WEBVTT - #447 Resilience & Creativity: Lewi Brown's New Path in Fashion

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to the mentor. I'm Mark Boris Lewis Brown. I'm

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<v Speaker 1>going to call you Louis Well the mentor mate.

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<v Speaker 2>Thanks having Mark.

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<v Speaker 1>You got your T shirt on there.

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<v Speaker 3>Earl's Assex, I mean, pretty good brands to have alongside Eather.

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<v Speaker 3>We're going to talk about that in a moment. But

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<v Speaker 3>I'm actually curious you're by the sound of accident. You're

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<v Speaker 3>in New Zealand. Have you got islander parents?

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<v Speaker 2>Now? So I grew up a single mum. So my dad,

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<v Speaker 2>my dad he is he's this Kiwi park how like

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<v Speaker 2>we call him white Kiwi back in New Zealand. And

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<v Speaker 2>actually my mom were Moldy. So my grandparents were born

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<v Speaker 2>in a small island off New Zealand, part of New

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<v Speaker 2>Zealand still called but like Tasmania called the Chadam Islands.

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<v Speaker 2>So that's where the roots sort of la run deep,

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<v Speaker 2>sort of that multi heritage.

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<v Speaker 1>So you murray in your mom's side and your dad's

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<v Speaker 1>a white yeah y white white park. Yeah, they call

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<v Speaker 1>it white.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah. I was just like white person and molder white person. Yeah.

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<v Speaker 1>And okay, so brother sisters.

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<v Speaker 2>I've only got one older siblings. I've got one one

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<v Speaker 2>half brother. He's younger than me. Don't really have much

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<v Speaker 2>connection with him, but an older sister, she's five years

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<v Speaker 2>older than me, and she lives she lives here in Sydney.

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<v Speaker 2>So she's married with her to a Lebanese. My brother

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<v Speaker 2>in law, he's a Lebanese and so we've got little

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<v Speaker 2>half caste, moldy Lebanese running out of a Maryland's there

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<v Speaker 2>and so got a nice bit of culture running through

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<v Speaker 2>the family at the moment.

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<v Speaker 3>It's a good mix. And you're you played footy, so

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<v Speaker 3>we'll come to that in the moment. But like I'm

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<v Speaker 3>always curious about you grew I presume you grew up

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<v Speaker 3>in New Zealand.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so grew up, grew up and crash it. So

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<v Speaker 2>born born in nineteen eighty six. It makes me thirty seven.

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<v Speaker 2>Like I said to you before, Mark Studio, don't don't

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<v Speaker 2>remind me. I've had a few people remind me lately.

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<v Speaker 2>But yeah, grew up in christ Church, which is a

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<v Speaker 2>really predominantly rugby city, not much rugby league going on that.

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<v Speaker 1>End up getting the league.

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<v Speaker 2>So how it sort of came about, Like I mentioned before,

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<v Speaker 2>family tradition sorry, roots run back to the Chatham Islands

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<v Speaker 2>and I'm not too sure if you remember, but my

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<v Speaker 2>cousin he played for the Weston West Suburbs Magpies back

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<v Speaker 2>in the day. His name is Brendan Tudor, so the

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<v Speaker 2>baby Face Assassin they used to call him.

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<v Speaker 3>I remember the side, yeah, because my uncle played for them,

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<v Speaker 3>so like, yeah, there a big West Suburbs were a

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<v Speaker 3>really popular site.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, they were my favorite team as a kid. That

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<v Speaker 2>like Paul Langmack black and white jersey. Yeah, black and

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<v Speaker 2>white jerseys. I've still got one as a kid with

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<v Speaker 2>the Magpie on it, but anyone. Yeah, Shane Flanagan was there, Flanno,

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<v Speaker 2>Britt Stewart who was from christ Which as well. So

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<v Speaker 2>that that was my team as a kid, because you

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<v Speaker 2>know when when you're younger and you have someone that's

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<v Speaker 2>on TV or famous in your family, they become a hero,

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<v Speaker 2>you see. So so Brendan was to my gateway to

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<v Speaker 2>rugby league and my introduction to the to the sport

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<v Speaker 2>and as a four year old, I just absolutely fell

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<v Speaker 2>in love with it and it became my career after that.

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<v Speaker 1>It was as much.

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<v Speaker 3>IRL or rugby league, at least for juniors in a

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<v Speaker 3>place like Cross Tip.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, there is there's great. There's like the pathways are

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<v Speaker 2>starting to get really good at the moment. When I

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<v Speaker 2>was a kid, they were pretty strong. Towards the back

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<v Speaker 2>end of my teenage career, like it basically moved. The

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<v Speaker 2>numbers were running short. So basically on a Saturday, I'd

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<v Speaker 2>play rugby, then on Monday night I'd play rugby league.

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<v Speaker 2>And that was kind of the way it kind of went.

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<v Speaker 2>So I was kind of the outcast at school. Went

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<v Speaker 2>to school. All my mates were rugby players and I

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<v Speaker 2>was a rugby league player, and you know, I would

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<v Speaker 2>always argue about, you know, what sport was tougher. So

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<v Speaker 2>it was cool to be able to kind of get

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<v Speaker 2>my rugby mates to come play with me on a

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<v Speaker 2>Monday night and then I'd played rugby with them on Saturday.

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<v Speaker 2>And then it got to the age when I was

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<v Speaker 2>thirteen or fourteen, I started making both rip teams Kenneby

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<v Speaker 2>Rugby and Kenneby Rugby League. And rugby league was always

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<v Speaker 2>my my journey and I got offered two scholarships to

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<v Speaker 2>some prestigious schools and Christ Church, christ College and St Andrew's.

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<v Speaker 2>But there's one catch. Yeah, I had to give up

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<v Speaker 2>regul league and you know, for me, coming from a

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<v Speaker 2>single mom who worked three jobs as a butcher and

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<v Speaker 2>everything she could become was a butcher. She's a butcher.

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<v Speaker 2>She's still there today school. Yeah so she's there of

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<v Speaker 2>my stepdad's actually her boss, and yeah, so she worked

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<v Speaker 2>really hard. And you know, for me, we both went

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<v Speaker 2>to those interviews with those prestigious schools, and you know,

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<v Speaker 2>I walked out. She's like, what do you think? And

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<v Speaker 2>I was just like, mum, like, you know, they're trying

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<v Speaker 2>to tell me what I can do at the age

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<v Speaker 2>of thirteen, like I wanted this is the world's mind,

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<v Speaker 2>Like I want to be able to create my own

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<v Speaker 2>path where my dreams always to plan the NRAL back

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<v Speaker 2>then it was the Winfield Cup. So I chose to

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<v Speaker 2>go to public school, Papa Nui High and basically, you know,

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<v Speaker 2>I spent two years there and then got my first

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<v Speaker 2>kind of launch pad into you know, the system over here,

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<v Speaker 2>and that was through the Sydney.

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<v Speaker 3>Roosters and then uh, just by the way, and I

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<v Speaker 3>should I would to make this clear, not that I

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<v Speaker 3>disliked rugby union, but when someone says you're a bit

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<v Speaker 3>of an outcast, that probably means you can tackle as

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<v Speaker 3>a rugby league player, you can tackle low rugby union

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<v Speaker 3>guys don't really, especially at the young age.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah, exactly, there's much tackle.

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<v Speaker 2>Now there's not much. It's more grab and go for

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<v Speaker 2>the ball.

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<v Speaker 1>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 2>And in New Zealand, like you know, like they used

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<v Speaker 2>to call rugby league state house rugby. So they called

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<v Speaker 2>state House rugby because over here we over here the

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<v Speaker 2>housing Commission of the Housing Commissions, but back in New

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<v Speaker 2>Zealand at state state housing. So that's what the rugby

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<v Speaker 2>boys used to call it. And you know, I'd make

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<v Speaker 2>rip teams and stuff like that, but I was the outcast.

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<v Speaker 2>I was that rugby league boy that shouldn't be part

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<v Speaker 2>of this rugby team, you know, like that all these

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<v Speaker 2>boys were going to private schools and I was the

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<v Speaker 2>only public school boy and I was playing both sports,

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<v Speaker 2>and parents used to complain, but you know, it used

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<v Speaker 2>to toughen me's bit.

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<v Speaker 3>The same here, a bit similar here now because the

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<v Speaker 3>private school boys are still playing rugby and because of

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<v Speaker 3>my boys are in private school. But one of the

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<v Speaker 3>issues that we always had was that they played rugby

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<v Speaker 3>union for the school on Saturday, but they played rugby

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<v Speaker 3>league on Sunday. Yeah, and the school didn't like it. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 3>and because they won't know whether maybe they had again

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<v Speaker 3>get injured or something like that. And that in fact,

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<v Speaker 3>as I got up up to higher grades as the

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<v Speaker 3>kids got older at school, there were moments there with

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<v Speaker 3>the school of Banya, they wouldn't let you play for

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<v Speaker 3>the best team in the school if you played rugby league.

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<v Speaker 2>It was pretty much like that when I was young

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<v Speaker 2>as well. Yeah, it is, it is you kind of

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<v Speaker 2>and as a kid you want to you know, you

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<v Speaker 2>love sport like I come from an era where there

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<v Speaker 2>was no technology internet, so you know, like it was

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<v Speaker 2>you know, played till the lights came on. That's when

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<v Speaker 2>you went home and you played both codes. That's that's

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<v Speaker 2>how you made up your time. And that's that was

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<v Speaker 2>what all my passion was, you know, rugby league, rugby basketball,

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<v Speaker 2>even though I couldn't play it, and then touch footy

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<v Speaker 2>that was always my summer sport. Got a bit into cricket,

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<v Speaker 2>but it was never good at it. All I wanted

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<v Speaker 2>to do was sixers and stuff like that. And you

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<v Speaker 2>know I was always but always into rugby league. You know,

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<v Speaker 2>I grew up My favorite player was Alfie Langer. I'm

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<v Speaker 2>always always quite short, as a young kid playing half back.

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<v Speaker 2>And you know, so I predominantly supported the Broncos and

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<v Speaker 2>the Magpies when the Magpies went winning that the Broncos

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<v Speaker 2>when my team until the Warriors came in at nine

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<v Speaker 2>to five.

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<v Speaker 1>Who recruited you into playing footy in.

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<v Speaker 2>Australia, The great Arthur Beazza.

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<v Speaker 1>So you would have come to the Roosters.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, came to the Roosters. Very fortunate to come into

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<v Speaker 2>a great pathway. To be honest, I was shipped myself

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<v Speaker 2>leaving christ Church. You know, I was a massive Mummies

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<v Speaker 2>boy as a kid, you know, not having a father

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<v Speaker 2>figure around, you know. But but the hardest thing for

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<v Speaker 2>me was to leave leave christ Church because that was

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<v Speaker 2>comfort for me. And you know, even though I didn't

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<v Speaker 2>have a dad, my Coddle which is grandfather of Maldi,

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<v Speaker 2>my mom's dad, he stepped up and he was like

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<v Speaker 2>my dad as a kid and he was the one

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<v Speaker 2>that took me to rugby league each morning and feed

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<v Speaker 2>me up for a coke and and a chocolate bar

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<v Speaker 2>before we got to the field and I'd play. I'd

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<v Speaker 2>play it under elevens and under twelves because I had

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<v Speaker 2>so much energy and then you know, that was the

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<v Speaker 2>hardest thing about coming to the Roosters was saying goodbye

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<v Speaker 2>to them. And I used to get really homesick as

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<v Speaker 2>a kid, and that was kind of the first huge

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<v Speaker 2>obstacle I sort of came, like overcame as a young

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<v Speaker 2>kid and a human being, was to leave mum and

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<v Speaker 2>my grandfather and come over here. And you know, it's

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<v Speaker 2>a you're a small fish and a big pond over

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<v Speaker 2>here with basing exactly, mate, you know what I mean.

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<v Speaker 2>And I actually got put up in Hall Street when

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<v Speaker 2>they used to have and the Rooster's Home, so to

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<v Speaker 2>live there with four twenty five year olds. I grew

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<v Speaker 2>up playing with cso older, so it was one.

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<v Speaker 1>Of my favorite places.

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<v Speaker 3>Got he was like when he tackled, Yeah, it was amazing.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah he went off to Canberra, of course, but it

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<v Speaker 3>was sticky. But yeah, So you must have played with

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<v Speaker 3>when Ricky Ricky Show was around.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so I played with when Ricky was playing and

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<v Speaker 2>then I was in the Jusey Fleig team. So I

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<v Speaker 2>lived in Hall Street and the Rooster's Home came in.

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<v Speaker 2>Our Jusy Flig team was super talented, you know, Chaun

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<v Speaker 2>kenney Dale, Frank Paul Noui Sala Sah obviously was up

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<v Speaker 2>in the first grade. Another boyfriend christ at Sea Matassa,

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<v Speaker 2>So you know, we all sort of found ourselves where

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<v Speaker 2>we were and had a great coach and Jimmy Dimmock,

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<v Speaker 2>you know, that hybrid five eight Locke who you know

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<v Speaker 2>bounced from the Bulldogs to the Paramatta. But was was

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<v Speaker 2>that that hard tonguing boy that you know, was a

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<v Speaker 2>great player when great wrestling. He used to get his

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<v Speaker 2>brother into Yeah yeah, yeah, mad wrestler. But just the

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<v Speaker 2>camaraderie he brought, and you know that the swag that

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<v Speaker 2>he walked around because you know, he he'd done so

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<v Speaker 2>much in the game already and he was just great,

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<v Speaker 2>a great coach to have around. And then obviously our

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<v Speaker 2>trainer at the time as well was Bennie Gardner, who's

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<v Speaker 2>actually part of the Panther system now, so full circle

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<v Speaker 2>kind of stuff. And but really really enjoyed my time

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<v Speaker 2>at the Roosters. And that was sort of the period

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<v Speaker 2>when Reserve Grade was was linking up with Newtown, so

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<v Speaker 2>they were playing out at Hinton Park. So you know,

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<v Speaker 2>us Josey Flig boys we thought were the big wigs

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<v Speaker 2>because we were playing before NRAL each week. I ad

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<v Speaker 2>it Alliance. Back then it was a Sydney football stadium,

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<v Speaker 2>so it was a great experience and you know, for

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<v Speaker 2>me it was a dream come true.

