Cooper Chapman: why you NEED this gratitude practice

In episode 48, Mitch Wallis speaks to Cooper Chapman, an ex-pro surfer who founded The Good Human Factory after mental illness and suicide impacted the lives of his loved ones.

In this episode, we cover:

• The story that triggered the Good Human Factory
• The fear that drove his curiosity to find his life's purpose
• Managing comparative suffering and the 3 key values that he lives by
• The underrated importance of practicing gratitude
• The unusual and unconventional path to working in mental health
• How his role as a supporter allowed him to relate to people

Stay connected:

https://www.instagram.com/cooperchapman

https://www.thegoodhumanfactory.com

www.instagram.com/mitch.wallis

Have feedback to share, questions you want answered or guests you want to see on the show? Get in touch: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[e-mail]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/GQikEr106dk

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of the Mitch Wallace Podcast
where we interview guests of lived experience and subject
matter experts to help you live a more mentally healthy life.
Just before we jump into today'sepisode, I would ask if you are
enjoying the show, please can you subscribe and ideally rate
and review. It helps us a lot to get the

(00:23):
message out there. And yeah, sincerely appreciate
any feedback you can give helping us change a billion
lives, which is the ultimate mission.
And today I'm joined by the one and only Cooper.
Chapman, a pro surfer turned mental health advocate there was
prompted by his father's bout with depression and the suicide
of two family friends in 2020, he founded the Good Human

(00:46):
Factory and has since run over 20,000 students and 2000
corporate workshops. Helping people is Cooper's
passion and his mission is to provide his audience with the
tools to continually grow and improve their quality of life
through the power of story sharing, connection and
learning. He looks to inspire a positive
and balanced life, focusing on gratitude, mindfulness,

(01:08):
responsibility, kindness, and empathy.
Cooper and I have a lot of shared values and one of the
things I took away most from ourchat was just how raw,
authentic, healthy discussion can create not only a bond but
also a sense of resilience in inpeople.
And that his genuine integrity and kind heart is not only good

(01:32):
for other people but good for him.
And I think a big lesson there is that one of the best things
we can do in mental health is tobe of service to others.
And I've always defined a good person by who you are when no
ones looking. Today we're going to allow you
to look into the mind of coops and I hope that you are as
inspired by his story as I was. So here we go.

(01:53):
Coops. This is a long anticipated
discussion. We've been talking back and
forth on Instagram for a while and cheering each other on from
the sidelines. Now we get the cheer each other
on in person. What are you grateful for today?
Oh man, I guess just sitting here having this chat with you.
We've been chatting for about anhour or forever before we

(02:15):
chatted and I don't think there's many people on this
planet, let alone in this country, that can probably
relate to the journey that I've been on over the past couple of
years, building a mental health organisation a little bit.
Different to the construct maybeof previous ones and yourself
and human Collenberg, as I was telling you off air to the two
people who really inspire me. And I've been watching your

(02:36):
journey and feel like you're a few years ahead of me, a couple
years older than me. And it's nice to have role
models that not only you can look up to but you can also have
as your peers and who are willing to share and mentor.
Like you said to me off there, you were keen to yeah, help me
out along the way. So that's what I'm grateful for.
Just to be around people who arereally open to helping each
other and not see each other as competition.

(02:57):
Really be about collaboration. So I'm grateful for right now.
Yeah, I I'll say my gratitude. My gratitude today is to be
sitting with you and also to be in the presence of someone that
truly cares. That's one of the things I took
away from our initial charter fair.
Finally meeting in person is that you have an essence about
you, that there's good under there.

(03:18):
You know you you've built the good human factory.
And it's there's the seed of intent is really, there's a lot
of integrity, and it's beautifulto say that.
No, thank you man. It's yeah, it's gonna be
exciting to share the story withyour listeners and I can't wait
to have you on my podcast. I thought you would have come
online before I came on yours, but that'll be coming shortly.

(03:39):
I know, I know. But Nah, man.
It's going to be exciting to share with the listeners a bit
more about my story, and I'm excited to hear the questions
you have for me. Yeah, well, I I wanna start it.
You know you've spoken about before, with your stories very
often tied back to Chloe, your sister's friends, who?
Not my sisters friend, my younger sister Sophia younger.
Three sisters. You have three sisters?

(04:00):
Yes. So is your younger sister.
What's her name? Sophia, she was in your 12 at
high school, back in, I think it's 28.
I always get the year. I'm pretty sure it's 2018.
She was in year 12 at high school, which is kind of the
catalyst story of the good humanfactory, right?
So Sophia's friends passed away from suicide.
Is that correct? Yeah, in a fortnight. 2 friends
one. Yeah, I remember it so clearly.

(04:21):
We'll sit around the dinner table like me and my family as
we did every night. And at the time I'm travelling
the world as a professional surfer living this
extraordinary. Life and my younger sister
Sophia says to us at dinner one night.
Or one of the boys in my year took his own life.
And that's so hard to hear. It's like a young person that
there's other people in your community that are struggling so
much that they do the unthinkable and.

(04:42):
That kind of happened. I looked up some of the stats
and I was like, wow, this mentalillness thing is a big problem.
But like most of us do, I kind of chucked up an Instagram story
through a few platitudes and life went on.
And then two weeks later, we're sitting around the dinner table,
Exact same situation, maybe my three sisters, Mom and Dad and
Sophia says another boy took hisown life.
And that was kind of the catalyst of me being like, you
know what, I can't sit around and just not do anything

(05:03):
anymore. I've been lucky enough to learn
some incredible lessons along myjourney and.
Have a burning curiosity for self improvement and trying to
take care of my own mental health based on family history
of mental illness and made it mykind of mission from that day to
try and connect mines with simple mental health strategies.
So to that point, and by the way, I just want to honour and
respect Sophia, is the the loss of Sophia's friends and the

(05:26):
impact that that had on them, their family, your family and
the ecosystem. And I'm a big fan of your
approach to that, which is instead of burying our head, we
would try and make meaning from pain.
But I also want to know about your pain.
It's something maybe you talk less about than you do, the
inspiration of how you took fromother people.

(05:49):
When's the first time where you thought to yourself, I'm a
little bit different? Maybe that would be more
sensitive than other people, or have a burning desire to want to
make sense of the world more than other people.
Was there a moment in your child?
Would be like something a bit different 3.
And then there's a direct moment, but I just felt like I
always had this curiosity out offear.

(06:11):
And you'll know this as someone who studied psychology, I lost
an uncle when I was pretty youngto suicide.
I think I was about 5 or 6 and Iremember watching my dad, I was
playing like video games and he came and sat next to me.
It was the first time I really saw him cry and get visibly
super upset when he explained what had happened.
So I was exposed to mental illness and suicide from a quite
a young age. And then throughout my teen

(06:32):
years, I sort of watched my dad at times suffer with his own
mental health from. A bit of alcohol ISM to bitter
depression, wanting to see psychologists.
But then I had the other side ofthe.
Spectrum as well, of my mom, howshe'd been raised, was kind of
like, I'll get over it, you're aman, like, so I saw my dad even
struggle more because of that. So I understood that there's

(06:53):
this sort of, like, landscape ofmental illness.
And because of that, I had this fear of, like, I I kept sort of
hearing through my mom and different people like, oh, it's
hereditary. It runs in the family.
Like, my dad's brother lost his life.
My dad suffers a bit. Maybe this is going to happen to
me. So out of that fear, I felt like
I was always very curious, OK, what little things can I maybe
do for my mental health along myjourney with no intention of

(07:14):
starting a business? Or anything, but just because I
was like, I need to take care ofmyself.
And then there's this moment. I remember it pretty clearly.
I was in, I was in America for asurf comp and I was about 2021.
And at this time I'm really struggling with my identity.
If my results were low, I felt pretty low and my results are
good. I felt good.
Very unstable way to live when you're a professional athlete,

(07:34):
but a very common way to live tobe honest.
But I remember sitting there with my manager having Japanese
this one time and just thinking in my head after I'd lost a few
results. Like, maybe I'm depressed.
Maybe I've got this family history of mental illness.
And started to try and really upskill myself and was kind of
too scared to maybe go and see apsychologist.
I was like who am I to go and see a psychologist?

