Welcome to the Energetic Radio podcast. This episode is brought to you by the school of play dotco, hosted by Dale Sibonham and Paul Campbell. Each week, we'll bring to you tips, strategies, and ideas on how you can bring more joy and happiness into your life, and those you share with. G'day, everyone, and welcome back to the Energetic Radio podcast episode 346. My name is Paul Campbell, and I'm joined by the ever energetic mister Dale Sidebottom. How you going, mate? Bully, very good,
mate. Ready to rock and roll. Ready to rock and roll? I am. Good to hear. We've had a massive couple of weeks. We have. Things are good. Things are busy. That's always what we like in our world. Busy is always good, isn't it? It'd be scary if we weren't busy and, that If we're not busy, we're not earning and we're not living and then we can't support our families and it's a quick slow And then the lives aren't happy. Then we can't work
together. Exactly right. That'll be good to know. Podcast, but it's not gonna be all negative. We're excited. This is very true. And I'll tell you what, we've had a couple of cracking weeks that have gone past with some really exciting, I guess, moments in our personal lives, but more importantly in our business lives. And, just
wanna share a few tell you what's been going on. I'm gonna start with the most important one and the probably the biggest one we've done for a while, and that was our Elevate Your Life evening in Parkdale. We haven't released it to the world yet. We obviously had guests come along too, but we haven't done a lot of social media posts and and released it to the world. But, we're waiting for the videographer to come along and that footage
is gonna be absolutely epic and we can't wait for that. But we most definitely were able to share a really impressive evening, with some, I guess, some guests and family and friends and some complete strangers, which made it all worthwhile. So we booked out the Shirley Burke Theatre over in Parkdale, and we created an event called Elevate Your Life, and we shared Dallas shared the stage with mister Paul Watkins. But yeah. How do you feel it went, mate? Yeah. I was, I
loved it. Once well, there and once it was on. Not gonna lie, caused me a lot of stress and anxiety leading up, just with the responsibility of selling tickets. And then, like, oh, we hadn't sold many tickets. And then you're like, oh, is this a failure? Or, like, the the stories you tell yourself in your head, like and I think that's why I haven't done anything like this for a while because every time I do something like this, the same thing happens. But we finally got to the night,
and incredible venue. Yeah. And it was something that I was pretty excited about because it was something I wanted to do for a long time Mhmm. And put together and, to look around when we're in those pretty fancy joint. We're in this, like, crazy merry like that. And I was looking through, like, the side door, and you could see a camera of everyone coming in. And I looked around the stage and the crowd, and probably about 90% of the people there were, like, friends and family or of of
mine. Yeah. That made me super nervous, like, in a in a good way because a lot of these people, you know, they've supported me along the journey. And more importantly, it's always I've always found it really hard to articulate what I do until you've actually seen it. So it was lovely to be able to have them all in there and experience it. Yeah. Well, I think you feel more anxious because when you are doing your thing on stage, we're running workshops, whatever it might be, it's to complete
strangers. But once you're doing it to your friends and family, you feel as though you're more judged. You know what I mean? That they're finally seeing what I've been doing for the last 8 years because they would have seen snippets of it. Right? Yeah. But not the full hour show or the full the full fun shop and the full experience. And, you know what I mean? When you're doing it to your family and friends, like, holy crap. They're gonna judge finally judge and see
what I'm doing. I hope they like it. Yep. And let me tell you, the feedback was unbelievable. The feedback, the feeling in the room, the standing ovations, you know, and I loved it. I have a few mates from footy that came along, and they came along and said, you know what? We came along because there was good blokes running it, and we wanted to support you guys, but we didn't know that we needed things to take from it. Yeah. And that's when I was like, that's move 1. You know what I mean?