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<v Speaker 1>But what did you learn?

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<v Speaker 3>What, like when those in those processes, Looking back though,

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<v Speaker 3>what do you learn about yourself? Apart from the fact

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<v Speaker 3>that you worked out you were able to sort of

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<v Speaker 3>live without your mum. But when I say without your mom,

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<v Speaker 3>like not in your mum's house, what did you learn?

0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:21.959
<v Speaker 3>What techniques did you learn in terms of coping mechanisms?

0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:24.840
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's that's a great question to be honest with you, Mark,

0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:27.760
<v Speaker 2>Like there was many a night I'd cry to Mum

0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:30.160
<v Speaker 2>wanting to come home, you know, even though it's I

0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:31.760
<v Speaker 2>look back now and think it's only a two and

0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:34.320
<v Speaker 2>a half hour flight. She was like, you've worked too

0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:36.600
<v Speaker 2>hard to get to this. This is what all you've wanted,

0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:40.000
<v Speaker 2>And like learning to cope without my mum, like learning

0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:42.360
<v Speaker 2>to do washing, cooking, well, fortunate enough to have a

0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:45.079
<v Speaker 2>cook at the at the Rooster's home. And then eventually

0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:47.240
<v Speaker 2>as time went on, I sort of migrated out of

0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:50.080
<v Speaker 2>the Rooster's home and learned to sign a lease for

0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:52.600
<v Speaker 2>a rental property. This is all within the age of

0:10:52.600 --> 0:10:54.840
<v Speaker 2>seventeen eighteen, and you know, had to grow up very

0:10:54.920 --> 0:10:57.600
<v Speaker 2>very fast. And I think maturity was a massive one.

0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:01.200
<v Speaker 2>You know, I was walking into a changing ship, you

0:11:01.200 --> 0:11:05.360
<v Speaker 2>know at Wentworth Park, that's we used to train full time. Yeah,

0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:09.960
<v Speaker 2>like you know, like Minchello, if it's given Preithvanessa Rickardson,

0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:16.120
<v Speaker 2>it's given Wingy, Amos Roberts. You know, there's so many,

0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:18.720
<v Speaker 2>so many great players there. I just had to grow

0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:23.080
<v Speaker 2>up like maturely, and maturity was a massive one. Back

0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:25.360
<v Speaker 2>then it was you know, you didn't speak to anyone

0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:26.880
<v Speaker 2>unless you were spoken to. It was hit down. That

0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:29.760
<v Speaker 2>was like Ricky Sting. And just learned a lot about

0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:32.400
<v Speaker 2>myself how how much you can go through but you

0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:34.480
<v Speaker 2>can come out the other side. And that I really

0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:37.520
<v Speaker 2>believe that's led a great foundation for me for you know,

0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:39.960
<v Speaker 2>my time now as a human because I've gone through

0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:42.199
<v Speaker 2>so much as a kid, but now you go through much,

0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:43.720
<v Speaker 2>so much of an adult, and you can see light

0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:44.959
<v Speaker 2>at the end of the tunnel, and just.

0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:45.680
<v Speaker 1>How do you get that?

0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:48.840
<v Speaker 3>How do you get like, how do you keep that positive?

0:11:49.320 --> 0:11:52.839
<v Speaker 3>That's important you just said at the end of the

0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:55.559
<v Speaker 3>tunnel and you know, it's not the train coming towards you.

0:11:55.559 --> 0:11:57.640
<v Speaker 3>You know, how do you keep that positive view? Like,

0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:01.320
<v Speaker 3>how did and did you ruggle to get to that position?

0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:03.080
<v Speaker 3>Did you say, well, look, I'm better off taking the

0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:06.480
<v Speaker 3>positive view, yep, because the other of you is pretty shitty.

0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:08.840
<v Speaker 1>It doesn't get me anywhere. What was your process?

0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:11.320
<v Speaker 2>So my first so, my first interaction when I first

0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:14.240
<v Speaker 2>came over here at the Roosters was I got chucked

0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:16.599
<v Speaker 2>into the Wanda sand Hills. And anyone that knows is

0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:19.600
<v Speaker 2>Wanda sand Hills. They're pretty tough. Yeah, And back back

0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:22.320
<v Speaker 2>in christ we didn't do much fitness, but you come

0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:24.120
<v Speaker 2>over here in the system and it was all fitness.

0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:24.240
<v Speaker 3>You know.

0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:27.559
<v Speaker 2>Ricky was crazy. So they chucked us out at Wanda

0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:30.200
<v Speaker 2>sand Hills. And to be honest with you, that was

0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:33.280
<v Speaker 2>the worst day of my life. Like like during that period,

0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:35.160
<v Speaker 2>I didn't even complete it. I ended up in the bush,

0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:38.120
<v Speaker 2>lactated up, spewing up Ricky telling me to get up,

0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:42.040
<v Speaker 2>you're soft. But for me, like, I went home that

0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:44.880
<v Speaker 2>day very embarrassed. I knew what I had to work

0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:47.800
<v Speaker 2>on the next morning, I rocked up to Wentworth Park

0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:49.880
<v Speaker 2>at five am and put myself in the Fat Club

0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:51.240
<v Speaker 2>because I knew it wasn't fair enough and I.

0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:52.720
<v Speaker 1>Had just explained what the fat club was.

0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:54.880
<v Speaker 2>So the fat club is basically a club where you

0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:57.280
<v Speaker 2>go each morning when you back back in those days.

0:12:57.320 --> 0:12:58.880
<v Speaker 2>They still do it now as skin folds, so you

0:12:58.880 --> 0:13:01.920
<v Speaker 2>have to be under ninety ninety skinfolds. I think it's

0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:04.839
<v Speaker 2>about seven different points on your body to see where

0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:06.200
<v Speaker 2>your body fats at if.

0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:08.080
<v Speaker 1>You don't meet those, especially in the preseason.

0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:12.200
<v Speaker 2>Especially in the preseason, it's big on getting your nutrition right,

0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:15.200
<v Speaker 2>your body right. So I got put in the fat club.

0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:20.319
<v Speaker 2>Five am rower Ronnie Palmer taking that worst worst we

0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:23.800
<v Speaker 2>do like nine hundred meters and three minutes on the roll.

0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:25.480
<v Speaker 2>Anyone that knows the role, that's a bit of a

0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:27.160
<v Speaker 2>tough gig. So we had to do about five six

0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:30.720
<v Speaker 2>of them into the bike into that. So that was

0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:33.880
<v Speaker 2>me growing up within over the night, like I put

0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:35.559
<v Speaker 2>my hand up, I knew where I was going wrong

0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:38.320
<v Speaker 2>and sort of put myself in a position where I

0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:41.480
<v Speaker 2>was vulnerable but willing to take it on. And I

0:13:41.600 --> 0:13:44.360
<v Speaker 2>just sort of grew from there and before I knew it,

0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:49.000
<v Speaker 2>you know, I was starting number nine and a star

0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:52.160
<v Speaker 2>started a jersey flig team and slowly building confidence as

0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:54.000
<v Speaker 2>I went on. I think when I moved out of

0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:56.800
<v Speaker 2>the Rooster's house and I kind of really found my independence,

0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:00.000
<v Speaker 2>really lean on my support network, my mum back home

0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:02.520
<v Speaker 2>should fly over then. Obviously my sister was living here

0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:04.880
<v Speaker 2>at the same time, so I really leaned into her

0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:08.400
<v Speaker 2>a lot as well. And then also my grandfather. He

0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:10.240
<v Speaker 2>was a massive rock in my life. And you know,

0:14:10.280 --> 0:14:13.080
<v Speaker 2>back then in New Zealand, the old cell phone, it

0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:15.520
<v Speaker 2>was hard to get credit. Twenty dollars, got your twenty dollars,

0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:17.040
<v Speaker 2>but you move up here to get forty nine dollars,

0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:18.560
<v Speaker 2>it would get you two undred and fifty. So I

0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:20.680
<v Speaker 2>was fit on the phone to them, so you know,

0:14:20.720 --> 0:14:23.240
<v Speaker 2>they really helped me get through it. And I look

0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:26.160
<v Speaker 2>back on it now. There was moments where a mum was,

0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:28.800
<v Speaker 2>you know, moments away from booking a flight home. But

0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:30.800
<v Speaker 2>I'm just so glad I stuck it out because I

0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:33.280
<v Speaker 2>know if I'd gone home, it would have been the

0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:34.440
<v Speaker 2>biggest recruit of my life.

0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:38.240
<v Speaker 3>So it's interesting to talk about, and there is some

0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:43.400
<v Speaker 3>significance around that fat squad because because a lot of

0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:45.800
<v Speaker 3>really good players first grades get put in that squad

0:14:45.840 --> 0:14:49.720
<v Speaker 3>if they come back from the preseason break or before

0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:53.239
<v Speaker 3>the preseason, after the break from playing footing, if inevitably

0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:54.680
<v Speaker 3>a lot of good weight on because they get on

0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:56.840
<v Speaker 3>the beers and they haven't shit, and then I'm being

0:14:56.880 --> 0:15:00.080
<v Speaker 3>managed and they don't have any obligation to train and

0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:03.200
<v Speaker 3>end or play that they're literally taking a break. But

0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:06.000
<v Speaker 3>a lot of big guys, especially when they're used to

0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:09.320
<v Speaker 3>having a high metabolic rate as a result of training

0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:12.920
<v Speaker 3>lots of ours every day, they wait on pretty simple.

0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:18.520
<v Speaker 3>But there's a bit of a a little bit of

0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:20.960
<v Speaker 3>a reputation issue being in the fat squad. There was

0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:23.600
<v Speaker 3>you know, you're in a fat squad. That's the first thing.

0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:27.960
<v Speaker 3>The second thing is Ronnie Palmer, the Bondai charmer who

0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:30.880
<v Speaker 3>actually contacted me last week, funnily enough, who I used

0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:33.160
<v Speaker 3>to train. So I used to train me and Ronnie

0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:35.960
<v Speaker 3>and Sticky's training. When you park in the gym on

0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:39.480
<v Speaker 3>the second level, yeah, we should train there together, three

0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:42.160
<v Speaker 3>of us. And I just quickly say that Ricky would

0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:44.760
<v Speaker 3>Everyone knows him as a bit of a sledge when

0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:48.560
<v Speaker 3>he played. Ricky was a sledge in every thing he did,

0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:51.240
<v Speaker 3>so he would we would turn off a train like

0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:53.280
<v Speaker 3>two or three times a week. We'd start off on

0:15:53.320 --> 0:15:55.040
<v Speaker 3>the row and I hate the fucking row. It's one

0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:57.440
<v Speaker 3>of the worst machines that are, which is why I

0:15:57.440 --> 0:16:00.680
<v Speaker 3>had one. And Ricky as soon as you would get there,

0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:04.200
<v Speaker 3>he would start sledging me. He'd say, it is like

0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:06.600
<v Speaker 3>twenty odd years ago. Twenty years ago, I guess. But

0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:10.640
<v Speaker 3>he'd say, mate, what's happened to your your biceps?

0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:13.120
<v Speaker 1>League? I only saw him.

0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:15.120
<v Speaker 3>We go and he say, you haven't done any XO,

0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:18.080
<v Speaker 3>no training, but you look really weak. He starts sledging me,

0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:22.480
<v Speaker 3>and so the process. So Ronnie then would punish us,

0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:25.640
<v Speaker 3>punish and Ronnie was like Ronnie's five or six years

0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:28.320
<v Speaker 3>older than me. But Ronnie is fit as fit as

0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:31.680
<v Speaker 3>any of the players in those days anyway, especially and

0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:34.240
<v Speaker 3>he could lift, he could run, he could do everything

0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:37.240
<v Speaker 3>what you guys could do. Great imagination too, and the

0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:40.600
<v Speaker 3>nicest bloke in the world, in the world. But at

0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:42.480
<v Speaker 3>the same time, you had to punish you or push

0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:46.840
<v Speaker 3>you beyond your limits. And to be in the fat squad,

0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:49.120
<v Speaker 3>to volunteer to go on the fat squad to get better,

0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:51.880
<v Speaker 3>that's a big call because, as I said, there's a

0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:54.440
<v Speaker 3>reputation issue around It looks like you've got no discipline,

0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:59.000
<v Speaker 3>and so I want to ask you, either we either

0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:01.680
<v Speaker 3>push ourselves or agree to be pushed by somebody else.

0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:05.720
<v Speaker 3>Do you think that's a way of building mental resilience

0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:08.760
<v Speaker 3>apart of physical resilience in footy, but the mental resilience

0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:10.840
<v Speaker 3>just to equip you for business environments?

0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:13.040
<v Speaker 2>Oh, I definitely, I think it's huge.

0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:14.359
<v Speaker 1>So what does that mean then for you?

0:17:14.480 --> 0:17:14.640
<v Speaker 2>Then?

0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:19.480
<v Speaker 3>Like, like, if someone else is listening to this, doesn't

0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:22.719
<v Speaker 3>mean I should allow myself to be subjected to someone

0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:25.800
<v Speaker 3>who's either a mentor or is not a mentor as

0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:29.480
<v Speaker 3>just a family friend or in your case it's about footy,

0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:32.760
<v Speaker 3>but allow them to push my to push me and

0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:34.960
<v Speaker 3>never do I not challenge it? Do I say no,

0:17:35.080 --> 0:17:38.960
<v Speaker 3>fuck you, I'm not doing that. How do you how

0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:42.040
<v Speaker 3>do you become someone who allows themselves to sort of

0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:45.200
<v Speaker 3>volunteer for this and sit back and cop a sweet

0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:46.639
<v Speaker 3>and just do it what you've been told?

0:17:46.840 --> 0:17:50.280
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, there's a great question. Again. I kind of felt

0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:53.080
<v Speaker 2>myself just migrat into it naturally. I feel like it

0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:54.720
<v Speaker 2>was kind of installed in me as a young kid

0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:55.200
<v Speaker 2>from my mum.

0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:57.359
<v Speaker 1>Does that mean, of course you've always been a compliant kid?

