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Speaker 1: I'll get a welcome to another installment of the show.

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Speaker 1: I hope you're bloody great. It's it's Monday. It's Monday Vo.

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Speaker 1: It's just hit the AVO. It's thirty three past the

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Speaker 1: point where it becomes the AARVO. Tiffany and Cook and

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Speaker 1: Matt are on the call. We'll get to mad in

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Speaker 1: a moment. But the girl over there with the biceps

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Speaker 1: who likes punching people in the face and was quite

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Speaker 1: chuffed on the weekend because someone asked her if she

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Speaker 1: was about to go in a bodybuilding show. So the ego,

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Speaker 1: So the whole Dalai Lama thing, the whole kind of

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Speaker 1: serenity humility thing from India, that's well and truly gone.

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Speaker 2: Hey, I think it's the della alarmaed biceps. He'd give

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Speaker 2: them a little flex as well. I reckon he give

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Speaker 2: them a little flex.

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Speaker 1: Imagine that if the Delai Lama got on the fucking

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Speaker 1: on the gear to get.

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Speaker 2: It on the gear, settle down down.

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Speaker 1: I didn't say you were anyone, but imagine if you

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Speaker 1: got on and yeah, imagine. I don't think that's going

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Speaker 1: to happen, though. I think he's a little bit more

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Speaker 1: evolved than you and I. How are you? Tiffany?

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Speaker 2: Very very well, thank you.

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Speaker 1: How's your Monday morning been?

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Speaker 3: It's been good.

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Speaker 2: Monday morning's always busier morning with clients, but I had

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Speaker 2: a little gap this morning, so I got to do

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Speaker 2: a little bit of training, a little bit of fun

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Speaker 2: training myself in between, and I like Mondays.

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Speaker 3: They're busy, but they're good. I don't know.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, good, that's good. What about you, Matt, how's

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Speaker 1: your morning been?

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Speaker 4: Sunshine? Yeah, a heartskit A. Tiffany, my morning's been great.

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Speaker 4: It's sunny here in Horsham, so it's a hot one. Yeah,

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Speaker 4: being busy, a couple of zoom calls this morning, but

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Speaker 4: I actually had some time to go for a little

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Speaker 4: walk before it heats up too much, so that was great.

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Speaker 3: So I loven't it And just on the bysets, Tiffany.

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Speaker 4: When I met you in person for the first time

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Speaker 4: at the mine Ash Health goer, you know, I've got

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Speaker 4: four percent vision in one life six percent of the

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Speaker 4: other eye, and I could see your bysets, So yeah,

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Speaker 4: you're kicking goals.

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Speaker 1: I feel validated. Wow, wow, you do. So the guy

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Speaker 1: who can hardly see has seen your biceps and been impressed.

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Speaker 1: She'll be out of control all day. Now, mate, you

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Speaker 1: shouldn't have told her that. Now.

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Speaker 3: I saw a tiff, and I'm like, this is a

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Speaker 3: woman you don't want to mess with.

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Speaker 1: That is you're not totally wrong with that. But she

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Speaker 1: can be either intimidating or a big basket case in

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Speaker 1: the corner just sucking her thumb. I mean she alternates

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Speaker 1: between those two.

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Speaker 2: Well, that was that was a red carpet event, so

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Speaker 2: I was I was very much the second option there.

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Speaker 2: I was a bit, you know, out of my comfort zone.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, did you wear how exciting?

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Speaker 1: What did you well? What did both of you? I

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Speaker 1: can't imagine. Sorry, man, I mean, you know, like you're

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Speaker 1: an impressive young man, but red carpet? What did you both?

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Speaker 1: What did you both wear? Tiff? Did you have to

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Speaker 1: rent something or did you look right in the back

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Speaker 1: of the cupboard.

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Speaker 2: I had to go out shopping. I bought myself a

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Speaker 2: silky black jumpsuit, so it was you know, I mean,

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Speaker 2: you can get away with a jumpsuit. I did have

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Speaker 2: a mini breakdown about frocking up, so I met in

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Speaker 2: the middle and I think I threw some red lippyon.

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Speaker 2: If I remember correctly, red lippy.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, like a grown up. And what about you, Sunshine,

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Speaker 1: just a black suit, just like a straight up pembe.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I went and bought it.

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Speaker 4: A new tuxedo for myself, so I treated myself. I thought, Oh,

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Speaker 4: first event Crown Casino got to look the part. So no,

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Speaker 4: I got the full tucks, the shiny shoes, the whole

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Speaker 4: kitten kaboodle.

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Speaker 3: I felt like I was at the brown Low Medal.

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Speaker 3: So it was a great night.

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Speaker 1: That's hilarious. Has anyone ever told you you'd be quite

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Speaker 1: good on radio? You've got a good voice, Matt.

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Speaker 4: I have been told I've had a great face for

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Speaker 4: radio for many years, so who knows. I actually did

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Speaker 4: a radio course with Vision Australia earlier this year, so

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Speaker 4: that was really exciting. And yeah, jumped on a few

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Speaker 4: podcasts over the years. Me and a mate used to

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Speaker 4: do a podcast years ago, so I have done the

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Speaker 4: speaking for quite a while.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, I have heard that in the past, for sure, but.

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Speaker 4: It's usually always been the term you've got a good

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Speaker 4: face for radio.

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Speaker 1: Tell them to fuck off. Man, you're a good look

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Speaker 1: I wish I wish I looked as good as you look.

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Speaker 1: Sun't worry, Oh.

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Speaker 4: So.

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Speaker 1: Do we call you Matt, Mattie, Matthew, is it just Matt?

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Speaker 3: Just call me Matt. Yeah, you can call me Matt,

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Speaker 3: you can call me whatever.

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Speaker 4: Really, but yeah, I do double trouble to tease, but yeah,

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Speaker 4: anything but late for dinner.

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Speaker 1: You can call me and tell us give my audience

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Speaker 1: a little bit about the Matt de Grucci story, like

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Speaker 1: just to give them an insight into who you are

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Speaker 1: and a little bit of your backstory.

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Speaker 4: Mate, Yeah, for sure, So get everyone. And my name

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Speaker 4: is Matt de Gricci. I'm currently twenty eight years of age,

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Speaker 4: and I am a blindness and disability advocate. I also

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Speaker 4: do some subcontracts consulting with lived experience experts, so that's

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Speaker 4: really exciting and it's all in the disability and inclusion space.

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Speaker 4: But how I got there was when I was about

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Speaker 4: six to seven. It was probably just in the early

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Speaker 4: ages of grade three grade four at school. My parents

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Speaker 4: first started noticing I was bringing my school work back

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Speaker 4: home and I didn't complete it in class. So I

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Speaker 4: wasn't completing my assignments in class, and I also was

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Speaker 4: looking a.

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Speaker 3: Lot closer at it than what my peers were.

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Speaker 4: So that was met with a little bit of skepticism,

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Speaker 4: but we went to some appointments. I was given bifocal glasses,

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Speaker 4: misdiagnosed with dyslexia, you name it, I had the work.

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Speaker 4: So this went on for probably about the best part

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Speaker 4: of two years, maybe around eight eight months, and this

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Speaker 4: was lots of different appointments. So in a nutshell, the

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Speaker 4: disease that I have is stargarts, which I'll get to

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Speaker 4: in a sec but at the time when I was diagnosed,

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Speaker 4: it was quite hard for the standard optometrists just to

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Speaker 4: have a look in the back of someone's eye and go, okay,

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Speaker 4: that's Stargart's disease. So it was quite hard to sort

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Speaker 4: of pinpoint. So that's where I had a few misdiagnosises.

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Speaker 4: But anyway, going on, about a few months later, we

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Speaker 4: went to this appointment and there was this optometrist and

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Speaker 4: he goes, nah, nah, I reckon, you're just faking it.

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Speaker 3: You're a bit of an attention seeker.

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Speaker 4: Wouldn't really take me seriously, didn't want to do a

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Speaker 4: half assed test in his opinion.

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Speaker 3: I don't know where he got that from.

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Speaker 4: And yeah, he turned and he looked at my mum

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Speaker 4: and he said, well, if your son can't read this,

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Speaker 4: he must be a retard. I was about eight years old,

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Speaker 4: and I've just been labeled there a retide by someone

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Speaker 4: that you kind of look up to, someone that's going

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Speaker 4: to help you and you fix this vision. Because at

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Speaker 4: the time, I kind of thought, yeah, i'd have a

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Speaker 4: few appointments, I'll get this eye problem sorted out, and

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Speaker 4: then I'll go about my way. I'll keep watching the Simpsons,

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Speaker 4: I'll keep living me life. I didn't really actually think

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Speaker 4: that there would be any weight to what would actually

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Speaker 4: happen in the future, so that was a pretty confronting experience.

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Speaker 3: But I still hadn't had my diagnosis yet.

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Speaker 4: And then I did meet a lovely fresh Outer University ophthalmologist.

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Speaker 4: She had just studied Stargarts disease, which is the disease

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Speaker 4: that I have. So that is how I actually found

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Speaker 4: or got my diagnosis. I went to an optometrist and

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Speaker 4: she found that the yellow like flaky specks in the

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Speaker 4: back of my eye, which is a build up of

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Speaker 4: vitamin A. So, in very simple terms, my Stargars disease

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Speaker 4: is affected by the build up of vitamin A. So

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Speaker 4: I'm sure we've all heard over the years the expression

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Speaker 4: your carrots are really good for your eyes.

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Speaker 3: I'm sure we've all heard that one. Well, actually not

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Speaker 3: in my situation.

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Speaker 4: So my eyes can't break down vitamin A that builds up,

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Speaker 4: it turns into this yellow like bugger substance in the

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Speaker 4: back of my eye, and that's what kills off the cells.

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Speaker 4: But anyway, got the diagnosis eventually, and it was really

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Speaker 4: like at that time a switch turning off. That's when

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Speaker 4: the visual degeneration started to happen quite rapidly. And I

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Speaker 4: really did shut down because I saw around me in

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Speaker 4: the very early days when I did go to a

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Speaker 4: few different excursions and experiences that were meant to kind

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Speaker 4: of get you prepared for losing vision, and I noticed

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Speaker 4: there was this bubble wrapp or a gold star approach.

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Speaker 4: It was kind of like, oh, here's your gold staff

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Speaker 4: for participation, but not really getting the real go at things.

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Speaker 4: And that really scared me because I just wanted to

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Speaker 4: have a normal crack at things. I just wanted to

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Speaker 4: do what I wanted to do and not sort of

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Speaker 4: be sugarcoated.

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Speaker 3: So I actually, yeah, really doubled down and hid my disabilities.

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Speaker 4: So throughout my school schooling years up until the age

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Speaker 4: of probably sixteen, when I couldn't really hide my disability anymore.

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Speaker 4: It was the age where everyone's getting their license, like

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Speaker 4: getting a taste of that freedom and go and driving.

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Speaker 4: And here I was and people are asking me, well,

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Speaker 4: why don't you have your l plates matter? Why aren't

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Speaker 4: you doing this? And initially I'm not ashamed and saying it.

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Speaker 4: Initially I would actually just make up white lives. I'd

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Speaker 4: just say, oh, I just haven't got any l plates yet,

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Speaker 4: or I just haven't done.

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Speaker 3: It yet, or you know, I'll get there eventually.

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Speaker 4: But it all stemmed from shame, Like I felt really

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Speaker 4: guilty and shameful for having something ute wrong with me.