That's when the event you put together with Paul and those footy guys are going, I didn't know I needed that session. It's like, the message I got through was absolutely brilliant. Mhmm. Alright. Yeah. A little story of myself. I went running the set next to my mom. My mom came along, shout out Julie. And we're playing some of the gratitude games. And, you know, she got a little bit emotional there at one stage when we're sharing things with each other, and it allowed us to
connect on a bit of a deeper level. And we talk all the time, but, yeah, the the fun shop you ran allowed us to feel safe, and we connect on a really deep level. We shared some beautiful things with each other. And it was one of those moments in time that I'm gonna cherish forever. Yep. So, mate, epic. You know, it was unreal. It's one of those things that, I get to see the impact it's having and the conversations that take place where I
never get to hear them. And at the start, when I was doing it, it always sounded that really hard because, you know, some people would start crying or different things and, like, they're good tears, but you don't know. Yeah. And it's I've always thought I would love to be able to share that same experience with my mom or dad or Brie or, you know, somebody like that in my life, because I see the impact it has on others. That's true. And I know I'll never
get that opportunity because I'll know what's coming in. Obviously, spoiler alert, we created it. So, but, yeah, for me, it was lovely to be able to see something that's, you know, been built over 8 years. It hasn't always been that. And I think some people in the crowd, like mom and dad, I flew them to Tassie when I ever had my first ever keynote. So Right. I've never even done a keynote before. I didn't even so keynote's where
you're, like, you're the sort of main speaker. People sit for an hour and they listen to you. And it was alright. Like, people enjoyed it. But from where I've come from now to how polished it is Yeah. It's like completely Yeah. Did they did they make comment on that? Did they talk about how the growth you've shown? No. They didn't. No. No. The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The
The The The The The game. Throws me at every time. Oh, so no. I know they're proud of me though and the the growth I've obviously had and things like that. But personally, just myself, like, the whole I still remember. I don't know if I've shared this story before, but the first conference I ever spoke at was in Dubai. And I went over there and, it was a 2 day conference, and I was one of the 8 master class speakers. So I had
8 master classes and had 4 keynote speakers. And I still I'd never even been to a conference. So and I was speaking at 1, I didn't even know what I was doing. Yeah. Hey. I remember seeing through his keynotes, that's pretty cool. And like, they're the that's what people were talking about. And they were like the main thing about it. And I always said to myself, I'm going to do that one day. Like, that's what I'm going to do. And it was always a
goal. Yeah. And now And now you've achieved it. Right? Oh, now, like, for example, last week we did 3 of them in a week. Yeah. You know, at different conferences and different places. And, yes, for me We'll get to that one down the track as well because there's one man I've got a corker story from you
guys, ladies and gentlemen. For me personally as an individual, I think that night at Parkdale was such a lovely experience to be able to share what I do with so many people, but also for me to be able to realize where I've been able to come from, and I'm gonna create something that's a bit different than anyone else, and it works. Yeah. Yeah. And so, yeah, I I do sit back and remember when I was sitting there in Dubai and I said I'm gonna do this, and I've been able to do it.
And I think I've been able to do it in my way, and I've been told along along the way that you probably can't do it that way, or it might not work, or that's not the traditional way of doing it. Yep. Yeah. So to see the impact it has on people, it's yeah. I I was really proud of that personally as an individual. And it was nice for me to say that you're a human being. Like, you've been doing this for 8 years. Right? You've spoken into incredible crowds and whatnot. But I think the fact that
people were parting with their their own hard earned. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? They were giving up their own time. It wasn't a corporate gig that booked us in. Everyone was getting paid to be there. They've given up their time, their hard earned, and it was your friends and family. And I think that just was like, holy crap. This is you. I'm I'm you were nervous. Of course. It was nice of me to see you bloody nervous, I'll be honest. I was pacing. I
didn't know how pisses. I was like I know you were. You were pacing. I know more than that would change when I'm looking at the TV screen. How long did you reckon it took you to settle? I'd say once those games that's what I like. I played games at the start. Yeah. Like, because any big gig I am nervous. Not as nervous as I was there. Mhmm. But I reckon once I have 2 or 3 of those I play 3. Yeah. I reckon by 2. The 3rd when I do the this game called happy face,
mean face, and I get them to do that, that's when I'm on. Yeah. Like, that's when I'm bit I still speak very fast, but, I slow down a little bit, and I'm in more control, and I sort of get in flow and really enjoy it. Yep. Yeah. No. I loved it. Loved it. It was, it was a highlight of my time in the business so far, to be honest. Yeah. Well, thank you and you did a great job as emcee as well. Thank you. If, for those people who have emcee'd before, it's it's a very
