#213: Mick Fanning Reveals the No.1 Reason Behind His Winning Mindset in Surfing, Business & Life

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
McK fanning. Welcome to straight to it mate. Finally it's
been a while, been a while, sure, well you've been
busy mate. Let me just start up. Let's ask you
this question. How do you feel been a kid that
grew up in Penrith to now we're sitting at where
we are, by the way that we're on site at

(00:21):
a place where you know, you're part of a group
that's proposing to build wave pill up in north or
not North quest but in Queensland in the Gold Coast.
How do you feel about that transition when you stand
back and have a look at what you've done in
your life.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Oh? Mate, Yeah, it's one of those things where I
never thought I'd be in this situation, you know, from
from where I started as a kid and to where
I stand now, like you know nothing, and then to
be able to be in situations where I can build

(00:56):
a business or be able to make decisions around money.
It's it's purely wild and I'm forever grateful that I'm
in this situation. And but just just know it's like,
you know, you always hear those people or you can
do anything you want, and it's sort of like, well

(01:17):
you sort of can like it's it's just as much
work as you want to put into it.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Really, But were you one of those people used to
manifest that type of thing, Like did you did you
think yourself as a kid, I only get the fuck
out of this territory when I'm older, and I don't
want to. I don't want to be that person when
I'm a parent. You used to think that stuff to yourself,
like manifests this universe.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
To be honest, growing up, don't care about money even
to this day, Like I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
It's not a driver, It's.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Definitely not a driver. It's never been a driver. Even
when I was competing, and that like didn't care if
it was the biggest prize person in an event or
something like that. It wasn't. Wasn't my band and all
and all. My My thing was just be the best
I could possibly be in whatever situation I was in.
And yeah, I think that's just the rewards come from

(02:09):
just working hard.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
That's a very good point. But you did you just
said you thought I want to be the best at
what I do. Like, so is that a natural competitive
streaking you?

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Being the youngest of five kids, you know, I had
a lot of Yeah, it was just I don't know.
I think I was just always fighting for something, you know,
like if it's the best seat in the house to
watch TV, or if it was food on the table,
or just beat my brothers out the door, and so yeah,

(02:42):
it's just always always fought. And then but then also too,
like my brothers from a very young age never sheltered me.
Like you know, I first started playing rugby league when
I was five years old and I was a year above,
and my brother Peter would sit on the sideline and

(03:06):
he'd say, see that big kid, you have to tackle him.
Don't worry about the rest of him, just tackle that. No,
this was Coffs comments.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Coffs comments.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I never played. I moved from Penrith
when I was probably I think I was like four,
and we moved up to Costs with my dad and
yeah they put me on the Coughs comments because we
lived across the road from the footy field.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
So how good was that?

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Though?

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Like me, if you remember back in those days having
your older brothers, I don't know which.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
One was he, by the way, Peter was the oldest, oldest, Yeah,
how old he be. He was nine years older than
me so.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
So as a young because I got four sons, and
my younger sons always looked up to my older sons
when and I often think about that because I was
older of my family, so I had never experienced. But
as a young kid looking up to your older brother,
how much inspiration and aspiration did you feel? Like, so
I want to be like him?

Speaker 2 (03:59):
Oh? It was. They were pretty much my driving force
for a long time. You know. It was always looking
at my brothers as as my heroes in a sense,
you know, especially when we all started surfing together and
seeing them be successful in their own right in the

(04:20):
surfing world. It's like, all right, well to get to there,
I have to do this. To get to that spot,
I have to do that. And they were always sort
of my yardstick, like, all right, Ed did this at eighteen,
Sean did this when he was eight, and I'm going
to surpass them both, and so yeah, it was sort

(04:41):
of like a yardstick to really, I guess know where
I was in life. A lot of the time.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
That's pretty sophisticated thinking or mature thinking for a young
guy to start thinking about measurement, like like I'm talking
about it in a complicate complex way, but measurement measuring
where I am relative to where they are, or where
I want to be. I want to be relative to

(05:10):
where they are. Where did that come from? Like is
that your mum, your dad? Like who talked to you?
Who showed you that shit? Or did you just naturally
think that way?

Speaker 2 (05:18):
Just naturally, you know, like even even when we lived
in Ballaner and.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
So you moved from Coffs to move the.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
Coffs back to Campbelltown right Penrith Coffs Campbelltown and then
Ballaner before moving to the Gold Coast. But yeah, like
playing under eight soccer, like no one shows me, no
one in my family. It was like you know, you've
got to go and train or this and that. Like
I would ride my bike because I wanted to go

(05:48):
training and then learning things on the soccer field and
they would go surfing. That comes surf and I was like, no,
I want to go and practice this really yeah at eight?

Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah that's mad.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah. Or like long distance running, like I knew I
had a race coming up and just like I got
to go train, Like I didn't have a coach or
anything like that. It was just like I just felt
like that's what I had to do.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
It must have been a parent's dream because most parents say,
come on, get out of there.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
And do that. To be honest, mum was always working,
so she would leave in the dark, come home in
the dark, and yes, so yeah, she didn't know what
we did during the day. She was just like, as
long as the house was clean, yeah she was happy.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
So so I met no doubt, you know, hing because
you're a mate Penra supporter. I mean, I unfortunately this
year you guys didn't get the chocolates, but you did
pretty good in the last previous a couple of years
before that. But Nathan Clear is a bit like that.
So become so good at what he does. He told
me that after training he will practice for hours. He's
completely committed to what he does, like as opposed to

(06:58):
doing anything else. He's completely committed to the task at hand.
During the football season and perhaps during the off season
a bit different. And I know he's got he's got
a new girlfriend. But is that is that how you
approached say, your serving career? Yea, is that what they
call you? Cyeball? I don't know.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
The boys just said I just went into a whole
different world and like with the cyborg thing. They were
just like, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
You weren't aware that you went into that mode.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
I was, Yeah, but that sort of you know, I
guess my first early years in my career, I probably
took it for granted a lot. I probably took it
to a point where probably talent was just get me through.

(07:53):
And it wasn't like, you know, it was before all
the days of you got to be the fittest, or
you've got to be training the hardest or whatever. And
you know, I went, you know, from being a junior
onto the World Tour just so fast, like from seventeen
to twenty one was just so fast, and from winning

(08:16):
pro juniors to actually winning World Tour events and big
you know, top five in the world. It was just
like wow, like I had to.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
Really stop and like I'm now in first grade.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah, and I didn't, you know, I guess it's sort
of like that that imposter syndrome in a bit like
am I really here? And And but I was having
a great time. I was young, I was single, I
was traveling the world to the best places on earth,
and and it wasn't until I tore my hamstring off

(08:48):
the bone in two thousand and four that I actually
had this moment of in the water. Yeah, I was
in Indo and tore my hamstring off the bone as
I did a float and come down, did splits, and yeah,
I didn't know what it was, so came off and
came off, had to get surgery, do all that, and
and yeah, it wasn't until then when the doctor was like,

(09:11):
you may never surf again. It was like, hang on,
Like did I just piss this up the wall? And
I think that's I had this huge shift in in
my mindset and in the way that I approached surfing
from then on. I also had a moment where I
was watching an old heat and yeah, and I thought

(09:35):
I got flogged, But then I watched and I didn't
get beaten that bad. But then I started remembering the
few nights before and stuff like that, and I was
on the piece having a party, and I just had
this immense guilt coming over me, and I just I
was depressed as it was because I was sitting on
the couch injured, and I just went, you know what,

(09:59):
I I'm going to do everything I possibly can so
I never have that feeling ever again.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
So you know, we have a lot of people listening
to the show who are in business, and for me,
I like to look at it a certain way. I mean,
whilst you have talents, you've always had talent as a surfer,
probably even as just as an athlete generally. But there's
a there's one thing to be a talent and be
a surfer. It's another thing to be in the business

(10:27):
of surfing, whining events. There's money involved, it's a career,
it's lifestyle, livelihood, et cetera. At what point do you
remember that I'm going to turn myself from being a
surfer to being in the business of being a surfer
like actually, and go about it in a business like way. Mindset, training, physio, diets.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
It was that point at that point, that point, yeah,
so I you know, up until then, like I'd seen
chiropractice and sort of a little bit of training here
and there, like more young you don't get fat. Yeah,
But then once I started doing rehab and I started learning,
you know, I have scoliosis, so really yeah, so you know,

(11:10):
I'm pretty bent out of shape, so I was learning
how to manage that, but then get my leg back
to a point where it was strong enough to compete,
and you know, I thought having a a healthy meal
or something was having a chicken rap from McDonald's. It

(11:32):
just never never got brought up about diet. Never learn
about it.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
We never learned as a kid either.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
And so you know, through that two thousand and four
period in the rehab, I got I had time to
do all that. I had time to learn about my body,
had time to learn about diet and what makes me
feel good, what makes me feel bad. But then also too,
I started learning about my own mindset as well. I

(12:00):
was like, all right, well, where where do I feel
like I performed best? Where do I feel like I'm
you know, chasing my.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
Tail like strengths weaknesses?

Speaker 2 (12:11):
Yeah, And you know, I I wish I could compete
like someone like Joel Parkinson in the sense that he's
so careful, the more fun he's having, the better he does.
And I've tried to do that. I'm pathetic. So I
have to like really narrow down and just really be

(12:34):
I guess prepared like that was a big thing for me.
I was prepared better than anyone else onto it.