(07:55):
I'm a top level athlete. I'm living this extraordinary
life, travelling the world, getting paid to serve.
Why I can't go and see a psychologist.
So because of that fear, I thinkI started to learn all these
skills and yeah, have been very lucky to kind of get through
those difficult times and understand that there is so many
amazing modalities and things that we can do for our mental
health and yeah, learn some great lessons.

(08:17):
And then when my sister lost her.
Second friend always. Just like, you know what, maybe
I can teach these lessons to oneor two people and help them out.
And been lucky enough to teach alot of people those lessons now.
So it's been, it's been quite the journey.
But yeah, that's kind of where that pain came from.
And that fear, I think, is probably the word that I had
mostly when it came to mental illness.
So almost a preventative approach, like you were getting
ahead of it in case it ever came.

(08:39):
Well, I feel like it started, maybe started to come, but then
it was the fear of asking for help that led me to going OK.
If I'm not going to ask for help, then I need to do
something myself. And that's where the education
really started. A lot of self development books,
talking, talking to my sports psychologist, which I feel like
is a clear distinction. Like when you're talking to the
sports psychologist who works for the organisation who's

(09:00):
funding your career, Surfing Australia.
It feels a little bit, I don't know, a bit janky sometimes to
tell them your problems, which Idid at times, but not maybe not
to the level that I would to a psychologist.
Have you ever hit rock bottom? I don't think so.
After seeing a lot of other people hit rock bottom, I think

(09:22):
we all have a different rock bottom and I think there's just
those moments where you just change your path.
And it's been a big journey of kind of just understanding who I
am as a person, understanding myvalues.
And and I've been thinking aboutit actually quite a lot the last
month or two that I'm probably in the happiest I've ever been.
And when I look back I didn't realise that maybe I was
unhappy. And I look back and think about

(09:42):
different thoughts that I had throughout my early to mid 20s
where I'd be like, oh far out. It would be nice to not wake up
and have to deal with life tomorrow, which I didn't realise
back then and I didn't realise until recently that that's kind
of, well, that's suicide ideation.
Yeah. When you kind of hoping or
thinking like oh. This plane crashed.
You know what? That would be a pretty good
outcome. I've lived an amazing life.

(10:03):
I don't have to deal with this constant stream of thoughts that
are quite often unhealthy in my mind.
And I haven't had that for like the last year or two.
So I feel like that's kind of a good indication that I've not
come away from what I'd say is rock bottom.
I never planned anything. I never really had those.
But I did have those thoughts quite often of like, it would be

(10:24):
nice if I didn't have to deal with this anymore.
Yeah. And I, you know, I think it's
important in this space that we have an equal balance of people
who are, who get into mental health to make a difference, not
just because they have experienced it themselves, but
also that they've seen others experience it.
Because unfortunately, unlike other industries, and I've done

(10:46):
a lot of thinking about this, like most industries, you excel
at it because you are naturally really passionate about it, all
good at it. So for example, I'm not saying
this is true for everyone, but abodybuilder will probably become
a great bodybuilder because they're born, they work out.
They're like, I'm naturally bigger than a lot of people.
I can put on muscle easier. This is just fluid and easy.

(11:07):
I'm going to get jacked. Or a ballet dancer.
They're like, I have a naturallygood sense of rhythm.
This is something I should probably keep doing and they end
up growing. I think when it comes to mental
health, it's a very atypical developmental path in that most
people get here because that's the thing they're worst at.
You know, I I'm really bad at being resilient.

(11:29):
I'm really bad at not being anxious.
I'm really bad at staying happy.But I'm going to devote my whole
life to it and try and become a thought leader in it, which is
against the natural grain of what my body is telling me to do
and be. So unfortunately the result of
that, and I put myself in that camp, is that you and have
people leading an industry and being the spearhead and

(11:49):
figureheads for it, whilst also not having a predisposition for
that to be their natural state. And so it can be like quicksand
sometimes. I think it's really healthy and
key to have people like you who are coming in.
Not saying that you haven't had your own experience, you just
said that you have, but the kindof primary driver is the
inspiration you've taken from seeing others suffer.

(12:11):
So there's a stable base that you can always come back to in
who Cooper is, is at his DNA. Would you agree with that?
What's your reflections? Yeah, absolutely.
I think that's what I noticed and you would as well quite
often in the mental health industry.
A lot of speakers, a lot of people are coming from a place
of like other suicide survivor story or a really place of rock
bottom. So they find it.

(12:33):
They have amazing stories to share, but what I've noticed
through sharing my story in the way that I do, not coming really
from sharing even what I shared just before with you.
It's more so about my sister's story.
The skills I've learnt. I've learned that a lot of
people can relate to that because quite often when
somebody comes in with a really heavy story.
They're so beautiful and so powerful.
But then a lot of people find itreally hard to relate and it

(12:53):
does leave that fear element of like, oh, I don't wanna deal
with this. So I've seen my spot in the
industry is a little bit different.
I sort of look at myself as a mental health person, not a
mental illness person. And I feel like 99% of the time
you say to someone how I work inmental health, they think, oh,
mental illness, depression, anxiety, suicide.
It's like, no, mental health is something that all of us have.

(13:14):
So every one of us should be doing something to take care of
it. So I think it's allowed me to
sort of position myself in the industry in a little bit.
Different of a place, more from like an education inspiration
role. Because I just didn't connect to
speakers who came in and had those really heavy stories that
didn't really work for me. And it does for some people.
And that's why it's so amazing to have so many great speakers
in that space. But I think I've found a space

(13:34):
that is really working for me. I'm getting great feedback that
the way that I talk about mentalhealth is having impact on a
great audience as well. So I think there's space for all
of us in the industry, but I think it's just trying to, yeah,
refine your story in a way that can engage people, that people
can relate to it and actually get some.
Tangible outcomes from it. What do you think it is about
you that in the moment where extreme hardship came on the

(13:57):
family, seeing your sister's friends in pain and probably
seeing your sister in pain as a result of that, Why did you
choose to make that a thing and go toward it and be like, I'm
gonna try and help when most people would just be like, I'm
just gonna brush that to the side and try and deal with it in

(14:18):
other ways or not at all? Why?
Why did? What is it about you that made
you want to do something? I think the world's guilt, and
I'll tell you why. Guilt that I just lived this and
I still was at the time, living this extraordinary life.
I'd always been like what? What did I do to do?
Obviously I worked bloody hard, don't get me wrong, like I know
I worked super hard. I did a lot of things to give
myself the opportunity. But I was also always in my

(14:39):
head, like, what have I done to deserve this life?
I'm travelling the world, surfing with my mates, leaving
this extraordinary. Life.
But then I'd started to read a lot of books about different
athletes who really struggled leaving their sport.
They felt like they didn't have much purpose.
Everything is always for you as an athlete or your coaches.
Everyone around you is trying tohelp you achieve your goal.
And I just started to read booksand understand how a lot of