hard gig because you can really only get it wrong, I feel. Yeah. And you gotta try and link what's going on. Right? You gotta think on your feet and try and link what's going on. It's hard. It's hard. And, yeah, I was a bit nervous as well, to be honest with you, because I had some friends and family in the crowd also. And, but, yeah, I just didn't wanna I guess I didn't wanna stuff up your your major night. You asked me to do
the gig. It was like, but no. I think it all came together incredibly well, and we honestly can't wait to share, you know, some of the footage we've got. Yep. Once that videographer gets it gets stuck to us, we can't wait. And we've been, I've had a few people ask when we're gonna do the next one, and the honest response is maybe not. No. We're gonna like, we might do one again, but obviously, there's a lot of work involved in, yeah. Talk about stress that you probably
don't need in your life. And unfortunately, it doesn't matter how I go about doing one of these. It's just byproduct of how I'm wired. Yep. So, yeah. I'd love to say we'll do another one, but at the moment, we don't really know. So We don't know. We're tossed up with the idea of potentially doing one of school holidays so that families and kids can come along and aim aim at that generation, but stay tuned, I guess. We'll see what happens there.
I wanna talk about, really it's a funny moment in our lives together so far was our road trip. We, we went on a road trip together out to Timboon and and Colac and Geelong and, not one word of a lie. Got up at 4 in the morning, drove to Timboon, 10 minutes before society is due to jump on stage and talk in front of a 180, adolescents. He's grabbed himself a spew bucket and he's like, Cambo, I'm not feeling too good here, mate.
And I was like, what? And he's killed over. And he's sitting there with the spew bucket 5 minutes from the stage. I'm like, oh, my lord. This is not gonna go down well. But to your credit, somehow pulled your shit together and put on the game face and absolutely rocked the show, mate. But, mate, that was a for me, it was an awesome time for you. I think it was a tumultuous time. It was a horrendous week. Obviously, having couple of young kids, one in daycare and one in
kinder. I knew I was in for it when one come home spewing on the Friday, and that was just before the the public gig we had. And I'm like, oh, please don't get sick for that. But, yeah, slept all weekend cleaning sheets and as any parent would know. And then we got in the car and luckily you drove and I slept there and then I spoke and then I slept that night. And then I ring Colac and I didn't get out
of we had to book another motel room. So I slept in a I slept from, I think, 10 o'clock that night to 5 PM the next day. Had a shower. Anyway, we don't need to hear about the stories but But what I like to relate this story to is we had obviously Paul Watkins on our show on the Friday night and then his main story is all about grit and determination. You know, he just tricks through the Arctic Circle. And then he's siding 10 minutes before he's due
to go on with the spew back in your hand. I'm like, mate, find your grit. Yeah. He's like Oh, dear. F off. Yeah. But he definitely found his grit. And knowing that, that we that culminated in a in a keynote that Saudi did with 330 people at GHMBH Stadium. GMHBA Stadium. That's the one. Yeah. And, in July. Yeah. And same deal again. It was out of sorts like none of my own bereft of energy. I was worse and that's the worst I've ever
been. I could only keep my eyes open. Yeah. I thought at one stage I was gonna have to pretend to be you and get up and get up and pretend to be Dale Sighthbottom and do a keynote in front of 330 people. Oh, the hardest thing was that it was obviously a big dinner and we're there beforehand, myself. The hardest thing was that it was obviously a big dinner, and we're there beforehand, and we're on the main table, and people wanna talk to
you. And I literally just didn't wanna be there. I didn't wanna talk, and I wanted to save any bit of energy I had. But then you I was trying to force myself to eat, and I hadn't eaten in over 24 hours. And then you get up on stage, and I normally sweat like there's no tomorrow. I didn't have an ounce to sweat anywhere. Dehydration. And that's I'm like, oh, you're not in a good place either. No. Not at all. Yeah. I knew you went I knew you went right when you left half your
eye, Philip. Oh, that was so hard to chew down. That never happens. Right? No. It doesn't. So And then, and then in in another eventful twist of tales in a in a week that was not so much my week, but definitely your week. Dale and another one of our guys who were cranes with a gentleman named Brad is have written a children's book. The children's book is called The Play Flashnaught. I'm supposed to be called The
Play Flashnaught. It's supposed to be called The Play Flashnaught. And we can't wait to get it. My kids are looking forward to reading it, and it was supposed to come out anytime now, but It was supposed to be out a month ago. Yeah. And I remember when we signed with this, this publishing company. The the contract and the guy was just so shady. But we've been working on this for a long time, and, I had another mate that published a couple of books with me because it's alright.
