and courage because it didn't go smoothly. So for people to see how someone has built something is a story in itself.
And with the podcast, I'm able to reach people on a more global level and then bring them back to my website if they want to look at videos from the live events. Yeah. And as a podcast host myself, I guess I'm a little bit biased, but I think the other great advantage of a podcast is that it's convenient for the listener as well. That a live event, you need to go along at the time. And if you've got other commitments or whatever, you're going to miss that event. But with a podcast, it's on demand. So you can listen to it at any time.
Speaker 1: But Karen, tell us what storytelling means to you. I mean, I gave a little bit of an introduction earlier on about the importance of storytelling across the ages and across generations and cultures and that kind of stuff. But to you personally, I mean, this has been a big part of your life. And you know, on television and our podcasting as well. What does storytelling mean? Why do people get so inspired by other people's stories?
Speaker 2: I think because, well, we're human number one and we've told stories all our lives. It's how we communicate. But I think get in touch with your own emotions. And for many people, and this leads to why the name of the podcast event is The Story Room. But what I found for myself personally is the emotional contact that you have, the feelings that you have when you're listening to true stories, because all these stories, they're true. Whether someone's telling a story of how a husband passed away from brain cancer and how the community brought them together or whether someone's talking about their passion in being a scuba diver and being a citizen scientist.
People get quite emotional when they connect to a story and they won't connect to every story. But some stories really resonate and resonate deeply with them. And I had people from The Story Room ringing me up and I think of one particular person and I won't name her. She rang me up one day and she said, can I talk to you about The Story Room? And I said, well, yeah. And she said, I need to tell you how being on stage gave me my mojo back. She said, I didn't think I could do that anymore. And people who knew her said, Karen, she's got a skip in a step again. You know, she's, it really boosted her up. And then from the audience, I hear, you know, I now know what I want to do. It's given me the inspiration to follow my own dream or feel human. Someone else's experienced that. We have stories of a doctor and an atheist recently told a story of his act trying to cross Antarctica on the track. I mean, the stories are so vast. They're so different. Every story. Sometimes we have musicians. Sometimes we have poets. There's many different ways you can tell a story. So from the feedback that I was getting, I thought, you know, these stories are actually changing lives. And that became the tagline for the stories, for The Story Room, sharing stories, changing lives.
The first time I, when I was thinking about this podcast, I thought I'll just call it The Story Room, but it didn't have enough meaning to me, to people on a global scale. I decided to use the tagline, sharing stories, changing lives as a name for the podcast. So the two tie together. One's a live event and the other's online.
Speaker 1: I think that's absolutely brilliant, Karen, more pouty. I think that's going to be a really, really good combination. I think now when you look around, many of us kind of reach a point in some aspect of our lives, whether it's relationships or whether it's their careers or sport or whatever it is that we, you know, we're passionate about, we kind of often reach this point where we feel like we've plateaued and we're not getting any further. And we see people out there that have achieved in areas that we want to achieve. And it seems like it's also easy. And then you start to talk to those people and pair away some of the layers and realize that their story is often quite convoluted and their story can be quite inspirational to you in your own life as well. I think that's to me, that's the power of what you're doing. Yeah, definitely. As some people's stories think how they ever survived this, how they come through and they live a normal life and it's inspiring. And without knowing that backstory, I guess you might look at them and say, oh, they're just a fortunate individual or they're gifted or they've had some head start in life, whatever. And then you find out that this is story behind about the adversities that were faced and the attitudes and the mentality about how those challenges were approached can be really inspiring. So that's really cool. Karen, I want to also talk a little bit about Ageing Fearlessly. I know you've kind of parked this podcast for the moment, but I also know that a lot of people who start listening to sharing stories, changing lives, are going to know you from the Ageing Feelessy podcast as well. It's a brilliant name. I love Ageing Feelessy. You said earlier on you're a baby boomer, you're 67, but let's be honest, 67 is the old 47. So it's such a big deal these days. But tell us a little bit about Ageing Fearlessly and how that came to be. And it's out there for people who want to listen to it. It's there and they can go and listen.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. And Ageing, for those who don't live in Australia or Canada, has an E in it. It's A-G-E-I-N-G. And that's always been a bone of contention for me because people say, "Oh, I looked it up in A-G-I-N-G and I'll go nah."