Speaker 1 (12:40):
And what does that mean? They're prepared just.

Speaker 2 (12:42):
From you know, boards, from body, from mind, equipment, you know,
you sort of surfers. We're pretty lax of days ago.
But I had like a specific bag. I had boards
that I wouldn't ride unless it was for the man.
It didn't matter what happened throughout the day. Every night

(13:04):
I'd go to bed thinking the events on the next
day until it wasn't so like I'd stretch, meditate, you know,
try and clear the brain and get it wake up
that next morning, trying to be at one hundred percent.
So if the event was on, then I was ready
to fire.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
Did you how we talking about twenty.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
I would have been twenty, twenty three, twenty four.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
Would you well you did you go out and sort
of seek advice from people like more than instead of
just having to chat like advice from people like go, Well,
what should I do to prepare myself ready for this event?
I've got this big event coming up, potentially well titled, involved,
and I'm ranked here, but I'm not ranked exactly where
I want to be. I'm up against Slater or Joel

(13:51):
whoever you're up against. Did you ever do this? Can
you help me prepare? Not to not to serve obviously,
but just prepare for the event. Prepare for the whole
by event.

Speaker 2 (13:59):
Look, I had a coach. His name is Phil mcmaoh's incredible.
It was a whole range of things. Wasn't really a coach.
It was more like a mentor slash, you know, even
farther figure in a sense. But he would always be
throwing things at me and curveballs and stuff like that.
But I was always the person that, like, I would

(14:24):
always ask questions because I'd never been there before. And
you know, even growing up, like I didn't even know
exactly what being a processer for entailed. It was before
the Internet and all that kind of stuff, and I
thought it was just go so couldn't google it. Yeah,
we couldn't do anything. So it was I always asked
a lot of questions. I was never shy to ask

(14:46):
a question of someone that I admired or something like that.

Speaker 1 (14:53):
And why do you think they would answer it? Why
would they think they give Why do you think they
would give Nick Fanning an audience? What is it about
you that you think got them to say, yeah, came
he a kid? I'll tell you what you need to know.

Speaker 2 (15:07):
I think it's I think in the surfing world people
like to give back.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
There's a generous generosity there.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
Yeah, I think it's sort of like I think it's
that camaraderi in surfing as well, like the older guys
look after the younger guys to a point until they
get too cheeky and then they bash them up. But yeah,
it was always like, you know, I always felt like
I showed respect to my orders and respect to the
guys that had come before me, and so yeah, I

(15:40):
always just.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
I guess it's one of those things where you just
you never know. If you don't ask, you don't get right.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
But that's pretty again, it's pretty sophisticated. Like a lot
of people would sort of shit themselves. They say, oh,
well there's so and so over there. I'm not going
to go and ask him or who are a question?
You know, they're too high powered or they're too up
there or out there. I'm just whoever I am, you know, like,
because you know when you come from you know, you
start off in Penrith of Campbelltown, you go up to
Coffs Harby, go back to Campbetown and then go to Ballina.

(16:08):
We're not talking like a kid who's been you know,
sitting at Cranbrook school, who's used to dealing with all
the knobs and you know, all that sort of stuff.
A lot of people like both of us actually, because
I come from it the same sort of territory, Like
you tend to feel a little bit intimidated, but you weren't.
You were sort of quite happy to ask.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
Yeah, I wouldn't say I was. You know, I knew
who these guys were and these girls were. I knew
who they were, but I wasn't. I don't know. I've
never been that person that's been overly star struck, right, Okay,
you know I always feel like everyone's everyone's the same. Yeah, yeah,
you might be good at what you do, but you

(16:50):
know that doesn't mean you're only different to anyone else.
You know, you worked hard to get to your position,
and I'm just doing the same. And so I just yeah,
I just never felt like I was ever intimidated in
the point where I was like, I couldn't ask. I
was like, if you know, all they can do is
say no, And I had people say no. Yeah, But

(17:15):
then I had a lot of people, you know, just
explained to me what they did. And and I've always
been a kid that wanted a lot of information.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
And even from a kid.

Speaker 2 (17:27):
Yeah, and just always just sift through like the parts
that I like, and I like, you know, the things
that I really enjoyed were, you know, the mind part
of it, you know really? Yeah, yeah, how you set
your mind? Because I feel like that's that's the biggest thing.

(17:48):
Like when you're at the top tier of your sport.
Everyone has talent, everyone can serve, But what's that one
percent that I walked down the beach turning into cyborg
and that person can't.

Speaker 1 (18:03):
So was that your superpower? You reckon? Like, I mean,
do you think that Mick Fenning's real superpowered? I use
the word loose, I don't mean in a silly way,
but is that you could turn your mind into a
position where you needed to be along with your talent,
your natural talent, and then and there's the reason you
could do that, that's the question one. And there's the

(18:24):
reason you could do this because you also felt properly prepared.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yeah, for sure, I felt like I could get there
because I was prepared. But then I felt like from
me doing that, I could see bits of people's armor
who I was competing against start crumbling.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
Away because they're watching you a bit of both. Yeah,
what is because of age or just because they've been
there for a long time?

Speaker 2 (18:51):
Just no, I just just knew there arm I could
have been young guys, could have been older guys, but
I could just see little things where you know.

Speaker 1 (18:58):
They might you start to run to pick their strengths.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yeah, and you sort of could really And sometimes I'd
paddle out and I was like, even the way that
they paddled, I was like beating.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
You today, Like yeah, because you so they were sort
of lacking confidence.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
Or they weren't or they're you know, they're looking back
and they're confused about what to do, and and you know,
even times when I didn't feel extremely confident, I just
fake it till I made it, you know, and that works. Yeah,
and just put on this facade. It's like fun, I
know where I'm going.

Speaker 1 (19:29):
Did you ever, sus said out on Slater, did he
ever sort of show any weakness or was he the
utmost all the time?

Speaker 2 (19:36):
No?

Speaker 1 (19:36):
I look, and I don't mean he's showing weakness.

Speaker 2 (19:38):
Yeah, No, it wouldn't show weakness, but I sort of,
you know, there were times where because Kelly likes to
talk a lot in heats and in the water, yeah,
in the water, or he likes to.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
Hasn't been friendly. Is he sort of trying to get
you off your game?

Speaker 2 (19:52):
Probably both. You know, he's a competitor. Man, he's the
most competitive person ever met. I heard that about you,
by the way, So I'm pretty mellow these days.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
These days, but I've heard then those days, you're one
of the most competitive peoples most of I've ever met.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
Yeah, but yeah, it was just if I started talking
and I felt like I was falling into his game. Yeah,
so I'll just shout up and just concentrate on me
and and then that way I knew that I could
contain what I was doing. You know, at the moment
I start thinking about what he's doing all this, or

(20:27):
that I'm playing into his game. So that was sort
of my way of dealing with him and you know,
deterring his sort of mind games and all that kind
of stuff.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
That's amazing. Most PEO wouldn't know that because they don't
They just think of service as a dude to get
on his board catch a wave. Then I thinking that
because they don't realize how it's a big business, huge business,
particularly for the individual, but the industry is huge. But
guys like you're actually not playing mind games, but you're
out there competing with your brain as well as your

(20:57):
physical talent.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yea. I love like, you know, you talk to rugby
league plans or whatever, and it's like, you know, because
they do banter.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
All the time.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
Yeah, and they're always asked me like do you talk
shit or whatever? And I was like, I can't because
at the moment I do that, I fall out of
my game. But you could say whatever the hell you
wanted to me and most of the time will fault.

Speaker 1 (21:23):
Do you ever get sledged?

Speaker 2 (21:25):
Sometimes?

Speaker 1 (21:26):
But is sledging and thing though?

Speaker 2 (21:27):
In so well not too bad because you're dealing with
obviously you're competing against that one person, but you're dealing
with mother nature. Yeah, and no one can bete mother nature. Yea.
It can humble you so quickly and make you look
like such an idiot that you can't really go that way.
So yeah, it was more more after the fact you

(21:50):
would sledge was mainly when you're lost.

Speaker 1 (21:54):
Can I I just I want to get off away
from serving, because I know you've spoken a lot about
serving over the years from lots of different places. I
actually want to talk to you about some of the
initiatives that you've taken in your let's call it your
business career, your career generally. And one of the things
that absolutely intrigued me was the song with the Reef

(22:19):
Tell me about it. I mean, where'd that idea come from?
How did you think about that?