Like, they they get the job done. Yep. Anyway, so Brad and myself had this meeting, and it just felt all wrong. And Brad goes, up to you, mate, but that guy's not right, and there's something not right. Anyway, I said, no, we're gonna go through with it. So I paid the $7 and, he just kept delaying things. And he was so all over the shop, and the way he spoke to us was just like, I've never been spoken to in my life like
this. Anyway, I kept pushing back our date, pushing back our dates. He's gone on 2 years. So one of the main reasons for those public events was was going to be our launch secret sort of launch of our children's book, The Playful Astronaut. Anyway, week before yeah. Found out that company gone into liquidation. The guy that we thought his name was Brad Shaw was he had about 3 other aliases, he'd been bankrupt 3 other times, and he was a
serial con man. So How crazy is that? You hear these stories, right, about happening to people, but the elaborate nature of this Crazy. Like a whole book deal and meeting with them and There was 5 or 600 hundred other people that he'd done the same thing to over this year and a half period. Holy crap. Yeah. So, anyway, I wasn't phased about the money. I was just more, like, I wanted to read like you. I wanted to read the book to me boys. My kids are hanging for the book.
I'm hanging for the book. We put, like, 4 years of work into it. Yeah. So anyway, we're like, it's not as if we're, like, stalling. We're trying to figure out what the next movie is, but it's not as easy as that. The whole reason we wanted to go with publisher is we didn't want to self publish. Yeah. Right. We don't wanna be in charge of b to c, like, business to customer and sending out books and things like that. Yeah. So I was not gonna lie, I was pretty deflated by the whole experience,
and just pretty sad to be honest. Because not only is it something I was really proud of and I've been able to create with Brad, my mentor, and friend. It was gonna be sort of something we could celebrate together. We've put so much work into it. It's just a really weird feeling. I must admit nothing like this has ever happened to me before. And it's you know, it's crap. It's when you go out and you you your life orientation is to treat people
well, build positive relationships. That's what your life it's the same with Brad's. And, and then you come across a, you know, scumbag in the earth. He was. And he's just He's a fake alias name in this whole That's the way he treated people. Like, in I've heard more, obviously, I've spoken to people at the company and, you know, I've read articles on him and just a really nasty person. Yeah. And what he's done to people. Like, I'm actually pretty fortunate that, you know,
that $7, like, it do you know what I mean? It it can be replaced. Yeah. Like, we weren't relying on it. Whereas other people that have done books, like, they'd saved up and, like, it meant a big deal that they'd have to force to get that money. Can you imagine if that was their first one? Like, for you guys, this is your second book they publish. Imagine if this is your first one, and that's their experiment. It would be because it's a little indie publisher.