I would pick a name that had Ageing and it was spelled differently. I would live in this country that we spell it a little differently. But anyway, I was doing a course in 2014 and part of the course was to write a book. And I thought, "Oh, God, what am I going to write a book on?" And it was more a self-help book than, you know, that's what we were being trained to do, not a novel. Yeah. I think writing a novel would be very, very difficult. And I started to write about my life at the time. I'd been pole dancing and I was doing all sorts of things. I was ocean swimming. I was doing lots of stuff. And I thought, "Well, this to me is a story of what I actually do in life." And I approached life and learning. I was learning at the time. I was studying a 40-week course that met turning up every week and lots of homework. So I was writing the book about my own life, about the things I value, about health, fitness, relaxation, appearance, you know, all these things that, you know, how we present ourselves, first-time impressions, et cetera. And I didn't have a name for it.
I love a scrapbook and I love jotting things down and a few people I was throwing ideas around. I actually wanted it to be a blueprint for women. I wanted to print it in blue.
One said, "Do you know the cost of printing in blue?" I went, "No." Anyway, aging fearlessly don't be defined by a number, which at the time, you know, I was sort of pushing the years up a little bit, not too far. But, you know, I thought, "Yeah, that's it. Don't be defined by a number." You know, who in their late fifties takes up pole dancing? That's not being defined by a number. You know, most people would say, "Oh, you can't do that. I can't do that." But I'm just one of these people that jumps in boots and all and has a go. And if I fail, you know, I get up and I try something else or I try it again. But there is no such thing as failure. It's just a lesson learned. So I guess that's where the book came from. And then my elocution teacher, when I was five, she was a casting agent and she had a Unity TV program, Joys World, and she invited me to come and interview and to teach me to interview on her program, which led to me starting my own program alongside hers. And we'd record on the same day. I would use her same crew. Look, eventually she was getting to her nineties and her and her family, her two daughters, asked me would I run Joys World and Ageing fearlessly and record both. And I did that for a year. But New South Wales, hard work. Once it was only once a month, but we did it for a year. But Community TV in New South Wales stopped. And I spoke to my same friend, Vicky, very good friend. She's like my daughter. She's like 20 years younger than me or even more and bounce ideas off each other all the time. And I'm her surrogate mum in in this country because she's from Wales. And I said to Vicky, you think of community radio? And she said, write up your alley, Karen, do it. And I looked online and the next day there was a course on Monday night. And I went along to Radio Northern Beaches and I signed up and I started my aging fearlessly radio program, which eventually I decided, hey, it's a radio program. What will be hard about turning it into a podcast and a bit more learning with my friends, Google and YouTube. And I had a podcast. Well, that Dr. Google is always there to helping you when you need guidance. I learn all the time. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And again, one of the things I love about talking to you, Karen, is that you walk the talk, you know. So here you are launching a podcast in your retirement because this is what's keeping you passionate about getting up in the morning and getting out of bed and doing stuff. You know, the opportunity to change other people's lives through that podcast as well. Can't be underestimated. So tell us a little bit about what we can expect to hear in the coming weeks. I mean, the sharing stories, changing lives podcast is a weekly podcast. Who are we going to hear? Can you share any guests for this? Or what can we expect? I guess is what I'm asking.
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. Well, my first guest will be Nick from Buckety's. He's the owner of Buckety's. So after my episode one that we're recording will be Nick. And another guest that I have is Gunther Swaboda, who is a psychologist.
He works with men. He's written a book called Making Good Men Great. He's done some documentaries. He's a really fantastic psychologist surfer here on the Northern beaches. And he has spoken twice before on Storyroom. And we go into the back end of his story and how he came to be doing what he's doing because he started life really not wanting to do anything but surf and ended up in the bank. And these days, he's one of the most respected psychologists around. And I'm also interviewing Tony Lofram, who is international. He's just published a book. It's coming out. It's actually out now. And he is on the Storyroom live very shortly. But he's from 18 in Liverpool, in England, going into the Navy, becoming a Green Beret, working for the BBC in security and now, you know, a highly respected person when it comes to risk consulting and management and had an incredible career. So I can't wait to interview him. It's coming up. And look, I have a huge list of people that I'm hoping to interview the Outback pioneer Richard Kinman, who I've interviewed before the Aging Fearlessly podcast. But I will be going back to some of my favorite interviews and dragging out their stories.