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Speaker 4: But I didn't actually put on myself. But that's how

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Speaker 4: I felt at the time. I really had this victim

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Speaker 4: mindset that I was a bad person, having something wrong

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Speaker 4: with me that was never my first, like my choice

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Speaker 4: in the beginning in the first place. And that was

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Speaker 4: really my mindset. Really was like a light's on, but

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Speaker 4: no one's home kind of deal.

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Speaker 3: And it really was. It was sugarcoated, it was the

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Speaker 3: bubble wrap. It was all that sort of stereotypical stuff

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Speaker 3: that really scared me. And yeah, it shut down.

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Speaker 4: It was kind of like the I guess in a way,

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Speaker 4: it's like the five stages of grief, like get into

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Speaker 4: the acceptance of my blindness, because early on I was

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Speaker 4: very very much in denial, so I would not believe

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Speaker 4: that I was going blind. And you know, I would

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Speaker 4: pick up a can of you know, I could be

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Speaker 4: a can of soft drink, or it could be a

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Speaker 4: bottle of water, and I would turn it over to

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Speaker 4: the back of the label, and I.

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Speaker 3: Would really strain my eyes, almost to the point where

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Speaker 3: I'd give myself a migrain and like tears in my eyes.

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Speaker 3: I would strain that much.

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Speaker 4: And it was kind of to trick myself into thinking

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Speaker 4: that if I could strain enough and be able to

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Speaker 4: see one of the words, oh, yep, I'm fine, I

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Speaker 4: don't have Stargut's disease, and then this big bad dream

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Speaker 4: would be over. That's how my brain functioned at the time.

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Speaker 4: So I went through the denial and then you know,

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Speaker 4: obviously you kind of realize, wow, I am still losing

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Speaker 4: my vision, Like this isn't going away. So you go through,

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Speaker 4: you know, the angry stage. You're really angry and resentful

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Speaker 4: and feel like the woe is me, this happened to me,

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Speaker 4: This is so unfair, and then you kind of, you know,

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Speaker 4: you do go into the bargaining stage where you kind

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Speaker 4: of try and like trick yourself and you're like, Okay, well,

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Speaker 4: if I do this, then I'm still independent, or if

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Speaker 4: I do that, and then I would kind of then

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Speaker 4: actually not ask for the supports that I needed. So

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Speaker 4: in turn of still made me struggle a bit because

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Speaker 4: I couldn't actually absorb or take in the information on

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Speaker 4: the whiteboard or the blackboard at school. And that was

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Speaker 4: so bad that even a teacher on my last day

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Speaker 4: of school didn't even know that I was legally blind

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Speaker 4: and losing my vision. That's how good I wasn't hiding

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Speaker 4: my disability. So I got through all those stages very

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Speaker 4: very poor mental health.

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Speaker 3: So it actually led us to it.

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Speaker 4: It was a family style intervention that around the age

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Speaker 4: of yeah, getting your license, saying a load of freedom.

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Speaker 4: I was really, yeah, a shell of the person that

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Speaker 4: I was as a kid, and yeah, it was a

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Speaker 4: family style intervention. I got the canceling sessions. I think

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Speaker 4: I got ten free canceling sessions that was at the time,

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Speaker 4: which you could get through your GPS and honestly, that

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Speaker 4: was that was such a shift in mindset. One of

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Speaker 4: the things I remember from that time, and it's funny

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Speaker 4: because I don't actually drive a car, but my cancelor

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Speaker 4: got me to draw a picture of me in the

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Speaker 4: driver's seat, taking the power back the steering wheel and

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Speaker 4: taking control of my own life and what.

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Speaker 3: I wanted to do. And it was all a metaphor,

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Speaker 3: but it was so powerful.

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Speaker 4: And I actually even got back into drawing because that

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Speaker 4: was a skill that I guess I hadn't lost. I

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Speaker 4: was still quite artistic and creative, but I just stopped

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Speaker 4: doing it once I started to lose my vision because yeah,

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Speaker 4: prior to diagnosis as a youngster, very very very active,

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Speaker 4: very creative arts and crafts, all that stuff, and I

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Speaker 4: really shut down and just stopped doing all of the

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Speaker 4: things that I enjoyed as in my teenage years. So

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Speaker 4: getting to that step of acceptance was probably the biggest

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Speaker 4: thing for me, being able to accept my disability, because

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Speaker 4: then that gave me the power to not have the fear,

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Speaker 4: not have the anxiety of thinking almost holding on to

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Speaker 4: that hope of a cure, because that really was the

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Speaker 4: that yet shut me down.

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Speaker 3: I would google Stargart's disease.

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Speaker 4: I would be google and research and it was all

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Speaker 4: with the sort of mindset of denial. It was me

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Speaker 4: wanting to get rid of this so then I could

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Speaker 4: go back to living my old life, rather than just

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Speaker 4: accepting it and being like, Okay, this is a deck

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Speaker 4: of cars. I've gotten life, and this is what I

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Speaker 4: want to do with it. So yeah, in a nutshell

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Speaker 4: getting myself to a place like that. I've started to

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Speaker 4: share my story. I do keynote presentations at schools and

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Speaker 4: stuff like that, and it's all happened pretty unconsciously because

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Speaker 4: I never thought I would ever do speaking.

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Speaker 3: I never thought that.

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Speaker 4: I never put myself out there like that. It was

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Speaker 4: actually a teacher in It might have been year eleven

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Speaker 4: at school and we were doing a high school musical

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Speaker 4: and he goes, you need to be the MC in

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Speaker 4: this musical. You need to be the disc jockey, and

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Speaker 4: I pushed back. I didn't want to do it. I remember,

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Speaker 4: right up to the last training sessions before we went

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Speaker 4: live with the musical, I even was full of anxiety.

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Speaker 4: I hadn't really learnt my lines and stuff. But I

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Speaker 4: went ahead and I did the musical and I did

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Speaker 4: really well, and I thought, oh wow, I might be

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Speaker 4: able to do a bit of speaking. And then this

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Speaker 4: was still when I hadn't told anyone about my blindness.

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Speaker 4: No one knew accept me initial family and made him

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Speaker 4: best made Ben. Apart from that, yeah, no one, So

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Speaker 4: kept going on with that, and then it was actually

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Speaker 4: Foundation Fighting Blindness that reached out wanted me to make

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Speaker 4: a short video. I did it, not really thinking that

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Speaker 4: it would have the impact that it did at the time.

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Speaker 4: So this has going back quite a few years ago.

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Speaker 4: This is before TikTok. This is back in the blog

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Speaker 4: post days of the early Facebook. So at the time

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Speaker 4: I did a video for the how You See a

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Speaker 4: campaign where I explained my condition, just the little tips

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Speaker 4: and tricks that I'm using in my life to get by,

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Speaker 4: and it kind of went viral at the time or

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Speaker 4: for what it was, And yeah, before I knew it,

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Speaker 4: I was going over to America and meeting the two

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Speaker 4: blind brothers who also have Stargarts disease, which was awesome

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Speaker 4: because apart from meeting one other person in Australia with

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Speaker 4: Stargarts and my sister who has been diagnosed in recent years,

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Speaker 4: I haven't actually met too many people with the same

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Speaker 4: disease that I've got. So to go over there and

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Speaker 4: meet two people that I look up to, that you know,

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Speaker 4: have just kicked goals in life. They've been on the

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Speaker 4: Ellen DeGeneres Show, and now you know, I'm doing a

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Speaker 4: presentation sort of thing alongside them. That was an incredible

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Speaker 4: experience and it really launched what I do now. So

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Speaker 4: MDV that's what I do now, that's my brand. It's

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Speaker 4: Matt de Bridge Vision and we hyphenated it. And it

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Speaker 4: started out just as a blog post.

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Speaker 3: I was on the way.

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Speaker 4: I was on the way to an ac DC concert

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Speaker 4: back in twenty sixteen, and I was still working at

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Speaker 4: a retail shop at that time. So I'd worked in

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Speaker 4: retail for about ten years. So I never let my

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Speaker 4: blinder stop me. I was always working. I was always hustling.

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Speaker 4: But I just wanted something more. I didn't want to

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Speaker 4: just be, you know, to check out chicks, so to speak.

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Speaker 4: I wanted to.

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Speaker 3: Do something more and real, non tokenistic.

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Speaker 4: Disability and inclusion training is my vibe, that's my niche.

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Speaker 4: So that's the direction that I headed in. And yeah,

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Speaker 4: it started off as a clothing brand. It really did,

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Speaker 4: selling a few t shirts, and you know, I would

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Speaker 4: pack all the orders up, and before I knew it, it

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Speaker 4: did start a little bit of a movement. I started

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Speaker 4: the campaign what makes You Visionary coincided with the ability

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Speaker 4: not disability, and everything centered around Yeah, taking the power

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Speaker 4: back and the focus away from putting all that energy

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Speaker 4: onto a disability and instead focusing on ability, because that's

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Speaker 4: where I've achieved the best things in my life is

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Speaker 4: when I haven't really focused about my blindness.

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Speaker 3: I don't wake up in the morning and.

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Speaker 4: Think, oh wow, I'm blind or I can't see, and yeah,

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Speaker 4: I might bump into a wall or make my morning

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Speaker 4: cup of coffee with orange juice instead of milk. But

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Speaker 4: like I still go, I do that quite often. I

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Speaker 4: do that more than I'd like to admit, I'll tell you.

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Speaker 4: But yeah, that's where the biggest achievements have happened in

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Speaker 4: my life is not yet not living my life conducted

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Speaker 4: by the thought and the label of oh I'm disabled

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Speaker 4: or I'm blind, and it's all focused on yet the ability.

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Speaker 4: And that's not to say that it takes away from equity.

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Speaker 4: Like we all need the supports to be able to

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Speaker 4: thrive in life. It's not to take away from anything,

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Speaker 4: because I still use heaps of technology. I'd be lost

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Speaker 4: without it. I use triple tag zoom on any computer device.

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Speaker 4: I use screen readers. I've recently partnered with a company

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Speaker 4: in the US called iris Vision, and they do headset

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00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:23,240
Speaker 4: technology with screens really close to your eyes. And because

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Speaker 4: I'm so close to my eyeballs, I can actually see

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Speaker 4: quite well. So I use technology. I use so many

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Speaker 4: devices so I can be able to do the things

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Speaker 4: that my peers do. But yeah, it's all with a

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Speaker 4: focus on ability, and you get that, you get the

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Speaker 4: job done. So in a nutshell, a very drawn out nutshell,

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Speaker 4: that's sort of what I do.

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Speaker 1: I don't think. I don't think you know what. I

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Speaker 1: don't think you know what a fucking nutshell is. Mane,

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Speaker 1: let's be honest, but no, that's amazing, that's no, honestly

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Speaker 1: all silliness. Guide. You're an inspiration. It's great, it's great.

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Speaker 4: And then yeah, I had the privilege of meaning Tiffany

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Speaker 4: back in May, so that's been fantastic.

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Speaker 2: Got to be the highlight, doesn't it.

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Speaker 3: Oh, definitely one of them for sure.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well mate, well mate, you are indeed in inspiration,

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Speaker 1: all right. Let me circle back and ask you a

378
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Speaker 1: few things. Thank you for that synopsis, that overview that.

