Speaker 1: Black Cast Unite our voices. This podcast is brought to
Speaker 1: you by on Track Studio. Welcome to Yanni Up, the
Speaker 1: podcast that showcases First Nations stories and conversations to help
Speaker 1: us learn and unlearn Australia's history to work towards a
Speaker 1: better future. I'm your host, proud barber woman and founder
Speaker 1: of Black Waddel Coaching and Consulting, Caroline cow We acknowledge
Speaker 1: the Runderi people and elders where this podcast is taped,
Speaker 1: but we also acknowledge the lands that you are listening
Speaker 1: in from today. It always was and always will be
Speaker 1: unseated Aboriginal and tourist Red Islander Land. Well, I'm so
Speaker 1: excited to speak to my next guest. I know he's
Speaker 1: not shy or unfamiliar with being in radio and having
Speaker 1: his own show. And actually the last time we connected
Speaker 1: in this particular way, of course, was on your show,
Speaker 1: really good radio. So it's nice to have you on
Speaker 1: the other side. Today I'm sitting down with Troy Benjamin
Speaker 1: and yeah, just really keen to connect and hear what's
Speaker 1: been happening and get to know a bit more about you.
Speaker 1: So welcome to the show, Troy.
Speaker 2: So good to be here and yeah, good memories that was.
Speaker 2: That was through Arnie Rohner and trying to do exactly
Speaker 2: what you're doing now to stay connected and what a
Speaker 2: hard time that was. But I can feel your excitement
Speaker 2: because I was so excited to interview you. I know
Speaker 2: what it feels like to have just guests on and
Speaker 2: that you're kind of you know, you just wonder what
Speaker 2: they've been up to, but also they've got some value
Speaker 2: to add and it's yeah, good to be hon here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it was.
Speaker 1: It was so lovely. I feel like you really, like
Speaker 1: you really kept us connected and afloat during covid by.
Speaker 1: This is the thing about MOB and just jumping in
Speaker 1: and doing what they've got to do for the benefit
Speaker 1: of MOB. And so a lot's happened since that time.
Speaker 1: I'm now pregnant. You've gone on to you know, go
Speaker 1: on to National TV and build this evolution of your
Speaker 1: idea of Black Bruise from very you know, very humble
Speaker 1: beginnings into you know, onto a global stage. So I'm
Speaker 1: so excited to connect and find out exactly what's been happening.
Speaker 1: But as we always do on this show, we always
Speaker 1: like to start by getting you to sort of introduce
Speaker 1: yourself how you would like to be introduced. So yeah,
Speaker 1: can you tell us a bit about your mob and
Speaker 1: just a little bit about your story and who you are?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's cool. So yeah, I'm a proud First Nations
Speaker 2: man living down here and what are on country? You know,
Speaker 2: I'm back in back in my birth home, but my
Speaker 2: mob's up. Tuddy tuddy muddy muddy buddy wuddy LATCHI latchy
Speaker 2: country out Robin Vail by Ranald It's now. I've had
Speaker 2: a cool life, cool journey. I've got a lovely wife
Speaker 2: now in my in my world, been together for five
Speaker 2: years and inherited an absolute champion of a son for
Speaker 2: legal term steps. But man, I'm just loving fatherhood. And
Speaker 2: good things come to those who wait, I guess or
Speaker 2: or put yeah, I don't know if I wasn't waiting.
Speaker 2: But what amazing world that we can live in. You
Speaker 2: when you kind of hit your late thirties and ticking
Speaker 2: over to forty and you're wondering, you know, am I
Speaker 2: going to be these guys that wasting their life away
Speaker 2: and keep kind of shifting and moving house and relationships
Speaker 2: and or jobs change or you know, I've had a
Speaker 2: pretty a variety of movements in my life, which as
Speaker 2: a young fellow, yeah, especially in the nineties when back
Speaker 2: then it was really everyone's really proud to say that
Speaker 2: you've got a sturdy job, like you know, you've got
Speaker 2: your nine or five. And as much as I kind
Speaker 2: of agreed at the time, I never I didn't have
Speaker 2: that style of living. Things ended sooner than I guess what,
Speaker 2: when everyone one else wanted. But guess what entrepreneurship is this?
Speaker 2: And I'm just grateful that interesting journey of youthful, eventful
Speaker 2: life where there's no commitment and everyone's wanting you to
Speaker 2: settle down, and it's like, well, I don't know. I
Speaker 2: like exploring. I like exploring and I like switching it
Speaker 2: up if I don't feel it. And I'm an instinct person,
Speaker 2: not a numbers and grafts person. That might mean that
Speaker 2: my emotions take me to different areas and often pinch
Speaker 2: myself and and think what am I doing. I'm like,
Speaker 2: I'm currently sitting in my old spare room when I
Speaker 2: was a teenager in my mum's house. Mum's moved out.
Speaker 2: But you know, yeah, it's just crazy to be in
Speaker 2: Geelong and I'm one of those oldies that go, you're
Speaker 2: going to come back to your hometown when some stage
Speaker 2: when you want a family. And you know, I left
Speaker 2: Geelong in early two thousands and went to Melbourne and
Speaker 2: tried to spread my wings there. But now it's good
Speaker 2: to be home. Home is Geelong for me and families here,
Speaker 2: my schoolmates. You know, I was brought up in a
Speaker 2: very small community and I like, I like the power
Speaker 2: of small community and yeah it's good, but it's it's
Speaker 2: a journey.
Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, it's so interesting. I mean, you know, money
Speaker 1: and money Lati Lati like all along Robin Vowe, all
Speaker 1: along the Murray River there and val Renald and then
Speaker 1: back to the coast of you know, Waterong and you
Speaker 1: know that water cooling And it sounds to me like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're in a phase where you're grounded and anchored in
Speaker 1: but still you know, being creative and like you say,
Speaker 1: trying to carve out your own entrepreneurial journey in this
Speaker 1: space and that isn't always designed for mob but it's
Speaker 1: almost like those small country towns force you to be
Speaker 1: resourceful and you have to sort of then think on
Speaker 1: your toes in other ways.
Speaker 4: So yeah, and I think, yeah, you spot on and
Speaker 4: to add on to that, I realize the important parts
Speaker 4: of your life.
Speaker 2: A good base is when you move. As growing and
Speaker 2: challenging as it is, you still need a good base
Speaker 2: where you go. I think, and my best years have
Speaker 2: always been when I'm I'm not moving and where its
Speaker 2: relationship or my own health, or am I living a
Speaker 2: central life to my beliefs that my core values, and
Speaker 2: where am I just been a little kind of leaf
Speaker 2: in the wind And I don't want people to name
Speaker 2: my name And you're not having any impact deep impact
Speaker 2: with people, You're just being surfaced since you go through
Speaker 2: those times in life where you I don't know, you
Speaker 2: just pretend to be something else for a bit to
Speaker 2: see if it suits you. And through all those kind
Speaker 2: of I guess snakes shedding moments, skin shedding moments, what
Speaker 2: was in central was my bay. I found my base
Speaker 2: to be here and it's where you know, other people
Speaker 2: find it in other places. I'd love to hear from
Speaker 2: other people out where they think home is. But some
Speaker 2: people find home in other countries or completely different to
Speaker 2: what they were brought up in. But I think from
Speaker 2: the most part, your home is where you can settle
Speaker 2: and be nurtured and feel safe, and the people in
Speaker 2: Geelong just have always known me, So I just didn't
Speaker 2: think that would be the most valuable thing to me
Speaker 2: now where it is very strange.
Speaker 1: Very yeah, so interesting to hear. Yeah here say that,
Speaker 1: And I think we've definitely all gone through phases of
Speaker 1: life where it's easier to meet ourselves small or chameleon
Speaker 1: or you know, when we step into authentic selves, it
Speaker 1: can be really vulnerable. But it's interesting. Did you imagine
Speaker 1: when you were growing up in Geelong that you would
Speaker 1: come back? Was that a part of your your what
Speaker 1: you thought would be your base or what's important to
Speaker 1: you now or these are just parts of these shifts
Speaker 1: and evolutions.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think like up until nineteen, like I hadn't
Speaker 2: we really, I was that kid that hadn't been to Melbourne,
Speaker 2: like nineteen years old. It's so crazy. We might have
Speaker 2: gone on a train or something, but we're going a
Speaker 2: dim rou or. But you know, like to experience living
Speaker 2: somewhere else, like yeah, you know, you've got to move
Speaker 2: away from the family, Like I've got no brothers and sisters,
Speaker 2: so my mum's got me on a short chain. You know,
Speaker 2: she's scared of Lisby to the big smoke, you know.
Speaker 2: But even in my world, like we just didn't have
Speaker 2: a lot of people typical country town I guess back then,
Speaker 2: but we just did have a lot of people going
Speaker 2: to look for opportunities in Melbourne because most people would
Speaker 2: classically just get a trade, work in their parents' business,
Speaker 2: play footy on Saturdays and just kind of never really
Speaker 2: dream outside the norm and like to think that that.
Speaker 2: And so I was not aching. But when I got
Speaker 2: an opportunity to go up to the Gold Coast, it
Speaker 2: was just because I knew a friend up there. I
Speaker 2: was classic rebelling against my mum's chain, short chain and like, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm done with this and I'm out of here and
Speaker 2: I'm calling a friend who lives in another place. Until
Speaker 2: I was out there and I didn't come back because
Speaker 2: I came back to Geelong two years later after my
Speaker 2: stint in the Gold Coast, and I had changed. They
Speaker 2: had changed. I had seen things, I had done things
Speaker 2: I had There's different just even within you know, just
Speaker 2: this country. Gold Coast is very different to Geelong. Gold
Speaker 2: Coast different at Melbourne perse different. You can purse different
Speaker 2: than Adelaide. It's just different, you know, and Geelong didn't
Speaker 2: definitely didn't suit me, so I for a long time.