0:17:57.560 --> 0:17:58.320
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? Yeah, I think so.

0:17:58.440 --> 0:17:59.800
<v Speaker 1>I think, well, you're never naughty.

0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:03.240
<v Speaker 2>I was very driven at a young age. You know,

0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:05.560
<v Speaker 2>we go back to that conversation when the principals were

0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:07.720
<v Speaker 2>telling me I had to I had to give up

0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:09.920
<v Speaker 2>Ragua League, and at the age of thirteen, I went

0:18:09.920 --> 0:18:11.280
<v Speaker 2>back to Mum and said, I'm not going to let

0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:12.920
<v Speaker 2>them tell me what I can do in my life.

0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:13.520
<v Speaker 2>You know what I mean?

0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:16.840
<v Speaker 3>And does that mean being your rebellious or your complying

0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:17.840
<v Speaker 3>to your objectives?

0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:20.400
<v Speaker 2>I think it was just more mean being driven and

0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:22.520
<v Speaker 2>having a goal of what I wanted and there's nothing

0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:23.919
<v Speaker 2>that was going to stop me from getting there.

0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:25.320
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so stop me there.

0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:27.399
<v Speaker 3>So does that mean then in relation to what you do,

0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:31.360
<v Speaker 3>because you've obviously carried those characteristics of resilience through into

0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:33.000
<v Speaker 3>your business life, which were going to talk about.

0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:33.480
<v Speaker 1>In the second half.

0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:38.399
<v Speaker 3>But does that mean though that therefore, what allowed you

0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:42.880
<v Speaker 3>to become resilient as a result of complying with what

0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:46.800
<v Speaker 3>the fat Squad training environment was? Is that because you

0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:50.000
<v Speaker 3>were driven or is that just because you just.

0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:52.119
<v Speaker 1>Complied?

0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:57.680
<v Speaker 2>What? Is it driven? Definitely driven? Driven, like like I

0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:01.640
<v Speaker 2>wouldn't believe. I still surprised myself today how driven I am,

0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:03.800
<v Speaker 2>And like I said before, like I really feel like

0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:06.359
<v Speaker 2>that comes from the environment that's created as a kid.

0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:09.520
<v Speaker 2>What is that, you know, like watching my mom, Like

0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:11.879
<v Speaker 2>I didn't really get it when I was a kid,

0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:14.480
<v Speaker 2>but seeing mom work three jobs to keep the lights on,

0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:18.560
<v Speaker 2>to pay the rent, you know, like wondering, you know

0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:21.199
<v Speaker 2>why she's up so early, wondering why I was at

0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:24.800
<v Speaker 2>training forty minutes before everyone else. Because she was installing

0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:27.359
<v Speaker 2>those things into me. She hated me being late. I

0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:30.119
<v Speaker 2>was always there thirty minutes, thirty or forty minutes before,

0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:32.879
<v Speaker 2>waiting in the car, kicking the ball around, just seeing

0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:36.159
<v Speaker 2>her like she was a great netble player, like to

0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:38.000
<v Speaker 2>the point where she could have played for the Silver Ferns,

0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:40.320
<v Speaker 2>And she sacrificed to give up her dream for me

0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:42.320
<v Speaker 2>to live my dream. And that was believing in me

0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:45.639
<v Speaker 2>at such a young age, and she installed this like

0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:48.439
<v Speaker 2>driving me that you know, I wanted to get out

0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:50.639
<v Speaker 2>of christ Church. I didn't want to just be another number.

0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:53.680
<v Speaker 2>I wanted to live my dream and show everyone else

0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:56.240
<v Speaker 2>that you can tell me that I can't do something,

0:19:56.920 --> 0:19:58.679
<v Speaker 2>but I'm going to go do it anyway, Like to

0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:01.440
<v Speaker 2>the point where i'd be according to the principal's office

0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:04.400
<v Speaker 2>and at high school and said, you know, you need

0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:06.520
<v Speaker 2>to stop going on about this rugby league dream because

0:20:06.800 --> 0:20:09.200
<v Speaker 2>it's not going to happen. Like you know, teachers actually

0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:11.960
<v Speaker 2>telling me as opposed to encouraging me to live my dream.

0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:14.360
<v Speaker 2>They were telling me to no, you can't do that,

0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:16.520
<v Speaker 2>you can't like what are you doing? You didn't focus

0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:19.159
<v Speaker 2>on academics. But I was never an academic kid. I

0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:22.560
<v Speaker 2>couldn't concentrate in the classroom. I just wanted to play footy.

0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:24.320
<v Speaker 2>I wanted to eat my lunch and back out and

0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:26.720
<v Speaker 2>play footy again. And you know, to the point where

0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:29.679
<v Speaker 2>you know, in one week, I had three meetings with

0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:34.000
<v Speaker 2>three three teachers from different subjects, all telling me the

0:20:34.000 --> 0:20:35.879
<v Speaker 2>same thing. You need to give up this rugby league

0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:38.040
<v Speaker 2>dream because it's not for you. Do you know the

0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:40.800
<v Speaker 2>percentage of people that play NRL and it just went

0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:42.400
<v Speaker 2>in one year and out the other.

0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:45.320
<v Speaker 3>So does that mean that as a business person in

0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:47.680
<v Speaker 3>your lad of life, like someone who might be sort

0:20:47.720 --> 0:20:50.800
<v Speaker 3>of dreaming to have it and be driven and be

0:20:50.960 --> 0:20:55.600
<v Speaker 3>like completely completely obsessed without being about being successful in

0:20:55.600 --> 0:20:59.760
<v Speaker 3>their business dream? Does that mean that no matter what happens,

0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:03.600
<v Speaker 3>no matter what someone says. It's a it's a fuck

0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:05.879
<v Speaker 3>you type moment. I'm going to do what I'm going

0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:07.520
<v Speaker 3>to do. It doesn't matter even.

0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:07.879
<v Speaker 1>If I fail.

0:21:08.080 --> 0:21:11.520
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Like I like, my biggest mantra at the moment

0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:14.000
<v Speaker 2>is I'd rather fail at something I want to do

0:21:14.359 --> 0:21:16.680
<v Speaker 2>then I don't want to do. I can easily go

0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:19.000
<v Speaker 2>and work on a building site. I could easily go

0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:20.919
<v Speaker 2>be a cleaner, and I could fail at that, but

0:21:20.960 --> 0:21:22.919
<v Speaker 2>that's not what I want to do. I'd rather go

0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:26.120
<v Speaker 2>spend my time and invest it in myself and one

0:21:26.119 --> 0:21:28.240
<v Speaker 2>of my passions. And if I failed, I found that list,

0:21:28.280 --> 0:21:31.080
<v Speaker 2>I've given it a shot. That's just how my brain operates,

0:21:31.160 --> 0:21:33.480
<v Speaker 2>and I'm slowly learning more about that as I go

0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:36.960
<v Speaker 2>through business and learning behaviors from rugby league at a

0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:40.199
<v Speaker 2>young age that I can carry from sport over to

0:21:40.240 --> 0:21:40.920
<v Speaker 2>the business side.

0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:44.520
<v Speaker 1>So let's just and just to close off the loops.

0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:46.320
<v Speaker 3>So in terms of your regul argue career, so we

0:21:46.440 --> 0:21:48.240
<v Speaker 3>ended up having to say you you didn't end up

0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:50.760
<v Speaker 3>playing Grave for the Roos, you play for League for

0:21:50.800 --> 0:21:51.160
<v Speaker 3>the Roosters.

0:21:51.160 --> 0:21:52.760
<v Speaker 1>Where did you go after that? Where did you finish up?

0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:56.560
<v Speaker 2>So I basically spin two years at the Roosters. Basically.

0:21:57.560 --> 0:22:00.280
<v Speaker 2>I remember one night I'd had a good game and

0:22:00.359 --> 0:22:01.879
<v Speaker 2>Sticky came out to me in the league's club. I

0:22:01.920 --> 0:22:04.840
<v Speaker 2>said that we're going to resign you on Tuesday. I

0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:07.080
<v Speaker 2>was working up at Rebel Rebel Sports East Garden at

0:22:07.080 --> 0:22:09.280
<v Speaker 2>the time. And then I remember my boss at the

0:22:09.280 --> 0:22:11.040
<v Speaker 2>time coming said to me on the Monday or Ricky

0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:14.360
<v Speaker 2>actually has been fired. So for me, I was like, well,

0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:15.879
<v Speaker 2>what's next? So I rang my manager.

0:22:16.359 --> 0:22:18.200
<v Speaker 1>That was when we tried to employ Wayne Bennett.

0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:21.080
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I was it, yeah, yeah, yeah. All I remember

0:22:21.119 --> 0:22:22.639
<v Speaker 2>was him saying to me, you're gonna You're going to

0:22:22.720 --> 0:22:25.640
<v Speaker 2>be resigned, And that whole weekend I was puffed out,

0:22:25.720 --> 0:22:27.560
<v Speaker 2>my chest was out. I was thinking, great, I'm gonna

0:22:27.640 --> 0:22:30.879
<v Speaker 2>been another time bit of time here. And then it

0:22:30.920 --> 0:22:33.200
<v Speaker 2>fell through. Chris Anderson came in under there.

0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:35.120
<v Speaker 3>I was the one because I was on the board

0:22:35.119 --> 0:22:37.120
<v Speaker 3>at the time still, and I was the one who

0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:38.440
<v Speaker 3>gave and O the job.

0:22:38.600 --> 0:22:41.199
<v Speaker 1>I gave O the job because he was.

0:22:41.240 --> 0:22:44.240
<v Speaker 3>His traian coach. Pri Ye did have a heart attack,

0:22:44.240 --> 0:22:46.080
<v Speaker 3>but we did. We didn't have another coach because Bennett

0:22:46.119 --> 0:22:50.399
<v Speaker 3>was going to coach YEP. And that's and recently, you know,

0:22:50.680 --> 0:22:54.440
<v Speaker 3>we reviewed the book about this on our straight Talk podcast,

0:22:55.400 --> 0:22:58.520
<v Speaker 3>and yeah, so we gave the job and with Freddie

0:22:58.520 --> 0:22:59.520
<v Speaker 3>being this systant.

0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:02.159
<v Speaker 2>That's right, yeah, yeah, so and then they decided not

0:23:02.200 --> 0:23:05.480
<v Speaker 2>to Chris decided he wanted to part ways. I was

0:23:05.560 --> 0:23:07.960
<v Speaker 2>only a young kid, and so I spent one winter

0:23:08.400 --> 0:23:11.640
<v Speaker 2>for one year at the Tigers part time. So once

0:23:11.680 --> 0:23:17.040
<v Speaker 2>again like having to learn to get through over hurdles again,

0:23:17.160 --> 0:23:19.359
<v Speaker 2>like you know, I'd gone from being told I was

0:23:19.359 --> 0:23:21.919
<v Speaker 2>going to be resigned that I didn't I wasn't wanted,

0:23:22.240 --> 0:23:25.159
<v Speaker 2>then going to the West Tigers. At that time, it

0:23:25.200 --> 0:23:27.760
<v Speaker 2>wasn't even Science so the West Tigers was Balmain Ride Tigers,

0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:30.840
<v Speaker 2>so I was the next tier under And then having

0:23:30.840 --> 0:23:32.919
<v Speaker 2>to go through that and still trying to believe in

0:23:32.960 --> 0:23:35.960
<v Speaker 2>myself that there's a stream of NRL that I want

0:23:35.960 --> 0:23:38.720
<v Speaker 2>to take in, but like there's the hurdles I have

0:23:38.760 --> 0:23:41.000
<v Speaker 2>to go through that aren't going my way, Like just

0:23:41.040 --> 0:23:43.240
<v Speaker 2>have to stick it out. So I went to the Tigers,

0:23:43.960 --> 0:23:46.000
<v Speaker 2>took up a job at Classic Sports at the same time,

0:23:46.040 --> 0:23:47.760
<v Speaker 2>so I was get up at five am in the morning,

0:23:47.800 --> 0:23:50.720
<v Speaker 2>so I'd work from five am to three o'clock in

0:23:50.760 --> 0:23:53.639
<v Speaker 2>the Arvo drive to likeaut train for four hours and

0:23:53.680 --> 0:23:55.560
<v Speaker 2>then I would drive home. And I did that for

0:23:55.600 --> 0:24:00.160
<v Speaker 2>a year and basically that was basically my last shot

0:24:00.280 --> 0:24:03.520
<v Speaker 2>at it. And I towards the back end of the year,

0:24:03.880 --> 0:24:08.040
<v Speaker 2>my manager rang me and he said, the Warriors are

0:24:08.080 --> 0:24:12.399
<v Speaker 2>interested in you and obviously been been in New Zealand. Kid.

0:24:13.119 --> 0:24:15.480
<v Speaker 2>You know when they came in the comp in ninety five,

0:24:16.200 --> 0:24:18.680
<v Speaker 2>you know it was it changed everything for rgular League

0:24:18.680 --> 0:24:21.240
<v Speaker 2>fans in New Zealand. And you know, to me, that

0:24:21.480 --> 0:24:24.240
<v Speaker 2>was going home and you know, representing my country. It

0:24:24.359 --> 0:24:28.159
<v Speaker 2>was my favorite team, and I thought to myself, why not,

0:24:28.240 --> 0:24:31.440
<v Speaker 2>why not give a shot? It was minimal money. I

0:24:31.480 --> 0:24:33.840
<v Speaker 2>had just done my foot at the time, so I

0:24:33.920 --> 0:24:37.280
<v Speaker 2>list frank injury so it's like attendant ligament in your foot,

0:24:37.440 --> 0:24:41.040
<v Speaker 2>which is like about a six month recovery. And so

0:24:41.200 --> 0:24:44.240
<v Speaker 2>Ivan signed me. He'd only seen me play on a DVD.