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Speaker 1: It was great though, because I love it when I

380
00:17:18,800 --> 00:17:23,560
Speaker 1: can sit back and somebody can just share their story very,

381
00:17:24,840 --> 00:17:28,840
Speaker 1: very efficiently and effectively. All right, So tell me about

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00:17:29,520 --> 00:17:32,640
Speaker 1: tell me about the intervention. So like when we think

383
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Speaker 1: of interventions, we often think of somebody who's struggling with

384
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Speaker 1: addiction and the family comes in and goes, listen, Champ,

385
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Speaker 1: this is not working. You need to get your shit together,

386
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Speaker 1: or we need to get you in rehab or some

387
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Speaker 1: kind of therapy. What tell me about the intervention. What

388
00:17:51,560 --> 00:17:54,760
Speaker 1: led your family to do that, What was happening, and

389
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Speaker 1: how did you feel about that and respond to that?

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Speaker 1: And what did the intervention? I mean, you told us

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Speaker 1: a bit about sessions, but tell us about that point

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Speaker 1: in time.

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Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, for sure.

394
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Speaker 4: So the reason that started it is my mental health

395
00:18:08,600 --> 00:18:12,200
Speaker 4: was just bottom of the barrel. It was full depression,

396
00:18:12,280 --> 00:18:15,560
Speaker 4: full anxiety, and probably also OCD mixed in with that.

397
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Speaker 3: So I was very anxious and just very depressed. And

398
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Speaker 3: I also.

399
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Speaker 4: Really turned to food at that time as a coping mechanism.

400
00:18:22,600 --> 00:18:26,080
Speaker 4: I really sort of ate myself almost towards an early grave.

401
00:18:26,200 --> 00:18:29,200
Speaker 4: So at the time when the family intervention style thing

402
00:18:29,240 --> 00:18:31,880
Speaker 4: did happen, I was almost one hundred and fifty key lies.

403
00:18:31,920 --> 00:18:34,359
Speaker 4: In fact, I'd stopped weighing myself because the scale wouldn't

404
00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:34,960
Speaker 4: even weigh me.

405
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Speaker 3: So that's something I'm quite proud of.

406
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Speaker 4: Over recent years, I've really changed my lifestyle in health ways,

407
00:18:40,760 --> 00:18:44,879
Speaker 4: because yeah, throughout my teenage years I was very moraly obese,

408
00:18:44,920 --> 00:18:47,600
Speaker 4: and at that point I was just I was very sick.

409
00:18:47,640 --> 00:18:50,399
Speaker 4: I was living on three different pills a day just

410
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Speaker 4: to slow down my heart rate. So that's pretty scary

411
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Speaker 4: to be, you know, eighteen years old or seventeen years

412
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Speaker 4: old and to be on three.

413
00:18:57,600 --> 00:18:59,400
Speaker 3: Medications just to slow your heartbeat.

414
00:19:00,119 --> 00:19:02,600
Speaker 4: Was also taking i think two medications at the time

415
00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:05,600
Speaker 4: for blood pressure, which is just not a life to

416
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Speaker 4: be living. So I was incredibly anxious. I was incredibly depressed,

417
00:19:10,440 --> 00:19:13,879
Speaker 4: and the sort of well is me mentality about my blindness,

418
00:19:14,320 --> 00:19:16,000
Speaker 4: and then I guess, yeah, the comfort.

419
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Speaker 3: The comfort for that was the food.

420
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Speaker 4: So it was the overeating. So it was a combination

421
00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:23,720
Speaker 4: of so many things. It was definitely, yeah, some health

422
00:19:23,720 --> 00:19:27,600
Speaker 4: struggles and definitely mental health. But the conversation initially looked

423
00:19:27,720 --> 00:19:31,800
Speaker 4: like a conversation around the dinner table, and of course

424
00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:34,800
Speaker 4: when you know my parents, when my family voiced their

425
00:19:34,840 --> 00:19:37,840
Speaker 4: concerns and they wanted the best for me, of course

426
00:19:37,880 --> 00:19:39,920
Speaker 4: I pushed back. I didn't want to have the call

427
00:19:39,960 --> 00:19:42,280
Speaker 4: with the cancer. I didn't want to you know, I'm

428
00:19:42,359 --> 00:19:44,840
Speaker 4: fine all this and that everyone else is the issue.

429
00:19:44,880 --> 00:19:47,280
Speaker 4: I'm not the problem. Everyone else is the issue. That's

430
00:19:47,400 --> 00:19:48,560
Speaker 4: very much how I saw it.

431
00:19:49,080 --> 00:19:49,880
Speaker 3: But anyway, I.

432
00:19:49,840 --> 00:19:52,800
Speaker 4: Did persevere, and it wasn't It wasn't straight away. It

433
00:19:52,800 --> 00:19:55,840
Speaker 4: probably took me three or four weeks of me pushing

434
00:19:55,880 --> 00:19:57,719
Speaker 4: back and then maybe letting them in a little bit,

435
00:19:57,720 --> 00:19:58,040
Speaker 4: and then.

436
00:19:57,920 --> 00:19:59,200
Speaker 3: Pushing back a little bit more.

437
00:19:59,560 --> 00:20:01,879
Speaker 4: But event actually I did go to my first appointment,

438
00:20:02,440 --> 00:20:06,960
Speaker 4: and quite instantly I did feel very comfortable with the counselor.

439
00:20:07,040 --> 00:20:09,560
Speaker 4: She's an amazing woman, and even to this day I

440
00:20:09,600 --> 00:20:13,560
Speaker 4: still do have conversations and catch up, so probably more

441
00:20:13,600 --> 00:20:15,600
Speaker 4: so as a friend now in sort of the similar

442
00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:19,200
Speaker 4: fields and careers that we were in, but definitely an

443
00:20:19,200 --> 00:20:22,680
Speaker 4: incredible experience and the ten free sessions that worked out,

444
00:20:22,720 --> 00:20:25,320
Speaker 4: and I definitely I couldn't recommend it more. If it's

445
00:20:25,320 --> 00:20:27,920
Speaker 4: still a thing that is offered to people. It really

446
00:20:27,960 --> 00:20:31,560
Speaker 4: just allowed me to unpack some of the mindset shifts.

447
00:20:31,600 --> 00:20:33,679
Speaker 4: So you know, I didn't have the knowledge or the

448
00:20:33,720 --> 00:20:36,199
Speaker 4: skills to even understand that some of the reasons I

449
00:20:36,240 --> 00:20:39,119
Speaker 4: was acting was because of my anxiety or maybe some

450
00:20:39,200 --> 00:20:41,639
Speaker 4: of the thoughts and the opinions that I had for

451
00:20:41,840 --> 00:20:44,320
Speaker 4: possibly even been called a retard, or the four eyes,

452
00:20:44,400 --> 00:20:46,800
Speaker 4: or being bullied in school, like, there were so many

453
00:20:46,800 --> 00:20:49,240
Speaker 4: different things that I didn't even have knowledge or ways

454
00:20:49,240 --> 00:20:52,640
Speaker 4: to unpack. So being able to sit there and go, hmm,

455
00:20:53,359 --> 00:20:55,760
Speaker 4: I don't actually have to believe that, I don't have.

456
00:20:55,800 --> 00:20:58,119
Speaker 3: To assign meaning to that thought. I can just let

457
00:20:58,200 --> 00:20:58,679
Speaker 3: it pass.

458
00:20:59,040 --> 00:21:02,800
Speaker 4: Go about my dad because I guess, yeah, definitely definitely.

459
00:21:02,880 --> 00:21:05,439
Speaker 4: Back in my early teenage years and leading up to

460
00:21:06,119 --> 00:21:10,560
Speaker 4: my crisis, essentially, I would get latched on to every

461
00:21:10,680 --> 00:21:13,600
Speaker 4: thought and it would snowball and I would Yeah, I

462
00:21:13,640 --> 00:21:16,159
Speaker 4: was a hypochondriac. I was always concerned that I was

463
00:21:16,240 --> 00:21:19,159
Speaker 4: dying too. Yeah. I would always tell myself that I

464
00:21:19,240 --> 00:21:21,760
Speaker 4: was dying of lakemia, dying of a brain shreamer.

465
00:21:21,800 --> 00:21:24,080
Speaker 3: There were so many things that it was really.

466
00:21:23,880 --> 00:21:26,240
Speaker 4: Bad, that was so bad that I actually there was

467
00:21:26,280 --> 00:21:28,000
Speaker 4: one day I just had a little bit of dirt

468
00:21:28,040 --> 00:21:30,400
Speaker 4: on my arm. Now, obviously I do have low vision too,

469
00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:32,280
Speaker 4: so I might not seeing it as much. But I

470
00:21:32,359 --> 00:21:34,280
Speaker 4: went up to someone and I was like, look at

471
00:21:34,280 --> 00:21:35,400
Speaker 4: this bruise on my arm.

472
00:21:35,600 --> 00:21:38,720
Speaker 3: I've got cancer. I'm gonna die. Like that's how hysterical

473
00:21:38,760 --> 00:21:41,000
Speaker 3: I was. And someone just whiting the dirt off my

474
00:21:41,119 --> 00:21:42,359
Speaker 3: arm and they go, Matt, that's dirt.

475
00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:46,600
Speaker 4: So I was really, like I said earlier, it was

476
00:21:46,640 --> 00:21:49,280
Speaker 4: really like lights were on but no one was home,

477
00:21:49,400 --> 00:21:51,879
Speaker 4: Like I was just on autopilot of fight and flight

478
00:21:51,960 --> 00:21:52,720
Speaker 4: mode for sure.

479
00:21:53,160 --> 00:21:56,640
Speaker 1: That Matt, do you think thank you? Do you think that?

480
00:21:57,840 --> 00:22:01,840
Speaker 1: Because like you're a fucking may communicator dude, Like, I'm

481
00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:03,920
Speaker 1: sure you've been told that, and yeah, you can talk

482
00:22:03,960 --> 00:22:07,879
Speaker 1: well and you've got a good voice, but your ability

483
00:22:08,240 --> 00:22:11,240
Speaker 1: and I'm sure you've refined it over time, But for

484
00:22:11,280 --> 00:22:14,119
Speaker 1: a twenty eight year old navigating the world with a

485
00:22:14,200 --> 00:22:17,119
Speaker 1: disability and doing what you do and also with lots

486
00:22:17,119 --> 00:22:20,080
Speaker 1: of great abilities on top of your one disability, but

487
00:22:20,760 --> 00:22:24,520
Speaker 1: like you're an amazing communicator and share of thoughts and

488
00:22:24,600 --> 00:22:29,080
Speaker 1: ideas and storyteller. Do you think the fact that your

489
00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:33,200
Speaker 1: vision is so limited that all your other senses and

490
00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:38,679
Speaker 1: skills have kind of become better than Like I'm thinking

491
00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:41,760
Speaker 1: I wonder if this bloke could see normally, if it'd

492
00:22:41,800 --> 00:22:45,639
Speaker 1: be such a great communicator, because you have to rely

493
00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:51,000
Speaker 1: so much on listening, whereas we can. I always say

494
00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:53,400
Speaker 1: to people, and this is an indictment on me, I say,

495
00:22:53,480 --> 00:22:55,960
Speaker 1: pay attention to a little bit of what people say

496
00:22:56,400 --> 00:22:58,400
Speaker 1: and all of what they do. You know, like, I'm

497
00:22:58,400 --> 00:23:01,360
Speaker 1: more interested in what I see than what I hear sometimes,

498
00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:04,280
Speaker 1: But you don't have that luxury now. I feel like

499
00:23:04,359 --> 00:23:07,399
Speaker 1: the fact that you can't see what TIF and I

500
00:23:07,520 --> 00:23:11,040
Speaker 1: and most of our listeners can see. You've had developed

501
00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:15,800
Speaker 1: this like almost auditory superpower where you can hear but

502
00:23:15,880 --> 00:23:18,639
Speaker 1: also see with your ears, if you know what I mean, No,

503
00:23:18,880 --> 00:23:19,720
Speaker 1: one hundred percent.