Speaker 2 (22:24):
To be honest, I didn't, Well that you're being honest, yeah, honest.
So so how it sort of came like I'd been
sponsored by Reef for years and they got to a
point where they're like, look, we want to give you
a signature sandal, and I'm like cool. And there was
at a time where you know, I was partying and

(22:48):
you know, having a lot of fun, and you know
sort of that was a character of mine in Eugene
and whatever. And then and then they're like, hey, we're
figured out a way to put the the bottle open
her into it, and and I was like, sweet, I
don't mind, let's do it. Let's let's just give it
a go and see what happens. And it went like

(23:13):
the very first run were these green and gold ones
that were so ugly. And then and then it was
well they were trying to make it astraye. They had
these designers in America like all make it really strained
and yellowish. But then they started doing these, they started
doing college colors, and so they'd take them to all

(23:37):
the colleges in all of America with their colors, and
they would have I don't know if you know what
a reef girl was back in the day where it
was a beautiful model and they were in a g
string bikini, and they would have the reef girls selling
the sandals. So you can imagine college, yeah, in college,
so you can imagine like how you know, college frat

(24:01):
boys or whatever, just going in and just seeing all
all these hot chicksell and seeing it's like, I'll buy
a pair just to talk to them, you know. And
the people would put them on and they were they
found them just comfortable. And they're the people that just
keep going back and buying them and buying them and
buying them, and you know, it could be oh like

(24:26):
there could be like ten pairs deep now and it's
funny they don't even know who I am.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
Oh they didn't.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
N Like I see people in like now that I
go to the California and go mill America and stuff
like that, I see people wearing them I'm walking straight
past them. They wouldn't know who the hell I was.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
You're thinking, is off, there's a few bob coming to
my way because I read somewhere You're like, there's like
been eleven million pairs sold even more. Yeah, that's mad.
It's mad of one little idea.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
One idea. Yeah, and yeah, it's it's gone nuts and.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
Do something like that, Mick, And you see how successful
that is. How old you've been then?

Speaker 2 (25:05):
That was we released it in It's two thousand and five.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
So twenty years ago. So you're like in your mid twenties.
So did you think to yourself, hang on, ear, I
might be able to do something with this. This is
looking pretty good. I'm now involved in this. Did you
learn something from that about what you could do outside
of surfing, but with you know, with the backdroper serving
around it?

Speaker 2 (25:30):
Yeah, I sort of. I sort of started. That was
sort of when I started learning a little bit more about,
you know, how business works and all that kind of stuff. Like,
so sort of give you a quick story. You know,
I was eighteen and I was come home to mum,
and I didn't have a manager or anything at that time,

(25:52):
but you know, I started a deal started coming in,
and I was like, Mum, what do you think if
I got a manager, And she goes, you're not getting
a manager. You're smart enough to do your own work.
And if there's anything else, I'll help you and I'll
teach you. Because my money managed cost rolls good. Yeah,

(26:12):
and so and so I was like, all right, yeah,
let's learn. And so I started learning, you know, what
my identity was, how companies would use it brand. Yeah.
And then on top of that, Mum was teaching me,
you know, different ways how to manage relationships and all

(26:34):
that kind of stuff. And then she was actually going
for a job a few years later, and she was
really nervous about it, really anxious about it. I was like, look, Mum,
if you don't get it, come work for me, wore
And so she didn't. She didn't end up getting the job,
and she ended up being my manager.

Speaker 1 (26:54):
Oh wow, that's so cool.

Speaker 2 (26:55):
Yeah. And so she still does, like, you know, she'll
still look over contracts for me, she'll still do tax
and all that kind of stuff with money and stuff
like that. And you know, I've got another manager in
Ronnie Blakey as well. It helps with deals, especially outside

(27:16):
of the surfing world. Like any deal that happens in
the surfing world, I just do myself, but you know,
generic brands outside of it, he's one that really helps.
But yeah, we sort of just built the whole empire
just within ourselves and just really trusted our gut feeling
and like I could have gone and probably had a

(27:37):
manager and tried to swindle a few more dollars here
and there, but I knew deep down that I was
happy because I did the deal. Or you know, Mum
always had my back, and you know, good mate Ronnie
as well. We always really cared about what we were doing,
so he kept it really tight, extremely tight.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
So what's interesting that from a business point of view
is that a lot of people do actually go out
and have mental here, manager over there, something going on
over here, and they have a whole heap of people.
But I always take with you too, like I like
to be sort of in partnership with someone in my family.
For every business I have, there's someone in my family
and every business I do, and only because I can

(28:18):
really trust them. I don't not saying other people are trustworthy.
How important is that trust factor for you?

Speaker 2 (28:24):
Oh, it's credible, you know, I like even when I
do deals now, like I'll I'll get my gut feeling,
or I'll sit down with someone and then and then
I'll have to go and reland that back to marm
or to Ronnie and just be like, Okay, what do
you think and they'll give me an honest opinion, and

(28:45):
then I'll show them the deal and they'll be like
this sounds good. Maybe it doesn't, and and they know
my brand so well as well, so it's like all right.
Sometimes it'll be like I don't think nothing fits, or
there'll be things where you're like, yeah, go for it,
and so yeah, it's always you've got to have that

(29:07):
trust in the people that you're dealing with. Otherwise you're
always question it and so you won't go into a
deal full on yeah, and you're not going to do
the work that you want to do because you're like,
is this guy swimming? Yeah? You know, is this brand
just taking the piss? So so yeah, that's that trust

(29:28):
is a big, big factor.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
It takes one of the things out of your mind
that you have to think would otherwise have to think
about every day and every minute and allows you, as
you said, to fully commit to what you're up to
in the words fully usual talent or your brand would
have happened to be that you're using to promote the business.
I can't not talk about Bolt the beer brand, because

(29:51):
you know, one of my good mates told me about
when you guys first started this thing off, and I'm thinking,
why the fuck did you invite me? Hinj I remember
when it happened like years back, and he told me
about it, and where did that idea come from? For
the beer brand? The beer business as a craft beer?

Speaker 2 (30:10):
Yeah. So I was will flying over to Hawaii for
the last event of the year in twenty fourteen and
Bee Derbage rings me and he's like super nervous. He goes,
I'd love to just chat to you about something, and
I was like, oh yeah, just asking is no I
want to do any person.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
I'm like, okay, she had a pitch.

Speaker 2 (30:31):
Yeah, So he he We're in the Corners Club, just
about to get on a plane Hawaii and he's like.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
And what was what was he to you?

Speaker 2 (30:39):
Then? He was a competitor, right, but good mate onto
and so he's like, would you like to start a
craft beer brand? And I was at that point and
I was like, yeah, why not like, what's the worst
that can happen to get free beer for life? Right,
And so it sort of just started like that and

(31:00):
then and then from there it just started growing in
the sense that you know, we we had a meeting,
like Bead was like directing park again. I was like,
I'm just telling he has to be and so we
sort of just between Bed Parker, Joshka and myself we

(31:20):
sort of had a nucleus of all right, let's start
hashing this out and seeing where we can take it.
And then we're lucky enough to go and start putting
the right people that we felt that we could trust
and to do an incredible job.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
And so as investors or is just in terms.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
Of operations, operations, operations as always.

Speaker 1 (31:45):
First yeahs, who's the person going to build to be
a recipe?

Speaker 2 (31:49):
And like yeah, Brewer. Yeah. So we started off talking
to a marketing guy in Stirling Harland who did he
did a lot of stuff for Bill Along, he did Nimble,
he did a whole bunch of different things, and you know,
I rang him and he was like, I was just
about to start my own beer website. Now you can
just start your own beer brand. And then from there

(32:12):
you know, we're sort of looking for CEO and someone
who could take over the operations, and you know, I
put forward and McDonald. He was my former team manager
at red Ball and he had done everything like under
the Sun. We'd serve together on tour. But then he
you know, through all the different paths of his life.

(32:34):
He went from you know, knocking on people's doors as
a real estate agent, getting tussle, Yeah, trying to get
an ff everything every door.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
By the way, that's a big skill to line.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
Yeah. And then but then also like he's lasting before
we nabbed him, he started his own restaurant in Cranala
and the first day he's gone to serve a coffee
and just spilt it everywhere and he's it's like, you
know what, this part isn't for me. I'm going to
go and do the dishes and look after the money.

(33:06):
And he would do dishes all day and that sort
of work ethic was sort of like I knew he
was smart enough to be better than a dish pig,
but yeah, and he was always that person that if
he didn't know something, he would he'd be able to
learn it with the people he was doing it. And
that was one of the big strengths through Bolta that

(33:28):
he did was just he was never too cocky or
never too proud to learn something. And so with that
sort of nucleus and another guy from the state, Sean Ronan,
with that nucleus, were able to start piecing together what
the beer brand would look.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
Like as enrolled. So you're because it sounds like to me, Mick,
that you and others are sitting back going, Okay, what
are all the roles we need to have? How can
we find people know and trust?

Speaker 2 (33:54):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (33:54):
And why do we trust them exactly? Because they've been
through it before, They've done something and it sounds like
it's like building a chessboard nearly you know of functions.
So that's a pretty important skill. Do you ever think
in your life at some stage you've seen someone else
do that that you might have been a proxy to,
you know, you copying what they've done. How do you

(34:16):
know how to do that? Like as no one as
if you went into an MBA somewhere and they sort
of gave you the theory on all the shit.

Speaker 2 (34:22):
Well, it's sort of It sort of just came back
to how I did my career as a surfer. Know,
I was the main chess piece, and I'd be like, well,
how do I who do I bring in? What part
of my team do I need to make me better?

(34:43):
And so it was almost.

Speaker 1 (34:44):
Like being the king on a chessboard and how do
I protect the king?

Speaker 2 (34:47):
Yeah? Or even even simpler than that, it's like being
a footy coach. Yeah, how am I going to be
build the best footy team and get us to the top?
Or and so once I found business to be very
similar to how I treated my serving career.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
Yeah, I can see that. And it's funny too, because
you were sort of, let's call it the leader, one
of the leaders leading the business, like leading the ideas
and leading the business. But it's more like you've got
people to follow you. And I don't mean that in
a subserving way, but you had the ability to somehow
get people to buy into the idea, buy into what

(35:28):
you guys are doing, buy into the whole thing. I mean,
how do you see leadership versus because leadership is a
funny concepts and people some people think leaders Oh, I
got to be striding and I've got to move forward
and everybody's going to you know, be my you know,
part of my motivation and I'm going to inspire them.
But other people that lead by example and or by inspiration,

(35:49):
what was your style leadership?

