Good champs, Welcome to another installment, The Year Project. Craig Anthony, Harper, Bradley, I'm going to go, Kevin, Patrick, Bryan mckipna. I've got no idea. Do you have a middle name?
Yes? I do?
Does it start with a vow?
No? Oh?
All right, what is it?
Well, it's not that like. I'm not going to make it that easy for you. It starts with well, i'll tell you, I'll tell you, I'll tell you the letter. It starts with all right, yep, you will get it in the first couple of guesses.
Yeah, starts with ah, Bradley Robert.
Yep, well done. Yeah.
You know you know how when you put names together, you're like, yep, yeah, it wouldn't have been Bradley Ryan or Bradley fucking Richard because that yeah, Bradley, Robert, Bradley Robert actually like Craig Anthony. I'm not a fan of Craig, but anyway, but Craig Anthony kind of goes together. Bradley Roberts goes together. So Ron and Mary my parents. You could have done better, but Brad's parents. Well done. Anyway, that's it. That's the You project. Everyone will be back tomorrow.
Thanks Brad, it's.
Been great, it's been bambulous, great mate.
How are you?
Yeah? Really good. I was actually just thinking today before we recorded this, the last time I was on the You Project.
Well, my friend, I don't know is the answer to that. But I'm going to tell you, which might come as something of a surprise. This is terrible to do in real time, but fuck it. That's just how we roll here at the U Project because it's not radio. So today is episode one eight, So today we are up to So you and I will be one eight, one four. So yeah, eighteen hundred and fourteen episodes in and I would say you and I were, I would say lower
than five. Have you done? How many of you done? One? Two, three? I don't know. It's been a while.
I think about three.
Yeah, so I would say it would have been more than two years ago, more than two years ago.
But anyway we are. You're back, and I mean it's.
Very hard to get to you because you have that front line of defense, what with with all your people, you know, your agents or the money people, the fucking the terms of agreement, there's so many forms. I mean, you don't make it easy for us little shitkickers to access.
You do you know you have my number. You can call and I will answer every time. I have my partner who I do some work with, and we have our cat and our cat. I suppose if Muffin is our manager, she does the negotiating. She's gorgeous, she's tough.
She's tough. She's also she doesn't pick up the phone either, so you know, but I'm not offended.
No, she finds that quite difficult.
Yeah, well, even if she does, she generally doesn't say much. Everybody's just tuned out and jumped up. No come back. How have you really been? Are you well? Are you phisic? Let's start with your mind and your heart and your body? How are those things?
Well, mine's really really good. Heart is really good, as in, you know, a lot of love for a lot of things going on right now. After you know, the great shame worn passed away. I probably, like a lot of people, I went and did my heart test and jumped on the treadmill and there was a little weight to get in and cardiologists I think he referred to it as the shame worn effect, which you know, so many of us around that mid stage of our lives getting checked.
But no, my heart's all good. My heart's all good and physically probly last time we spoke carrying a couple extra kilos.
He's still For those who don't know, Brad and I met at Harper's The Wonderful World of I think we met there. We didn't meet before that, did we? No, we met there, And yeah, Brad used to train up at one of my gym's for a very long time. Do you still hit the gym?
No? No, I was trying to sort of just soften the block. But no.
You know, it's like when people haven't been for like eight years and they're like, look, you know, not that often, not as often as I should. No, not for the last eight years. So never, fucking never is the answer.
Yeah, pretty much. But but but I do. I still enjoy swimming. In fact, I think I might go for a swim a bit later.
What's the thing that for you? Because you're quite a deep and philosophical chap and what's the thing that for you the protocol or the process or the thing that grounds you, that calms you, that gets you in a really good place mentally and emotionally quicker than anything else.
That's interesting that's interesting. As simple as it sounds, breathing, it's a few breaths every time I do it, like it goes from being a cloudy world to a sunny world in seconds. Yeah, seconds. Music exercise. When I say exercise, given that you pointed out that I don't get to the gym a lot like never, I just I love to walk. I love to walk, and I don't always listen to music because I do enjoy listening to the
sounds around me. I really enjoy that. But when I've got an idea, I'm working a project on a project, and you know, I'll so on some of my seventies eighties sort of hits, and I really enjoy that. And the other thing that And I probably spoke about this last time and correct me if I did or didn't, but you know, I was being able to research into this recently. Have I spoken to you before about the power of kindness?
Yes, yes, but I mean definitely worth revisiting.