Speaker 2: It's funny whenever I had a relate and you know,
Speaker 2: it sounds like a serial relationship person, but you know,
Speaker 2: when I have a relationship, but they're usually my book ends,
Speaker 2: like when people ask me like remember that time I
Speaker 2: go who was I with? Was I.
Speaker 1: Who was there?
Speaker 2: Person? Because other than that, they were really important to me.
Speaker 2: Those moments you know when I usually have you know,
Speaker 2: I've got a beautiful wife now, but she on his
Speaker 2: relationship has been really take you on journeys with people
Speaker 2: and they can yeah, you know, you experience the highs
Speaker 2: and waves of those people. And whenever I would I
Speaker 2: felt like I was by myself, I'd always come running
Speaker 2: back to Geelong. I'd come back for a weekend, I'd
Speaker 2: move out of the house. I'd come in back home mums,
Speaker 2: Mum's cooking.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I never like, you know, Muma would always say you're
Speaker 2: going to come back here at some stage because you've
Speaker 2: got to settle down in some stage, and I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 2: but my wife is the catalyst of me being open
Speaker 2: to this style of living. And it's it's considered everything.
Speaker 2: You know, we're living a very considered life down here
Speaker 2: with Melbourne. I was in Melbourne last fifteen years. It
Speaker 2: was your event calendar is crazy, yeah, just because of
Speaker 2: the the city life. And you go on, You've got
Speaker 2: trivia on Tuesdays, You're playing basketball on Wednesdays. Barco's got
Speaker 2: a gig on down Brunswick East, and you've got to
Speaker 2: get over to Chapel Street for lunch and yeah.
Speaker 1: And just the sounds on the butt, like just everything,
Speaker 1: everything's like heightened and yeah, yeah, the nervous system is
Speaker 1: constantly on and almost, isn't it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah it was.
Speaker 2: It was just kind of beautiful timing coming back here
Speaker 2: and then meeting my wife and going she would love
Speaker 2: Geelong and I could nurture this boy and be a
Speaker 2: father role to her then seven year old. And I
Speaker 2: know exactly where to go because I was a seven
Speaker 2: year old in this town. You're going to this basketball club,
Speaker 2: you're going to this school. I'm speaking of the principal.
Speaker 2: This is my old teacher, this.
Speaker 1: Is my classroom. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I had a good time down here. You know, it's
Speaker 2: just so no, I didn't think i'd be here, but
Speaker 2: it just makes so much sense. Yeah, yeah, mind you,
Speaker 2: I wouldn't mind randomly picking up the family and going
Speaker 2: to Bali for a year. We think about it often.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh my god, I've it was very recedent.
Speaker 2: Yeah sure, I mean.
Speaker 1: Thinking about ways how I can change my name or
Speaker 1: fake myself, leave set set up somewhere else for a while.
Speaker 1: It wouldn't be nice just to de plug from some
Speaker 1: of the yeah things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was late to the overseas cultural trip, and
Speaker 2: I wish I know, I do. I wish I went
Speaker 2: overseas as a teenager or as anything like Lucky. Now
Speaker 2: he's been to Italy and Barcelona and Bali, and you know,
Speaker 2: he's like, you know, that's cool for I noticed kids
Speaker 2: that have traveled, they they reflect a bit bit more
Speaker 2: factually about their life. It's all about the PlayStation, it's
Speaker 2: all about why and I getting picked in the team.
Speaker 3: It's like comment, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Opens your eyes a bit, doesn't that I've talked about family?
Speaker 2: Can we just talk about family for ever?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I know, I mean I love it so and
Speaker 1: it's certainly something that I think, you know, as becoming
Speaker 1: in this new journey. It's something I'm really interested in,
Speaker 1: is Yeah, how people find their own peace or carve
Speaker 1: out their beautiful life or yeah, want to raise their
Speaker 1: families or their own values. So yeah, there's there's lots
Speaker 1: to lots to explore. I mean, I think it's beautiful
Speaker 1: and I think it's always interesting. Like, yeah, Mum was right,
Speaker 1: and you know you were going to come back there.
Speaker 1: It's like thanks Mum, But yeah, it's something. It feels
Speaker 1: very resonant because you are such a product of your environments,
Speaker 1: aren't you, And and you want to be like intentional
Speaker 1: with Yeah, the people that you know, you know, and
Speaker 1: the community there and Locky is upbringing and you know,
Speaker 1: just the pace of life that the coast brings. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all of these sort of like eco networks are attached
Speaker 1: with where we live and what life you want to have, really,
Speaker 1: isn't it. It's all it's all relative. Yeah, it sounds
Speaker 1: like you and CRUs have been on quite the adventure
Speaker 1: over the last five years of marriage. How long When
Speaker 1: was this relationship? When did you guys meet?
Speaker 2: Yeah, about five years ago. We married a year later,
Speaker 2: Rock around two week COVID COVID marriage. It was just squeezed.
Speaker 2: When it went from zero to twenty, people were like,
Speaker 2: that'll do.
Speaker 1: Wow, I had to wait twelve years my end. Look
Speaker 1: here this one well done. When you know, let's get this,
Speaker 1: let's get this game back track, get it done.
Speaker 2: Give it a crack. Look. It's hard to commentate on
Speaker 2: this world. Hey, but long while committed relationships hard, but
Speaker 2: man they're awesome.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, because you sort of you kind of go
Speaker 1: through your own seasons and evolutions as an individual. And
Speaker 1: if you find someone that you can do that with
Speaker 1: and you know where you're constantly you know, falling in
Speaker 1: and out of love with yourself and blah blah and god,
Speaker 1: just navigating that with someone and you enjoy them, then
Speaker 1: tick like like bonus. You know, it's like I still
Speaker 1: say my partner and i'd be We've been together for
Speaker 1: almost fourteen years, and I look at him and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I still like hanging out with ya. You know, I
Speaker 1: actually just still like you. But yeah, you and Curusa,
Speaker 1: you you founded your business and I'd love to talk
Speaker 1: about that. So in twenty twenty two, you and Carus
Speaker 1: are founded one hundred percent First Antions, Black own operated
Speaker 1: business that offers ethically sourced premium tea with native ingredients.
Speaker 1: You took that idea onto a global stage. You were
Speaker 1: on the first ever Food Stars last year and which
Speaker 1: was run by Gordon Ramsey, and your follows went on
Speaker 1: to win. You got the two hundred and fifty thousand
Speaker 1: dollars investment and a mentorship with Black Bruise. So where
Speaker 1: did this all come about? How did this fit into
Speaker 1: the picture? You know? Where did your mob come up
Speaker 1: with the idea?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Where did it all start for you mob?
Speaker 2: Just so you know why you were doing that little
Speaker 2: wrap sheet on the journey of the Black Bruise. I can't.
Speaker 2: I shake my head because if I really listened to
Speaker 2: what you said, I still don't. It's not believable. It's
Speaker 2: not Yeah, what happened?
Speaker 1: How did just the boy from DeLong who went on
Speaker 1: to win on TV? It's crazy.
Speaker 2: It's tea company. It's it's just not obvious. But you know, man,
Speaker 2: it's so hard. I often do talks that, you know,
Speaker 2: because that's what happens when you're in TV shows. People
Speaker 2: want you to talk on things. It's really interesting. Yeah,
Speaker 2: even though I ate the pro on any topic at all,
Speaker 2: I talk about this kind of you know what you're
Speaker 2: doing here, like bringing people together, and I often talk
Speaker 2: about how I fell into most of my career defining
Speaker 2: moments over the last twelve years, whether it's running my
Speaker 2: own cafe, to running a barista agency, to running that
Speaker 2: radio show, to running Deadly events, open mic nights, to
Speaker 2: comedy like I just jumping on radio, Like it's all
Speaker 2: kind of I don't think about it too much other
Speaker 2: than I just feel like it'd be really fun to
Speaker 2: talk to others and hear about what's going on. And
Speaker 2: it's the same like this teeth thing came about. I
Speaker 2: was trying to encourage Carissa because she was a bit
Speaker 2: She's a nine or fiver. She's a nine or five.
Speaker 2: She loves the nine to five grind. Yeah, give me
Speaker 2: my lunch break, give me my wage at the end
Speaker 2: of the week, and I'll look after the She's a
Speaker 2: home woman. She wants to come home and bait the
Speaker 2: cakes and make your beds look nice. She loves it.
Speaker 2: I was like, love it. Well, you know, during yeah,
Speaker 2: and during COVID, you couldn't really do that as much.
Speaker 2: I reckon, you've got a good idea. She had an
Speaker 2: idea to do an essential oils business with native ingredients,
Speaker 2: and I knew someone who knew a thing about she
Speaker 2: knew about herbs plants. I thought she'd be a good
Speaker 2: starting point here in Geelong. She's also a tea master
Speaker 2: World Reround Tea Master. Wow, But I didn't think about
Speaker 2: the tea. I just thought, I'll let Chrissa go over there.
Speaker 2: She could have a little dabble of exploring her this
Speaker 2: project that she's really keen on, and I would just
Speaker 2: stand back and let her have the fun ride of
Speaker 2: exploring this brain of hers and see if she can
Speaker 2: get a product off the ground. And I just overheard
Speaker 2: the conversation and started thinking about Man, these tea blends
Speaker 2: that she had in store also could apply to native
Speaker 2: ingredients and maybe I started tea range. And I went
Speaker 2: back a week later and just asked her what it
Speaker 2: takes to kind of develop some tea blends with you?