Like, it's not your big your big big times. Because for anyone that's ever tried to publish a kid's book, it you can't even get a meeting. You'll find that most books out there now are written by celebrities, or comedians, or different things like that, or a well known author. You have to go through sort of one of these indie sort of channels to get that exposure. Even I've got not a bad name and Brad as well, but Yeah. It doesn't matter. Like, they just want they want the name so that no
books will sell, which I completely get. Yeah. So, anyway, I I understand the process now, and we're trying a few other things, but, yeah, it probably wasn't, the nicest experience to go through. It really it made me quite sad. Is that the that's the word I'd reflect on. And that's fair enough. And you're thinking about going through those small indie publishers. I wonder what makes a book absolutely blow up and go worldwide. Hey. Like, the person getting
their first chance at it Yeah. And then it blows up and goes worldwide. It's phenomenal, isn't it? But Yes. But it's like it's probably like I don't know. There'd be algorithms or something to it, like Yeah. I don't know if you look at what makes TikTokers or YouTube or, I don't know, what makes people go viral. Like, there's something unique about it. Yeah. And word-of-mouth, and it goes in there. And once one word-of-mouth starts, it just
spreads like, wow, that doesn't work. Worst form of, marketing. Yeah. I like that best and worst form. Well, it is. Yeah. It can obviously be detrimental, if the word-of-mouth isn't very good or Yeah. You've given people not a good experience, but vice versa, if you've done the opposite, and I think it's fortunate our business is going quite well because we've been able to build a good reputation over years, and then word-of-mouth does become your best friend. So
Yeah. I agree. Anyway, there's enough, like, like, crazy stories about me. How have you been, mate? I've been well. Thanks, mate. Been doing a lot of driving, honestly. I've been doing a lot of driving. My My my turn to do a bit of driving for now. That's alright. I'm happy to take the wheel and let you let you sleep and get through your I'm just, mate, I'm just bloody proud of my immune system that I somehow spent so much time in a
capsule with you in a car I know. Breathing in whatever you've been breathing out. And, I'm very grateful you didn't leave many farts going in the car, so thanks doing that, mate. But I'm afraid I wasn't farting. No. Oh, I was holding those in because they weren't farts. Yeah. Anyway No,
mate. I think I'm the complete opposite of you. You've been burning the candle at both ends, dealing with gastro, public events, road trips, trying to get our new you know, you've literally been keeping us above water with the new website, the new curriculum, and that's coming together incredibly well and we're super excited to share that with the world. And so you've been burning your candle at both ends.
And little on me over here is family's good, life's good, sunshine, no gastro, kinda sitting here in bare feet, like swimming. So, I definitely can't complain, mate. And, life has been really good and the kids and everyone doing awesome. And I've been pondering something, you know, me, I love to listen. I love to learn. I'm an infant and a learner. And, and I've been pondering something like that that struck
a chord with me. It was on a podcast with Simon Sinek and it was about, he just brought up a comment about, imagine if the in the world, everyone treated their relationships like they do their cell phones. The world would be a much better place. I know this is a random topic to talk, but you must what's been on my mind lately? And and I was like, holy shit, that is such a good thought provoker. Then imagine if we treated our relationships like we do our
phones. You know what I mean? We we plug them we make sure we're plugging them in every night before they go to bed so they're charged. The first thing most people do, I'd say 99% of people do, is they roll over and they check-in on their phone first and foremost. If the screen's cracked, you're running, get it fixed straight away so it's of optimal health. And, like, imagine if that transpired and you treated the people around you like that.