Yeah. Well, you know, people can, they can look it up. But the reality is, you know, being kind to people is more powerful than most people realize. And Martin Seligman, who's the head of positive Psychology at pen University, in the US. Have a look online. There is his quote of all the things they've tested, the single most effective way to momentarily in somebody's well being lift they're well
being is an act of kindness. And he's not just talking about you know, someone falls over in the supermarket, you pick them up, you help them, they feel great, You feel great because you've helped it. He's actually talking about everyone that he is about it or witnesses it.
So look, I know, not that I obviously am kind to people, or the benefits that I get out of it, but I know when just every day and when it becomes habit and you just always make a big deal to the barrister and you thank them about the great coffee they've made, and you let people into traffic and you just smile. It a byproduct, is I just feel really good?
Yeah? Yeah, oh absolutely, I mean and especially when you know, we spoke yesterday on a podcast about when you understand what makes people feel loved as well. You know how the five love languages you've heard of that book, I
guess no, yes, yeah, they just under standing. Like Brad's love language might be words of affirmation or physical touch, a hug or quality time or and then when you know somebody and you know, like my dad's the opposite of my dad's love language is physical touch, Like if you do not give run a hug, he doesn't want.
It, right.
But what he does love is what he loves is when I tell him he's great, he loves that, right. And so yeah, I think that being kind and trying to have some insight into what makes people feel loved and valued and seen, and you know, doing that with no agenda. You know, it's like it sounds strategic, but it's you know, just realizing that what will make somebody feel spectacular might not to the next person, you know.
But I think kindness in general. You know. I remember last year holding the door open for a lady down the road at the and she said, I can hold it myself, thank you very much. And I went, huh noted tail between legs, off I go, and I just it was absolutely fine. It didn't. But I'm like, oh wow, I wonder because you know, maybe nine out of ten times I would do that for a guy or a lady. It doesn't matter, just a human, right. I didn't do it because she was a female. I did it because
I got to the door first. We were both going in the same joint, so I stood back, held the door wide, and it bothered her. I'm like, okay, but it is funny that trying to understand someone else's reality and what's going to work for them, because it might not work what might work for you, or might what might for you be an active kindness for them could be you know, inappropriate, which is yeah.
But you know, as you touched on there, everyone's different and you don't know what's going on in that person's life. You don't know what what happens at home, you don't know how her physical and mental health is, and you're not always going to get it right for that reason. But you can't control all of those things. But what you can control is your own behavior. And you know, even the fact, yes, you know, the woman felt, you know,
like it wasn't appropriate for you to do that. She doesn't need a hand and okay, I understand that, But there's other people that witnessed you know, your active kindness and you being courteous, and it will have made them feel good. M So I think you've I think you've just got to be true to yourself and do what feels right underpset.
I mean, you're going to have the human experiences, You're going to get things wrong, even if you're trying to get things right. You know, we talk about this. There's an idea in psychology Brad called theory of mind, which is basically just understanding how others think, you know, their version of reality. And yeah, it's a common thing, is that my intention might not be their experience. And so again, like that didn't bother me at all. I didn't think
she was rude. I wasn't. I was, like you said before, I was. I was just curious. I'm like, oh, okay, you know, I'm still going to open the door for people. I'm not put up by that. And I get it, and it's all good. I don't expect her like she doesn't need to be how I expect her to be. And then no, she does not if I'm expecting something, and I get disappointed by her response, that's one hundred percent created by me, not her.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And you know, one of the one of the simplest ways that I have found. And I really am amazed that I wasn't aware of this or I didn't think about this when I was younger. But maybe that's the wisdom that you get with age and experience and through making mistakes and having different relationships with people.
Some continue and some don't continue. But you know, I've been doing some do you know what, I've actually been doing some earth moving recently the last couple of years.
Which is speaking literally or metaphorically.
Well, no, I'm actually it's a bit of both. Funny thing. So I'm not sure that we've spoken since my hometown of Rochester was flooded.
Yeah, I don't know that we have. Definitely, I don't think we have.
Well, you know, most people are listening, would have seen it on the news, read it in the newspaper, and look, the reality is two and a half years on, it's
still a daily battle for a lot of people. I think there's a I think they said, you know, most of the sort of one thousand properties in in Rochester were severely damaged, if not written of, and I think there's something like two hundred homes haven't even been touched yet, so you know, and that you know, just even when I go home, you know, we'll put it this way, and.
If the people, if I ever come across these people, you know, what I No matter how frustrated and angry I'll get, the reality is I'm not the kind of person to do anything anyway.