Speaker 2: Would you be interested in working with her with me?
Speaker 2: Just a couple of the hoops, like you thought that
Speaker 2: might be hard to get through, Like how much money
Speaker 2: do I need to get a brand? I don't know,
Speaker 2: like get a web brand off the ground. And I've
Speaker 2: been in coffee operation, Like it's different, somewhat different, like
Speaker 2: to get a product like and then to release it
Speaker 2: online and had to work out shopify and how much
Speaker 2: do I protect the product the names of the teas. Anyway,
Speaker 2: I went crazy for like three weeks just in the locker,
Speaker 2: just like this is the best idea in the planet,
Speaker 2: and just thought we just took some tea's out there,
Speaker 2: and the product spoke for itself, very very high quality tea,
Speaker 2: very little insert of anything other than native ingredients. So
Speaker 2: it's just those pure plants and fruits.
Speaker 1: It's and like with that, like where is it is
Speaker 1: it source when you're say like native ingredients, Like is
Speaker 1: there like places where Like I imagine that would have been
Speaker 1: really hard, Like okay, very hard. Where do I source
Speaker 1: the tea? Like who's making it, who's farming it? How
Speaker 1: much is that?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: How did you navigate that? The sourcing of ethical.
Speaker 2: The sourcing part. So Sharon, who's a very good friend
Speaker 2: of mine. I had a coffee relationship with her. It's
Speaker 2: his mum. Yeah, And you know, often the topic that
Speaker 2: kind of comes through black fellows is I prefer to
Speaker 2: deal with First Nations people, but like, who's this white
Speaker 2: person that's gate keeping this product?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Anyway, but the person that we're talking about is someone
Speaker 2: that I know, Like I was like, where are you're
Speaker 2: getting all this lemon mital from? And she's like, look,
Speaker 2: I've got a guy like who's just they call him bush.
Speaker 2: They call him bush. He's there people that live out
Speaker 2: in the bush and just grow it and I don't
Speaker 2: have And she just pays for it and often like
Speaker 2: give me the bushy's name. She's got a business. She's
Speaker 2: got a business to run. She's got a business and
Speaker 2: she has supported She runs her own Native blends. She
Speaker 2: helps people that are non Indigenous and black fellow like
Speaker 2: you know, but she helps a lot of the other
Speaker 2: brands that we know about. She's just person that's got
Speaker 2: great connections over her thirty year career and I think
Speaker 2: love it rightly. So I don't you know, I would luck.
Speaker 2: And this is one of your questions is really interesting
Speaker 2: one and might be jumping there already, but yeah, I
Speaker 2: had to really kind of work out is this the
Speaker 2: right thing to do?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Or do I avoid benefiting giving her? Look, she's got
Speaker 2: the product. What do I do? Yeah, blow a hair's
Speaker 2: house up and say I got it now, like which
Speaker 2: might make sense, might be a good revenge, but yeah,
Speaker 2: and I've got to work with this woman, and I
Speaker 2: love her. She's a brilliant woman. And she was just like,
Speaker 2: whatever you want to do, let's do chi with Native
Speaker 2: and whatever you want, Troy and I will lend you
Speaker 2: anything that you need. You're like a son to me.
Speaker 2: You're such a good friend with my son. What do
Speaker 2: you need to get these blends off the ground. I've
Speaker 2: got people that can help you design. I'm like, nah,
Speaker 2: I'll go to Naamilli and I want at least go
Speaker 2: there first, you know, just to get a pulse check,
Speaker 2: culture check. How does products get released in this market?
Speaker 2: How can we hold onto some our pride and our
Speaker 2: culture and our strength. And you know, I just went
Speaker 2: with it. She's a good person. And now Ethos and
Speaker 2: our brand is you know, be good people, work with
Speaker 2: good people. It's not it's not be black, stay black
Speaker 2: only work with black. Can't. I can't, I can't. Can't.
Speaker 1: You'd be hard pressed to be able to get any
Speaker 1: business off the ground if we just relied solely on
Speaker 1: the black economy. Sadly, like, you have to use your
Speaker 1: resources accordingly, and you have to go where people have relationships,
Speaker 1: and that's business. That's the that's just the name of
Speaker 1: the game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And who's who's the client. Who's the client who's
Speaker 2: buying this tea? Yeah, and I know this is just
Speaker 2: for Aboriginal people, Like yeah, no, like the client in
Speaker 2: Australia is not Indigenous. So I've got to work with
Speaker 2: people that stand that crew, which is not saying we don't.
Speaker 2: But anyway, I was just really early on and I've
Speaker 2: never really been like, nah, you're not black, like you
Speaker 2: can't get into this space. I'm like, yeah, if you're
Speaker 2: a good person and you're going to support me, and
Speaker 2: I'm I'm you want to work together, I'm let's get this.
Speaker 2: And she just she is the reason I've gotten to
Speaker 2: this point today. Whilst it's my story and my reason
Speaker 2: and we got in this show in the first episode,
Speaker 2: She's one of the four people that I got to
Speaker 2: I brought. I said, shads, you you have got me
Speaker 2: to this point. You've let She's even mortgaged her house.
Speaker 2: I'm not joking. You mortgaged her house to get me
Speaker 2: enough stock in the lead up to the Grand Final
Speaker 2: to ensure that I've got enough product. Wow, this woman
Speaker 2: is just an ultimate human being.
Speaker 1: What a weapon? And like also to you know exactly, yeah, seriously,
Speaker 1: but you know I think this is the thing that's
Speaker 1: like just working with people who share similar values. I mean,
Speaker 1: anyone who's going to put your neck on the line
Speaker 1: truly believes not just in the product, but believes in you,
Speaker 1: you know, and that's what you want, someone in your
Speaker 1: in your corner who believes in you and what you
Speaker 1: stand for and the mission. So I'm all for it. Wow.
Speaker 1: So three yeah, three weeks went into this sort of
Speaker 1: like chamber, got your resources together, and then and then
Speaker 1: how did and then where did you land with black bruise?
Speaker 1: Like how did you how did you pick the flavor combinations?
Speaker 1: How did you then move through the process. I'm just
Speaker 1: being a dory because I love tea, by the way,
Speaker 1: I love drinking it and I love spilling the tea.
Speaker 2: And I get, hey, look she's the tea Samelia, right,
Speaker 2: that's what they call their songs. They are high class,
Speaker 2: high level palettes. I am not going to get on
Speaker 2: that wagon. And I could not wait to release these teas.
Speaker 2: I'm not going, yeah, take this home. I'm like, give
Speaker 2: me some bangers, and I tasted the bangers. Give me
Speaker 2: a lemon grass and give me a breakfast tea. But
Speaker 2: what do we gotch like Danetrey grows incredible tea in
Speaker 2: the danger.
Speaker 3: Forest like great, yes, yes.
Speaker 2: Give me an el gray. But let's put a blackfellow
Speaker 2: twist on it. What are we doing? She goes, just
Speaker 2: wack some finger. I'm in there to be unreal. It's
Speaker 2: going to cool. So we came up with six blands.
Speaker 2: She did, and I will never never stop campaigning her.
Speaker 2: She come up with them. Just try these and I went,
Speaker 2: they are incredible. Yeah, I'm going out to the Greene
Speaker 2: Freedom Festival in a month. I'm going to take these
Speaker 2: blends out there and Greene Freedom Festival. My wis't country,
Speaker 2: it's all unpowered sites. So heaps the campfires. I just
Speaker 2: went and dunked, like all day long, dunking teas in
Speaker 2: people's pots, and oh my god, the response just the
Speaker 2: market said, this tea is off its head? What's going on?
Speaker 2: What do they call it? Once? I better go back
Speaker 2: and make some names, And that's how it launched the
Speaker 2: Shopify site. No really, we're brilliant. Big shout out to
Speaker 2: them crew there, Monique Rennie who's just created on country
Speaker 2: a brilliant artist.
Speaker 1: Niques actually in our leadership program, my leadership program.
Speaker 2: She's the best is again again early early backbone of
Speaker 2: She gave me the brand direction. She she designed the
Speaker 2: logo wow, and then I changed it to solid red
Speaker 2: yellow black. But we'll muck around with logo design. But
Speaker 2: she got the concept and amazing verbs. She designed that
Speaker 2: coffee van that you see around everywhere. She was cool.
Speaker 2: She was cool. That's how it got done. No, I
Speaker 2: didn't have I didn't have no cash.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I want to tell people that if I ever looked
Speaker 2: at this bog, I had no cash. Yeah, no cash here, Robbo.
Speaker 2: But my wife told a.
Speaker 1: Lot of passion and a lot of enthusiasm. And that's
Speaker 1: all you mean?
Speaker 2: No cash, more pash? What should be Yeah, passion, passion.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Help has been my currency. So when I do these talks,
Speaker 2: I always feel out it's complete and poster I'm like,
Speaker 2: why do they want to talk to me? I go.
Speaker 2: I think I can teach people, or at least encourage
Speaker 2: people ask for help. Yeah, in any possible format. My
Speaker 2: wife tells me all the time, I don't know how
Speaker 2: you ask people for help. I don't get how you don't. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you need it, but two people, too many people are
Speaker 2: too scared to look inferior. They don't know what they're doing,
Speaker 2: or they might get backslapped and go, no, you do
Speaker 2: it yourself, or yeah, maybe at thirty you should have
Speaker 2: had your life together by now. All these stuff.