Like, imagine waking up in the morning, you checked in with your with your relationships first and foremost before your phone. Yeah. And I don't know why Shaka called me a massive Well, also, like, if there's a new I know I hate having, like, symbols or unread things. So anytime I need to download new apps, I do that. Or if there's a new software update, I do that. Yep. I mean, like, you're keeping everything at premium
level. Like, that's what you do, don't you? You're definitely not doing that in all areas of your life. No. And then it made me wonder about notifications. Like, I deliberately turn off all notifications on my phone. Like, I tried and I have my phone linked to my watch and those sorts of things just so I can try and guess and switch off a little bit from that world around me
and and not be so connected to the phone so much. But I know there's so many people out there that have got, you know, it dings every 2 seconds, you know what I mean. You're in meetings and stuff. Your wristwatch, you know what I mean? Your your dings quite often and you're connected to that. But, yeah, I just thought it was a really powerful notion to to plant the seed
with everyone out there that yeah. Start having to think about, are you treating your relationships with the same energy, enthusiasm, and care as you buy your cell phone? Pretty deep, I know. No. It's very deep, but I I reckon a lot of people would say they're not. Yeah. I I don't think oh, no. I'm not. Yeah. That's not through it's just you don't I think you're not aware of it or you need to think about So great question. I think it's one people should really ponder. Yeah. I love
it. And we've got some exciting times coming up. We're doing another road trip. Gonna spend some more time together in a little, a little accommodation in Wodonga. We got another 5 day road trip coming up in the in the rural areas of Northern Victoria, which we can't wait for. Yep. That news is really starting to spread that that joy and positivity all around the state, which is awesome. And mate, the
sun is shining and life is good. It is. And, we wanna thank everyone in there for listening to podcast episode 346. Yep. Get amongst it, enjoy the sunshine, work on those relationships, legends, and, wish Shadi the best of luck. And let's hope he does not get gastro again I'm truly grateful. For this upcoming roadshow campaign. I'm truly grateful. 3 times in a year. My final thing I would say, Ken Bo, is, do something if there's something you've
wanted to do for a while, do it. So for example, I wanted to do that public event for a while, and it scared me and made me anxious. I was stressed out my brain about it, but I did it and I loved it, and it was an amazing experience. Recently as well, we've had an idea for another book. We have. We have. And, you know, I've been thinking about it for a while. I'm like, no. You know what? I'm just gonna write it, and I'll send it off to our publisher. So just if there's
something you're thinking about or something you're doing, just do it. Like, because then you stop thinking about it because you've done it. Yeah. And and become a nowist. Yes. Nowist. I mean, I'll go Marcus a lot, that one. Marcus. Now they don't have to be as elaborate as that. Like, they don't have to be writing a book or booking a big public event. But whatever it is, little things, the more you do them, they can lead to bigger things if they're
the goals you want. Yeah. But it's, yeah, it's rewarding. Like, you feel good about yourself doing that. You do. I actually got asked that in a workshop last week, working with some student leaders, and he and the young kid probably at 15, he said, can you give me some examples of some life goals? And I was like That's a great question. Isn't it? From a 15, 16 year old boy who was like, can you please give me some examples of some life goals? And then they
got me thinking like, hey, we should be teaching that stuff. I'm sure we are. Yeah. But Everyone's different. So Everyone's different, man. You can't really teach someone what his goals will be different to your goals to my goals. So, like, begin I think the only thing you can really do there is explain goals that you're having for different areas of your life. Yeah. And that sort of went down. I said that's exactly what I said. I said, hey, don't that they
can't be my goals. It's gotta be what you find purposeful, what you connect with. You know what I mean? So have a think about what would give you a sense of fulfillment, what would give you a sense of drive and a sense of enthusiasm and excitement to go and reach that goal, and then make a small hurdle goal out of that, and then just reach for that one first.
Yeah. And then see where it grows from there. But if you're trying to find I said to you, if you're trying to find a life goal, think about what what lights you up, what gets you excited first and foremost, and then just try and challenge yourself a little bit around that purpose or that that goal. Yeah. But I thought that was a pretty interesting question. And that links you with what you're saying, but you're spot on. Just take the step forward. Take one step
towards it. You know what I mean? And see where it leads you. You find when you take that first step towards it. Little steps add up to big steps. Yeah. One big step isn't as many as a lot of little steps. So little steps equal big wins. Yep. And a lot of people think a lot of people think, shit, I gotta get from here and people can't see my hands right now. They gotta go from here all the way up to here. Well, not really. You
got a long time to get there. Just go think small scale. Just take one step in the right direction. Yep. The direction you're heading in is more important than the speed you get there. Oh, Roto turtle. I love it. Alright. Enjoy your weekend, everyone. Have a wonderful time. And thank you.