I'm just, I suppose incredibly disappointed. So here's Rochester, you know, still dealing with the floods and going back there or a few months the tobacco shop in town was fire bombed. So now you've got but not only the Echo shop, but you've got two businesses either side that. Currently there's just a big fence around them. And we've had barricades and fencing up Bond damage buildings for two and a
half years. And to have that happen on top of that to people listening and people not from there, you know, Rochester is a town that you drive through on the way to a chuca. Yeah but you know what, and this is starting the pleading obvious to me, it is home and to a whole lot of people it is home and it is their oasis and it is their place where they feel safe and on top of the floods.
So then have a business in town by bond, you know, I just for example, the kids back home, you know, we had COVID and then and then those in year twelve, the sort of the last few months of the year twelve was hijacked because they're bustingto Bendigo every day because
the school's closed now the hospital's only just open. But getting back to the earth moving, No, I'm not in an excavator and no I'm not lasering paddocks, although wouldn't mind having to go to be honest, but no, after the floods, good friends, a couple of brothers and their wives have got a business wards earth moving and it happened in the twenty eleven floods, it happened in the
twenty twenty two floods. They've probably got fifty odd fellas that work and they got big jobs, big contracts, Murraygold and Water. They're putting in optic fiber from say albrit of Bendigo. A lot, a lot, a lot of big
projects they've got on. But whenever the floods come, they just stop what they're doing and they go from house to house in Rochester and they they take out all the sudden underlay and the carpet and the furniture and then they put it out the front and then they go around they pick up all of the furniture and everything that's been ruined, which is pretty much everything, and they just and then all the plaster comes out, and
then they go and pick all that up. And they do it because they care and it's their home and it's their community. But you know, one of the fellas in management they're called me or coming up two years ago and he just said, look, Brad, you know in your role as a Beyond Blue ambassador and a mental health advocate, and you know your experience and lived experience which many people know that you know, my family has
been severely impacted by mental health over the years. So they said, look, if you're up for it, would you be giving us a hand? So you know what I do. I drive home. It was sort of every fourt we've managed to but now we're sort of looking at every once a month. My mate calls me the smoke o delivery guy. I drive. I just I'll find out where everyone's working. There might be ten guys at Caiabram. There might be five guys over at Cobram. There might be
three guys at Leechville. There might be half a dozen guys over your Bendigo at Raywood. And I just go and see them all and you know what I do. I just talk, I just listen. I just ask how they're going. And I don't have to I don't have.
To say anything because the fact that I'm there in a heartbeat, it says to the people that are working there, and a lot of them are my friends, and if they weren't, they are now is I care about you? And by extension, it says that the organization you know, Mark and Peter and.
And Kate and Helen Day care about you, and their families care about you, and that is fact. That is fact. And those organizations that you know still continue to put the profits before people. I feel quite sad that they don't understand. They don't understand that, you know what, you put the people first, the profits will just come. How do I know that? There are some things Craigs, as you know, there are some things you just you just know, you know. I used an example recently. I was doing
a talk. When I first left media and started, you know, doing a bit of what you're doing. I mean, you know, just to be one tenth of you would be fantastic. But anyway, you know, I'd go out there and I'd have my PowerPoint slides and whatever. Now did I like having PowerPoint slides? Nah, But they were my safety net, you know, in case I felt like I didn't have
enough content to talk talk about. But now I never use slides ever because I have so many stories and anecdotes, and I use props and humor and this and that and all of the you know, the array of little goodies that we have in our we have in our kit bag. And that's one of the things. You know, when I talk to people about mental health, I say, you know, the three most important things have got lived experience stories because our brains are hardwired to remember stories.
And the other one is humor. They go, what humor? Talking about mental health talking about things like depression, anxiety, suicide, And I go, yeah, I know, I know how serious it is. Our family knows how serious it is, lost family members, friends. But if it's not at least a little bit enjoyable, how are you ever going to connect with people? And it's it's about how we connect, and
so many of us connect through humor. I was doing a talk at wood End there last year, and I had a bit of a bit of a croaky throat. You know, I wasn't feeling the best, but managed to get up off the bed and I went along and sold it on. Yeah, And I was talking to the It was rural financial support group that go around and help out people on a lot of them on the land who are doing a taf YadA yahya with droughts and you know, prices of wool and sheep and crops
and everything else. And I didn't have any slides or anything, and I just thought, Baggert, I actually feel now ready to be one hundred percent me. So I started to tell everyone. I said, do you want to hear about my water pistol theory? And everyone's looking at me, thinking, oh, this guy is a bit of a weirdo. But I went and I proceeded to tell them this is what I would do if I was running a big organization.