(15:01):
people realised that there's sort of two mountains to climb.
The 1st mountain is to climb. That is about sort of doing
stuff for yourself and becoming like the best you can be.
And a lot of people climb that mountain and realise there's not
that much fulfilment at the top of it.
And then they have to get to thebottom of the mountain, then
climb this next. One, which is for service and
giving back. And I'd read a lot of books
around that. And that was kind of where I was

(15:22):
like, OK, I'm living a great life, but at times I'm not even
that happy. And I'm leaving this
extraordinary life, maybe dedicating my life to something
that can maybe help people through my story, can help me
find that purpose. And that's yeah, where that
guilt, I think, is the word thatwhere it was like, oh, there's
kids in my local area that are struggling so much and I'm
living this extraordinary life. Maybe I can help them a little

(15:44):
bit. So that's I think where it came
from. Do you have a?
Do you remember a time? Maybe it was overseas while you
were surfing? Do you remember a moment where
you were in this extremely amazing moment?
And then when oh shit, I I don'tdeserve this, or other people
that have it worse than me in it.
And then it started to pull awayat your happiness as opposed to,

(16:06):
like, feed you. I'm going to give you the flip
of that, actually. There was a moment when I was in
South Africa, so I lost all of my sponsorship when I was about
23 or 24 and competed for three or four years, working full time
as a tradie, saving my money. 1200 bucks a week or whatever
I'd make. I'd put it in the bank and then
I'd fly to South Africa the nextweek and spend it all to get to

(16:27):
the next comp. And I had this pretty toxic
mindset for a year or two and I'd lost my sponsor of like, oh,
there's all these guys who are rated below me in the world that
are getting paid and I felt likethe world was against me.
Had this crazy victim mindset. And then I went to this comp in
South Africa this one day and I remember it really clearly.
I was sitting on the beach getting ready to paddle out kind
of already with the shit mindsetto paddle out for this heat that
all these guys getting paid morethan me.

(16:48):
I'm working full time. And then I had this realisation.
I remember this thing that my dad would always say.
You'd always say appreciation, not expectation, Cooper,
appreciation, not expectation. And I remember that when I was
sitting on the beach and I was like, what are you doing,
Cooper? Like you got the shittest
mindset. Sure, there you could be getting
more and getting sponsored and all of this, But look at the
guys who are at home still digging holes, doing all the

(17:08):
work that you were doing, that you get to go away for two weeks
and go surfing like your last pretty good.
And we always compare across an app, which I think is good to
have aspirations, but not that you compare across and down, but
just start to like look around you a little bit more and go
like, wow, my life is pretty good.
I think that was a I kind of went off topic from the
question, but no, I love that. I think that was just a moment

(17:29):
where I was like, wait a second,I can choose the way that I view
the world. I can always have more and
bigger and better. But once I start to appreciate
what I already have and realise,yeah, like I've got so many
amazing opportunities. Like don't feel bad about myself
because I don't have more opportunities expectation.
Appreciation. Expectation.
Thank you Papa Coops, for that wisdom that is incredibly

(17:51):
applicable to so many areas of life, and I know that gratitude
is one of the core fundamentals of who you are and what good
human factory is about what in life.
Now, with enough learning and and time to take a pause, you
said you're the happiest you've ever been.

(18:12):
What do you think as a macro theme?
Not just the micro moments that you're most grateful for at the
moment over the last few years. I think.
One that I've I've had this mindset for a few years.
I I speak to a lot of people andthey're like, wow, you're so not
wise. I don't wanna blow smoke up my
own ass, but I feel like a lot of people go like, oh, you view
the world in a way that you're not swayed by, like you don't

(18:34):
react to stuff. And I put it down to this fact
that I've just started to look up to certain people around me
who look happy, who looks successful and just pull little
things out of their store. And that was one of the best
lessons I got from my psych was read other people's stories
through whether it be through books, through podcasts, listen
to people. Stories, but have an open mind.
What can you get out of there? Story.

(18:55):
What attributes do they have that maybe you can add to your
life? And I think that was just a
mindset that I really adopted and I guess the biggest from a
macro level mindset that I really changed and I talked
about this is what my keynote isall about, is not basing my
identity and my self worth on mycareer and on my achievements,
but on my values. How well I can live to those
values each day. And that's probably been the

(19:16):
biggest macro thing to be like I'm not my achievements, I'm the
way I treat people. I'm the way I view the world.
I'm the way that I treat myself.And just trying to actually live
to those values. So I think on a macro level,
that's been the biggest thing that changed.
And that's been a evolution throughout my 20s.
And it continues to evolve. And there's no finish line with
it. It's just continuing to, I guess
the way I would say is like growthrough life.

(19:36):
Don't just go through life, Try and continually learn, find
more, learn more. And life can continue to evolve
and get better rather than just be like, OK, this is my mindset,
this is my beliefs, that's my life.
It's like, no, we can always be challenged to evolve, be willing
to get stuff wrong and learn from it.
I think that's probably from a macro level, the mindset and
the. You have values and view in the
world that I think is completelychanged in my life.

(19:58):
What's 1 belief system that you used to hold that you've now
completely dropped and flipped on?
There's so many that I that I continually challenge and and
I'm I'm, I'm big on this at the moment with growing my business.
Money is a big belief system that I'm learning through
listening to other people. Like we get so many of our
beliefs from our family and I'm so lucky I've been so privileged

(20:20):
with the upbringing that I had. But I have parents that have
never built a business. I have parents that have never
really been into investing. I have parents that have always
been like go get a job, do this make your hourly rate.
And now that I'm like evolving as a business owner and as an
entrepreneur I'm having to unlearn a lot of these blocks at
my family have given me and no way their own.
I'll give you a perfect example.Like right now I've been talking

(20:41):
to you about this prior. I'm in the midst of employing
someone and I talked to my dad about it and he's like, oh, that
sounds like a like far, far out.Just the reaction to him and
know nothing against him. He's just never had to employ
people. So he sees it as his big
challenge. So in my mind, I'm having to
relearn these beliefs and be like, no, this isn't a
challenge, it's an opportunity. If I want to grow my business

(21:03):
from where it is now to anythingbigger, I have to take these
steps. But this self belief of like oh
this is going to be a big challenge because of what I've
been taught, what I've been growing up around is yeah is
trying to relearn these models and these self beliefs are our
money around business that I've had through my upbringing.
So the awareness I think is the first step with that, which I'm
very lucky that I've got and nowit's OK How do I remould those

(21:25):
self beliefs and yeah, continue to grow?
And so where did that net out toWith the money and the belief
system that money is not evil and that opportunities are
challenges aren't necessarily bad.
That opportunities and money canboth be positive things and
that's something that I'd like to attract in order to be able
to help more. People is is that?
Yeah. I think it's just understanding

(21:47):
that like money can create more opportunities to help more
people. And it's not that scary.
I'm like, yeah, it's there's a lot of people out there who are
employ a lot of people like it'sjust because this micro belief
of my dad and my family of like,oh, it's hard to grow and build
a business because he hasn't done it before.
But there's thousands, millions of case studies of people

(22:07):
growing very successful businesses.
So I just need to, yeah, just change those views and
understand that other people aredoing it in other ways.
And to look at them for advice in that realm and look at my dad
for advice of being a dad. So it's like just understanding
that you can learn stuff from everyone and just having a
really open mind, I think. And you know what I love in that
example is you talked about yourdad and learnt from him.