Speaker 3: It's like, what so true?
Speaker 1: That's sun You're going.
Speaker 2: To make your questions because I go off and that's okay.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it with this go where
Speaker 1: we need to go? No, I think you're right. It
Speaker 1: sounds yeah, there's such strength and giving help. I think
Speaker 1: mob are really good at showing up and doing but
Speaker 1: also just the strength and receiving help and playing to
Speaker 1: everyone's strengths and sharing that responsibility and their passions and
Speaker 1: you know, identifying your roles. So wow, I mean, were
Speaker 1: you prior to launching Black Bruise were you and Crisa
Speaker 1: tea drinkers? Did you enjoy a Kappa?
Speaker 2: Nah? Chrisa was a little bit, but nah, And like
Speaker 2: I'm still not.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I ever haven't quite convinced.
Speaker 2: I'm not going out there like I'm the dial with my
Speaker 2: family where the Kings and Queens of tea like yeah,
Speaker 2: yeah tea tasting yesterday at a sharp and they're like
Speaker 2: the baristas like yes, I love that cocal.
Speaker 1: Little god like these woody notes and I they say
Speaker 1: with wine, like is that a good thing?
Speaker 2: Good? Good? I believe you. On the show Carolyn, episode three,
Speaker 2: I got super sick, and I'm confident it was COVID. Right,
Speaker 2: that's two years ago, almost to the day, and I
Speaker 2: can't it smell and tastin two years of being Yeah,
Speaker 2: so I trust that I remember the flavors back in
Speaker 2: the day. But right now, if I taste the lemon
Speaker 2: grass and gin to tea, yeah I can smell it
Speaker 2: a little bit. I get a hint. But yeah. But
Speaker 2: what I do know about tea is tea's very peaceful
Speaker 2: to people. Yeah, there's a different, different attitude towards it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a ritual, I feel like for any way,
Speaker 1: for me, it is so sacred. It's like we just
Speaker 1: had a conversation. I Mean, there's there's this really old
Speaker 1: I don't know if you're a Big Brother fan, but
Speaker 1: back in the day, there's this Big Brother celebrity and
Speaker 1: David Bowie's wife is in there and this English woman
Speaker 1: speaking to an American woman and she's just talking about
Speaker 1: her obsession with tea and she's like and it's like
Speaker 1: a grand and this Americans like right, okay, like does
Speaker 1: not understand And I don't know. I think if you
Speaker 1: grew up in black communities too, like it is. It's
Speaker 1: a gesture, it's a gift. It's a when I don't
Speaker 1: know what else to say and I want to break
Speaker 1: the eyes, let's do that. It feels like it's an exchange,
Speaker 1: it's a ritual. I know, we just had a big
Speaker 1: conversation in our women's leadership program that we run with
Speaker 1: Blackwattle about what's the difference between a routine, so something
Speaker 1: we might do versus a ritual, something when we're a
Speaker 1: bit more intentional, and and tea came up heavily throughout,
Speaker 1: and it does. It feels like it's it's that warmth,
Speaker 1: it's that the smell, it's it is a really Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's also quite you know, linked to so many traditional
Speaker 1: ceremonies and practices. So I'm a very big tea advocate.
Speaker 1: If you ever need me to try any of your
Speaker 1: teas that you can't taste.
Speaker 2: Exactly the way this was going, I've had these conversations
Speaker 2: on the daily.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it is sacred, and I just think it's
Speaker 1: so beautiful to see that you know you take from
Speaker 1: that to TV as well, like and just watching you
Speaker 1: on TV in your in your natural element, like you
Speaker 1: were fantastic. Did you talk me through the first time
Speaker 1: you were on the set and you met Gordon Ramsey?
Speaker 1: What was that like, we're just freaking out, will be
Speaker 1: back you mob right after his short break?
Speaker 2: It is the most Yeah, I don't know the most famous.
Speaker 2: Who's the most famous person you ever met? Most? Is
Speaker 2: it Gordon level? Have you met a Gordon level person?
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to think.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry to put you on the spot.
Speaker 1: No, let me think. Probably the most famous person I've
Speaker 1: ever met? Well TV whise I sort of fangirled over.
Speaker 1: I had Kirby Bentley from Survivor on my podcast and
Speaker 1: she is the best. Yeah, she was a legend and
Speaker 1: I'm a huge Survivor fan. So I fangirled for days,
Speaker 1: I know, and then I was like, yeah, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I met your indie like the that's around the caliber.
Speaker 2: No, Gordon ram It's like, look, I get it, the Survivors,
Speaker 2: Like you know, once you see someone on TV, so
Speaker 2: you didn't met you hadn't met Kuby before she was
Speaker 2: on No, Yeah, the TV first same with Gordon TV.
Speaker 2: First YouTube everything Gordon, and then he's at ya, Troy,
Speaker 2: what's going on over here to get the team together.
Speaker 3: I'm like, what is in real life?
Speaker 2: So fun? Carolyn? He's the funnest. He's immediately in your corner. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and he knows how to He's just ruthless with his
Speaker 2: pursuit for excellence. If you're not interested, he won't invest
Speaker 2: in you. If he sees the range, interested in ruthless
Speaker 2: execution and get on with it and just from sheer
Speaker 2: route aggression, we will get there. If you're in that page.
Speaker 2: He's all into it. He's India and how he treats
Speaker 2: people like he's just like, well, why didn't I don't
Speaker 2: need that right now? I need solution? Like he's very
Speaker 2: good and he had to deal with so many different
Speaker 2: personalities and this is one series of like so many
Speaker 2: formats that he looks after. He's got a little ear
Speaker 2: piece in his ear, right, tiniest little like the size
Speaker 2: of this little tissue in his ear all the time, right,
Speaker 2: So he's got someone he can't he's not around. So
Speaker 2: I remember the audition when he came up to my
Speaker 2: van and I'm packing dacks and I'm in my elemant,
Speaker 2: I'm van packing it. I was walking down. They've got
Speaker 2: the longest red carpet. The carpet that goes to them
Speaker 2: is too long. It should be cut in quarters. But
Speaker 2: you're walking all the way down. It was just Jeanine
Speaker 2: Alliss there, which I'm big fan of Jeane eel Us too,
Speaker 2: but yeah, Gordon in the real life is just full on.
Speaker 2: And I just tried to pay attention to what they
Speaker 2: were saying and not. I didn't want to get too
Speaker 2: comfortable because this is flipping TV, So I was scared,
Speaker 2: do I do some joke or am I going to
Speaker 2: say something that I might say? Comfortable with you but
Speaker 2: this shouldn't go one on TV, really nervous about just
Speaker 2: what you're going to say. Gordon's great, He's like, man,
Speaker 2: good to see you, and good to see you too.
Speaker 2: Goodon Hi Jeanine, and he's like, tell us your name
Speaker 2: and I told he goes, tell us your first name,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, Troy. It was so one lineup. I'm
Speaker 2: like and he's like great, great, yeah, great, Like what's
Speaker 2: going on here? And they had to cut the episode
Speaker 2: and go pause, Troy, are you going I heard that
Speaker 2: there's going to be a welcome to country, because there
Speaker 2: was going to be I had a lovely auntie here.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to say her name. She pulled out
Speaker 2: one hour beforehand. Who was going to do a smoking
Speaker 2: a foot No, he's going to do a welcome And
Speaker 2: so he didn't understand what was going on. And he's like,
Speaker 2: I go, oh, I was going to acknowledge country, but
Speaker 2: do I do it now?
Speaker 1: About high I'm Troy like acknowledged.
Speaker 2: Anyway, I said, And so the episode kind of looks
Speaker 2: real casual, and they kind of edited out to make
Speaker 2: it not look like that anything that happened, but very
Speaker 2: quickly the stuff ups and the cameras and him, we
Speaker 2: were all in we all stuff up mode very early.
Speaker 2: But Gordon is he's got an incredible memory bank. I
Speaker 2: think that's his biggest weapon. If he saw you, Carolyn,
Speaker 2: met you, high chance he would get you again and go, hey,
Speaker 2: I've met you before, haven't eye He's very good Tarrissa
Speaker 2: and asked about Lockie and yeah, yeah, So he would
Speaker 2: kind of float in and out of the set. He'd
Speaker 2: come in do his bit, but he's not in the
Speaker 2: background watching us. He's he's off doing other stuff, and
Speaker 2: he's a producer, so he's probably standing at the back
Speaker 2: making sure certain people are maybe fighting and they've got
Speaker 2: to find some stories to follow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, totally.
Speaker 2: That was all cool. But we were given the vote
Speaker 2: of at the start. They did say, hey, just in
Speaker 2: case you're scared, like this, TV shows about elevating you
Speaker 2: and your brand, So unless you provide some content for us,
Speaker 2: we're not gonna get at you to be this person
Speaker 2: that you're not. So just shine and that was really helpful.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Wow, very fun being on TV though.
Speaker 1: I must say I'm gonna say, I mean, you're a natural.
Speaker 1: I mean you're I mean, you're up on stages, You've
Speaker 1: been in radio. You know, you're an entertainer ethic at
Speaker 1: its core really and so you know that's that's the
Speaker 1: hard part where I think where people might have like
Speaker 1: a business or an ideation and being able to sell
Speaker 1: and promote because you are the brand, you know, you
Speaker 1: doing that flying that flag. So yeah, I mean, what
Speaker 1: was that experience like? So once you got rid of
Speaker 1: the initial nerves and just the awkward Gordon Ramsey ditters,
Speaker 1: how did you go like what was your mind set
Speaker 1: going on to said and when were you like, at
Speaker 1: what point we like, Okay, we're going all in here
Speaker 1: and we're just going to give this a red hot go.