I would sit down with everyone and I would say, right, starting this week, once a month, we are going to have an initiation ceremony. Maybe those of you with kids in primary school, they can do up some little contracts for us, and they can also draw some little badgers. So let's say half a dozen people for the next week they are going to be our designated water pistol police and people listing that weren't thinking I'm you know, weird, and now thinking oh no, it's quite weird. But bear
with me. So what happens is these people have license, let's say nine o'clock at night, they get to roam around the building with the water pistol. Just make sure you fill it up at the tap keeck. It's working, and they get to walk around. Now, if somebody is at their laptop or at their computer and they're still working, you get to say to them, okay, water person, pull these hands off the keyboard, and they go, hang on, hang on, I've just got to finish this. I've just
got to finish this. No, you know the rules. I'll give you three seconds three two one boom, And if they continue to work, you're getting with the water pistol. Now, people say, oh, that's not going to happen, and I say, well, number one, why not? And you don't physically have to go to that length go to those lengths, but in an instant, right, that's the culture of a place. And you know exactly what I'm saying, Craig. That person turns
off the computer. He walks out of the building with a smile on his face, and this beautiful feeling in his heart because he thinks to himself, this place cares about me and the person. The water pistol officer says, hey, we figure the most important. You are the most important person to us, and we figure the most important people to you or your family. Go home. Now. There will always be exceptions where people there are deadlines and people are going to be working extra hours and whatever. But
you know what happens. You leave an organization that has that culture and that attitude. You wake up in the morning and this is not why you initiate the culture, clearly, but you wake up the next morning and you drive to work and you walk in with a smile on your face. Because, as I say to anyone, how do you miss something? How do you miss someone? If you never leave it, you never leave them, It's impossible to miss it. I am people first every time.
I love it. I one of the things I mean, like you, I do a lot of corporate and I ask the bosses he or she manages leaders. I say, do your staff like coming to work? And they're like what, I go, do they like coming?
Like?
Do they want to be here? And another question that I ask is what do you think it's like being around you, like what do you think you which is in a relevant to my research and my study, right, but trying to like I do about one hundred talks a year in corporate, about one hundred presentations, everything from generally forty five minute keynotes through to full days, right, And a lot of it is really around you know,
culture and communication, connection, problem solving, leadership, team work, all that stuff, right. But I never really talk about business. I just about people. And I was on a call this week. I obviously can't say with whom or but the person I was talking to said, look, we really need to be seen. We need to be seen to care. I said, no, you need to actually care. Not It was almost like and I and they went, oh yeah, yeah, of course. It was like almost like we need to
pretend like we care so that they feel valued. I know, don't fucking pretend actually care. And it's that It is really interesting because sometimes I get on a call and they think I'm I'm going to come in and kind of reset the business somehow, and I go, I'm not actually going to talk about the business. I'm going to talk about all the people who drive the business, you know, and even if it's a tech business, it's still driven
by humans. And every human's got a personality and an ego and emotions and mind and conditioning and programming and fears and expectations and emotions, and just trying to understand, like we can build a thriving organization that's commercially successful, perhaps wildly so, while also genuinely caring about the people in the middle of it, not pretending to care. Let's create a culture that people want to be in. Let's create an experience that people love to be in the
middle of. I interviewed, do you remember Sally O'Connell who used to work for me?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember sales.
She loved it, so sells a big deal. Now sells a big deal. She's the.
Real estate or something.
She's in real estates.
Yep, yep.
She's got a fancy job. She's going great. And the nicest thing that anyone said to me in a while is she said when I loved loved working at Harper's because she was a trainer back in the day, and she said it was just an amazing environment. Every day was fun. I loved going to work. I just loved being part of all of that, and for me, that makes me way happier than how much dough we made or how many bodies we changed, or all of those
things are kind of KPIs. But when someone who worked in your business says that was the best work culture I've ever been in me, I'm like, yeah, I did. I did at least one good thing one percent.