(22:31):
Not necessarily directly in the way that you would like to be,
as in fear money or fear challenges, but learn from how
you want to shift from that to somewhere else.
You want to be open minded and maybe not limit it, but in
whilst also not. Being a victim nor blaming your
dad for being who he is. And I think that comes with age

(22:53):
and maturity and you're you knowyou said your friends describe
you as wise and I can see that it's micro instances like that
where you're not holding anger and resentment towards people
that that mentor you because they should be XI wish you were
more like this for me. You seem to be like oh this is
you great. How can I love you the way that
you are and learn from the things that you do in the way

(23:14):
that I actually I want to go view the world and I was
interviewed by. Loud Bible this week and they
said, what's one of the main things you learn from your
parents? And I said that they will fall
from the throne and no longer beGod.
And I think that's a really important moment.
From childhood to adulthood, psychologically is like all this

(23:37):
whole time you've been human. It's like the veil gets
purchased. Yeah, I'm starting to learn
that. Now like you but you were this
Disney character, this you know be all end all protector and you
knew everything everything you did was perfect and.
Actually, the greatest lesson isn't necessarily what they did,
but how what they did affected you and how then you choose to

(24:01):
respond to those learnings. And it sounds like you have this
beautiful dynamic with everyone in your family where everyone's
allowed to be themselves, but you learn from the parts you
like and maybe don't resonate with so much.
But either way, there's growth. Absolutely.
I just feel like so many people get so like attached and want to
like, judge people and it's likeyou don't know what they're
going through. You don't know, like, why

(24:21):
they're reacting the way they are.
Like, just have empathy for everyone.
I just feel like, you know, I don't know your story.
You're acting the way you off the way you are, and that's OK.
What is the you you you mentioned before about values
and I love that because I would say that living values
orientated for me is more important than any other thing.
What are two values or charactertraits of coups that you're

(24:46):
really proud to say? This is part of me.
I'll give you 3. I I speak about 5 normally, but
I'll give you 3 because I did a workshop last week and this ties
really well. I did a workshop called be Kind
to the environment that we're piloting.
We did like doing all regional towns.
But these three I think are the three that I'm going to dial
into from my our keynote into 30, because I think these three

(25:08):
come together really well. So the first ones, mindfulness,
and I start with mindfulness because we need awareness.
We need to actually notice what's going on around us.
So many of us are just living upin our head.
We're not actually connecting toour Frances.
So it's like, OK, am I taking time each day to focus on what I
can see, what I can hear, what Ican feel?
Sitting and meditating, doing breathwork, all these awareness

(25:30):
sort of exercises I think are soimportant because so many of us
are so up in our head. It's like, no, we need to
actually feel what we're feeling, see what we're seeing
and understand, like what's going on.
So mindfulness is a value that I, I hold very dearly, trying to
be present with people. Like, there's so many great
things that come from mindfulness and that that's step
one, awareness. Step 2, gratitude, appreciation.

(25:51):
Once we're aware of things and then we can be more grateful for
them, we can actually be like, Oh yeah, wow, there is all these
amazing things going on around my life.
Gratitude, it starts to change. Our brain chemistry releases
serotonin, oxytocin. So step one, awareness,
mindfulness value. Step 2, appreciation and
gratitude value. And step three, I think is
action. And that's kindness.
And understanding that kindness is a value that all the science

(26:13):
leads to. Kinder people are happier
people. We all want to be happier.
So now there's all this data that comes to show that people
are willing to do kind things for others, do kind things for
themselves, do kind things for the environment.
Made higher on happiness test. So they're the three steps.
Awareness is comes with mindfulness, appreciation comes
with gratitude, and then action comes with kindness.
I think there are easy 3 takeaways that align actions and

(26:35):
reasons behind the values as. Well, I love that because that's
a really juicy sound bite for listeners to be able to hold on
to something around tools that they can apply and prioritise
after listening to this to say OK yeah, that is true if I build
a mindfulness practise. And then bolt into that a
gratitude practise, and then bolt into that a awareness and

(26:59):
proactivity around some kindness.
I'm going to see mental health benefits from that.
What I really wanted to know from that question is what part
of you are you most proud of? Not tools, not coping, not
healing, not going anywhere whenyou sit down and be like I like
who I am. Why?
I think because I'm kind. I think it's something that I

(27:21):
pride myself on. I'm and I'm and I'm watching the
evolution of myself because me is a 25 year old surfer, even
say five years ago before I started the good human factory.
The good human factory has been a huge accountability thing for
myself to be a good human. It's been accidentally I didn't
even come up with the name. But because of it I've felt this
I I need to try and like be kindto people, just be nice to

(27:43):
people. So I think kindness is something
that I'm super proud of. But then the other thing that
I'm proud of what I've done is the consistency.
Like, I haven't missed A2 podcasts a week for 18 months.
I do all the editing. I do it all myself.
I haven't missed a day for two years of my 1% club.
So I think consistency is something I'm proud of.
It's something that is, yeah, asyou know, with podcasting, with

(28:05):
building a business, most fail because people aren't willing to
stick out the hard yards. But I think because my wire with
the good human factory has been so strong, I've never looked
back. I've never thought this isn't
gonna work. I'm like, there's no
destination. As long as I'm walking in the
right direction then it's all good and I feel like I've been
walking in the right direction, the sort of person I want to be
at the moment. It's funny, bro, I I get to
speak to a lot of people in doing what I do and get exposed

(28:30):
to some incredible business leaders and entrepreneurs and
people with a lot of big hearts and good ideas.
There's something that you have,which is that special sauce.
I don't know what it is that some of the things that you said
in the last couple of hours we've been hanging out is.
Mindsets like I will show up even when it's fucking hot.
I will show up even when I can'tsee progress.

(28:51):
I will not look back. This is my reason for being like
They're the types of almost obsessive level mindsets that
differentiate people who succeedand don't.
And that's why I'm convinced that you're going to succeed in
whatever you put your mind to, and I can't wait to continue to
celebrate you. What is?
A fear that you hold, that you probably wouldn't share to most

(29:15):
people that you're going to share with.
With me right now that is. That is kind of going to role
model a little bit of vulnerability.
What's the fear? I guess if it kind of comes off
the back of imposter syndrome, like, I fear I'm gonna get
exposed one day that I'm not this mental health guy that

(29:36):
people think I'm I'm. I'm so lucky.
I haven't had to be honest. I reckon I might have had like
one or two testimonials from students out of 20,000 that have
said, like, I didn't like it. So the evidence is there to not
be fearful that like, I'm genuine, but I just am fearful
that people are going to try andcall me out for not being
genuine. That's a big one.
And and as well and I I sometimes talk about this as a

(29:57):
fear. So it's maybe not a private one,
but just I'm fearful of not reaching my potential.
So many people have interesting fears, but I feel like not
reaching your potential is, yeah, a fear that I have.
And then as well, kind of going back to the first one another
fear is just not, um, not being genuine and getting a big head
and the business growing and becoming something that's my ego

(30:21):
can't handle. But I I feel like I'm in a
pretty good space to not let anyof those fears really creep in.
But there are a couple that I sort of juggle with all the
time, like the imposter syndrome.
They're getting exposed for something I'm not, even though
I've got the evidence that I am.And then I'll say, yeah, like
not reaching that potential and or reaching the potential and
then getting an ego to come withit, which, yeah, I don't want.

(30:42):
All good self awareness. I found that someone similar to
to you around authenticity beinga massive value.
Two ways that I've used to overcome that.
One is expose myself first. So if I ever feel like I'm
building a veneer or something that's not actually true, I'm
going to call myself out on it as publicly as I possibly can.

