September 3, 2025 • 49 mins
Sometimes our guests are incredibly talented experts in a specific field, while other times they are extreme polymaths with ventures spanning industries and themes. Sometimes our guests are renowned public figures with extensively covered careers and other times their achievements are quieter although never less impressive.
And then, you have Merrick Watts who is all of things at once with his insatiable sense of curiosity driving in a constantly evolving, multifaceted, stellar career. While most of Australia will know of him as a comedy giant across radio and TV (which he of course has been and still is since 1996), he is also a qualified wine judge with two professional qualifications, a weapon who won SAS Australia and recently ran the gruelling big 5 marathon in South Africa, AND founder of Posca Hydrate, an incredible hydration elixir inspired by Ancient romans.
It reveals something about Merrick’s thirst for learning (pun intended) that the idea was born during an Internet wormhole through COVID where his wine qualification research led him to ancient Roman methods to hydrate soldiers and emperors. While most would be satisfied there, Merrick went right on to experiment in his kitchen refining the ancient recipe into a sugar-free, sparkling, electrolyte-rich beverage with the added benefits of red wine vinegar for gut health and hydration.
You can see why his is a brain that was SO MUCH fun to pick, but also a joy to learn from as someone in the media myself speaking to somewhat of an idol. He is at once infinitely knowledgeable and a loose cannon all at once - I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did.
Follow Merrick here
Find out more about Posca Hydrate here.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
My two motivations in life, and they kind of have
to run through these two otherwise I'm not interested in this.
Has it been done before? Or do people think I
can't do it? People say, oh, failure is not an option, Well,
it is an option. Fairly is an option. Quitting is not.
The fear of something can be worse than the reality
of it.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome to the Sees the Yay Podcast. Busy and happy
are not the same thing. We too rarely question what
makes the heart seeing. We work, then we rest, but
rarely we play and often don't realize there's more than
one way. So this is the platform to hear and
explore the stories of those who found lives.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
They adore the good, bad and ugly.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
The best and worst day will bear all the facets
of seizing your yea. I'm Sarah Davidson or a spoonful
of Sarah, a lawyer turned fu entrepreneur who's walk the
suits and heels to co found matcha Maiden and matcha
milk Bark Czya is a series of conversations on finding
a life you love and exploring the self doubt, challenge,
(00:59):
joy and filment along the way. Sometimes our guests are
incredibly talented experts in a specific field, while other times
they're extreme polymouns with venture spanning industries and themes. Sometimes
our guests are renowned public figures with extensively covered careers,
and other times their achievements are a bit quieter, although
never less impressive. But then you have Merrick Watts, who
(01:22):
is all of those things at once, with his insatiable
sense of curiosity driving a constantly evolving, multifaceted, stellar career
across so many different ventures. While most of Australia will
know of him as a pure comedy genius across radio
and TV, which he has been since nineteen ninety six
and of course still is to this day, he is
also a qualified wine judge with two professional qualifications, an
(01:46):
absolute weapon who won sas Australia and recently ran the
grueling Big Five Marathon in South Africa, and founder of
Posca Hydrate and Incredible Hydration elixa inspired by ancient Romans
that's only a few months old and already taking over
the nation. You can see why his is a brain
that was so much fun to pick. Not only as
(02:07):
an avid and repeat customer of Posca, Nick and I
always have the fridge stocked, but also to learn from
being someone in the media myself speaking to somewhat of
an idol and definitely an industry icon. Mez is at
once infinitely knowledgeable in so many areas, but also kind
of a loose cannon all at once, which is just
part of what makes him such a joy to chat with.
(02:29):
I hope you guys enjoyed this one as much as
I did.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Mez.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Welcome to the show, Sarah, thank you so much for
having me on. It's a real pleasure and genuinely an honor.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Oh my gosh, you stop it. The honor is all mine.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
No, No, truthfully, I'll tell you something. I don't normally
say this very often, and people who know me from
broadcasting would know this is true. But I just said
somebody today, you're an excellent broadcaster. You're very good at this.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
That is so kind.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
No, but it's true because there's lots of people who
do podcasts, and podcasting is one thing broadcasting is in art.
It's a skill, and there's you know when I listen
to you doing podcasts. So she's a very very good broadcaster,
very good. You've got skills that people will never learn.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Oh, my gosh, that is such a kind way to
begin and lands on someone like that. I mean, the
whole nation knows who you are and has followed your career.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
But then there are.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
People like us, my husband and I who have been
around since this level.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
I'm not surpriseding Your husband's a bit of a fan,
to be honest, because when I was listening to your
podcast with Pete Mario's going oh better, husband likes a
bit of American rosso.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
I mean this is from two thousand, but he's got
back in nineteen ninety six. I reckon, he's got the OG.
So we are lifetime super fans.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
I love that and tell them I was good, and
I'll sign that CD because everyone loves them. Now, I'll
sign that CD cap before him any time.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Oh you stop it.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
I mean I can hang up right now. That's all
I need. That's our life, mate.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
It's been great, good start.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah, yeah, great chat in and out.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
You know, I was listening to your Ash's podcast earlier
today and you were saying, you know, when you've got
a good out, you've got to get out quickly, like
on a high. I'm like, all right, good, we've got
the material, got the SoundBite.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
You want to go yep, first best out.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
First, best out.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Guys, you are getting tips from the very best today,
and now we need to reverse that flattery because we
do have a household name in our midst mez. Everyone
knows your name. You're an absolute icon. We all know
your great success in Australian media across multiple different platforms,
but there are so many chapters that we perhaps know
a little less about that I've only just discovered during
(04:32):
my research for this episode, and I'd love to start
with those, because sure, I think you know. The earlier
days are such a strong inspiration for any listeners who
are perhaps a bit earlier on in their own journeys.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
All the parts that came.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Before your great successes are reassuring to remind that everyone
starts somewhere. You weren't always a household name and built
your way up. So perhaps let's start with your childhood.
Take it all the way back to the beginning. What
did you think you'd be?
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Leafy eltham and insatiable curiosity?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yes, And one thing that your upbringing has already influenced
me in parenthood is the educationals that your dad took
you on.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
So tell us about Yeah, wow, about the early days.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
You've done some good research the educationals. I was actually
trying to write some stand up about my father's educational
educationals is for the listening audience. My dad used to
pretend that he was taking us on overseas holidays, but
what he was doing was he was giving his educational
journeys around the world and teaching us everything about culture, food, people,
poverty and the way of life in juxtaposition to what
(05:34):
we had in Australia. But he dressed it up as holiday.
So we never went to Fiji or Bali, but we
would go, and I'm not joking, we go to some
really dangerous places. So that my dad did prove a point.
So that's why I've grown up probably not quite right
in the head. Thanks nice, nice for trauma Vacation's dad.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
So, yeah, they do sound like such an invaluable learning
opportunity though that really had a big impact on your
worldview and humanity. But tell us a little bit more
first before we get to those chapters about those early
days of mans So.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I don't know, it's where do I start. I s
grew up in Eltham, which is a leafy suburb of Melbourne.
I had a pretty good upbringer. I would say, like
I had good parents. My mother was an educator, my
father was an advertising Eltham is a strange dichotomy of
bogans and artists, and I think that helped me form up.
A lot of my early thinking was the fact that,
you know, I kind of had so many different people
(06:32):
and different socioeconomics around me and my brother and I
still own our family home there, and I still found
even with the great nurturing nature of the area and
my parents and having a good life, I still managed
to find ways to cause problems for myself. So, you know,
I don't know, maybe I was just born that way,
but that's where it's kind of started.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
I think that's probably part of your insacial curiosities. And
Nick and I are exactly the same. I feel like
we would all get a lone really well, we need
to hang out more.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Is well Nick's a fan, so there's no way, no, no,
not hang out. Yeah, I mean, you're more than welcome,
but Nick's definitely come out.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
He's in nice.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
But I mean, I think that insatiable curiosity as a
kid leads you down all kinds of dangerous pathways because
you're testing boundaries, especially as a boy. Like I have
a son and his brain is already I mean he's one,
and his brain's wired to just try stuff, and by
try stuff, I mean break stuff and like fall off
stuff like that's how the male brain learns about you know,
(07:32):
the world. But coming from you know, a family with
an educator and you know, your dad being so curious
about the world, and now knowing that you have such
a science brain. You mentioned before that you're a polymath
and you have such broad interests. I'm very similar, and
I've always found that is a blessing and a burden
in that it makes it hard to decide what to
(07:52):
do with it because you don't have one single passion
to follow.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
That's really straightforward.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
How did you decide that your career would be in
media and was there ever sort of pressure from particularly
your mom being very academic focused away from the arts.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
No, my parents were just happy if I was out
of jail, So I mean that was a success.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Nice, it's a low bar.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
We love it. I never kind of set out to
work in show business. I kind of fell into it
probably when I was twenty. I started stand up when
I was twenty. I was quite young, and I had
a pretty turbulent scholastic career at school. I repeated year
eleven and then I was expelled and I went to
Dimo Tech after that, and then just kind of floated
around for a year. And let's make it sound better
than it is a sabbatical, but it wasn't. It wasn't
(08:36):
a gap year. It was just me being useless, Merrick.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
It was just a further educational Let's give it the
title it deserves.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Yeah, I really sat around and ate a lot of
nachos and drank beer. That's really what character building. Yea. Yeah.
I had a bit of a blowout there for a while.
And then and then I started stand up when I
was twenty, and then that gave me real direction and
real focus. And comedy is one of those things. It's
not my high focus and I'm doing it, and then
it's my entire focus. I move my focus like a
(09:04):
laser beam. I pointed and whatever I choose at the
time and kind of focus really really hard on that,
but I am able to switch it between different things
and move between brevity and levity quite easily, which I
think is one of my better strengths. But I really
struggled with a lot at school. I just couldn't. I
couldn't maintain the focus particularly, and if I wasn't interested
in something, I just couldn't. I couldn't get around it.
(09:24):
And it's still unfortunately a bit of the way. I
don't if I'm interested in something and curious, as you mentioned,
you know, I'm a very curious person and I love
That's why I love people, because you know they're able
to serve that curiosity. But if I'm not interested in something,
oh I am not great, I am not good, not handy.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
It's a pretty common experience, and it's also very efficient
because it's like, why would you waste time on something
that you're not absolutely passionate about. But it's really interesting
to me that anyone who speaks to you beyond like
you go to one of your shows and you're so
effortlessly funny and quick and witty, but you speak to
you outside of your comedy work and you're so like
(10:02):
your intellect comes through your discipline and passion for whatever
you're doing, even seamlessly going from media to poscar like
you need to research everything and understand everything, and then
your entire focus and discipline is dedicated to that thing.
That doesn't necessarily marry up to me with someone who
didn't do well in school. And I think it's a
bit of a problem sometimes with the education system in
(10:24):
that you could have grown up thinking you weren't clever,
and yet you're obviously one of the cleverest brains going around.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Oh you've gone too far now not you're losing your
audience saying that they're tuning out. And I don't blame
it even nicks off me. Now I do.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
I think you have such a quick mind, but school
obviously didn't bring that out in you, or perhaps help
you realize.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
That it did. In some ways, particularly my final year
of view twelve, I actually did very, very very well.