And it's just so lovely to have a yeah, that sense of belonging, that sense of connection. You're part of a club, You're part of a group, and you know, that's one thing I'll openly say I missed when I left mainstream media. You know, I had them talking of mental health and all things associated. I had a really, a really delightful experience the other night. A friend asked if I wanted to go and see a play or
a production at Maltause. Theer it was called Flicker, and it was written a woman and it was it was a dark comedy and it was written by a woman in the UK and it just it was hugely popular at the Edinburgh Festival, and it was about her ongoing struggle with obsessive compulsive disorder, which you and I have discussed, and you're offside of Melissa, we've we've discussed, and it was what was really interesting were a lot of the people involved that were either performing or in the crowd.
We all went to support them. My friend that invited me, he has OCD, I have OCD. And what it really touched on was the obsessive, random, often really disturbing thoughts that a lot of us with O c D have.
And anyway, they were just at the end they you know, you could ask questions or just give a bit of feedback, and I made a point of standing up sort of saying, hey, look you because you know, I as a young kid growing up in rural Victoria and having you know, these crazy thoughts or you know, these rituals that would take hours and hours and hours and hours to complete just because my head told me I had to do them
or something terrible would happen. I just said thanks to everyone, because you know, at fifty three, Craig, that was the first time I've ever been in a room with a whole lot of people that have a similar obviously different in some ways, but a similar story to myself in regards to my anxiety. And you know what, it felt really nice. It felt really nice too. To know that people are looking at you and they get it, you get them.
Well, it's probably the first time that you've ever been in a room with lots of people where you, the dude with OCD, is the normal person, Like you're the majority in the room, you know, like if I went in, I would have been the odd man out.
Yeah, and clearly not everyone in the room had OCD, but those of us in the room. You know, it was actually really gorgeous afterwards, and you know, I caught up with someone I know not very well, and then I caught up with someone else. Actually I caught up with I'll tell you how I did. Catch up with Penny Moody, who is Hugh Van Kylenberg's wife, and she wrote a book that I haven't read, The Joy Thief, And you know, just to meet Penny and just like
you'd introduce yourself, Hi, Hey, going yeah, do you have OCD? Yeah? Do you have both? Oh yeah? And we're comparing stories, you know, of our adolescents and a lot of stories that I'm not going to miss mentioned on your podcast. But gee, it was, you know, going back to what
we're talking about about caring. I mean, you just you didn't have to meet everyone in the audience or those that were performing to know that, you know, there was a lot of a whole lot of care, whole lot of compassion and empathy and love, yeah, love in the room.
Can I ask where are you at? With that? Now? I don't even really know the right question, but I know that when you were a kid, which we spoke about quite a bit with Melissa in that episode. I might try and find that episode and shout it out to you everyone, because it's just that was such a great, insightful, fascinating, vulnerable chat that we had around Brad's teenage years and other years. But so, if let's say that your OCD was at a ten, then where are you at now?
If that's not a stupid question?
No, no, it's not a stupid question. To be quite honest, it's a ten, but daily it's a three or a four because I now take medication right every day and just highlighting even to me the power of our minds, our brains and the way we think. Until I took medication, I was never ever, ever, ever ever able to break my rituals or say to myself, no, no, it's just in my head. Don't worry about it. I just I couldn't.
It was just too overwhelming. Whereas now I take medication every day, and even when I am being very anxious and I can sort of feel some of those rituals or thoughts beers coming on, I'm able to go, hey, this will pass. This is uncomfortable, but it will pass. And you know, for those of those people listening that know exactly what I'm talking about, I actually just I saw this pop up on Instagram today and I thought, Wow, this really does sum it up, and it was where
is it from? It was from navigating OCD. OCD can make you doubt number one, your memories, to your morality, your relationships, your sexuality, your diagnosis, your reality, your mind, your identity, your sanity, number ten, absolutely everything, and every
one of those ten I know I've experienced every one. Wow, And you know what the reality is my you know, my psychiatrist said I was sort of severe to sort of mid range, and you know, I am acutely aware that there's a whole lot of people with OCD that is so so debilitating that you know, they can't get out of the house or it's a real struggle go I know, back pre medication, just getting out of the house and checking everything. You know, the stove. I checked
the stove, I don't know, fifty times. Then you finally get out of the house, you lock the door, check the doors locked twelve times. And then I get ten meters down the road and I go but what is the stove really off? Yeah? And then I go back again. And this those people that know exactly what I'm talking about, this is every day of your life. And I was my psychiatrist describe me as like I was a high functioning someone who suffered from OCD. I managed to hide it.