Speaker 2: How you work in teams and you're in their leadership space.
Speaker 2: It's really strange. And I don't know you well enough, Krent,
Speaker 2: to know what would you be like in a team,
Speaker 2: But I'm sure you'd support if you knew that there
Speaker 2: was time to support. And you're not the leader. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you've got room awareness and instincts, and you read the room.
Speaker 2: We had people in our team that couldn't read the room. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and we're trying to push their agenda and say, nah,
Speaker 2: I've done catering for forty seven years. I know, like
Speaker 2: just trying to like we just weren't weren't jelling and yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, disclaiming For the people that haven't watched the show.
Speaker 2: We struggled with the first two episodes because and I
Speaker 2: didn't know what to do. I didn't know. Yeah, I've
Speaker 2: never been in a room with all dingbats who are
Speaker 2: a bit not sure what to do. Because everyone was
Speaker 2: kind of a bit cautious and didn't want to upset
Speaker 2: each other. And yeah, you knew this was going to
Speaker 2: be on TV on Channel nine, Like it's like, I
Speaker 2: don't want to look bad. I don't want my family
Speaker 2: look I don't look like a psycho. Go down Aldi
Speaker 2: And someone's like, yeah, I don't want to go a
Speaker 2: shopping center, and like you're the dude that berated a woman.
Speaker 2: It was like, oh, man, like I'm just everyone's freaking out.
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, anyway, I trusted that I wasn't going
Speaker 2: to do anything too wrong. But at the end of
Speaker 2: episode three, I mean you saw the show, I walk
Speaker 2: out the door and Gordon. That was, by the way,
Speaker 2: that's all unscripted. A lot of this show is unscripted,
Speaker 2: like it naturally happens. They don't say Troy Gordon's gonna.
Speaker 2: God's like, Troy, get him going, man, get him going.
Speaker 2: That's the first time he's talked to me.
Speaker 1: Directly, right, I believe in you. You got this sort
Speaker 1: of gone.
Speaker 2: Then just gave me the nudge to go. We need
Speaker 2: someone to because at least I can go, Hey, Gordon
Speaker 2: told me to.
Speaker 1: I'll throw his authority around. So if you don't like it,
Speaker 1: talk to him.
Speaker 2: We just needed that nudge've gone call Yeah. Let's have
Speaker 2: just a central point at the top of the leader
Speaker 2: and then funnel your stuff through. We ended up winning
Speaker 2: the next episode. We got the jury, Jury's on.
Speaker 1: There and Jake Kennedy.
Speaker 2: We just pulled together this cultural masterpiece.
Speaker 1: It was like, yeah, it was beautiful, and it was
Speaker 1: nice for people like us watching me, like oh my god, Stace,
Speaker 1: oh my god. You people that we know, like you know,
Speaker 1: And that's another thing about MOB. It's like if we
Speaker 1: are on, we bring in our contacts with us. So
Speaker 1: that was nice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was powerful. And I hadn't seen family for
Speaker 2: two weeks. And because you know, how to leave the
Speaker 2: hotel really unless it's for filming, and yeah, you can
Speaker 2: get some food. But I bawled my head off when
Speaker 2: I saw Mandy and Stacey. And I was known as
Speaker 2: the crying guy on the set because I think I
Speaker 2: was just overtired. But I'm an emotional guy, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: We wear our heart on our sleeves.
Speaker 2: Ye, yeah, you know. So when they came in, I
Speaker 2: was like, it's so good to see you. You know.
Speaker 2: We were halfway through the dinner and it's like we're
Speaker 2: gonna I said, stage just make me so good. I'm
Speaker 2: so clead here and we're going to win this. We
Speaker 2: need to win this episode.
Speaker 1: And yeah, no pressure, but.
Speaker 2: Pull out all strings, like, yeah, put on a show
Speaker 2: for the crowd because it was a seated dinner that
Speaker 2: we had to impress kind of eighteen or fifteen socialites.
Speaker 3: But that's right.
Speaker 2: The show was one of the most funnest experiences. But
Speaker 2: going back to what you're saying, like a half by
Speaker 2: that episode, I felt comfortable being myself. Usually I am anyway,
Speaker 2: but on that weird setup, I was a bit cautious,
Speaker 2: and I could feel myself being cautious. Normally I would
Speaker 2: have spoken up two episodes earlier and called out someone
Speaker 2: and you can't you're an idiot while we're doing this,
Speaker 2: But I didn't speak like that, you know, And I
Speaker 2: realized that Gordon can see probably that I've got some
Speaker 2: qualities to add that maybe the team needed. And funny enough,
Speaker 2: it's weird when it happens, but the team will right
Speaker 2: behind it. Go man, this is so good to have
Speaker 2: a word group. I'm like, Wow, all it takes is
Speaker 2: someone just to kind of get the structure right and go, look, oh,
Speaker 2: lead everyone's support. We just lost three challenges in a row,
Speaker 2: like we were on the garter. Gordon was losing his
Speaker 2: mind going. This is called Gordon Ramseys Food Stars and
Speaker 2: my team's losing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like I need you guys to step up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, step up? And it went really well from there.
Speaker 1: Wow, very still.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I still I still tingle about it, thinking did
Speaker 2: I really did that happen to me? It's very weird,
Speaker 2: do you know what? I often say? Sorry to keep
Speaker 2: going with this, no dying. I told so many of
Speaker 2: production like, you know, because people like you're so real
Speaker 2: and so genuine, so authentic. You were community orientated, you're
Speaker 2: patient with all the production crew. You're the nicest guy
Speaker 2: to interview. I'm like, I've got so many Mob. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that would be we balanced. We balance that world, I
Speaker 2: think very well, totally.
Speaker 1: And this is why Mob don't only just make good tally,
Speaker 1: but they easy to work with. They bring the right
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah is a great example. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: She was lovable and yeah and and cheap out yeah yeah. Wow.
Speaker 1: I'm sad to hear that you enjoyed the experience. Do
Speaker 1: you reckon that might be it for you for TV?
Speaker 1: Because I reckon You've got I reckon. Yeah, you were
Speaker 1: you were just so so easy to watch, so fun
Speaker 1: to watch. We got to see the real emotion. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's more than just the brand of the tea, wasn't it.
Speaker 1: It's about you stepping up in these scenarios and yeah,
Speaker 1: do you reckon that's it for TV? Or would you
Speaker 1: give it another opportunity.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm trying. I was to be honest. And you
Speaker 2: talk about Big Brother or something before, Like I remember
Speaker 2: the Big Brother days when someone would finish the show
Speaker 2: and they're like on ten the next morning after they.
Speaker 1: Got the careers, Like, yeah.
Speaker 2: I thought that was going to happen and it didn't,
Speaker 2: And you know, I went and try to I'm trying
Speaker 2: to push you know, it's been a year for it's
Speaker 2: flown years since the episode finished, and I'm trying to
Speaker 2: get into you. Yeah, I've got, I've got. I enjoyed it.
Speaker 2: I think there's I think Tony Armstrong's doing a great
Speaker 2: job on air. We need more black representation, but not
Speaker 2: just black, but like you just said that description, if
Speaker 2: we can find an audience for that style of interest
Speaker 2: natural combos. People don't want to be over dramatized anymore.
Speaker 2: Like you look at the Block and used to be
Speaker 2: a good show where you learn how to build buildings.
Speaker 1: Now it's it's just yeah, it's like conflict and yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah right, Math's still going strong. By the way, we
Speaker 2: were very honored to be our ads were in the
Speaker 2: intertwined into Maths. So I had to start watching Maths because.
Speaker 1: It's a slippery slope.
Speaker 2: I'd love I'd love to do TV or some I thought.
Speaker 2: I really enjoyed the value of large exposure. I want
Speaker 2: to reach more people, like yeah, you know, like probably yourself,
Speaker 2: Like you know, you're just the ideas you want to
Speaker 2: reach people, Like how big you want to go? I
Speaker 2: don't know, in a natural setting, as long as I'm
Speaker 2: not losing my life and ignoring my family, and you know,
Speaker 2: I do not only a superstar, have been a superstar?
Speaker 1: No, no, And I think MOB always like inherently conscious
Speaker 1: about how you can balance both your individual pursuits with
Speaker 1: like community ways, you know, and sometimes that's also our
Speaker 1: achilles here. I think it holds us back. And it's
Speaker 1: interesting when you say that, like how big do I
Speaker 1: want to go? Like it's in I've actually never really
Speaker 1: thought of that, but I do think about I do
Speaker 1: have the like the subtext conversation where I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: am I doing too much? Am I being too out
Speaker 1: there or am I being too individual? And you know,
Speaker 1: I'm constantly having that sort of like internal dialogue and
Speaker 1: trying to find a space where it feels comfortable. This
Speaker 1: is the most like gaming thing I've ever gonna say.
Speaker 1: I'm said on the show, but I read this. I
Speaker 1: wrote this post a couple of months ago, and like Sissa,
Speaker 1: like the rapper singer songwriter, reposted it and shared it
Speaker 1: and like just this little old like black wattle, you know,
Speaker 1: this little thing who's just like a small business, like
Speaker 1: you started with no money, just a logo and a
Speaker 1: lot of enthusiasm, had no idea what I was doing,
Speaker 1: no business now, so whatever. When she shared it, like
Speaker 1: my following just went up like within and I started
Speaker 1: to get really scared about that in a way because
Speaker 1: I was just thinking, I don't know, we just it's
Speaker 1: just always this thing about being a black follow It's
Speaker 1: like with such a collective that sometimes I feel scary
Speaker 1: putting yourself out there, you know, and doing the thing,
Speaker 1: but really having to try to just sit in that
Speaker 1: because other mob don't have to think about that, you know,
Speaker 1: we And so how do you balance the collective responsibility
Speaker 1: with your own individual pursuits is something I have torn
Speaker 1: myself up over over many years.