I got some of the highest marks in the state
for art because I kind of switched my focus from
things that didn't interest me into things that did interest me.
You know, to your point earlier about how do you
come to terms with the fact that you do have
these seemingly incongruous passions or these desires to fulfill goals
(11:09):
is that was one of the toughest things I ever
had to come to groups with and I had a
real kind of moment where of understanding myself about five
years ago. And one of the big key unlocks for
me mentally, and that's helped me profoundly was being okay
with not being a specialist in one thing, with recognizing
(11:29):
the fact that I do have all these interests and
it is okay because those who think look at myself
as a jack of all trades, master of none, and
I hated not being a master of something, and then
I switched away. No, my mastery is about being really
good at lots of different things that people don't see
as overlapping or a singular pathway the seeming congruous. So
(11:52):
I like surprising people and it's a huge motivator for
me to do. I mean, my two motivations in life,
and they kind of have to run through these to
otherwise I'm not interested in this. Has it been done before?
Or do people think I can't do it? Oh? If
people think I can't do it, I'll have a crack.
I'll prove them wrong. And if it hasn't been done before,
I'll have a go at it. That's it for me.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
My motivations, Oh my gosh, do you know I think
the most powerful thing of you know, interviewing. I think
it's been like nearly four hundred people all who have
found a peak level of joy and fulfillment. They've gone
through the chase success and look at what other people's
lives are doing. But then ultimately it all comes down
to what fulfills you and makes you feel the most
you or the most alive, and that is finding what
(12:34):
those motivators are and being okay that they look different
to everyone else.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
For some people it's underestimation is such a powerful tool.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
But for others, being underestimated crushes their confidence and they
can't get through if they're being underestimated all the time.
And I think finding your ingredients and running every decision
in your life through those gates is like the most
powerful thing you can ever do. But I imagine that
twenty year old Merrick sort of starting out, you know,
in stand up of all things, it's a brutal You're
getting real time feedback if someone doesn't like your jokes,
(13:03):
like you're you're up there naked and vulnerable because it
never happened to me.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
I mean, look, I've heard about it and it sounds awful.
It is. It's like stand up is brutal, like it
really is. And this is the thing. You know, public
speaking is the number one fear of humanity or you know,
for people in stand up is the most pure form
of that I reckon because it's personal. It's not a
job as much as it is. It is a performance
and it's a it's kind of visceral feeling. I don't
(13:30):
have the fear of that. I don't fear that. So
when I contextualize that I don't have the fear of
the thing that the majority of the people in the
world fear, it contextualizes fear for me. It doesn't mean
that I don't have fear. I'm scared shipless of sharks.
I hate them. Really Yeah, I don't like sharks. No, no, no, no.
I'm not a big fan of snakes either, not a
big fan.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Wow, Australia is a tough place for you to grow up.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Yes, I know, right.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I mean you have then spent like a huge, incredible
career are making people laugh and just going from strength
to strength and like literally seizing Australia's sense, like tickling
our funnybone and doing that across media. Like you started
in stand up in the flesh and then radio, and
(14:16):
then TV, and then from TV comedy and like you know,
reality to even acting in Underbelly, competing in sas like
you have pretty much like I know that you say
that you fancy yourself for jack of all trades, but
I don't think many other people have covered and nailed
and had great success across every form of media in
(14:39):
the Australian landscape.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
I think it's pretty tricky, so I think people underestimate
the differences between the media. I love the fact that
I do move between all of those spaces. I can write.
I love writing copy so you know for print. I
love radio because it's live, but it's with people and
it's so personal and it's really a lovely medium. Like television,
(15:02):
can go and get to wave my hands around and
be a bit more physical, so I can show that
dynamic and I enjoy that. I love podcasting because you
can work on different levels. It's very specific. I love
corporate gigs. I know people go what I go. I
love corporate gigs because it's another opportunity for me to
work methodically to produce a piece of content. But what
I love most is being able to do all.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Of them just on that diversification. I mean, you have
sort of been able to within one industry, but as
you mentioned, they are every area does require such a
diverse set of skills. It is the perfect combination for
a polymath to be able to master lots.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Of different things all at once.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
But going backwards, you can see how that all like
I like to see our life at anyone's stage.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
I think we all aim for.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Success as like this static place where you arrive and
then you're like tear i'me. Successful, But I see it
more as a jigsaw puzzle where you're constantly adding pieces, yes,
that you were missing, and then you're getting rid of
old ones that you've mastered and you don't need anymore.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yes, that's a great way to look at it.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Was that all by design? Like, were you sort of
from the time that you entered the media at stand up?
Did you know where you wanted to go? Did you
have direction or what was pulling you to try all
those different media? You know, like what was guiding kind
of the steps in that staircase.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
I was very fortunate that, you know, particularly the television.
I was offered opportunities off the back of doing radio,
but I always wanted to do television. Radio was never
really a part of my life. I didn't really listen
to radio when I was young because I really enjoyed
hip hop music and there's no radio stations playing hip hop,
so I just didn't listen to it. I kind of
fell into radio. But now I realized that radio is probably,
out of all the mediums, one I've had the most
(16:31):
success in. And I know you always talk to people
really and everyone's got great answers about success. That made
me think about, you know, what is success? Success for
me is not like, it's not trophies and it's not winning.
It's not like, because I'm so competitive, people think that
I'm either competitive against them, which I am, or competitive
against myself, which I also am, so I'm doubly stupid.
(16:53):
It's not the trophy there. It's not the prize at
the end. Like I remember when Russell and I went
to number one in the ratings in Sydney for Nova.
It was a massive, massive deal. It made headlines because
nobody thought we were going to be able to do
it when we started, and then all of a sudden
we were number one, and I remember we got the
ratings and everyone was like, really sided I was so happy.
(17:14):
I remember very clear. I was so happy for my team,
and I remember seeing their faces that were like this
is a big deal, and I was like great. And
then like later on we went to go and have
a beer at the pub at lunchtime. And by that
stage of the warn off, like I was like going,
I was. I was already thinking about the next day,
not with anxiety about oh my god, I'm going to
go back to it and defend this pion. I was
(17:36):
thinking about content. I moved through those phases good and
bad very quickly. And that's another thing I really like
that I have is the and I suppose it's the
that there's a trade off, is that when it's really
really bad times, like really bad times, I can compartmentalize
things very very rapidly. Pain whatever it is, usually failure pain.
(17:56):
And I think people struggle to process failure down. That
is when you do have celebrations, when you do have wins. Look, look,
I don't care. It's something. I don't care. I'm just
going that's awesome, But it's not the end goal. For me.
The goal and the success in the win is continually
challenging myself, continually driving forward continually doing things and like
(18:18):
everything I do is about growth.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
I love that because I think it is.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
The media is an industry where firstly it's unique in
that like you're the product versus someone who's like selling
a product.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
You know you are the product. It's your skill, it's
your face.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
And so the concept of success in winning awards and
getting numbers like it's a popularity contest at all times.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
What people don't realize.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I think when they look at a career like yours,
is that you're not employed by one person for your
whole career.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
So you haven't just.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Had like over a decade of solid secure employment. Your
sort of contract or contract changing channels, they're all overlapping,
and it's really you don't actually know what your next
twelve to eighteen months might look like most of the time.
I think we all face this relevance question in every job,
but particularly in the media. I think when you're the commodity,
(19:04):
it's really hard to like not be trying to keep
up with the rat race all the time. Have you
ever had moments where you thought, shit, I got to
just keep going because I've got to keep up, Or
have you ever wanted to quit because it got overwhelming
to kind of that rat race.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah, always, and there's been. The difference is that I
just don't quit. I don't quit stuff. I just don't
give up. I just don't quit. You know, people say, oh,
failure is not an option, Well, it is an option.
It is a failure is an option. Quitting is not right.
That's the difference. Failure is an option that can happen
because that's out of your hands. But quitting is on
your own volition. So there's times and show opens when
(19:40):
you know it can get really full on and it
can be really Yeah, definitely, I've had times when it's gone,
what am I doing? I just don't want to be
in this? But they pass, like all things. But the
best thing you can do is look at it, evaluate
and say, well, how can I alter this situation so
that it no longer exists or pays me.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
That's so powerful because I think in any kind of
journey towards a fulfilling life, particularly in something like the
media where you are putting yourself out there, quite a
lot that's self doubt, perhaps more so among women, but
definitely not exclusively women. It can really infect your decision making.
It can make you self select out of opportunities you deserve,
(20:19):
and you're that you're the perfect candidate for It just
can infect everything. So it looks like you're not scared
of being a beginner, which I think is really empowering.
But because you often have moved into a new media
where you haven't had experienced before in those early days,
would you have that kind of chatter, I'd be like,
oh my god, how do you deal with that?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Sir? I'm having it right now. I'm having it right now.
I'm having a massive mental collapse. Internally. You can't see it,
but it's a volcano melting in on itself.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
I'm in the power of description here. I love it.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
My brain is a bomb Alaska. Yeah, absolutely have self
doubt and the process syndrome. I have it all the time.
It's just but again, it's like fear. You've got an
acknowledge it process. It moved through it. Acknowledge it process
that moved through it. You know, I don't like sharks,
but I've swum with them and I did it because
I knew I was scared of them and I don't
like them.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Exposure theory, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Face your fears. You may never even shake them, but
at least you face them self doubt thing. Yeah, I
have self doubt with lots of things because I do
so many different things. But I don't lose belief in
who I am, if anything. Over the recent years, through
some pretty solid work, my belief not in an ego
centric way, in a very humble and measured way, I
(21:33):
have greater belief in who I am. I'm comfortable with this.
I'm comfortable with who this guy is.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
It's very reassuring to hear that you have gone through
a big chapter of trying to fit a mole that
you thought is what success looked like. Like that you
were like, I have to just be the expert in
one thing, and that's just not everyone's. Like, I think
you'd actually find it boring. I think if you just
specialized in one thing, you would have ticked the box
that you thought and then you'd be like, shit, this
(21:59):
is awful, Like I hate this.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
I think you're right, like the lovely idea of it,
of going I wish I was just a specialist in
one thing, but you're right. I know that I would
get bored. You know, my interests are so varied, it's
so weird, and if people like you know that kid
you're talking about. When I was ten or eleven or twelve,
I was a very weird kid. What seriously keep an
(22:24):
eye on that kid.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Is meys, you're a weird adult, and I'm like, you're
still weird now, dude.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
No one in this room said that had stopped.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
You know what, though, I love that you mentioned that
you can be curious about lots of different things but
see things through to completion. And what I find really
difficult in having a lot of broad interests is that
I straddle this fine line of wanting to explore all
my interests and trying not to be an instant, gratuitous
(22:55):
millennial who gets bored. And it's really really hard to
know whether the each I'm getting because I just it's
got hard and I can't be bothered anymore, or because
it's time for a new chapter. So for someone who
has mastered I mean, on OSHA's episode from a couple
of months ago, he called you like the master of
a pivot, And I think in this day and age,
there is nothing more powerful than to be able to pivot,
(23:17):
but pivot at the right time and from the right
thing to the right thing.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
If that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Yeah, pivots a passion, not the money.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Yes, How have you gone from a comedy master to
a simeliad to a business owner? Like when do you
know when the time is to jump? Do you get
like an itch or do you get a sense of complacency?