But you know, here's something I really only thought about recently. And this might sound bonkers, and I don't use that word. I use it in an endearing kind of way because I've sort of got to laugh sometimes because it helps me deal with it. But all those years of sitting on a news desk, when I was sitting next to someone, you know what, it was good when there was a breaking story, and you know, I was very busy and I had to rewrite things and so forth, because it
would take my mind away from my anxiety. But one of the thoughts that would consume me often was I'd sit up on the desk and I'd have a very random, disturbing thought where I'd think, imagine if I just went crazy. Now, imagine if I just, you know, attacked someone. Now, I've never hurt anyone in my life, and I never would physically. I'm no way, I just I just will not accept
violence in any any form. But you know, here I am up, the camera's about to go on to me, and the news reader says, now with the sports Brad, And I've got this going over and over in my head, thinking what is wrong with me? What is wrong with me? Why am I thinking that? Would I actually do that? Surely I'd never do that. Now, after talking to mental health professionals for a number of years, almost every time the thought never actually happens. Yes, and most of us,
I think, have these very random thoughts. But when you have OCD, it you can't stop thinking about it, and it really disturbs you because you start thinking like that list I said, who am I? What am I do I want to hurt? No? I don't. But the random thoughts that so many people on the planet can dismiss, those of us with OCD, we can't. We find it really really really hard. So you know what I tell anyone,
I take medication every day. And you know, I have had a couple of experiences where older people say look at me and go, well you tell people that, and I'm like, well, yeah, it's not my fault. That's the way I was born, like just like I was born with red air and lots. Actually I wasn't born with the freckles. They came once I popped out into the sun.
But it is who I am. And you know what we talk about being just by the fact that I talk about my anxiety and my mental health and taking medication daily, I don't need people driving around or listening to this podcast at home or while they're walking whatever. I don't need them to say, hey, thank you. You have just put a smile on my face. You've made me feel better. I feel like you and I have a connection. I know that that's how a lot of people are going to feel because that's how I feel.
Wow, can I ask with so? Firstly, when I think about by the way, if you if you don't know who Brad is, some of you won't. So Brad work for a long time on Channel ten. It was doing the sport and was it national or just Victoria.
Well it was Victoria. But then I hosted Sports Tonight out of Sydney for seven years with my dear buddy Sandra Sully, who I caught up with last Friday. We co hosted the Chamberlain Foundation Ray Chamberlain and his brothers Brian and Peter. They do a lot of great work raising money and awareness around mental health. And Ray said, oh, gee, ten years when Norly have a lunch, you know, the
dream would be, let's have a black tied dinner. And I wonder if we could get you and Sandra back together and just highlighting what a beautiful person Sandra is. I said, Hey, what do you think of this? Sandra goes, yeah, cool, great. So she flew down here. No, it wasn't paid or anything. Flew down Friday night. We were at the Ritz Carlton and we had a fantastic night. We raised a whole lot of money. But you know, Sandra and I have these conversations. You know, it's just really really.
I love it. I love it. I love Ray. By the way, He's been on the show a couple of times and we've caught up for a coffee or two he's a good human. I wanted to ask. Yeah, like,
it amazes me that you had that. You know, the story about that some people would have just heard for the first time with the stove on and off fifty times and the door twelve times, driving down the road and not fucking l was the actual And then back then the guy who's well for at least seven years, but twenty or twenty five years on TV all up or whatever it was, but in front of a national audience, like for the average punter who doesn't have anxiety, who
doesn't have OCD, For the average punter, that would be fucking paralyzingly terrifying. But the guy with OCD and anxiety does that seemingly effortlessly.
Yeah, it's a bit like a duck though on the water, isn't it underneath? You know, there's a fair bit going on. But you know, you touched on me. People might see what I did from their living rooms and and I'm on the TV. But anxiety is what I was battling. There are people listening they too, probably everyone, in fact, everyone at some point in their lives is also battling stumpthing. Yes,
it might be a number of different things. And you know that quote about everyone is battling something that we can't see, we don't know about, Well, that was mine. And you know, I paint the picture of the difficult days. You know, there were far more great days, and the glorious days far out white weighed the really difficult days. And I remember sitting with my psychiatrist one day and she looked at me, and it was quite funny, actually, because I always try and to have a good laugh
when we're in there. She said, Brad, why have you done anything about this till now? And I said, you know why? Because it was my normal. I didn't know anything else. It's like if somebody had told me since I was a kid and forever in a day, this guy's actually green, and I'd say yeah, but and they go no, no, no, no, I know you think that color is blue, but it's actually really green. Who am I to question that?