(31:05):
So if people are giving me feedback or you're so this and
like that and I'm like that doesn't feel true, I'll
intentionally make a video or a podcast where I'm like just to
be clear. You know um and even you saw me
um downstairs vaping before and so I'm having a nicotine vape
and and. Some people who would walk up to

(31:26):
me and see me outside would be like, but you're in mental
health. You're the health guy wanting to
be poster child of like authentic, thriving lifestyles.
And I'm like, Yep, I'm not the poster child of being a St.
I'm not the poster child of having perfect mental, physical,
mental, or any other types of things.
I am someone who advocates for authenticity, connection and

(31:50):
resilience and above all, being a kind, good person.
So I often run this test in my in my life around me.
If someone bumped into me in theescalators as I was landing in
LA airport, or my best friend of20 years, or someone I just
trained in a workshop, I hope they would have pretty

(32:11):
consistent explanations if they were ever to be asked who is
Mitch and that I would also agree that that's who I am and
that's who I'm trying to live by.
So that's one thing. The other thing is, if you can't
don't want to call yourself out on it publicly, it probably
means you're not living. Towards your value.
So how do you change that behaviour so that, like, that's
the kind of the test? Yeah, could I say this on a

(32:33):
podcast? If not, it's probably not
something I should be doing. And and but if you meant
everyone's got something to be exposed for at the end of the
day and there's there's going tobe haters and that doesn't I
still believe in you as much as they did 10 minutes ago and and
will continuously. What is?

(32:58):
Someone who who would get close to you.
What's something that that? Let me say that another way.
You're in a relationship at the moment with a lovely Brazilian
girl. Yeah.
What do you think is the hardestpart about dating you?
I don't stop talking about work.It's something we're like

(33:18):
working on, and our relationshipis amazing.
Don't get me wrong, we're big oncommunication, but we have like
a rule. Before and after.
Before 7:00 AM, no work. After 7:00 AM, no work.
I mean 7:00 PM no work talk probably do that too much.
That's something that yeah it's it's obviously so exciting.
We all were the main character of our own story always and I

(33:39):
forget that she's living her individual life and building her
things. So just trying to have a bit
more like 2 way communication issomething that I feel like we're
getting better at but it's something that's needed to be
brought to my attention by her. So yeah, I think that's
something that we're definitely working on.
What do you think blokes can getbetter at in regard to romantic

(33:59):
relationships, particularly heterosexual romantic
relationships? Where we're scared of
potentially. Being less masculine, quote,
unquote. But actually the result of that
is diminishing connection potential.
What are you mistakes that you see guys around?
You make a lot that you're like,fuck, I wish we would be more

(34:19):
like this. Instead, I think just
communication. That's something I've learned so
much with my partner. Now she's she's got like a rule.
She got out of a long term toxicrelationship a few years back
and didn't really want a relationship or anything.
And she's just made a rule. Like if something's going on,
instead of building up and resenting, we talk about it.
We sit down every night and you can feel when your partner,

(34:40):
like, wants to say something of a dozen and holds on like, so
we're just all about, like, letting it out, talking about it
and actually being open with stuff.
And it's been monumental in my relationship learning how to
actually look into each other's eyes and actually ask what,
like, ask the questions that youwant to ask.
Like as uncomfortable as it can feel sometimes, it's like it's
all gross. So that's been a huge one with
us, like trying to actually communicate.

(35:01):
Like we have a board at home that says full potential.
And we have like 12 different things that we have to do each
day and we don't do them all each day and that kind of means
we reach our full potential And on one of those ticks is
communication with each other. I think as a relationship people
don't work on the relationship. But a relationships like
anything it takes work. We we can get better at it by

(35:23):
communicating better by listening more by asking Oh
yeah. What's actually going on like
how you feeling like having thatcommunication and that's
something that I've really been working on And yeah that full
potential things being epic but having.
Yeah, OK, we need to tick. We've had communication today
and you'll see no communication for a few days of actual sitting
down. Having a proper connection is,
yeah, detrimental to your overall well being, but also the

(35:46):
relationship as a whole. What do you think?
Is some of the people find it hard to to sit in the space of
open, honest communication causethey scared of judgement.
They're scared that it's not going to live up to what they
hope the person thinks of them. But if it's your truth then it's
going to be in your head anyway.So it's like when we don't
communicate our truth it createsa false identity for who we are

(36:09):
and the person's head anyway. So it's like if you resent
someone continually because they're doing something that you
haven't even told them that you don't like them doing.
It's like how can you expect someone to improve.
So I think the first thing is being able to take criticism
yourself and have the humility when your partner points out
something instead of biting and having an excuse saying, OK,
here's the truth in this for them telling me that, OK, I'm

(36:30):
going to try and improve on thatand vice versa.
Then if you bring something up to them, you can expect them to
be able to take it on as well. So it starts with us.
We're so often you see people break up from a relationship
with somebody and go, oh, they were like this, I'll like that.
They date someone else, they break up with them as well.
They make the same complaints. Like, Yep, you're the common
denominator here. What?
What are you doing? What are you doing to improve

(36:50):
your communication skills? What are you doing to improve
the sort of person you are? And that's when we start to
build the relationships that we actually, truly want.
They come from us having that reflection of, OK, what am I
doing wrong as well? And that's something that I feel
like both my partner and I are really working on is having
honest conversations about our flaws and being humble enough
that when our shit, they bring something up that they want us

(37:12):
to improve going, OK, where's the truth in it?
OK, how can I improve here? Yeah, sitting with the truth can
be very confronting, I think, for a lot of people who maybe
haven't done the mindfulness work or the gratitude work or
the kindness work, when any typeof.
There's a disagreement or a splinter in a relationship and
someone tries to air that The initial response is get

(37:34):
defensive because it brings up shame, guilt, blah blah blah and
that auto triggers this spewing out or projection.
And so many relationships break apart because of a moment that
if all you did is let that land for a second and say, OK, thank
you for telling me, Like how often do you think people are
going to communicate with you ifthe every single time they try

(37:55):
and do that they're made to feelshut down?
Straight away because you can't handle any type of shame or
guilt or anything like that, so.You know, I'm a big believer
that. Communication doesn't just get
good at having the willingness to speak up when you're OK.
That's the scary part, quote, unquote.
But what's actually also just asscary is if you're supporting

(38:19):
someone through a hard time, or if you're hearing feedback come
your way. It's petrifying just to let that
land for a second and maybe consider the truth that might
sit behind there somewhere. That's fucking courageous, if
you ask me. Absolutely.
And I think that's the difference between people who
lost to the short and the long term.
Is not biting back just because something hurts.

(38:40):
Yes, like the amount of times that someone might come to you
and be in a bad place and upset,and then they somewhat say that
you're part of the reason. And it's so hard to sometimes be
like, OK, shit, maybe I need to change.
Most people like, deflect and lose a friendship.
It's like, OK, how can I get better?
And that's the thing with relationships.
At the end of the day, like, youhave the same end goal of like

(39:00):
being in a loving, happy relationship.
So if you're bringing that up tosomeone, it's like, hey, this is
going to improve their relationship.
It's like, OK, we're on the sameteam.
We're always on the same team. When you're in a relationship,
but people are just fighting each other, it's like, no, how
do you come to a common ground and work on a way to just being
a happy, healthy relationship? And as hard as the conversations
are, sometimes, it's like, choose your heart.