0:24:45.000 --> 0:24:49.040
<v Speaker 2>I was overweight at the time. Basically when went over

0:24:49.080 --> 0:24:51.520
<v Speaker 2>to New Zealand, walked in the first day, I was

0:24:51.520 --> 0:24:55.320
<v Speaker 2>one hundred and eight kilos overweight. I spoke to Craig Walker,

0:24:55.440 --> 0:24:59.040
<v Speaker 2>was the Walks of the trainer at the time. Walked

0:24:59.119 --> 0:25:02.040
<v Speaker 2>up to Walks in the office, introduced myself and they

0:25:02.040 --> 0:25:04.200
<v Speaker 2>were still on about a three month period because that

0:25:04.440 --> 0:25:08.520
<v Speaker 2>just the year before, in two thousand and eight, they'd

0:25:08.520 --> 0:25:11.440
<v Speaker 2>gone to the Grand Final qualifier against Manly where the

0:25:12.600 --> 0:25:14.520
<v Speaker 2>first week of the finals they bet that it was

0:25:14.560 --> 0:25:17.120
<v Speaker 2>the old system where one played eight yeah, and they

0:25:17.160 --> 0:25:19.639
<v Speaker 2>played the Storm and they bit them down at Olympic Park.

0:25:19.880 --> 0:25:22.560
<v Speaker 2>So the boys are on an extended pre season and

0:25:23.160 --> 0:25:25.119
<v Speaker 2>I went there to walk. So I said, I'm overweight,

0:25:25.119 --> 0:25:27.640
<v Speaker 2>I got this frank injury. I'm in the gym tomorrow.

0:25:27.720 --> 0:25:31.680
<v Speaker 2>And basically that off season taught myself how to walk

0:25:31.680 --> 0:25:34.879
<v Speaker 2>against walk laps of the field, ran laps of the field,

0:25:35.000 --> 0:25:37.359
<v Speaker 2>which was probably the best thing for me, because I

0:25:37.440 --> 0:25:40.880
<v Speaker 2>was overweight from this injury. If I got put back

0:25:40.880 --> 0:25:44.560
<v Speaker 2>into the full time squad straight away, even would have

0:25:44.640 --> 0:25:46.439
<v Speaker 2>kicked me out because I would have been overweight, unfit.

0:25:46.560 --> 0:25:49.480
<v Speaker 2>But because I was injured, allowing me to rehab back properly,

0:25:49.520 --> 0:25:51.479
<v Speaker 2>and by the time I got back into full time training,

0:25:51.720 --> 0:25:54.280
<v Speaker 2>I was fit as a fiddle. I dropped twelve kilos.

0:25:54.560 --> 0:25:57.280
<v Speaker 2>I was ninety six down to ninety six playing hooker

0:25:57.840 --> 0:26:03.520
<v Speaker 2>and basically was training at hooker. Weird fear bit of

0:26:03.880 --> 0:26:05.920
<v Speaker 2>like depth in the hooker role. We'd obviously had Nathan

0:26:05.960 --> 0:26:09.640
<v Speaker 2>Feene there, Ian Henderson was there and Hindo was there,

0:26:09.760 --> 0:26:13.199
<v Speaker 2>and yeah, I was playing hooker and then we played it.

0:26:13.240 --> 0:26:16.240
<v Speaker 2>We played a trial against the Cowboys and I remember

0:26:16.480 --> 0:26:20.760
<v Speaker 2>I played a twenty minute quarter at hooker and then

0:26:20.800 --> 0:26:22.880
<v Speaker 2>I even come up to me at halftime and he said,

0:26:24.040 --> 0:26:25.800
<v Speaker 2>he said, mate, have you have played back row? Said,

0:26:25.840 --> 0:26:28.240
<v Speaker 2>I never played in my life. And he said, you

0:26:28.240 --> 0:26:30.480
<v Speaker 2>know Jonathan Thurston who was he was on the right

0:26:30.520 --> 0:26:33.280
<v Speaker 2>hand side that game we're playing the Cowboys. He said,

0:26:33.320 --> 0:26:35.640
<v Speaker 2>just try and rip his inside shoulder of I want

0:26:35.640 --> 0:26:38.000
<v Speaker 2>you to run that line and as that's the main

0:26:38.040 --> 0:26:40.800
<v Speaker 2>back rolls line to get inside your your your three

0:26:40.800 --> 0:26:45.080
<v Speaker 2>man's inside shoulder. And fortunately that day Grant Ravelli, who

0:26:45.160 --> 0:26:49.160
<v Speaker 2>was also a Rooster's junior, he was at the Warriors

0:26:49.160 --> 0:26:50.639
<v Speaker 2>at the time, he put me through two holes and

0:26:50.720 --> 0:26:53.359
<v Speaker 2>I scored a double at the back row. And that's

0:26:53.520 --> 0:26:55.399
<v Speaker 2>when I became a back roll, a hybrid back roll.

0:26:55.520 --> 0:26:57.359
<v Speaker 2>I was a little a little bit of a different

0:26:57.400 --> 0:26:59.960
<v Speaker 2>shape to most back rolls, more in that Anthony watt

0:27:00.080 --> 0:27:03.200
<v Speaker 2>Our mold, where I was a like lower center of

0:27:03.240 --> 0:27:06.280
<v Speaker 2>gravity and had good leg drive. And that's how I

0:27:06.359 --> 0:27:08.240
<v Speaker 2>became a back roller and I started my career of the.

0:27:08.160 --> 0:27:10.240
<v Speaker 1>Warriors, and where did you finished career?

0:27:10.400 --> 0:27:13.040
<v Speaker 2>So I finished my I ended up so played just

0:27:13.119 --> 0:27:16.639
<v Speaker 2>under one hundred games for the Warriors. Then I followed

0:27:16.640 --> 0:27:20.720
<v Speaker 2>Ivan over to Pinrith in twenty and thirteen. I spent

0:27:20.800 --> 0:27:23.720
<v Speaker 2>four years there and then spent my last three years

0:27:23.760 --> 0:27:28.680
<v Speaker 2>at Manly. Retired in two thousand and five years ago,

0:27:28.760 --> 0:27:30.359
<v Speaker 2>so twenty and eighteen.

0:27:30.680 --> 0:27:33.960
<v Speaker 3>So that regul league career was a I mean, apart

0:27:34.000 --> 0:27:36.720
<v Speaker 3>from having played the sport you really loved and all

0:27:36.760 --> 0:27:39.440
<v Speaker 3>that sort of childhood sort of dream blah blah blah.

0:27:39.520 --> 0:27:42.120
<v Speaker 3>Get all that part. That's it's pretty good. But really

0:27:43.080 --> 0:27:46.919
<v Speaker 3>what happens from here is it equipped you to do something.

0:27:47.000 --> 0:27:49.639
<v Speaker 3>And I am going to go to the break, and

0:27:49.680 --> 0:27:50.840
<v Speaker 3>when I come back from the break, I want to

0:27:50.880 --> 0:27:52.800
<v Speaker 3>talk it. I want you to talk to me about

0:27:53.680 --> 0:27:58.200
<v Speaker 3>the earl's itch, the itch to set up a brand.

0:27:58.920 --> 0:27:59.760
<v Speaker 1>I need to know about that.

0:27:59.760 --> 0:28:01.920
<v Speaker 3>And I want to know what you learn from your

0:28:02.000 --> 0:28:05.040
<v Speaker 3>years as rugby leagues. Sitting here on your own in Australia.

0:28:05.200 --> 0:28:07.120
<v Speaker 3>What did you learn from those years that you've put

0:28:07.119 --> 0:28:10.760
<v Speaker 3>into play in relation to your brand, your business brand?

0:28:11.160 --> 0:28:13.760
<v Speaker 1>And then we're going to talk about some of the collaborations.

0:28:13.200 --> 0:28:15.320
<v Speaker 3>You're doing, because I can see the assets thing right there,

0:28:15.320 --> 0:28:16.680
<v Speaker 3>and that's driving me crazy.

0:28:16.680 --> 0:28:18.399
<v Speaker 1>I've got to know about that. So let's go. The

0:28:18.400 --> 0:28:19.200
<v Speaker 1>break comes straight back.

0:28:25.359 --> 0:28:28.840
<v Speaker 3>We've just been taught with Louis about his footy life

0:28:29.280 --> 0:28:31.639
<v Speaker 3>and some you might be thinking, well, you know what

0:28:31.800 --> 0:28:35.000
<v Speaker 3>you is that really a mentor subject or is it

0:28:35.040 --> 0:28:37.560
<v Speaker 3>more a straight talk subject. Well, I think it's really

0:28:37.560 --> 0:28:41.320
<v Speaker 3>important because we're talking about mindset. For me, in mindset

0:28:41.360 --> 0:28:44.880
<v Speaker 3>is a really important component of being successful as an entrepreneur,

0:28:44.920 --> 0:28:48.680
<v Speaker 3>as a business owner, particularly you know when we get setbacks,

0:28:49.080 --> 0:28:51.320
<v Speaker 3>and you get a lot of setbacks in footy, most

0:28:51.320 --> 0:28:53.040
<v Speaker 3>people just think, oh wow, you know, they can pay

0:28:53.160 --> 0:28:54.640
<v Speaker 3>you a load of money and doing.

0:28:54.400 --> 0:28:54.880
<v Speaker 1>What they love.

0:28:55.680 --> 0:28:58.560
<v Speaker 3>That's assuming that they are Jonathan Thurston or something like that,

0:28:58.600 --> 0:29:01.920
<v Speaker 3>who's like extraordinarily gift it and gets the right pathway,

0:29:02.000 --> 0:29:04.760
<v Speaker 3>and it doesn't always happen. And you know, ninety nine

0:29:04.760 --> 0:29:07.320
<v Speaker 3>out of one hundred players don't experience that, and it's

0:29:07.320 --> 0:29:12.520
<v Speaker 3>one in one hundred, maybe even less. And Louis probably

0:29:12.600 --> 0:29:14.840
<v Speaker 3>one of those ones who he had a good career,

0:29:14.960 --> 0:29:17.920
<v Speaker 3>but he wasn't someone who just automatically jumped into first

0:29:17.920 --> 0:29:20.880
<v Speaker 3>grade at the age of nineteen. And you know what

0:29:21.000 --> 0:29:23.840
<v Speaker 3>didn't become wasn't Mitchell Pierce played his whole career playing

0:29:23.840 --> 0:29:27.400
<v Speaker 3>first grade type of thing. And you have to build

0:29:27.400 --> 0:29:29.920
<v Speaker 3>a certain mindset and a certain resilience to get through

0:29:29.920 --> 0:29:32.640
<v Speaker 3>that shit. And what I want to talk to Lewis

0:29:32.640 --> 0:29:36.200
<v Speaker 3>about now is Louis like, tell me what was that,

0:29:36.240 --> 0:29:37.760
<v Speaker 3>because you know he had his urge or as a

0:29:37.840 --> 0:29:41.120
<v Speaker 3>kid to play rugby league. When des urge to create

0:29:41.160 --> 0:29:44.600
<v Speaker 3>a brand start to sort of get into your bones.

0:29:45.280 --> 0:29:48.800
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's man, that's probably that's probably the tuning put

0:29:48.800 --> 0:29:53.880
<v Speaker 2>in my life, that question. It was. I remember, so

0:29:55.080 --> 0:29:57.400
<v Speaker 2>I had spent nearly ten years playing inn RL, so

0:29:57.440 --> 0:29:59.280
<v Speaker 2>I played one hundred and ninety nine games, didn't quite

0:29:59.320 --> 0:30:02.320
<v Speaker 2>get the two hundred, played fifteen tests for for the

0:30:02.720 --> 0:30:10.480
<v Speaker 2>Kiwis and twenty and sixteen I was over in the

0:30:10.600 --> 0:30:15.600
<v Speaker 2>UK playing in the Four Nations David Kidwell's coach at

0:30:15.640 --> 0:30:19.120
<v Speaker 2>the time, and we're about to play. We just played,

0:30:20.160 --> 0:30:23.560
<v Speaker 2>We just plaid the Kangaroos at Anfield, Liverpool's home ground

0:30:23.560 --> 0:30:26.280
<v Speaker 2>in the Four Nations final. Got absolutely pumped. I think

0:30:26.280 --> 0:30:28.120
<v Speaker 2>it was like thirty six four that had a great team,

0:30:28.240 --> 0:30:34.680
<v Speaker 2>like you know, Thurston, cam Smith, Kronk Gregg Yinglis Morris brothers,

0:30:35.720 --> 0:30:38.640
<v Speaker 2>you know, great back rowers, you know. It was it

0:30:38.680 --> 0:30:40.880
<v Speaker 2>was a fear squad that they had had put against

0:30:40.960 --> 0:30:44.120
<v Speaker 2>us and put a fear scoring us. And I remember

0:30:44.160 --> 0:30:46.480
<v Speaker 2>sitting at the bar going back to the hotel, sitting

0:30:46.480 --> 0:30:49.440
<v Speaker 2>at the bar with Sean Johnson and his partner and

0:30:50.560 --> 0:30:52.960
<v Speaker 2>a phone. A phone call come through from my sister

0:30:53.960 --> 0:30:56.320
<v Speaker 2>and her been a regul league. Found thought she wanted

0:30:56.360 --> 0:30:59.520
<v Speaker 2>to speak about the game, and I left it, didn't

0:30:59.560 --> 0:31:01.000
<v Speaker 2>answer it because I wasn't really in the mood to

0:31:01.000 --> 0:31:03.520
<v Speaker 2>speak about rugby league at the time, and it was

0:31:03.520 --> 0:31:06.560
<v Speaker 2>the end of the year and it's enjoying having a

0:31:06.600 --> 0:31:09.080
<v Speaker 2>sparkling water and a red wine at the bar. And

0:31:09.120 --> 0:31:11.720
<v Speaker 2>then she ran me back straight away and I knew

0:31:11.760 --> 0:31:15.480
<v Speaker 2>something was up. Answered the call and I said, hey,

0:31:15.480 --> 0:31:19.160
<v Speaker 2>what's hey Mendes, so that's my sister's name's what's happened?

0:31:19.240 --> 0:31:22.280
<v Speaker 2>She's like his dad And I was like, well, what's happened?

0:31:22.320 --> 0:31:25.640
<v Speaker 2>And she's like, oh, he's taken his own life, his dad,

0:31:25.760 --> 0:31:26.920
<v Speaker 2>he's committed suicide.

0:31:26.960 --> 0:31:28.680
<v Speaker 1>And your biological father, yeah, my.