Like what's the thing that you go? Yeah, it's chapter time.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
I think it's it comes down to go And it
comes back to that thing Sarah mentioned before about like,
you know, being robbed by other people and other people's
I always say, don't hang around with negative people because you'll.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Catch it contagious.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
For sure, I had been put in a position where
my confidence had been eroded. The result of that was
my gut. So I now work on gut. So for
something like Posco was anybody listening? Is a drink that
I invented. I didn't just associate myself with it. I
literally invented it in Lockdown four years ago when I
(24:13):
was studying some wine research. It's non alcoholic, It's an
ancient beverage from over two thousand years ago. Because to
your point, I was curious. It was curiosity, like I was,
who else in Lockdown is sitting around like literally ours
just deep diving into ancient Roman drinks and I found
it and here's the things that then I go away
(24:34):
and if formulated, and then I come out of lockdowns
and I got a professional formulators, and you know, four
years later, we are where we are today. You know,
we've got an entirely unique beverage that hadn't been around
for two thousand years. But to answer your question is
because I ran on gut because I was like, what
am I doing? Why am I making a drink? Why
am I investing my time, my money, my reputation. Why
(24:54):
am I doing this on a drink, on a beverage?
And it was just like my gout just kept telling me,
just keep going, just keep going, just keep going. And
I was like, obviously, there's a purpose greater than myself here.
There's a reason for this that is greater than me.
And I may never know, but at the moment, I
actually don't know why. I honestly do not know why.
I just know that in my gut it's right. And
(25:17):
I asked a friend of mine who's he's a Format
SAS soldier and a coach and a terrific bloke, and
I asked him, I said, why am I doing this?
Should I be doing this or should I just quit?
And he said, if you stop now and in six
months time somebody else reinvents POSCO and it takes into
the world, how would you feel, Oh.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
That is a great question.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah I know, And I was like, I would be scattered,
and he just goes, there's your answer.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
That is such a powerful way to answer your question.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
And that's been the drive.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
And because it's funny, like I love your story because
even when I first got I think it was whoever
does your pr sent me an email and then it
came up Merrick Watts and I was like, what are
you talking about? Did you like, is there a typo?
Like in my brain, you're over here like this media legend,
comedic genius. And then there's this superfood ancient Roman beverage
(26:15):
in FMCG and I'm like, what in the actual fuck
are you talking about? Like, go back, revise your spelling,
do a spell check, fixtory email senter to me again.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
And then I was like, whoa wait, what a.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Reinvention like this is exactly you know, you can start
out in your life and do an entire lifetime's worth
of a career in one area. And still keep doing it.
I mean, you're still doing that work. You still got
your own festival for God's sake. But at various stages
there'll be big folks in the road where new passions
just come out of nowhere sometimes and like that's the
(26:45):
new Jig's not puzzle pieces, and it doesn't have to
make sense to anyone else except you.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Correct. That's what I loved it when you said gesaw
puzzle pieces, because that's what is. It's about adding, adding
to them, you know, and trying to define your purpose
and understand your reasoning. And I think I think I
understand probably you know. I'm always constantly learning. I'm on
a mission every single day to try and learn more
about myself and my purpose and place in the universe.
(27:10):
And that's true. Like I spend a lot of time meditating,
I spend a lot of time exercising. I spend a
lot of time doing lots of things. But I think
it comes down to your purpose, and when you believe
that it's in line with your purpose, then it becomes
a mission. And that was the thing with PSCO. It
was not like I want to have a drink on
the market, and it's not an energy drink. It's all natural,
(27:30):
there's nothing artificial in it. It's really really it's great
for you. But I didn't want to. I would never,
you know, just put my name to something like that.
It's because I invented it and I believe in it
so wholeheartedly. But it does actually fit very much into
the way I see my purpose, and the same way
I feel like when I do an Idiot's Got the Wine,
(27:50):
which is a comedy show that written and perform around
the country, and that's the combination of wine and comedy,
live comedy, life, standup and I love doing that show.
But again they are completely different things, but it fits
my purpose. And then I look at something like Sas Australia,
which is completely in congruous again, which is a television
reality television show based on Special Forces selection. And I
(28:14):
went on that and I did pretty well on that,
but that was because I.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Did pretty well. He actually made selection. There's like three
people ever like you would have actually got into the SAS.
I mean, it's wild. You play that down way too much.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
It is.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Brutal if you guys have it brutal, Like I can't
even tell you what a weapon you must be but.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Again that lined up with my purpose and my missions.
So for me, when I went on that TV show,
I was forty six, which is quite old at that time,
and I went on that show and I knew that again,
failure was an option, but it was not a choice
I was prepared to make. So I just kind of
ground it out with broken ribs and lots of injuries
and feeling really terrible the entire time because I said
(28:57):
I'm going to start it, I'm going to complete it.
And again it comes back to my purpose, but also too,
you know, back to your original question when I was
a boy, your first question. When I was a boy,
I didn't want to be a comedian. I wanted to
be a soldier. I wanted to be very specifically, I
wanted to be an SAS operator. It's all I ever
wanted to be when I was a kid, all I
ever wanted to do was be in the SAS. That
was it.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
That show would have been like a full circle moment
correct connecting goosebumps goosebumps.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
And that's why since that show, it's not the not
the winning of the show that has changed me and
restored my confidence. It's hard thing to do with that.
It did. It did shake off a lot of issues
I had about self confidence and belief because I was like, well,
I knew that I was going to do it. I
thought I could do it. I went to it. I
prepared myself thoroughly for it mentally and physically, and then
I went and brutally attacked it and I got it done,
(29:46):
and I stayed there until it was finished. But the
other thing was that I've heard you talk about this
before and your podcast about the sliding door moments in
life where you could take one trajectory another. I believe
you have lots of slide door moments. That the biggest
one for me was probably, you know, when I was
a kid, I only really both times I was, you know,
(30:06):
thirteen or fourteen, I only wanted to be an essay
as soldier or a comedian, and I liked them by
I thought, they're my two greatest passions. And I either
want to become a professional soldier in the most elite
form or take on what I believed was the most
elite form of show business. You're not reading off an
auto que you are absolutely it's your purest format. And
(30:28):
that's so. Then when I was able at forty six,
I was able to reconcile whether or not I would
have had the capacity to have at least gone forward
for selection and had a crack at real essay a selection,
I was like, yeah, I probably could have done all right,
I'm not saying I could have passed it, but like
I definitely would have done.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
And you did pass it.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Yeah, but you did it no, I mean some of
the stuff you had to do. But what I think
is also incredibly inspiring about that is that it was
a really big, exciting doors moment for you in your
mid forties. And by the way, great ad for Oscar.
Your skin looks amazing, I mean the health and wellness
regime that you're on, and also for wine. But I
(31:09):
think also we have this sense of like, I have
to find my passion when I come out of UNI,
and then I'll find my job and then I'll do
that for the rest of ever.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
To any younger people.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Especially like gen Z's and why it's listening, like it
takes time to find the best chapters of your life.
You don't have to get to them straight away at
the start. When you first approach someone's bio, I'm like, well,
comedy wine certificate, not just wine enthusiast, but wine. Like
you said, you never don't do anything one hundred percent.
You've got like a certification as a sourmelia and like
(31:39):
from two different organizations, and you can judge wine like
what and then poscar is made from red wine vinegar.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Like all the.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Dots start connecting, Like I'm like a crazy true crime
person with all the like string connecting all.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
The things that's.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Read string between me and Leningrad. And I'm going exciting
to pull.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
That's good you and Russell Crowe, I'm like, yes, what
there he is?
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Yeah. I think it's great that you reassure people that
you don't have to figure it all out too early.
Let it happen. Because the only thing, too, is that
it's a journey and you don't have to stop one
thing to start another either. Like I still do stand
up all the time. I'll be doing stand up next week,
this week, I did it last week. I do it
all the time, Like I'm you know a lot of weekends.
I do it because I love it and I love
the wide shows. And but I still work on POSCO
(32:32):
and I still do TV radio whatever, I do everything.
I just I don't have to stop one thing to
do another. But it's you also too. You don't have
to figure out the big master stroke early. It will
come when it feels right, and then if it doesn't
feel right anymore, then you can stop and do something else.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
And I also love that you've consistently come back to
the people around you. And I don't think any of
these decisions are made in a vacuum. It's funny that
you mentioned your coach, like you did have a moment
of why would I start a drink company?
Speaker 3 (33:01):
Like I don't have any.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Background in this, And I often say when I was
leaving law, if I'd ask my fellow lawyers what I
should do, they would have said the risk averse option.
But I asked my husband, who's a business owner, who
was like, well, why wouldn't you similar advice to your coach.
He was like, well, if someone else took this idea,
would you be pissed? I was like, fuck yes, I
would be so ropable, And he was like, well again,
(33:22):
like there's your answer. And I think even reading that
you poached kind of the general manager of Lions. So
this massive, massive FMCG organization to join you, Like you're
so about the people around you and like you said, removing.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
Negative people as well.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
That you've been able to build this incredible business, Like
tell us more about Postco. It's not that old and
it's only in like thousands of stores.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
It's only month so it's hard work, there's no doubt
about it. Like you know, there's ring business. Just it's
such a new thing to me and the business of
it is. But I just try to appind my applicable skills,
people skills, team building skills, working with people, but also too,
you know, like I'm really into the liquid. It's really important.
As I saying before, I was working with Hazel who
(34:09):
many years ago helped me develop the product. She also
has wine qualifications and she's our head of ops. We
just nerd out. We just nerd out on like tiny
little things like you know, the you know, the mineral
composition of the drink and the electrolytes that are in it,
and then you know, things like resveratrol the people don't
even know about we care about, you know, and as
a palette and how it works on the palette and
why it's different, and it's really really important to us.
(34:30):
And I love being able to do that aspect of it.
And there's parts of the business which I find absolutely,
like really difficult and hard to learn and hard to understand.
And it's like, well, we are at lightning speed. We
have to I have to move fast. So again it
comes back to learning and working and listening to people
and having great team around you is awesome, you know,
(34:53):
very fortunate. We've got a great little team. We work
with great partners, Like in the retail sector, we've got
really really good people that we work with, so that
does make it easier. But yeah, it's a steep learning
curve because I arrogantly just thought, oh oh, it's a
arrogant ignorantly supremely ignorantly just went I mean, look he's
put it in the tin and then you put in
the fridge and then people buy it, don't you, And
(35:15):
then they go, oh mate, oh mate, are you ready
for a wake up call?
Speaker 2 (35:19):
And I was like, what I think, naivety is your
best friend at the beginning of a business, because if
everyone knew, they wouldn't do it.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
You spot on, if you knew what was coming, you
probably wouldn't do it. So it's like goes back to
shark diving. The fear of something can be worse than
the reality of it. So when I went shark diving
in Port Lincoln many years ago, I'm like, I mean
petrified of sharks, Like I really had a huge problem
around sharks. But when I got to the Niptune Iss,
I was like, I'm going first in the cage because
(35:49):
I can't delay. I have to be first. I've delayed
this fear that any moment I'm on the boat and
not in the cage, I'm prolonging the fear. I jumped
in the cave. She was instantly so as I was
underneath the water calm, and then I saw massive sharks
and I was like wow. I mean I knew that
they were killers, but they're graceful. And there was I
(36:10):
was going, you really are the size of a Honda
of jazz. That's the size. We're a hundred jazz that
can eat me. And then I got out of the cage.