504
00:23:19,760 --> 00:23:21,880
Speaker 4: And I love that you said that, because, in all honesty,

505
00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:24,160
Speaker 4: if I did have twenty twenty vision, I don't think

506
00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:26,840
Speaker 4: I would be as an effective as a communicator. I

507
00:23:26,880 --> 00:23:29,040
Speaker 4: don't even think I would be doing anything in the

508
00:23:29,080 --> 00:23:31,680
Speaker 4: sort of what I'm doing right now. So I actually

509
00:23:31,720 --> 00:23:34,160
Speaker 4: love that I've got Stargus's disease. I think it makes

510
00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:35,840
Speaker 4: me the person that I am today. I would never

511
00:23:35,960 --> 00:23:38,800
Speaker 4: change it for the world. So that's definitely a contrast

512
00:23:38,800 --> 00:23:39,840
Speaker 4: to years and years ago.

513
00:23:39,680 --> 00:23:41,960
Speaker 3: For sure. But as although it does.

514
00:23:42,040 --> 00:23:44,560
Speaker 4: It is meant to be a myth on paper that

515
00:23:44,600 --> 00:23:47,680
Speaker 4: you know, any other sense is enhanced because you lose one.

516
00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:50,200
Speaker 4: But for the people that I've spoken to and from

517
00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:53,399
Speaker 4: my own experience, I do think that it is true.

518
00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:55,920
Speaker 4: Like I definitely pick up on energy so much more

519
00:23:55,960 --> 00:23:58,359
Speaker 4: than I get I think other people do. Like so

520
00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:00,560
Speaker 4: when I walk into a room or if I'm doing

521
00:24:00,560 --> 00:24:04,720
Speaker 4: a presentation, I'm not seeing the facial expressions, I'm not

522
00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:07,480
Speaker 4: seeing the audience, so I'm picking up on vibe ships

523
00:24:07,520 --> 00:24:09,040
Speaker 4: and then I'm thinking, Okay, well this is where I

524
00:24:09,080 --> 00:24:10,760
Speaker 4: need to go with my story or this is where

525
00:24:10,800 --> 00:24:13,679
Speaker 4: I need to go now. So I'm a big believer,

526
00:24:13,720 --> 00:24:15,760
Speaker 4: and people will forget what you said, people will forget

527
00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:17,879
Speaker 4: what you tell them, but they'll never forget how you

528
00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:18,679
Speaker 4: made them feel.

529
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:21,040
Speaker 3: So I'm a big believer in that, and I guess

530
00:24:21,119 --> 00:24:21,840
Speaker 3: as far as.

531
00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:26,159
Speaker 4: The communication goes, it would be yeah, me ten thousand hours.

532
00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:28,240
Speaker 4: I'm a big believer in that. You've got a craft

533
00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:30,800
Speaker 4: that put your ten thousand hours in. I've been doing

534
00:24:30,840 --> 00:24:35,080
Speaker 4: this since twenty sixteen, probably on a professional scale since

535
00:24:35,119 --> 00:24:38,680
Speaker 4: twenty twenty. So yeah, working towards you always got more

536
00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:41,960
Speaker 4: to learn. I'll never ever leave a talk or I'll

537
00:24:41,960 --> 00:24:44,760
Speaker 4: never have a conversation with someone and think, oh wow,

538
00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:47,359
Speaker 4: I nailed that. If anything, I'm always going through and

539
00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:49,439
Speaker 4: thinking how can I make that better or how can

540
00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:51,359
Speaker 4: I learn more with that? Like I'm always wanted to

541
00:24:51,400 --> 00:24:53,800
Speaker 4: get better. I never sit back and think, oh, yeah,

542
00:24:53,840 --> 00:24:56,840
Speaker 4: that was bloody awesome. So I feel like that's a

543
00:24:56,880 --> 00:24:59,639
Speaker 4: good quality to have, probably as well, because I'm always

544
00:24:59,680 --> 00:25:03,080
Speaker 4: thinking and I'm maybe not like, not that great, So

545
00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:06,359
Speaker 4: then I'm trying to even become better, which is a

546
00:25:06,359 --> 00:25:12,000
Speaker 4: good still skill. But yeah, definitely, I definitely have what's

547
00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:15,040
Speaker 4: it cold? When it's hearing, but you can kind of

548
00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:17,200
Speaker 4: hear what you want to not hear. There's a word

549
00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:20,600
Speaker 4: for it, what's the cold. Selective hearing good one tip. Yeah,

550
00:25:20,640 --> 00:25:22,959
Speaker 4: I definitely have selective hearing. Don't get me wrong, but

551
00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:26,560
Speaker 4: I can definitely hear conversations that happening in other rooms

552
00:25:26,560 --> 00:25:28,680
Speaker 4: where other people would just go completely off the top

553
00:25:28,680 --> 00:25:31,040
Speaker 4: of their head. A few years ago, I was actually

554
00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:33,480
Speaker 4: on a trip with a bunch of friends and I

555
00:25:33,480 --> 00:25:36,159
Speaker 4: could just yeah, hear the conversation in the other room,

556
00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:37,719
Speaker 4: and I just made a funny joke and they were

557
00:25:37,760 --> 00:25:40,080
Speaker 4: blown away. To think that how did you hear that?

558
00:25:40,119 --> 00:25:40,919
Speaker 3: Are you like ears drop?

559
00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:43,199
Speaker 4: And I'm like, no, honestly, I'm just sitting here, but

560
00:25:43,240 --> 00:25:45,720
Speaker 4: I can hear it. And I just think that's because

561
00:25:45,760 --> 00:25:48,320
Speaker 4: I'm not giving much energy to my eyes. I really

562
00:25:48,640 --> 00:25:51,320
Speaker 4: it's hard to explain because people do think I still

563
00:25:51,359 --> 00:25:54,439
Speaker 4: really use my vision and what I can see, but

564
00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:57,280
Speaker 4: a lot of the time I am so on autopilot.

565
00:25:57,280 --> 00:25:59,800
Speaker 4: We're just getting from A to B, and I kind

566
00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:02,719
Speaker 4: of my bearings and I really do switch my eyes off.

567
00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:06,040
Speaker 4: I'm not really paying much attention to anything that's coming through,

568
00:26:06,640 --> 00:26:10,720
Speaker 4: and it is. It's all on sound and vibes, honestly,

569
00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:11,520
Speaker 4: sound and energy.

570
00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:16,320
Speaker 1: I think also, like you said that, maybe technically your

571
00:26:16,320 --> 00:26:19,719
Speaker 1: hearing doesn't get literally better, but I think what you

572
00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:24,320
Speaker 1: do with your hearing changes because you're not distracted by

573
00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:31,440
Speaker 1: seeing shits that like you are hanging. It's like if

574
00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:34,120
Speaker 1: I go I had this epiphany a few years ago, mate,

575
00:26:34,119 --> 00:26:35,639
Speaker 1: because I sit in front of a lot of people

576
00:26:35,640 --> 00:26:38,320
Speaker 1: and talk to a lot of people, and I realized that,

577
00:26:38,480 --> 00:26:41,320
Speaker 1: you know, there's a difference between being a good talker

578
00:26:41,359 --> 00:26:44,480
Speaker 1: and a great communicator. Right, A lot of people can talk,

579
00:26:45,040 --> 00:26:49,639
Speaker 1: but they're terrible at connection. And communication and creating a

580
00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:55,159
Speaker 1: great interpersonal experience. And I realized that I wasn't terrible

581
00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:56,960
Speaker 1: at my job, but I don't think I was great,

582
00:26:57,640 --> 00:27:03,040
Speaker 1: And I probably over talked a little bit, like I

583
00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:05,639
Speaker 1: think for me, if I'm coaching someone, if I'm one

584
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:08,120
Speaker 1: on one, it should be about ten percent me ninety

585
00:27:08,119 --> 00:27:11,560
Speaker 1: percent them in terms of the talk time, right, But

586
00:27:11,600 --> 00:27:14,320
Speaker 1: it was probably more like thirty seventy, so too much.

587
00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:18,920
Speaker 1: But also I realized that I wasn't always fully present.

588
00:27:19,080 --> 00:27:21,879
Speaker 1: And I can't remember what precipitated it, but I had

589
00:27:21,920 --> 00:27:25,040
Speaker 1: this moment where I went, how I'm become going to

590
00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:28,680
Speaker 1: become much better at this is by you know when

591
00:27:28,720 --> 00:27:31,199
Speaker 1: that hour starts or whatever the session is. You know,

592
00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:36,800
Speaker 1: it's like done over two thousand podcasts, right with this

593
00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:38,440
Speaker 1: show and some other shows that I did.

594
00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:42,000
Speaker 3: It's amazing effort, your kicking girls, many.

595
00:27:41,119 --> 00:27:45,000
Speaker 1: Thanks man, thanks, but just being able to go all right,

596
00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:49,160
Speaker 1: And I'm talking with Matt at twelve thirty, and at

597
00:27:49,200 --> 00:27:52,520
Speaker 1: twelve thirty, I'm fully present. I'm not looking at my phone,

598
00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:55,800
Speaker 1: I'm not thinking about other things. I'm not distracted like

599
00:27:56,200 --> 00:27:58,760
Speaker 1: you do your twelve or fifteen minute monologue at the start,

600
00:27:58,800 --> 00:28:02,439
Speaker 1: which I fucking loved. But I'm fully present, I'm writing notes,

601
00:28:02,520 --> 00:28:05,720
Speaker 1: I'm listening. And I think when you whatever it is,

602
00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:07,919
Speaker 1: whether it's with your hearing or your vision or some

603
00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:13,160
Speaker 1: other sense, but you you you can kind of fine

604
00:28:13,280 --> 00:28:15,880
Speaker 1: tune that, you can develop that and you block out

605
00:28:15,880 --> 00:28:17,880
Speaker 1: the shit that you don't need to hear or pay

606
00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:21,760
Speaker 1: attention to, and then like really focus and even though

607
00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:25,840
Speaker 1: you're technically you're hearing is not better, but you're actually

608
00:28:25,920 --> 00:28:28,720
Speaker 1: hearing a lot more because of what you're paying attention to.

609
00:28:29,119 --> 00:28:32,000
Speaker 1: Is that right? Or is that in the ballpark?

610
00:28:32,080 --> 00:28:34,119
Speaker 3: No, that's one hundred percent right, harps.

611
00:28:34,160 --> 00:28:36,920
Speaker 4: And also I'd like to elaborate that when I'm listening

612
00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:40,680
Speaker 4: to people talking, right, rather than my eyes catching the

613
00:28:40,760 --> 00:28:44,480
Speaker 4: visual cues, I'm actually app so, if anything, rather than

614
00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:47,680
Speaker 4: using my eyes, I'm also painting a picture to make

615
00:28:47,720 --> 00:28:50,840
Speaker 4: the story that that individual is telling me even clearer.