0:31:28.680 --> 0:31:32.800
<v Speaker 2>Biological father who I hadn't spoken til spoken to since

0:31:32.800 --> 0:31:37.720
<v Speaker 2>I was twenty one, I was now thirty at the time,

0:31:40.280 --> 0:31:45.160
<v Speaker 2>sat there and just broke down in tears, like I

0:31:45.480 --> 0:31:46.400
<v Speaker 2>didn't even know what it was.

0:31:46.440 --> 0:31:49.240
<v Speaker 1>It was just like a shock for start.

0:31:49.400 --> 0:31:51.800
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, well, you know my dad, My dad was a

0:31:51.800 --> 0:31:54.640
<v Speaker 2>good guy, but it was just a useless father. And

0:31:55.880 --> 0:31:57.680
<v Speaker 2>you know, I kind of carried this chip on my

0:31:57.760 --> 0:32:03.040
<v Speaker 2>shoulder as a young kid, like like you kind of

0:32:03.720 --> 0:32:06.400
<v Speaker 2>mumba lamas, but you kind of fucked my childhood. Now,

0:32:06.400 --> 0:32:08.440
<v Speaker 2>you know, you've thrown the spanner in the works, and

0:32:08.440 --> 0:32:11.000
<v Speaker 2>you're fucking fuck with me in my adulthood as well,

0:32:11.040 --> 0:32:12.160
<v Speaker 2>you know what I mean. So I sat there and

0:32:12.160 --> 0:32:15.000
<v Speaker 2>I had all this these these thoughts going through my head,

0:32:15.040 --> 0:32:16.920
<v Speaker 2>and you know, I had I had to break the

0:32:16.960 --> 0:32:20.920
<v Speaker 2>news to someone else, and I told Sean and I

0:32:20.960 --> 0:32:22.360
<v Speaker 2>had to go up to my room, and then before

0:32:22.360 --> 0:32:23.960
<v Speaker 2>I knew it, the whole squad was in my room.

0:32:24.480 --> 0:32:27.760
<v Speaker 2>David Kibwell, included the managers, everyone, and everyone was just

0:32:27.800 --> 0:32:31.840
<v Speaker 2>there kind of helping me out, and and I hopped

0:32:31.840 --> 0:32:33.880
<v Speaker 2>on that we were the logistics out so I could

0:32:33.880 --> 0:32:36.560
<v Speaker 2>get back to christ Itch for the funeral. And so

0:32:36.600 --> 0:32:40.520
<v Speaker 2>I got back to Krash Church through this whole next

0:32:40.520 --> 0:32:43.320
<v Speaker 2>two days of traveling from London to christ Church so

0:32:43.440 --> 0:32:45.080
<v Speaker 2>much thoughts were going through my head. I was about

0:32:45.160 --> 0:32:48.680
<v Speaker 2>to go back home to a family that's part of

0:32:48.720 --> 0:32:51.560
<v Speaker 2>me that I haven't seen for nearly twenty odd years,

0:32:52.240 --> 0:32:55.360
<v Speaker 2>and that was a bit of a mine, a mine

0:32:55.760 --> 0:32:59.360
<v Speaker 2>mind fuck within itself. And so anyway, I get myself,

0:32:59.440 --> 0:33:01.400
<v Speaker 2>me and my sister at our self prepared for the

0:33:01.720 --> 0:33:05.920
<v Speaker 2>funeral and walking to the funeral and here's my half

0:33:05.960 --> 0:33:08.880
<v Speaker 2>brother who's basically four or five years younger than me,

0:33:08.920 --> 0:33:11.960
<v Speaker 2>looks like my twin, and I haven't seen him since

0:33:12.000 --> 0:33:16.520
<v Speaker 2>I'm seven. So that's my first shock. See obviously, see

0:33:16.600 --> 0:33:19.200
<v Speaker 2>my dad, and you know, see my aunties who I

0:33:19.240 --> 0:33:21.520
<v Speaker 2>haven't seen since I was a young kid. And I'm

0:33:21.560 --> 0:33:26.400
<v Speaker 2>basically four with a room full of strangers. But there's

0:33:26.440 --> 0:33:29.680
<v Speaker 2>this part, there's there's this still part of me that's

0:33:29.920 --> 0:33:33.800
<v Speaker 2>in this room. And throughout the day, as I went

0:33:33.840 --> 0:33:38.840
<v Speaker 2>from the funeral to my dad's grave site, I actually

0:33:38.840 --> 0:33:42.360
<v Speaker 2>found out my dad, my grandfather, and my great grandfather

0:33:42.400 --> 0:33:43.560
<v Speaker 2>had all taken their own lives.

0:33:43.880 --> 0:33:45.400
<v Speaker 1>Wow, and on your dad's side.

0:33:45.360 --> 0:33:47.000
<v Speaker 2>On my dad's side. Yeah, And the only thing that

0:33:47.040 --> 0:33:49.440
<v Speaker 2>we share in common is the same middle name, and

0:33:49.440 --> 0:33:51.840
<v Speaker 2>that's Earl. And as a young kid, I used to

0:33:51.840 --> 0:33:52.720
<v Speaker 2>hate that middle name.

0:33:52.760 --> 0:33:56.360
<v Speaker 3>All of you had the same middle name, great grandfather, grandfather, dad,

0:33:56.520 --> 0:33:56.920
<v Speaker 3>and you.

0:33:57.400 --> 0:34:00.520
<v Speaker 2>And me and I found that out dream that day

0:34:00.760 --> 0:34:04.520
<v Speaker 2>and as a kid the middle name. I don't know

0:34:04.560 --> 0:34:08.920
<v Speaker 2>whether it was just to do with the association with

0:34:08.960 --> 0:34:11.160
<v Speaker 2>my dad because I thought he was useless as a kid.

0:34:11.239 --> 0:34:13.239
<v Speaker 2>Like when I was a kid, I hated the middle name.

0:34:13.480 --> 0:34:16.160
<v Speaker 2>I felt like it gave me bad energy. And whenever

0:34:16.160 --> 0:34:18.000
<v Speaker 2>someone would ask me, what's your middle name, I would

0:34:18.040 --> 0:34:20.680
<v Speaker 2>say I don't have one. I'd always go like, I

0:34:20.719 --> 0:34:26.239
<v Speaker 2>don't have one. And basically that was the turning point

0:34:26.280 --> 0:34:28.680
<v Speaker 2>of my life. I continue to play rugby league for

0:34:28.680 --> 0:34:33.440
<v Speaker 2>the next two years, but I felt like my job

0:34:33.600 --> 0:34:35.440
<v Speaker 2>when I felt like my dream was starting to turn

0:34:35.480 --> 0:34:38.920
<v Speaker 2>into a job. And I believe when your dream starts

0:34:38.960 --> 0:34:40.880
<v Speaker 2>to turn into a job, it's time to walk away.

0:34:40.920 --> 0:34:44.200
<v Speaker 2>That's that's the sport, that's life. That's the universe tapping

0:34:44.239 --> 0:34:46.600
<v Speaker 2>on your shoulder saying hey, like you need to go

0:34:46.640 --> 0:34:47.839
<v Speaker 2>find something else and.

0:34:48.040 --> 0:34:49.520
<v Speaker 1>Tap out, tap out.

0:34:49.760 --> 0:34:52.120
<v Speaker 2>And you know, when I was a kid, when I'd

0:34:52.120 --> 0:34:54.120
<v Speaker 2>hang out with my dad, he was real stylish kind

0:34:54.120 --> 0:34:56.360
<v Speaker 2>of dude, had a great, great the way he dressed

0:34:56.400 --> 0:34:58.759
<v Speaker 2>did great dress sense. He you know, wore Levi as

0:34:58.800 --> 0:35:01.520
<v Speaker 2>with the Chuck Taylor's had the the jacket, the Harley Davison,

0:35:01.760 --> 0:35:04.359
<v Speaker 2>whereas all my mate's friends they would wear the track

0:35:04.400 --> 0:35:06.799
<v Speaker 2>the footy tracksuits and stuff like that. So I used

0:35:06.800 --> 0:35:08.680
<v Speaker 2>to be quite embarrassed by the way my dad dressed,

0:35:08.680 --> 0:35:10.640
<v Speaker 2>but he was quite hip. So I guess that's where

0:35:10.640 --> 0:35:12.200
<v Speaker 2>it sort of came into.

0:35:12.040 --> 0:35:14.839
<v Speaker 1>The other days, the dreams with the belt exactly too.

0:35:15.239 --> 0:35:17.920
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, exactly exactly, tucked off the polar Yeah, you know,

0:35:18.040 --> 0:35:24.319
<v Speaker 2>I look exactly to exactly. And so I'd sort of

0:35:24.360 --> 0:35:25.960
<v Speaker 2>come to this point in my life where I was

0:35:25.960 --> 0:35:29.439
<v Speaker 2>about to leave Manly. I've been offered a three year

0:35:29.760 --> 0:35:31.880
<v Speaker 2>deal to go to Purpayong to play the cat Lands

0:35:31.880 --> 0:35:34.279
<v Speaker 2>over in the south of France. I was meant to

0:35:34.360 --> 0:35:37.760
<v Speaker 2>leave on the Friday. On the Wednesday, I decided I'd retire.

0:35:38.160 --> 0:35:41.160
<v Speaker 2>I just felt like I couldn't take over this because

0:35:41.160 --> 0:35:43.279
<v Speaker 2>I had two years to kind of digest what had

0:35:43.320 --> 0:35:46.279
<v Speaker 2>gone on, and my form had kind of fallen off.

0:35:46.280 --> 0:35:47.840
<v Speaker 2>The back to the Woods the back end of the

0:35:47.920 --> 0:35:50.239
<v Speaker 2>year my back into the crew, so I knew it

0:35:50.280 --> 0:35:52.680
<v Speaker 2>was just time to let go what year we're doing

0:35:52.680 --> 0:35:56.440
<v Speaker 2>Man twenty seventeen eighteen. Yeah, so towards the back end

0:35:56.440 --> 0:35:59.640
<v Speaker 2>of then, and I thought to myself, like, listen, there's

0:35:59.640 --> 0:36:01.680
<v Speaker 2>a great tune to go to France and just kind

0:36:01.680 --> 0:36:03.840
<v Speaker 2>of finish off your career as a working holidays.

0:36:03.880 --> 0:36:06.760
<v Speaker 1>I think SKD was there, he was.

0:36:06.200 --> 0:36:09.359
<v Speaker 2>A few of the boys there. Percy would have been

0:36:09.400 --> 0:36:12.120
<v Speaker 2>there filling up. So I think there's a few kind

0:36:12.160 --> 0:36:15.640
<v Speaker 2>of boys there. But deep down inside me, there was

0:36:15.640 --> 0:36:17.560
<v Speaker 2>just something that was holding me back, and I felt

0:36:17.560 --> 0:36:22.400
<v Speaker 2>like taking that with me, the suicide over there to

0:36:22.440 --> 0:36:25.920
<v Speaker 2>a non speaking English country, trying to get therapy. And

0:36:25.960 --> 0:36:29.200
<v Speaker 2>then also outside of regular league, my hobby was fashion

0:36:29.600 --> 0:36:33.000
<v Speaker 2>and love sneakers, love clothing, and I sawt of I

0:36:33.040 --> 0:36:35.920
<v Speaker 2>saw a niche kind of movement in the market where

0:36:36.640 --> 0:36:39.560
<v Speaker 2>you know, I've I've lived one dream and once you've

0:36:39.560 --> 0:36:43.160
<v Speaker 2>lived your dream and you've broken through that like dream atmosphere,

0:36:43.800 --> 0:36:46.880
<v Speaker 2>and you kind of I don't know what it is,

0:36:46.960 --> 0:36:48.759
<v Speaker 2>but you feel like you can do anything. If you

0:36:48.800 --> 0:36:51.200
<v Speaker 2>really want to do something, you'll go and do it.

0:36:51.239 --> 0:36:53.680
<v Speaker 2>And like I said before, like I'd rather foul out

0:36:53.760 --> 0:36:55.319
<v Speaker 2>something I want to do than I don't want to do.

0:36:55.560 --> 0:36:58.920
<v Speaker 2>So retired on the Wednesday. On the Monday, I started

0:36:59.000 --> 0:37:02.800
<v Speaker 2>up Earls at the same time parallel with getting a

0:37:02.880 --> 0:37:05.759
<v Speaker 2>job at SkyTV. So sky TV is over here at

0:37:05.800 --> 0:37:09.319
<v Speaker 2>Fox Sports in New Zealand at Sky Sports, so I

0:37:09.360 --> 0:37:11.920
<v Speaker 2>was gone back every Wednesday and I was doing all

0:37:11.920 --> 0:37:14.680
<v Speaker 2>the Warriors home games. I was commentary and reporting and

0:37:15.680 --> 0:37:16.560
<v Speaker 2>started up Earl's.

0:37:18.000 --> 0:37:19.239
<v Speaker 1>But what was it was going to be?

0:37:19.280 --> 0:37:21.160
<v Speaker 3>Like, Like, I get the brand, I understand with the

0:37:21.239 --> 0:37:23.600
<v Speaker 3>name camera, but what was your Like what excus were

0:37:23.600 --> 0:37:24.400
<v Speaker 3>we going to be running with?

0:37:24.440 --> 0:37:24.920
<v Speaker 1>What do you well?

0:37:25.040 --> 0:37:28.360
<v Speaker 2>I basically, I basically the reason I came to clothing

0:37:28.400 --> 0:37:31.720
<v Speaker 2>is because that was my passion. The name. I remember.