I was like, well that's done. And then I was
like I'm going back in. I three times. Yeah, no
(36:30):
with me. By that stage, I knew how bad they were.
So dumb you.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Knew that unda jazz was waiting for you in the water.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Jazz and Pete.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
But I mean.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Even just speaking to you about your approach, Yeah, I
mean your approach to your number one fear in life
to just run head on at it in a cage,
but also your approach to the business. You do kind
of think when you hear of a household name teaming
up with a product, you do think, well, that person
has just been approached to be an ambassador and put
their name on everything for the marketing. And then speaking
to you for like thirty two seconds, you'd already mentioned
(37:04):
Rosbra Troll and I was like, well, what, like, you
are so passionate about learning every aspect of this business
and even the idea. Like for you guys listening, it
was Merrick's wormhole into drink history, how gladiators and Roman
armies would march on a drink made from bread, wine, vinegar,
water and salt, like literally looking up gladiator beverages. Like
(37:27):
the power of just following what your brain wants to
do and then seeing that through. You would probably not
have guessed that you could run such a massive FMCG
business having never done it before, But look at you now, Well.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
I mean that's what we have a CEO for a
lot of very good people around me at a board
to answer to you know, there's there's a lot of
great people around me. But again it comes back to
the thing that you identify very early is that it's
I'm curious and I love to take something unknown and
turn it into the known, because then I'm taking something
(38:00):
that was based in fear and turning into something that's
no longer fearful.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
And in your mind.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Now we've talked a lot about success and that kind
of that it changes over time now that you're in
a product business that is also very numbers based, and
success in business is so measured by your ebit and
your revenue. Like to you, what is the marker of
what you would think of success in this business? Like
what do you want to achieve with poscar?
Speaker 3 (38:24):
What would be.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Something like you saw it in someone's hand, or what's
your kind of marker of yes, I did it?
Speaker 1 (38:29):
I tell you, sir, that's a great question, because that's
literally I've got a meeting tomorrow with our entire group
and I'm presenting something on I'm doing a presentation on
our brand and talking to our people and some of
them are quite young. I'm the oldest person in our
entire group. I love seeing young people drinking poscar. But
the question I've got for my team is whose hand
would you want to see Oscar in. I imagine that
(38:51):
they'll probably say they'll name someone. My answer also is,
you know the answer to two questions, I would love
to see this in the hands of people living in
other countries overseas. I would love to see a young
kid playing basketball in another country pick up a caniposca
and drink it on a hot day. I see that.
(39:12):
That's the wind for me. It's not about a personality,
it's about a person It's about seeing it in another
country that may or may not have the same benefits
that Australia has, and they would be awesome. If I
could see in the country that is not as wealthy
as Australia and see people drinking it, that would be
the absolute top of the totem of success for this
drink from me.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
That is also a very full circle moment back to
our educationals that when you take your kids on their educationals,
that one day they go, hey, that's Dad's company and
some key exa is holding it in their hand.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
That would be amazing. That would require my children knowing
what I do for a living and.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Caring well, you know, I mean, we've got to aim
start low, start small.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
That's just my.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Kids are starting very very low. They're starting with my name.
So there we go.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
Oh my gosh, I have so many more questions for you.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
We should have done a mes time CZA series because
I have more questions.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
We didn't even get to the Big Five marathon.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
You've just come back from.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
Just another challenge to tick you off.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
But it's so telling of your thirst for challenge that
you're just like, yes, screw it, I'm just going to go.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
I'll do it.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
But I'll do the Big Five, which is like one
of the hardest. I'm going to do it with jet
lag on the other side of the world and like,
let's just go.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
And it's brutal. I just see. Just to explain how
brutal that marathon was, I had to fly their economy so.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
The end, say no more, say no.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
More, tell us about the run. Do you know that
they served me a sandwich on the plane with a
cold drink. A sandwich on.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
The plane, honestly, And it wasn't a pasca. That's not okay.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
I didn't even have cutlery, guys, I didn't have cutlery.
That's what they have business class.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
Although when I was at the airport last I did
show you that I walked past a lot of Posca camps.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
I was like, oh, airports, Yes, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
It's a drink through airline travel. It's drink. I don't
want to go on the flog and the Primo, but
give it a go.
Speaker 3 (41:13):
No, you need to go on the flog. That's what
that's what we're here for.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
And it is actually an incredible drink. And I'm like
very discerning about I'm not a drinks person. Nike's a
big drinks person, you know how, Like we all have
the thing if we go on to wh Smith on
the way to a flight, like he'll always get a drink.
I'll always get a snack. Like I'm a food girl,
but we always have Posca in the fridge. Now, like
we bought it, like you sent us some and then
we went within like seventy three seconds, and now we
(41:37):
buy the Yuzoo because it's it's so good, so massive.
Congratulations everything that you've been doing.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Now I'm the one blushing me.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Well, another full circle for just to finish up there
is so I mean, like, your brain is one of
my favorite kinds to pick.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
Because you are curious.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
I could imagine you like just say day you grow
posca to exit, I can imagine you coming out with
like the next chapter being the most random left field,
like I invented a flipper for scuba divers that turns
into a propeller, Like I like, I feel like nothing
will connect it the first time you hear it. But
your brain just has this way, which I love. But
(42:20):
one of the things we talk about on the show
is the capacity for joy outside of productivity or outside
of like it's hard when curiosity fuels you, because then
it's really hard to switch off. And unfortunately, even the
most active of brains, in fact, probably more so the
most active of brains need to switch off from time
to time because burnout, because physical limits, because parenthood, because
(42:43):
you need to have pursuits outside of your work that
bring you joy for balance, and also because you get jaded.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
Like I feel like I love my job. I love it.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
I could do it to the cows come home, but
I get pretty flat and uninspired if I don't take
like a day here and there to not think about
podcast and content and creating and the best way that
I could. You know, you just need to switch it
off every now and then. So how do you do that?
Do you allow yourself breaks? Like do you have downtime?
(43:13):
And what are the things that you do for pure
joy that you're not trying to dissect all the time,
Like do you do anything just to do to enjoy
other than swimming with sharks and hundred jausers?
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Yeah? Look, I do work a lot. I do typically work.
I'll do a little bit of work seven days a week,
and I don't really take a lot of time off.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
You strike me as someone who would hate who would
hate taking time Like, I don't feel like you're the
guy at the vacation pool who just lies there.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
No I am. I am quite good at it, No really,
Yeah yeah, yeah, but it takes it takes a little
while for me to decompress.
Speaker 3 (43:45):
Yeah yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
Then and then I can kind of get into the groove.
But I need to be overseas to do it, to
be honest. And I went to Thailand a few weeks
ago with my family, and that was the first time
we've been away on any family holiday for any more
than any more than a day for a few years
and was like, because I've been very committed to work,
and my family has had to pay the price for
that as well, and I'm cognizant of them having to
(44:07):
make sacrifices too, so I can I do make sure
that I unwind in those moments and enjoy it and
be present and that time from a family, but also
too for myself. But for pure joy. There's a couple
of things I really really really love which are so
simple and yet they bring me joy. And I think
it's because there's so much frenetic thinking and phrenetic energy
(44:29):
around my life, and there's so much input and stimulus
that I don't need to create anymore. So the joy
actually comes from simplicity. And the two things that I
really really love is I love to find some interesting
wine and then cook a meal with my wife around
that wine. I love to that she's as well. She's
(44:51):
a working semiaria, so she's got excellent powate, so we'd
like to pick something that's really interesting, paste it, and
cook something based around that wine. And I love that
it's just so basic and so and then just sit
eat and talk and drink whilst we're cooking. I love,
we'd love to just have a glass of wine and cook.
And the other thing I think that brings me absolute
(45:11):
pure joy is my great Dane. It's my dog. Is
just I love my kids, don't get me wrong, it's
me and I just the joy. The joy has ended,
joy there has finished but the dog. Because I think
it's because great Danes are beautiful. They're soft, they're so misunderstood.
They're very very gentle, even though they're massive. They're very shy,
(45:33):
they're very timid, but they absolutely adore their owners. Adore
their owners, like just to the point where they just
are constantly trying to sit on you, sleep on you,
be with you constantly. But they also they live short
life spans. They don't live for very long great Danes.
And there's that beauty in that knowing that you know
that they don't live very long, but they don't know that,
(45:55):
but they still give you pure joy.
Speaker 3 (45:57):
Oh that's so sweet and profound.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
Yep, they don't know that they're a ticking time bomb.
And all I can do is just.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
But it's actually a weird way of reminding me about
I mentioned this the other day. One of the best
pieces of advice that I ever had was to read
The Five Regrets of the Dying. And I know it
sounds so morbid and horrible, but actually, in the context
of a show that's about joy, it's brought me more
joy or more capacity to feel joy than you would think,
(46:29):
because the resounding thing people say at the end of
their lives is I no one gets there and goes
I wish I worked more. I wish I saw my
family less, I wish I had less fun. And like
it's that sobering reminder of mortality, yes, which is awful,
but also you need it every now and then to
shock you into like you think you have every day. Yeah,
(46:51):
you think you have forever and you don't.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
It's right, and it's you know, you can't have yin
without the yang, right, And you've got to have that
juxtaposition there. And I think that when you look at it,
Dot that you know doesn't have a long life spent.
But they are joyous. They just love everything. They just
want to sniff things, like sniffing something. It's joy to
All you're doing is sniffing, and you are so happy
about look at your tail, at your tail, and you
(47:15):
can't you can't help but laughing and feel joy and
that is every single day. But the trade off is,
you know, the price you pay for love is loss,
and that's it. That's a trade. Everything has a price.
So what brings me joy is the gratitude I have
for the moments that I have with the joyful animal
that I love.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
Oh that's a beautiful way to finish.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
Yeah, I'm trying to stay poetic. Now, we're trying to
be quotable.
Speaker 3 (47:41):
We're trying to become a mean, infinitely quotable. There's plenty
to work with God so much.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
Oh no, I like people need to come off. Whenever
anyone's like in an injury, We've got rapid fire. Now
I'm like, well, good luck, good luck getting a one
word answer out of me, because it's fairly difficult.
Speaker 3 (48:00):
It never happened to date. I don't think on record
that's the way it should be. Yeah, well, thank you
so much. Congratulations on everything. Guys.
Speaker 2 (48:09):
If you have not tried POSCA the og sports drink,
I will include much more in the intro, outro and
the show notes for you all to get some, or
if you happen to be in an airport, as we've mentioned,
they are available there and in thousands of stockers around
the place.
Speaker 3 (48:23):
So thank you so much, Mez.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
Sir, it has been an honor and apprivilege. Thank you
so much. I really enjoyed being on this podcast. Thank
you well.
Speaker 2 (48:30):
I'm sure most of you learned something new in this
episode in a variety of different areas.