(39:21):
It's like you're on the hard conversation.
Or do you want the hard relationship and life of
resentment in your head and playing these stories and I
wonder if they're actually doingthat or that it's like, let's
actually communicate. Choose your heart.
Yeah, I'm a huge believer in that.
And that comes back to a theme that seems to be going through
our conversation, which is beingvalues driven.
What are some of the things thatyou think students as being

(39:42):
surrounded by thousands of students every year and having a
full time job with the good human factory that delivers
these workshops? You're accomplished, keynote
speaker. You would have a pretty good
pulse for the temperature of mental health in young people.
What's the two biggest things you think young people are
struggling with at the moment? I think connection is one thing,

(40:04):
obviously. Well, obviously more connected
than ever, but I think somethingthat I've really seen and
something that seems different now to even when we were at
school, was used to finish school and you could go home and
you could escape it, you know, you could be like, alright, even
if there's a bunch of shit goingon at school and you don't
really like being there, you could go home.
And obviously some people, this is very it's how do you explain

(40:27):
this? It's not a one size fits all,
but as a whole, you can generally leave school, escape
it. For me, I'd go to the beach,
blah blah. Nowadays kids all take their
phone home there on Snapchat, they're on Facebook, they're on
Instagram until all hours of thenight.
So I think it's hard to escape the problem.
So I think teaching better like educating students a bit more
around like devices and how we should be disconnecting from

(40:50):
stuff is super important. So I think that's one that's a
pretty obvious one that you hearthrough the media, you hear
through parents, teachers like oh we need to get a really in of
the device usage. Um.
And then I think just the lack of education in topics that are
important at school, in topics around emotional well being and

(41:10):
topics around building your finances in topics around grief
in all they like doing your taxes like we're missing all of
these things that end up like you.
You work in mental health obviously.
So you'd say quite often massive.
One is finances. So many people don't know how to
actually deal with their finances.
So many people don't know how todeal with their grief because we
don't get taught all of these things.

(41:30):
So I just think the school system needs to have a big wake
up soon. I think we're training and
educating kids for a reason thatisn't actually giving them
outcomes to take care of themselves when they leave
school. It's all about, yeah, creating
like so many of the subjects that you go in and they're like,
why are we learning this? Like I've never used it ever.

(41:51):
And it's funny being a keynote speaker at schools quite often.
So many times they're like, oh, sorry, our schedules too busy
for that right now. And it's like, what could be
more important than the students?
Mental health. Anyone want to help the tequila
young person. The device thing is an
interesting one because I I hearit talked about a lot you know I

(42:11):
know everyone knows the screen time is bad.
The loneliness research will tell us that we are hyper
connected but never more lonely.The highest that risk age
bracket is people below the age of 19.
Something's not working. But I think where the rubber
meets the road is where why we're not getting any
improvement because like, So what do you, what are we
supposed to coach them on? Like what tactics?

(42:34):
Work. What's the right amount of time?
How do we try and get that message through them without
them being arbitrage down as uncool and then everyone
competes on them being out of the know and then they get
bullied for that. Like how do we solve this
problem? Massive question but any insight
you have, Evan, you had the billionaire.

(42:54):
I, I think a lot of it just comes back to education and sort
of one of the things that I talkabout with social media when I
do my keynote is just saying to people like nobody follow and
and the thing that sucks now is the algorithm.
Even if you don't follow accounts, you still get fed
stuff. So this kind of goes a little
bit against what I'm going to say.
But we make a choice for who we follow.
We're the only one who has that responsibility.

(43:15):
You're the one who clicks followand unfollow.
Do it consciously. Are you following accounts that
are educating you, that are inspiring you, that are
motivating you or are you following accounts that you kind
of compare yourself against? And and yourself.
And I wish my life was like, there's like, and it just comes
back to awareness once again. It's like that mindfulness,
gratitude and kindness thing. Once we start going like, OK, am

(43:36):
I being conscious of my choices each day?
And am I taking responsibility for my actions?
That's a quote that I love from a movie or a book called The
Peaceful Warrior. And it's so true.
Like, are we being conscious of our choices each day?
And are we taking responsibilityfor our actions?
And so many of us are drifting through so many choices all day,
unconsciously, me included. But it's like once we start to
really take that into our own hands and saying to kids, like

(43:58):
just be conscious when you're onsocial media.
Like we have a choice each day when we click play on Netflix,
Are you watching a documentary? You're watching a show, are you
watching? And once again, I'm not perfect.
I watch plenty of entertaining stuff, but I really try and
balance it with educating, motivating, inspiring stuff
because that's the sort of life that I want to lead.
Yeah, the take out what I just got from you just then is
instead of trying to stop screens, let's maximise its

(44:22):
potential in a good way. And I I know for you know, I
have a. Younger sister who's in her
teens and. I would agree that if I told
her, hey, can you put the phone down for an hour or can you?
If my parents told her no phone after 10 or whatever, she'd be
like no. But maybe if I said to her, hey,

(44:44):
there's this really cool video on YouTube that would be great
for you to watch for an hour, mean a lot to me and you could
understand me more. And it had to do with mental
health and education. Then I'm like, OK, yes.
And I think about our platforms,you know, good human heart on my
sleeve, etcetera, are they? We can thank the connected
ecosystem. We live in for the impact that
we've had. You know, without that it would

(45:04):
be almost impossible to do what we do.
And so I I do agree it's a weapon and we need to educate
people and using that weapon well as opposed to it turning on
us and and harming us. And I think just the education
around it and the awareness of what's going on in the context
of tech right now. Like I read, I read Johann

(45:25):
Harry's book Stolen Focus. Have you read that?
No. Have you read Lost Connections?
Yeah. Favourite book of all time that.
Really. Yeah, I love it.
That was a big eye opener for me.
But anyway, he has another one called Stolen Focus where it
goes on to talk about all the tricks and stuff that all the
tech companies are using to steal our focus.
So I think once you have the awareness of that, then you can

(45:45):
start taking a bit more control because so many of us don't even
realise what's going on with thealgorithm, don't even realise
what's going on with all this security and you had data
collection of everything we do. Like it's scary, but once you at
least have the awareness then you can make informed decisions.
Whereas, so it's like go watch the doco and Netflix, what's it
called? The social dilemma.

(46:05):
Like is it social? Yeah, yeah, just educate and be
aware of this stuff. And it's not going to say like
I've watched all this stuff and I know all the information.
I still have silly amount of screen time, but at least I have
the awareness of it and it's like, OK, I'm making some
dedicated decisions each day to take a bit of control back in my
own hands. Do you compare yourself to
people online boys? Do you compare yourself to

(46:28):
people in your family? Yeah.
Because it's funny. I I could imagine your your
sister, I don't know your other sisters.
I hope one day I get the privilege of meeting your
family. I know of Chloe because she was
a is a model and her husband is Fisher, one of the biggest DJ's
in the world now, which has kindof been a meteoric rise to fame

(46:51):
in the last 24 months. In some ways.
Crazy right is headlining the biggest clubs in the world,
biggest festivals in the world. His song is known by.
You know, you could pretty much go to any.
Country played that song and they'd be like, I'm losing it,
Yeah, yeah. Do you do you feel an
expectation to be something moreor enough because you're

(47:13):
surrounded by people who are quote, unquote successful?
That's a great question. As funny Allah, I bring this up
sometimes. Like I have a pretty successful
podcast. I'm getting close to 1,000,000
downloads, but I don't even havethe biggest podcast in my
family. So it's like I heard Bronty, I'm
going to get one of the swimmerswas on Human Columbus podcast

(47:35):
and she was talking about she got silver in the Olympics, she
got her sister got gold. So she's like second best in the
world but second best in my family.
So that's like something I thinkabout sometimes, but I'm like,
I'm just so proud of them now. I'm like far out.
There's so many people that I can compete against that it's
just like, I'm just proud of what they've achieved.
Like it just shows me what's possible.