Yes? Yeah, yeah, you know that's that's your normal, that's your that's my normal.
You know in high school, you know, I have this thing where and I sort of still do. Actually, I mean most of my my rituals they're still there, but they they are softened considerably through the through the medication. I remember getting up a couple of years ago for a walk. Maybe I was walking to the gym so there, that would have been a while ago. And it was like it was five thirty in the morning and for a walk, and I got home it was about an
hour and twenty walk. And I thought, this particular morning, I thought, you know what, from the time I get up to the time I get back from the walk, checking things. If I walked to the left of the post, something will happen to Maum. If I walk to the right of the post, something will happen to my sister. Therefore, I can't win. And these things are going on while
I'm out walking. I think I got home and I think there was something like seventy odd instances or moments that morning, And that was before seven o'clock where I actually was in my own little world orchard thinking I have to make a choice here. And the reality is none of it was real, but in my head it
was real. And then, you know, prior to leaving media, and then I go into work and talk about the your story of the day or the cricket story of the day, and and you know, one thing I want to emphasize, Craig, this is not well with me, far from it. But my whole point about talking about my lift experience is I know how it much it helps
other people. And for those people out there that have OCD, or have a family member or a friend someone that really struggles with OCD, you know, I'm sending you big hugs. And if you ever see me, just dick, just maybe let me know first, and then just hey, I'm a hugger. I'm a hugger, and you know, if I can ever help with anything, I'll always help, always help.
And if you can, everyone come up from behind and just spoon it in a big spoon, little spoon. So when you're going to do something like this, which is very very underwhelming compared to television, and you're talking to an old friend and it's the you know, next to no pressure. But when you're doing something like this and we're jumping on the call at three point thirty and it's three twenty five, is there any apprehension, any anxiety, any rumination or zero?
Zero? Yeah, great, zero, Because this is I'm talking to someone I've known for coming up twenty coming up three decades. We're talking about something I'm passionate about I don't I'm not frantically running around the newsroom getting a story prepared for the news. And don't get me wrong, I really really enjoyed that for the vast majority of my time in in media, and I'm helping people as well. So and the sun shining through the window. I just had a really lovely coffee. I think I'll go for a
swim later. I won't begun to the gym, but I think I'll go for a swim. And that's one thing I find as I get older. You know, I spoke at the start, you asked me what grounds me? You know, I'll I'll walk home from the pool. And it's weird, isn't to think that I haven't been in the pool as much or hardly ever, to be honest, But I would say, let's throw out a number. If I've had a swim three hundred thousand, seven hundred and sixty four times in my life, I have got out of the
pool and felt better physically and significantly mentally. I have felt better on every occasion. Wow, and big problems beforehand were now little problems. And the bird song was just that bit louder and I was noticing just the wind just sort of passing around me and through the trees, and I would notice people smiling. Yeah, and you can never underestimate just to smile what it does, you know.
I was at a Beyond Blue event last year and a woman was talking about, you know, she had struggled with severe depression since before she was a teenager, and she said, you know, on the days and weeks where she's at her worst, it's the people around her, usually complete strangers, that give her the confidence and the trust that things will be good again. The people that wave good morning, hello, how are you going have a great day.
It's those little morsels of of kindness that get her through the darkest periods.
Hmmm, yeah, I love that. We've got to start to wind up, But you better tell us what you're doing now, because I mean, we've had a we've had a good update. But what's got your attention and what's got your energy these days?
Well? Isn't it funny how the way life works and people listening know that, you know, sometimes you do things and it just doesn't sort of jel it doesn't quite feel right. And you know what I'm doing now? And I would say, this is by far the most rewarding and enjoyable activity I've ever done in my life. I'm essentially doing I'm creating TV shows. Well I wouldn't TV shows. Elements of TV shows just about people. So and what it came about. It's called UNI And in this instance
the subheading is stories, so it's universal stories. So why owe you like that you project? This is universal stories? So it's meeting people and finding it about their stories. You know a lot of the topics are universal love, you know, family, food, this, travel, work. But what I love is everyone has a unique story. And what I'm focused on when I'm interviewing someone, I am purely focused on them. So if I'm talking to you, I'm focused
on you, hence the name universal. So what I do is I go out and you know, it's normally parents or grandparents who you know, I suppose you know in their latter years, and it came about. I'd love to say, Craig that it was my idea, but a friend back home wrang me out of the blue a couple of years ago and said, would you be interested in interviewing mum and dad? Now we did, and his father has since passed and then his cousin contacted me a couple of months later and I'm like, oh, you were talking
to Stuart he won the same thing. And he goes, no, what and I said no, no, no, no, hang on, hang on, you're telling me you've just thought of this as well. He goes yeah, and then he couldn't believe it that when his cousin had asked me to do the same thing, and then another mate asked me to do it, and it was that mate that said, hey, look, I think I think if this is something that you really wanted to sink your teeth in, people are going to love it.