Speaker 3 (48:35):
He is just so knowledgeable.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
And yes, if I could frame his very kind flattery
from the beginning of the episode, I absolutely would. I mean,
what a legend and so kind. If you enjoyed the episode,
please do tag at Merrick Watts and the shows that
we can keep spreading the AA as far and wide
as possible. Or of course, if you grab a POSCA
at the airport or a drinking one anywhere around the world, do.
Speaker 3 (48:57):
Let Merrek know and tag the POSCA page as well.
Speaker 2 (49:00):
I'll include links in the show notes as well as
to Merrick's current shows and upcoming schedule. In the meantime,
I hope you're all having a great week and are
seizing your ya
My two motivations in life, and they kind of have
to run through these two otherwise I'm not interested in this.
Has it been done before? Or do people think I
can't do it? People say, oh, failure is not an option, Well,
it is an option. Fairly is an option. Quitting is not.
The fear of something can be worse than the reality
of it.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome to the Sees the Yay Podcast. Busy and happy
are not the same thing. We too rarely question what
makes the heart seeing. We work, then we rest, but
rarely we play and often don't realize there's more than
one way. So this is the platform to hear and
explore the stories of those who found lives.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
They adore the good, bad and ugly.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
The best and worst day will bear all the facets
of seizing your yea. I'm Sarah Davidson or a spoonful
of Sarah, a lawyer turned fu entrepreneur who's walk the
suits and heels to co found matcha Maiden and matcha
milk Bark Czya is a series of conversations on finding
a life you love and exploring the self doubt, challenge,
(00:59):
joy and filment along the way. Sometimes our guests are
incredibly talented experts in a specific field, while other times
they're extreme polymouns with venture spanning industries and themes. Sometimes
our guests are renowned public figures with extensively covered careers,
and other times their achievements are a bit quieter, although
never less impressive. But then you have Merrick Watts, who
(01:22):
is all of those things at once, with his insatiable
sense of curiosity driving a constantly evolving, multifaceted, stellar career
across so many different ventures. While most of Australia will
know of him as a pure comedy genius across radio
and TV, which he has been since nineteen ninety six
and of course still is to this day, he is
also a qualified wine judge with two professional qualifications, an
(01:46):
absolute weapon who won sas Australia and recently ran the
grueling Big Five Marathon in South Africa, and founder of
Posca Hydrate and Incredible Hydration elixa inspired by ancient Romans
that's only a few months old and already taking over
the nation. You can see why his is a brain
that was so much fun to pick. Not only as
(02:07):
an avid and repeat customer of Posca, Nick and I
always have the fridge stocked, but also to learn from
being someone in the media myself speaking to somewhat of
an idol and definitely an industry icon. Mez is at
once infinitely knowledgeable in so many areas, but also kind
of a loose cannon all at once, which is just
part of what makes him such a joy to chat with.
(02:29):
I hope you guys enjoyed this one as much as
I did.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Mez.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Welcome to the show, Sarah, thank you so much for
having me on. It's a real pleasure and genuinely an honor.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Oh my gosh, you stop it. The honor is all mine.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
No, No, truthfully, I'll tell you something. I don't normally
say this very often, and people who know me from
broadcasting would know this is true. But I just said
somebody today, you're an excellent broadcaster. You're very good at this.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
That is so kind.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
No, but it's true because there's lots of people who
do podcasts, and podcasting is one thing broadcasting is in art.
It's a skill, and there's you know when I listen
to you doing podcasts. So she's a very very good broadcaster,
very good. You've got skills that people will never learn.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Oh, my gosh, that is such a kind way to
begin and lands on someone like that. I mean, the
whole nation knows who you are and has followed your career.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
But then there are.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
People like us, my husband and I who have been
around since this level.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
I'm not surpriseding Your husband's a bit of a fan,
to be honest, because when I was listening to your
podcast with Pete Mario's going oh better, husband likes a
bit of American rosso.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
I mean this is from two thousand, but he's got
back in nineteen ninety six. I reckon, he's got the OG.
So we are lifetime super fans.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
I love that and tell them I was good, and
I'll sign that CD because everyone loves them. Now, I'll
sign that CD cap before him any time.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Oh you stop it.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
I mean I can hang up right now. That's all
I need. That's our life, mate.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
It's been great, good start.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah, yeah, great chat in and out.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
You know, I was listening to your Ash's podcast earlier
today and you were saying, you know, when you've got
a good out, you've got to get out quickly, like
on a high. I'm like, all right, good, we've got
the material, got the SoundBite.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
You want to go yep, first best out.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
First, best out.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Guys, you are getting tips from the very best today,
and now we need to reverse that flattery because we
do have a household name in our midst mez. Everyone
knows your name. You're an absolute icon. We all know
your great success in Australian media across multiple different platforms,
but there are so many chapters that we perhaps know
a little less about that I've only just discovered during
(04:32):
my research for this episode, and I'd love to start
with those, because sure, I think you know. The earlier
days are such a strong inspiration for any listeners who
are perhaps a bit earlier on in their own journeys.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
All the parts that came.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Before your great successes are reassuring to remind that everyone
starts somewhere. You weren't always a household name and built
your way up. So perhaps let's start with your childhood.
Take it all the way back to the beginning. What
did you think you'd be?
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Leafy eltham and insatiable curiosity?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Yes, And one thing that your upbringing has already influenced
me in parenthood is the educationals that your dad took
you on.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
So tell us about Yeah, wow, about the early days.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
You've done some good research the educationals. I was actually
trying to write some stand up about my father's educational
educationals is for the listening audience. My dad used to
pretend that he was taking us on overseas holidays, but
what he was doing was he was giving his educational
journeys around the world and teaching us everything about culture, food, people,
poverty and the way of life in juxtaposition to what
(05:34):
we had in Australia. But he dressed it up as holiday.
So we never went to Fiji or Bali, but we
would go, and I'm not joking, we go to some
really dangerous places. So that my dad did prove a point.
So that's why I've grown up probably not quite right
in the head. Thanks nice, nice for trauma Vacation's dad.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
So, yeah, they do sound like such an invaluable learning
opportunity though that really had a big impact on your
worldview and humanity. But tell us a little bit more
first before we get to those chapters about those early
days of mans So.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I don't know, it's where do I start. I s
grew up in Eltham, which is a leafy suburb of Melbourne.
I had a pretty good upbringer. I would say, like
I had good parents. My mother was an educator, my
father was an advertising Eltham is a strange dichotomy of
bogans and artists, and I think that helped me form up.
A lot of my early thinking was the fact that,
you know, I kind of had so many different people
(06:32):
and different socioeconomics around me and my brother and I
still own our family home there, and I still found
even with the great nurturing nature of the area and
my parents and having a good life, I still managed
to find ways to cause problems for myself. So, you know,
I don't know, maybe I was just born that way,
but that's where it's kind of started.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
I think that's probably part of your insacial curiosities. And
Nick and I are exactly the same. I feel like
we would all get a lone really well, we need
to hang out more.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Is well Nick's a fan, so there's no way, no, no,
not hang out. Yeah, I mean, you're more than welcome,
but Nick's definitely come out.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
He's in nice.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
But I mean, I think that insatiable curiosity as a
kid leads you down all kinds of dangerous pathways because
you're testing boundaries, especially as a boy. Like I have
a son and his brain is already I mean he's one,
and his brain's wired to just try stuff, and by
try stuff, I mean break stuff and like fall off
stuff like that's how the male brain learns about you know,
(07:32):
the world. But coming from you know, a family with
an educator and you know, your dad being so curious
about the world, and now knowing that you have such
a science brain. You mentioned before that you're a polymath
and you have such broad interests. I'm very similar, and
I've always found that is a blessing and a burden
in that it makes it hard to decide what to
(07:52):
do with it because you don't have one single passion
to follow.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
That's really straightforward.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
How did you decide that your career would be in
media and was there ever sort of pressure from particularly
your mom being very academic focused away from the arts.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
No, my parents were just happy if I was out
of jail, So I mean that was a success.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Nice, it's a low bar.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
We love it. I never kind of set out to
work in show business. I kind of fell into it
probably when I was twenty. I started stand up when
I was twenty. I was quite young, and I had
a pretty turbulent scholastic career at school. I repeated year
eleven and then I was expelled and I went to
Dimo Tech after that, and then just kind of floated
around for a year. And let's make it sound better
than it is a sabbatical, but it wasn't. It wasn't
(08:36):
a gap year. It was just me being useless, Merrick.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
It was just a further educational Let's give it the
title it deserves.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Yeah, I really sat around and ate a lot of
nachos and drank beer. That's really what character building. Yea. Yeah.
I had a bit of a blowout there for a while.
And then and then I started stand up when I
was twenty, and then that gave me real direction and
real focus. And comedy is one of those things. It's
not my high focus and I'm doing it, and then
it's my entire focus. I move my focus like a
(09:04):
laser beam. I pointed and whatever I choose at the
time and kind of focus really really hard on that,
but I am able to switch it between different things
and move between brevity and levity quite easily, which I
think is one of my better strengths. But I really
struggled with a lot at school. I just couldn't. I
couldn't maintain the focus particularly, and if I wasn't interested
in something, I just couldn't. I couldn't get around it.
(09:24):
And it's still unfortunately a bit of the way. I
don't if I'm interested in something and curious, as you mentioned,
you know, I'm a very curious person and I love
That's why I love people, because you know they're able
to serve that curiosity. But if I'm not interested in something,
oh I am not great, I am not good, not handy.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
It's a pretty common experience, and it's also very efficient
because it's like, why would you waste time on something
that you're not absolutely passionate about. But it's really interesting
to me that anyone who speaks to you beyond like
you go to one of your shows and you're so
effortlessly funny and quick and witty, but you speak to
you outside of your comedy work and you're so like
(10:02):
your intellect comes through your discipline and passion for whatever
you're doing, even seamlessly going from media to poscar like
you need to research everything and understand everything, and then
your entire focus and discipline is dedicated to that thing.
That doesn't necessarily marry up to me with someone who
didn't do well in school. And I think it's a
bit of a problem sometimes with the education system in
(10:24):
that you could have grown up thinking you weren't clever,
and yet you're obviously one of the cleverest brains going around.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Oh you've gone too far now not you're losing your
audience saying that they're tuning out. And I don't blame
it even nicks off me. Now I do.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
I think you have such a quick mind, but school
obviously didn't bring that out in you, or perhaps help
you realize.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
That it did. In some ways, particularly my final year
of view twelve, I actually did very, very very well.
I got some of the highest marks in the state
for art because I kind of switched my focus from
things that didn't interest me into things that did interest me.
You know, to your point earlier about how do you
come to terms with the fact that you do have
these seemingly incongruous passions or these desires to fulfill goals
(11:09):
is that was one of the toughest things I ever
had to come to groups with and I had a
real kind of moment where of understanding myself about five
years ago. And one of the big key unlocks for
me mentally, and that's helped me profoundly was being okay
with not being a specialist in one thing, with recognizing
(11:29):
the fact that I do have all these interests and
it is okay because those who think look at myself
as a jack of all trades, master of none, and
I hated not being a master of something, and then
I switched away. No, my mastery is about being really
good at lots of different things that people don't see
as overlapping or a singular pathway the seeming congruous. So
(11:52):
I like surprising people and it's a huge motivator for
me to do. I mean, my two motivations in life,
and they kind of have to run through these to
otherwise I'm not interested in this. Has it been done before?