616
00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:55,360
Speaker 4: So I do think I sort of subconsciously, extremely actively

617
00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:58,040
Speaker 4: listen and I am painting a picture of the sort

618
00:28:58,040 --> 00:29:00,360
Speaker 4: of missing pieces of that puzzle, so to speak, in

619
00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:03,920
Speaker 4: my brain. But because yeah, I definitely believe when I

620
00:29:03,920 --> 00:29:05,920
Speaker 4: am in a lot of situations, I'm just there. I'm

621
00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:08,720
Speaker 4: in the room, I'm with the person, I'm not really

622
00:29:08,760 --> 00:29:11,000
Speaker 4: seeing too much, and for what I can see, it's

623
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:14,040
Speaker 4: nothing to really even Yeah, because it's so blurry, I'm

624
00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:14,920
Speaker 4: not really going to put my.

625
00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:15,800
Speaker 3: Energy towards that.

626
00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:18,280
Speaker 4: So I do think that allows me to be with

627
00:29:18,400 --> 00:29:22,840
Speaker 4: people or to kind of absorb more information than others,

628
00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:25,920
Speaker 4: because sometimes it might be a little bit overstimulating, so

629
00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:28,200
Speaker 4: a little bit of the information just goes over top

630
00:29:28,240 --> 00:29:29,760
Speaker 4: of people's heads that.

631
00:29:30,080 --> 00:29:34,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, what how can I ask you? Just I'm an

632
00:29:34,720 --> 00:29:37,840
Speaker 1: exercise scientist. I'm interested in the height and the physical

633
00:29:37,880 --> 00:29:40,960
Speaker 1: health and all that shit. Right, So how tall are you?

634
00:29:41,560 --> 00:29:41,920
Speaker 3: Oh?

635
00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:45,560
Speaker 4: I think I would be like maybe one seventy centimeters.

636
00:29:45,560 --> 00:29:47,320
Speaker 4: I would have to like measure myself.

637
00:29:47,880 --> 00:29:49,120
Speaker 3: Okay, so yeah.

638
00:29:48,920 --> 00:29:51,960
Speaker 1: At one round one, at one at one fifty, you're

639
00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:54,760
Speaker 1: at one hundred and fifty kilos. You're a very big boy, right.

640
00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:57,160
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, I was. I would have been.

641
00:29:57,200 --> 00:29:59,720
Speaker 3: I classed myself, and definitely the doctor's classed me at

642
00:29:59,760 --> 00:30:01,240
Speaker 3: that time. Is more but the obese.

643
00:30:01,280 --> 00:30:04,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, and what did you get down to? Because you

644
00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:07,680
Speaker 1: look healthy and fit and strong like, well.

645
00:30:07,600 --> 00:30:11,680
Speaker 4: I'm actually I'm probably about currently right now, I'm probably

646
00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:14,280
Speaker 4: about ten kilos heavier than what I would love to be.

647
00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:16,760
Speaker 3: I have been about ten.

648
00:30:16,640 --> 00:30:19,120
Speaker 4: Kilos lighter than I am now, which was around about

649
00:30:19,120 --> 00:30:22,880
Speaker 4: eighty kilos. That was the fittest I've been, So that was, yeah,

650
00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:25,800
Speaker 4: probably my biggest weight loss. And now I do hover

651
00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:29,120
Speaker 4: around the ninety mark. My body is comfortable there. But

652
00:30:29,240 --> 00:30:31,000
Speaker 4: I did love it a few years back when I

653
00:30:31,040 --> 00:30:34,320
Speaker 4: did get down to eighty because you know, I felt

654
00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:36,080
Speaker 4: the rip this I'd ever been. I was going to

655
00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:38,520
Speaker 4: the beach without the shirt on, and it was that

656
00:30:38,680 --> 00:30:41,080
Speaker 4: was the first That was such a big experience for

657
00:30:41,160 --> 00:30:44,440
Speaker 4: me too, being going to a beach without me top on. Wow,

658
00:30:44,560 --> 00:30:46,760
Speaker 4: that was massive for me because I'd like never done

659
00:30:46,800 --> 00:30:49,200
Speaker 4: that before. I was always so self conscious of taking

660
00:30:49,200 --> 00:30:51,680
Speaker 4: my shirt off. So yeah, to be able to kind

661
00:30:51,680 --> 00:30:53,880
Speaker 4: of be fit and feel normal, just like, you know,

662
00:30:54,040 --> 00:30:58,400
Speaker 4: in a normal body, that was amazing. So yeah, but yeah,

663
00:30:58,440 --> 00:31:00,760
Speaker 4: around eighty to ninety I sawt of whole now, but.

664
00:31:00,800 --> 00:31:02,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'd like to get back there for sure.

665
00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:04,440
Speaker 4: I've got to we we figure out, so to speak,

666
00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:06,760
Speaker 4: get me ars in the gear and get running. Because

667
00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:09,760
Speaker 4: I actually am planning to do run Melbourne next year

668
00:31:09,760 --> 00:31:10,120
Speaker 4: as well.

669
00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:12,440
Speaker 3: So I did the five k last year.

670
00:31:12,480 --> 00:31:14,680
Speaker 4: I want to do the ten k this year coming,

671
00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:17,520
Speaker 4: So yeah, I got to get back into running for sure.

672
00:31:18,480 --> 00:31:22,400
Speaker 1: Well, and so when you're running, like, how does that work?

673
00:31:22,800 --> 00:31:25,640
Speaker 1: How does that work? Do you run with a partner?

674
00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:28,080
Speaker 1: Do you just bump into shit constantly?

675
00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:33,880
Speaker 4: So I when I'm in locally, so when I'm back

676
00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:36,920
Speaker 4: home in Horsham, I know the surrounds of Horsham.

677
00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:39,000
Speaker 3: I've lived in my entire life, and I've had.

678
00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:41,760
Speaker 4: The luxury also growing up in town when I did

679
00:31:41,800 --> 00:31:44,680
Speaker 4: have twenty twenty vision, so I have great muscle memory

680
00:31:44,680 --> 00:31:47,280
Speaker 4: of kind of where things are. So I can quite

681
00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:51,080
Speaker 4: comfortably go for a run or go for a walk

682
00:31:51,160 --> 00:31:52,160
Speaker 4: around our river.

683
00:31:52,040 --> 00:31:55,120
Speaker 3: Because it's got a nice pathway. It's quite nice and

684
00:31:55,400 --> 00:31:57,160
Speaker 3: I can get myself from A to B pretty well.

685
00:31:57,160 --> 00:31:59,960
Speaker 3: They're unassisted. If I was to go for a walk

686
00:32:00,120 --> 00:32:02,280
Speaker 3: or a run somewhere in the city or a suburb

687
00:32:02,320 --> 00:32:05,520
Speaker 3: in Melbourne, I yeah, especially if I was going for

688
00:32:05,520 --> 00:32:06,600
Speaker 3: a run, I would want to.

689
00:32:06,600 --> 00:32:09,200
Speaker 4: Go with someone, Especially the first few times I wouldn't

690
00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:11,880
Speaker 4: just sort of will anally just go for a run

691
00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:14,680
Speaker 4: and see where I get to. And I definitely still could,

692
00:32:15,040 --> 00:32:17,040
Speaker 4: but I feel like, yeah, if you wanted to do

693
00:32:17,080 --> 00:32:19,000
Speaker 4: it on like a professional level kind of thing and

694
00:32:19,120 --> 00:32:21,760
Speaker 4: actually do it consistently. I would like to set up

695
00:32:21,760 --> 00:32:25,000
Speaker 4: a routine with someone. But yeah, around locally, Yeah, I

696
00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:27,160
Speaker 4: know my bearings pretty well. That's not to say I

697
00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:28,080
Speaker 4: don't get lost.

698
00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:28,480
Speaker 3: Every now and then.

699
00:32:28,480 --> 00:32:30,680
Speaker 4: Occasionally I kind of go off path and I'm sort

700
00:32:30,680 --> 00:32:33,120
Speaker 4: of in amongst the sticks and I think, oh, hold on,

701
00:32:33,320 --> 00:32:35,400
Speaker 4: I think I'm a little bit shrew with here. It

702
00:32:35,440 --> 00:32:39,080
Speaker 4: was actually funny too, because earlier this year I was

703
00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:41,560
Speaker 4: going for a run. Back when I did, it was

704
00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:44,240
Speaker 4: one hundred k away for Vision Australia, so it was April,

705
00:32:44,680 --> 00:32:46,160
Speaker 4: and I was running.

706
00:32:45,920 --> 00:32:48,040
Speaker 3: Up towards and I thought there was this big stick on.

707
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:50,240
Speaker 4: The ground and then as I ran over the top

708
00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:51,680
Speaker 4: of it, I saw it move, so it was actually

709
00:32:51,720 --> 00:32:52,440
Speaker 4: a brown snake.

710
00:32:52,840 --> 00:32:55,040
Speaker 3: So that kind of wigged me out a little bit.

711
00:32:55,080 --> 00:32:56,960
Speaker 4: That was the first time I'd seen a snake that

712
00:32:57,040 --> 00:32:58,760
Speaker 4: close in the sort of wild.

713
00:32:59,440 --> 00:33:03,880
Speaker 1: But yeah, or more specifically, hadn't seen a snake's us

714
00:33:04,760 --> 00:33:08,520
Speaker 1: seen a sticky mate like in the old days. I

715
00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:10,520
Speaker 1: don't know if this is still a term, so excuse

716
00:33:10,600 --> 00:33:13,800
Speaker 1: my ignorance. I've got l plates on for this conversation

717
00:33:13,960 --> 00:33:18,600
Speaker 1: because I don't know is the term legally blind. Is

718
00:33:18,640 --> 00:33:20,960
Speaker 1: that still a term? Yes, yeah, I still use it.

719
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:23,880
Speaker 1: That's how I refer to myself quite often. So what

720
00:33:24,120 --> 00:33:28,640
Speaker 1: qualifies somebody to be legally blind? Like what percentage of

721
00:33:28,760 --> 00:33:30,640
Speaker 1: vision or how does that work?

722
00:33:30,760 --> 00:33:33,600
Speaker 4: Yes, So depending if you're in America or Australia, there's

723
00:33:33,600 --> 00:33:35,880
Speaker 4: different eye charts and different signals depend on.

724
00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:36,160
Speaker 3: What you are.

725
00:33:36,240 --> 00:33:39,440
Speaker 4: But essentially it's if you look at the eye chart

726
00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:43,320
Speaker 4: at an optometrist and you can't see the very big

727
00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:46,120
Speaker 4: top number. So if you can't see that sitting in

728
00:33:46,160 --> 00:33:50,360
Speaker 4: the optometris chair from the distance you're sitting, that means

729
00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:53,560
Speaker 4: that you have lost significant vision and you're class legally blind.

730
00:33:53,600 --> 00:33:57,040
Speaker 4: So that essentially means you have twenty two hundred vision.

731
00:33:57,560 --> 00:34:00,480
Speaker 4: So that means that what someone could see often to

732
00:34:00,600 --> 00:34:04,040
Speaker 4: the distance from two hundred meters away, you would only

733
00:34:04,080 --> 00:34:06,760
Speaker 4: be able to see from twenty meters away, and it

734
00:34:06,800 --> 00:34:08,799
Speaker 4: would be a lot blurrier than what someone with twenty

735
00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:11,879
Speaker 4: twenty vision would see. In America, they actually go by

736
00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:15,880
Speaker 4: twenty sixty vision, so they would say that sixty meters away,

737
00:34:16,200 --> 00:34:18,720
Speaker 4: someone that could see something off into the distance sixty

738
00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:21,479
Speaker 4: meters you would only be able to see from about

739
00:34:21,520 --> 00:34:25,680
Speaker 4: twenty meters, So that's the very baseline of legal blindness,

740
00:34:26,120 --> 00:34:28,959
Speaker 4: and then yeah, you can still definitely continue to lose

741
00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:32,759
Speaker 4: more vision after that. But yeah, very few people are

742
00:34:32,800 --> 00:34:36,600
Speaker 4: considered completely blind, which that isn't actually the term. It's

743
00:34:36,600 --> 00:34:41,080
Speaker 4: called NLP, so no light perception, and that's when you

744
00:34:41,200 --> 00:34:43,040
Speaker 4: have no vision whatsoever.