Speaker 2: I reckon, Yeah, I know, stay small and you.
Speaker 1: Can do you can do more when you've got more
Speaker 1: of an influence and when you've got more reach, and
Speaker 1: you know, ultimately we all should be acquiring power resources
Speaker 1: to do more so we can help more of our mob,
Speaker 1: or or reach more of our mob, or you know,
Speaker 1: show that we exist. We're here, we're valued, We've got
Speaker 1: lots of skills and contributions to bring. So you know,
Speaker 1: we shouldn't really be like our elders and old people.
Speaker 1: They wouldn't want us to play small, but we can
Speaker 1: still find ourselves in that mindset and I think we
Speaker 1: all got to push through that. So seeing people like
Speaker 1: yourself on TV and others, it gives us that sense
Speaker 1: of like, hey, this space is it for us too?
Speaker 2: You know what do they say shine your light? Like
Speaker 2: it's so true, Like yeah, why why have if you've
Speaker 2: got whatever your light is? Why hide it? Why why
Speaker 2: dilute it? Why turn the flame down? If you can
Speaker 2: turn it out, like if it's going to produce more
Speaker 2: light metaphorically and visibly.
Speaker 3: You know, like totally like that's good, Like yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, people are gonna it's sad that the hard pat
Speaker 5: I think, and maybe you relate to this too, is
Speaker 5: like you're doing good, your heart's so into it, you
Speaker 5: put this effort in, and you get people trying to
Speaker 5: knock you down.
Speaker 2: It's really tough. That's the tough part. I think, Man,
Speaker 2: come on, yeah, me go knock out someone else.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, and I don't yeah crack. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: get a bit wild when it's like mob piling on
Speaker 1: mob in that respect, because you know, you never really
Speaker 1: know what battles they've fought to even put themselves out
Speaker 1: there in the first place, you know, And I hear, yeah, So.
Speaker 2: The vacillating party is challenging, and I think that goes
Speaker 2: back to what we started at. Like if you've got
Speaker 2: a good bass, I think you can get through anything
Speaker 2: like that. And you know, like I won't lie like
Speaker 2: when we got off the show. In all that I've
Speaker 2: done and you know, kind of some of the things
Speaker 2: I've done with events and whatever else whatever, they know,
Speaker 2: they're kind of all just little passion projects. I'd never
Speaker 2: got more positive experience than off this show. People that
Speaker 2: I didn't know had a complimentary nature.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I didn't know you liked it.
Speaker 2: Maybe they didn't have an opportunity to do it, but
Speaker 2: I just assume. And you say about Black Fellows, it
Speaker 2: really affects me when mob come at me or struggle
Speaker 2: a bit at times to kind of just go man,
Speaker 2: especially people that you might know for a long time
Speaker 2: and you don't always have had the most fun open
Speaker 2: line of convo. Some of them to come over and like, man,
Speaker 2: me and my dad watched you. You made me so
Speaker 2: proud of like I thought you hated me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're good anyway.
Speaker 2: It's probably self self kind of PRIs like I just
Speaker 2: want to protect and not read into what other people think.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, it's really nice when people
Speaker 2: have said nice things. And I'm just thankful that that
Speaker 2: show it wasn't about as much as it was Troy
Speaker 2: from Black Bruise, I hope in the same way you're
Speaker 2: doing this podcast and anything that we've ever done, it's
Speaker 2: not about status. No, I don't. I don't anyway. I don't.
Speaker 2: I like being known for something good, but I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't want to be known for being arrogant or
Speaker 2: having a big ego or I want to try really
Speaker 2: hard to make sure that you guys all know that
Speaker 2: we're doing this for the for the to shine the
Speaker 2: light on us and others.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think, you know, seeing people like you
Speaker 1: on TV or even I had a young sister girl
Speaker 1: saying I want to do a podcast, it just gives
Speaker 1: permission for this other generation and our peers to to
Speaker 1: you know, dream a bit bigger, to believe they're worthy
Speaker 1: of those things, to back themselves a bit more, you know,
Speaker 1: the more people that we see. You know, we grew up,
Speaker 1: like you mentioned before, in the nineties, and I've said
Speaker 1: this on the show before, but like it was literally
Speaker 1: Ernie Dingo, Uncle Ernie on our TVs and that was it.
Speaker 1: Maybe Deborah Melman of course, but like no disrespect uncle
Speaker 1: and his stature. But you know, it's like that's all
Speaker 1: we got. That's all was. There was no one on
Speaker 1: TV that looked like my mom or me or my
Speaker 1: Arnie's you know, or so it's like this it's changing.
Speaker 1: It needs obviously, there needs to be more opportunities for
Speaker 1: mob Mob make great TV. You know, I think that's
Speaker 1: the best thing. It's like we because we don't really
Speaker 1: subscribe to the those those norms. We're not a about ourselves.
Speaker 1: We're funny and cheeky, and we bring good, you know,
Speaker 1: good energy, and we're willing to be loud and silly
Speaker 1: and everything. So we make great TV to watch, and
Speaker 1: it's just badly to see.
Speaker 2: Oh you talk. You mentioned Ernie didn't go there before,
Speaker 2: and I'm going to want to say he got that gig.
Speaker 2: So we live in a world now where blackfellows or
Speaker 2: any kind of minority group they get a gig. You
Speaker 2: get told that you got that because of Yeah, whatever
Speaker 2: minority group live.
Speaker 1: Ah, you just whatever, it is, diversity.
Speaker 2: The topic of the day. He's got that because you're
Speaker 2: black and it's nateoc week. Ernie didn't get it. No,
Speaker 2: Ernie didn't get it because he was They were not
Speaker 2: up for putting black people on TV back then.
Speaker 1: No, think about what he would have gone through too,
Speaker 1: being like an uncle Stan Grant even you know him,
Speaker 1: thinking about when he was on the news and what
Speaker 1: they would have gone through in the nineties where they were.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's still it's still got a long way
Speaker 1: to go, of course, but yes, they really flew the
Speaker 1: flag ah and really opened the doors.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you talk like I just think of anything. Oh,
Speaker 2: that's why I started laughing, like, man, he was just
Speaker 2: the best to watch, Like.
Speaker 1: Is everyone's uncle?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was just brilliant with he was just he
Speaker 2: got stories out of people. He was beautiful to watch.
Speaker 2: And I like to think that we're coming back to
Speaker 2: that now and that's why people don't watch TV anymore
Speaker 2: and they find the stuff that they want to watch
Speaker 2: because they're going to get the stuff that they want
Speaker 2: to watch.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you're right too. I think TV is like
Speaker 1: our one medium. But you know, there's like so many
Speaker 1: incredible black creators and storytellers people on Like I'm not
Speaker 1: quite there yet. I'm sort of in the weird custom
Speaker 1: being TikTok and no. I mean there's like all these
Speaker 1: young people on TikTok and doing incredible things, and you
Speaker 1: think they've even just gone outside of the mainstream and
Speaker 1: making their own entertainment. You've got, you know, more as
Speaker 1: an artist and just so many more with this explosions.
Speaker 1: So it's exciting to see.
Speaker 2: I just DM Sorry, I just Dmlder Jacobs yesterday and
Speaker 2: I was so excited she liked my my DM and
Speaker 2: I'm like, can I send you some tea? Like I'm
Speaker 2: such a fan and you're the coolest and you're on
Speaker 2: Channel ten News. She's like, love it, love it. I
Speaker 2: love some tea.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh well you could so use you could so
Speaker 1: just slide on into people's dms. So, by the way,
Speaker 1: me and Gordon Ramsey were talking, right and I know yeah,
Speaker 1: so okay. Two questions on the show I want to
Speaker 1: finish off is very quickly. Is Gordon Ramsey the same
Speaker 1: on the show and on what we see on TV
Speaker 1: as he is in the wild, like when you guys
Speaker 1: were doing the Wild? Yeah, just in the wild every day.
Speaker 1: Is he the same or is it even better?
Speaker 2: I don't know what the same is to those people
Speaker 2: out there, but hey, you watch Hell's Kitchen. He's not
Speaker 2: Hell's Kitchen Like he's not because he's not swearing at
Speaker 2: people like making people feel crap. Yeah yeah, even though
Speaker 2: a lot of that stuff's justified. He's one of the
Speaker 2: most beautiful men on the planet. I would love to
Speaker 2: have all that's going on in his world and have
Speaker 2: his grounded nature. He's an incredible human being with their
Speaker 2: biggest heart, and his passion for family is incredible. Some
Speaker 2: people ask me what he's got a wife, and what
Speaker 2: did you think?
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's got He's always on TikTok with his daughters,
Speaker 1: like he loves a family man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a family man. You know, he's got six kids,
Speaker 2: five or six. He's just had another one. I don't
Speaker 2: know how his production systems he's still pumping him out
Speaker 2: at fifty eight. He's a good man.
