Sometimes, a pivot isn't triggered by a failure. Sometimes, it happens when you’re winning.
You can have the perfect life on paper - the apartment by the beach, the successful business, the long-term relationship - and still feel a quiet, persistent exhaustion. It’s that slow build of burnout that whispers: you are running 100 k’s an hour in the wrong direction.
But what happens when you finally brave that change, only to face a hurdle you never saw coming?
Jo Yates began her career studying analogue photography in the UK, right on the edge of the digital revolution. As the industry shifted beneath her feet, she was forced to re-educate herself - pivoting from photography into video production, then into large-scale event and marketing production here in Australia.
But alongside her creative career, Jo had a quiet safety-net hustle: flipping properties. What started as a way to create financial security slowly grew into something much bigger - until it became impossible to ignore.
Then life intervened.
After moving to Noosa, Jo was faced with the covid lockdown AND a diagnosis that forced her to stop, reassess, and reinvent her life yet again. It became the ultimate pivot - one that reframed her relationship with work, success, and what really mattered.
Today, Jo runs Bricks and More, a property renovation and buyer’s advocacy business with a difference - combining her creative thinking with commercial strategy to build homes that are genuinely meaningful to the people who live in them.
In this episode, we talk about adaptability, resilience, rebuilding after crisis, and why you don’t need a dramatic leap to change your life - just a clear vision and the courage to take the next small step
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Want more from Sarah Davidson? Check out her podcast Seize The Yay.
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CREDITS:
Guest: Jo Yates
Host: Sarah Davidson
Executive Producer: Courtney Ammenhauser
Senior Producer: Sally Best
Audio Producer: Thom Lion
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Mamamia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Land we have recorded this podcast on, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.