Speaker 2 (35:51):
I was always I would never ask someone to do
something that I wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
Do, because I mean, you've got to be prepared to everything.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
Yes, and whatever takes, whatever it takes. But also too,
I know there's better people in different areas.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
So you knew your strengths and weaknesses.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
Yeah, and I'm comfortable enough in my own skin to
say I'm actually really bad at that. Yeah, I know
you can do it. And so as being you know,
we always had this thing in Bolta that no one's
bigger than anyone else everyone, you know, there's no egos whatsoever.
And like the first night that we opened, you know,

(36:32):
staff wanted to go home or whatever was there, and
I was like, no one was cleaning the floor, So
I just grabbed them off and just started mopping the floor,
you know, And that's you know, when.

Speaker 1 (36:41):
But you do that to show them that you were
prepared to do that, or you just thought, no, that's
that's a job that needs to be done, job that
needs to be done. But you're aware of the fact
that people will be watching you and that no, just
so you won't try and be affectatious because some people
do that to put on a show. Yeah, you just
thought there's a job needs be done. Because all these
things come back to he you got brought up what

(37:02):
you're like as a kid, where you know what the
sort of shit your mom and dad may you do
as a kid. What do you have to do jobs?
You got to go and do this that some people
never experience that stuff and they feel quite awkward with
doing that as they get older, and especially in business,
like you said, your mate, it's prepared to be the
dish peak even though you owned the business. Decide I'm

(37:23):
not going to be in front of the house. I've
got to be back house because I'm oplus at the front.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
Strengths and weaknesses, but that that humbleness as well.

Speaker 1 (37:30):
Humility is so important like that as a service. Did
you realize what you're strong at and what you're weak at?

Speaker 2 (37:35):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (37:36):
Because remember I remember Jack Gibson telling me many many
years ago when he was alive. He said, to my son,
you've got to train to your strengths and practice your
weaknesses and basically write them all out and what you're
good at and be honest do in front of somebody.
So when you were surfing, what when you went to

(37:56):
say to go to the gym, did you decide, well,
I'm really good on a boty man turn. I can
really get on the rails pretty hard. I'm not going
to build my legs aboard buil whatever muscles you need
to do that sort of stuff.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
Is that?

Speaker 1 (38:05):
Did you go through your strengths and weaknesses?

Speaker 2 (38:08):
I used to have lists everywhere. Wow, And did.

Speaker 1 (38:12):
You test him against other people? You say to someone
this what I think my strengths weakness.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
Yes, I'd always I'll be back and forth like and
talking to my team or whatever and say hey, Like
there was one thing that I always did well with
my coach was he would give me something. I'm like, look,
i'm not sure it's going to work. I'll go and
try it, but I don't think it's going to work.

(38:38):
And if I was proven wrong, I was like, all right,
you're right. And if I was proven right, I'm like,
maybe we can tweak it a little bit here and there.
So that was you know, he he was a great
sounding boarder in that sort of thing. But also too,
you know, you talk about doing in front of someone.

(39:00):
I don't think there's no other person except looking in
the mirror. And because you can't lie to yourself, you
know when you're lying, Like if I look in the
mirror and go, I'm the best there earlist in the world,
the person in the mirror is going, You're an idiot.

Speaker 1 (39:13):
Yeah, grow up. And also probably probably in the surfing
community in particular, they're pretty honest. Like people going to say,
you know that people are bullshit you because that's not
the territory. It's not like like in business, I don't
want to bag investment bankers. But if I've been involved
in these worlds and a lot of times people talk shit.

(39:35):
They actually tell you what they think you want to hear.
Whereas your world, your community pretty honest.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
Yeah, they're very honest. But also too you you've got
the media right there too.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
Yeah, the media is honest. Pull your pants down in
a second.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
Yeah. And so you read these things and you know
some things you're like, actually I don't agree with that,
but then there's other things like you know you're right
and then and use that motivation to prove them wrong.

Speaker 1 (40:03):
So when you had the you and the team were
built like you guys sort of put the team together
and you thought yourself, well, I got most of the elements,
and you probably put a bit of initial capital into
it because you've got to working capital. People got to
get paid, you got to pay rent and these of that.
How did you go about pitching it to raise money?
Because I know you raised money, So how how did

(40:25):
you go about that? Did you find it a professional?
Did you say to somebody, I'll pay you five percent
food to go and raise ten million dollars or five
million dollars or to get this thing up and running
and contunity at scale in the begin game in Booze
you got to get scale. Yeah, how did you go
about doing the pitch?

Speaker 2 (40:42):
It's pretty much just us between the team's gone and
talking to people mates, yeah, and just saying, hey, this
is what we believe in. This is how we see it,
and you know this is this is like the rates
and everything that we think will be working, and you

(41:04):
know this is our dream is to pay you back
this time.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
And so did you have a formula at that stage
for the beer is going to taste?

Speaker 2 (41:13):
Like? So before we got to that point, we actually
nailed our brewer down and you know, talking about pitch
to try and get someone like we understood. We were
all sort of very aware that we could go and
make this a full media ploy and the beer could
taste absolute shit. But the thing in the beer world

(41:36):
you want someone to come back for a second. And
so we knew we had to get an incredible brewer.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
Did you know the taste you want?

Speaker 2 (41:44):
No? Like, to be honest, before I even went down
this world of craft beer, I was like every other
estrange drink into his new four x and just your
generic and so it was like, once we were like
we're going to go down the craft beer world, it's
like all right, well I'm going to go to a
fridge and I'm going to start tasting this, this and
this and be like all right, well I like that beer.

(42:05):
I like that beer. And yeah we as I said, look,
we found the brewer and trying to pitch to him,
like will you come and work for us, and he's
just looking at four surfers and he's like, these guys
are just doing the money grap this is I don't

(42:25):
want any to be a part of it. And he
wouldn't do and say anything. And if it wasn't for
his wife, saying, this is your dream to go at
start a brewery, go and do it. I don't know
if we would have had him. And then once like
we knew how to do the whole front of house,
the back of house, we just said, here's your canvas,

(42:48):
go for it, go nuts. And what he's built is
he had the dream from day one. He would draw
crop circles and you know, pots and pans all in
concrete on on the and it was just from where
like I remember vividly seeing those drawings and to what
he's built now was just incredible. And and so once

(43:11):
we started doing the pictures, he had a whole bunch
of different beers that he already had and he brought
these one over and everyone had the same sip of
the exact same beer, and everyone's that's it. It's the Palle.
That's the beer, the Pallel, yes, the XBA, and we
knew it and.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
Did you decide there? And then what was going to
look like? I mean in terms of packaging, because it
was a bit different to normal bit beer is usually
pretty blokey and this one was I don't know what
The green is sort of a bluey green color on
the on the I'm talking about the can. Yes, it
was sort of a bit unusual, nearly not feminine, but
like having a bit of a femine appeal.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
Yeah, well we're not blokey no. So so going into that,
like as I said, I hadn't been in the half
world before, and so I'm going into the fridges and
seeing all these different craft beers and to me, it
just looked so hard to distinguish what beer was, what
what brand lived in, what brand. So I'm like to

(44:15):
the team, hey, why don't we.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
Just do a white can and just one color?

Speaker 2 (44:21):
One color? Do a white can so when it sits
in the shelf, it just pops because everything else is
so busy and crazy. And then yeah, and then Sterling
when he was designing it and stuff like that, he's like,
all right, we're going to put this color at the bottom.
And I was like, I thought, we're just doing a
white can, and you know, I just want a white can.

(44:42):
And he's like, trust me, you're going to have all
these different flavors and imagine the can's pulling on board shorts. Yeah,
and each flavor is a different pair of board shorts.
And from that moment I got it and I was like,
you're right. And now you go in and you see
the fridges, you know exactly which can a bolt can

(45:06):
because it's white, and then it's got the board shorts
at the bottom.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
I can pick it straight away, especially when I see
the parallel. That's the one I drink when I drink,
which is not often these days, but yeah, and I
actually really love the taste of it. And your investors,
obviously everybody did very well because you know it's probably
well known now and it's been out the media, but
you know, you guys sold for a large of the
money to A.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
C. B. And then.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
And then of course then there was some murn out
and overtimekus Gins keeps telling me about it, just to
rub it in. But you've done very well, but in
terms of increasing volumes and in the early days, one
of the things he told me is that you guys
opened up like a bar or something. It was it
a corumbinous.

Speaker 2 (45:52):
Yeah, we've got tap house there. So where where the
actual first original brewery is, We've got a tap house
and go and try not only the ones that we
sell like out in the public, but there's a whole
bunch of different flavors.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
In those days, people used to be able to go there
and have a drink on a Friday night or.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
Something like that.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
Yeah, because you know, he's to go up there all
the time. He's just tell me. And that was a
bit of a I think, a bit of a struggle
genius because people are going to go there, have a beer,
and they're going to go and tell their mates about it.
How much did actually how much did you need to
rely on your own socials? Do you have to rely
on that much in Joel's because both are pretty big socials.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
It was only just at the start, you know, we
all sort of looked at each other and said, let's
let the beer be the hero.