745
00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:45,960
Speaker 3: But yeah, that's probably.

746
00:34:45,680 --> 00:34:48,640
Speaker 4: Yeah, less than ten percent of people that are considered

747
00:34:48,880 --> 00:34:52,920
Speaker 4: yeah blind or legally blind would have no light perception.

748
00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:55,320
Speaker 4: So yeah, quite a lot of us will still see

749
00:34:55,320 --> 00:34:59,360
Speaker 4: some colors, some light. But for me personally, if I'm outside,

750
00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:02,200
Speaker 4: I have to wear pretty dark sunglasses because yeah, it

751
00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:04,040
Speaker 4: look like I watched like a romcom or some mighty

752
00:35:04,120 --> 00:35:05,240
Speaker 4: sad movie for two hours.

753
00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:07,160
Speaker 3: My eyes just start crying in the sun.

754
00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:13,120
Speaker 1: If you and I were let's say, I don't know,

755
00:35:13,680 --> 00:35:16,839
Speaker 1: if we're in a room and I'm in front of you,

756
00:35:16,880 --> 00:35:19,560
Speaker 1: I'm three meters away from you, and it's a pretty

757
00:35:19,560 --> 00:35:23,400
Speaker 1: well lit room, what are you going to see?

758
00:35:23,880 --> 00:35:26,920
Speaker 4: So I would be able to see the color of

759
00:35:27,120 --> 00:35:30,600
Speaker 4: your shirt and pants, probably, I don't know if I

760
00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:33,520
Speaker 4: would be able to differentiate, say, if you're wearing a

761
00:35:33,520 --> 00:35:36,440
Speaker 4: blue pair of jeans and a black shirt, my eyes

762
00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:39,440
Speaker 4: just might pick it up as a dark navy color

763
00:35:39,520 --> 00:35:41,480
Speaker 4: mixed together. So I might be able to see sort

764
00:35:41,520 --> 00:35:44,120
Speaker 4: of the shape of your body kind of thing. I

765
00:35:44,160 --> 00:35:46,400
Speaker 4: would be able to see the shape of your head,

766
00:35:46,400 --> 00:35:48,640
Speaker 4: But most people, when I look at their their face,

767
00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:52,200
Speaker 4: it usually is just sort of a mix of their yeah,

768
00:35:52,239 --> 00:35:54,799
Speaker 4: their skin color sort of mixed in. I can't see

769
00:35:54,840 --> 00:35:58,080
Speaker 4: sort of eyeballs or facial features.

770
00:35:57,640 --> 00:35:59,200
Speaker 3: Nose, mouth, that sort of thing.

771
00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:02,200
Speaker 4: I do see a little bit better out of my

772
00:36:02,600 --> 00:36:05,719
Speaker 4: peripheral vision. So something that is worth mentioning is that

773
00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:08,600
Speaker 4: the bulk of my blindness is my central vision.

774
00:36:08,719 --> 00:36:10,959
Speaker 3: So when I look directly on at.

775
00:36:10,880 --> 00:36:14,600
Speaker 4: People right in the face, so you know, respectfully, we

776
00:36:14,640 --> 00:36:17,040
Speaker 4: make eye contact with people when we speak to them.

777
00:36:17,320 --> 00:36:19,600
Speaker 4: So I still actually do that to this day. I

778
00:36:19,600 --> 00:36:21,920
Speaker 4: will look at people in the eye, but it's only

779
00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:24,080
Speaker 4: for the other person's benefits, so they think that I'm

780
00:36:24,120 --> 00:36:26,400
Speaker 4: respectful because I can't actually see when I look at

781
00:36:26,400 --> 00:36:28,680
Speaker 4: them in the eye that way direct on. I would

782
00:36:28,680 --> 00:36:31,560
Speaker 4: actually be better off kind of looking side on, and

783
00:36:32,520 --> 00:36:34,239
Speaker 4: I do see a little bit clearer out of my

784
00:36:34,320 --> 00:36:35,200
Speaker 4: peripheral vision.

785
00:36:35,480 --> 00:36:37,000
Speaker 3: It's still not super clear.

786
00:36:37,040 --> 00:36:38,879
Speaker 4: It's not like twenty twenty or I wouldn't be able

787
00:36:38,920 --> 00:36:40,480
Speaker 4: to probably tell someone.

788
00:36:40,239 --> 00:36:42,279
Speaker 3: Oh, you've got green eyes or you've got blue eyes.

789
00:36:42,280 --> 00:36:44,799
Speaker 4: I wouldn't be able to do that, but yeah, it's

790
00:36:44,800 --> 00:36:46,440
Speaker 4: a little bit better than looking dead on.

791
00:36:47,640 --> 00:36:49,239
Speaker 1: Well, if I want to give you any shit, I'm

792
00:36:49,239 --> 00:36:50,680
Speaker 1: going to stand straight in front of.

793
00:36:50,640 --> 00:36:52,480
Speaker 3: You for sure.

794
00:36:52,640 --> 00:36:59,279
Speaker 1: Thanks, thanks, thanks for the heads up. So let's just

795
00:36:59,640 --> 00:37:02,919
Speaker 1: wheel back to the first time you went. I don't

796
00:37:02,920 --> 00:37:04,279
Speaker 1: know if it was the first time you went to

797
00:37:04,320 --> 00:37:08,000
Speaker 1: an optometrist, but I don't know what on earth would

798
00:37:08,960 --> 00:37:11,240
Speaker 1: I mean. I know you're not lying, I know it's true,

799
00:37:11,239 --> 00:37:15,879
Speaker 1: but I can't I almost can't believe that a medical professional,

800
00:37:16,360 --> 00:37:21,000
Speaker 1: an optomologist would say, would call you, would tell your

801
00:37:21,080 --> 00:37:25,319
Speaker 1: mum that you're a retard, because when you have a legitimate,

802
00:37:26,320 --> 00:37:31,879
Speaker 1: like serious issue with your eyes, not only do they

803
00:37:31,960 --> 00:37:36,960
Speaker 1: not figure that out, they insult you. I mean, apart

804
00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:39,360
Speaker 1: from how that was for you, which was fucking horrible,

805
00:37:39,400 --> 00:37:44,319
Speaker 1: and like, I don't even understand how that happened. Was

806
00:37:44,360 --> 00:37:47,799
Speaker 1: there any firstly, well, tell us about how that was

807
00:37:47,800 --> 00:37:49,680
Speaker 1: for you in a minute. But before we get there,

808
00:37:49,840 --> 00:37:52,319
Speaker 1: was there any consequences, because I would to punch that

809
00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:53,240
Speaker 1: person in the face.

810
00:37:54,520 --> 00:37:57,239
Speaker 4: Definitely, there was definitely a few stern words you know

811
00:37:57,239 --> 00:37:59,719
Speaker 4: from your mother's and definitely I was probably yes seven

812
00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:03,320
Speaker 4: at the time, so I didn't really understand the weight

813
00:38:03,400 --> 00:38:04,319
Speaker 4: of the words that were said.

814
00:38:04,360 --> 00:38:06,600
Speaker 3: It really kind of affected me a few years after.

815
00:38:07,400 --> 00:38:09,600
Speaker 4: I really feel like that's when it started to affect me,

816
00:38:09,719 --> 00:38:12,279
Speaker 4: those couple of experiences getting my diagnosis.

817
00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:14,719
Speaker 3: But yeah, it was probably six months before that.

818
00:38:14,760 --> 00:38:19,040
Speaker 4: We'd had multiple different diagnosises and dyslexir and then you

819
00:38:19,040 --> 00:38:21,719
Speaker 4: get the bifocal glasses, and then you know, you get

820
00:38:21,719 --> 00:38:24,360
Speaker 4: all these different tests and they were all pretty fine

821
00:38:24,400 --> 00:38:27,120
Speaker 4: but didn't lead to any answers, and then yeah, we

822
00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:30,439
Speaker 4: had the sort of the specialist appointment, and I can

823
00:38:30,520 --> 00:38:33,600
Speaker 4: say that he is no longer practicing. It wasn't I

824
00:38:33,640 --> 00:38:36,719
Speaker 4: didn't personally or our family didn't personally put in a

825
00:38:36,800 --> 00:38:40,480
Speaker 4: complaint or anything like that. But yeah, it wasn't the

826
00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:44,680
Speaker 4: since learning otherwise, it's not the first experience of being

827
00:38:44,719 --> 00:38:47,439
Speaker 4: called retarded, Like I wasn't the first person where who's

828
00:38:47,440 --> 00:38:51,840
Speaker 4: had that experience with that particular optometrist. So really, yeah,

829
00:38:51,880 --> 00:38:53,840
Speaker 4: this is back in two thousand and six too, so

830
00:38:53,920 --> 00:38:55,480
Speaker 4: it was a bit of a different time.

831
00:38:55,520 --> 00:38:57,880
Speaker 3: People really did feed into the stereotype.

832
00:38:57,920 --> 00:39:00,480
Speaker 4: So I rocked up at the optometrist a pointment, and

833
00:39:00,480 --> 00:39:02,359
Speaker 4: I didn't. I guess I didn't look blind. I didn't

834
00:39:02,360 --> 00:39:03,880
Speaker 4: have a cane, I didn't have a guide dog or

835
00:39:03,920 --> 00:39:06,440
Speaker 4: the real dark sunnies at the time, And because I

836
00:39:06,440 --> 00:39:10,239
Speaker 4: could still be quite independent, it was like they couldn't understand,

837
00:39:10,440 --> 00:39:13,040
Speaker 4: like you, if you're saying you can't see, well, how

838
00:39:13,040 --> 00:39:15,240
Speaker 4: are you doing this? So then I guess it really

839
00:39:15,239 --> 00:39:18,719
Speaker 4: frustrated them. And it was also a combination of it. Yes,

840
00:39:18,800 --> 00:39:23,640
Speaker 4: stargarts not having much research or not being easily detectable,

841
00:39:24,719 --> 00:39:27,120
Speaker 4: that really, I guess, yeah, infuriated him. It kind of

842
00:39:27,160 --> 00:39:30,279
Speaker 4: reminds me of I tell people, especially when I'm I

843
00:39:30,280 --> 00:39:32,799
Speaker 4: guess at younger school groups, I say, you know the

844
00:39:32,840 --> 00:39:35,840
Speaker 4: movie inside out with all the different characters. You've got happiness,

845
00:39:35,880 --> 00:39:38,799
Speaker 4: you've got joy, you've got sadness, and finger well, he

846
00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:41,680
Speaker 4: reminded me of anger that day, like I really felt

847
00:39:41,719 --> 00:39:44,000
Speaker 4: like you could feel the steam coming out of his ears.

848
00:39:44,040 --> 00:39:46,759
Speaker 4: And yeah, I feel like it probably did affect my

849
00:39:46,880 --> 00:39:49,480
Speaker 4: mother and my family more at the time that experience

850
00:39:49,480 --> 00:39:51,960
Speaker 4: than it did personally me. I have found out in

851
00:39:52,040 --> 00:39:55,160
Speaker 4: later years that that was quite challenging for mum and

852
00:39:55,400 --> 00:39:58,560
Speaker 4: she was very upset and so with my grandparents at

853
00:39:58,600 --> 00:40:02,480
Speaker 4: the time, and so you do learn after the fact hindsight,

854
00:40:02,480 --> 00:40:03,319
Speaker 4: it's a beautiful thing.