And it all came about because that initial friend, Cray, your friend of his, said that, you know, he doesn't have regrets in life except for one, and that was that he didn't he didn't capture his mum and dad on camera. Their personality is then does the stories while they were here and they have since passed away. So now, to be quite frank, what do I do I have afternoon tea or morning tea with people? Now there's a
food element here because I do love my food. We were thinking of calling it a Slice of Life, but it's universal stories, but we always start with a slice of life because it's a slice of their life, and so I get to try lots of different food, I meet people. If anyone is interested, you can just jump on the website Universal dot com dot au Yo Universal. You can contact me that way and go to the bottom. You'll see an interview that it's just a snippet of
a lovely couple. I met Colin and Peter. I only met him probably between half an hour and an hour beforehand, and we spoke for over an hour. And then what we do We package it up. We have an intro, we have animation, we use music, and it's I'm lucky to have those contacts from a time in media. So Mel the guru editor, we work together Channel ten her life partner Craig Day production company. He's a done Cameron works on shows like The Block and Master Chef Berg
is the gun animator. My partner Cassie is a graphic designer. So we're all working together. Two well, we say that anyone make the day of it, like, invite other family members and that along. Because so therefore we can document old memories and at the same time create new ones. And the best bit of all I find, and I'm really looking forward to be chatting to more and more friends,
particularly hearts in rural Victoria. Rural Australia always will be is when I catch up with mates at home who are off the good Irish Catholic stock, you know, the Ryan's, the TUIs O'Brien's, and if it's not their immediate siblings, it might be their parents' siblings and they could be one of eight, ten, twelve, fourteen, you know with what we're doing. The reality is these stories they're not four
really the parents or the grandparents. They're for the children, the grandchildren, the great grandchildren going forward, and therefore it's the entire family that invests in it.
Mate, just tell everyone that website again so they can go and have a.
Squizz Universal dot com dot Au. You'll see the logo. Why don't you look it up, Craig, then you can see exactly what I'm talking about.
All right, well you just entertime the masses. I'm going to jump on right now because I've have three screens on my one screen, well, Brad, so it looks very good, so everyone Www. Yet very functional, very clean. I like a good clean website www y o Universal after that, So it's you Universal dot com dot au stories about capturing your loved ones on camera forever. We come to you here and record priceless tales, anecdotes, life lessons and
package it up for future generation. Good idea, mate, good idea, good service. Oh there's a little video at the bottom. Nice scrolling. It's still I'm going to say, I'm going to say it's a work in progress. But what's there looks good and.
All the stuff thanks to you, brutal honesty.
Well, the feed it literally says, it literally says at the bottom comes soon.
Yeah, it actually says that at the top two if you were But you know, it's one of those ones where you know, when people talk about you sort of just get into it. You feel like, maybe are you
ready now? The website's not finished, but the feedback has just been so overwhelming and people saying, oh, fantastic, fantastic, And the reality is, you know what, our parents and for those that are lucky enough to have grandparents or older relatives, and you know what, it might be some It might be a cousin that is going you know, has a battle. It could be a friend, it could be a volunteer at your sporting club. They deserve to have their story told.
Make a good idea. All up here for thinking. My mum says, well, good luck with all of that, and thanks for coming to have a chat again. We need to make it like a little bit shorter time frame next time, as in not five years or three years apart.
Yeah. Well, if I was just waiting for the invitation.
It's just been sitting by the phone.
All right, mate.
We appreciate you. Thank you so much for coming to play on the You project again. I'll talk to you soon. We need to have a coffee and we'll get together again on the show.
Thanks mate. Yeah, and you know I'm going to finish with what I call the power of the compliment. Well done, Craig. You know the amount of people that you are helping just by just chatting and putting yourself out there, So to you and Melissa, and you know, I get feedback from other people just saying that, you know, like the medication helps me and friends and family help me. You are helping a whole lot of people through this medium. So well done, mate, It's great work.
Thank you mate. I genuinely appreciate that I have a go all right, buddy, I'll talk to you soon, right, Thanks Craig,