TRIGGER WARNING: ⚠️ Please note: This episode may include sensitive or triggering content. Honor your inner knowing, and remember, our show is never a substitute for professional, legal, medical, or psychosocial guidance. Always seek support from a certified professional when needed.

Host Chris Melville opens with a content warning and introduces No Small Talk guest Tana Mcpherson-Smith, a child and adolescent trauma therapist, school mental health consultant, speaker, and author of There’s a Monkey on Your Shoulder.

Tana describes working with ages five to 25 to trace current mental health crises back to childhood vulnerability, helping clients understand the past, stabilize the present, and move toward who they want to be.

She shares her own path from 25 years in teaching and boarding to a catastrophic 2013 breakdown triggered by an ambulance, six months in a London psychiatric hospital, and the realization of core limiting beliefs, especially feeling “invisible,” alongside experiences of grief, abuse, and suppressed anger.

After a 2016 breast cancer experience and intensive psychotherapy, she reframed these events as gifts, became medication-free, and developed perspective tools like “the wall.” She closes with resources and a hope-focused example of helping a severely agoraphobic client use imagination practices to take a long-haul flight to see her grandchildren.

00:00 Content & Trigger Warning

00:39 Show Intro

01:03 Meet Tana

02:44 Youth Mental Health

06:05 Rethinking University

08:47 Her Breakdown Story

12:06 Hospital Lessons

16:00 Rebuilding Afterward

18:20 Cancer And Therapy

23:43 The Wall Perspective

25:36 Where To Find Tana

26:53 Advice And Hope

30:40 Closing Thanks

Connect with Chris Melville

Email

Instagram

Connect with Sarah Clay:

Threads

Instagram

LinkedIn

Producer’s credits:

• Chris Melville - Podcast Host
• Nicole George - Podcast Executive
• Ariane Lim - Podcast Producer + Engineer
• Sara Wagle - Audio Efficiency & Flow Manager

On the first episode of No Small Talk, released on Chris’s 60th birthday, host Chris Melville and guest Richard Harrison (founder of Caldera Capital, connecting property investors with development opportunities) discuss learning to trust yourself.

Richard shares how a failed events partnership and disillusionment with corporate loyalty led him to doubt his judgment, seek support from mentors and friends, and reframe setbacks as lessons and perspective.

They explore how “confidence” and “imposter syndrome” can mask deeper issues, the role of intuition versus logic, and how entrepreneurship requires accepting uncertainty and discomfort.

Richard describes taking a large financial risk to start his current business, emphasizes the importance of resilience, and argues that trusting yourself is less about perfect decisions and more about handling outcomes and continuing to move forward.

00:00 Welcome and Birthday Launch

00:56 Meet Richard Harrison

01:52 Trust vs Confidence

03:07 Where Doubt Began

04:48 Leaving Corporate Security

08:13 Lessons From a Failed Partnership

10:57 Rebuilding Self-Trust

12:49 Big Bet That Worked

14:38 Beyond Imposter Syndrome

15:57 Intuition and Embracing Chaos

23:24 Trust Your Ability to Cope

25:48 Advice for Big Decisions

28:54 Closing Thanks

Connect with Chris Melville:

Email

Instagram

Connect with Richard Harrison:

Instagram

LinkedIn

Producer’s credits:

• Chris Melville - Podcast Host
• Nicole George - Podcast Executive
• Ariane Lim - Podcast Producer + Engineer
• Sara Wagle - Audio Efficiency & Flow Manager

Chris Melville, a business mentor and mindset coach for solopreneurs, introduces No Small Talk, a podcast inspired by her fascination with how the brain drives behaviour and self-perception. She speaks to the doubts, insecurities, and lack of self-belief people often hide, especially in late-night moments when mental “noise” feels unavoidable. Drawing from her daily work and her own healing journey, Chris shares a core message: whatever you’re dealing with, you’re not the only one. The show features real people and honest, messy conversations - alongside laughs, possible tears, and science-based insights to help quiet the brain - as guests share hard times, what it felt like, and the breakthroughs that helped them get to the other side.

00:00 Meet Your Host

00:36 Why We Stay Silent

00:58 The 2 AM Mind

01:03 Why This Podcast

01:18 What To Expect

01:33 Deep Conversations Ahead

01:47 Join No Small Talk

Connect with Chris Melville

Email

Instagram

Producer’s credits:

• Chris Melville - Podcast Host
• Ariane Lim - Podcast Producer + Engineer
• Sara Wagle - Audio Efficiency & Flow Manager