855
00:40:03,360 --> 00:40:03,760
Speaker 3: I guess.

856
00:40:04,320 --> 00:40:06,560
Speaker 4: Yeah, my family, I suppose tried to protect me or

857
00:40:06,560 --> 00:40:09,080
Speaker 4: shield me a bit from that side of things, and

858
00:40:09,400 --> 00:40:11,759
Speaker 4: I guess they were so shocked to think that I'd

859
00:40:11,760 --> 00:40:14,239
Speaker 4: been cold, a retard or it was directed at mum,

860
00:40:14,280 --> 00:40:16,879
Speaker 4: but I was there present. I feel like they did

861
00:40:16,960 --> 00:40:19,040
Speaker 4: that really did sort of scare them into the next

862
00:40:19,040 --> 00:40:21,480
Speaker 4: steps of Okay, well, how do we get a diagnosis?

863
00:40:21,520 --> 00:40:24,120
Speaker 4: But yeah, we were lucky enough that we did find

864
00:40:24,520 --> 00:40:29,160
Speaker 4: the amazing fresh out of Uni passionate ophthalmologist, and yeah,

865
00:40:29,160 --> 00:40:32,440
Speaker 4: we got the diagnosis. And it is important to note

866
00:40:32,440 --> 00:40:36,400
Speaker 4: that Stargut's disease, the gene that is connected to Stargus's disease,

867
00:40:36,880 --> 00:40:40,320
Speaker 4: was only discovered in nineteen ninety six, so they hadn't

868
00:40:40,400 --> 00:40:42,680
Speaker 4: had a hell of a lot of time to really

869
00:40:42,760 --> 00:40:45,600
Speaker 4: research it in a heap of detail. And when I

870
00:40:45,680 --> 00:40:47,560
Speaker 4: was diagnosed yet, it was in two thousand and five.

871
00:40:47,600 --> 00:40:50,800
Speaker 4: Two thousand and six was that period of the diagnosis journey,

872
00:40:51,400 --> 00:40:53,439
Speaker 4: So it was only yeah, nine or ten years since

873
00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:55,920
Speaker 4: they'd really understood what Stargus's disease is.

874
00:40:56,640 --> 00:40:58,719
Speaker 1: So you know, what I think is, what I think

875
00:40:58,800 --> 00:41:02,600
Speaker 1: is ironic is that that he I don't even want

876
00:41:02,600 --> 00:41:05,799
Speaker 1: to say the word right, but he laid you that right.

877
00:41:06,719 --> 00:41:11,080
Speaker 1: But ironically I would have I think you were probably

878
00:41:11,200 --> 00:41:14,800
Speaker 1: much smarter than average, not even average, but way smarter

879
00:41:14,880 --> 00:41:18,520
Speaker 1: than average because people couldn't even tell that you had

880
00:41:18,520 --> 00:41:24,800
Speaker 1: a disability, Like you navigated life without this incredibly important

881
00:41:25,280 --> 00:41:29,759
Speaker 1: ability that nearly everyone has, and you were so good

882
00:41:29,840 --> 00:41:32,920
Speaker 1: at faking it for one of a better word and

883
00:41:33,080 --> 00:41:36,480
Speaker 1: problem solving, Like you're navigating the world not being able

884
00:41:36,480 --> 00:41:40,120
Speaker 1: to fucking see and people don't even know. I mean,

885
00:41:40,200 --> 00:41:45,400
Speaker 1: that's a whole different kind of intelligence, Like that's social intelligence,

886
00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:50,239
Speaker 1: that's emotional intelligence, communication like that is that is so

887
00:41:51,320 --> 00:41:53,400
Speaker 1: the fact that you figured out how to do that

888
00:41:53,960 --> 00:41:56,839
Speaker 1: so that people couldn't even tell you how to disability

889
00:41:56,880 --> 00:42:00,239
Speaker 1: at such a young age, it's kind of amazing.

890
00:42:00,680 --> 00:42:04,440
Speaker 4: Yeah, I really do. Actually, Like, in hindsight, I look

891
00:42:04,520 --> 00:42:06,759
Speaker 4: back and I think, you know, the mental health side

892
00:42:06,760 --> 00:42:08,919
Speaker 4: of things and the depression and that side of things

893
00:42:08,920 --> 00:42:12,160
Speaker 4: that was you know, a byproduct of my experiences that

894
00:42:12,400 --> 00:42:13,799
Speaker 4: you know, it definitely shaped.

895
00:42:13,520 --> 00:42:15,879
Speaker 3: Me into the person I am. But I wouldn't go

896
00:42:15,960 --> 00:42:17,920
Speaker 3: back and wish it upon any young person, because it

897
00:42:17,920 --> 00:42:19,240
Speaker 3: was a horrible time in my life.

898
00:42:19,239 --> 00:42:21,120
Speaker 4: But you know, that's why I do what I do now,

899
00:42:21,239 --> 00:42:23,480
Speaker 4: is that so I can bring others out of their

900
00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:26,400
Speaker 4: shell and then still confidence in others. But yeah, definitely

901
00:42:26,440 --> 00:42:28,520
Speaker 4: at the time, I look back now and I do

902
00:42:28,640 --> 00:42:31,600
Speaker 4: think that because I didn't want people to know that

903
00:42:31,640 --> 00:42:34,479
Speaker 4: I was going blind, in a way, it did really

904
00:42:34,480 --> 00:42:37,000
Speaker 4: allow me to almost be like I sort of referred

905
00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:39,400
Speaker 4: to it as like, you know, the undercover blind person

906
00:42:39,480 --> 00:42:41,480
Speaker 4: or the you know, the Bruce Wayne of blindness.

907
00:42:41,520 --> 00:42:45,680
Speaker 3: And yeah, I don't regret it at all, because you know,

908
00:42:45,960 --> 00:42:46,600
Speaker 3: I just lived.

909
00:42:46,640 --> 00:42:48,640
Speaker 4: I just woke up every day in my family will

910
00:42:48,760 --> 00:42:51,200
Speaker 4: I was never treated as someone who was blind. So

911
00:42:51,560 --> 00:42:53,920
Speaker 4: that was also a really good benefit because I just

912
00:42:54,040 --> 00:42:56,400
Speaker 4: lived normally. So there was none of that sort of

913
00:42:56,440 --> 00:42:59,600
Speaker 4: bubble rap gold star approach. But it was because I

914
00:42:59,600 --> 00:43:02,439
Speaker 4: didn't let it happen. And in a way, it did

915
00:43:02,480 --> 00:43:05,160
Speaker 4: take away from sort of me being able to connect

916
00:43:05,160 --> 00:43:07,239
Speaker 4: with certain people, and you know, it did turn into

917
00:43:07,320 --> 00:43:10,359
Speaker 4: that victimhood mentality. But now I'm in a place where

918
00:43:10,360 --> 00:43:14,400
Speaker 4: I am today, I actually kind of redefined that a

919
00:43:14,560 --> 00:43:16,960
Speaker 4: chapter in my life, and I actually think that it had.

920
00:43:17,080 --> 00:43:20,040
Speaker 4: It gave me the skills. To this day, I still

921
00:43:20,120 --> 00:43:23,840
Speaker 4: navigate very well. I'm still very independent and very confident,

922
00:43:23,920 --> 00:43:26,759
Speaker 4: and I really do feel like it. It's so hard

923
00:43:26,800 --> 00:43:29,840
Speaker 4: to describe, but yeah, there's so many things that you

924
00:43:29,920 --> 00:43:32,000
Speaker 4: just learn how to adapt, and I don't get it

925
00:43:32,120 --> 00:43:34,000
Speaker 4: right all the time. Sometimes I'll see a blob and

926
00:43:34,040 --> 00:43:36,279
Speaker 4: I'll think, oh, that's the fridge door and then it

927
00:43:36,320 --> 00:43:38,919
Speaker 4: turns out to be a microwave or something. So there's

928
00:43:38,960 --> 00:43:41,960
Speaker 4: definitely things that I completely mess up. But for the

929
00:43:42,000 --> 00:43:45,160
Speaker 4: most part, all those years of really trying to yeah,

930
00:43:45,520 --> 00:43:49,480
Speaker 4: not be known as the person that was losing their vision, Yeah,

931
00:43:49,520 --> 00:43:51,600
Speaker 4: it really helped me to be able to navigate around

932
00:43:51,880 --> 00:43:54,080
Speaker 4: pretty much undercover, even.

933
00:43:53,840 --> 00:43:54,359
Speaker 3: To this day.

934
00:43:54,440 --> 00:43:56,680
Speaker 4: A lot of people, if I walked past someone down

935
00:43:56,760 --> 00:44:00,160
Speaker 4: the main street, if I didn't tell them that I was,

936
00:44:00,280 --> 00:44:02,239
Speaker 4: you know, losing vision or something, or if they didn't

937
00:44:02,239 --> 00:44:04,520
Speaker 4: see me try to get my phone out and read

938
00:44:04,520 --> 00:44:06,799
Speaker 4: a menu with my screen or eater on, they would

939
00:44:06,840 --> 00:44:07,480
Speaker 4: have no idea.

940
00:44:07,920 --> 00:44:14,360
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah, what do you what's the This is

941
00:44:14,360 --> 00:44:17,640
Speaker 5: a selfish question, what's the what's the what's the deal

942
00:44:17,719 --> 00:44:18,600
Speaker 5: with guide dogs?

943
00:44:18,840 --> 00:44:22,000
Speaker 1: When do we get a puppy? Is there is there like,

944
00:44:22,440 --> 00:44:24,560
Speaker 1: do you qualify for a guide dog or.

945
00:44:25,160 --> 00:44:27,920
Speaker 4: I've got I've got currently a little guide dog at

946
00:44:27,960 --> 00:44:30,239
Speaker 4: home that's not actually a proper guy dog. I call

947
00:44:30,320 --> 00:44:33,400
Speaker 4: him Boris the Bastard. He's a chru Hour. So my

948
00:44:33,640 --> 00:44:35,640
Speaker 4: sister got a dog a few years back at the

949
00:44:35,680 --> 00:44:38,399
Speaker 4: start of COVID and it latched onto me. So now

950
00:44:38,480 --> 00:44:41,040
Speaker 4: I'm the owner of a four year old Chiu Hour.

951
00:44:41,160 --> 00:44:43,400
Speaker 4: So I'm stuck with him until I'm probably blenty forty,

952
00:44:44,560 --> 00:44:48,200
Speaker 4: but definitely in the definitely in the future, when I'm

953
00:44:48,239 --> 00:44:51,520
Speaker 4: older or my next dog, I will definitely look into

954
00:44:51,560 --> 00:44:52,520
Speaker 4: getting a guide dog.

955
00:44:52,840 --> 00:44:55,120
Speaker 3: How it works is so you first.

956
00:44:54,840 --> 00:44:58,520
Speaker 4: Do cane training, so you do accessibility training and you

957
00:44:58,640 --> 00:44:59,279
Speaker 4: learn how to.

958
00:44:59,280 --> 00:45:02,000
Speaker 3: Use a cane. Now I did that years and years ago,

959
00:45:02,440 --> 00:45:03,160
Speaker 3: and I.