Speaker 1: And you can tell someone that passionate, someone with that
Speaker 1: much like skin in the game and that longevity has
Speaker 1: like got to be a good bloke to work with. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then with the got A twelve, you got the
Speaker 1: you won some prize money and then you also got
Speaker 1: a mentorship. How's that journey been? What's been? And what's
Speaker 1: next for the Black Blue Bruise on what's next for
Speaker 1: you in this sort of entrepreneurial space. I mean, if
Speaker 1: there's anyone listening from TV, hopefully there's somebody who can
Speaker 1: give you a nice plug. But yeah, I mean, what's
Speaker 1: been the evolution since the show? And what do you
Speaker 1: think's next?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Gordon's been great. He flew me over there about
Speaker 2: three months after the show and gave me full access
Speaker 2: to his entire team. And when I say entire team,
Speaker 2: he's got a small office in Soho, London that runs
Speaker 2: his entire global empire being one person has four things.
Speaker 2: They're very talented, multi skilled people, and he wanted to
Speaker 2: make sure why it took three months for me to
Speaker 2: get over there, because he wanted to make sure they're
Speaker 2: all in Soho and him at the same time to
Speaker 2: be able to attend to me and some other things
Speaker 2: that they were doing at the same time. Post that,
Speaker 2: I'm not really at this stage where I need to
Speaker 2: be calling him and going hey is my website slow?
Speaker 2: Like go away. He's been brilliant in whenever I've talked
Speaker 2: to him or his team since the show and over
Speaker 2: the last year, he always says, you're going so well, mate,
Speaker 2: reach out if you need anything. Gordon, I've got his
Speaker 2: private number. So it's I'm very careful that I don't
Speaker 2: have a wine or two and go good o wat,
Speaker 2: But to be careful. The amount of people that have
Speaker 2: come up to you as well and gone hey, can
Speaker 2: you get my wine glasses in Gordon's hands, They're like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can imagine everyone coming out of the wood.
Speaker 2: It has been incredible. So what we're doing now we
Speaker 2: realize where we've probably just got a bit more clarity
Speaker 2: in what Black Bruise is and what that is is
Speaker 2: we're a high end, luxurious brand. We're in the premium
Speaker 2: brand space, which means sadly, we can't say yes to
Speaker 2: everyone that wants to stock our teas, and that's really hard.
Speaker 2: It's really hard. We can't really go into every single
Speaker 2: tea possibility because otherwise a lot of these premium tea
Speaker 2: brands they will cross check and see where your brand
Speaker 2: is and say you're not for us. It's like imagine
Speaker 2: going to Gordon's restaurant and showing him my tea and
Speaker 2: we're in bakeries and like we're in coals and woolies
Speaker 2: and IGA's and he's like, we're not probably going to
Speaker 2: take you on. So with Gordon's help, we're trying to
Speaker 2: and his contacts but also my own contacts in Melbourne
Speaker 2: and Sydney. We're trying to just solidify ourselves as a
Speaker 2: very exclusive, high end, multiple faceted tea company that's kind
Speaker 2: of got medicinal properties and flavors and it's exclusive to
Speaker 2: Australia and we're just trying to build that brand the
Speaker 2: same way kind of yet he did, or I mean
Speaker 2: even the big brands like Nike and stuff, you can't
Speaker 2: get Nike and Kmart for a reason, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we're talking like I don't know, I'm trying
Speaker 1: to think of luxury, but like hotel chains and yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: and so volume, yeah.
Speaker 2: That premium presence. Yeah, and that takes time. It takes time.
Speaker 2: You know. We're in we're in all the resorts at Ularu.
Speaker 2: That's a really good kind of tourism one volume, because
Speaker 2: there's you know, if anyone goes into sales in the desert,
Speaker 2: we've got a high tea there with our tea and
Speaker 2: you can get it around. We're in View to Mind
Speaker 2: at the moment. We just got recently signed up with them,
Speaker 2: and my name's getting out there just through word of
Speaker 2: mouth from these people, because the great thing about being
Speaker 2: in View to Mind is that they are also a
Speaker 2: vessel of information for other people that might say, hey,
Speaker 2: what tea do you guys use and they say, we
Speaker 2: got black bruise. They are cool and they trust. It's
Speaker 2: a trust system and yeah, otherwise.
Speaker 1: I'm just getting this image of you just having to
Speaker 1: like rub shoulders with all these like swinging to.
Speaker 2: Caroline.
Speaker 1: I could imagine that would be the hard bit, because
Speaker 1: you know, that's the sort of caliber of the people,
Speaker 1: and yeah, I could just it's hard.
Speaker 2: I'm not hard, and I'm critical and I've got to
Speaker 2: shut my mouth and it's a little bit of sucking,
Speaker 2: but it's just it's it's business. At the same time,
Speaker 2: as long as I don't go like yesterday I had
Speaker 2: to rush rush from the warehouse to a tea tasting
Speaker 2: and I was in my warehouse trackies and I was late.
Speaker 2: I can't go to this tea tasting in my night tracks.
Speaker 2: Your pants.
Speaker 1: Disarm them.
Speaker 2: So I have to kind of have a level of polish.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, our story is it's not
Speaker 2: a polished one, but it's a if I can be
Speaker 2: as natural and as long as I'm going to be
Speaker 2: who I can maintain and not change. And that's why
Speaker 2: you I mean back to the show and once you're yourself,
Speaker 2: If when you're yourself all the time, you're not too
Speaker 2: worried about either we're going to fit there, fit their
Speaker 2: restaurant or not. I can't pretend to be someone else
Speaker 2: that I'm not because I've got a I want to
Speaker 2: talk to them again. Yeah, I want to ring them
Speaker 2: up again and deal with them. And they go, well,
Speaker 2: you're not you're not the guy that was in a
Speaker 2: suit the other day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I thought we were going to.
Speaker 2: Get this real polish deal, Like now you're going to
Speaker 2: get me and yeah, the phone's going to answer and
Speaker 2: it's me in the car driving and my son's basketball.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think people appreciate that though too. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: that's the one thing you can't is like you can't
Speaker 1: in business or I've found like when I came in,
Speaker 1: there was no like blueprint in how to do it.
Speaker 1: There was no roadmap. The only like projection that I
Speaker 1: had was like how white Fellows do it? You know,
Speaker 1: you got to show up like this and find your
Speaker 1: niche and market like that and run around. I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, I'll give that a crack. But then you
Speaker 1: sort of just have to carve out the way that
Speaker 1: it feels right for you for you to have that longevity,
Speaker 1: I think. And it's all about the relationships. So if
Speaker 1: you're not yourself and you're trying to be someone you're not,
Speaker 1: people know, you know, they know women they're like, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to deal with you, and so you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes I remember when I first started, I would present
Speaker 1: in certain ways with governments and clients, and now I'm like, look,
Speaker 1: we're going to get things wrong. We're actually not the expert,
Speaker 1: and that's probably the worst thing to say when people
Speaker 1: are giving money to be an expert. We are the
Speaker 1: expert here, but we'll take your money. And but yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just it's just like I think just being yourself
Speaker 1: is like such a an important business quality, and you know,
Speaker 1: there's there's such a cookie cutter approach, and I think
Speaker 1: people really appreciate you being you totally.
Speaker 2: You spot on, like people can smell that something's up,
Speaker 2: like if you're not yourself. We are very good humans
Speaker 2: are very good at usually picking up somethings that's not them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, why would I invest if I don't feel right?
Speaker 1: To feel right, doesn't it?
Speaker 2: Yeah? What do they call that that meter? I don't know.
Speaker 2: My wife says it all the time, like a bullshit
Speaker 2: yeah kind of like yeah, pretty much, you kind of
Speaker 2: know that's not the that's a too a bit too
Speaker 2: vanilla or a bit too plastic. And I usually I'm
Speaker 2: horrible at hiding when I think someone's being a little
Speaker 2: bit over the top or they're being a bit too presentable.
Speaker 1: And like my wife of Detroit's all over your face.
Speaker 2: Out, we're going We're not hanging out. We've got to go.
Speaker 2: Something's come up, We're out of here. You gotta be
Speaker 2: more kind and you know what. Yeah, on the other
Speaker 2: side of maybe a good natural, good healthy conversation, people
Speaker 2: open up. There's probably no you know, through your industry,
Speaker 2: people open up when you just give them a bit
Speaker 2: of extra time, past the past the walls.
Speaker 1: I think that's another reason why black follows are like
Speaker 1: inherently entrepreneurial, because they spend that time to get to
Speaker 1: know who are they selling to, who are they working with?
Speaker 1: Let's do this together, not just like looking at people
Speaker 1: as you know, target markets, but relationships. And I mean
Speaker 1: for anyone who listening is thinking about going all in
Speaker 1: on something like this, or you know, thinking about pursuing
Speaker 1: their own business or their own idea, or just maybe
Speaker 1: lacking a bit of confidence in themselves to take that
Speaker 1: step in their idea. Got any words of wisdom or
Speaker 1: advice that you didn't part to any of the mob
Speaker 1: who Yeah, I have watched what you've done on TV
Speaker 1: and the black business, which is a monumental growth in
Speaker 1: like such a short amount of time in this wild ride. Yeah,
Speaker 1: any tips any advice, any thoughts.
Speaker 2: I don't know if I'm in the position to be
Speaker 2: the person that people go to, which is you know,
Speaker 2: I've always found that the people that know more than
Speaker 2: you or are professionals in their field, they are almost
Speaker 2: like aching to be asked, can you help me?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Don't do you know what? Like they love it? Yeah,
Speaker 2: they love it. Go ask for help, Go ask. Don't
Speaker 2: be afraid to go to I went to sharing like
Speaker 2: a tea master, a world renowned tea mask I given.
