The power of passion with Tory Archbold | #Perspectives podcast with Sharon Pearson

Speaking with Tory Archbold for my Perspectives podcast, launched May 20, was like standing under a fireworks display and watching it unfold: dazzling good fun that was choreographed brilliantly but not staged, and left me feeling as lit up as Tory.

For those who don't know her, the former Sydney schoolgirl launched PR powerhouse company Torstar two decades ago when she was in her twenties, and what followed was the stuff of bestselling chick-lit.

Girl has big dreams and strong values but no money. Acting on intuition, girl launches company—and it becomes so successful it draws global A-list clients including Zara, Victoria's Secret and Nespresso.

Girl—now grown into woman with coveted little black book and reputation of being able to get anything, anything, done—has beautiful daughter Bella and they live happily ever after.

All of that is true, except for Tory there is also a traumatic chapter between the glamour of having Drew Barrymore and Megan Gale as clients and the bit where mother and daughter have been enjoying lockdown together at their Sydney home.

In 2019, Tory revealed exclusively to Marie Claire magazine that for more than a decade, behind the scenes of her "very glamorous high profile life" she was enduring a private hell that only a handful of family and friends knew about.

“When Bella was nine months old I decided I was going to leave her father, and what happened was very unexpected," Tory told me.

"It started a decade-long traumatic experience … and it wasn’t until 2017 that situation was resolved. To put that into perspective, at one point in time I was receiving up to 100 phone calls, text messages, emails a day.”

During her long ordeal, Tory felt ashamed of her lack of power and the realisation that while those in her orbit thought she had everything, “actually I had nothing.”

But then during a court battle, Tory was "pushed" by her daughter, now 15, to change her situation: "She said, 'Mum, you're the only one who can resolve this.' And I decided to step into my true power and potential."

And she did. If it sounds simple, Tory made it very clear that the trauma cost her dearly but that something really wonderful and life-affirming came from it.

Her new empowerment platform