0:37:31.840 --> 0:37:34.080
<v Speaker 2>I was up on College Street in Sydney, just by

0:37:34.160 --> 0:37:35.600
<v Speaker 2>Hyde Park and I pulled over the side of the

0:37:35.680 --> 0:37:36.920
<v Speaker 2>road and I was like, I'm going to start this

0:37:36.960 --> 0:37:40.279
<v Speaker 2>thing called Earl's Collection because basically I didn't have a

0:37:40.320 --> 0:37:44.279
<v Speaker 2>relationship with my dad, you know, through my adulthood, and

0:37:44.280 --> 0:37:46.120
<v Speaker 2>I always thought i'd have a I would have an

0:37:46.160 --> 0:37:48.959
<v Speaker 2>adult conversation with him and let bygones be by gones,

0:37:48.960 --> 0:37:50.600
<v Speaker 2>build a bridge and we can both move on and

0:37:50.680 --> 0:37:52.719
<v Speaker 2>just live life, you know what I mean, and find

0:37:52.719 --> 0:37:55.399
<v Speaker 2>out about his childhood. But for obvious reasons that didn't

0:37:55.440 --> 0:37:57.680
<v Speaker 2>get to happen. So I thought I would honor him

0:37:57.719 --> 0:38:02.160
<v Speaker 2>and take this negative, this real negative cloud of this

0:38:02.400 --> 0:38:06.120
<v Speaker 2>name and try and turn it into something positive. So

0:38:06.200 --> 0:38:09.120
<v Speaker 2>I had named it Earl's Collection. And I was sick

0:38:09.120 --> 0:38:11.720
<v Speaker 2>of buying other people's clothing. It's beending lots of money

0:38:11.719 --> 0:38:14.200
<v Speaker 2>on high end clothing. When I felt the quality and

0:38:15.040 --> 0:38:19.320
<v Speaker 2>basically felt like I could create that myself. So reached

0:38:19.320 --> 0:38:21.000
<v Speaker 2>out to a mate who put me in touch with

0:38:21.040 --> 0:38:24.840
<v Speaker 2>a production company in China, and you know, within six months,

0:38:24.960 --> 0:38:28.279
<v Speaker 2>I'd launched a fourteen piece collection and I was on

0:38:28.320 --> 0:38:30.000
<v Speaker 2>my journey to start with Earl's collection.

0:38:30.320 --> 0:38:32.120
<v Speaker 3>Just take me through a good forward in piece collection.

0:38:32.400 --> 0:38:33.560
<v Speaker 3>So what are we talking about?

0:38:34.239 --> 0:38:36.400
<v Speaker 1>Tea's strides?

0:38:36.560 --> 0:38:41.680
<v Speaker 2>So we started with Tea's teas these basketball shorts which

0:38:42.040 --> 0:38:43.680
<v Speaker 2>became a craze.

0:38:43.560 --> 0:38:45.000
<v Speaker 1>And can you describe those?

0:38:45.080 --> 0:38:46.000
<v Speaker 2>So basketball short?

0:38:46.080 --> 0:38:47.400
<v Speaker 1>I know what a basket, but you're.

0:38:47.719 --> 0:38:50.160
<v Speaker 2>So basically we had these they called the Earl Short

0:38:51.080 --> 0:38:56.440
<v Speaker 2>basically just a nice premium bit of polyestamesh with Earl's

0:38:56.480 --> 0:38:58.960
<v Speaker 2>kind of applicate across the front and would change the

0:38:59.000 --> 0:39:01.680
<v Speaker 2>colors out. And it got to the point mark where

0:39:02.040 --> 0:39:06.799
<v Speaker 2>you know, like we're doing like twelve hundred peers in

0:39:06.840 --> 0:39:09.480
<v Speaker 2>three minutes. I put them up online and they just disappear.

0:39:09.960 --> 0:39:11.399
<v Speaker 1>And how did everyone know about it?

0:39:11.840 --> 0:39:16.040
<v Speaker 2>Well, just like I guess, the first fan, my first

0:39:16.040 --> 0:39:18.520
<v Speaker 2>customer base and the brand of winness I got was

0:39:18.560 --> 0:39:21.759
<v Speaker 2>that Rugby League fan. So basically, at the time, the

0:39:22.120 --> 0:39:24.400
<v Speaker 2>people that followed me through Rugby League were going to

0:39:24.400 --> 0:39:24.719
<v Speaker 2>come on.

0:39:24.640 --> 0:39:26.520
<v Speaker 1>This journey with me with where they're following you.

0:39:26.880 --> 0:39:28.960
<v Speaker 2>Although I followed me from New Zealand that we don't

0:39:28.960 --> 0:39:35.520
<v Speaker 2>know what platform Facebook, Instagram, Facebook, you know, Twitter, stuff

0:39:35.600 --> 0:39:38.120
<v Speaker 2>like that, and then we had no marketing or anything.

0:39:38.239 --> 0:39:40.839
<v Speaker 2>I knew nothing. I absolutely knew nothing. I knew nothing

0:39:40.880 --> 0:39:43.160
<v Speaker 2>about clothing. All I knew was I had a good

0:39:43.239 --> 0:39:45.160
<v Speaker 2>I felt like I had a good eye, and I

0:39:45.200 --> 0:39:47.680
<v Speaker 2>was going to teach myself how to use Photoshop illustrator

0:39:49.320 --> 0:39:52.480
<v Speaker 2>and learned to design a fourteen piece collection and put

0:39:52.560 --> 0:39:56.319
<v Speaker 2>it together shoot it. I shot my first shoot up

0:39:56.560 --> 0:39:59.600
<v Speaker 2>in China Gwon Joe just randomly happened. I was going

0:39:59.680 --> 0:40:03.520
<v Speaker 2>up there check check the factories, and then yeah, I

0:40:03.680 --> 0:40:05.799
<v Speaker 2>just thought, let's just give this a go.

0:40:06.280 --> 0:40:07.719
<v Speaker 1>So shorts, T shirts, what else?

0:40:07.800 --> 0:40:12.880
<v Speaker 2>Switch shirts, hoodies, socks, hats, So start off with that

0:40:13.200 --> 0:40:15.240
<v Speaker 2>so just a small range bit of forty people.

0:40:15.400 --> 0:40:20.200
<v Speaker 4>Nearly accessories as well, exactly, and I usually just stop me,

0:40:20.520 --> 0:40:22.600
<v Speaker 4>but did you have you must have had a fairly

0:40:22.640 --> 0:40:25.600
<v Speaker 4>big a reasonable audience from me forty days.

0:40:25.600 --> 0:40:28.320
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, not too bad. I wouldn't say the biggest,

0:40:28.360 --> 0:40:30.319
<v Speaker 2>the biggest following, but a lot of people knew, like

0:40:30.920 --> 0:40:33.800
<v Speaker 2>outside of Rguy League, they're eighty minutes. I loved clothing.

0:40:33.840 --> 0:40:36.680
<v Speaker 2>I love sneakers, and I'd always like take photos of

0:40:36.719 --> 0:40:38.799
<v Speaker 2>fits and that that I put up on my Instagram.

0:40:38.880 --> 0:40:41.960
<v Speaker 2>And you know, I'm from the era of like living

0:40:42.400 --> 0:40:45.600
<v Speaker 2>my adulthood with no social media. Then also this thing

0:40:45.640 --> 0:40:47.879
<v Speaker 2>coming through with social media and you're getting used to it,

0:40:48.080 --> 0:40:51.279
<v Speaker 2>you know. I'd go to like Warriors functions and I'll

0:40:51.280 --> 0:40:54.000
<v Speaker 2>wear Cardigan and Ivan Claire. He would always come up to

0:40:54.040 --> 0:40:56.560
<v Speaker 2>me with a smile on his face, saying, fuck, what's

0:40:56.600 --> 0:40:58.600
<v Speaker 2>what are you wearing there? Mate? That's fucking terrible? Do

0:40:58.600 --> 0:41:00.360
<v Speaker 2>you know what I mean? But I always true to

0:41:00.400 --> 0:41:02.120
<v Speaker 2>who I was, and that's what he loved about me

0:41:02.160 --> 0:41:04.600
<v Speaker 2>the most. And we'd go on footy trips and all

0:41:04.600 --> 0:41:06.680
<v Speaker 2>the boys would hassle me about wearing you know, like

0:41:06.960 --> 0:41:10.320
<v Speaker 2>Cardigan's tight jeans, and all, you know, all the craze,

0:41:10.360 --> 0:41:12.800
<v Speaker 2>and then they'd get me one on one they'd be like, hey, Louis,

0:41:12.800 --> 0:41:14.480
<v Speaker 2>can you take me shopping? My missus ask if I

0:41:14.480 --> 0:41:16.239
<v Speaker 2>could dress a little bit like you're a little bit more.

0:41:16.280 --> 0:41:18.560
<v Speaker 2>So I'll start to see the boys sort of accept

0:41:18.640 --> 0:41:21.080
<v Speaker 2>me for who I was. And you know, I just

0:41:21.120 --> 0:41:24.160
<v Speaker 2>thought to myself, it's just still a fourteen piece collection.

0:41:24.360 --> 0:41:28.520
<v Speaker 2>See how it goes? Dropped it and it sold out

0:41:28.600 --> 0:41:30.400
<v Speaker 2>pretty much within a month.

0:41:30.520 --> 0:41:31.960
<v Speaker 1>So where do you take it from there?

0:41:32.000 --> 0:41:35.480
<v Speaker 3>So you know, like Earl's collection is obviously successful first tub,

0:41:35.520 --> 0:41:36.640
<v Speaker 3>but what is it doing now?

0:41:36.880 --> 0:41:43.359
<v Speaker 2>Well, now now we're five years in, we're sixteen collections deep.

0:41:44.360 --> 0:41:47.560
<v Speaker 2>We've done a few collabs now which have been crazy.

0:41:48.120 --> 0:41:51.680
<v Speaker 2>For example, start off with new era hats, so as

0:41:51.719 --> 0:41:54.480
<v Speaker 2>a kid, I wore a new era hat. And then

0:41:54.680 --> 0:41:58.040
<v Speaker 2>next it went to Cassio G Shock. So as a kid,

0:41:58.400 --> 0:42:01.200
<v Speaker 2>my grandfather, all my uncles were g Shocks, So for me,

0:42:01.239 --> 0:42:03.960
<v Speaker 2>I wasn't raised around Rolex or anything. G shock to

0:42:04.000 --> 0:42:08.080
<v Speaker 2>me exactly, and that's still pretty cool now. So I

0:42:08.120 --> 0:42:12.000
<v Speaker 2>started off doing the two co labs with them, and

0:42:13.440 --> 0:42:15.600
<v Speaker 2>can ijust you approach them with they approach you now

0:42:15.640 --> 0:42:18.080
<v Speaker 2>so all of my collabs, I've I'm the type of

0:42:18.080 --> 0:42:20.279
<v Speaker 2>person at the moment where I feel like I have

0:42:20.320 --> 0:42:22.440
<v Speaker 2>a little bit of imposter syndrome. So I'm in this,

0:42:22.880 --> 0:42:26.120
<v Speaker 2>I'm in this like career that I'm so new at

0:42:26.440 --> 0:42:27.960
<v Speaker 2>but I feel like I'm good at. But I also

0:42:27.960 --> 0:42:30.320
<v Speaker 2>feel like I kind of don't belong at the moment.

0:42:31.440 --> 0:42:33.600
<v Speaker 2>So I never reached out to anyone. I'm quite shy

0:42:33.800 --> 0:42:37.239
<v Speaker 2>kind of person, so everyone sort of reached out to

0:42:37.320 --> 0:42:39.920
<v Speaker 2>us just you know, this new brand and obviously the

0:42:40.560 --> 0:42:43.200
<v Speaker 2>profile of Regula League and stuff like that, and that

0:42:43.280 --> 0:42:45.800
<v Speaker 2>helped build as well while I was working on Sky Sports.

0:42:47.280 --> 0:42:49.520
<v Speaker 2>And then probably the biggest co lab that's at at

0:42:49.520 --> 0:42:52.520
<v Speaker 2>the moment that came across our desk on my desk

0:42:53.480 --> 0:42:55.440
<v Speaker 2>came up two years ago, sorry a year and a

0:42:55.480 --> 0:42:57.879
<v Speaker 2>half ago, and that was with Essex.

0:42:57.560 --> 0:42:59.120
<v Speaker 1>And what is that That's a sure obviously, but what

0:42:59.160 --> 0:42:59.759
<v Speaker 1>we're talking about.

0:43:00.120 --> 0:43:03.680
<v Speaker 2>So basically i'll give you a little story about it.

0:43:04.600 --> 0:43:09.759
<v Speaker 2>So mentioned before, my grandfather m your father's side of

0:43:09.800 --> 0:43:13.200
<v Speaker 2>the mother side, my mom's side. Yeah, so look after Yeah,

0:43:13.200 --> 0:43:16.560
<v Speaker 2>so he's basically my dad, He's my hero. He was everything.

0:43:16.680 --> 0:43:20.200
<v Speaker 2>So he'd never been on a plane, before. Sorry. The

0:43:20.239 --> 0:43:22.320
<v Speaker 2>only plane he had caught was when he was eighteen.

0:43:22.400 --> 0:43:25.040
<v Speaker 2>He'd gone from the chatter Mylins to christ Church. His

0:43:25.400 --> 0:43:29.319
<v Speaker 2>parents said, go live in the mainland, make money. Do

0:43:29.360 --> 0:43:31.319
<v Speaker 2>we have to raise your family. Only plane he had

0:43:31.360 --> 0:43:35.880
<v Speaker 2>ever been on two thousand and nine, he hopped on

0:43:35.880 --> 0:43:37.800
<v Speaker 2>another plane to come and watch him play for the Warriors.

0:43:37.840 --> 0:43:39.160
<v Speaker 2>The first time we've been on a plane. And I

0:43:39.160 --> 0:43:41.799
<v Speaker 2>think it was nearly forty years and Mum rings me

0:43:41.840 --> 0:43:43.480
<v Speaker 2>and she said, oh, it's Pop. He's had a foot

0:43:43.520 --> 0:43:46.920
<v Speaker 2>he's had a fall at the airport. And I was like, oh, okay, sweet,

0:43:46.920 --> 0:43:49.279
<v Speaker 2>no worry. So he gets to my house. He's limping around.

0:43:49.320 --> 0:43:51.479
<v Speaker 2>He's got cuts all through his back and he said,

0:43:51.480 --> 0:43:52.920
<v Speaker 2>I was something wrong with my bloody calf. So I

0:43:53.360 --> 0:43:55.000
<v Speaker 2>said to my hop on the couch, I feel it.