Or do people think I can't do it? Oh? If
people think I can't do it, I'll have a crack.
I'll prove them wrong. And if it hasn't been done before,
I'll have a go at it. That's it for me.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
My motivations, Oh my gosh, do you know I think
the most powerful thing of you know, interviewing. I think
it's been like nearly four hundred people all who have
found a peak level of joy and fulfillment. They've gone
through the chase success and look at what other people's
lives are doing. But then ultimately it all comes down
to what fulfills you and makes you feel the most
you or the most alive, and that is finding what
(12:34):
those motivators are and being okay that they look different
to everyone else.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
For some people it's underestimation is such a powerful tool.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
But for others, being underestimated crushes their confidence and they
can't get through if they're being underestimated all the time.
And I think finding your ingredients and running every decision
in your life through those gates is like the most
powerful thing you can ever do. But I imagine that
twenty year old Merrick sort of starting out, you know,
in stand up of all things, it's a brutal You're
getting real time feedback if someone doesn't like your jokes,
(13:03):
like you're you're up there naked and vulnerable because it
never happened to me.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
I mean, look, I've heard about it and it sounds awful.
It is. It's like stand up is brutal, like it
really is. And this is the thing. You know, public
speaking is the number one fear of humanity or you know,
for people in stand up is the most pure form
of that I reckon because it's personal. It's not a
job as much as it is. It is a performance
and it's a it's kind of visceral feeling. I don't
(13:30):
have the fear of that. I don't fear that. So
when I contextualize that I don't have the fear of
the thing that the majority of the people in the
world fear, it contextualizes fear for me. It doesn't mean
that I don't have fear. I'm scared shipless of sharks.
I hate them. Really Yeah, I don't like sharks. No, no, no, no.
I'm not a big fan of snakes either, not a
big fan.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Wow, Australia is a tough place for you to grow up.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Yes, I know, right.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I mean you have then spent like a huge, incredible
career are making people laugh and just going from strength
to strength and like literally seizing Australia's sense, like tickling
our funnybone and doing that across media. Like you started
in stand up in the flesh and then radio, and
(14:16):
then TV, and then from TV comedy and like you know,
reality to even acting in Underbelly, competing in sas like
you have pretty much like I know that you say
that you fancy yourself for jack of all trades, but
I don't think many other people have covered and nailed
and had great success across every form of media in
(14:39):
the Australian landscape.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
I think it's pretty tricky, so I think people underestimate
the differences between the media. I love the fact that
I do move between all of those spaces. I can write.
I love writing copy so you know for print. I
love radio because it's live, but it's with people and
it's so personal and it's really a lovely medium. Like television,
(15:02):
can go and get to wave my hands around and
be a bit more physical, so I can show that
dynamic and I enjoy that. I love podcasting because you
can work on different levels. It's very specific. I love
corporate gigs. I know people go what I go. I
love corporate gigs because it's another opportunity for me to
work methodically to produce a piece of content. But what
I love most is being able to do all.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Of them just on that diversification. I mean, you have
sort of been able to within one industry, but as
you mentioned, they are every area does require such a
diverse set of skills. It is the perfect combination for
a polymath to be able to master lots.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Of different things all at once.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
But going backwards, you can see how that all like
I like to see our life at anyone's stage.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
I think we all aim for.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Success as like this static place where you arrive and
then you're like tear i'me. Successful, But I see it
more as a jigsaw puzzle where you're constantly adding pieces, yes,
that you were missing, and then you're getting rid of
old ones that you've mastered and you don't need anymore.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yes, that's a great way to look at it.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Was that all by design? Like, were you sort of
from the time that you entered the media at stand up?
Did you know where you wanted to go? Did you
have direction or what was pulling you to try all
those different media? You know, like what was guiding kind
of the steps in that staircase.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
I was very fortunate that, you know, particularly the television.
I was offered opportunities off the back of doing radio,
but I always wanted to do television. Radio was never
really a part of my life. I didn't really listen
to radio when I was young because I really enjoyed
hip hop music and there's no radio stations playing hip hop,
so I just didn't listen to it. I kind of
fell into radio. But now I realized that radio is probably,
out of all the mediums, one I've had the most
(16:31):
success in. And I know you always talk to people
really and everyone's got great answers about success. That made
me think about, you know, what is success? Success for
me is not like, it's not trophies and it's not winning.
It's not like, because I'm so competitive, people think that
I'm either competitive against them, which I am, or competitive
against myself, which I also am, so I'm doubly stupid.
(16:53):
It's not the trophy there. It's not the prize at
the end. Like I remember when Russell and I went
to number one in the ratings in Sydney for Nova.
It was a massive, massive deal. It made headlines because
nobody thought we were going to be able to do
it when we started, and then all of a sudden
we were number one, and I remember we got the
ratings and everyone was like, really sided I was so happy.
(17:14):
I remember very clear. I was so happy for my team,
and I remember seeing their faces that were like this
is a big deal, and I was like great. And
then like later on we went to go and have
a beer at the pub at lunchtime. And by that
stage of the warn off, like I was like going,
I was. I was already thinking about the next day,
not with anxiety about oh my god, I'm going to
go back to it and defend this pion. I was
(17:36):
thinking about content. I moved through those phases good and
bad very quickly. And that's another thing I really like
that I have is the and I suppose it's the
that there's a trade off, is that when it's really
really bad times, like really bad times, I can compartmentalize
things very very rapidly. Pain whatever it is, usually failure pain.
(17:56):
And I think people struggle to process failure down. That
is when you do have celebrations, when you do have wins. Look, look,
I don't care. It's something. I don't care. I'm just
going that's awesome, But it's not the end goal. For me.
The goal and the success in the win is continually
challenging myself, continually driving forward continually doing things and like
(18:18):
everything I do is about growth.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
I love that because I think it is.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
The media is an industry where firstly it's unique in
that like you're the product versus someone who's like selling
a product.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
You know you are the product. It's your skill, it's
your face.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
And so the concept of success in winning awards and
getting numbers like it's a popularity contest at all times.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
What people don't realize.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I think when they look at a career like yours,
is that you're not employed by one person for your
whole career.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
So you haven't just.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Had like over a decade of solid secure employment. Your
sort of contract or contract changing channels, they're all overlapping,
and it's really you don't actually know what your next
twelve to eighteen months might look like most of the time.
I think we all face this relevance question in every job,
but particularly in the media. I think when you're the commodity,
(19:04):
it's really hard to like not be trying to keep
up with the rat race all the time. Have you
ever had moments where you thought, shit, I got to
just keep going because I've got to keep up, Or
have you ever wanted to quit because it got overwhelming
to kind of that rat race.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah, always, and there's been. The difference is that I
just don't quit. I don't quit stuff. I just don't
give up. I just don't quit. You know, people say, oh,
failure is not an option, Well, it is an option.
It is a failure is an option. Quitting is not right.
That's the difference. Failure is an option that can happen
because that's out of your hands. But quitting is on
your own volition. So there's times and show opens when
(19:40):
you know it can get really full on and it
can be really Yeah, definitely, I've had times when it's gone,
what am I doing? I just don't want to be
in this? But they pass, like all things. But the
best thing you can do is look at it, evaluate
and say, well, how can I alter this situation so
that it no longer exists or pays me.
Speaker 2 (19:57):
That's so powerful because I think in any kind of
journey towards a fulfilling life, particularly in something like the
media where you are putting yourself out there, quite a
lot that's self doubt, perhaps more so among women, but
definitely not exclusively women. It can really infect your decision making.
It can make you self select out of opportunities you deserve,
(20:19):
and you're that you're the perfect candidate for It just
can infect everything. So it looks like you're not scared
of being a beginner, which I think is really empowering.
But because you often have moved into a new media
where you haven't had experienced before in those early days,
would you have that kind of chatter, I'd be like,
oh my god, how do you deal with that?
Speaker 1 (20:39):
Sir? I'm having it right now. I'm having it right now.
I'm having a massive mental collapse. Internally. You can't see it,
but it's a volcano melting in on itself.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
I'm in the power of description here. I love it.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
My brain is a bomb Alaska. Yeah, absolutely have self
doubt and the process syndrome. I have it all the time.
It's just but again, it's like fear. You've got an
acknowledge it process. It moved through it. Acknowledge it process
that moved through it. You know, I don't like sharks,
but I've swum with them and I did it because
I knew I was scared of them and I don't
like them.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Exposure theory, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Face your fears. You may never even shake them, but
at least you face them self doubt thing. Yeah, I
have self doubt with lots of things because I do
so many different things. But I don't lose belief in
who I am, if anything. Over the recent years, through
some pretty solid work, my belief not in an ego
centric way, in a very humble and measured way, I
(21:33):
have greater belief in who I am. I'm comfortable with this.
I'm comfortable with who this guy is.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
It's very reassuring to hear that you have gone through
a big chapter of trying to fit a mole that
you thought is what success looked like. Like that you
were like, I have to just be the expert in
one thing, and that's just not everyone's. Like, I think
you'd actually find it boring. I think if you just
specialized in one thing, you would have ticked the box
that you thought and then you'd be like, shit, this
(21:59):
is awful, Like I hate this.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
I think you're right, like the lovely idea of it,
of going I wish I was just a specialist in
one thing, but you're right. I know that I would
get bored. You know, my interests are so varied, it's
so weird, and if people like you know that kid
you're talking about. When I was ten or eleven or twelve,
I was a very weird kid. What seriously keep an
(22:24):
eye on that kid.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Is meys, you're a weird adult, and I'm like, you're
still weird now, dude.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
No one in this room said that had stopped.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
You know what, though, I love that you mentioned that
you can be curious about lots of different things but
see things through to completion. And what I find really
difficult in having a lot of broad interests is that
I straddle this fine line of wanting to explore all
my interests and trying not to be an instant, gratuitous
(22:55):
millennial who gets bored. And it's really really hard to
know whether the each I'm getting because I just it's
got hard and I can't be bothered anymore, or because
it's time for a new chapter. So for someone who
has mastered I mean, on OSHA's episode from a couple
of months ago, he called you like the master of
a pivot, And I think in this day and age,
there is nothing more powerful than to be able to pivot,
(23:17):
but pivot at the right time and from the right
thing to the right thing.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
If that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Yeah, pivots a passion, not the money.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Yes, How have you gone from a comedy master to
a simeliad to a business owner? Like when do you
know when the time is to jump? Do you get
like an itch or do you get a sense of complacency?
Like what's the thing that you go? Yeah, it's chapter time.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
I think it's it comes down to go And it
comes back to that thing Sarah mentioned before about like,
you know, being robbed by other people and other people's
I always say, don't hang around with negative people because you'll.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Catch it contagious.