960
00:45:02,960 --> 00:45:05,400
Speaker 4: Only to this day still only use a cane in

961
00:45:05,440 --> 00:45:09,400
Speaker 4: situations where I'm very unfamiliar. So maybe like an airport

962
00:45:09,520 --> 00:45:12,120
Speaker 4: or when I arrive at Melbourne at Southern Cross station,

963
00:45:12,200 --> 00:45:14,600
Speaker 4: I'll get my cane out that sort of thing. But

964
00:45:14,640 --> 00:45:16,640
Speaker 4: for the most part, I even to this day, still

965
00:45:16,640 --> 00:45:18,880
Speaker 4: don't use a cane a hell of a lot. But

966
00:45:19,080 --> 00:45:22,879
Speaker 4: definitely you first start with the cane training and then

967
00:45:22,920 --> 00:45:24,279
Speaker 4: you can if you want to.

968
00:45:24,719 --> 00:45:26,080
Speaker 3: Look in to get in a guide dog.

969
00:45:26,120 --> 00:45:30,560
Speaker 4: There are sort of characteristics or credentials to get a

970
00:45:30,600 --> 00:45:34,400
Speaker 4: guide dog. You have to be significantly visually impaired. But

971
00:45:34,960 --> 00:45:37,439
Speaker 4: I would definitely fit that crieteria. But I just haven't

972
00:45:37,480 --> 00:45:41,359
Speaker 4: looked into it personally myself. But definitely in the future, Yeah,

973
00:45:41,480 --> 00:45:44,040
Speaker 4: I'll definitely get a guide dog in some chapter of

974
00:45:44,080 --> 00:45:46,399
Speaker 4: my life. But yeah, currently at the moment, I've got

975
00:45:46,400 --> 00:45:47,080
Speaker 4: a two hour.

976
00:45:48,280 --> 00:45:51,360
Speaker 1: Yeah that seems more like a problem than a fucking assistance.

977
00:45:52,960 --> 00:45:56,120
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it seems like they're going to add work

978
00:45:56,200 --> 00:45:56,680
Speaker 1: to your day.

979
00:45:57,120 --> 00:45:59,120
Speaker 4: I never would have like, I love him now, of

980
00:45:59,200 --> 00:46:01,720
Speaker 4: course because he's my but I would have never personally

981
00:46:01,760 --> 00:46:04,120
Speaker 4: like more how I used always want like a corgy

982
00:46:04,239 --> 00:46:07,640
Speaker 4: or a pug or something. But yeah, definitely, though in

983
00:46:07,680 --> 00:46:10,360
Speaker 4: the future I want to guide dog. And as my

984
00:46:10,800 --> 00:46:13,879
Speaker 4: vision does progress, because it is a progressive disease, So

985
00:46:14,239 --> 00:46:16,960
Speaker 4: you know, when I am forty and when I am fifty,

986
00:46:17,719 --> 00:46:20,520
Speaker 4: my starguts disease, there is a high chance it's quite

987
00:46:20,560 --> 00:46:22,920
Speaker 4: stable at the moment, which I'm very grateful for. It's

988
00:46:22,920 --> 00:46:26,759
Speaker 4: been quite stable for many years, but it will continue.

989
00:46:26,239 --> 00:46:29,759
Speaker 3: To degenerate and then as I do age, my vision.

990
00:46:29,600 --> 00:46:32,440
Speaker 4: Naturally will get a little bit, a little bit shot

991
00:46:32,480 --> 00:46:34,800
Speaker 4: over the years as well. So in the future, I

992
00:46:34,800 --> 00:46:37,640
Speaker 4: think it will definitely be one hundred percent beneficial for

993
00:46:37,680 --> 00:46:38,680
Speaker 4: me to have a guide dog.

994
00:46:38,760 --> 00:46:41,200
Speaker 3: But I can't see it happening. Yeah, in the next.

995
00:46:41,000 --> 00:46:43,399
Speaker 4: Few years, while I've got my hands full with Yeah,

996
00:46:43,440 --> 00:46:45,040
Speaker 4: boris the bastard, that's for sure.

997
00:46:45,840 --> 00:46:49,600
Speaker 1: Well, boris the bastard. Now, speaking of speaking of relationships,

998
00:46:49,640 --> 00:46:53,600
Speaker 1: can I be cheeky and ask you about relationships? Are

999
00:46:53,600 --> 00:46:57,000
Speaker 1: you track? Are you tracking steady as the old people

1000
00:46:57,040 --> 00:46:57,960
Speaker 1: say with anyone?

1001
00:46:58,719 --> 00:47:01,000
Speaker 4: No, I'm single as a ringle at the moment, But

1002
00:47:01,640 --> 00:47:04,560
Speaker 4: over the years I've had a few sort of friends

1003
00:47:04,560 --> 00:47:08,880
Speaker 4: and benefits kind of deal and a few nice but yeah,

1004
00:47:08,920 --> 00:47:10,520
Speaker 4: at the moment, yeah, single as a pringle.

1005
00:47:12,160 --> 00:47:15,239
Speaker 1: Friends with benefits, you heard it here first, friends with well,

1006
00:47:15,320 --> 00:47:17,520
Speaker 1: I think we're looking for more than that, Matt. I

1007
00:47:17,560 --> 00:47:21,040
Speaker 1: think we're looking for some kind of you know, Hey, mate,

1008
00:47:21,560 --> 00:47:24,760
Speaker 1: you're a gun. It's fucking so nice meeting you. You're funny,

1009
00:47:24,760 --> 00:47:30,719
Speaker 1: you're clever, you're an inspiration. Tell my audience about how

1010
00:47:30,760 --> 00:47:33,160
Speaker 1: they can connect with you or if they want to

1011
00:47:33,200 --> 00:47:35,520
Speaker 1: book you for an event or to work with their

1012
00:47:35,560 --> 00:47:38,040
Speaker 1: team or their company. Or their school. How do they

1013
00:47:38,080 --> 00:47:38,680
Speaker 1: go about that?

1014
00:47:38,840 --> 00:47:39,800
Speaker 3: Oh, one hundred percent.

1015
00:47:40,160 --> 00:47:42,839
Speaker 4: Well, you can find me by typing into Google Matt

1016
00:47:42,840 --> 00:47:46,160
Speaker 4: de Grucci Vision or you can type in MDV. I'm

1017
00:47:46,200 --> 00:47:50,040
Speaker 4: also on the social so Instagram and Facebook, YouTube LinkedIn

1018
00:47:50,160 --> 00:47:53,280
Speaker 4: all that stuff. I do also post my stuff on TikTok.

1019
00:47:53,320 --> 00:47:55,960
Speaker 4: I don't personally use it because I personally a bias

1020
00:47:56,000 --> 00:47:56,320
Speaker 4: against it.

1021
00:47:56,360 --> 00:47:57,680
Speaker 3: I think that app is the devil.

1022
00:47:57,719 --> 00:48:00,400
Speaker 4: But that's the day and age we live, so I've

1023
00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:02,520
Speaker 4: got to post my content on there, so you can

1024
00:48:02,520 --> 00:48:04,880
Speaker 4: find me across all the platforms at Matt de Grucci

1025
00:48:05,000 --> 00:48:08,080
Speaker 4: Vision and on my website at Mattdgrouccivision dot com.

1026
00:48:08,280 --> 00:48:11,480
Speaker 3: But I just I should also say I have the

1027
00:48:12,320 --> 00:48:13,719
Speaker 3: I suppose the.

1028
00:48:13,800 --> 00:48:18,040
Speaker 4: Unprivilege of having sharing the same name as another person

1029
00:48:18,120 --> 00:48:20,240
Speaker 4: whose name is Matt de Grucci, who is a serial

1030
00:48:20,320 --> 00:48:23,080
Speaker 4: killer who murdered his family. So I have had the

1031
00:48:23,120 --> 00:48:25,560
Speaker 4: battle over the past eight years since doing my own

1032
00:48:25,600 --> 00:48:30,120
Speaker 4: disability and blindness advocacy. That. Yeah, the Google results when

1033
00:48:30,120 --> 00:48:32,239
Speaker 4: you type in Matt de Grucci, you will probably be

1034
00:48:32,280 --> 00:48:33,640
Speaker 4: met with a few pages of the.

1035
00:48:33,600 --> 00:48:35,840
Speaker 3: Serial killer version that's not me.

1036
00:48:35,960 --> 00:48:38,640
Speaker 4: Please don't get it confused, because you would be surprised

1037
00:48:38,680 --> 00:48:41,640
Speaker 4: how many dms and our website messages I get saying

1038
00:48:42,040 --> 00:48:45,760
Speaker 4: you're going to hell, You've you've committed crimes against humanity.

1039
00:48:45,800 --> 00:48:47,600
Speaker 3: And I'm like, oh, that's the wrong Matt. It's the

1040
00:48:47,600 --> 00:48:50,040
Speaker 3: wrong Matt. But you can find me for sure.

1041
00:48:51,120 --> 00:48:54,720
Speaker 1: I know I did the exact same thing. He's absolutely everyone.

1042
00:48:54,920 --> 00:48:57,280
Speaker 1: Because I had a bit of you know what happens

1043
00:48:57,360 --> 00:49:00,160
Speaker 1: is because I do a podcast every day, Melissa or

1044
00:49:00,200 --> 00:49:04,719
Speaker 1: Tiff sends me through some info and I just read

1045
00:49:04,719 --> 00:49:07,000
Speaker 1: a bit of an overview or a bio or a synopsis,

1046
00:49:07,040 --> 00:49:10,480
Speaker 1: and then it was quite short. I'm like, okay, cool,

1047
00:49:10,520 --> 00:49:13,480
Speaker 1: And then I thought I'd just jump into you know,

1048
00:49:13,600 --> 00:49:17,360
Speaker 1: doctor Google, and then this fucking person who killed his family.

1049
00:49:17,400 --> 00:49:21,520
Speaker 1: I'm like, what have we got this bloke for. It's

1050
00:49:21,520 --> 00:49:23,160
Speaker 1: not the thank god, it's not the same.

1051
00:49:23,640 --> 00:49:24,480
Speaker 3: I'm working on it.

1052
00:49:24,560 --> 00:49:27,120
Speaker 4: I'm trying to get my name to repear higher on

1053
00:49:27,160 --> 00:49:29,640
Speaker 4: Google than the serial killer version of my name.

1054
00:49:29,800 --> 00:49:31,680
Speaker 3: So that's a work in progress.

1055
00:49:32,200 --> 00:49:35,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is. That is kind of terrifying but funny

1056
00:49:35,480 --> 00:49:37,920
Speaker 1: all at the same time. Hey, Mabel, well say goodbye

1057
00:49:38,040 --> 00:49:39,920
Speaker 1: fair but for the moment, thanks so much, Matt. We

1058
00:49:40,000 --> 00:49:44,759
Speaker 1: appreciate you and you're genuinely an inspiration and thanks so

1059
00:49:44,840 --> 00:49:46,759
Speaker 1: much for what you're doing and all the work that

1060
00:49:46,800 --> 00:49:51,160
Speaker 1: you're doing and sharing insights and stories and information and

1061
00:49:51,200 --> 00:49:53,480
Speaker 1: helping people with disability as well. It's amazing.

1062
00:49:53,680 --> 00:49:55,520
Speaker 4: No, thank you for having me Harts, and thank you

1063
00:49:55,600 --> 00:49:56,840
Speaker 4: TIF it's been great.

1064
00:49:57,040 --> 00:49:58,359
Speaker 3: Thank you, thank you,