(47:55):
That's something that's really cool.
Like I've always wanted to be hyper successful, whether it be
financially impact And now watching what Fish is doing and
understanding that we all have our place in the world.
And that's something that I'm really starting to learn, like
going like, oh, I wanna get big and successful Like I had
somebody, right. Because I just went and spent a
month with Fisher and my sister in Europe and partied and had a

(48:16):
while Last time ever private jetsuper yacht was crazy.
Wow. And then I had somebody message
me after going like based on thework that I do.
Someone who's a friend of mine going like, oh, wouldn't it be
nice if Fisher actually used hisaudience and his impact to do
something good. And I sat there for a minute
without responding to this person and like wanting to go
like, yeah, it would be cool. But then I was like, no, wait a

(48:36):
second. He's making millions of people
happy every day with his music, with his energy, with what he
does. That's great for people's mental
health. He's making a massive impact.
That's his place and it's amazing.
I love it. I watch it and it's just like
something I'm so inspired and proud of, to be honest.
The way that he holds himself and treats everyone around him,
it's beautiful, but that's his place.

(48:56):
And then what I'm doing is like my place now and it's taken me a
few years with what I'm buildingwith the Good Human Factory to
sort of step out of this like Price Surfer, Ego, like ohhhhh.
The goal is being a top level athlete is obviously to win
events but also to build a profile and have influence.
Whereas now the work that I'm doing, I'm like I don't want, I
don't want the image. But it's actually growing to the
point where way more people stopme now and go, I love your

(49:17):
podcast, I love the Good Human Factory.
And it's kind of cool to like see that I'm creating my own
thing and it doesn't need to grow at like once again, going
back to what I said before, I don't feel like there's a
destination. I'm just walking in this
direction now that's helping people and it's like, OK, I'm
not trying to paid against anyone.
I feel like I'm creating a wholenew business and organisation

(49:39):
that doesn't really. There's obviously things that
are similar like yours and Hugh with the Resilience Project, but
I'm doing my own thing so it's like I'm not trying to compare
to anyone. I'll get inspired by people, but
I don't really try and compare to anyone anymore.
Because enough people out there that need help, man.
Yeah, unfortunately the pie is growing.
So yeah, but it is within our brain to just constantly

(49:59):
compare. I'm guilty of it.
We all are. And when you have not just high
performing. People that you follow online,
but high performing people in your bloodline and in your
family, it's I can imagine sometimes that would be equal
parts inspiring and also. Yeah, maybe.
Deflating if you let it be, but you strike me as someone who

(50:21):
chooses the other lens on that, which is how amazing for them.
And we can all win and be happy together.
But it's just like, it's defining what success is.
It's success making a lot of money.
It's success making a lot of impact.
Like my other two sisters, my younger sisters are amazing.
It's like, do they look at me and go, wow, Cooper's got a big
profile and a big impact. But like one of my younger

(50:43):
sisters, Sophie, she's a primaryschool teacher.
Amazing. Giving back, teaching people.
And then Olivia, my other sisters nurse in intensive care
in Royal North Shore, helping people doing amazing stuff.
So it's like define what successis really like.
I'm sure my parents are so proudof all four of us in our own
chosen paths. It's just about like not
comparing like comparison is thethief of joy.
It's like if you're comparing why and we always compare across

(51:05):
an app, like I touched on before, it's like, let's compare
across and down in the context of what we see is success and
go, OK, a lot of us are a lot more successful.
It's good to strive and have goals, but when you anchor your
happiness around that, then it'sa recipe for disaster.
Agree, agree. And building the mindsets to be
able to overcome that is key. And I I I am fascinated with

(51:29):
everyone's coping tactics, for mental health particularly.
Not particularly actually just one of super high performers.
I want to understand how high performers operate.
I think my passion is for peoplewho are in a lot of pain
regardless of their performance,but just as like a pure interest
level and. Whether that be you or.

(51:53):
But even if you look at someone like Fisher, who's travelling
and not sleeping a lot, I would imagine, and playing till 5:00
or 6:00 AM, how does someone like that maintain their mental
health? He's a unique specimen Fisher.
He ice baths everyday. He's very curious about taking
care of his health. Absolutely.
It's just some people have builtdifferent.

(52:13):
He's so built for what he's doing.
It's crazy. Like he plays 3-4 nights a week,
like you said, the three 4:00 AM.
But then it's like doesn't drinkthat much.
Every now and then we'll have like a tequila shot just to sort
of like pep him up. But other than that, like he's
not drinking and partying when he's deejaying ever.
Except for maybe every now and then when the family's there.
We do like special ones that were there.
He'll have like a bit of a night, but not really.

(52:35):
It's pretty balanced with that and then you're.
Like, yeah, yeah, he looks like an absolute nice.
He plays it very well cause his personality is literally lose.
What you see is what you get. Absolutely.
He's like that. Whether you're at a family
Christmas when no one's drinkingor whether you're watching him
DJ, he's just, I've never seen anything like it the way that
he, and I'm so proud of him. Like he could have gone one way

(52:55):
and got this crazy ego with likethe crazy growth that he got,
which maybe at times through hissurfing career somewhat did.
He used to bully me quite a bit.And it was like the older
brother I never had. But now, since I have built what
I've built, I feel like this last trip to Europe, there's
just so much mutual respect withwhat we do.
Like, he was really nice to me and real supportive.
And because he's at this level now, he's just like, he's even

(53:18):
tripping. You look at him and he's just
like, mate, it's ridiculous. But going off the mental health
thing, I asked him when he was at home over Christmas last
year, I was like, oh, how stokedyou'd have a bit of time off.
And he was like, mate, I can't wait to get back.
I fucking love it. I get my energy from it.
Like energy creates energy. So he like, you've never seen
anything like it by dying and have a crew of 20 of our

(53:38):
friends, family, whoever behind the decks and he'll turn around
and give every single person thesame amount of energy as he
gives the crowd. He's just like this person that,
yeah. Brings energy to people's lives.
That's just his gift and he doesit through obviously music but
also through his content. And yeah, some people just get
their energy through that. And I think as well he has that
mindset of like COVID slowed everything down make you know, I

(54:00):
mean make it happen while the sunshine and right now he's
growth. He's just like foot to the
floor. So yeah, he definitely has these
practises and isn't just like helike trains, he does ICE boss,
he's really conscious of it all.But yeah, he just gets his
energy through it. So it's cool to see that we all
do it all differently. Yeah, being in your passion I
think is something that is this circular energetic loop.

(54:23):
It gives you give a lot to it, but it will give back so much
more. And we're both in that position.
Thank God Long made that last. So as we kind of start to bring
this home. Um, I've stolen this question of
someone. I just really like asking it.

(54:45):
Imagine we replace fishes billboard poster in Ibiza with
Coopers poster. And I don't ask it in this way,
it's just a billboard question. Yeah, and you get to write a
certain sentence on that billboard for every single
person to read. What is the message you put on
that billboard? Hmm.

(55:06):
I don't know if I go like my marketing brain or my mental
health brain from someone who owned the business.
Look up good human factors like who do I use?
Is it free? No.
What? What are you doing?
What? What I teach people, I think

(55:29):
like a big tagline of what a lotof my merch says is just like,
what are you grateful for? I like to inspire people to
think. I want people to not be the
Billboard about me. It's about them.
It's like, OK, what are you grateful for?
He might have however many people read it and it might
spark something in somebody's head to start thinking about
something good in their life rather than something bad in
their life. And that's what I'd probably put

(55:49):
on there. What are you grateful for?
And have a picture that maybe incites people to actually
reflect and take action. I was in the Goldie last Sunday
and or in Kingscliff I've had tofly into Gold Coast airport and
as I the moment I go into the airport there was a good human
jumper there and I just had a moment of pride and I was like

(56:10):
oh Speaking of coops next week and I want to let him know that
you know something that was oncein your head as a potential
maybe is now being worn on peoples backs out there in the
wild and is generating conversations on a daily basis
and. I think that's very, very cool,
man. Yeah, that's cool.