Speaker 1 (23:53):
For sure, I had been put in a position where
my confidence had been eroded. The result of that was
my gut. So I now work on gut. So for
something like Posco was anybody listening? Is a drink that
I invented. I didn't just associate myself with it. I
literally invented it in Lockdown four years ago when I
(24:13):
was studying some wine research. It's non alcoholic, It's an
ancient beverage from over two thousand years ago. Because to
your point, I was curious. It was curiosity, like I was,
who else in Lockdown is sitting around like literally ours
just deep diving into ancient Roman drinks and I found
it and here's the things that then I go away
(24:34):
and if formulated, and then I come out of lockdowns
and I got a professional formulators, and you know, four
years later, we are where we are today. You know,
we've got an entirely unique beverage that hadn't been around
for two thousand years. But to answer your question is
because I ran on gut because I was like, what
am I doing? Why am I making a drink? Why
am I investing my time, my money, my reputation. Why
(24:54):
am I doing this on a drink, on a beverage?
And it was just like my gout just kept telling me,
just keep going, just keep going, just keep going. And
I was like, obviously, there's a purpose greater than myself here.
There's a reason for this that is greater than me.
And I may never know, but at the moment, I
actually don't know why. I honestly do not know why.
I just know that in my gut it's right. And
(25:17):
I asked a friend of mine who's he's a Format
SAS soldier and a coach and a terrific bloke, and
I asked him, I said, why am I doing this?
Should I be doing this or should I just quit?
And he said, if you stop now and in six
months time somebody else reinvents POSCO and it takes into
the world, how would you feel, Oh.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
That is a great question.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah I know, And I was like, I would be scattered,
and he just goes, there's your answer.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
That is such a powerful way to answer your question.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
And that's been the drive.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
And because it's funny, like I love your story because
even when I first got I think it was whoever
does your pr sent me an email and then it
came up Merrick Watts and I was like, what are
you talking about? Did you like, is there a typo?
Like in my brain, you're over here like this media legend,
comedic genius. And then there's this superfood ancient Roman beverage
(26:15):
in FMCG and I'm like, what in the actual fuck
are you talking about? Like, go back, revise your spelling,
do a spell check, fixtory email senter to me again.
Speaker 3 (26:22):
And then I was like, whoa wait, what a.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Reinvention like this is exactly you know, you can start
out in your life and do an entire lifetime's worth
of a career in one area. And still keep doing it.
I mean, you're still doing that work. You still got
your own festival for God's sake. But at various stages
there'll be big folks in the road where new passions
just come out of nowhere sometimes and like that's the
(26:45):
new Jig's not puzzle pieces, and it doesn't have to
make sense to anyone else except you.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Correct. That's what I loved it when you said gesaw
puzzle pieces, because that's what is. It's about adding, adding
to them, you know, and trying to define your purpose
and understand your reasoning. And I think I think I
understand probably you know. I'm always constantly learning. I'm on
a mission every single day to try and learn more
about myself and my purpose and place in the universe.
(27:10):
And that's true. Like I spend a lot of time meditating,
I spend a lot of time exercising. I spend a
lot of time doing lots of things. But I think
it comes down to your purpose, and when you believe
that it's in line with your purpose, then it becomes
a mission. And that was the thing with PSCO. It
was not like I want to have a drink on
the market, and it's not an energy drink. It's all natural,
(27:30):
there's nothing artificial in it. It's really really it's great
for you. But I didn't want to. I would never,
you know, just put my name to something like that.
It's because I invented it and I believe in it
so wholeheartedly. But it does actually fit very much into
the way I see my purpose, and the same way
I feel like when I do an Idiot's Got the Wine,
(27:50):
which is a comedy show that written and perform around
the country, and that's the combination of wine and comedy,
live comedy, life, standup and I love doing that show.
But again they are completely different things, but it fits
my purpose. And then I look at something like Sas Australia,
which is completely in congruous again, which is a television
reality television show based on Special Forces selection. And I
(28:14):
went on that and I did pretty well on that,
but that was because I.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Did pretty well. He actually made selection. There's like three
people ever like you would have actually got into the SAS.
I mean, it's wild. You play that down way too much.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
It is.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Brutal if you guys have it brutal, Like I can't
even tell you what a weapon you must be but.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Again that lined up with my purpose and my missions.
So for me, when I went on that TV show,
I was forty six, which is quite old at that time,
and I went on that show and I knew that again,
failure was an option, but it was not a choice
I was prepared to make. So I just kind of
ground it out with broken ribs and lots of injuries
and feeling really terrible the entire time because I said
(28:57):
I'm going to start it, I'm going to complete it.
And again it comes back to my purpose, but also too,
you know, back to your original question when I was
a boy, your first question. When I was a boy,
I didn't want to be a comedian. I wanted to
be a soldier. I wanted to be very specifically, I
wanted to be an SAS operator. It's all I ever
wanted to be when I was a kid, all I
ever wanted to do was be in the SAS. That
was it.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
That show would have been like a full circle moment
correct connecting goosebumps goosebumps.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
And that's why since that show, it's not the not
the winning of the show that has changed me and
restored my confidence. It's hard thing to do with that.
It did. It did shake off a lot of issues
I had about self confidence and belief because I was like, well,
I knew that I was going to do it. I
thought I could do it. I went to it. I
prepared myself thoroughly for it mentally and physically, and then
I went and brutally attacked it and I got it done,
(29:46):
and I stayed there until it was finished. But the
other thing was that I've heard you talk about this
before and your podcast about the sliding door moments in
life where you could take one trajectory another. I believe
you have lots of slide door moments. That the biggest
one for me was probably, you know, when I was
a kid, I only really both times I was, you know,
(30:06):
thirteen or fourteen, I only wanted to be an essay
as soldier or a comedian, and I liked them by
I thought, they're my two greatest passions. And I either
want to become a professional soldier in the most elite
form or take on what I believed was the most
elite form of show business. You're not reading off an
auto que you are absolutely it's your purest format. And
(30:28):
that's so. Then when I was able at forty six,
I was able to reconcile whether or not I would
have had the capacity to have at least gone forward
for selection and had a crack at real essay a selection,
I was like, yeah, I probably could have done all right,
I'm not saying I could have passed it, but like
I definitely would have done.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
And you did pass it.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Yeah, but you did it no, I mean some of
the stuff you had to do. But what I think
is also incredibly inspiring about that is that it was
a really big, exciting doors moment for you in your
mid forties. And by the way, great ad for Oscar.
Your skin looks amazing, I mean the health and wellness
regime that you're on, and also for wine. But I
(31:09):
think also we have this sense of like, I have
to find my passion when I come out of UNI,
and then I'll find my job and then I'll do
that for the rest of ever.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
To any younger people.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Especially like gen Z's and why it's listening, like it
takes time to find the best chapters of your life.
You don't have to get to them straight away at
the start. When you first approach someone's bio, I'm like, well,
comedy wine certificate, not just wine enthusiast, but wine. Like
you said, you never don't do anything one hundred percent.
You've got like a certification as a sourmelia and like
(31:39):
from two different organizations, and you can judge wine like
what and then poscar is made from red wine vinegar.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
Like all the.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Dots start connecting, Like I'm like a crazy true crime
person with all the like string connecting all.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
The things that's.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Read string between me and Leningrad. And I'm going exciting
to pull.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
That's good you and Russell Crowe, I'm like, yes, what
there he is?
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Yeah. I think it's great that you reassure people that
you don't have to figure it all out too early.
Let it happen. Because the only thing, too, is that
it's a journey and you don't have to stop one
thing to start another either. Like I still do stand
up all the time. I'll be doing stand up next week,
this week, I did it last week. I do it
all the time, Like I'm you know a lot of weekends.
I do it because I love it and I love
the wide shows. And but I still work on POSCO
(32:32):
and I still do TV radio whatever, I do everything.
I just I don't have to stop one thing to
do another. But it's you also too. You don't have
to figure out the big master stroke early. It will
come when it feels right, and then if it doesn't
feel right anymore, then you can stop and do something else.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
And I also love that you've consistently come back to
the people around you. And I don't think any of
these decisions are made in a vacuum. It's funny that
you mentioned your coach, like you did have a moment
of why would I start a drink company?
Speaker 3 (33:01):
Like I don't have any.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
Background in this, And I often say when I was
leaving law, if I'd ask my fellow lawyers what I
should do, they would have said the risk averse option.
But I asked my husband, who's a business owner, who
was like, well, why wouldn't you similar advice to your coach.
He was like, well, if someone else took this idea,
would you be pissed? I was like, fuck yes, I
would be so ropable, And he was like, well again,
(33:22):
like there's your answer. And I think even reading that
you poached kind of the general manager of Lions. So
this massive, massive FMCG organization to join you, Like you're
so about the people around you and like you said, removing.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
Negative people as well.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
That you've been able to build this incredible business, Like
tell us more about Postco. It's not that old and
it's only in like thousands of stores.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
It's only month so it's hard work, there's no doubt
about it. Like you know, there's ring business. Just it's
such a new thing to me and the business of
it is. But I just try to appind my applicable skills,
people skills, team building skills, working with people, but also too,
you know, like I'm really into the liquid. It's really important.
As I saying before, I was working with Hazel who
(34:09):
many years ago helped me develop the product. She also
has wine qualifications and she's our head of ops. We
just nerd out. We just nerd out on like tiny
little things like you know, the you know, the mineral
composition of the drink and the electrolytes that are in it,
and then you know, things like resveratrol the people don't
even know about we care about, you know, and as
a palette and how it works on the palette and
why it's different, and it's really really important to us.
(34:30):
And I love being able to do that aspect of it.
And there's parts of the business which I find absolutely,
like really difficult and hard to learn and hard to understand.
And it's like, well, we are at lightning speed. We
have to I have to move fast. So again it
comes back to learning and working and listening to people
and having great team around you is awesome, you know,
(34:53):
very fortunate. We've got a great little team. We work
with great partners, Like in the retail sector, we've got
really really good people that we work with, so that
does make it easier. But yeah, it's a steep learning
curve because I arrogantly just thought, oh oh, it's a
arrogant ignorantly supremely ignorantly just went I mean, look he's
put it in the tin and then you put in
the fridge and then people buy it, don't you, And
(35:15):
then they go, oh mate, oh mate, are you ready
for a wake up call?
Speaker 2 (35:19):
And I was like, what I think, naivety is your
best friend at the beginning of a business, because if
everyone knew, they wouldn't do it.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
You spot on, if you knew what was coming, you
probably wouldn't do it. So it's like goes back to
shark diving. The fear of something can be worse than
the reality of it. So when I went shark diving
in Port Lincoln many years ago, I'm like, I mean
petrified of sharks, Like I really had a huge problem
around sharks. But when I got to the Niptune Iss,
I was like, I'm going first in the cage because
(35:49):
I can't delay. I have to be first. I've delayed
this fear that any moment I'm on the boat and
not in the cage, I'm prolonging the fear. I jumped
in the cave. She was instantly so as I was
underneath the water calm, and then I saw massive sharks
and I was like wow. I mean I knew that
they were killers, but they're graceful. And there was I
(36:10):
was going, you really are the size of a Honda
of jazz. That's the size. We're a hundred jazz that
can eat me. And then I got out of the cage.
I was like, well that's done. And then I was
like I'm going back in. I three times. Yeah, no
(36:30):
with me. By that stage, I knew how bad they were.
So dumb you.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Knew that unda jazz was waiting for you in the water.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Jazz and Pete.