0:43:55.080 --> 0:43:59.640
<v Speaker 2>He's torn as achilles. He's torn as achilles. Anyway, I've

0:43:59.640 --> 0:44:01.640
<v Speaker 2>gone on the game. I look. I didn't think they

0:44:01.680 --> 0:44:03.520
<v Speaker 2>were going to make it. I've looked up here he's

0:44:03.600 --> 0:44:07.080
<v Speaker 2>rolling on this on this in this wheelchair. And ever

0:44:07.160 --> 0:44:12.600
<v Speaker 2>since that day, for the next fifteen years, every Birthday,

0:44:13.120 --> 0:44:15.480
<v Speaker 2>every Christmas, every Father's Day, I brought him a Peer

0:44:15.520 --> 0:44:19.000
<v Speaker 2>of Essex because Asex have an eight millimeter hell raised

0:44:19.000 --> 0:44:21.839
<v Speaker 2>in the back, more cushion for his calfs than that

0:44:23.560 --> 0:44:25.200
<v Speaker 2>a year and a half ago. And they've got good

0:44:25.239 --> 0:44:27.920
<v Speaker 2>structure too, great, great structure, best running shoe and you know,

0:44:29.400 --> 0:44:32.080
<v Speaker 2>great for him. They look good as well. Oh they

0:44:32.120 --> 0:44:32.680
<v Speaker 2>look great, mate.

0:44:32.680 --> 0:44:34.919
<v Speaker 1>These are the best for me for walking?

0:44:34.960 --> 0:44:35.760
<v Speaker 2>Are they're the Pegasus?

0:44:35.960 --> 0:44:40.040
<v Speaker 1>No, they're the Pegasus. But for running yep ac great.

0:44:40.040 --> 0:44:40.759
<v Speaker 2>Counters are great.

0:44:41.080 --> 0:44:45.399
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, and I sometimes I were the counters. Yeah, I'm

0:44:46.040 --> 0:44:47.040
<v Speaker 3>sorry about that audience.

0:44:47.400 --> 0:44:49.960
<v Speaker 2>You're good, mate, You're good. And a year and a

0:44:49.960 --> 0:44:56.279
<v Speaker 2>half ago, unfortunately I lost my grandfather. He died at

0:44:56.280 --> 0:44:58.080
<v Speaker 2>the age of ninety two, and I went home for

0:44:58.120 --> 0:45:02.000
<v Speaker 2>the for his funeral, and the day after he passed away,

0:45:02.440 --> 0:45:05.920
<v Speaker 2>I got an email from Essex Wow, Essex Australia saying

0:45:06.440 --> 0:45:08.759
<v Speaker 2>they had no idea about anything like what was going

0:45:08.800 --> 0:45:11.120
<v Speaker 2>on in my life, and they said to me, can

0:45:11.160 --> 0:45:14.600
<v Speaker 2>you can you come to our Marsden Park office for

0:45:14.680 --> 0:45:17.120
<v Speaker 2>a meeting? And I was like, listen, I'm my way

0:45:17.160 --> 0:45:19.799
<v Speaker 2>at the moment for my grandfather's funeral, but I can

0:45:19.800 --> 0:45:22.160
<v Speaker 2>come when I get out and get back to Australia.

0:45:22.239 --> 0:45:24.680
<v Speaker 2>So I thought that that process was just going to be.

0:45:24.719 --> 0:45:27.120
<v Speaker 2>They're going to give me stuff to wear. My photo

0:45:27.120 --> 0:45:30.279
<v Speaker 2>shoots went out there for sponsorship for something years, like

0:45:30.280 --> 0:45:32.919
<v Speaker 2>a sponsorship. So I'd been an Essex athlete before while

0:45:32.920 --> 0:45:35.440
<v Speaker 2>I was playing footy. So I went out there and

0:45:35.480 --> 0:45:37.239
<v Speaker 2>they basically said, sat me down. They said we want

0:45:37.280 --> 0:45:38.719
<v Speaker 2>to we want to do a co lab with you

0:45:38.800 --> 0:45:41.560
<v Speaker 2>on your shoe. And I got got goosebumps, like I

0:45:41.600 --> 0:45:44.080
<v Speaker 2>was just like, this is meant to be. And you know,

0:45:44.160 --> 0:45:45.960
<v Speaker 2>for the next year and a half we really worked

0:45:46.000 --> 0:45:47.960
<v Speaker 2>on a shoe. I designed it in a week with

0:45:48.000 --> 0:45:52.200
<v Speaker 2>my colleague Lachlin and within a week we designed the

0:45:52.239 --> 0:45:57.520
<v Speaker 2>shoe about my MOLDI heritage back in christ Church and year.

0:45:57.560 --> 0:46:02.000
<v Speaker 2>At the moment we just released it and it's gone crazy, biggest,

0:46:03.400 --> 0:46:07.799
<v Speaker 2>biggest collab I've ever done. We're the only second Australian

0:46:07.920 --> 0:46:10.160
<v Speaker 2>brand to ever do a co lab behind with Assex

0:46:10.280 --> 0:46:15.000
<v Speaker 2>behind Paw and yeah we put it, we raffled it

0:46:15.560 --> 0:46:17.200
<v Speaker 2>and within five hours it's sold out.

0:46:17.520 --> 0:46:20.640
<v Speaker 3>Wow, five hours five hours, So Assids will probably do

0:46:20.680 --> 0:46:21.680
<v Speaker 3>another one they roll it up.

0:46:22.120 --> 0:46:24.919
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, they've already asked me to come on for part

0:46:24.920 --> 0:46:28.319
<v Speaker 2>two and they've also they've also helped me I'm going

0:46:28.320 --> 0:46:30.719
<v Speaker 2>to help them out with their football side of things,

0:46:30.719 --> 0:46:33.200
<v Speaker 2>footy boots side, so you know, for the rest of

0:46:33.239 --> 0:46:36.239
<v Speaker 2>the year we're working closely with them with you know,

0:46:36.320 --> 0:46:38.879
<v Speaker 2>the design and working on co lab too, and then

0:46:39.160 --> 0:46:42.080
<v Speaker 2>also you know the footy book footy boot design. So

0:46:42.520 --> 0:46:45.120
<v Speaker 2>very very full circle thing for me with the ASEX.

0:46:45.000 --> 0:46:46.640
<v Speaker 1>You've gone from being a footy player.

0:46:46.719 --> 0:46:48.160
<v Speaker 3>We're gonna have to wrap here, but I just want

0:46:48.200 --> 0:46:49.799
<v Speaker 3>to You've gone from being a footy player, which is

0:46:49.840 --> 0:46:51.959
<v Speaker 3>really physical and I mean there's a lot of mental

0:46:52.000 --> 0:46:54.279
<v Speaker 3>stuff involved, but there's a lot of physicality involved in

0:46:54.400 --> 0:46:58.080
<v Speaker 3>like and skills, skills on the field, but they're really

0:46:58.239 --> 0:47:00.800
<v Speaker 3>fairly binary. Like you either you take with miss a

0:47:00.840 --> 0:47:02.600
<v Speaker 3>tackle or you make a break or you don't make

0:47:02.600 --> 0:47:05.520
<v Speaker 3>a break. It's sort of one or the other. To

0:47:05.640 --> 0:47:10.880
<v Speaker 3>becoming a creative yeah, so you're basically creative now creative business,

0:47:10.880 --> 0:47:12.719
<v Speaker 3>but you're creative crass, you're creating shit.

0:47:12.920 --> 0:47:15.560
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. And then I'm about to on Monday, Monday week,

0:47:15.600 --> 0:47:18.799
<v Speaker 2>I'm going back to New Zealand actually about to be

0:47:18.840 --> 0:47:21.040
<v Speaker 2>announced as the Warriors creative director.

0:47:21.239 --> 0:47:23.080
<v Speaker 1>Oh wow, yeah, so that's cool.

0:47:23.200 --> 0:47:25.719
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, So once again a full circle thing. Get to

0:47:25.760 --> 0:47:29.320
<v Speaker 2>go back home work with them, take over order the

0:47:29.400 --> 0:47:33.319
<v Speaker 2>design for the jerseys off field stuff, training gear, and

0:47:33.360 --> 0:47:36.000
<v Speaker 2>then also help out Jerry Seius who with wellness and

0:47:36.480 --> 0:47:39.719
<v Speaker 2>teaching the boys about transition, you know, teacher. I think

0:47:39.719 --> 0:47:42.719
<v Speaker 2>that's the coolest part about that job has been able

0:47:42.760 --> 0:47:45.719
<v Speaker 2>to go back and showing the young generation that you

0:47:45.800 --> 0:47:48.440
<v Speaker 2>can come back to the sport other than coaching and training,

0:47:48.440 --> 0:47:50.520
<v Speaker 2>you can come back in a creative way. So to

0:47:50.560 --> 0:47:52.839
<v Speaker 2>be able to take over the creative direction of the

0:47:52.840 --> 0:47:55.560
<v Speaker 2>Warriors as an absolute dream come true. So a lot

0:47:55.600 --> 0:47:59.560
<v Speaker 2>of these colebs that I'm doing, and you know, freelance

0:47:59.600 --> 0:48:02.040
<v Speaker 2>stuff all being full circle stuff, and it's sort of

0:48:02.080 --> 0:48:04.880
<v Speaker 2>just the energies that came to me. And when the Warriors,

0:48:04.880 --> 0:48:06.680
<v Speaker 2>when they approached me, it was just a no brain

0:48:06.800 --> 0:48:09.920
<v Speaker 2>because you know, I'm still transitioning from regular league to

0:48:09.960 --> 0:48:12.480
<v Speaker 2>normal life and I go to therapy once a week

0:48:12.520 --> 0:48:15.440
<v Speaker 2>and I'm learning how to detach myself from the sport

0:48:16.200 --> 0:48:19.239
<v Speaker 2>in a good way, but then also transitioning to what

0:48:19.440 --> 0:48:21.880
<v Speaker 2>is my purpose now as a creative and sort of

0:48:21.880 --> 0:48:25.719
<v Speaker 2>diving into my brain of how I become more creative

0:48:25.760 --> 0:48:28.880
<v Speaker 2>and you know, how do I channel that creativity that

0:48:28.880 --> 0:48:31.800
<v Speaker 2>I've held them for nearly thirty three years. I didn't

0:48:32.000 --> 0:48:34.520
<v Speaker 2>think I was a creative person. But sorry, I knew

0:48:34.560 --> 0:48:36.239
<v Speaker 2>I was a creative person, but I didn't know how

0:48:36.239 --> 0:48:38.000
<v Speaker 2>to channel it. I used to channel it and the

0:48:38.040 --> 0:48:40.040
<v Speaker 2>way used to dress, but now a channel it and

0:48:40.040 --> 0:48:42.520
<v Speaker 2>the way I make clothes and also push the finishing

0:48:42.520 --> 0:48:45.400
<v Speaker 2>touches on, you know, something like the Warriors the jerseys

0:48:45.400 --> 0:48:46.600
<v Speaker 2>in the next two years.

0:48:46.760 --> 0:48:49.680
<v Speaker 3>Well, Lewis Man, it is actually a real pleasure to

0:48:49.960 --> 0:48:50.760
<v Speaker 3>hear your story.

0:48:50.880 --> 0:48:52.760
<v Speaker 1>But probably what I'm getting.

0:48:52.560 --> 0:48:55.880
<v Speaker 3>From all is something I'll just if I could just

0:48:55.960 --> 0:49:00.600
<v Speaker 3>articulate it for a moment. What's really important. It's not

0:49:00.640 --> 0:49:05.279
<v Speaker 3>only you sort of you know, hunkering down on your

0:49:05.320 --> 0:49:07.680
<v Speaker 3>creative ability, and you have an ability to create things

0:49:07.680 --> 0:49:10.440
<v Speaker 3>and design things that make things look good or deliver

0:49:10.520 --> 0:49:13.520
<v Speaker 3>things that look good. But probably where the next stage

0:49:13.560 --> 0:49:15.560
<v Speaker 3>of your life is going to be is actually paying

0:49:15.600 --> 0:49:18.319
<v Speaker 3>forward the luck that you've had, and whether it's luck

0:49:18.400 --> 0:49:22.640
<v Speaker 3>or or a combination of you know, destiny or effort

0:49:22.640 --> 0:49:28.560
<v Speaker 3>as well. But like you helping out and or even

0:49:28.560 --> 0:49:30.320
<v Speaker 3>coming on this show today to talk to me about

0:49:30.400 --> 0:49:32.920
<v Speaker 3>and to talk to an audience more importantly about forty

0:49:32.960 --> 0:49:36.400
<v Speaker 3>people just don't have to be footy people. Yeah, but

0:49:36.560 --> 0:49:39.760
<v Speaker 3>you know that you can identify yourself as a footballer

0:49:39.760 --> 0:49:42.839
<v Speaker 3>when you're playing football, perhaps, but there's a process of

0:49:42.960 --> 0:49:46.960
<v Speaker 3>de identifying yourself. It's nearly like a brain issue, is

0:49:47.239 --> 0:49:52.520
<v Speaker 3>nearly like a change in the way your neurology works.

0:49:52.560 --> 0:49:55.239
<v Speaker 3>I've got to transition myself out as identifying myself as

0:49:55.239 --> 0:49:58.520
<v Speaker 3>a footballer. Now I'm identifying saying myself as a creative.

0:49:58.880 --> 0:50:01.240
<v Speaker 3>But at some stage probably going to start to identifying

0:50:01.239 --> 0:50:03.840
<v Speaker 3>yourself as someone's got to pay forward what you've learned,

0:50:04.280 --> 0:50:06.400
<v Speaker 3>and that's being at the Warriors.

0:50:06.440 --> 0:50:07.799
<v Speaker 1>That's one of the things you're going to be able

0:50:07.840 --> 0:50:08.120
<v Speaker 1>to do.

0:50:08.760 --> 0:50:11.839
<v Speaker 3>And some people I said, oh, he's lucky, was some

0:50:11.880 --> 0:50:14.760
<v Speaker 3>sort of divine into venture by his grandparents, his grandfather,

0:50:14.800 --> 0:50:17.160
<v Speaker 3>et cetera. No, No, I don't think so. I think

0:50:17.200 --> 0:50:20.000
<v Speaker 3>it's just been open to things happening. Just be open

0:50:20.040 --> 0:50:23.160
<v Speaker 3>to shit and be prepared to do it for sure.