(56:30):
It's cool. When you see somewhere and stuff
like you see someone in the wild, it's like I always get
sent messages to people going like oh, so wearing your stuff,
it's like obviously growing now to the point where I've yes,
I'll couple 1000 hoodies and shirts and starting to get
people out there wearing it, which is really cool.
And the special thing is it's not about obviously like it's a
way to make money for the business, but it's like such a

(56:51):
great impact piece. Like I'll give you a story I got
this amazing lesson from the universe or message from the
universe about that the merch was a worthy thing to do the
very first day I ever got my first box of sample.
Although my first box of I thinkI bought like 50.
That said, be kind to your mind across the chest.
That was, that's kind of my tagline for a long time.
And I was wearing it to the snowfor the first day I've ever worn

(57:15):
it. I never promoted it, hadn't even
put a story up about it. And I was at McDonald's at,
like, Goulburn on the way down. And I was sitting there having
Maccas. And this guy kept looking over
to us with his family. And then he came over at the end
of his meal and was like, oh, hey, you going like my son.
Notice you and your friend Alex Hayes from social media, blah,
blah. I was like, oh, hey, you got
nice to meet you. And then I had the shirt on and

(57:36):
he said, oh, where'd you get that shirt?
And I was like, oh, it's actually mine.
It's the first day I've ever wanted.
I mate, I'm gonna start. Yeah.
Simply just says be kind to yourmind.
And he said, I just want to let you know, I've suffered quite a
lot with mental illness over thelast couple of years, and I
really needed to read that message today.
So thank you so much. And I was like, wow, if that's
not a sign, that's a true word of a story, the day that I first

(57:57):
wore any of my merch. So knowing that it can have that
impact. Just anecdotally myself, in the
first instance that I just know there's been thousands,
thousands of people that have had that or similar interactions
from wearing a piece of my mind,which is beautiful, like my
manager who does imagine my social media stuff.
She has a few about bits of merge and she's like, I love
putting on the what are you grateful for?

(58:19):
Because even if I don't have somebody come up to me, I know
when I put it on, I'm like this lighthouse of people walk past
and it makes their day a little bit better.
So it makes me feel good that I wear it even if nobody comes up
to me. So it's like those moments that
I'm like, so proud to know that the merch is, yeah, a real
impact piece. Love that, and for people that
want to get involved or follow your story, they can look you

(58:43):
personally. Cooper Chapman Online But what
about Good Human Factory? Who's the types of people you
work with schools and workplaces.
Yeah, I mean the big one is highschools are probably like, I
mean for a long time was about 8020.
High school to corporate keynotes is probably more 6040
now. There's a lot more corporate
starting to see value in the work that I do.
And yeah, I love doing my schoolstuff.

(59:04):
But if you want to learn more about the good human factory,
just check out the website thegoodhumanfactory.com.
You can check out the about page, learn a bit more about the
whole business, you can check out the workshops and learn more
about the corporate in high school workshops.
Obviously have a podcast as well.
That's something that I do put alot of time and energy into,
which you will be a guest on very shortly.

(59:24):
And yeah, the merch. There's community stuff over on.
Instagrams are really cool placeto check out what we do, just at
the good human factory. But yeah, always evolving.
Lots of exciting times ahead, a lot of growth coming up, a bit
of restructuring and trying to really put some time and energy
into some projects that I've been thinking about for a while
but haven't had the flexibility to do it while I've been trying

(59:45):
to get everything flowing, but it's flowing now, which is nice.
So yeah, next stage is exciting.And I'm going to usually this is
my last question, but I'm going to have two more questions.
Second last question. What is the question you wish
I'd asked you, but I didn't? Hmm, what's your favourite

(01:00:05):
quote? The truth will set you free.
Now the other question, what's the question that I didn't ask
you, you said? As you look straight into my
eyes, it's just so. I'm so obsessed with that quote
I thought you were asking me. I just defaulted to wanting to
explain that and also gonna be great question we all.
Wanna I just gave away my question three, which was What

(01:00:28):
question would you wanna ask me?Alright, fuck, we're not doing
the last question. That's done.
So what's your favourite quote? Coops.
Ohhhhh. I just think quotes are such a
good like God for me. They just sort of sit at the
back of my head is like a littleaccountability buddies.
And I've got many. But because you said what's your
favourite, I'm going to give youone that I've been really tying

(01:00:50):
into a lot of my workshops recently and it's just a huge
accountability one for me. And it goes.
Knowledge is knowing. Wisdom is doing.
A lot of us are so knowledgeable.
We know how much sleep we shouldget.
We know how much exercise we should be doing each day.
We know how much water we shoulddrink.
We know we should be eating nutritious foods.
We know we should be communicating with our friends,
but he actually doing it and that's I've failed with all this

(01:01:11):
stuff all the time too. But I think that quote of being
like, oh man, you're knowledgeable, but are you wise?
And I think being wise is super important.
So I think that quote of like, knowledge is knowing.
Wisdom is doing. And I love sharing that in my
workshops because I talk about stuff that's not that advanced.
Gratitude, kindness, mindfulness.
All of us know about it, but areyou doing it?
So I think it ties in nicely with everyone can have that

(01:01:32):
quote and be like, Oh yeah, we all know a lot of healthy things
to do, but actually do. It I think that's a beautiful
place to leave it because for methe most important thing that we
need in the mental health space right now is more action.
We have so much awareness. Yeah, you know, everyone knows
big problem, lots of people dying, lots of people
struggling. And also to your point earlier,

(01:01:55):
not just from a mental illness lens, but everyone wanting to be
a bit better everyday. And the hardest part is to then
translate that to behaviour. It's easy to raise awareness,
it's easy to to put up a post onsocials.
It is hard when the moment comesto do what you did with your
podcast 2A week for. What is it?

(01:02:16):
A year and a half? It is your gratitude every
morning and every night is sticking to those micro moments?
Well that will end up making youwho you are and I think society
needs to stick to those micro moments now.
Now that we know better, let's do better.
And that's that's why I'm so passionate about the angle that
I take. It's like, how do we instead of
really helping. Obviously we need the help for

(01:02:38):
the 20% with the mental illness,but it's like how do we increase
the skills, increase the understanding of mental health
for the 80% who don't have a mental illness and bring that to
83%. Hey, that makes the seven, that
makes the 20% smaller as well. But it's like if we can educate,
inspire and really motivate that80% to develop more skills to
understand themselves better, that's going to grow to a bigger

(01:03:00):
number. And then our mental illness is
going to shrink and it's going to inspire the people who do
have a mental illness to pick upthe skills anyway they benefit
from it too. So it's not it's 100% sort of
approach rather than really justfocusing where 99% of the mental
health industries funding and awareness is really towards that
20% which is so important. But I think we need to change

(01:03:21):
those scales up a bit and reallygo kind of bit more around
education and inspiration for the 80% to start to do some
things daily because that might inspire their friend who has a
mental illness to pick up some of those skills too.
So I think it all starts with usand just taking that
responsibility ourselves. Keeps spinning.
Pleasure, man. My man, did he did it?