Speaker 3 (36:40):
But I mean.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Even just speaking to you about your approach, Yeah, I
mean your approach to your number one fear in life
to just run head on at it in a cage,
but also your approach to the business. You do kind
of think when you hear of a household name teaming
up with a product, you do think, well, that person
has just been approached to be an ambassador and put
their name on everything for the marketing. And then speaking
to you for like thirty two seconds, you'd already mentioned
(37:04):
Rosbra Troll and I was like, well, what, like, you
are so passionate about learning every aspect of this business
and even the idea. Like for you guys listening, it
was Merrick's wormhole into drink history, how gladiators and Roman
armies would march on a drink made from bread, wine, vinegar,
water and salt, like literally looking up gladiator beverages. Like
(37:27):
the power of just following what your brain wants to
do and then seeing that through. You would probably not
have guessed that you could run such a massive FMCG
business having never done it before, But look at you now, Well.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
I mean that's what we have a CEO for a
lot of very good people around me at a board
to answer to you know, there's there's a lot of
great people around me. But again it comes back to
the thing that you identify very early is that it's
I'm curious and I love to take something unknown and
turn it into the known, because then I'm taking something
(38:00):
that was based in fear and turning into something that's
no longer fearful.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
And in your mind.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Now we've talked a lot about success and that kind
of that it changes over time now that you're in
a product business that is also very numbers based, and
success in business is so measured by your ebit and
your revenue. Like to you, what is the marker of
what you would think of success in this business? Like
what do you want to achieve with poscar?
Speaker 3 (38:24):
What would be.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Something like you saw it in someone's hand, or what's
your kind of marker of yes, I did it?
Speaker 1 (38:29):
I tell you, sir, that's a great question, because that's
literally I've got a meeting tomorrow with our entire group
and I'm presenting something on I'm doing a presentation on
our brand and talking to our people and some of
them are quite young. I'm the oldest person in our
entire group. I love seeing young people drinking poscar. But
the question I've got for my team is whose hand
would you want to see Oscar in. I imagine that
(38:51):
they'll probably say they'll name someone. My answer also is,
you know the answer to two questions, I would love
to see this in the hands of people living in
other countries overseas. I would love to see a young
kid playing basketball in another country pick up a caniposca
and drink it on a hot day. I see that.
(39:12):
That's the wind for me. It's not about a personality,
it's about a person It's about seeing it in another
country that may or may not have the same benefits
that Australia has, and they would be awesome. If I
could see in the country that is not as wealthy
as Australia and see people drinking it, that would be
the absolute top of the totem of success for this
drink from me.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
That is also a very full circle moment back to
our educationals that when you take your kids on their educationals,
that one day they go, hey, that's Dad's company and
some key exa is holding it in their hand.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
That would be amazing. That would require my children knowing
what I do for a living and.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Caring well, you know, I mean, we've got to aim
start low, start small.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
That's just my.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Kids are starting very very low. They're starting with my name.
So there we go.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
Oh my gosh, I have so many more questions for you.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
We should have done a mes time CZA series because
I have more questions.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
We didn't even get to the Big Five marathon.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
You've just come back from.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
Just another challenge to tick you off.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
But it's so telling of your thirst for challenge that
you're just like, yes, screw it, I'm just going to go.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
I'll do it.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
But I'll do the Big Five, which is like one
of the hardest. I'm going to do it with jet
lag on the other side of the world and like,
let's just go.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
And it's brutal. I just see. Just to explain how
brutal that marathon was, I had to fly their economy so.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
The end, say no more, say no.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
More, tell us about the run. Do you know that
they served me a sandwich on the plane with a
cold drink. A sandwich on.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
The plane, honestly, And it wasn't a pasca. That's not okay.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
I didn't even have cutlery, guys, I didn't have cutlery.
That's what they have business class.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
Although when I was at the airport last I did
show you that I walked past a lot of Posca camps.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
I was like, oh, airports, Yes, that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
It's a drink through airline travel. It's drink. I don't
want to go on the flog and the Primo, but
give it a go.
Speaker 3 (41:13):
No, you need to go on the flog. That's what
that's what we're here for.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
And it is actually an incredible drink. And I'm like
very discerning about I'm not a drinks person. Nike's a
big drinks person, you know how, Like we all have
the thing if we go on to wh Smith on
the way to a flight, like he'll always get a drink.
I'll always get a snack. Like I'm a food girl,
but we always have Posca in the fridge. Now, like
we bought it, like you sent us some and then
we went within like seventy three seconds, and now we
(41:37):
buy the Yuzoo because it's it's so good, so massive.
Congratulations everything that you've been doing.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Now I'm the one blushing me.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Well, another full circle for just to finish up there
is so I mean, like, your brain is one of
my favorite kinds to pick.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
Because you are curious.
Speaker 2 (41:57):
I could imagine you like just say day you grow
posca to exit, I can imagine you coming out with
like the next chapter being the most random left field,
like I invented a flipper for scuba divers that turns
into a propeller, Like I like, I feel like nothing
will connect it the first time you hear it. But
your brain just has this way, which I love. But
(42:20):
one of the things we talk about on the show
is the capacity for joy outside of productivity or outside
of like it's hard when curiosity fuels you, because then
it's really hard to switch off. And unfortunately, even the
most active of brains, in fact, probably more so the
most active of brains need to switch off from time
to time because burnout, because physical limits, because parenthood, because
(42:43):
you need to have pursuits outside of your work that
bring you joy for balance, and also because you get jaded.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
Like I feel like I love my job. I love it.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
I could do it to the cows come home, but
I get pretty flat and uninspired if I don't take
like a day here and there to not think about
podcast and content and creating and the best way that
I could. You know, you just need to switch it
off every now and then. So how do you do that?
Do you allow yourself breaks? Like do you have downtime?
(43:13):
And what are the things that you do for pure
joy that you're not trying to dissect all the time,
Like do you do anything just to do to enjoy
other than swimming with sharks and hundred jausers?
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Yeah? Look, I do work a lot. I do typically work.
I'll do a little bit of work seven days a week,
and I don't really take a lot of time off.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
You strike me as someone who would hate who would
hate taking time Like, I don't feel like you're the
guy at the vacation pool who just lies there.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
No I am. I am quite good at it, No really,
Yeah yeah, yeah, but it takes it takes a little
while for me to decompress.
Speaker 3 (43:45):
Yeah yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
Then and then I can kind of get into the groove.
But I need to be overseas to do it, to
be honest. And I went to Thailand a few weeks
ago with my family, and that was the first time
we've been away on any family holiday for any more
than any more than a day for a few years
and was like, because I've been very committed to work,
and my family has had to pay the price for
that as well, and I'm cognizant of them having to
(44:07):
make sacrifices too, so I can I do make sure
that I unwind in those moments and enjoy it and
be present and that time from a family, but also
too for myself. But for pure joy. There's a couple
of things I really really really love which are so
simple and yet they bring me joy. And I think
it's because there's so much frenetic thinking and phrenetic energy
(44:29):
around my life, and there's so much input and stimulus
that I don't need to create anymore. So the joy
actually comes from simplicity. And the two things that I
really really love is I love to find some interesting
wine and then cook a meal with my wife around
that wine. I love to that she's as well. She's
(44:51):
a working semiaria, so she's got excellent powate, so we'd
like to pick something that's really interesting, paste it, and
cook something based around that wine. And I love that
it's just so basic and so and then just sit
eat and talk and drink whilst we're cooking. I love,
we'd love to just have a glass of wine and cook.
And the other thing I think that brings me absolute
(45:11):
pure joy is my great Dane. It's my dog. Is
just I love my kids, don't get me wrong, it's
me and I just the joy. The joy has ended,
joy there has finished but the dog. Because I think
it's because great Danes are beautiful. They're soft, they're so misunderstood.
They're very very gentle, even though they're massive. They're very shy,
(45:33):
they're very timid, but they absolutely adore their owners. Adore
their owners, like just to the point where they just
are constantly trying to sit on you, sleep on you,
be with you constantly. But they also they live short
life spans. They don't live for very long great Danes.
And there's that beauty in that knowing that you know
that they don't live very long, but they don't know that,
(45:55):
but they still give you pure joy.
Speaker 3 (45:57):
Oh that's so sweet and profound.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
Yep, they don't know that they're a ticking time bomb.
And all I can do is just.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
But it's actually a weird way of reminding me about
I mentioned this the other day. One of the best
pieces of advice that I ever had was to read
The Five Regrets of the Dying. And I know it
sounds so morbid and horrible, but actually, in the context
of a show that's about joy, it's brought me more
joy or more capacity to feel joy than you would think,
(46:29):
because the resounding thing people say at the end of
their lives is I no one gets there and goes
I wish I worked more. I wish I saw my
family less, I wish I had less fun. And like
it's that sobering reminder of mortality, yes, which is awful,
but also you need it every now and then to
shock you into like you think you have every day. Yeah,
(46:51):
you think you have forever and you don't.
Speaker 1 (46:52):
It's right, and it's you know, you can't have yin
without the yang, right, And you've got to have that
juxtaposition there. And I think that when you look at it,
Dot that you know doesn't have a long life spent.
But they are joyous. They just love everything. They just
want to sniff things, like sniffing something. It's joy to
All you're doing is sniffing, and you are so happy
about look at your tail, at your tail, and you
(47:15):
can't you can't help but laughing and feel joy and
that is every single day. But the trade off is,
you know, the price you pay for love is loss,
and that's it. That's a trade. Everything has a price.
So what brings me joy is the gratitude I have
for the moments that I have with the joyful animal
that I love.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
Oh that's a beautiful way to finish.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
Yeah, I'm trying to stay poetic. Now, we're trying to
be quotable.
Speaker 3 (47:41):
We're trying to become a mean, infinitely quotable. There's plenty
to work with God so much.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
Oh no, I like people need to come off. Whenever
anyone's like in an injury, We've got rapid fire. Now
I'm like, well, good luck, good luck getting a one
word answer out of me, because it's fairly difficult.
Speaker 3 (48:00):
It never happened to date. I don't think on record
that's the way it should be. Yeah, well, thank you
so much. Congratulations on everything. Guys.
Speaker 2 (48:09):
If you have not tried POSCA the og sports drink,
I will include much more in the intro, outro and
the show notes for you all to get some, or
if you happen to be in an airport, as we've mentioned,
they are available there and in thousands of stockers around
the place.
Speaker 3 (48:23):
So thank you so much, Mez.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
Sir, it has been an honor and apprivilege. Thank you
so much. I really enjoyed being on this podcast. Thank
you well.
Speaker 2 (48:30):
I'm sure most of you learned something new in this
episode in a variety of different areas.
Speaker 3 (48:35):
He is just so knowledgeable.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
And yes, if I could frame his very kind flattery
from the beginning of the episode, I absolutely would. I mean,
what a legend and so kind. If you enjoyed the episode,
please do tag at Merrick Watts and the shows that
we can keep spreading the AA as far and wide
as possible. Or of course, if you grab a POSCA
at the airport or a drinking one anywhere around the world, do.
Speaker 3 (48:57):
Let Merrek know and tag the POSCA page as well.
Speaker 2 (49:00):
I'll include links in the show notes as well as
to Merrick's current shows and upcoming schedule. In the meantime,
I hope you're all having a great week and are
seizing your ya
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