Speaker 1: Their stories, as you say, because these people just have done amazing things in their lives and have very, very inspiring stories. Tremendous. Well, you've given us a good indication of what to expect. We're cross-sectionally, we won't spoil it any more than that by telling people, yeah, how many other guests you've got coming on board. But I can tell you, Karen, that you do have very extensive networks and an uncanny ability to get some pretty amazing guests to turn up and tell their stories. So really looking forward to that. Now, Karen, before we start to wrap this up, something we probably should mention is that you are creating a backstage pass as well to the podcast. Tell us what that's all about.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so as I mentioned, it's very hard for people overseas and who aren't in Sydney to see the live show. So we're building a backstage pass where people can have a membership for a very small amount of dollars and come and look at the stories and see the stories, experience the interviews or the stories that have been told at the live event and have a little bit of fun. And we are also planning on doing a lot of other things there. It's evolving, you know, it's one of those things.
I think women have a tendency to want to know it all and have it all ready before they create something. But I know this is going to evolve time and I have a wonderful woman called Nikki working with me, doing all the social media and helping me to create the backstage pass. But it is just about ready to launch, which is really exciting. And that's the next thing, hopefully within a week. So it's really for those that come along to either your live events or listen to the Ageing Fearlessly podcast or listen to this podcast are inspired by and really want to get more. And they want to dive in deeper and meet more of your guests and hear more of their stories and be able to do it on demand. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Excellent stuff. And where can people find out for the backstage pass? Is it open now? Is it ready to go or is it got the coming soon sticker on the door? Yeah, it's www.thestoryroom.au. And there's a button for the backstage pass. And you know, it's $10 Australian a month. It's not, you know, it's not a huge amount of money. Can't even buy a cup of coffee once a week for $10 Australian. Karen, so that's pretty good value, isn't it? Anyone's book.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And we really want to add value and we want to bring people into the platform and we will be talking about our upcoming shops that will be running. I have two women, amazing storytellers who run workshops for me and help me run workshops. And look, I guess what's the saying, Greg? The sky's your oyster? Is that it?
Speaker 1: No, your sky's the limit. The sky's the limit. The world's your oyster. Your world's your oyster and your sky's the limit. We can mix those two up quite happily. We know what you're doing, Karen. That's important. As a podcast host myself, I can tell you that there is a bit of work involved in getting these things set up and any help and any support is appreciated. So going along and buying a backstage pass and becoming a member, get all sorts of benefits. As Karen said, those benefits are growing and evolving as you go along, but at the very least you're going to get to hear some extra stories to inspire you and help you on your own personal journey. So definitely go and check that out. Karen, let's bring this to a close with a thought from you, a gem, I guess, a final closing pearl that you want to leave with us about something. Maybe you shared a few of these already, but something specific about a moment in your journey that encapsulates the impact that you hope to achieve with the Sharing Stories, Changing Lives podcast.
Speaker 2: I really hope to achieve helping people learn through other people's stories, that they realize that we're all very different, but we all are human and we all do have a story and not to be afraid of those stories, not even to hide those stories, to share those stories. Of course, you don't know sharing your story, the impact you'll have on other people. And I know sometimes these stories are difficult, but I even encourage people, Greg, write this story down for themselves and read it to themselves or pretend they're reading it to themselves in a mirror. And it can make that much of a difference to their own lives when they really acknowledge their own story. And that's what the tagline, which is now the podcast name, sharing stories, changing lives, it does change lives and that we know.
Speaker 1: I can say from your personal experience, I definitely draw inspiration from other people's stories. I appreciate what you're doing here, Karen. I really look forward to seeing the Sharing Stories, Changing Lives podcast. Blossom, in the weeks and months to come, so thank you so much for all the work you've put into getting this podcast up and going. And I wish you the very best as it rolls out.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Greg. It's always great to talk to you and you are such a wealth of knowledge. I love it. Thank you for tuning in to Sharing Stories, Changing Lives. We understand that sharing stories is an awe-inspiring way to connect with others and make a positive impact on people's lives.
If you're interested in getting more involved in our community and connecting with people who share your interests, we'd like to invite you to support us by purchasing a backstage pass. You can do this by visiting our website at www.thestoryroom.au. It's affordable, costing about the same as two cups of coffee each month. With the backstage pass, you'll gain access to workshops and exclusive content, including videos from our live events.
We firmly believe in the incredible power of storytelling, and with your support, we can continue to show that sharing stories changes lives. Don't miss out on this transformative experience. Come with us on this incredible storytelling adventure.
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