Speaker 1 (46:37):
Yeah, you know, very clever.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
And so being the face of the beer was never
really you know, we're not going to put our face
up next to your beer. Was always the beer always
came first. And so you know, when when we started
opening up and we had the tap room open, it
was it was so cool, Like even to this day,
it's such a diverse group of people that come in,

(47:02):
Like we had horses out the front some days, and
then you know, you'd have older people, you have young
crew that would have a few drinks before they wanted
to go out, and so it was a really diverse
crowd that.

Speaker 1 (47:13):
Would have and they'd all take it back and spread
the word.

Speaker 2 (47:17):
Yeah, you know, come try this beer. It's only at
this spot or it's only at that spot. Yeah, And
so that's sort of how it started growing. And then
were lucky enough that we had you know, different crew
and different investors from Melbourne that had you know, the
sand Hill Road group, you know, different different bars in Sydney,

(47:39):
and so you're sort of growing that way. But it
was a lot of it is just going up and
just having that relationship with whoever owns the bar, and
so yeah, you're start growing that way until you start
taking real estate away from the big guys and then
they're like, hang on, they're stealing.

Speaker 1 (47:58):
Our stealing our mark, yeah, market chase.

Speaker 2 (48:01):
Yeah. So they're either they either try and squash you
or that buy you.

Speaker 1 (48:05):
Yeah, and it can be one or the other. Yes,
I mean timing is pretty important on these things, you know,
because but like I've always wanted to tell you that
I thought it was a really fantastic in terms of timing,
a really fantastic way you took advantage of the timing
and ultimately sold it.

Speaker 2 (48:26):
But the whole.

Speaker 1 (48:26):
Process was really well executed. And you know, most people
don't know it that you know, you're the guy, one
of the guys behind and initial guys behind this particular
brand that ended up in the hands of Asahi, which
is one of the world's largest today have beer brand owners.
And it's interesting that you're, as you said that, in
terms of building a good team. These are things that

(48:48):
you sort of thought of when you thinks you experienced
as a sofar like and leadership, followship and yeah, they trust.
Is like all these themes keep coming out in your life.
Can I turn slightly differently to well, most people don't
know about you, but I happen to know a bit

(49:09):
about is that you have become quite a charitable guy.
I don't mean in a charity sense, but quite a
giving person. And I remember, and I know these things
not through research. I just remember, as Gingel tells me everything.
I remember these days when the floods were up at Lismore,
and you know, it was just around the COVID period.

(49:32):
I remember David ringing me up and saying mate, So
I said, what are you doing? He said, I wouldn't
believe it. He said, you know, the floods, no one's
got internet. Mick Fannings ring up, Mick doing McK doings
that lend him the helicopter or something that they're all
there with jet skis going down the river, rescue on people,
rescue on dogs. And somehow he told me that you

(49:56):
managed it. Whether it's true or not, but get in
contact with musk or Muscus people, Elon musters people and
got starlink to install the internet. Is that true?

Speaker 2 (50:10):
It was such a wild time that whole, that whole
flood period. Like I went from why northern?

Speaker 1 (50:16):
Why why the Northern rivers? And why did you get involved?
Because you weren't living in Northern rivers?

Speaker 2 (50:20):
You were so we where we are on the Goldie
like Tweed was pretty much the first safe point from
from how much flooded, right, you know, I went from
Tweed all the way down to you know, broad Water,
Cora Kai and so how so how it all came

(50:41):
about was, you know, Parker went down the river on
his jet ski with a mate and they were late.
We're just going to go down and have a look
just to see how bad it is or whatever. I
don't don't even exactly know why he jumped on the
ski and decided to go. No, he was in. He

(51:04):
just went down the Tweed River down to like Cinder,
down towards like Merbarway, and he went down and I
think he was just thinking he was just going to
check it out and see how wild it was. Next
thing he knows, he said, he got probably like anywhere
between ten twenty people out of houses, and he was

(51:28):
out there all day and he came home and that
afternoon and he was like, guys, this is what happened.
I think we need to go back down tomorrow. And
sure enough we're on a thread with all the boys,
and within two minutes we had six jet skis on

(51:52):
the water ready to go for the next morning. And
first day went down and it was it was wide.
It was so wild, like going through Chinder. We started
off at Tweed and we went down Chinder and going
through the campgrounds and you could just smell the gas
well and you're like things could just pop off, like

(52:14):
it was like going through a minefield. And then just
kept going up the river, up the river, up the river,
and just ended up just in all kinds of places,
checking in on people, shifting people from one house to
another house, getting people from a house that was still rising,
like the water was still rising, and getting into safety.

(52:38):
And then what happened, Like we were on the skis
and we were you know, doing all the groundwork once
that were there, But then our wives and our partners
were back at Tweed and they were like they started
getting calls and stuff like that, we need more fuel,
we need food, we need water to get to these people.

(53:00):
And so they set up this central hub just that
Tweed River and people were just coming and just dropping
stuff off, if you know, whatever they could because places
were wiped out. And then yeah, it was just the
community just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And

(53:22):
my side of it was, you know, first day I
was on the ski, I was on the ski for
two days. First I did like chinder at Timbolgum and
then the next day got up to Merber and you
get up to Merba and the police are standing there
and they're like, we have no resources, we can't get anywhere,
we don't know what to do.

Speaker 1 (53:43):
Yeah, they don't have Jessica's.

Speaker 2 (53:45):
So we were able to get boats up full of food,
full of fuel, full of water. So they could go
and deliver it to where it needed to be. We
had fuel for the main hospital there, so the generators
could work. You know, there was people that needed blood
would be able to fly him up and down the

(54:07):
river so people, you know, didn't die. And then medication
and stuff like that. And then and then.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
Because a lot of the roads are closed off, the
loads of trees and stuff just wiped out gone. Because
most people don't realize how bad it was.

Speaker 2 (54:24):
It was. It was like I was taking photos of
things and.

Speaker 1 (54:28):
I made on Tommy he saw a cow. I'm not
I'm not imagining this. He's an excavator and the council
got him to come up with his excavator a cow
stuck up in a tree, like dead sitting in a tree.

Speaker 2 (54:40):
And that would have been one of hundreds. Yeah, you know,
we went went down and there's a cow on a
two story roof to sit in there. Because it's the
only dry land within a couple of hundred. Like a
cow got washed out at around bub Beach like it was.
It was wild. It was it was like full warzon't

(55:03):
and these people had nothing, and so it just went
from it just sort of escalated from that and then,
like as I said that, our partners and the people
that couldn't get on the water, they were sort of
organizing everything at the docks and sitting there. And then
people started learning that we were doing that, and so

(55:24):
they would just send a message to them, can you
get to this address and I need either food or
I need medication, or I need water, or I just
need to get out of here. And so we would
just be getting realayed text messages from our community and
you just go and show up. And then it just

(55:47):
got bigger and bigger and bigger. And then luckily our
friends had this big warehouse in Corumbin and there were
like trucks coming in, cars coming in, dropping all kinds
of stuff off, going straight on trucks, loading it and
going to as far as we possibly could. And then
they would load up on the jet skis and get
to these different addresses, and it was it was incredible

(56:09):
what like a small community like could do. Like you know,
we talk about devastation and all that kind of stuff.
What the what this community did. And I still, like,
I still get thanked by people and they're like, thank you,
you help my mom. And this is years later, and.

Speaker 1 (56:31):
It was twenty two.

Speaker 2 (56:32):
It was twenty two and you started twenty two and
I still see people and they're like and still people
are not vible in their homes. Yeah, yeah, you know,
still fighting for their lives.

Speaker 1 (56:43):
And and you run a charity for this now.

Speaker 2 (56:46):
Yeah, so I run charity golf Day now because once
a year, yeah, once a year, just that coolly tweet.
And we've raised just over two million bucks in a
few years.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
And that's to help just.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
To help people that still need help in these areas.
So it might be youth, or it might be housing,
but then also people that still need help on the
sense of you know, they still don't have a fridge
or you know, I spoke to one lady and she
only had her first shower indoors just before Christmas.

Speaker 1 (57:16):
No, yes, last year, last year, well two years before
she had a shower indoors indoors. And people don't realize
how bad the combination issue is either it.

Speaker 2 (57:26):
Was horrible and because these are like some of the
I think it's like some of the poorest social economic
places in Australia. They don't have money, they don't have
ten around to go and fix this, or that they
don't have thirty grand to rebuild a house. And so
you know, once you're going through all these places and

(57:48):
you see that, you're like, I have to do more. Yeah,
you know, I have to. I have to give back
until the job's actually done. And so that's where we started.
You know, Choppers is just standing out here like we
were just joking around, like how do we do this?
And everyone plays golf right, But sort of to get
back to your story about the Starlink was, I'm in

(58:11):
a meeting with the community and they're like, they're like,
can someone tweet Elil mask and ask for some starlinks?
And I was like, I don't know how it works,
Like I'm just I've got a Twitter account. I'll just
stroll out there, you know. And so I just tweeted,

(58:33):
and within probably an hour, Chris Hamsworth rings me up.
He was overseas at the time and he goes, he
wouldn't believe it. My manager's best friend is the CEO
of starlink Wow. And within two hours I was on
the phone to her and she's like, I can get you.
I think it was ten or twenty starlings and she

(58:58):
had them and we were able to get them to places,
so people could communicate connect it yeah and say I'm
safe or you know, and then like yeah flying yeah,
Rand mcdollon and can't borry a helicopter, I'll pay for
the fuel or and we're just hiring helicopters and it's
like people would be landing and they hadn't seen anyone

(59:23):
or heard anything for a week, like they were just
so excluded from the world. It was. It was wild.
So yeah, we're sort of It's one thing that you
just Yeah, you start a job and you just want
to make sure you finish it because you know there
are people out there doing it, and yeah, we're still

(59:43):
trying to help me.

