{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/6502ec015032c7001167fc64/6a0b1fd9a9d74429837c4098?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"Take the Risk or Lose the Chance: Sisters Who Rewrote the Rules Teddy and Mary - Havana Little","description":"<p>n this episode of&nbsp;She Dares Wins, Michelle is joined by sisters&nbsp;Mary&nbsp;and&nbsp;Teddy&nbsp;– two women who’ve carved wildly different but equally daring paths from the same family roots.</p><p><br></p><p>Mary is a fibrous plasterer working in heritage buildings and a trailblazer in a centuries‑old, male‑dominated trade. Teddy is a dental therapist who walked away from a high‑flying corporate role to work in rural Nicaragua, where she eventually met her husband.</p><p><br></p><p>Together they talk about risk, resilience, sisterhood, and what it really looks like to choose the daring route when nothing is guaranteed.</p><p><br></p><h2>Key Takeaways &amp; Timestamps</h2><p>[00:02:47] Daring stories: quitting jobs &amp; choosing risk</p><ul><li>Teddy shares how she quit a prestigious international dental job and followed her heart to Nicaragua.</li><li>Mary explains her mantra:&nbsp;“take the risk or lose the chance”&nbsp;and why she always chooses the dare over the safe option.</li></ul><p>[00:03:28] Motorway breakdown &amp; battery change – live ‘she dares, she wins’</p><ul><li>The chaotic journey to the studio: Teddy’s car breaking down on the motorway.</li><li>Mary diagnosing the battery, buying tools, negotiating with highway maintenance and changing the battery at the roadside in minutes.</li></ul><p>[00:08:02] 500 toothbrushes &amp; an NGO in Nicaragua</p><ul><li>Teddy’s decision to travel with a suitcase of toothbrushes to support an NGO dental project.</li><li>Staying six months instead of three weeks, travelling the country, and eventually deciding to quit her corporate role.</li><li>How this led to meeting her husband and redefining success.</li></ul><p>[00:14:06] Mary’s path in a family trade – from “embarrassed” to expert</p><ul><li>Growing up around the family fibrous plastering business and returning after having her daughter.</li><li>Being a woman in a male‑dominated heritage trade when it “wasn’t fashionable.”</li><li>Deciding not just to be a female plasterer, but to be&nbsp;the best&nbsp;and “better than the boys.”</li></ul><p>[00:17:16] Resilience, single motherhood &amp; mental strength</p><ul><li>Mary on being knocked down in work and personal life and still getting up every time.</li><li>Balancing running the business, raising her daughter alone, doing admin late at night and still choosing this life for the freedom it brings.</li><li>How challenges that would be “massive” to others now feel manageable.</li></ul><p>[00:21:16] Representation, role models &amp; social media</p><ul><li>How Mary’s Instagram makes her visible to young girls who now see a woman on the tools as normal.</li><li>Her daughter questioning words like “firemen” and assuming women run building sites.</li><li>The importance of seeing someone who looks like you doing the thing you dream of.</li></ul><p>[00:31:12] What they’d tell their younger selves (and why they wouldn’t change the hard bits)</p><ul><li>Both reflecting on mistakes, especially around relationships and risk.</li><li>Teddy’s intense experience with a brownie in Amsterdam, how it surfaced unresolved trauma, and why she says “go to therapy before you have a brownie (or just don’t do them).”</li><li>The idea that the painful chapters were necessary to become who they are now.</li></ul><p>[00:39:25] The craft: heritage ceilings, the Guild &amp; teaching the next generation</p><ul><li>Mary explains decorative mouldings and working on stately homes and castles.</li><li>Her role in the&nbsp;Guild&nbsp;(founded 1509), becoming the youngest and only female journeyman so far, and the rarity of female master plasterers.</li><li>Running workshops, Airbnb experiences and college sessions – creating safe learning spaces where no question is stupid.</li></ul><p>[00:49:24] Identity, calling &amp; coming home to yourself</p><ul><li>Teddy’s current RAF clinic role and living on base in Lincolnshire.</li><li>The identity crisis of moving to rural Nicaragua: language, culture, lifestyle all changing at once.</li><li>Realising not every part of her “old self” has to die – some passions and projects are meant to be carried forward into the new life.</li></ul><p><br></p><p>Join <a href=\"https://www.shewhodareswins.com/pages/dare-club\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Dare Club </a></p>","author_name":"Michelle Hands"}