Speaker 2: I had a relationship with her. But there's lots of
Speaker 2: people that I don't have per friendship with that I've gone, hey,
Speaker 2: I've got to hire someone. I've never hired someone before.
Speaker 2: They're an executive assistant and a HR person. They're asking
Speaker 2: for this wage. What do I do? All right? Call
Speaker 2: him five minutes and it's like, I've got lots of
Speaker 2: friends that are in but you don't even need to
Speaker 2: be made to them. You could easily meet someone in
Speaker 2: your networks. I'm sure everyone's got someone around that they
Speaker 2: could ask that might know someone. Even if they don't,
Speaker 2: you know who the right person to ask ask me
Speaker 2: if you want to tink connect to someone. But if
Speaker 2: you want to build something, or I don't know brand,
Speaker 2: I don't know what how to do my taxes? Come on, Like,
Speaker 2: we're in the world of the internet, chatch etp. You
Speaker 2: can teach you a lot.
Speaker 3: Yeah, go to Google and.
Speaker 2: Type it in, like I just find that. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: what do they say? Just start? But I would ask
Speaker 2: for help. Some people need to know from the pros
Speaker 2: is this a good idea? Even though they do know it,
Speaker 2: it's is a good idea, Like, yeah, just be careful
Speaker 2: of the taxes, be careful that you don't go too
Speaker 2: heavy on the moqs and buy five thousand stickers. Just
Speaker 2: go three hundred stickers.
Speaker 3: Just starting.
Speaker 2: I'm going, I'm going, I'm going, I'm going. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: think just getting your idea out. It's if it's a
Speaker 2: business idea or start a podcast or I'm having this
Speaker 2: conversation with myself right now because I've got to get
Speaker 2: on TikTok asap.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I feel like.
Speaker 1: The ship sailed for me, but good luck for you.
Speaker 2: I'm with you the best, like and LinkedIn, I've got
Speaker 2: like it. They're big at the moment for businesses and
Speaker 2: building brand and relationships, and especially as the CEO, there's
Speaker 2: so many big crew that are doing it and.
Speaker 1: Sadly, like you genuinely have to jump on and you
Speaker 1: have to. It's part of the part of the parcel.
Speaker 1: But they're really picked beautiful pieces of advice. You know,
Speaker 1: ask for help. I mean that's what comes with people
Speaker 1: who have experience in wisdom, is just that knowing and
Speaker 1: that guidance. Be willing to listen. I think to the
Speaker 1: advice and know that you've got, like you know, some
Speaker 1: learning to do. And I think you're right. We live
Speaker 1: in a world where we are all connected and with that.
Speaker 1: You know, one thing when I started this business is
Speaker 1: I sort of got out like my contact list, like
Speaker 1: literally my phone book and my email contacts, and I
Speaker 1: just started to map out like who's in this space,
Speaker 1: who who's going to be helping?
Speaker 2: Who?
Speaker 1: Who can I ask for this? And you know, it
Speaker 1: takes a bit of humility to say, hey, I don't know,
Speaker 1: but it's yeah, this is And like you said, people
Speaker 1: really are. They want to share. Like it's like when
Speaker 1: you're yearning with someone you feel a bit shame. It's
Speaker 1: like people love yearning about themselves, just like some questions
Speaker 1: and listen, you know, you'd be surprised at what comes out.
Speaker 1: You actually don't need to know everything, believe it. Look
Speaker 1: real talk, you don't need to know anything. I still
Speaker 1: don't know a lot at all. We've been in business
Speaker 1: for four years and I say not openly, but you
Speaker 1: know to my partner of like most of the time,
Speaker 1: I feel like we're still improvising, right, and it's with
Speaker 1: the same ingredients of like connection, being committed, trying to
Speaker 1: have discipline, getting the right people around me. Like there's
Speaker 1: ingredients that that out, but I'm still very much improvising,
Speaker 1: make mistakes, getting things wrong, fumbling through this and then
Speaker 1: starting again.
Speaker 2: That I like it how that I think that is
Speaker 2: what makes us not cookie cutters. Like if you had
Speaker 2: a script that's not your jam, like it's not it's
Speaker 2: not your offer.
Speaker 1: No, and it's very hard to sell that, Like we
Speaker 1: could be this this day and.
Speaker 2: Not the next. Come to it, come to it, come
Speaker 2: to us, come to a session where we don't know
Speaker 2: what's going to happen. It's right up your alley. It'll
Speaker 2: really get you on the right track exactly. Kind of
Speaker 2: the truth like come with nothing, like yeah, come with
Speaker 2: everything to learn and soak up. Don't think you know
Speaker 2: it all.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's good.
Speaker 2: It's good. This is really this feels like a therapy session.
Speaker 1: By line, I've really enjoyed just sitting down with you today.
Speaker 1: I mean it's You're just a joy. You're just a
Speaker 1: joy to be around. You've got such wonderful energy. No
Speaker 1: matter what you do, it's going to be successful because
Speaker 1: you've got yeah, the head and the heart there and yeah,
Speaker 1: it just had a good laugh along the way.
Speaker 2: I'm sweating from laughter.
Speaker 1: And thank you so much for being on the show today, Troy.
Speaker 1: It's been a pleasure. I am so excited to see
Speaker 1: where you go next. Will be following. Where can people
Speaker 1: who are listening along and want to come and get
Speaker 1: some of your deadly teas? We're talking Ossie Brecky, Minty Green,
Speaker 1: Kakadu sunset, a little bit of lemon myrtle for your
Speaker 1: ritual you like that plug? No, where can people follow along?
Speaker 1: And more importantly, where can people come and buy your tea?
Speaker 2: We're a small biz, so you know you can get
Speaker 2: me on socials It's me black Bruise dot com be
Speaker 2: lakbi e ws. But our website we've got stockers. We
Speaker 2: are trying to get some more credible ones. But at
Speaker 2: the same time, if you order online, it's coming from us.
Speaker 2: We're packing it. As much as i'd like to say
Speaker 2: stockers are great. You don't know how much stock they're moving,
Speaker 2: or might not have spoken to him for six months.
Speaker 2: It could be kind of old stock. I don't know.
Speaker 2: Come and if you're ever in Geelong down O Country,
Speaker 2: come down to our warehouse. We're always around. But also
Speaker 2: though Carolyn, I don't know how when this will air,
Speaker 2: but by the time this my air ball and Ballon
Speaker 2: will be open. Which is the new cultural center's name
Speaker 2: down in Geelong. It used to be called Narana and
Speaker 2: that has just reopened to the public this coming Monday,
Speaker 2: where we will be the cafe operators. It will be
Speaker 2: a black bruise cafe. So we're opening up our first
Speaker 2: bricks and mortar. It couldn't have happened in a better area,
Speaker 2: to a better community, at a better time. And we've
Speaker 2: always been asked to kind of where can we come
Speaker 2: and drink your tea and meet you guys. Well, you're
Speaker 2: going to have a spot from the thirty first of March.
Speaker 1: Wow, that is so exciting to have a place going
Speaker 1: from your hole in the wall to TV to now
Speaker 1: and Narana is such a place as significant to people
Speaker 1: who might not know. It's like attached to the Aboriginal
Speaker 1: co op there. They've been handed back. It's now an
Speaker 1: Aboriginal hands. It's a part of all like this big
Speaker 1: reclamation that flagging and the crew do I believe so, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right, how deadly to be a part of that.
Speaker 2: It's good times down here in Geelong. And yeah, some great, great,
Speaker 2: great people involved and community have been waiting kind of
Speaker 2: for just the right time to really take it on.
Speaker 2: And we've got so many deadly people here. The young
Speaker 2: people down here, us old fellows if you call us,
Speaker 2: that are still wanting to, you know, bring up the
Speaker 2: youngies and work together. And that we already had. It's
Speaker 2: a mob thing recently with Mai it was so good
Speaker 2: and that was kind of the first time that all
Speaker 2: the community were invited down there and we had k
Speaker 2: E and Dreaming Now and Philly and it was so
Speaker 2: cool to be sitting on the grass under those gums
Speaker 2: with the with the boomerang classic stage at the back there.
Speaker 2: But it's going to be really busy and they're already
Speaker 2: booked out for all of April in terms of like
Speaker 2: conferences and lunches, and we're just all chomping at the
Speaker 2: bit to get in there and give community a space
Speaker 2: to go to regularly. You know, a hub.
Speaker 3: It's going to be call oh deadly.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, if you need an excuse to
Speaker 1: get away from the hustle and bustle and a part
Speaker 1: of the slice of paradise that Troy was talking about
Speaker 1: earlier with the coast and your dog and your family,
Speaker 1: you know, go on down there. It's beautiful to get
Speaker 1: out of Melbourne. We all could use a bit of
Speaker 1: a reset of our nervous systems and connect with some
Speaker 1: of these these mob doing deadly things. I'll be down there.
Speaker 1: I'll have some tea. All we waiting any Johnny cakes
Speaker 1: and scones. You reckon.
Speaker 2: You got to get a recipe of someone. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm sure someone will drop them off if I can't
Speaker 2: make them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh deadly. Well, I can't wait to see what's next.
Speaker 1: And thank you so much for being on the show.
Speaker 2: You are welcome. It's been a pleasure.
Speaker 1: Thanks he thank you so much for listening. You mob.
Speaker 1: If you are vibing this season of yearning up, then
Speaker 1: please head over to Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts from to show us some love, rate and RO. Alternatively,
Speaker 1: you can get in contact and give us some feedback
Speaker 1: by visiting www. Dot Caroline Coow dot com dot au