Speaker 1 (59:44):
Do you ever think to yourself, we're just listening to you.
Some of the you do big things. You've done something
world titles, you know, massive beer business, and I'm not
sort of trying to elevate those things above all the
small things you do. But then you did the you
help with the Northern Rivers campaign and you're still out
there raising money running a charity for it, or you

(01:00:06):
and others. Do you ever think to yourself or scratch
your head and say, a lot of these things have
been successful in terms of the objective based on the
community that I was able to be part of. So
the Northern Rivers community or pull together, you know, your
original Balks community, be it employees or investors, or your customers,

(01:00:32):
your original customers consumers. Then you're surfing community. You know,
you tapped into that and found out what you're good at,
and hey, it can be better. Do you ever think
to yourself that about the power of really strong communities
as they affect your life, have affected.

Speaker 2 (01:00:49):
Your life day, I would not be in a situation
I am without my community. But also too, I wouldn't
be mentally strong or you know, mentally well if it
wasn't for my community.

Speaker 1 (01:01:07):
And you've got a few communities somewhere interspersed, but nonetheless
you've got different communities around the joint. And you're only
a young young man. You're probably a long way to
go in that regard. I mean, you're going to have
lots of them by the time you to say, you know,
you're sixties, but you will hopefully.

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
I don't forget everyone, but look, I probably probably the
most pivotal point when I realized how powerful community is
and how much I love the people that surround me,
was you know, when my first brother, Sean passed away.

Speaker 1 (01:01:44):
How old were you?

Speaker 2 (01:01:45):
I was seventeen, Yeah, seventeen, sixteen, seventeen, and like I
was really struggling, like when you passed away, Yeah, like
I was. I wouldn't go out of the house, wouldn't
you know? I was in my room dark?

Speaker 1 (01:02:05):
Was he the oldest brother the youngest was.

Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
The brother was just above me, three years older. He
was like he was really we were really close and
and and I remember it so clearly that I couldn't
get out of the house. I didn't want to leave.
I didn't want to see anyone. I couldn't even you know,
I didn't even want to take the dog for a
while because I was so like someone would say I'm

(01:02:31):
sorry or this or that, and I was just I
couldn't deal with it. And I remember a whole bunch
of mates to shove my door at once at once well,
and they were all in their book, got their wet suits,
had their boards and then coming stain. Yeah, and like

(01:02:53):
get emotional about it now. But without without them, I
knows where I would have ended up. Yeah, who knows?
I could have been the fucking local piece head and
so and that that keeps coming back to me. That's

(01:03:13):
a thing, that's a thing that keeps that. But so
like if I always feel like someone in my community
needs me, all they do is call.

Speaker 1 (01:03:23):
Do do you feel as though in some respects that
event in your life has sort of gone full circle?
And now what Mi's doing now was mix actually helping
and or building bigger communities who will help each other,
similar to that your little community when you're seventeen, come
and sort of got you out of the got you
out of a funk, and sort of got you back
out into back into the water where it's sort of

(01:03:46):
can be pretty meditated when you're surfing, but get you
into the right frame of mind. Do you do you
feel as though it's like a full circle in some respects?
Or is that a pay like a pay forward for.

Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
Amost paid forward?

Speaker 1 (01:03:56):
Pay forward? Wheah? Yeah, And because we have these events
in our lives and I read it for a reason.

Speaker 2 (01:04:02):
Oh for sure, for sure, I think you know who
As I said, I don't know how my life would
have shaped up like I sit here with you today
and you know we've talked about all these different things.
There is no way when I was born in Penrith
that was my roadmap, you know. Yeah, and so like

(01:04:23):
as I said, I'm extremely grateful for where I am
and and but.

Speaker 1 (01:04:27):
Would community one of the things you're most grateful for?

Speaker 2 (01:04:31):
Yeah? I think. I think people together, people looking out
for each other is so powerful, so powerful, you know,
and you know, I know people get bogged down and
politics and all this kind of stuff, but I think
just people in general, they just want to do good.

(01:04:53):
And when you put a lot of people that want
to do good together, extraordinary things happen.

Speaker 1 (01:04:57):
Yeah, that's amazing. It's funny, you know, because when you
look at all the modern marketing literature today, he talks
about community, community, community for business, you know, build your community,
you know, whether you do it through TikTok or Instagram,
whatever is. But they talk about these things, which are
It sounds like it's really brilliant, but it's actually quite
basic and fundamental how the human being works. We work

(01:05:18):
best whether it's a community of five or six when
you're seventeen or thousands trying to help you out with
the golf days and everything else. You do it for
the Northern rivers. Yeah, it's the same deal. I never
really thought about it myself until now you've sort of
poked it and poked me in that regarding communities for
me is also really really bloody important.

Speaker 2 (01:05:37):
But even in business, same it's exactly the same. Like
if you like, you know, you're talking about people coming
and having a beer. Like even in your world, if
you treat one customer bad, yeah, he's going to tell
someone else, aren't they, And then it's going to ripple effects.
So you've got to be very genuine. I feel like

(01:05:58):
you've got to be very genuine in the sense that
you've got to be honest and you've got to treat
people the way they want to be treated and something
that some people.

Speaker 1 (01:06:08):
That dickhead that shouldn't be treated that happens.

Speaker 2 (01:06:10):
But yeah, but I think for the general population people
can see through most people.

Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
Yeah, most people well meaning to they come up to
you in the street, now you're mic fan. Can I
get a photo? And that sort of stuff would happen.
You've got to do it, like because most of me
just want a photo. There's no big deal.

Speaker 2 (01:06:26):
I mean, like, it's it's true.

Speaker 1 (01:06:31):
True. So you mentioned your brother died, your youngest brother
or the one closest to you in age, but your
other two brothers have passed away too. I mean, out
of the five kids, is only you and your sister
still alive. It's pretty hectic, extremely Yeah, it's like I mean,
I got a brother, so I just can't imagine it.

(01:06:54):
How do you deal with it? Is it a daily thing?
Or do you sort of you talk to them, like
do you feel as though you have a connection with them?
Like my mother and father both died the last couple
of years, and I still talk to my father and
mother every night. Yeah, just just have a word to him,
you know, or sometimes when I'm driving home. And the
old days, when I was of the oldest coup two

(01:07:16):
years ago, I thring my parents every night. And I
have worked mainly because I knew if I spoke to
my mom, you know, like I could say momal home,
so I didn't have to keep talking anymore. But now
I sometimes think to myself, I just wouldn't be good
to talk to mom or dad, and sometimes I just
do that. I actually say, okay, fuck it, I'll just

(01:07:38):
talk to them. Do you how do you feel about
losing your other two brothers as well? And do you
how do you communicate?

Speaker 2 (01:07:44):
Do you?

Speaker 1 (01:07:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:07:45):
Look, I've always sort of been in this belief that
the the energy stays within the universe. Yeah, I agree
with that, and I feel like their their spirit or
their soul is still around. And especially like when I

(01:08:05):
was meditating a lot or focusing and getting really quiet,
there were times where I felt that with me, and
they all have a different they all have a different
way they make me feel.

Speaker 1 (01:08:22):
I'm really all three.

Speaker 2 (01:08:25):
And so I sort of know when one of them's
here or there. But then, like as you said, you
might be driving and you'll see something you just have
a memory pop up and you get sucker punched with
emotion and you are balling down the highway. But I
feel like, yeah, but then they've left legacies as well,

(01:08:51):
in the sense that you know, family or friends and
they see these people, and you know, a lot of
people come up and they want to sort of, you know,
express their emotions. Sometimes it's really hard, like do you
put on pity or do you put on that? For me,
I just want to celebrate them. I want to celebrate

(01:09:12):
like if my brother wasn't here, I wouldn't know you
or us versus say sort of just celebrate that. And
there's so many incredible memories that I want to live
with and just want to Yeah, I guess keep telling

(01:09:32):
their story. And sorry, I don't think someone's trying to
as managers.

Speaker 1 (01:09:42):
You keep telling, you want to keep telling this story
because like their story is important to be told. For sure,
that's your story too.

Speaker 2 (01:09:46):
Yes, And a lot of people live live through their
memory as well. You know, they see you and remember
that time. How funny was that? And so yeah, I
just try and celebrate celebrate who they are.

Speaker 1 (01:10:00):
It's very cerebral though, Mick that that's that's quite intellectual.
That's yeah, that's sort of fairly deep. I mean, I'm
I'm I'm glad you like that because a lot of
people get We get like that as we get older.

Speaker 2 (01:10:13):
A lot.