0:50:23.200 --> 0:50:25.040
<v Speaker 2>And like you know, the last year, I've been on

0:50:25.080 --> 0:50:29.120
<v Speaker 2>a massive journey mark like lost my grandfather. One of

0:50:29.160 --> 0:50:31.840
<v Speaker 2>my one of my good friends who worked at Earl's,

0:50:31.880 --> 0:50:34.719
<v Speaker 2>she got murdered. Her and her dad got murdered in

0:50:34.719 --> 0:50:39.719
<v Speaker 2>Auckland and then went through a massive relationship breakup and

0:50:39.800 --> 0:50:43.319
<v Speaker 2>I really really had rock bottom around January this year

0:50:43.400 --> 0:50:47.920
<v Speaker 2>and sorry two thousand and three, and just thought to myself, like,

0:50:49.040 --> 0:50:52.200
<v Speaker 2>you know, you can either the single swim and my

0:50:52.239 --> 0:50:55.400
<v Speaker 2>whole life. I've swam, I've never sunk, and that's the

0:50:55.520 --> 0:50:57.760
<v Speaker 2>drive I just have in me. And I picked myself

0:50:57.840 --> 0:51:00.640
<v Speaker 2>up up of the ground and realized, is that the

0:51:01.040 --> 0:51:03.080
<v Speaker 2>root of the core that I was going through was

0:51:03.239 --> 0:51:07.000
<v Speaker 2>that reidentify like reidentifying Hawaii, and what my purpose is.

0:51:07.000 --> 0:51:10.200
<v Speaker 1>It's your issue my exactly. It's not the factor lost somebody.

0:51:10.320 --> 0:51:11.320
<v Speaker 1>It's your issue.

0:51:11.080 --> 0:51:13.200
<v Speaker 2>Exactly, and deal with it exactly. And then I started

0:51:13.239 --> 0:51:15.320
<v Speaker 2>going to therapy once a week, turn that to twice

0:51:15.320 --> 0:51:21.279
<v Speaker 2>a week, and I'm learning to change my behaviors from

0:51:21.360 --> 0:51:24.279
<v Speaker 2>rugby league. The vocabulary that you're spoken to in rugby league,

0:51:24.280 --> 0:51:27.120
<v Speaker 2>you know, you know as as a thirty year old,

0:51:27.360 --> 0:51:29.200
<v Speaker 2>you know you're getting told you're old and you're a

0:51:29.280 --> 0:51:32.239
<v Speaker 2>veteran and you're you're about to retire. Those words like

0:51:32.280 --> 0:51:35.440
<v Speaker 2>they stick with you, you know, because within five years you're

0:51:35.480 --> 0:51:39.120
<v Speaker 2>going to transition meetings. You're being told this is what

0:51:39.160 --> 0:51:42.160
<v Speaker 2>football looks like, our life looks after football, and like

0:51:42.200 --> 0:51:45.560
<v Speaker 2>you said before, like when when you retire as a

0:51:46.239 --> 0:51:50.160
<v Speaker 2>sports person in general, it's about having that purpose. And

0:51:50.200 --> 0:51:52.040
<v Speaker 2>I feel like a lot of us on this planet,

0:51:52.080 --> 0:51:54.400
<v Speaker 2>as at X athletes, feel like we're just being solely

0:51:54.440 --> 0:51:57.759
<v Speaker 2>put on this earth to play sport. But you know,

0:51:57.840 --> 0:52:00.759
<v Speaker 2>some of us that have kids. I don't have any kids,

0:52:00.800 --> 0:52:02.759
<v Speaker 2>but the boys that have kids have that purpose of

0:52:02.800 --> 0:52:06.280
<v Speaker 2>being a dad. You know, My purpose now in life

0:52:06.440 --> 0:52:09.960
<v Speaker 2>is about creating a life that I'm happy about living.

0:52:10.120 --> 0:52:13.719
<v Speaker 2>And you know, like you said, teaching others that you

0:52:13.760 --> 0:52:16.160
<v Speaker 2>can have a happy life and you can make your

0:52:16.200 --> 0:52:19.920
<v Speaker 2>career bigger after footy than it was and footy and

0:52:20.000 --> 0:52:21.480
<v Speaker 2>I feel like I'm doing that at the moment.

0:52:21.680 --> 0:52:24.760
<v Speaker 1>No, I think that's for me anyway is really important.

0:52:24.800 --> 0:52:26.640
<v Speaker 1>It's funny. I was, I was. I woke up every

0:52:26.680 --> 0:52:27.040
<v Speaker 1>let morning.

0:52:27.040 --> 0:52:29.040
<v Speaker 3>I was thinking about these sort of things about just

0:52:29.120 --> 0:52:32.640
<v Speaker 3>generally about the transitions you have in life. Look at

0:52:32.640 --> 0:52:35.719
<v Speaker 3>my age expects people on me to be retired, and

0:52:35.760 --> 0:52:38.319
<v Speaker 3>I think it's bullshit, Like I've got so much more

0:52:38.440 --> 0:52:41.440
<v Speaker 3>energy and so much more to give. And my mind's

0:52:41.440 --> 0:52:46.040
<v Speaker 3>about like minds of particular project like and you know,

0:52:46.360 --> 0:52:48.480
<v Speaker 3>some people, my thing is a transaction, but I'm not

0:52:48.520 --> 0:52:49.600
<v Speaker 3>really looking to do a transaction.

0:52:49.600 --> 0:52:51.520
<v Speaker 1>I'm actually looking to help people and to live a.

0:52:51.440 --> 0:52:53.960
<v Speaker 3>Better life, a healthier life, a longer life, A longer,

0:52:53.960 --> 0:52:57.680
<v Speaker 3>healthier life is probably my big passion, and that's something

0:52:57.719 --> 0:52:59.319
<v Speaker 3>I feel as I should do. I should do it

0:52:59.320 --> 0:53:01.520
<v Speaker 3>for myself, but should everybody else. And I'm lucky enough

0:53:01.560 --> 0:53:03.520
<v Speaker 3>to be able to do it. You're doing what you're

0:53:03.520 --> 0:53:08.920
<v Speaker 3>doing at the Warriors at the moment, and for me,

0:53:09.040 --> 0:53:09.560
<v Speaker 3>I don't want to.

0:53:09.680 --> 0:53:12.200
<v Speaker 1>I don't want to.

0:53:11.200 --> 0:53:13.760
<v Speaker 3>Earmark myself as being a finance guy in my whole life,

0:53:14.480 --> 0:53:16.560
<v Speaker 3>which it wasn't what it was. You don't want to

0:53:16.560 --> 0:53:20.040
<v Speaker 3>be a footed person all your life. Open the possibilities

0:53:21.040 --> 0:53:23.400
<v Speaker 3>and just be prepared to go on the adventure and

0:53:23.440 --> 0:53:27.279
<v Speaker 3>explore them and fuck up, makes misstakes, lean on people

0:53:27.360 --> 0:53:30.840
<v Speaker 3>for help, Come and tell your story. See a therapist.

0:53:30.920 --> 0:53:33.560
<v Speaker 3>Nothing wrong with that. Man as SATA therapist is not

0:53:33.600 --> 0:53:36.480
<v Speaker 3>a needty thing of mental health thing. It's actually like

0:53:36.560 --> 0:53:38.640
<v Speaker 3>it's like a process of learning.

0:53:38.840 --> 0:53:41.040
<v Speaker 2>It's my favorite time of the week learning about yourself

0:53:41.239 --> 0:53:44.560
<v Speaker 2>and you're getting better. Thursday, at four o'clock every week,

0:53:44.680 --> 0:53:47.920
<v Speaker 2>I go into Willara and close the door for an

0:53:47.920 --> 0:53:50.279
<v Speaker 2>hour and a half of my therapist and speak what

0:53:50.320 --> 0:53:52.400
<v Speaker 2>I need to speak about, and I'll tell you what.

0:53:53.200 --> 0:53:56.480
<v Speaker 2>I come out so much lighter, like I don't carry

0:53:57.080 --> 0:53:59.399
<v Speaker 2>the burden that I carry that week. You know, I'm

0:53:59.440 --> 0:54:03.759
<v Speaker 2>still learning about business, you know, like I I'm only

0:54:03.800 --> 0:54:06.360
<v Speaker 2>five years into this journey of earls and you know

0:54:06.560 --> 0:54:10.480
<v Speaker 2>I have this saying that I don't have a ceiling,

0:54:10.680 --> 0:54:12.440
<v Speaker 2>like you know, the only thing holding me back from

0:54:12.480 --> 0:54:14.359
<v Speaker 2>doing things is me. You know how far I want

0:54:14.360 --> 0:54:16.160
<v Speaker 2>to go with this, you know, this asset that I've

0:54:16.160 --> 0:54:19.239
<v Speaker 2>got on now, like I've dreamt about, Like there's a

0:54:19.239 --> 0:54:22.480
<v Speaker 2>store called Kith and the US that's I've always wanted

0:54:22.480 --> 0:54:25.200
<v Speaker 2>to be stocked in and I've picked up the shoe

0:54:25.680 --> 0:54:28.160
<v Speaker 2>they're about to stock it in there, and you know,

0:54:28.360 --> 0:54:31.400
<v Speaker 2>just just small things like that, that that once again

0:54:31.400 --> 0:54:33.799
<v Speaker 2>people telling me I can't do something and then I

0:54:33.960 --> 0:54:36.600
<v Speaker 2>go and do it, like just about proving yourself right

0:54:36.760 --> 0:54:39.319
<v Speaker 2>and you know, being selfish along the way. And you

0:54:39.360 --> 0:54:41.720
<v Speaker 2>got to be exactly because for a long long time,

0:54:41.840 --> 0:54:43.880
<v Speaker 2>like my whole life, I put rugby league first. You know,

0:54:43.920 --> 0:54:46.200
<v Speaker 2>I missed best mates's weddings to be the best man

0:54:46.239 --> 0:54:48.719
<v Speaker 2>that I miss my best mates, like kids being born

0:54:48.560 --> 0:54:52.280
<v Speaker 2>and now It's about giving back to myself and making

0:54:52.320 --> 0:54:55.960
<v Speaker 2>myself happy and being flexible to take myself out of

0:54:56.040 --> 0:54:59.000
<v Speaker 2>a controlled environment where forty eight weeks of the year

0:54:59.160 --> 0:55:01.719
<v Speaker 2>are basically bunk it down for me. Already, I've got

0:55:01.719 --> 0:55:04.640
<v Speaker 2>four weeks that I can be flexible. Now I have

0:55:04.760 --> 0:55:07.000
<v Speaker 2>fifty two weeks that I'm flexible, and I like to

0:55:07.600 --> 0:55:09.360
<v Speaker 2>I like to be flexed with my work. I like

0:55:09.400 --> 0:55:12.040
<v Speaker 2>to be flexed with my employees. I like to also

0:55:12.200 --> 0:55:16.200
<v Speaker 2>encourage my employees to follow their hobbies too. You know

0:55:16.239 --> 0:55:19.200
<v Speaker 2>the Lachlan who works for me, how we actually met.

0:55:20.719 --> 0:55:23.279
<v Speaker 2>His passion is to change actually rugby league jerseys. So

0:55:23.320 --> 0:55:25.040
<v Speaker 2>two and a half years ago I saw him on Instagram,

0:55:25.080 --> 0:55:27.959
<v Speaker 2>this young kid. He's a Knights fan. He changes rugby

0:55:28.000 --> 0:55:30.880
<v Speaker 2>league jerseys for a hobby, and that's how we connected.

0:55:30.880 --> 0:55:33.080
<v Speaker 2>I saw him on Instagram. I gave him a brief,

0:55:33.120 --> 0:55:35.239
<v Speaker 2>he sent it back to me, and then he come

0:55:35.239 --> 0:55:36.520
<v Speaker 2>and spend a week with me. He's been with me

0:55:36.600 --> 0:55:40.080
<v Speaker 2>since and now both of us have this hobby. Of

0:55:40.360 --> 0:55:44.040
<v Speaker 2>his hobby is rugby league and rugby league uniforms. My

0:55:44.200 --> 0:55:46.400
<v Speaker 2>old hobby was rugby league and now we're joining on

0:55:46.440 --> 0:55:49.960
<v Speaker 2>this journey together to go do this warriors creative direction

0:55:50.239 --> 0:55:53.520
<v Speaker 2>and you know, live it together. And I can't think

0:55:53.560 --> 0:55:55.360
<v Speaker 2>of a more kind of special way to kind of

0:55:55.400 --> 0:55:58.120
<v Speaker 2>do that with someone and spread our wings and see

0:55:58.120 --> 0:56:01.160
<v Speaker 2>how far we can really take ourselves. And you know,

0:56:01.719 --> 0:56:04.799
<v Speaker 2>as I played in an era of rugby league when

0:56:05.760 --> 0:56:08.479
<v Speaker 2>you weren't encouraged to do his stuff outside of rugby league,

0:56:08.520 --> 0:56:10.719
<v Speaker 2>was fully focused and I understand that was the era

0:56:10.880 --> 0:56:14.000
<v Speaker 2>and at that time that's all you knew. So to

0:56:14.040 --> 0:56:17.520
<v Speaker 2>be able to go and you know now and explore

0:56:17.560 --> 0:56:20.160
<v Speaker 2>these different avenues of creativity, There's so many ways to

0:56:20.200 --> 0:56:22.759
<v Speaker 2>be creative. I'm just really loving it.

0:56:22.840 --> 0:56:29.680
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, well, Lewis Earl Brown, congratulations made on Earl's collective

0:56:29.680 --> 0:56:32.560
<v Speaker 3>and well done and keep those coilabs going and make

0:56:32.960 --> 0:56:34.440
<v Speaker 3>us rogby league community proud of you.

0:56:34.680 --> 0:56:36.239
<v Speaker 2>Thank you so much for having me Mark. I really

0:56:36.320 --> 0:56:36.719
<v Speaker 2>enjoyed it