Speaker 1 (01:10:14):
I wasn't like that at your age, but definitely as
I got older, I think more like that. It's it's
very very thoughtful, like I don't mean in a good
boy type thing, I mean thoughtful and intense thought. And
you know, because most people say he's made a lot
of money, he's world champion, you know, he's got everything,
beautiful family, look at his life now, but most peop

(01:10:37):
wouldn't accredit you with looking back at yourself and who
Mick Fanning is and who Mick Fanning's who makes up
Mick Fanning? Like and because we are all I reckon
is we're all productive everything that we grew up around,
not just what we've done today. Like you and you
grow up with your brothers and your sister and your
mum and your dad, Like you're all of those things.

(01:11:00):
Mick Fanning is all those things. He's not just McK
fanning the guy I won the world title three times,
that's not it. Another guy who took I mean Joel
said you took the one title of him when he
was able to compete. We asked him what he would
like what he would like me to ask you. But
it's not just about that. There are a little transactions
happened along the way, But really you're the some of

(01:11:21):
all those other things.

Speaker 2 (01:11:22):
For sure, for sure. And I think you know, like
probably the easiest way to explain is, you know, we're
talking about building a team, right, yeah, but you do
that in life as well, where you know, you might
see someone and you're like, oh man, he looks great

(01:11:42):
and that shirt. I'm going to get that shirt. And
it's sort of it's taking little bits and pieces of
everything and everyone you see or everyone you meet and
you're adapting little parts, but do yeah, and building your
own puzzle in a sense.

Speaker 1 (01:11:58):
Because you said that earlier bit when you were talking
to people when you were starting to be in the
pro pro surfing world. You said that earlier. Actually, you
said that I would go and talk to arious people
and I would take from them something out of that
that might be good for me in terms of my career.
And we still do that even when we're older, subconsciously, subconsciously,
and it works. It's always worth for you anyway. And

(01:12:20):
so if I by the way, I did mention your
wife and children. So anyone listening to this right now,
I think you know you're sitting here as a single
black you have a wife and children. Do you want
to talk to me about that?

Speaker 2 (01:12:33):
So?

Speaker 1 (01:12:33):
How important are they in your life today?

Speaker 2 (01:12:36):
Incredible? That's why I was late.

Speaker 1 (01:12:39):
Skate lessons for one of your kids.

Speaker 2 (01:12:42):
Yeah, yeah, So look, look I I cherished them, like,
oh the like my wife and my kids, Like I'll
do anything for them. And you know, I guess.

Speaker 1 (01:13:00):
Do they travel with you and stuff?

Speaker 2 (01:13:02):
Yeah? Yeah, well we don't travel a whole lot anymore.
Like I sort of look at myself as I just
want to be dad, and you know, everything everything else
happens around that, like if the kids need me or this,
or my.

Speaker 1 (01:13:20):
Wife needs me, that's the center of your universe.

Speaker 2 (01:13:22):
Yeah, it's like they come first, even in my own world,
like I come last.

Speaker 1 (01:13:28):
Like in those fours, I'm last, and you're happy with
that that.

Speaker 2 (01:13:31):
I'm totally fine. Yeah, Like I've had a big life.
I'm fine. I want to be there and I want
to just make sure that whatever way they want to go,
one end of a thing they want to do, they
know they've got love and support the way that I
always had love and support from my parents, from my siblings,

(01:13:52):
from my friends, and I'm always there. Just yeah, I'm
here if you need me.

Speaker 1 (01:13:58):
Do you have how many kids?

Speaker 2 (01:14:00):
Five and eighteen months?

Speaker 1 (01:14:02):
Yeah? So do you ever think to yourself, my five
year old son might become a surfer.

Speaker 2 (01:14:11):
He might he might not.

Speaker 1 (01:14:13):
And do you ever think, what do you have views
on what you'd like your son or daughter to do
or just whatever they want to do.

Speaker 2 (01:14:20):
It would be amazing if they wanted to go down
that path. But in saying that, whatever they want to,
whatever they want to do, like for me, it was
really hard, like for a whole year my son didn't
want to go to the beach, and I'm just like, oh, no,
I'm gonna have one of these kids. But it taught

(01:14:40):
me a lot. It was like, I can't make them
want to do something.

Speaker 1 (01:14:44):
They're not you.

Speaker 2 (01:14:45):
No, But the only dream that I have with them
that I would love to do is to go and
show them the world and show them the different parts
of the most beautiful places on earth. And that's the
only thing. If they serve with me or if they're
just there, that's it.

Speaker 1 (01:15:04):
That's wow, that's amazing. If you can do that, that's
the best. Ye incredible, And you put yourself in a
position to do that too, Like you know, you lucky. Well,
I don't know about that. Your major luck you worked
out with your talent was you worked it hard. You
got to where you got to a bit of luck,
perhaps a bit of timing. Time and luck sort of
go together. But you've got to have the content to

(01:15:26):
get to take advantage of the time and luckmate, So
it doesn't work any other way unless you make the
content in the first place and put in the work.
The work ethic. Yeah, I mean, that's I guess to you.
Giving you you had a close family in terms of
your brothers and your siblings and your parents. How important

(01:15:47):
is it then for you to have the same thing
between your two kids, like them to be close to
each other.

Speaker 2 (01:15:54):
Yeah, look, you can add once again, you can't. You
can't mash to peop together that don't like each other.

Speaker 1 (01:16:01):
But it's interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:16:03):
We're lucky in the sense that Xander was at the
birth of Lailah and the first moment he saw he
was so excited. Oh wow, And they've just got this bond,
Like he wakes up after her these days and she
would just run and give him a big cuddle, and

(01:16:23):
like eighteen months, it's so beautiful. Like Brian and I
are sitting there like elbowing each other, like like you know,
how beautiful is that? And so we hope at last
I'm sure they're going to fight.

Speaker 1 (01:16:38):
Yeah, but so as you you thought your brother And
it's amazing though, just like when I sit back and
listen to this story, you're sort of in some respects
you say you're lucky, but it's sort of like he'd
been blessed with unbelievably good outcomes other than you know,
a shark try to attack you and you know a

(01:17:00):
few things like that, and you lost three brothers, but
in terms of your immediate outcomes, there's a blessing there.
It's like and even the fact that the shark didn't
get you, you know what I mean, like some intervention.

Speaker 2 (01:17:17):
Yeah, for sure, for sure. Like that's like I always
feel like there's there's always someone looking out for me
and I and I feel like my brothers are there,
you know, it's sort of helping shape, Yeah, or just
move that way. But also too, I guess without going

(01:17:39):
through those traumas and all that, would I appreciate those
little moments. And I think that's that's a big thing,
is like some people just you've got to see the
good and everything, like we always focus on the bad
it's going to be.

Speaker 1 (01:17:58):
But were you always like that or did you or
with those changing moments, turning moments where you thought, you
know what, blessed that didn't happen to me, or my
brothers passed away, I'm standing there, or you know, it
could have been me. Do you ever think to yourself,
therefore I appreciate all of this stuff. It will become
much more appreciative in life.

Speaker 2 (01:18:17):
Yeah, yeah, I think so. I think we we like,
you know, you don't want to have those things. Like
I look at people that you haven't been through anything,
and you know, small things might affect them different to
where they affect me. But yeah, look, it's just I
think it's when you when you're talking to your best mates,

(01:18:40):
or you're talking to someone that you really care about,
or they're going through a hard time. It's like it's
ship for now. It doesn't always have to be ship.
You have the power to turn that around. And you
know no one can no one can make you do it.
They can give you advice and do all these things,

(01:19:00):
but you have the power to turn that. You have
the power. I could go down dark alley or I
can go and chase that light. And I've always I
feel like I've always wanted to chase the light.

Speaker 1 (01:19:12):
You're more a half glass full type dude.

Speaker 2 (01:19:15):
Yeah, maybe a few glasses.

Speaker 1 (01:19:18):
Well just that that takes me to blake. You know,
his name is u Jah, So we should just talk
about Eugene just for I mean, has he been is
he locked away in the cupboard or does he come
every best?

Speaker 2 (01:19:32):
Yeah, he's just alter ego gets me way too much
trouble and.

Speaker 1 (01:19:36):
Probably more trouble when you're younger.

Speaker 2 (01:19:38):
Yeah. Yeah, I tried to change him a little bit,
turning more into another person called McMuffin. He's a little
bit more sweet, a little bit more fun.

Speaker 1 (01:19:48):
But because sitting here right now the audience, I think
you just jumped off the cross, but you should.

Speaker 2 (01:19:54):
You should.

Speaker 1 (01:19:54):
You should have sort of explained who Eugenie is.

Speaker 2 (01:19:56):
Yeah, so he's sort of. He's sort of was the
alter ego at the end of events where I hadn't
drunk and and I was so strict with everything from
diet training, rule.

Speaker 1 (01:20:11):
Following, Yeah, rule following, that's important.

Speaker 2 (01:20:14):
And then once the event was done, Eugene would show
up and I would try and break every one of
those and you couldn't tell me any different. If you
told me don't do that, I'll go and do it.
Who called him Eugene by it was a made of mine.
Aido I went to his twenty first birthday. It was

(01:20:35):
probably the first time that I drunk after my brother
passed away, Sean, and he's like, that wasn't new Man,
that was someone else. That was Eugene.

Speaker 1 (01:20:45):
That was funny. The English name Eugene comes from the
Grig word gueney, which means fun and joy. Oh that's
what the eugene is sort of originates from the word
of guiney and it's funny, you know, and it is
about fun and enjoy like and maybe you know, like
my mother used to have an old iris saying she said,

(01:21:08):
all work and no play makes Patty a dull boy.
And my mother used to say to me because I
used to work all or and she used to say,
You've got to go out and have some fun, enjoy yourself,
you know what I mean. And sometimes we can forget
that for sure. And if you're going through a prepping
for a world title and you know you've got your
rule book, I'm not doing this. I'm not doing that.

(01:21:30):
I must do this. And it's like streat day and
day out. People do this business all the time, but
they sometimes forget at what stage do I actually open up?
The four gates had a bit of fun. So there's
no problem with bringing a bit of joint your life. Obviously,
you've got to know when to turn it off. And
that's the important thing. I want to ask you this,
like do you know when to turn Cyborg off and

(01:21:53):
when to turn him on? And when do you turn
Eugene off and when to turn him on, because if
you do have a Eugene side in you, and I
think we all do, it's not a matter of a
bad thing to have that individual there, that other alter ego.
It's out when you turn them on and when you
turn them off? Can you turn them on? And when
can you turn them off? Did you take some time
to work out that sort of in and out process?

Speaker 2 (01:22:14):
I had to, Yeah, So yeah, look, I guess you
know we spoke about my two thousand and four injury.
You know, during the rehab with that, that was like work, Yeah,
five days a week in the gym, Phisia, Phisio. It's
ways getting the body right. Weekend comes along.

Speaker 1 (01:22:37):
I was at the pub, which would make the injury worse.

Speaker 2 (01:22:40):
Yeah, But then but I needed that'd be like all
right now I've got to go back in and keep working.
And so but then once I once I was like,
all right now I can serve, don't piss it away. Yeah,
you know, And so you know, I was sort of

(01:23:02):
always the guy that when when I first got on tour,
my mates, would you want to go and have a
beer like before the event, And I started saying, nah,
I just don't want to, like, I want to do
my best.

Speaker 1 (01:23:14):
Let me do a job.

Speaker 2 (01:23:15):
Yeah. But then but then it went so full cyborg
world that I couldn't I couldn't control when to switch
the cyborg off.

Speaker 1 (01:23:28):
And in other words, you could become obsessed with the
rules and the training, and I was.

Speaker 2 (01:23:33):
I was just so obsessed with winning. You know, this
was definitely in two thousand and seven when I won
my first world title. Was I was so obsessed that like,
even just sitting in a room with you, I'd be
looking at my watchcount all right, I'll get on the rail,
I'll be home and I can go on train or
go and surf, and and everything that I did was

(01:23:54):
I was always two steps ahead, and I was never
really in the room. And I felt like some of
my friendships and relationships started getting a bit sort of
like super selfish and they were breaking down in that sense.
And so you know, a maid of mine told me
straight up, he goes, so you're going to come back

(01:24:16):
to us now, and that really I was like, yeah, structure, Yeah,
And so I had to really learn the balance, really
learned that there's never a real balance, but you just
have to learn the dance in a way is that
it's okay to go and have a beer, and then

(01:24:37):
it's okay to go and work your ass off. But
make sure that you you don't just go into one
way or another. You have to be able to end
and flow through these different areas of your life and
make sure that you know, you're a present in this
situation of talking and being a friend or a partner

(01:24:59):
or a dad. But then also when you're going to
go and work, give it everything, and you know it's
it's it is hard, and then there are times where
you have to give yourself everything, and so it's it's
it's always a working progress.

Speaker 1 (01:25:19):
It's never perfect.

Speaker 2 (01:25:20):
Yeah, it's never perfect, you know, I think.

Speaker 1 (01:25:23):
Because we don't want people listeners think, oh, you know
mixed works of that perfectly. I mean it's a working progress.

Speaker 2 (01:25:28):
Oh for sure. I heard something the other day, especially
in like marriage or a relationship where some days I
might be at a ninety and my partner might be
at a ten. Yeah, and then the next day it
could be total reverse. You're never fifty to fifty the
whole time. And so you've just got to like use

(01:25:49):
that seesaw effect of like I've got to show up
more today, or I can back off, you know, take
care of myself or and so yeah, it's just it's
just dance. Every day is a dance. I like it there.

Speaker 1 (01:26:02):
I like being described there is a dance and you
just and you will step on each other's toes and
sometimes you get it awfully wrong, but you've got a
keep dancing. Yes, you just get back up and keep going.

Speaker 2 (01:26:15):
Music never stops.

Speaker 1 (01:26:16):
So I just think we should give now. This is
a bit of context where we are today. So this
is one of the ventures you're involved into the moment.
So where are we at the moment?

Speaker 2 (01:26:26):
So here we are at Palm Valley Golf Club, Golf
Club which is going to be the site for a
new wavepool here on the Gold Coast. It's yeah, the
team here done incredible job. Blue and the team just
you know, they've had this dream of we want to
put a wave pool here on the Gold Coast because

(01:26:47):
you know, we've got enough ways, but we could always
use more because there's a lot of surface here and
you know the way that they've put the wavepool, the entertainment,
the common planned all that with golf in such a
beautiful place like the Gold coast with the climb and everything.

(01:27:07):
It's yeah, it's extremely exciting.

Speaker 1 (01:27:11):
God's country. I mean, Louke talks both on you've already
been many times. We're a quick tour and showed us
where it's all what's going to happen, and sort of
show us to the map. And I was just only
thinking to myself, like during the winter, mostly live in Sydney,
but during the winter I'm always thinking how good the
weather is up here in Queensland, Like it might only
be two or three degrees warmer, but it's just so

(01:27:33):
much better. Yes, for some reason, it's crazy, and I
love Sydney, don't get me wrong, but it is just
so much better, and which is one of the reason
I like to spend a lot more time in Byron
my farm. But it's and to have a wave pool here,
I presume to go summer and winter. People just jump
into the wetsuit in the middle of the winter. But
what size ways you're talking about.

Speaker 2 (01:27:51):
Yeah, we're probably you know, anywhere between I think it's
one point five. Yeah, so that I don't know if
we'll get to two minutes, but definitely like head high.

Speaker 1 (01:28:03):
Yeah. And I've met Luke before and we're going to
do a podcast with him, actually, but a mental podcast
with Luke. But is Luke's raising money. He's out there, he's.

Speaker 2 (01:28:15):
Just about to start the capital raised and yeah, so
there is opportunities to get involved, look for me. It
was so funny when he first rang me and he's like, hey,
I've got this idea for a wave pool.

Speaker 1 (01:28:28):
And the guy rang up about the beer business.

Speaker 2 (01:28:31):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, same thing. And it's sort of like
all right, because I had a few start popping up
and he's like, you know, I'm going to do this, this, this,
this and this, and he showed me the plans and
and I was like, so where are you exactly and
he pinpointed the map. I was like, this could be

(01:28:51):
the best one in the world just everything else that
you've got around it, Like it's a destination in itself,
the Gold Coast, but then have another destination within that.
It's yeah, it could be potentially the best one in
the world.

Speaker 1 (01:29:05):
Did you did you go to Abberdabi.

Speaker 2 (01:29:08):
I haven't done the Abberdabi one yet, but in the
Melbourne one, I've done Melbourne, I've done, you know, Munich,
I've done.

Speaker 1 (01:29:17):
There's one of Munich is Munich.

Speaker 2 (01:29:19):
One is really fun ty in october Fest, but that
would be.

Speaker 1 (01:29:25):
So so So this will be the first one in Queensland.

Speaker 2 (01:29:28):
It'll be the first one in Queensland. They've had the
test one up in your poun. I don't know where
that is, but but yeah, out of all the out
of all the resorts and everything that will happen, this
will be the first one in queens.

Speaker 1 (01:29:44):
I mean, I'm pretty excited about it. So it looks
pretty cool and I really appreciate being invited up here
to do the podcast here, which we're going and we're
going to do it a litle bit later. I had
never met you before, but I hear lots about you
from lots of mates of mine who know you, and
and you're everything they said you were more and more.

Speaker 2 (01:30:05):
You maybe think that I'm actually smart, but.

Speaker 1 (01:30:07):
I don't know about that, because well, one of our
good mates out my good mates Common, said to me
he has an amazing sense of what will work at
a consumer level. He said he just gets it, he
just can feel it. And he also said to me
that he's brilliant to putting teams together, which is one
of the things that come out today. You can put
the team together, and I think that's you know, we

(01:30:30):
often often talk about leadership and business, and I mean
there's lots of ways of leadership can be expressed, but
I think one of the most powerful ways is you
don't lead, but people follow. And I don't mean follow
like lambs with you, but I mean ire inspired and
they motivate it and want to be part of something,
you know, part of something cool, good, good for humanity,

(01:30:52):
whatever it is, like the whole Northern Rivers, you know,
the flood period. That's that's being part of something that's
really good. And so I just want to say on
behalf of all those people who admire you, thanks very much.

Speaker 2 (01:31:07):
Thank you. And you know, I'm got to thank you too,
because you're supported that first year of the golf day.
Didn't know what you didn't know me, but gin sort
of in touch. But yeah, I really appreciate that. And
you know, you help change people's lives. So thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:31:22):
I appreciate mate.

Speaker 2 (01:31:23):
So good cheers

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